IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v48y2010i4p1107-1126.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Who Controls Whom? Dynamics of Power Delegation and Agency Losses in EU Trade Politics

Author

Listed:
  • EUGÉNIA DA CONCEIÇÃO

Abstract

There has been considerable debate about power delegation in EU trade politics, but few studies explore the question of how and why agency losses occur. Focusing on agricultural issues in the Doha Round, this article analyses the impact of agency losses (agency shirking and agency slippage) in the process of power delegation in EU trade politics. Are agency losses the result of the delegation structure, which stimulates the agent to adopt a different position from the principals (agency slippage), or do conflict situations arise because of conflicting interests between the interests of the Member States and those of the European Commission (agency shirking)? Based on information collected from Agence Europe and interviews with European officials, the main conclusions are that: (1) the Council–Commission relationship can be conflict‐laden or co‐operative depending on the negotiating stage at the international level; (2) a low degree of interest alignment among Member States increases the Commission's discretion at the international level; (3) inter‐institutional conflict weakens the EU negotiating position at the international level because the other WTO members know that the EU is divided and ask for further concessions.

Suggested Citation

  • Eugénia Da Conceição, 2010. "Who Controls Whom? Dynamics of Power Delegation and Agency Losses in EU Trade Politics," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(4), pages 1107-1126, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:48:y:2010:i:4:p:1107-1126
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-5965.2010.02086.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5965.2010.02086.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-5965.2010.02086.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alasdair R. Young, 2007. "Trade Politics Ain't What It Used to Be: The European Union in the Doha Round," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45, pages 789-811, November.
    2. Patterson, Lee Ann, 1997. "Agricultural policy reform in the European Community: a three-level game analysis," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(1), pages 135-165, January.
    3. Giandomenico Majone, 2001. "Two Logics of Delegation," European Union Politics, , vol. 2(1), pages 103-122, February.
    4. Alasdair R. Young, 2007. "Trade Politics Ain't What It Used to Be: The European Union in the Doha Round," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 789-811, November.
    5. Sophie Meunier, 2007. "Managing Globalization? The EU in International Trade Negotiations," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45, pages 905-926, November.
    6. Sophie Meunier, 2007. "Managing Globalization? The EU in International Trade Negotiations," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 905-926, November.
    7. Chad Damro, 2007. "EU Delegation and Agency in International Trade Negotiations: A Cautionary Comparison," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 883-903, November.
    8. Manfred Elsig, 2007. "The EU's Choice of Regulatory Venues for Trade Negotiations: A Tale of Agency Power?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45, pages 927-948, November.
    9. Pollack, Mark A., 2003. "The Engines of European Integration: Delegation, Agency, and Agenda Setting in the EU," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199251179.
    10. Meunier, Sophie, 2000. "What Single Voice? European Institutions and EU–U.S. Trade Negotiations," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(1), pages 103-135, January.
    11. Sophie Meunier & Kalypso Nicolaïdis, 1999. "Who Speaks for Europe? The Delegation of Trade Authority in the EU," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3), pages 477-501, September.
    12. Putnam, Robert D., 1988. "Diplomacy and domestic politics: the logic of two-level games," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(3), pages 427-460, July.
    13. Manfred Elsig, 2007. "The EU's Choice of Regulatory Venues for Trade Negotiations: A Tale of Agency Power?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 927-948, November.
    14. Andrew Moravcsik, 1993. "Preferences and Power in the European Community: A Liberal Intergovernmentalist Approach," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 473-524, December.
    15. Pollack, Mark A., 1997. "Delegation, agency, and agenda setting in the European Community," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(1), pages 99-134, January.
    16. Chad Damro, 2007. "EU Delegation and Agency in International Trade Negotiations: A Cautionary Comparison," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45, pages 883-903, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eugénia Da Conceição, 2010. "Who Controls Whom? Dynamics of Power Delegation and Agency Losses in EU Trade Politics," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48, pages 1107-1126, September.
    2. Eugénia da Conceição-Heldt, 2009. "Delegation of Power and Agency Losses in EU Trade Politics," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 18, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    3. Francesca Batzella, 2021. "The Role of the Commission in Intergovernmental Agreements in the Field of Energy. A Foot in the Door Technique?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(4), pages 745-761, July.
    4. Thomas Doleys, 2009. "Incomplete Contracting, Commission Discretion and the Origins of EU Merger Control," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47, pages 483-506, June.
    5. Sara Kahn-Nisser, 2017. "Channels of Influence: The EU and Delta Convergence of Core Labour Standards in the Eastern Neighbourhood," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(1), pages 127-143, January.
    6. Steven M. Mcguire & Johan P. Lindeque, 2010. "The Diminishing Returns to Trade Policy in the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(5), pages 1329-1349, November.
    7. Steven M. Mcguire & Johan P. Lindeque, 2010. "The Diminishing Returns to Trade Policy in the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48, pages 1329-1349, November.
    8. Thomas Doleys, 2009. "Incomplete Contracting, Commission Discretion and the Origins of EU Merger Control," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 483-506, June.
    9. Stella Ladi & Dimitris Tsarouhas, 2017. "International diffusion of regulatory governance: EU actorness in public procurement," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(4), pages 388-403, December.
    10. Liesbet Hooghe & Gary Marks, 2015. "Delegation and pooling in international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 305-328, September.
    11. José Luis Castro-Montero & Edwin Alblas & Arthur Dyevre & Nicolas Lampach, 2018. "The Court of Justice and treaty revision: A case of strategic leniency?," European Union Politics, , vol. 19(4), pages 570-596, December.
    12. Paul Schure & Amy Verdun, 2008. "Legislative Bargaining in the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 9(4), pages 459-486, December.
    13. Katharina Luise Meissner, 2016. "A case of failed interregionalism? Analyzing the EU-ASEAN free trade agreement negotiations," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 319-336, September.
    14. Ellen Mastenbroek & Tim Veen, 2008. "Last Words on Delegation?," European Union Politics, , vol. 9(2), pages 295-311, June.
    15. Sean D. Ehrlich, 2009. "How Common is the Common External Tariff?," European Union Politics, , vol. 10(1), pages 115-141, March.
    16. Alves, Amanda M. & Brousseau, Eric & Yeung, Timothy Yu-Cheong, 2021. "The dynamics of institution building: State aids, the European commission, and the court of justice of the European Union," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 836-859.
    17. Franchino, Fabio, 1998. "Institutionalism and Commissions Executive Discretion: an Empirical Analysis," European Integration online Papers (EIoP), European Community Studies Association Austria (ECSA-A), vol. 2, July.
    18. Tom Delreux, 2006. "The European Union in international environmental negotiations: a legal perspective on the internal decision-making process," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 231-248, September.
    19. Lachlan Mckenzie & Katharina L. Meissner, 2017. "Human Rights Conditionality in European Union Trade Negotiations: the Case of the EU–Singapore FTA," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 832-849, July.
    20. Magdalena Frennhoff Larsén, 2020. "Parliamentary Influence Ten Years after Lisbon: EU Trade Negotiations with Japan," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(6), pages 1540-1557, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:48:y:2010:i:4:p:1107-1126. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-9886 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.