The core interest of this project is to analyse why, how, and to which effect the EU relies on “joint implementation”, i.e., the physical involvement of supranational alongside national resources in the monitoring and enforcement of EU policies on the ground.
The “polycrisis” has repeatedly highlighted the implementation deficits in the EU multilevel system. In reaction, the EU has increasingly relied on the “joint implementation” model. A notable example is the creation of the European Border and Coast Guard (Frontex) and the European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA) to support the practical implementation of the Schengen and Dublin acquis in the member states. Other examples concern the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) or the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO).
Joint implementation formulates a novel response to the dilemma between competence and control in multilevel systems. At the same time, joint implementation is not a panacea. When dissatisfied principals seek to enhance their autonomous competence or control while being enmeshed in a compulsory system of joint implementation, the model produces inefficiencies. While control-driven actors can block joint implementation, which leads to ineffective or non-implementation, competence-driven actors can shirk their collective responsibilities and engage in uncoordinated action, leading to responsibility-shifting or obstruction.
To understand the emergence, institutionalisation, and evolution of the EU’s recourse to joint implementation, the project envisions a mixed methods design. It combines, first, the collection of supply-side quantitative data on the emergence and size of EU-level resources for joint implementation with, second, natural language processing (NLP) methods to trace the demand for EU-level implementation among political elites, and third, qualitative case studies of multilevel implementation in three domains in which pressures for vertical cooperation occurred in the past years, namely immigration, law enforcement, and labour mobility.
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