Infringements of European Union law at the local and regional level across member states

Clinton, Peter; Arregui, Javier

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/epa2.1201

Infringements of European Union law at the local and regional level across member states

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Clinton P, Arregui J. Infringements of European Union law at the local and regional level across member states. Eur Policy Anal. 2024 Spring;10(2):188-205. DOI: 10.1002/epa2.1201

Abstract

This paper investigates variations in infringements of EU rules by substate authorities. The paper tests the effect of structure and actor level variables. First, we test structural factors in terms of the autonomy that substate authorities hold. Second, we test some actor level factors that may also increase transaction costs: autonomy of substate actors, public opinion on the EU and administrative capacity. The results indicate that there is a relationship between the increased autonomy of substate authorities and higher number of infringements. The results also provide support that preference to exercise this autonomy correlates with higher infringements. In addition, the results show that negative public opinion on the EU is strongly correlated to higher numbers of infringements. This suggests that transaction costs associated with multilevel policy implementation and attitudes to the EU are determinants of substate infringements.