Influencing the European Union from Outside. Switzerland, the European Water Framework Directive, and Micropollution Regulation in the Rhine River Basin

Fischer, Manuel; Metz, Florence Alessa (20 July 2014). Influencing the European Union from Outside. Switzerland, the European Water Framework Directive, and Micropollution Regulation in the Rhine River Basin (Submitted). In: 23rd World Congress of Political Science (IPSA) - Challenges of Contemporary Governance. Montréal, Canada. 20.-24.07.2014.

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This paper sheds light on an unusual political influence mechanism, i.e. the influence of a non-EU member state on agendas and policies at the level of the EU and EU members states. Borrowing both from the literatures on policy diffusion as well as on the influence of small member states in EU decision-making, we argue that such an influence is fostered by both structural and agency-related factors. We illustrate this potential influence with a case study on the regulation of micropollutants in waterbodies. Adopting a mixed-method approach, we show that the upstream location of Switzerland, its integration into transnational networks as well as joint water basin institutions provides the country with structural opportunities to diffuse policy innovation to the EU’s policy agenda and member states’ policies. In addition, agency-related factors matter as the EU or member states can point to Switzerland as a
successful example or pioneer, especially since the Swiss policy is in line with an overall EU strategy on reducing negative impacts of chemicals on humans and the environment.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Division/Institute:	03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Institute of Political Science
UniBE Contributor:	Fischer, Manuel (B), Metz, Florence Alessa
Subjects:	300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 320 Political science
Funders:	[4] Swiss National Science Foundation
Projects:	[UNSPECIFIED] How to explain instrument selection in complex policy processes
Language:	English
Submitter:	Florence Alessa Metz
Date Deposited:	27 Apr 2015 10:47
Last Modified:	29 Mar 2023 23:34
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/67092