The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked the debate on strengthening European-level cooperation and solidarity in tackling the disease. The debate has focused on several questions: Given the common threat to public health, is conferral of more competences upon the EU (1) desirable and (2) feasible? As for desirability: Can the EU better achieve the public health goals than Member States can and is there an added value in increasing EU competences? As for feasibility: Can a competence increase be carried out in practice - given the cross-country differences in the organizational and managerial features of national healthcare systems? Healthcare systems are influenced by the underlying normative aspirations, historic legacies, and level of economic development of the given country. They are characterized by a high degree of government intervention and absorb a significant share of public funds, so no wonder this sector is politically sensitive. So concretely, if more powers are to be conferred upon the EU, what exactly should these powers consist of, bearing in mind the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality?
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In Western Europe, cities that host International Organizations (IOs) have to deal with more and more competition. The last decade many IOs settled in Eastern European and Asian countries. Distributing IOs over several cities in Europe for reasons of political balance and give-and-take among governments play a role in these decisions. However, public policy networks are more and more operational in these negotiations. Apart from the political and administrative actors, others – as private actors and external lobbyists – play a role as well. This often leads to increased complexity and ineffective decisions. This paper examines four cases in which political gameplay influenced the location decision-making of IOs in The Hague and Geneva. First, I will introduce the subject, research method and the four cases. Second, I will discuss how public policy networks are increasingly complicating factors to the settling processes of IOs. Third, a reconstruction of the settlement processes of four IOs will illustrate this.
Volt doet in tien gemeenten mee aan de gemeenteraadsverkiezingen. De partij presenteert zich als de eerste Europese partij en veel journalisten en kiezers namen deze boodschap voor zoete koek aan: de partij is echter vooral Duits-Nederlands: daar zit het merendeel van de leden die beslissen over het programma wat in heel Europa aan de man moet worden gebracht. Dat laatste is niet eenvoudig: er is geen enkele reality check of alle Europese ambities ook aansluiten bij andere landen dan Nederland en Duitsland.
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