Beyond Compliance: instruments of resistance in the EU

While studies on the influence of European integration, and more generally on that of inter- and transnational processes at the beginning of the 1990s regularly started with the hypothesis of system and policy convergence, data presented by Héritier et al. (2001), or more recently Schmidt (2008), as well as the research by Radaelli (2001) have questioned the empirical validity of this assumption. Policy transfers from national systems to other systems do not lead to a convergence of ideas, instruments or policies. On the contrary, the majority of empirical studies show today a differentiated impact on political systems. Amongst the filters or mediators identified, veto players and institutional veto points as well as cognitive and normative frames existing in divers policy sectors are the most prominent factors explaining the differential impact. However, only a small number of public policy studies go further and analyse what happens when no change occurs due to European pressure. These studies concentrate on the non-compliance with European legal rules (Falkner et al 2005; Börzel et al. 2007). While these studies are extremely rich in many respects (conceptual frameworks, empirical research), they concentrate exclusively on non-compliance with fixed legal norms. With regard to Radaelli's definition of Europeanization as well as the objects of this process identified (Featherstone & Radaelli, 2003), we would like to call for a wider range of research, beyond legal norms. The objective of this contribution is to deepen our understanding of non-compliance with European pressures, or as we call it, resistance processes which can be found in a number of case studies, in identifying the central factors responsible for resistance to institutional and policy transfer. We aim at putting into perspective the tools and instruments used by actors to either oppose EU decision frontally or to circumvent their implementation. The article should allow for developing a new research dynamic to understand the mechanisms and instruments of refusal at the national, regional but also supranational level of EU policies