"EU policy-making and policy networks: The impact of EU level policy-making on British and Norwegian offshore health and safety policies"

The EU should serve as a major influence on offshore health and safety policy. The historical role of the EU and its earlier variants in health and safety extends back to the ECSC and Treaty of Paris. Indeed, the post-SEA escalation on social legislation was for a period dominated by health and safety. With such levels of activity the membership and outcomes of offshore health and safety policy networks in Britain and Norway should have altered to reflect the institutional developments associated with the alteration of existing centers of competence. The expansion of EU level competencies since the ratification on the Single European Act undermines Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith in their classification of the 'basic legal structure' as a stable external parameter serving as a constant external influence for policy oriented relationships. The integration of Europe is a developing process that necessitates adaptation on the part of governments and societal interests