"Europeanization of Economic Policy in the New Member States"

[From the introduction]. To say that Europeanization is an overused and controversial concept would be an understatement, yet a recent substantial increase in scholarly publications on the subject has done little to clarify this term. Scholars differ on the definition of Europeanization, the mechanisms through which it affects member states (and EU candidate countries), their politics, policies or institutions, as well as whether or not Europeanization leads to a conversion of policy outcomes. Especially lacking, in this plethora of research, are cross-national studies which capture Europeanization in a quantifiable way and estimate its impact while taking into account the alternative ways in which Europeanization works. This paper, building on a wide range of theoretical and case-studies research, represents one such attempt to measure the impact of Europeanization on the economic policy of the now new EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The first section overviews the many definitions of Europeanization and justifies the use of the term to denote change in institutions, policy or preferences as a result of the influence of the European Union. This section also elaborates on why scholars should expect Europeanization to be present in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) even before these countries acceded to the EU. The second section develops a model of Europeanization to be applied to the CEE countries and summarizes seven propositions for how various factors affect the process of Europeanization of public policy in the CEE. The third section examines, by examples and statistical analysis, the extent to which the EU – through various channels of the Europeanization process – affects economic policy in the CEE. The final section concludes