When Good Intentions Go Astray: Policy Framing Processes and the E uropeanization of Children's Rights

Research Highlights and Abstract Empirical evidence of how C ommission policy framing processes shape the E uropeanization of M ember S tates Analytical and empirical evidence of how and why C ommission services develop and promote divergent policy frames in relation to children's rights Challenges faced by the EU 's promotion of policy measures that have a cross‐sectoral dimension Analytical and empirical evidence of how C ommission services conceive their legal role and scope with respect to children's rights This article examines how and why C ommission policy framing processes impact on the E uropeanization of children's rights at the national level. By employing the H otline for M issing C hildren as a case study, it is demonstrated that C ommission services failed to adopt a coherent policy line regarding the issue of missing children. Instead, C ommission services promoted conflicting H otline templates, which conveyed mixed messages and shaped the differential implementation of the H otline at the national level. The contradictory H otline templates are rooted in C ommission services' embrace of divergent policy frames, which are determined by institutional fragmentation and conflicting interpretations of C ommission legal competence to address the issue of missing children and the protection of child rights.