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Integration by Stealth: How the European Union Gained Competence over Foreign Direct Investment
Author(s) -
Meunier Sophie
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
jcms: journal of common market studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.54
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1468-5965
pISSN - 0021-9886
DOI - 10.1111/jcms.12528
Subject(s) - foreign direct investment , competence (human resources) , negotiation , european union , treaty of lisbon , treaty , member states , european commission , international trade , political science , economics , political economy , international economics , law and economics , law , management
How are policy competences allocated between different actors? This article contributes to the literature on institutional development through an in‐depth case‐study of the conditions under which the competence over the negotiation of agreements on foreign direct investment (FDI) was transferred from the national level to the European Union (EU) in the 2009 Lisbon Treaty. Most analysts assume that this competence shift was a rationally designed delegation, intended to maximize European bargaining power in international investment negotiations and conceived as an important element of a teleological drive to make the EU a meaningful external actor. This article tells a different story – one where the competence shift happened by stealth as a result of a combination of neo‐functionalist Commission entrepreneurship and historical accident, against the preferences of the Member States. The article also assesses whether the conditions under which the competence was transferred have implications for the implementation of the new policy.