PROGRAMME ON EUROPEAN
POLICY-MAKING Department of Political Science
University of Helsinki

Since European Union membership the Finnish political-administrative system has become an integral part of European Union decision-making. This new situation brings new challenges not only to Finnish authorities and politicians but to political scientists as well. Seen against this perspective it is quite astonishing that the subject has aroused relatively mild interest among Finnish researchers. EU-related research in Finland has so far concentrated mainly on inter-governmental negotiation systems based on international political theory in a way which can no longer be relevant in a post-Maastricht Europe. There is, however, a need for empirical research based on a theoretical-methodological research tradition to understand the complicated European decision-making system. The research projects presented in this paper are an attempt to fill this gap in the Finnish political science research tradition.

These projects are an integral part of the Programme on European Policy-Making launched at the end of 1996 at the Department of Political Science in the University of Helsinki and intended both to create a dialogue between universities and decision-makers and to increase the knowledge of the EU among the Finnish political science students, politicians and public authorities alike. The programme also consists of teaching financed by the Department of Political Science, and of expert activities for which separate funding will be available.

Programme on European Policy-Making: Research projects

The following is a brief account of the Programme on European Policy Making and its main components which make up the basis of the research projects presented below. The programme consists of three inter-related components, constituting a meaningful and integrated whole essential to understanding European Union decision-making. Component I examines public opinions and attitudes, while components II and III investigate the process and phases of actual decision-making and implementation of the decisions.

Component I: Citizens and the European Union. The project aims to examine and analyse by the use of available data participation in EU-politics by its citizens and their conceptions of the European Union. The most important data is Eurobarometer data which enables comparative study between the member states with regard to whether different demographic groups see European Union decision-making and the activities of its central actors (political parties, individual politicians, public authorities and institutions) as legitimate and corresponding to their expectations and needs, and how the public in the member states seek to influence its functioning (electoral behaviour). Differences between elite and mass perceptions in central questions of integration will also be examined in order to investigate whether the alleged legitimacy deficit really exists.

The project will also examine the behaviour of the European Parliament, its decision-making practices, the formulation of the agenda of European issues, the organisation of political forces into coalitions and political fronts and, finally, the input of the Finnish Members of the European Parliament in formulating and realising Finnish EU policy. The primary object will then be comparative analysis of the elections for the European Parliament both in Finland and in various member states.

Component II: European Union institutions and decision-making structures. This project is primarily concerned with the research into European Union institutions and decision-making structures including the European Parliament, which provides the basis for the third research component dealing with networks within and around those structures. Examination of reform of the European Union administration and the political strategies for its realisation will form the core of Component II. The aim of the research is also to describe the ongoing discussion of reform of the European Union administration and thereby to generate information and provide analytical tools with which to grasp the complexity of the subject matter and to enable participation in the relevant discussion with constructive initiatives. The research may also be seen in the short term as supporting the preparations for the Finnish presidency of the EU in 1999. Comparative analyses of selected topics of general interest such as the presidency of the European Union, and of particular interest to Finland such as the 'Nordic dimension', will be investigated as well.

Component III: Decision-making networks and policy implementation in the European Union. This project component is associated with the interplay between various official and unofficial actors within the European Union decision-making structures and networks. The research on networks is essential for understanding the interests and resources of these actors in the EU policy-making as well as their influence and their mutual interdependence on one another. While in Component II the object is to examine the institutional framework of European Union decision-making, the objective of the network analysis in Component III is to discover the real and actual locations of influence and power.

Telecommunication and agricultural policies have been selected as the primary subjects of the network analysis. This narrowing of the focus makes it possible to investigate decision-making networks at the national level as well. The analysis enables one to detect the principal actors in each policy sector, to discover what kind of coalition is created in various decision-making arenas and how these coalitions seek to advance their interests at different stages of decision-making, what the status of the formal institutions in the European Union decision-making processes is and, finally, how media and publicity affect the outcome of decisions.

In addition to this, the object of the research in the component III is twofold, the intention also being to examine implementation of European Union legislation, that is, both the translation of EU directives into national legislation and the realisation of objectives stated in directives by means of various programmes, e.g. structural and regional funds.

More information on:

• Component I: Citizens and the European Union.
• Component II: European Union institutions and decision-making structures.
• Component III: Decision-making networks and policy implementation in the European Union.