When the EU hits Home: National Determinants of Non-Compliance with the European Union Law

Вестник Пермского университета. Серия: Политология. 2021. No. 2. P. 37–48.

Sorbale A.

This study analyzes 25,516 cases of violation of the European Union law by 28 Member States from 1993 to 2018. I strive to determine the national level determinants of differentiation in the pool of member countries by the total number of the EU law violations. As a key method of analysis, logistic regression is used, where factors of GDP per capita (PPP), polarization of the parliament, fragmentation of the party system, regional strategies and quality of governance are used as country attributes. The analysis demonstrates that all country attributes are significantly related to all four quartiles of the outcome, which rank member states depending on the number of violations during the period under review: from the smallest share of violated directives (Q1) to the largest share of violated directives (Q4). The results of the study demonstrate the empirical relevance of the theoretical perspective of “worlds of compliance” formulated by G. Falkner et al. (2007) for the categorization of EU member states in their reactions to the compliance efforts of the EU.

Keywords: state capacity, compliance with the EU law, "worlds of compliance", state autonomy

Publication based on the results of: Multilevel political systems: problems of management, reforms and strategies of actors (2020)