"Explaining delays in the transposition of utilities directives: A sociological institutionalist account"

Berglund, Sara. (2005) "Explaining delays in the transposition of utilities directives: A sociological institutionalist account". In: UNSPECIFIED, Austin, Texas. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

It is often claimed that there is a problem with delayed transposition of directives within the EU (European Union). However, the data on which many of these claims are made show some serious shortcomings. By using a new dataset on the transposition of utilities directives that overcomes many of these problems, this paper set out to examine if there are problems with transposition delays in the area of utilities, and if so, how these problems can be explained. It was found that in nearly half of the cases, transposition was delayed, and the average delay was about seven and a half months. There were also significant differences between the member states in this respect. In search for explanations for these differences, existing literature on the compliance with EC (European Community) law was reviewed, and this produced an extensive list of potential explanatory variables. Rather than to test all these variables, a theoretical approach, namely sociological institutionalism, was adopted in order to bring theoretical focus to the analysis. The variables that could be derived from this approach were subsequently selected and tested. Of the explanatory variables that were tested, only the variable “Government efficiency” remained significant when the grouped structure of the data was controlled for. The fact that only a low amount of the variance was accounted for in the analysis, and that the policy area (telecommunications or energy) to which a directive belongs proved to be an important factor in accounting for delays, suggests that the explanatory variables are too broad. This calls for further research in which the explanatory variables are operationalised in such a way that they are more specific to transposition and to the characteristics of a policy area within the member states.

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