Paper Issues of transposition and interference Table of Contents

Political Priority

Over the past decade many efforts were made in Belgium - both on the national and subnational level
- in order to improve the transposition performance. Continual reflection on the matter resulted in the development of new mechanisms in order to ensure follow-up of the transposition and infringement dossiers and to better coordinate between all involved actors. Reports on Flemish transposition have become more detailed and more broadly distributed in order to boost political (and administrative) attention to the these issues (De Coninck, 2015). Moreover, Flemish Government Agreements¹¹ explicitly emphasize the need for attention to (faster and better) transposition of EU legislation (Vlaamse Regering, 2004; Vlaamse Regering, 2009; Vlaamse Regering, 2014).
Also in Scotland the political attention to transposition performance regarding EU directives is clearly present. In 2007-2008 the European and External Relations Committee of the Scottish Parliament conducted an inquiry into the transposition of EU directives in Scotland, looking for strong and weak points as well as best practices in regions on the continent (Scottish Parliament 2007). Since then multiple initiatives were launched in order to improve transposition. The endeavor covered many aspects among which improved interest representation in the 'shaping' phase, continuous exchange of information between the central and devolved level, follow-up and coordination of transposition processes, as well as drawing up a detailed guidance document for Scottish officials. The issue salience of transposition dossiers and the degree and effect alignment of political preferences with the requirements of a directive, are more case specific. In-depth case studies are needed in order to elaborate on their explanatory value for transposition performances in subnational entities. We expect to find a link between the negotiation power and the alignment of domestic political preferences with the required transposition (see also goodness of fit). Political agendas, domestic ongoing or envisioned reforms, the political affiliation of the government, as well as the technicality and originality of the directive are expected to determine the political attention to a specific transposition dossier.


We expect political attention to the compliance record of the subnational entities to be high in both cases and the issue salience and political preferences of transposition dossiers to be directive-specific.
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