National Regulatory Agencies in a Multi-Level Setting: Towards a Synthesis

The growing internationalization of markets and the widening and deepening of EU integration create opportunities as well as challenges for national regulatory agencies. On the one hand, regulators cooperate to coordinate their activities, develop common rules and standards, and ensure domestic implementation, so as to share “best practices” and avoid regulatory loopholes. On the other hand, however, regulatory cooperation can be undermined by strategic concerns, the persistence of national interests and dissimilar administrative traditions, and by competition among regulatory authorities.

This situation is complicated further by the multi-level nature of the EU polity. Many agencies located at the local, national and international level are involved in the regulation of any given issue, such as telecommunications, finance, energy, just to mention a few, raising the additional problem of cross-level interactions.

How do agencies deal with this complexity in order to perform their regulatory duties, and, in some cases, how do they even acquire a leadership role in policy-making? In that regard, which differences do exist across countries and sectors?

To tackle these questions, this workshop aims at taking stock of existing research on this topic, which has mostly focused on a limited number of sectors and/or levels so far. What is more, this workshop will enable scholars to engage in a dialogue with the representatives of a number of selected agencies.

Download the Workshop Agenda

Date and location

31 March 2017, 9.30-17.00
Istituto Luigi Sturzo, Palazzo Baldassini (Via delle Coppelle, 35) – Rome, Italy

Programme

9.30 | Welcome by Francesco Sarpi (Osservatorio AIR and Prime Minister Office – Better Regulation Unit)

9.30 | Opening by the Chair Martino Maggetti (University of Lausanne)

10.00 | First Session

• Regulators’ influence on European policy-making: A two-step problem, by Eva Ruffing (Hamburg University).
  Discussant: Edoardo Chiti (University of Viterbo)

11.15 | Second Session

• The governance structure of regulatory networks: A QCA exploration, by Angel Saz Carranza (ESADE Business School – Ramon Llull University of Barcelona).
  Discussant: Martino Maggetti (University of Lausanne)

• The political foundations of EU Agencies and networks of regulators, by Andy Tarrant (B&CE Ltd).
  Discussant: Miroslava Scholten (University of Utrecht)

14.00 | Third Session

• The gap between economic regulation and non-economic public values: regulatory authorities and dilemmas of responsiveness, by Kutsal Yesilkagit (Leiden University).
  Discussant: Fabrizio Di Mascio (Osservatorio AIR and University of Turin)

• The Logic of Regulatory Venue Shopping: A Firm’s Perspective, by David Coen (University College London) and Mattia Guidi (LUISS University of Rome).
  Discussant: Davide Zaottini (Italian National Commission for Companies and the Stock Exchange – CONSOB)

16.00 | Group discussion and Wrap up by Martino Maggetti and Edoardo Guaschino (University of Lausanne)

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