Best, Edward; Settembri, Pierpaolo --- "Legislative Output after Enlargement: Similar Number, Shifting Nature" [2008] ELECD 277; in Best, Edward; Christiansen, Thomas; Settembri, Pierpaolo (eds), "The Institutions of the Enlarged European Union" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: The Institutions of the Enlarged European Union

Editor(s): Best, Edward; Christiansen, Thomas; Settembri, Pierpaolo

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847203458

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: Legislative Output after Enlargement: Similar Number, Shifting Nature

Author(s): Best, Edward; Settembri, Pierpaolo

Number of pages: 22

Extract:

10. Legislative output after
enlargement: similar number,
shifting nature
Edward Best and Pierpaolo Settembri

The most visible aspect of the work of the European institutions is the pro-
duction of legislation. At least superficially, it can also seem to be the most
easily measurable and thereby objectively comparable over time. Efforts to
measure change in the legislative output of the post-enlargement EU have
led to a remarkable number of studies and to the collection of a large
amount of new information (e.g. Dehousse et al. 2006; Sedelmeier and
Young 2006; Hagemann and De Clerck-Sachsse 2007).
A common message in these studies has been one of overall continuity
between pre- and post-enlargement Europe: there appears to be more or
less the same level of output as before. Dehousse et al. (2006) thus main-
tain that enlargement has not blocked the European machine and that, in
certain respects, decision-making even became more expeditious after
2004. Hagemann and De Clerck-Sachsse (2007, pp. 34, 36) report that, in
terms of the total amount of legislation passed per year, the Council `seems
to have almost fully "recovered" from the significant increase in the number
of actors' and that, concerning voting behaviour, `official disagreement . . .
has not been found to increase'.
Yet such accounts do not address fully some underlying qualitative ques-
tions. Are there any observable trends regarding the nature and content of
the acts adopted? For example, is there a significant drop in the production
of Community legislation as ...