The Commission’s internal conditions for social re-regulation: Market efficiency and wider social goals in setting the rules for financial services in Europe

Article Sidebar

PDF
Published: Jun 29, 2013

Main Article Content

Miriam Hartlapp
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung and University of Bremen
Germany
Biography
Christian Rauh
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung
Germany
Biography
Vol. 2 No. 1 (2013), Articles, pages 25-40
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17979/ejge.2013.2.1.4285
Submitted: Sep 24, 2018 Published: Jun 29, 2013
How to Cite

Abstract

The European Union is often considered as a prime example of a liberal regulatory state. We argue, however, that being limited to the regulatory policy does not prevent the European Commission from pursuing political aims going beyond market efficiency. We draw up two ideal-type perspectives of market regulation – being either efficiency or equality enhancing – that differ systematically in terms of rationale, degree of intervention, patterns of stakeholder access and conflict within the regulator. We trace these aspects in three financial services initiatives on the registration and supervision of reinsurers, equal treatment in financial services and the regulation of consumer credit. Our analyses suggest that there is scope for equality-enhancing re-regulation when proactive agents proceed decidedly on the basis of social-treaty concerns and frame regulatory beneficiaries as market participants as well as when they seek the redistribution of rights instead of resources.

Keywords:

European Union, regulation, financial services, equality enhancement

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC

References

AE (1997a) 'EU/Insurance: BEUC and BIPAR call for European directive liberalising activities of insurance intermediaries', Agence Europe.

AE (1997b) 'EU/Insurance: Commission announces the forthcoming presentation of a directive on insurance intermediaries - BIPAR pleased', Agence Europe.

AE (2002) 'EU/Insurance: Council adopts insurance broker directive', Agence Europe.

AE (2004) '(EU) EU/Employment Council/Social: Political Agreement anticipated on Gender Equality outside Workplace - Public Debate on Social Service of General Interest', Agence Europe.

AE (2007) '(EU) EU/Social/Equality: Vladimir Spidla launches European Year for Equal Opportunities for all 2007', Agence Europe.

Akerlof, George (1970) 'The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism', Quarterly Journal of Economics 84(3): 488-500.

BEUC (2002) Credit for consumers - BEUC position. Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the harmonisation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning credit for consumers. COM (2002) 443. Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs. Brussels.

Braithwaite, John, Cary Coglianese and David Levi-Faur (2007) 'Can regulation and governance make a difference?', Regulation and Governance 1(1): 1-7.

Caporaso, James A. and Sidney Tarrow (2009) 'Polanyi in Brussels: Supranational Institutions and the Transnational Embedding of Markets', International Organization 63(04): 593-620.

Cioffi, John W. (2009) 'Adversarialism versus legalism: Juridification and litigation in corporate governance reform', Regulation and Governance 3(3): 235-58.

Coen, David and Mark Thatcher (2008) 'Network Governance and Multi-level Delegation: European Networks of Regulatory Agencies', Journal of Public Policy 28(01): 49-71.

Commission of the European Communities (2002) Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the harmonisation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning credit for consumers. COM(2002)443. Brussels.

Commission of the European Communities (2008) Commission Staff Working Document. Proposal for a Council Directive on implementing the principle on equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation - Impact Assessment. SEC(2008) 2180.

Dassesse, Marc (1997) 'Comments on the European

Commission Green Paper - 'Financial service: Meeting consumers' expectations'', Journal of Financial Regualtion and Compliance 5(2): 107-14.

Dunleavy, Patrick and Brendan O'Leary (1987) Theories of the State. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

ESBG (2003) On the Commission's Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the harmonisation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning credit for consumers - COM (2002) 443 Final, European Savings Banks Group. Brussels.

EURO COOP (2003) EuroCoop Position Paper On The Revision of the Consumer Credit Directive - COM(2002)443, European Community of Consumer Co-operatives. Brussels.

Falkner, Gerda, Oliver Treib, Miriam Hartlapp and Simone Leiber (2005) Complying with Europe. EU Minimum Harmonisation and Soft Law in the Member States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Grande, Edgar (2011) 'De-Regulation and Re-Regulation of Public Utilities: The New Regulatory State in the European System of Multi-Level Governance', in Lutz Leisering (ed.) The New Regulatory State. Regulating Pensions in Germany and the UK. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 57-79.

Hartlapp, Miriam (2014, forthcoming) 'Politicization of the European Commission: When, how and with what impact?', in Michael W. Bauer and Jarle Trondal (eds) The Administrative System of the European Union. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Hartlapp, Miriam, Julia Metz and Christian Rauh (2013) 'Linking Agenda Setting to Coordination Structures: Bureaucratic Politics inside the European Commission', Journal of European Integration 53(4): 425-441.

Hervey, Tamara and Louise Trubek (2007) 'Freedom to provide health care services in the EU: an opportunity for ‘hybrid government’', Columbia Journal of European Law 13: 623-47.

Höpner, Martin and Armin Schäfer (2012) 'Embeddedness and Regional Integration.Waiting for Polanyi in a Hayekian Setting', International Organization 66(3): 429-55

Knill, Christoph and Andrea Lenschow (2003) 'Modes of Regulation in the Governance of the European Union: Towards a Comprehensive Evaluation', European Integration Online Papers (EIoP) 7(1).

Leibfried, Stephan (2010) 'Social Policy. Left to the Judges and the Markets?', in Helen Wallace, Mark Pollack and Alasdair R. Young (eds) Policy-Making in the European Union. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 253-81.

Leisering, Lutz (2011a) 'Transformations of the State: Comparing the New Regulatory State to the Post-war Provider State', in Lutz Leisering (ed.) The New Regulatory State. Regulating Pensions in Germany and the UK. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 254-74

Leisering, Lutz (2011b) 'Transformations of the State: Comparing the New Regulatory State to the Post-war Provider State', in Lutz Leisering (ed.) The New Regulatory State. Regulating Pensions in Germany and the UK Palgrave Macmillan.

Levi-Faur, David (2012) 'States Making & Market Building for the Global South: The Developmental State vs. The Regulatory State?', Jerusalem Papers in Regulation and Governance. Working Paper No. 44 (July 2012).

Lowi, Theodore J. (1964) 'Review: American Business, Public Policy, Case-Studies, and Political Theory', World Politics 16(4): 677-715.

Mabbett, Deborah (2009) 'Supplementary Pensions between Social Policy and Social Regulation', West European Politics 32(4): 774 - 91.

Majone, Giandomenico (1993) 'The European Community Between Social Policy and Social Regulation', Journal of Common Market Studies 31(2): 153-70.

Majone, Giandomenico (1996) Regulating Europe. London: Routledge.

Majone, Giandomenico (1997) 'From the Positive to the Regulatory State: Causes and Consequences of Changes in the Mode of Governance', Journal of Public Policy 17(02): 139-67.

McVea, Harry (2005) 'Financial Services Regulation under the Financial Services Authority: A reassertion of the market failure thesis?', Cambridge Law Journal 64(02): 413-48.

Minder, Raphael (2003a) 'Gender banned from use in setting premiums', Financial Times.

Minder, Raphael (2003b) 'Insurers to fight Brussels over bar on sex discrimination', Financial Times.

Parker, George (2003) 'EU targets sex bias in media and insurance: Ambitious move to enshrine 'respect for human dignity' could force up premiums', Financial Times.

Posner, Elliot and Nicolas Véron (2010) 'The EU and financial regulation: power without purpose?', Journal of European Public Policy 17(3): 400-15.

Princen, Sebastiaan (2009) Agenda-Setting in the European Union. Houndmills: Palgrave.

Prosser, Tony (2006) 'Regulation and Social Solidarity', Journal of Law and Society 33(3): 364-87.

Quaglia, Lucia (2010) 'Completing the single market in financial services: the politics of competing advocacy coalitions', Journal of European Public Policy 17(7): 1007 - 23.

Ramsay, Ian (1995) 'Consumer Credit Law, Distributive Justice and the Welfare State', Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 15(2): 177-97.

Reagan, Michael (1987) Regulation: The Politics of Policy. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.

Sbragia, Alberta M. (2000) 'Governance, the State, and the Market: What Is Going On?', Governance 13(2): 243-50.

Sbragia, Alberta and Francesco Stolfi (2008) 'Key Policies', in Elizabeth Bomberg, John Peterson and Alexander Stubb (eds) The European Union: How Does it Work. Oxford: Oxford University Press?, pp. 116-37.

Scharpf, Fritz W. (1999) Governing in Europe: Effective and democratic? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Scharpf, Fritz W. (2010) 'The asymmetry of European integration, or why the EU cannot be a 'social market economy'', Socio-Economic Review 8(2): 211-50.

Schmitter, Philippe C. and Gerhard Lehmbruch (eds) (1979) Trends Towards Corporatist Intermediation. London: Sage.

Secrétariat Général (2003) MINUTES of the 1633rd meeting of the Commission held in Brussels (Breydel) on Wednesday 5 November 2003 (morning), PV(2003)1633 final. Brussels.

Stiglitz, Joseph E. (1986) Economics of the Public Sector. New York: Norton.

Truman, David B. (1951) The Governmental Process: Political Interests and Public Opinion. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Tsebelis, George and Geoffrey Garrett (2000) 'Legislative Politics in the European Union', European Union Politics 1(1): 9-36.

Vogel, David (2003) 'The Hare and the Tortoise Revisited: The New Politics of Consumer and Environmental Regulation in Europe', British Journal of Political Science 33(04): 557-80.

Weingast, Barry R. (1995) 'The Economic Role of Political Institutions: Market-Preserving Federalism and Economic Development', Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 11(1): 1-31.

Windholz, Eric and Graeme A. Hodge (2013) 'Conceptualising Social and Economic Regulation: Implications for Modern Regulators and Regulatory Activity', Jerusalem Papers in Regulation & Governance. Working Paper No. 49 (Feburary 2013).