The influence of EU involvement on the autonomy of Independent Administrative Bodies

This research focuses on ‘agencies’, which are institutions created by legislation and that are organisationally separate from governments. Moreover, they are subject to the controls of elected politicians. But agencies are also highly central actors who can be influential during the phase of agenda-setting and pre-parliamentary discussions on policymaking. In addition, agencies are able to deal with supranational organisations such as the institutions of the European Union: the European Commission and the Council of the European Union. Several empirical studies indicate that EU involvement of national agencies can have an effect on the autonomy of those agencies. To complement this debate this thesis has studied eleven Dutch Independent Administrative Bodies (IABs, ‘Zelfstandige Bestuursorganen’), on their EU involvement and the consequences this involvement has on the autonomy of the IABs during the national policymaking process. Through a co-variational analysis it has been attempted to assess this relation as well as to analyse a possible relation between policy complexity and the autonomy of an IAB. The findings of this research indicate that involvement through the European Commission and through the Council is valuable for the IABs since they gain information on EU legislation and information on best practices through their participation and interaction with the institutions. A strong relation between EU involvement and the autonomy of IABs cannot be demonstrated.