Paulette Kurzer

Hold the croissant! The European Union declares war on obesity

In this paper, we argue that EU institutions have demonstrated an interest in diet/nutrition for some time, but only in the last five years has obesity risen to the top of the agenda. How did the Commission and European parliament become involved in fighting obesity? It is not because national governments or societal interest groups or public health agencies pushed EU officials to reduce the body mass of European citizens. Rather, drawing on the literature on transnational policy actors, we show that the current attention to obesity is heavily influenced by WHO research reports. Moreover, the WHOs recommendations on obesity supply EU institutions with a new agenda, which in turn mobilizes pan-European groups and private sector interests. Obesity provides a further example of entrepreneurial Commission officials pursuing alliances with international institutions in order to take advantage of their scientific expertise and to carve out a new EU agenda.

Unemployment in Open Economies: The Impact of Trade, Finance, and European Integration

This article compares variations in the level of unemployment in four small, open economies-Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Rather than focusing on the political-institutional differences between these four countries, the article examines international economic variables such as the role of the European Monetary System, the structure of foreign trade, and linkages to international markets to understand the greater deterioration of employment in Belgium and the Netherlands. In turn, the decision to join the European Community and to seek firmer integration into financial markets is attributed to the relatively greater influence of banking capital or the financial sector in the systems of economic policy-making of Belgium and the Netherlands. The article concludes that the detachment of the Austrian and Swedish economies from the European experience in economic integration has greatly helped the Social Democrats in these countries in fulfilling their promises of full employment.

Biased or not? Organized interests and the case of EU food information labeling

We address the literature on EU lobbying and the issue of biases in interest representation by examining the fate of the food labeling regulation. NGOs initially succeeded in framing the issue and dominated the process of drafting the Commissions proposal. However, NGOs lost the fight in the Parliament, where industrys preferences largely prevailed. Our explanation centers on opportunity structures and highlights three dimensions that interfered with a successful mobilization of votes in the EP: strength of the frame;, size of the lobbying coalition; and the identity of the rapporteur. Once the proposal was in the EP, NGOs found it difficult to rally the public and lost control of framing. The food industry was keen to minimize labeling requirements, constituted the dominant lobby, and enjoyed enormous resources and political connections. Finally, the rapporteur was ideologically opposed to the proposed labeling rules and greatly watered down their requirements.

Decline or preservation of executive capacity? Political and economic integration revisited

This article takes issue with the rational/intergovernmental approach to the study of European Union and integration by examining the impact of informal (global) integration on state capacity and executive autonomy in Belgium. Although intergovernmental arrangements occasionally serve to enhance policy capacity and executive capabilities, non-governmental dynamics, which surpass the deliberate pace of Member State bargaining, erode national decision-making authority. In Belgium, for example, regional integration sharpened economic disparities between the language communities and gave rise to a new generation of political leaders who took advantage of European institutions to promote decentralization of state functions and to restrict central government executive autonomy.

The politics of central banks: austerity and unemployment in Europe

This article examines the divergences in labor market-performances in four small, open economies: Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. It argues that great unemployment in Belgium and the Netherlands is partly due to the implementation of deflationary policies during the 1980s. The decline of Keynesian intervention in Belgium and the Netherlands is traced to the institutional independence of their central banks to set monetary and exchange rate policies separate from government. Because the Swedish and Austrian central banks are more integrated in the policy process and their countries are not members of the Common Market or the European Monetary System, social democratic governments have been able to go against the European trend of monetary restrictiveness and fiscal austerity. Accordingly, business in Austria and Sweden is more optimistic about future profit returns and is more willing to invest in productive capital, resulting in lower unemployment.

The internationalisation of business and domestic class compromises: A four country study

This article examines the impact of international business on the kind of class compromises that evolved and characterised many West European societies until the late 1970s. It raises the question of why class compromises endured longer in Austria and Sweden than in Belgium and the Netherlands. The argument is that domestic business in Austria and Sweden has fewer alliances with international capital and is, therefore, in a sense less integrated in world markets than those in Belgium and the Netherlands. The conclusion of the article, based upon recent trends, points out that the differences between the four countries appear to be rapidly disappearing.

Rauch ohne Feuer: Why Germany Lags in Tobacco Control

The puzzle explored in this article is why Germany, in spite of its superb record in environmental policy and health care, has system atically thwarted measures to reduce smoking rates. At this point, thousands of large-scale epidemiological findings demonstrate a rela tionship between smoking and disease. Moreover, unlike alcohol, there is no safe amount of smoking. Cigarettes kill, and smoking is the single largest source of preventable death in advanced industrial ized states. By various estimates, tobacco kills 500,000 Europeans per year, including 120,000 Germans. Globally, in the years 2025 to 2030, smoking will kill 7 million people in the developing world and 3 million in the industrialized world. No other consumer product is as dangerous as tobacco, which kills more people than AIDS, legal and illegal drugs, road accidents, murder, and suicide combined.1 The political controversy over cigarette production and usage has increased over time because the stakes are high. Cigarette produc tion is concentrated in a few extremely large international companies and is very profitable. Philip Morris (renamed Altria) has an annual worldwide turnover of tobacco and other products that exceeds the gross national product of all except the twenty largest economies in the world.2 Not surprisingly, tobacco companies have thrown all their resources into the battle to continue selling cigarettes, in spite of inconvertible evidence of their harm.

Cultural diversity in post-Maastricht Europe

This article asks whether regional integration affects socially sensitive policies, representative of the cultural idiosyncrasies of a country. It looks at Nordic (Finnish and Swedish) alcohol control policy and Dutch drug policy to explore this question. Second, it will evaluate the explanatory power of two competing approaches to European integration - state-centric theories and multilevel governance models - in addressing the case of diminishing cultural diversity. I conclude by noting that the real agent of change is the movement of goods and people and that neither state-centric nor multi-level governance models fully explain the cases of alcohol and drug policy. Rather, these two examples from three countries suggest that state officials are able to strike special deals with relevant EU institutions, but that such agreements cannot control the costs of increased mobility related to the success of the Single Market.

The dog that didn’t bark: Explaining change in Germany’s Tobacco control policy at home and in the EU

This article revisits the earlier debates on Germanys abysmal record on tobacco control policies, which attributes that record to cultural, institutional, and political barriers. This article shows that Germany has made progress in tobacco control, though its commitment to smoke-free public spaces is lagging. We argue that the explanation for Germanys progress on tobacco control is that EU legislation directly and indirectly influenced public attitudes, raised awareness about the health consequences of smoking among the public and medical establishment, elevated the visibility of medical and health NGOs, and altered the institutional venue of policy making. However, in areas where the EU does not impose legislation, such as second-hand smoke, Germany continues to show more modest progress, owing to its federalised structure of health policy. State governments are in change of smoke-free eateries/drinking establishments and they are more susceptible to pressures from the gastronomy sector and allied tobacco interests.

Ongoing Debates on Participatory Governance in the EU: Evidence from Consumer Protection and Health

This paper addresses the debate on participatory governance and the impact of non-governmental organizations on European Union decision making. The literature argues that NGOs carry limited weight and are often outmaneuvered by business. We look at the EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. Consisting of representatives from business and health/consumer organizations, the Platform established a venue in which corporate and societal interests are formally equal. We argue, however, that even the Platform exhibits asymmetry of influence between the two, and NGOs’ preferences remain subordinated to the interests of producer/business groups. In spite of equal representation on the Platform, the food industry persuaded European institutions to accept industry self-regulation and to adopt its preferred version of a pan-European nutritional labeling law.