Trygve Ugland

Experiments in Food Safety Policy Integration in the European Union

Policy issues are increasingly cross-cutting. Policy integration has therefore become a fashionable concept among policy-makers at domestic and international levels. Theoretically, the article facilitates a deeper understanding of the concept of policy integration. Empirically, this article analyses food safety policy integration in the European Union (EU). Three different historical phases are identified here. The central argument is that the way cross-cutting policy issues are integrated within policy sectors affects the opportunities for effective integration of these issues across different policy sectors.

Adaptation and Integration through Policy Re-categorization

This comparative study analyses how the state alcohol monopoly systems in Finland, Norway and Sweden were affected by interaction with the European Union (EU). Pressures from the EU, as well as the contrasting domestic responses in this process, are viewed in relation to how these institutions were integrated in terms of consistency, interdependence and structural connectedness. The article goes beyond the frequent observation that external scrutiny and pressures challenge national policy coherence to show that domestic public policies also may emerge more coherent and integrated. It is suggested that the relationship between the way public policies are integrated, categorized and re-categorized provides important insights towards our understanding of the dynamics of public policy.

The European Commission and the Integration of Food Safety Policies across Levels

Regulation of food safety has a long and troubled history in the European Union (EU). However, a fragmented and restricted framework of actions has, over time, been replaced by a more comprehensive and integrated approach to food safety at the EU level (Ugland and Veggeland 2004, 2006). This reorientation reflects two interrelated developments. First, despite its cross-cutting nature and its obvious links to agriculture, consumer affairs, the internal market, external trade, public health, and other sectors, food safety has increasingly been recognized as an independent subject area.1 Second, food safety has gone from being the sole responsibility of the member states to being an area of shared responsibility, characterized by cooperative arrangements between national administrations and the EU. These two developments reveal an increased status of food safety at the EU level vis-a-vis both other subject areas and the member states.

Making Policy in the European Union: The Council Recommendation on the Drinking of Alcohol by Young People

In 2001 the health ministers in the European Union (EU) adopted a Council of Ministers recommendation on the drinking of alcohol by young people. The present article discusses why and how it was adopted, as well as what the policy implications of this recommendation are for the member states. It illustrates how common action in the area of public health can be justified, as well as what role the various EU institutions play in this kind of decision-making process. It concludes that the political significance of this recommendation is determined to a large degree by how it will be followed up at the EU level.

Towards an Integrated Approach? Food Inspection Reforms in Canada and the European Union

Abstract Policy integration has become a fashionable concept among policy-makers at national and international levels over the last two decades, and both Canada and the European Union have adopted food safety policy integration as a central objective. This comparative study analyses how this objective has played out in the recent reforms of the Canadian and EU food inspection systems. The article argues that similar patterns of integration can be identified along the vertical dimension as a result of the development of stronger policy and program coordination capacities at the centre. In terms of horizontal integration, the EU food inspections system appears more consistent, interdependent, and structurally connected around the overriding food safety objective of protecting the health of the population.

An Integrated Alcohol Control Policy: What, Why and How?

In response to the calls for more integrated governmental actions across different policy sectors, this paper discusses what an integrated alcohol control policy is; why alcohol control policies should be integrated; and how alcohol control policy integration can be accomplished. The theoretical discussion is illustrated by empirical examples from Finnish and Swedish alcohol control policies in their encounter with the European Union (EU). The central argument of this paper is that the impact of international free trade commitments on domestic alcohol control policies will depend on how this policy sector is organized and operates. Alcohol control policies are more likely to survive in an international free trade context if they are tightly integrated around the health and social policy objectives they are intended to promote and protect. This implies that attempts should be made to achieve a clearer divorce of public health and social policy objectives related to alcohol on the one hand, and from trade and commercial objectives on the other.

Use of research in local alcohol policy-making

Purpose – On-premise trading hours are generally decided at the local level. The purpose of this paper is to identify relevant advocacy coalitions and to assess to what extent and how these coalitions used research in the alcohol policy-making process concerning changes in on-premise trading hours in Norway. Design/methodology/approach – Theory-driven content analyses were conducted, applying data from city council documents (24 Norwegian cities) and Norwegian newspaper articles and broadcast interviews (n=138) in 2011-2012. Findings – Two advocacy coalitions with conflicting views and values were identified. Both coalitions used research quite extensively – in the public debate and in the formal decision-making process – but in different ways. The restrictive coalition, favouring restricted trading hours and emphasising public health/safety, included the police and temperance movements and embraced research demonstrating the beneficial health/safety effects of restricting trading hours. The liberal coali...

Canada as an Inspirational Model: Reforming Scandinavian Immigration and Integration Policies

Abstract The Scandinavian countries have often been portrayed as models for the development of policies for other states. However, in the area of immigration and integration policies, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have themselves been searching for new policy solutions abroad. Canada is internationally recognised in the areas of immigration control and immigrant integration, and this article focuses on the role the Canadian immigration and integration policy model played in the Scandinavian reform process during the 2000-2012 period. The overall conclusion is that the Canadian model significantly shaped the reform debate and process in the three Scandinavian countries. However, the Canadian model was not copied or emulated to a great extent. Instead, it served as intellectual stimulus and a model for inspiration. In particular, the Canadian model served as an inspiration for the rediscovery of labour immigration in Scandinavia during the 2000s.

‘Designer’ Europeanization: Lessons from Jean Monnet

The European Council called for a period of reflection in each of the member states of the European Union (EU) after the people of France and the Netherlands rejected the Constitutional Treaty in referendums in 2005. The present article offers a contribution to this process by reflecting on the prospects for institutional design and redesign in the EU, a topic that became even more relevant after the Irish “no” to the Lisbon Treaty in June 2008. The discussions are based on a historical perspective, and the article discusses what lessons can be drawn from Jean Monnet, viewed as an institutional designer on the European stage. The article argues that the successful establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was a product of a robust deontological design in a constitutional moment for Europe, and that prospective designers in the EU can learn important lessons from how Monnet identified and exploited available spaces for institutional design.