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To act or not to act? A study of Commission inaction against breaches of the rule of law: the case of Spain and the non-renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary

Caselles Calle, Ana LU (2023) STVM23 20231
Department of Political Science
Abstract
In light of the EU’s growing compliance problem and the generalized decline in Commission-led enforcement, this thesis studies the phenomenon of Commission inaction against breaches of EU law, and, specifically, Art. 2 TEU. By focusing on its lack of action against Spain’s non-renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary, a long-standing breach of the rule of law, this thesis aims to shed light on the reasons behind Commission inaction outside of Hungary and Poland’s infringements, the two most studied cases of non-compliance. A theoretical framework that combines Kelemen and Pavone’s theory of supranational forbearance and Emmons and Pavone’s rhetorics of inaction is used to identify patterns of perversity, futility and jeopardy in the... (More)
In light of the EU’s growing compliance problem and the generalized decline in Commission-led enforcement, this thesis studies the phenomenon of Commission inaction against breaches of EU law, and, specifically, Art. 2 TEU. By focusing on its lack of action against Spain’s non-renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary, a long-standing breach of the rule of law, this thesis aims to shed light on the reasons behind Commission inaction outside of Hungary and Poland’s infringements, the two most studied cases of non-compliance. A theoretical framework that combines Kelemen and Pavone’s theory of supranational forbearance and Emmons and Pavone’s rhetorics of inaction is used to identify patterns of perversity, futility and jeopardy in the Commission’s direct and indirect discourse about the Spanish infringement that justifies its lack of action. Although the qualitative analysis of different Commission discursive interactions found little-to-no-support for the proposed hypotheses, this thesis also discusses other important findings such as how the Commission has increasingly gained an awareness about the severity of the Spanish infringement or how it sees dialogue as the best tool to approach the Spanish national authorities as opposed to Hungary and Poland’s infringement, demonstrating that the Commission acts strategically against Member States’ infringements. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Caselles Calle, Ana LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVM23 20231
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Commission inaction, rule of law, infringement, Spain, discourse
language
English
id
9115438
date added to LUP
2023-08-27 16:21:08
date last changed
2023-08-27 16:21:08
@misc{9115438,
  abstract     = {{In light of the EU’s growing compliance problem and the generalized decline in Commission-led enforcement, this thesis studies the phenomenon of Commission inaction against breaches of EU law, and, specifically, Art. 2 TEU. By focusing on its lack of action against Spain’s non-renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary, a long-standing breach of the rule of law, this thesis aims to shed light on the reasons behind Commission inaction outside of Hungary and Poland’s infringements, the two most studied cases of non-compliance. A theoretical framework that combines Kelemen and Pavone’s theory of supranational forbearance and Emmons and Pavone’s rhetorics of inaction is used to identify patterns of perversity, futility and jeopardy in the Commission’s direct and indirect discourse about the Spanish infringement that justifies its lack of action. Although the qualitative analysis of different Commission discursive interactions found little-to-no-support for the proposed hypotheses, this thesis also discusses other important findings such as how the Commission has increasingly gained an awareness about the severity of the Spanish infringement or how it sees dialogue as the best tool to approach the Spanish national authorities as opposed to Hungary and Poland’s infringement, demonstrating that the Commission acts strategically against Member States’ infringements.}},
  author       = {{Caselles Calle, Ana}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{To act or not to act? A study of Commission inaction against breaches of the rule of law: the case of Spain and the non-renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}