Investigating policy complexity in the European Union

"Policy complexity and implementation performance in the European Union" by Maximilian Haag, Steffen Hurka and Constantin Kaplaner is out now (online first) in Regulation & Governance. The paper studies the consequences of policy complexity for the quality of transposition and implementation in the EU member states. Find the paper on our publications page.

"Rules as policy data? Measuring and linking policy substance and legislative context" by Steffen Hurka, Yves Steinebach and Christoph Knill is out now (online first) in Regulation & Governance. The paper investigates the extent to which measures of textual complexity capture changes in substantive policy design. Find the paper on our publications page.

The EUPLEX team will be presenting papers at the following conferences in 2023:

Annual Meeting of the Section Methods of Political Science (DVPW), Göttingen, May 5-6

• M. Haag, C. Kaplaner and S. Hurka - From bill to law: how the complexity of policy proposals evolves over the European Union’s legislative process

2023 Annual Conference of the European Political Science Association, Glasgow, June 23-25

• M. Haag - Position Formation in the European Parliament: The Role of Inter- and Intra-Institutional Dynamics
• S. Hurka, M. Haag, C. Kaplaner - Policy complexity, transposition delay and implementation performance in the European Union

Twenty-Ninth International Conference of Europeanists, Reykjavik, June 27-29

• S. Hurka, M. Haag, C. Kaplaner - Policy complexity, transposition delay and implementation performance in the European Union

We have released a new version of the EUPLEX dataset. This update adds a variable containing information on whether a procedure is included in the EUR-Lex procedure search following a EUR-Lex update that removed many procedures from the search index (see this tweet for more information). Head over to the dataset page to download the new version.

"Proposal complexity and report allocation in the European Parliament" by Steffen Hurka, Maximilian Haag and Constantin Kaplaner is out now (online first) in European Union Politics. The paper analyzes the conditioning influence of policy complexity on rapporteur appointment in the European Parliament. Find the paper on our publications page.

From 8.-10. November 2022, Roman Senninger (EUPLEX) visited the EUPLEX team in Munich. During his stay, Roman presented some of his exciting work, discussed the EUPLEX project with us and took part in a workshop series with Ph.D. students and Postdocs of the GSI. Thank you, Roman, for the great exchange!

"The institutional and political roots of complex policies: Evidence from the European Union" by Steffen Hurka is out now (online first) in the European Journal of Political Research. Find more details on the paper on our publications page.

So far, the EUPLEX team is confirmed to present papers at these upcoming conferences in 2022:

11th Biennial Conference of the SGEU, Luiss University, 8 – 10 June 2022

• Steffen Hurka, Maximilian Haag and Constantin Kaplaner - Do EP rapporteurs matter? Investigating the conditional effects of rapporteur experience on legislative efficiency and effectiveness

2022 Annual Conference of the European Political Science Association, Prague, June 23-25

• Constantin Kaplaner, Maximilian Haag and Steffen Hurka - Policy complexity and lobbying success in the public consultations of the European Commission

Further information regarding our presentations will be added here once available.

A new magazine article (in German) by Steffen Hurka in Swiss economy magazine 'Die Volkswirtschaft' has just been published. The article provides a short overview of the research in the EUPLEX project and a high-level descriptive analysis of the evolution of the complexity of policy proposals in the EU from 1994 - 2020. You can find the article on the magazine's website.

We are happy to announce the first release of the EUPLEX dataset. The dataset provides information on legislative procedures in the EU and on the complexity of more than 6,000 policy proposals initiated by the European Commission. We will update the dataset in regular intervals to include recent legislative procedures and texts. You can download the current version and find additional technical information as well as the codebook on our dataset page.

The dataset will be formally introduced in a forthcoming paper in the Journal of European Public Policy (see our publications) containing additional information on the measures and our concept of policy complexity in the EU.

The EUPLEX team will present papers at these upcoming conferences in 2021:

EPSA Virtual 24-25 June 2021

• Steffen Hurka, Maximilian Haag and Constantin Kaplaner - How proposal complexity conditions report allocation in the European Parliament
• Maximilian Haag, Steffen Hurka and Constantin Kaplaner - From bill to law: how the complexity of policy proposals evolves over the European Union’s legislative process

ICPP5 Hybrid 5-9 July 2021

• Constantin Kaplaner, Maximilian Haag and Steffen Hurka - Proposing an Index of Policy Complexity

In addition, we will host a panel at the

ECPR Standing Group on the European Union Virtual Conference 10-12 June 2021

• Panel: Coping with Policy Complexity in the European Union (Host: Steffen Hurka) (Website)

Further information regarding our presentations and the panel will be added here once available.

As of today, Constantin Kaplaner joins the EUPLEX team as a doctoral researcher. We are happy to welcome him back to Munich and are looking forward to work with him. Find out more about Constantin in our team section.

Max Haag will present the paper "Explaining bargaining success in informal trilogues in the European Union" at the upcoming virtual ECPR General Conference 2020 of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) on on 26 August 2020, 10.30 BST (11.30 CEST) as part of the panel on "Coalition Governance in Europe". Find out more in the ECPR GC 2020 academic programme.

"Legal Instrument Choice in the European Union" by Steffen Hurka and Yves Steinebach is out now (online first) in the Journal of Common Market Studies. The paper explores the determinants of legal instrument choice by the European Commission. Find more details on the paper on our publications page.

Steffen Hurka and Max Haag will present the paper "The evolution of policy complexity in the European Union" at the 10th Annual Conference of the European Political Science Association (EPSA) in Prague, 18-20 June 2020.

Update: The 2020 EPSA Annual Conference has been moved online. The conference paper presentation by Steffen Hurka and Max Haag is scheduled to take place on 18 June 2020, 16.00 UTC+01:00 as part of the EU politics panel session 2. For more information as well as the program schedule, please see the EPSA website.

Update 2: Find our presentation slides on our publications page and join the virtual conference presentation live via Zoom on 18 June 2020, 16.00 UTC+01:00.

Steffen Hurka will chair a panel on "Coping with Policy Complexity in the European Union" at the ECPR Standing Group on the European Union, which takes place at Luiss University in Rome, 3-6 June 2020. The panel is part of the "Institutional and Procedural Dynamics in EU Decision-making" section. Find out more on the ECPR website.

Update: The 2020 ECPR Standing Group on the European Union has been cancelled.

Maximilian Haag officially joins the project as a doctoral researcher. For the next three years, Max will be a part of the EUPLEX team and write his dissertation on decision-making in the EU at LMU Munich. The team welcomes him and wishes him good luck!

A new article summarizing the project’s objectives is out now in the EU Research magazine. Find it on Issuu.

"Policy complexity and legislative duration in the European Union" by Steffen Hurka and Maximilian Haag is out now (online first) in European Union Politics. The paper analyzes the influence of policy complexity on the duration of the decision-making process in the EU. Find the paper and replication data on our publications page and an accompanying blog post on the LSE EUROPP blog.

Nelly Keusch joins the project as a Student Assistant. For the next months, Nelly will help lay the foundations for the project to run efficiently.

As of today, the DFG-funded EUPLEX project is officially up and running! For the next years, Dr. Hurka and colleagues will be busy collecting, evaluating and analyzing data on policy complexity in the EU.