MI-onderzoekers presenteerden onderzoek tijdens Conferentie in Barcelona (EN)

DEN HAAG (PDC) - Researchers of the Montesquieu Institute presented current research at the 18^th Conference of the Council for European Studies that took part from 20^th to 22^nd June in Barcelona, Spain. Two papers were presented in the panels on Issue Salience, Institutional Factors and Agenda Setting.

The first one by MI PhD candidate Petya Alexandrova and MI Research Director Arco Timmermans discusses the role of the Presidency on the European Union in European Council Agenda-Setting. It studies empirically 25 Presidencies of five EU states. The paper unravels the myth that the member state holding the Presidency is always institutionally advantaged in terms of dominating the agenda and points to significant constraints to making use of the office for the sake of pursuing national interests.

The second paper by MI Fellow Anne Rasmussen analyses policy agendas and interest group activity in three European countries: Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The study finds considerable variation in the level of diversity in representation within the three political systems between different types of policies. In particular, in all countries a more narrow set of substantive interests is active on regulatory than (re)distributive policies.