The influence of international organisations on the European Union: A political science perspective

© 2013 T.M.C.ASSER PRESS, The Hague, The Netherlands, and the authors. All rights reserved. This essay applies a political science perspective to the 'outside-in' problématique of international organisations and their normative impact on the EU and its legal order. The authors show how such an impact varies across policy fields, international organisations and time. The authors argue that the distribution of competences between Member States and EU institutions is an explanatory factor which is often complemented by the configuration of policy preferences among the larger-or sometimes a wider group of-EU Member States. In order to better determine the likely impact, one needs to know about the origin of specific international norms and the policy cycles producing them, i.e. agenda-setters, policy-makers, decision-makers, implementers. The authors consider a sequential analysis to be a fruitful avenue of inquiry, and thus provide a theoretical foundation for part of the empirical work carried out in the case-study chapters of the book.