Functional Pressure and Path-Dependencies: The Emergence and Development of Supranational Regulatory Regimes

Abstract

Despite the fact that health and consumer protection was not originally among the competencies of the EU (it was first introduced as an independent policy objective by the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997), the EU has become very active in the area of risk regulation, at least since the Single European Act in 1986. The EU sets standards for technical goods, adopts food safety measures and authorises medicinal products (Vos 1999a). The question is why different regulatory regimes emerged at the EU level, even though risk regulation was originally not mentioned in the treaties. To answer the question, this chapter proceeds in two steps. Firstly, it analyses the functional pressure that leads to the emergence of supranational risk regulation (see section 2.1). The emergence of supranational regulation of risky products is a spillover process from the Single Market. National product standards constitute non-tariff trade barriers that hinder free trade across national borders. Thus, functional pressure emerges to centralise risk regulation at the supranational level in order to realise the Single Market.¹