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SPIRe’s Dr. Samuel Brazys, along with Dr. Simon Lightfoot of the University of Leeds, explore the extent bilateral adoption of Aid for Trade (AfT) norms in Europe is the result of a Europeanisation process in a recent paper published in European Politics and Society. Using three case study countries (Germany, Ireland, Czech Republic) they examine the level of Europeanisation across policies, polities and politics. They highlight the roles played by socialisation and capacity within this field, which forms an important test case for the Europeanisation of development policies as it blurs the distinction between the European Union (EU)-member state shared competences of development with the EU single competence of trade. They find significant variation in both the depth and speed in adapting the EU AfT norms. The investigation into the AfT Europeanisation process in Germany, Ireland and the Czech Republic found this variation to be a function of both capacity and socialisation with the caveat that capacity appears as a more influential explanatory factor in the depth of Europeanisation while socialisation may promote a speedier process.

The paper may be read here.