Cities are of particular relevance for ensuring the European Union’s ‘ground-level’ implementation of European policy. Yet, in-depth research on the conditions under which local authorities react to EU policy-making is still under-represented.

This research project aims to tackle this deficit by way of qualitative, theory-informed case studies in twelve Dutch, German and Polish cities in the field of European air quality policy. We will investigate if and how European policy affects urban discourses, rules, actors and distributions of power. In doing so, we will systematically analyse the impact of three different modes of European governance (imposition of rules, financial incentives, communication) on national and local patterns of adjustment.

The project will make several contributions to political science research:

(1) it will empirically and theoretically extend the perspectives of Europeanisation and compliance to the local level.

(2) By differentiating between modes of European governance the project will counter a pattern in Europeanisation research to focus on domestic conditions.

(3) The project will extend the Europeanisation perspective to horizontal dynamics of transnational communication and policy diffusion.

(4) It will add a European and comparative research perspective on local politics and government. The project will cooperate closely with Polish colleagues from the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw in the empirical research as well as with a team from Nijmegen University, which was already involved in the conceptual planning of the project.