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Being Spain in Brussels: Policy bureaucracy, agenda setting and negotiation in the EU policy process
- Source: International Journal of Iberian Studies, Volume 24, Issue 2, Jan 2012, p. 71 - 89
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- 12 Jan 2012
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Abstract
Spanish bureaucracy is often said to be marked by poor coordination, poor information and inability to shape political agendas - but analyses of Spanish EU policy regularly present a list of its achievements. We focus on the 'policy bureaucracy' that monitors and acts on dossiers regardless of their political priority, using one EU policy area: health care services policy. For almost the entire EU health care debate, Spain was uncoordinated and invested little in formulating its interests or shaping agendas. Spain's policy bureaucracy fits a country that wins amendments at late stages, but does not engage early to shape policy outside its key priorities.
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