EU VALUES IN THE SPOTLIGHT: A comparative thematic analysis of the nineteen European Medicines Agency bidding brochures that were submitted the 31 of July 2017 to the Commission
Författare
Summary, in English
According to the Economic Intelligence Unit's 2017 Democracy Index, less than half of the EU countries are "fully democratic." Consequently, there is a deficiency in compliance to the EU values among the Member States in the EU. In 2016, United Kingdom voted in favor of leaving the European Union. One of the central questions for the EU was the question what was going to happen with the EU’s decentralized agencies located in London; the European Medicines Agency and the European Banking Authority.
This thesis analyses in what way the EU values are shown in the nineteen bidding brochures that were used in the application process for the relocation of the European Medicines Agency in 2017. The focus is on investigating how the Member States chose to promote themselves as better candidates in the promotional race. The method of thematic analysis was used to find the manifestations of EU values themes in the brochures both explicitly and implicitly. The analysis was conducted through three theories that explain the European integration process, neo-functionalism, liberal intergovernmentalism and social constructivism, to see how Member States emphasized the EU values in comparison to their respective ideas about more or less integration and explain in what way the EU values were shown in the brochures.
The main results presented in this study is that Member States who do not host an EU agency at present demonstrated a stronger will to promote the EU values explicitly. The dominant reason behind how the Member States used the EU values seem to be the result of various conscious choices. The Member States used the EU values themes implicitly in a context where they promote themselves as good candidates to be the new host of the agency.
This thesis analyses in what way the EU values are shown in the nineteen bidding brochures that were used in the application process for the relocation of the European Medicines Agency in 2017. The focus is on investigating how the Member States chose to promote themselves as better candidates in the promotional race. The method of thematic analysis was used to find the manifestations of EU values themes in the brochures both explicitly and implicitly. The analysis was conducted through three theories that explain the European integration process, neo-functionalism, liberal intergovernmentalism and social constructivism, to see how Member States emphasized the EU values in comparison to their respective ideas about more or less integration and explain in what way the EU values were shown in the brochures.
The main results presented in this study is that Member States who do not host an EU agency at present demonstrated a stronger will to promote the EU values explicitly. The dominant reason behind how the Member States used the EU values seem to be the result of various conscious choices. The Member States used the EU values themes implicitly in a context where they promote themselves as good candidates to be the new host of the agency.
Avdelning/ar
Publiceringsår
2018
Språk
Engelska
Fulltext
Dokumenttyp
Examensarbete för masterexamen (Två år)
Ämne
- Cultural Sciences
- Social Sciences
- Law and Political Science
Nyckelord
- European Union
- European Medicines Agency
- EU values
- European integration
- thematic analysis
- brochures
- European Studies
Handledare
- Tomas Sniegon