ABSTRACT

The objective of the present chapter is to present the ways in which the European Union has tried to solve the problem of consistency among its different policy fields in practice. There are many such interfaces; it is possible to make a complete grid of effects that the various policies have on each other. I have selected from this complete grid the most important interfaces on the basis of the following criteria. First, I took the policies that are at the top of the hierarchy; cases in point are the internal market/competitiveness policy and the monetary policy. Second, I have taken the three policy interfaces where the Union has decided to use advanced forms of integration because of the strong risk of inconsistent policy making. 1 This is the case for cohesion policy, which integrates on the regional and local level many of the objectives of other policies; for the ‘Sustainable Development Strategy’ and for the ‘Policy Coherence for Development’. 2