ABSTRACT
The European Union (EU) is a unique project of regional integration that has both supranational and intergovernmental characteristics. The EU member states have delegated, by means of treaties and secondary legislation, a number of executive, legislative, and judicial tasks to EU institutions like the European Commission, the Council of the EU, 1 the European Parliament, and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) (Pollack, 2003). EU institutions devise laws and policies in an increasing number of policy fields and expect (member) states, individuals, private enterprises, non-governmental organizations, and so on to abide by rules and policies established. Legislating is the dominant governance mode, yet the EU increasingly engages in policy making through non-hierarchical modes of governance, such as persuasion and bargaining, in order to achieve compliance (Börzel, 2010). Non-hierarchical modes of governance are especially prevalent in a number of more recent policy fields in which the EU does not hold a strong competence, such as sport.
