ABSTRACT
The relationship between European governance and national civil service reform is a fascinating and intriguing subject. Although the European Union (EU) has no treaty-related competences to decide on civil service issues, it nonetheless influences the reform of national civil services in many different ways, with ever new governance styles, policies and an ever-broader menu of instruments. However, European governance styles have not only expanded but have also become more differentiated with regard to the national civil services. This chapter analyses the specific effects of different patterns of European governance on domestic civil service reform policies and vice versa: how do the national civil services respond to the changing EU integration process? How have EU-related incentives, rewards, instruments, attitudes and governance styles changed over the last decades? It concludes that classical concepts of “Europeanisation” are no longer adequate for understanding the various processes of national adaptation to the EU integration process. Instead, the national civil service reforms find themselves in the process of parallel Europeanisation, de-Europeanisation and re-Europeanisation in the context of current policies and changing EU and national governance styles.
