The Interactive Enforcement of EU Law: A Scoping Literature Review

There is large scholarly interest in the enforcement of European law, for good reason: consistent application of European rules is crucial to the legitimacy of the European Union (EU), the protection of shared interests and the rights of citizens. EU enforcement, in the form of the infringement procedure, as well as the formulation of the strategies that underlie it, consists of constant dialogue and interactions between a diverse set of European institutions, and between these institutions and the member states of the Union. At the same time, supranational institutions, and the European Commission especially, are under increasing political pressure by member states and other actors to adapt enforcement in their favour: while they often demand leniency, they may also stimulate the Commission to step up enforcement in certain policy areas. What influences how these actors interact in enforcement processes and to what extent are these interactions affected by the ongoing process of EU politicisation? Which theories have been used to answer these questions, and which are fruitful ways to further advance our knowledge? To answer this question we will conduct a scoping literature review- a systematic and comprehensive literature study in which the literature on EU enforcement is systematically gathered and synthesised to identify relevant paradigms, concepts, variables, findings and knowledge gaps. The review will enable us to reflect on the state of the literature and to develop a research agenda for coming to grips with EU enforcement in times of ongoing contestation of the European integration project.