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Paula Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik (2023) The quiet politics of migration supranationalization – Commission entrepreneurship and the intra-Corporate Transferee Directive, Journal of European Integration, DOI: 10.1080/07036337.2023.2295374

Abstract

Migration is widely considered a sensitive and contested area of EU policymaking, with Member States reluctant to cede control. Yet, supranational rules on ‘legal migration’ increasingly reduce Member State discretion to control migration. While Commission entrepreneurship has been proposed as an explanation, its importance for supranational outcomes remains unclear. To understand the role of Commission entrepreneurship in enabling supranational policy outcomes, this study traces the negotiations of on one central labour migration policy, the Intra-Corporate Transferee Directive. I demonstrate how the Commission was able to defuse opposition by proposing a narrow policy instrument and framing it as a matter of business needs, international obligations and competitiveness rather than labour migration. This enabled an environment of ‘quiet politics’ where concerns over sovereignty and control were tuned down to a preference for administrative flexibility. The findings have implications for our understanding of the dynamics of supranationalization in politically sensitive policy areas.