Public AffairsWho is who
There are two sections on this page: Core Staff and Other Lecturers in the EPA programme.
Core staff
Esther Versluis
Director of Studies & coordinator Module 4
Dr. Esther Versluis works at the Department of Political Science. Her research concentrates on the implementation of international (especially European) legislation on the national level. In 2003 Esther defended her dissertation ‘Enforcement Matters. Enforcement and Compliance of European Directives in Four Member States’ for which she received the ‘Van Poelje prize 2003’ by the ‘Dutch Association for Public Administration’. This dissertation shed light on the ‘black box’ of practical implementation of European legislation and it demonstrated the European Union’s ‘compliance deficit’. Currently, her research interests concern solutions to overcome this deficit. Amongst others, Esther concentrates on the potential role for the European Commission and specialised European agencies in ensuring rule compliance in the member states.
Fields of specialisation:
- European decision-making procedures
- Implementation and enforcement of European policy (compliance theory)
- Europeanisation
- European agencies
E-mail: e.versluis@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Selected publications:
Versluis, E. (2008) ‘The Achilles’ heel of European regulation: national administrative styles and the Commission’s neglect of practical implementation’. In: Joachim, J., B. Reinalda and B. Verbeek International Organizations and Implementation. Enforcers, managers, authorities?, London: Routledge, pp. 120-134.
Versluis, E. (2007) ‘Even Rules, Uneven Practices: Opening the ‘Black Box’ of EU Law in Action’, West European Politics 30(1): 50-67.
Versluis, E. (2004) ‘Explaining Variations in Implementation of EU Directives’, European Integration online Papers, Vol. 8, N° 19, http://eiop.or.at/eiop/texte/2004-019a.htm
Neuhold, C. and E. Versluis (2004) ‘The Constitutional Treaty: Tackling the “Democratic Challenge” ’, Federal Trust Constitutional Online Paper, No. 25/04, http://www.fedtrust.co.uk/constitutionalpapers
Versluis, E. (2003) 'Enforcement Matters. Enforcement and Compliance of European Directives in Four Member States', Delft: Eburon. (378 p.)
Christine Arnold
coordinator Module 1
Dr Christine Arnold is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science. She has a Masters and PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has taught political science at Umass, Boston University, Tufts University, Leiden University, and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her teaching and research interests are in comparative politics, theories of international negotiation, joint policy-making and policy change, and research methods. She uses information retrieval and graph-theoritic techniques for automated analysis of corpora with hundreds of thousands of documents to uncover patterns and causality in decision-making processes both on the domestic level and the EU level. Her primary research interest is the constitution-building process in the European Union, with a particular interest in the impact of domestic structures on the outcome of European negotiation. Her approach is based upon a two-level-game model, strengthened with theoretical insights from multi-stage-policy analysis as well as empirical information on the preferences articulated by various actors.
Fields of specialisation:
Ø Theories of Comparative Politics and European integration
Ø European and US politics
Ø Qualitative and quantitative research skills
E-mail: c.arnold@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Telephone: (00 31 43) 388 30 52
Rik de Ruiter
coordinator Module 2
Dr. Rik de Ruiter works as junior lecturer at the department of Political Science. In October 2007 he obtained a doctorate in social and political sciences from the European University Institute in Florence. His dissertation is entitled: ‘To prevent a shift of competences? Developing the Open Method of Coordination: Education, social inclusion, research and development and e-Europe’. His main research interests are: European integration, comparative politics/public policy, and new modes of governance in international organisations.
Fields of specialisation:
- New modes of governance
- Open Method of Coordination
- Education and social policy
E-mail: r.deruiter@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Telephone: +31 43 388 2696
Patrick Bijsmans
coordinator Module 3
Patrick Bijsmans is a Political Scientist and PhD researcher in the department of Political Science. His PhD project is concerned with the development of a European public sphere: a space for public debate and opinion formation about issues of EU public policy-making. The project is based on a content analysis of national media. Other research interests include European governance, democracy in the EU and the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Besides his work for the EPA master he also teaches a number of courses in the European Studies programme, mainly in the field of external relations.
Fields of specialisation:
- European Public Sphere
- EU Democracy
- European Governance
- Common Foreign and Security Policy
E-mail: patrick.bijsmans@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Other lecturers in the EPA programme
European Institute of Public Administration:
Dr. Edward Best – European institutions and decision-making processes
Dr. Thomas Christiansen – EU decision-making, comitology, theories of integration
Dr. Christoph Demmke – environmental policy, implementation
Dr. Simon Duke – Common Foreign and Security Policy, EU-US relations
Alain Guggenbuhl – EU negotiations
Dr. Michael Kaeding – Europeanisation and transposition of EU law
Frank Lavadoux – EU negotiations
Cosimo Monda – EU information and communication
Dr. Phedon Nicolaides – economic integration, trade policy, competition policy
Craig Robertson – impact assessment
Martin Unfried – environmental policy, policy instruments
Other lecturers of Maastricht University:
Dr. Stefaan van den Bogaert – Maastricht University, Faculty of Law – European law
Dr. Pieter Caljé – Maastricht University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences – European history, state formation
Dr. Maarten Vink – Maastricht University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences – migration policy
Other external lecturers:
Dr. San Bilal – European Centre for Development Policy Management – Economic integration
Dr. Justin Greenwood – Aberdeen Business School – theory and practice of lobbying
Vivianne Heijnen – consultant – practicalities of lobbying
Pieter van Nispen – Hogeschool Rotterdam – comparative cultural analysis
Dr. Robin Pedler – Oxford University – EU lobbying
Dr. Klaartje Peters – researcher – policy evaluation
Dr. Hans Slomp – Radboud University Nijmegen – comparative European Politics
