In times of disintegration, the question of EU’s legitimacy and member states’ compliance with EU law has become increasingly important. While on the one hand individual member states have announced to neglect the implementation of EU law in times of crisis, on the other hand studies point to a better compliance record. In light of this contradiction, this article investigates EU policy changes in the transposition and enforcement of EU law over time through lenses of historic institutionalism.
This paper argues that due to specific policy changes at EU level, member states changed their culture on how to transpose and enforce EU law. While the different worlds of compliance existed in the late 90s, we demonstrate that differences among countries in complying with EU law ceased. This study, therefore, concludes that compliance with EU law has become increasingly decoupled from the current political events, thus depoliticised.