5th Annual Conference Nice - European-microfinance.org

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5 th Annual Conference Nice
Commisioner Hübner on the announcement of an action plan on microcredit: ‚[T]here has
already been a great deal of cooperation within the Commission, and there is enormous
interest in the development of micro-finance’ (Hübner 2006: 7).
Following Princen and Rhinard’s framework such a development is part of a low politics
route of agenda-setting, on which the growing engagement with a given issue at lower levels
of policy-making creates a self-sustaining dynamic that leads to “a point of no return” in
expanding the activity toward high level institutions. (vgl Princen/Rhinard 2006: 1122).
Conclusion
The main findings of the research underline the important role of the European microfinance
community, the EMN and its president Ms. Nowak in the process of positioning microfinance
as a policy issue at EU-level. The analysis also showed that the influence of the microfinance
experts was highest during the phase of issue specification and that they were successful in
using their technical expertise on the issue of microfinance provision to shape the dominant
policy image of microfinance at the EU-level to fit their position toward the issue.
Another key result is the finding that the success of microfinance as a policy issue at EU-level
was strongly connected to the availability of accessible policy venues, mainly thanks to the
Open Method of Coordination in social and economic policy. The observation that the
specification of microfinance as a tool in structural policy was characterised by a stronger
influence of the Commission and member state actors of regional policy, strengthens the
thesis that the institutional conditions of the different policy venues were an important factor
regarding the involvement and influence of the microfinance community.
Since the European initiative on the development of microcredit” demarks a new step in the
issue career of microfinance it will be interesting to see how future changes in the EU modes
of governance will affect accessibility to the EU policy-making for the European microfinance
community. Since decision-making in the European Union is characterised rather by the use
of power resources and bargaining than by knowledge and technical expertise, it will become
more difficult to organise the consensus needed to pass policy measures for the development
of microfinance in Europe. But the chances for continuous political momentum are good,
since the research showed, that the success of bringing microfinance to the institutional
agenda of the EU could be traced back to the fact that the issue of microfinance received
support as well form the institutional top as form the base of the European Union.
References
Baumgartner, Frank R. and Jones, Bryan D. (1993): Agendas and instability in
American politics: Chicago [et.al.].
Cobb, R.W. und Elder, C.D. (1972): Participation in American Politics: The Dynamics of
Agenda-Building, Baltimore.
Copisarow, Rosalind (2004): Street UK: Lessons learned after its first 3 years'
operations: London.
EUROFI (2006): The development of microcredit in the European Union - A tool for
growth and social cohesion - Executive Summary , Paris.
European Commission (2001): Commission staff working paper: Enterprises' access to
finance, SEC (2001) 1667, Brussels.
European Commission (2002): Guide to Risk Capital Financing in Regional Policy,
Brussels.
European Commission (2003): Microcredit for Small Business and Business Creation:
Bridging a Market Gap, Brussels.