Getting Hedge Funds Regulation into the EU Agenda - AperTo：让对冲基金监管在欧盟议程-阿朗.doc

PAGE PAGE 10 This is an author version of the contribution published on:Journal of European Integration, 2011, 33(3), pp. 251-266. doi: 10.10802010.546844 The definitive version is available at: HYPERLINK /doi/abs/10.10802010.546844?journalCode=geui20#.UxYhmaXnXG4 /doi/abs/10.10802010.546844?journalCode=geui20#.UxYhmaXnXG4  Getting Hedge Funds Regulation into the EU Agenda: The Constraints of Agenda Dynamics Manuela Moschella Abstract Why did the issue of hedge fund regulation enter the formal EU agenda in response to the subprime crisis? Building on existing literature on agenda dynamics in the EU, this paper argues that framing and issue expansion were key in getting the issue into the formal agenda, and that issue expansion does not necessarily imply public mobilization. Going beyond existing scholarship, however, the paper also shows that framing processes are closely associated with the characteristics of the issue for debate and that issue expansion is intimately related to the arrangements governing the specific issue domain. In other words, whereas framing and issue expansion are traditionally conceived as a strategic choice or as the outcome of an exogenous event, this paper shows that framing may also be shaped by the nature of the issue at stake and that issue expansion may result from the unintended consequences of previous governance choices. Keywords: Agenda-setting; European Union; hedge funds; regulation; policy subsystem The financial crisis that started in the summer 2007 in the small segment of the US subprime market but quickly became global in scope has triggered a variety of reform proposals to improve the functioning of domestic and international financial markets, making them more resilient to shocks. The European Union has been one of the most active actors in the reform efforts that followed the crisis, repeatedly calling for a regulatory framework that covers ‘all financial markets, products and partici