Policy Framing in Policy Making Process: the Case of Biotechnology Regulation in the EU

The research investigates the role of policy framing in policy making process on the case of biotechnology regulation in the European Union in 1980-2000s. The key issue in the case is a political confrontation between supporters of economic (preventive regulation model) and environmental agenda (proactive model). Directorate-Generals (DGs) Industry and Environment were main players in the political battle. The period could be characterized as a time of rapid and abrupt shifts in policy making process in a relatively stable and highly institutionalized environment which is the research issue. The goal of our research is to assess the role of policy framing in the policy making process. To accomplish the goal we have to solve several tasks:1)To research existing literature on policy making and policy framing;2)To define the Punctuated-Equilibrium Theory;3)To analyze the distinctive features of decision making in the EU and the Commission’s role in the process;4)To investigate the case of biotechnology regulation in the EU5)To distinguish frames of confronting interests6)To point out possible significant factors affecting policy making in the EU;7)To offer a scheme of the biotechnology regulation policy making process;8)To describe the role of policy framing in policy making.Punctuated Equilibrium Theory is the main tool for understanding the role of framing in the policy making process. This theoretical framework links rapid shifts in policy making with bounded rationality of the political body, internal coordination problems and information distribution. The latter connects this approach with framing theory. Policy framing is a process when actors construct a special understanding of a story based on a certain perspective of the political problem in order to manipulate agenda setting and adopt favorable decisions. The usage of framing may change the preference structure of political actors due to bounded rationality of the political body. Bounded rationality works here as a force which makes it fairly impossible to analyze a political issue from any perspective.We thoroughly investigated the above mentioned abrupt changes in the development of biotechnology regulation in the EU as well as framing of policy alternatives to analyze the role of policy framing in the process. In the end, we reached a certain conclusion: reframing of the policy issue may change the political alignment and the outcome of decision making whereas the institutional structure and set of actors in the political system remain identical. The EU decision making institutions (the Parliament and the Council) were not able to assess the controversial policy issue of biotechnology regulation from all perspectives equally due to their bounded rationality and had to perceive it through policy frames offered by biased actors. Reframing of the policy issue by DG Environment, which brought a new perspective of consumer protection to the agenda, basically disarmed supporters of preventive regulation model. Thus, it is possible to argue that policy framing may be used as a political instrument in policy making process.The above mentioned entails an important conclusion: one cannot assume that actors’ positions on the issue are fixed. This means that we have to pay a great deal of our attention on the possibility of changing actors’ preferences on the issue when reframing is used. For instance, when we build a formal model of voting we should take into account the frame used to put the issue on the agenda. Thus, the outcomes of decision making on a legislation which brings the same regulation may be different depending on the issue framing.