Compliance to EU law in a local context. The influence of legitimacy perceptions of civil servants on their propensities to comply to the General Data Protection Regulation
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2025-01-13
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en
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The European Union faces a persistent problem of non-compliance to EU law. While rational, instrumental and normative motivations for non-compliance have been studied before, a research gap remains when legitimacy is concerned. This thesis addresses that research gap by researching the relation between legitimacy perceptions of the EU and compliance propensities of civil servants working for municipalities.
In this thesis, it cannot be concluded that there is a relation between legitimacy perceptions of the EU and compliance propensities. There is one exception, institutional legitimacy: civil servants hold importance to the hierarchy of EU law, inclining compliance. Rationalist, managerialist and normative motivations are more important in explaining the compliance propensities of civil servants working for municipalities. Overall, civil servants feel a general moral duty to comply. Non-compliance is involuntary and a result of a lack of knowledge, resources or rule ambiguity. Besides this, civil servants make calculated considerations regarding compliance, with the fear of detection, different priorities and sanctions as reasons for compliance. Normative motivations also influence compliance propensities: the alignment of the content of the GDPR with their personal values and the importance they attach to the citizens interest are important reasons to comply.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen