Out in the Cold? Euro-Outsiders Inside the EU Council of Ministers.

Does opting out from selected policy areas in the EU affect a member state's general status as an attractive cooperation partner in the informal negotiation processes in the EU Council of Ministers? A common argument in both political and academic debates has been that a likely effect of standing outside the Euro would be loss of status and influence generally in the EU. Opting out would be perceived as free-riding - a norm violation - which would lead to bad reputation and exclusion from informal cooperation networks.This paper tests the proposed free-rider effect by comparing the network capital - a member state's set of cooperation partners - of Euro-insiders and Outsiders in the Council working groups. It uses survey data of 130 member state representatives in 2003, in which questions about cooperation patterns in the Council were asked. The findings speak strongly against the free-rider hypothesis as the Euro-outsiders are highly ranked in terms of network capital and subjective evaluations indicate that the opt-outs do not affect the cooperation patterns other than marginally. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]