Explaining the Emergence of the European Union Emergency and Crisis Management through the Sociological Neo-institutionalist Concept of Divergent Isomorphism.

Two EU tools were adopted to enhance cooperation among EU Member States in the case of crises and emergencies (natural, industrial or man-made) occurring both inside and outside the EU borders: First, the EU has developed a new tool in the field of civil protection which has been managed by the Directorate General Environment of the European Commission under the label of the Community Civil Protection Mechanism (CCPM) since 2001. Second, the Emergency and Crisis Coordination Arrangements (CCA) under the responsibility of the European Council level have been developed since 2005. It is puzzling first to observe the co-existence of two EU structures, with theoretically similar functions, namely protecting the population. Second, it is even counterintuitive, as the first organizational structure created is commission-based, whereas in the field of security at the EU level, it is the responsibility of the Council. Using a sociological neo-institutionalist approach based on the concept of "divergent isomorphism", the paper explains who and which sources of EU integration process have led to this puzzling situation. Two case studies are presented using process-tracing to demonstrate that two different pre-existing organizational models were copied to create the EU structures of emergency management: that of the Community Marine pollution framework for the CCPM and that of NATO for the CCA. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]