Changing policy focus through organizational reform? The case of the pharmaceutical unit in the European Commission

This article contributes to the debate on the significance of organizational structure for administrative decision behaviour by exploring the effects of a reorganization in the European Commission. It is shown that the move of the pharmaceutical unit from DG Enterprise to DG SANCO impacted on the process of developing a regulatory framework on information to patients. After the reorganization, the focus of the policy process changed from industry to public health and other action alternatives became salient, which eventually led to changes in the policy outcome. The article demonstrates how horizontal specialization systematically tips the scales in the direction of certain actors, solutions, interests and concerns in decision processes, eventually resulting in a change of policy focus. The gap between organizational structure and administrative decision behaviour is thus not as large as is often assumed in the literature.