Sebastiaan Princen

Dr. Sebastiaan Princen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Administration and Organizational Science at Utrecht University's School of Governance. He specializes in governance and policymaking within the European Union, with particular expertise in agenda-setting, policy implementation, and differentiated integration. His academic home is firmly situated within Utrecht University's Law, Economics and Governance framework, where he contributes to both research and teaching missions.

Princen's research interests span multiple dimensions of European governance, with a strong focus on agenda-setting and framing processes, policy implementation challenges, and the dynamics of European Union governance. His work examines how policies emerge, evolve, and are implemented across different institutional contexts within the EU framework. He has made significant contributions to understanding how member states adapt EU directives through differentiated implementation strategies, and how citizen participation shapes EU governance. His research bridges theoretical frameworks with empirical analysis of EU decision-making processes.

His publication record demonstrates consistent scholarly output across leading journals including the Journal of European Public Policy, West European Politics, and European Union Politics. Princen has authored the influential book Agenda-Setting in the European Union (2009) and co-authored the widely used textbook The Politics of the European Union (Cambridge University Press, 3rd ed., 2023). His recent work has increasingly focused on differentiated implementation of EU policies, reflecting evolving challenges in EU governance.

• 1998 thesis award by Dutch Association for Public Administration (VB)
• 2003 Annual Political Science Prize from Dutch Political Science Association (NKWP)
• PhD cum laude from Utrecht University (2002)
• Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of European Public Policy
• Fellow at the Montesquieu Institute in The Hague since 2010

Princen actively supervises master's theses and has served as PhD supervisor for projects examining EU governance. He has led significant research initiatives including the Horizon 2020 project InDivEU (2019-2021) on differentiated integration in the EU. His teaching portfolio includes courses on European governance, public law, and public administration. He is deeply embedded in Utrecht University's research community focused on Institutions for Open Societies (IOS), contributing to interdisciplinary approaches to governance challenges.