Composing “panacea texts” at the European Parliament

2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugène Loos
Keyword(s):  
Language Choice ◽  
Eu Enlargement ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Work Place ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Symbolic Domination ◽  
Political Groups ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
The Eu

The language choice at institutions of the European Union has been investigated in numerous studies examining such aspects as the European language constellation, institutional multilingualism and its possible reforms, linguistic capital and symbolic domination, and European identity related to the EU enlargement. In addition to these, studies researching the (language) practices at a specific EU institution, like the European Parliament, or analyzing EU organizational discursive practices have also been carried out. These studies, however, offer no insight into the way actors in EU institutions deal with multilingualism in their work place while producing texts for these institutions. It is for this reason that I decided to conduct a case study at the European Parliament to examine how advisers belonging to various political groups, despite their different national culture and distinct mother tongues, together succeed in producing what they call “panacea texts”. Finally, a possible new language constellation for the EU is discussed.

scholarly journals From the Stereotypification of the Non-European Other to the Prototypification of the European Self: A Case Study of Turkey’s Membership to the European Union from the French Perspective.

2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariane Bogain ◽  
Florence Potot
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
The Other ◽  
European Identity ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Press ◽  
Collective Psyche ◽  
Opinion Polls ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
The Eu

In an era of increased globalisation, the need for a sense of belonging and an identity is becoming more pressing. The way nations form images of others and, conversely, conscious or unconscious images of themselves is becoming increasingly important as these images impact on public opinion and on political and decision-making discourse. With the development of supranationalism in Europe, the age-old notion of European identity has come more and more to the fore. Conflicting interpretations and a general disinclination to consider the matter leave the notion of European identity as polysemic as ever. Furthermore, the expansion of the EU has contributed to blurring this notion, so much so that in the collective psyche, it has become closely linked to the membership of the European Union and it is proving sometimes difficult to dissociate one from the other. In this context, the debate surrounding Turkey’s membership of the EU gives an insight into prototypical and stereotypical representations of Europe. As the controversy has been particularly salient in France, the aim of this study is to explore the European self-conceptions and images of the other through the example of France’s opposition to Turkey’s membership of the EU. For this purpose, opinion polls and the Press will be used as forms of narrative in order to highlight these representations and how they have evolved in time. The first part of the study will concentrate on the arguments put forward to justify the opposition to Turkey joining the EU. The second part will then evaluate how the image of the other contributes to the prototypical representation French citizens have of Europe.

Competing Visions: Discursive Articulations of Polish and European Identity after the Eastern Enlargement of the EU

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 331-356
Author(s):  
Magdalena Góra ◽  
Katarzyna Zielińska
Keyword(s):  
European Parliament ◽  
National Identities ◽  
European Identity ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
New Members ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Supranational Level ◽  
The Eu

The enlargement of 2004 and 2007 significantly transformed the European Union in political, economic, and social terms. It also challenged the collective identities of Western Europeans as well as each of the newcomers. However, for new members, the prospect of joining a supranational political entity posed a threat to their newly established or regained sovereignty and nationhood. The integration triggered a process of redefinition of both their self-perception and the perception of Europe as a common project. The article offers a case study of how the Polish Members of the European Parliament discursively (re)construct national and European identities and how these constructions relate to each other. The analysis reveals three main visions of the European identity that are voiced by the Polish representation and corresponding visions of national identity. By focusing on the supranational level of the European Parliament and contextualising the analysed constructions with references to national debates, the study is able to nuance the existing theoretical accounts of European and national identities.

scholarly journals Europeanization by European Parliament Political Groups: The Case of Latvia 2004-2019

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-108
Author(s):  
Māris Andžāns ◽  
Kārlis Bukovskis ◽  
Andris Sprūds
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Party ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Political Groups ◽  
National Alliance ◽  
The Eu

Abstract This article assesses the top-down Europeanization of national political parties by the political groups of the European Parliament. Based on the premise that the national political parties alter their agendas and argumentation because of ties to their respective European Parliament political groups, the paper presents a case study of Latvia in the period from 2004 to 2019. The analysis focuses on the agendas of three political parties whose continuity can be clearly traced during the fifteen years – the “New Unity”, the “National Alliance” and the “Latvian Russian Union”. It concludes that the small number of members of the European Parliament elected from Latvia, migration of individual politicians from party to party, and low durability of Latvian parties themselves has limited the sustainability of Europeanization and impeded downloading of EU topics and principles to the national party level. Meanwhile, party programs of all three observed parties have Europeanized since 2004 in terms of the number and depth of the EU issues addressed.

Language Choice, Linguistic Capital and Symbolic Domination in the European Union

2000 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugène Loos
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Financial Economic ◽  
Symbolic Power ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Linguistic Capital ◽  
Language Recognition ◽  
Symbolic Domination ◽  
French Nation ◽  
The Eu

The current linguistic regime in the institutions of the European Union is highly complex. The EU considers that equal status for its official languages goes to the heart of what the Union is all about. Actually, the member states are not willing to grant another language recognition. Bourdieu’s publication Language and Symbolic Power (1992) helps explain this unwillingness: an official language can be considered as “linguistic capital” which affords its holders “symbolic power”. On the other hand, when new countries join the European Union it is not inconceivable that, for reasons of a utilitarian and financial-economic nature, there will be a shift in favour of the exclusively institutional use of English in the long term. Bourdieu’s analysis of the mechanisms which underlie the process of linguistic unification during the construction of the French nation state in the nineteenth century answers the question whether the mechanisms which led to the use of French as common language for France also apply to the language choice in the EU.

TTIP, CETA, and TiSA Behind Closed Doors

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panagiotis Delimatsis
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Trade Negotiations ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Eu

Secrecy and informality rather than transparency traditionally reign trade negotiations at the bilateral, regional, and multilateral levels. Yet, transparency ranks among the most basic desiderata in the grammar of global governance and has been regarded as positively related to legitimacy. In the EU’s case, transparent trade diplomacy is quintessential for constitutional—but also for broader political—reasons. First, even if trade matters fall within the EU’s exclusive competence, the EU executive is bound by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) to inform the European Parliament, the EU co-legislator, in regular intervals. Second, transparency at an early stage is important to address public reluctance, suspicion, or even opposition regarding a particular trade deal. This chapter chronicles the quest for and turning moments relating to transparency during the EU trade negotiations with Canada (CETA); the US (TTIP), and various WTO members on services (TiSA).

The Making of a President: The European Parliament and the Confirmation of Jacques Santer as President of the Commission

1996 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Hix ◽  
Christopher Lord
Keyword(s):  
European Parliament ◽  
The Other ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
European Elections ◽  
Shared Meanings ◽  
Single European Act ◽  
The One ◽  
Council Of Ministers ◽  
The Eu

THE SINGLE EUROPEAN ACT AND THE MAASTRICHT TREATY attempted to balance two principles of representation in their redesign of the institutional structures of the European Union: the one, based on the indirect representation of publics through nationally elected governments in the European Council and Council of Ministers; the other, based on the direct representation of publics through a more powerful European Parliament. There is much to be said for this balance, for neither of the two principles can, on its own, be an adequate solution at this stage in the development of the EU. The Council suffers from a non-transparent style of decision-making and is, in the view of many, closer to oligarchic than to democratic politics. On the other hand, the claims of the European Parliament to represent public sentiments on European integration are limited by low voter participation, the second-order nature of European elections and the still Protean nature of what we might call a transnational European demos. The EU lacks a single public arena of political debate, communications and shared meanings; of partisan aggregation and political entrepreneurship; and of high and even acceptance, across issues and member states, that it is European and not national majority views which should count in collective rule-making.

scholarly journals Member States’ social security agreements with India

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-187
Author(s):  
Pauline Melin
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Current Approach ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Bilateral Agreements ◽  
Country Case Study ◽  
The Eu

In a 2012 Communication, the European Commission described the current approach to social security coordination with third countries as ‘patchy’. The European Commission proposed to address that patchiness by developing a common EU approach to social security coordination with third countries whereby the Member States would cooperate more with each other when concluding bilateral agreements with third countries. This article aims to explore the policy agenda of the European Commission in that field by conducting a comparative legal analysis of the Member States’ bilateral agreements with India. The idea behind the comparative legal analysis is to determine whether (1) there are common grounds between the Member States’ approaches, and (2) based on these common grounds, it is possible to suggest a common EU approach. India is taken as a third-country case study due to its labour migration and investment potential for the European Union. In addition, there are currently 12 Member State bilateral agreements with India and no instrument at the EU level on social security coordination with India. Therefore, there is a potential need for a common EU approach to social security coordination with India. Based on the comparative legal analysis of the Member States’ bilateral agreements with India, this article ends by outlining the content of a potential future common EU approach.

scholarly journals Corporate Social Responsibility Information in Annual Reports in the EU—A Czech Case Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radka MacGregor Pelikánová
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Annual Reporting ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
The Eu

The commitment of the European Union (EU) to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is projected into EU law about annual reporting by businesses. Since EU member states further develop this framework by their own domestic laws, annual reporting with CSR information is not unified and only partially mandatory in the EU. Do all European businesses report CSR information and what public declaration to society do they provide with it? The two main purposes of this paper are to identify the parameters of this annual reporting duty and to study the CSR information provided by the 10 largest Czech companies in their annual statements for 2013–2017. Based on legislative research and a teleological interpretation, the current EU legislative framework with Czech particularities is presented and, via a case study exploring 50 annual reports, the data about the type, extent and depth of CSR is dynamically and comparatively assessed. It appears that, at the minimum, large Czech businesses satisfy their legal duty and e-report on CSR to a similar extent, but in a dramatically different quality. Employee matters and adherence to international standards are used as a public declaration to society more than the data on environmental protection, while social matters and research and development (R&D) are played down.

Neither here, not there: Bulgaria and Romania in current European politics☆

2004 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 509-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor D. Bojkov
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
Eu Enlargement ◽  
Political Transition ◽  
The Other ◽  
European Politics ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Southeast Europe ◽  
The Eu

The article analyses the process of EU enlargement with reference to the progress that Bulgaria and Romania have made within it. It is argued that leaving them out of the wave of accession finalised in May 2004 for ten of the candidate states, has placed them in a situation of double exclusion. Firstly, their geographical belonging to the region of Southeast Europe has been rendered non-essential by their advanced position within the EU enlargement process. Secondly, their achievement in economic and political transition has been removed from the progress of the ten states, which joined the EU in May 2004 by delaying the time of their accession. As a result, any efforts in regional cooperation and integration between Bulgaria and Romania on one hand, and other Southeast European states on the other, have been effectively cancelled. Moreover, in current European politics, the two countries have come to serve the unenviable role of exemplifying on the part of the European Union how progress is being awarded and hesitation punished.

scholarly journals The EU after Brexit: Key Geopolitical and Geo-Economic Challenges

2020 ◽  
pp. 30-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petr YAKOVLEV
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Commission ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
European Council ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Union History ◽  
The Eu

The decision on Britain’s secession from the European Union, taken by the British Parliament and agreed by London and Brussels, divided the Union history into “before” and “after”. Not only will the remaining member states have to “digest” the political, commercial, economic and mental consequences of parting with one of the largest partners. They will also have to create a substantially new algorithm for the functioning of United Europe. On this path, the EU is confronted with many geopolitical and geo-economic challenges, which should be answered by the new leaders of the European Commission, European Council, and European Parliament.

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