7. Sweden: From Scepticism to Pragmatic Support

Author(s):  
Anna Michalski

This chapter examines the adaptations that have occurred in Sweden’s political and administrative system following its admission to the European Union on 1 January 1995. Sweden became a member of the EU on 1 January 1995 after a long period of hesitation. After fifteen years of membership, reticence has given way to a more positive stance, best characterized as pragmatic support. The chapter first considers patterns in Sweden’s membership in the EU before discussing Swedish public opinion towards the EU and the impact of Sweden’s EU membership on the country’s political parties, political institutions, public administration, and sub-national actors such as the civil service. The chapter goes on to explore Sweden’s approach to EU public policy and concludes by comparing its experience with those of other member states, including Austria and Finland.

Author(s):  
Anna Michalski

This chapter examines the adaptations that have occurred in Sweden’s political and administrative system following its admission to the European Union on 1 January 1995. Sweden became a member of the EU on 1 January 1995 after a long period of hesitation. After fifteen years of membership, reticence has given way to a more positive stance, best characterized as pragmatic support. The chapter first considers patterns in Sweden’s membership in the EU before discussing Swedish public opinion towards the EU and the impact of Sweden’s EU membership on the country’s political parties, political institutions, public administration, and sub-national actors such as the civil service. The chapter goes on to explore Sweden’s approach to EU public policy and concludes by comparing its experience with those of other member states, including Austria and Finland.


Author(s):  
Dimitris Papadimitriou ◽  
David Phinnemore

This chapter examines the Europeanization effects associated with Romania’s effort to begin and, later, complete its accession negotiations with the European Union. The road to EU membership in 2007 was a long and hard one for Romania. While public and political opinion remained solidly in favour of integration, and ultimately membership, institutional fluidity, poor administrative capacity, political factionalism, and corruption posed significant challenges to processes of domestic adaptation. The chapter first provides an overview of the changing pattern of Romania’s relationship with the EU before discussing some of the early evidence of the impact of EU membership on Romanian public opinion, party politics, and public policy. It also looks at important factors that have affected both the ‘production’ and ‘reception’ of the Europeanization pressures associated with the EU’s most recent enlargement. Finally, it compares Romania’s EU membership experience with those of other member states, particularly Poland and Bulgaria.


Author(s):  
Nathaniel Copsey

This chapter examines the pattern of Poland’s relations with the European Union during the period 1989–2011. After the fall of communism, Poland took an early decision in 1989 to place European integration at the centre of its plans for democratization and modernization. Post-accession opinion in Poland on the EU was initially divided between an increasingly Europhile public and an occasionally Eurosceptic political class. By the time of the Polish Presidency of the EU in 2011, however, Poland had largely shed its reputation for awkwardness and had achieved a few policy successes, particularly in terms of relations with its Eastern neighbours. The chapter explains how Poland came to join the EU and assesses the impact of its EU membership on domestic politics, public opinion, institutions, governance, and public policy. It concludes by comparing Poland’s experience with those of its Visegrád neighbours, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia.


Author(s):  
Olivier Rozenberg

This chapter examines France’s relationship with the European Union by focusing on the heterogeneity of adaptation to the EU. While public policy and legislation became increasingly Europeanized, the EU had a limited impact on political life and the domestic institutional system. This situation changed during the 2010s, as revealed by the 2017 presidential elections and the arrival of President Macron. The chapter considers patterns in France–EU relations before discussing the impact of EU membership on public opinion and political parties. It then looks at the Europeanization of French politics and the impact of EU membership on French institutions as well as public policy. The chapter argues that while domestic politicization is recent, there remains considerable continuity in other aspects of France’s adaptation to the EU.


Author(s):  
Nathaniel Copsey ◽  
Karolina Pomorska

This chapter examines the pattern of Poland’s relations with the European Union during the period 1989–2011. Poland took an early decision in 1989 to place European integration at the centre of its plans for democratization and modernization. Post-accession opinion in Poland on the EU was initially divided between an increasingly Europhile public and an occasionally Eurosceptic political class. By the time of the Polish Presidency of the EU in 2011, however, Poland had largely shed its reputation for awkwardness and had achieved a few policy successes, particularly in relations with its Eastern neighbours. The chapter explains how Poland came to join the EU and assesses the impact of its EU membership on domestic politics, public opinion, institutions, governance, and public policy. It concludes by considering the re-emergent divide between elite and public attitudes since the 2015 elections and tensions with the EU over the rule of law.


Author(s):  
Olivier Rozenberg

This chapter examines France’s paradoxical relationship with the European Union by focusing on the heterogeneity of adaptation to the EU. While public policy and legislation are becoming increasingly Europeanized, the EU has a limited impact on political life and the domestic institutional system. As a result of this mixed situation, the national narratives for supporting French membership of the EU suffer from progressive erosion and Euroscepticism subtly gaining ground. The chapter first considers patterns in France’s EU membership before discussing the impact of EU membership on public opinion and political parties. It then looks at the Europeanization of French politics and the impact of EU membership on French institutions as well as public policy. The chapter argues that France has changed by joining the EU, contrary to what a large body of recent work suggests.


Author(s):  
Ana Mar Fernández Pasarín ◽  
Francesc Morata

This chapter examines the different aspects of Spain’s adaptation to the European Union, and more specifically how Europe became a source of benefits and modernization for the country. Spain is the only country among all those which have joined the EU after 1958 whose political parties and citizenry were in full support of acccession. Europeanization has affected most policy areas, particularly economic and social policies in response to EU pressures during the financial crisis. The chapter first considers the pattern of Spain’s relations with the EU before discussing the overall assessment of its EU membership among public opinion and political parties. It then analyses the impact of EU membership on Spain’s political institutions and governance, judicial politics, and policy adaptation in areas such as the Common Agricultural Policy and environmental policy. The chapter concludes by exploring how Spain’s unconditional support for integration has become more conditional since the financial crisis.


Author(s):  
Lisa Webley ◽  
Harriet Samuels

Titles in the Complete series combine extracts from a wide range of primary materials with clear explanatory text to provide readers with a complete introductory resource. This chapter, which provides an overview of the relationship between the European Union and the UK, and the impact of this relationship on Parliament’s legislative supremacy, begins by considering the nature of the EU and the sources of EU law. It then examines how EU membership affects the UK legal order, and its implications for parliamentary supremacy, and also discusses what the reform of the EU means for parliamentary supremacy. It considers, briefly, the impact of different Brexit options on the UK’s constitutional framework.


Author(s):  
Piret Ehin

This chapter examines Estonia’s relations with the European Union. Estonia showed dedication in pursuing integration with the EU as it sought to strengthen statehood in a complex international environment. In the course of its post-communist transition, Estonia’s homegrown reforms gradually gave way to policy change and institution building driven by EU accession conditionality. The small nation’s track record as an EU member state points to continued compliance with EU law and pre-accession demands. However, legal alignment has not always been accompanied by behavioural and attitudinal change. The chapter first provides an overview of Estonia’s integration with the EU before discussing the pattern of its relations with the EU before and after accession. It then assesses the impact of EU membership on Estonia’s public opinion, political parties, political institutions, governance, and public policy.


Author(s):  
Daviti Mtchedlishvili

There has been an extensive academic debate on the impact of the European Union on its member states, on the candidate countries for EU membership and the countries in its geographical neighbourhood. This paper analyses the notion and working conceptualisation of ‘Europeanisation’, which is to say, the EU’s impact on domestic political systems, when EU rules, norms and laws are first defined and consolidated in the making of EU decisions and then incorporated in the logic of domestic discourse, identities, political structures and public policies. The paper suggests to analyse the Europeanisation process in three ways. Moreover, the article elucidates the gradual development of the Europeanisation theory from so called “internal” to “external” Europeanisation, whereby the EU tries to transfer its Acquis Communautaire (the legal order of the European Union) to the international level. However, research on the Western understanding of Europeanisation confirms that the analysis of the process, when the European neighbourhood states adopt the EU acquis (the objectives of the European Union, its policies and the rules governing these policies) from the viewpoint of institutional framework has significant limitations. To deal with some of these issues, the paper outlines the conceptualisation of Europeanisation and examines the difference between Europeanisation and European Integration.


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