Membership Eligibility in a Divided Europe, 2006—2020

2021 ◽  
pp. 194-216
Author(s):  
Daniel C. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Member States ◽  
Community Membership ◽  
Stark Contrast ◽  
Turkish Case

This chapter uses extensive evidence from press reports to demonstrate how the breakdown of the community membership norm in late 2005 and the EU’s failure to re-converge on a new norm in later years enabled member states to engage in hard bargaining in pursuit of their enlargement preferences, all in stark contrast to the pattern in prior decades. In the Turkish case, hard bargaining among the member states has produced policy deadlock, as member states favourable to Turkish accession or unwilling for other reasons to antagonize Ankara keep the country’s candidacy alive while sceptical member states blocked progress towards accession. Meanwhile, the collapse of the EU’s liberal democracy norm and the rise of hard bargaining among member states made it impossible for Ukraine to be recognized as eligible for eventual membership despite domestic developments that would almost certainly have sufficed in earlier decades.

scholarly journals Rhetorical Entrapment in EU–Turkey Relations

2021 ◽  
pp. 139-156
Author(s):  
Frank Schimmelfennig
Keyword(s):  
European Community ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Eu Enlargement ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Member States ◽  
Starting Position ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
Rhetorical Action ◽  
Accession Process ◽  
Eastern European Countries

AbstractThis chapter describes and applies the rhetorical action approach to EU–Turkey relations. Generally, rhetorical entrapment denotes the mechanism by which actors are compelled to act in conformance with their prior argumentative commitments. In the context of EU enlargement, member states have committed themselves to enlargement norms and promises in line with the fundamental purpose and values of the EU (such as pan-European community building, liberal democracy and supranationalism). Rhetorical entrapment played an important role in bringing about Eastern enlargement when the Eastern European countries faced significant resistance among the old member states. Finally, the chapter analyzes the rhetorical entrapment mechanism in the accession process of Turkey, which had an even more unfavorable starting position. As long as Turkey progressed on meeting the official political criteria for EU membership, however, the opponents of Turkish membership were bound by their normative commitment and felt compelled to decide in favor of accession negotiations. The rhetorical entrapment mechanism also elucidates why accession negotiations began to stall soon after their start. The opponents of Turkish membership were released from the rhetorical trap when Turkey failed to heed its own promises and honor its own obligations as a candidate state.

scholarly journals EU Policy on Deepening Liberal Democracy: A Case Study of the Baltic States

2021 ◽  
pp. 89-105
Author(s):  
Nataliia Khoma ◽  
Ihor Vdovychyn
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Member States ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
European Democracy ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Democratic Transformation ◽  
The Eu

The issues of the EU’s activities concerning the quality of democracy in member states are studied. On the examples of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the effectiveness of EU projects to continue the liberal-democratic transformation in member states with a post-totalitarian past where the risk of regression of democracy remains, is assessed. The current goals of the EU are described as being insufficient in terms of properly preventing and counteracting the decline of the quality of democracy, as well as for inculcating the values of liberal democracy. The need to intensify the EU’s activities in the direction of monitoring the observance of democratic standards is explained by the stagnation/regression of the quality of democracy in the countries of the recent EU enlargements, including the Baltic States. The actions of the EU’s institutions towards member states, where democracy shows stagnation/regression, are assessed as inconsistent, due to the possible consequences of this destructive process. The EU’s lack of attention to strengthening the values on which the EU is based is emphasized, which is seen as the main reason for the present deterioration in the quality of democracy. The requirement to construct a new format of European democracy and new mechanisms to ensure its quality is highlighted.

Liberal Democracy And Cultural Diversity – Between Norms And Facts

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-186
Author(s):  
Plamen Makariev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Main Thesis ◽  
Stark Contrast

This article has been written in response to the texts by Richard Robson (“In What Sense is Multiculturalism a Form of Communitarianism”), and Slobodan Divjak (“Communitarianism, Multiculturalism and Liberalism”) with which the Balkan Journal of Philosophy (vol. 10, no 2, 2018) started a discussion on the theme Liberal Democracy and Cultural Diversity. I try to contest the position of these two authors–that multiculturalism and communitarianism belong to one and the same paradigm in political philosophy–by pointing out essential liberal normative elements in multiculturalist theory. My main thesis is that in order to clarify the relation between multiculturalism and communitarianism, we have to differentiate between descriptive and normative communitarianism. The latter is guided, in my opinion, by values, which stand in stark contrast with the liberal ones, whilst this is not the case with multiculturalism.

Membership Eligibility in a Europe of Liberal Democracies, 1970–2005

2021 ◽  
pp. 159-193
Author(s):  
Daniel C. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Fast Track ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter uses extensive archival evidence to demonstrate how the membership norm adopted by the community around 1970—that only liberal democracies respecting human rights and the rule of law are eligible for membership—shaped its decisions on Greece, Spain, Turkey, and Ukraine over subsequent decades. The democratic governments that took power in Greece and Spain after the collapse of authoritarian rule in the mid-1970s used the community’s membership norm to pressure member states to fast track them to accession despite the hesitation of the European Commission and powerful domestic lobbies. Notwithstanding the growing controversy over Turkey’s membership prospects in this period, the community’s membership norm played an important role in keeping the relationship on track. Finally, the EU’s membership norm impeded Ukraine’s pursuit of closer ties after interdependence in 1991 because of widespread concern within the Union regarding the country’s actual commitment to liberal democracy and the rule of law.

scholarly journals Independent, Compulsory, and Centralized Verification of States’ Obligations in Fisheries: Can the IMO Audit Scheme for Shipping Law Be Used as an Example to Follow?

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 513-531
Author(s):  
Solène Guggisberg
Keyword(s):  
International Maritime Organization ◽  
Marine Fisheries ◽  
Member States ◽  
Detailed Procedure ◽  
Stark Contrast

Abstract Marine fisheries are in crisis. One of the causes of this problem is the inability or unwillingness of some states to abide by the international rules binding them. No comprehensive and compulsory mechanism exists to review states’ compliance with these obligations. This is in stark contrast with the shipping field, where International Maritime Organization (IMO) member states are regularly audited: the respect of their obligations as flag, coastal, and port states is assessed by external and professional auditors through a detailed procedure. Transposing at least some features of the IMO Audit Scheme, such as comprehensiveness, regularity, predictability, and centralization to the review of compliance with fisheries-related obligations would be highly desirable. While there may be challenges ahead – in particular when it comes to a mandatory scheme – there does not appear to be insurmountable issues to developing a comprehensive audit in the fisheries field.

A Democracy Commission of One’s Own, or What it would take for the EU to safeguard Liberal Democracy in its Member States

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan-Werner Müller
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Member States ◽  
Venice Commission ◽  
The Eu

This chapter proposes a new institution to remedy the EU’s current democracy protection deficit, tentatively called the ‘Copenhagen Commission’. The idea is to create an EU-specific democracy and Rule of Law watchdog, an institution which in certain respects would be comparable to the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission. Before suggesting alternatives to existing approaches, the chapter first considers what it would take for democracy and Rule of Law protection to function properly. It then seeks to specify what it would take for the EU in particular to protect liberal democracy within Member States. After expanding on the institutional setup and powers of the Copenhagen Commission, the chapter concludes by addressing a number of common objections to this proposal, as well as discussing some necessarily speculative thoughts about the conditions under which the proposal might be implemented.

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