scholarly journals Mesmerized by Enlargement

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 664-684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Lightfoot ◽  
Balázs Szent-Iványi ◽  
Kataryna Wolczuk
Keyword(s):  
Development Assistance ◽  
Member States ◽  
East Central ◽  
Central European ◽  
New Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Transition Experience ◽  
East Central European ◽  
The Eu ◽  
The Way

The accession of the East-Central European (ECE) countries carried a promise of enhancing and enriching the EU’s Eastern policy. The new member states had the strongest interests among EU member states to ensure that countries in the East are prosperous, stable, and democratic. Yet, the EU’s Eastern policy has been largely criticised for its ineffectiveness. So why have they not been able to address the shortcomings in the EU’s Eastern policies? The article argues that the ECE countries supported the way the EU’s Eastern policies were conceived and implemented because they saw it as a potent vehicle to promote their own transition experience not only in the region but also within the EU. We argue that the ECE states have experienced three types of challenges when promoting their transition experience. First, uploading to the EU level remained largely at a rhetorical level. Second, there are conceptual and practical difficulties in defining what constitutes transition experience and harnessing it, as well as coordinating its transfer between the ECE states. Finally, while using transition experience as the basis for their development assistance strategies, the ECE countries actually insufficiently conceptualised the “development” aspect in these policies. Being so driven by their own experience, they have not drawn the lessons from enlargement to use in a non-accession context, especially by incorporating the broader lessons with regard to development.

scholarly journals Evaluating the Extent and Nature of ‘Envelope Wages’ in the European Union: A Geographical Analysis

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin C. Williams
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Small Group ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
East Central ◽  
Geographical Analysis ◽  
Central European ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
East Central European

To evaluate the spatialities of the illegal wage practice where employers pay their declared employees both an official declared wage and an undeclared ‘envelope’ wage so as to avoid tax liabilities, a 2007 survey conducted in 27 European Union (EU) member states is reported. The finding is that 5% of employees received envelope wages which amount on average to some two-fifths of their wage packet. Revealing how, although heavily concentrated in a small group of East-Central European nations, this wage practice is nonetheless ubiquitous, the paper concludes by discussing how this practice might be tackled.

scholarly journals The Rise of an Ethnocultural Constitutional Identity in the Jurisprudence of the East Central European Courts

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 1703-1720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kriszta Kovács
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Constitutional Courts ◽  
Migration Flow ◽  
Member States ◽  
East Central ◽  
Central European ◽  
East Central European ◽  
Constitutional Identity ◽  
The Eu

The recent trend in East Central European jurisprudence is that courts apply an ethnocultural understanding of identity, thereby putting European integration in peril. Although the EU is clearly committed to shared values and principles, Article 4(2) of the Treaty on European Union emphasizes that “the Union shall respect the national identities of the Member States.” Due to the recent migration flow in Europe, the Member States are currently attempting to (re)define themselves and offer a legal definition of identity. East Central European Member States, by labelling ethnocultural national identity as constitutional identity, apply Article 4(2) as a means of derogating from some of their obligations under EU law. Despite the vast literature available on national identity and its role in EU law, little attention has been paid to the recently emerging trend of judicial reinvention of identity in East Central Europe. This is what this Article offers. It focuses on the Visegrád Group, which consists of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The Visegrád countries (V4) are united in their views on rejecting migrant relocation quotas in the EU and define their exclusionary constitutional identities accordingly. The main subject of the Article is the relevant case law of the V4 constitutional courts. These courts have the authoritative role in enforcing nation-state policies based upon ethnocultural considerations. The Article provides a comparative-analytical description of the judicial interpretations of constitutional identity in these countries based on which we can better understand the recent East Central European trend of disintegration.

The unbearable lightness of membership: Bulgaria and Romania after the 2007 EU

2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlozar A. Andreev
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
First Year ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
East Central ◽  
Central European ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Socioeconomic Transformation ◽  
East Central European ◽  
The Eu

This paper focuses on the current political and socio-economic situation in the two most recent EU member states, Bulgaria and Romania. Overall, the post-accession period in both countries has been comparable to that in the East-Central European members that had joined the Union on 1 May 2004. However, there have been some significant differences in the postaccession path of Bulgaria and Romania, which set them apart from the rest of the EU-10, as well as among themselves. For instance, the problem of corruption has been a particularly salient theme for the political elites of both countries and it led to the paralysis of the cabinet in Romania during the first year of its membership and to the rise of powerful populist alternatives in Bulgaria. What has probably been even more distinguishing in the cases of Bulgaria and Romania is their apparent inability to swiftly deal with the political and social challenges emerging after accession, as well as to adequately respond to the process of Europeanization. The main reason for this has been the unfinished political and socioeconomic transformation of both countries, accompanied by the consolidation of certain ‘reserve domains’, occupied by the former secret services and semi-mafia structures.

scholarly journals Legal Regulation of Ensuring Nuclear Safety and Security in Ukraine on the Way to European Integration

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 406
Author(s):  
Sergiy Dubchak ◽  
Valentyna Goshovska ◽  
Volodymyr Goshovskyi ◽  
Oleksandr Svetlychny ◽  
Olena Gulac
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Nuclear Safety ◽  
Nuclear Facilities ◽  
Energy Agency ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Eu ◽  
The Way

The article is devoted to the analysis of legal regulation of the sphere of nuclear safety and security of Ukraine on the way to European integration. The authors drew attention to the importance of Ukraine achieving the necessary level of and nuclear sefaty and security adopted in the EU member states. The emphasis was placed on the fact that the prospects for fulfilling national obligations in the field of nuclear safety in accordance with European standards directly depend on solving the problems of ensuring the functioning of nuclear facilities, the physical protection of nuclear materials and installations as well as radioactive waste management. The main directions of ensuring the nuclear safety and secutiry in the world within the international law are considered. The role and activities of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in setting up a regulatory framework for nuclear safety and security are analyzed. The international legal framework for nuclear safety and security was discused.The legislative basis for nuclear safety and secutiry in the EU IS characterized. The issue of legal norms unification in the field of nuclear safety regulation of EU member states was considered. The principles of legal regulation of nuclear a safety and security in Ukraine are characterized. Key words: nuclear safety, nuclear security, public administration of nuclear safety and security, legal regulation of nuclear safety and security, European integration, sustainable development in the field of ensuring nuclear safety and security. UDC 35:574:339.9:349.6        JEL Classification: K 23, K 32, K 33,  Q 5

scholarly journals The Unbearable Whiteness of the Polish Plumber and the Hungarian Peacock Dance around “Race”

Slavic Review ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
József Böröcz ◽  
Mahua Sarkar
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
East Central ◽  
Central European ◽  
East European ◽  
East Central European ◽  
State Socialist ◽  
The Eu

This contribution interprets the east-central European post-liberal governments’ recent anti-immigrant, anti-refugee and anti-human-rights hysteria in the context of the increasing dependence of the region's societies for livelihood on employment in the western EU, the widespread racialization of east European labor in the western EU, and the refusal of east European political elites and societies at large to consider possible “Left” critiques of the EU. Given those circumstances, and laboring under related anxieties, post-state-socialist political elites and societies have assumed a fundamentalist-racialist posture. They redirect their repressed anger toward incoming refugees, claim an ahistorical, essential kind of Whiteness and contribute to rigidifying European discussions of “race.”

Reflexive Governance in EU Equality Law

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Lantschner
Keyword(s):  
Opportunity To Learn ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Equal Treatment ◽  
Member States ◽  
New Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Comparative Review ◽  
The Right ◽  
Employment Equality ◽  
The Eu

The Covid pandemic has revealed how far we, as a European society, still are from the proclaimed Union of Equality. This book explores how the promise of equal treatment can become a reality and compliance with the EU acquis relating to equality and non-discrimination be improved. It studies enforcement and promotion aspects of the two watershed Directives of 2000, the Racial Equality Directive 2000/43/EC and the Employment Equality Directive 2000/78/EC, through the lens of reflexive governance. This governance approach is proposed as having a great potential in enhancing the likelihood of sustainability (or continuation) of reforms in the current candidate countries and EU Member States through its emphasis on reflexive learning processes and the cooperation between EU institutions, national authorities, and civil society actors. In order to deploy this potential, there is, however, a need for more consistent and transparent monitoring, both with regard to candidate countries as well as old and new Member States, and a reconsideration of the understanding of monitoring as such. It should be seen as helping to deconstruct own-preference formations and as an opportunity to learn from successes and failures in a cooperative and recursive process. To work on these lacunae and improve learning and monitoring processes, this book identifies indicators that are deduced from the comparative review of the implementation practice of the Member States. It is thus a contribution to the existing literature in the fields of Europeanization, governance studies, and the right to equality and non-discrimination.

scholarly journals Analysis Of Bankruptcy Law Provisions In New Member EU Countries: Global Competitive Strategy Implications For Multinational Corporations

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
F. J. Brewerton ◽  
Jane LeMaster
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
Multinational Corporation ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Bankruptcy Law ◽  
Member States ◽  
New Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
New Eu Member States ◽  
The Eu

Globalization has been responsible for a number of ongoing interrelated trends including an accelerated worldwide movement toward economic integration, an ongoing proliferation of new multinational corporations, a widening search for new economic opportunities by multinational corporations, and an increasing concern for and attention to bankruptcy as a contingency strategy for multinational corporations when primary strategies catastrophically fail. The economic benefits associated with the removal of trade barriers is also attracting new member countries to the EU and other trading blocks but these new member countries bankruptcy law provisions may have uncertain contingency strategy implications for MNCs.This paper comprises (1) a brief summary of the general trends associated with globalization; (2) a discussion of why international bankruptcy law is becoming increasingly important in the formulation of contingency strategy in multinational corporations; (3) a discussion and analysis of bankruptcy law provisions in new EU member states; (4) a discussion of the strategic implications associated with new member states bankruptcy laws; and (5) general conclusions regarding the attractiveness of new member states bankruptcy laws to multinational corporation strategists.

scholarly journals New EU member states’ emigration: Projections for future and lessons for the new EU candidates

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-140
Author(s):  
Iva Vuksanović Herceg ◽  
Tomislav Herceg ◽  
Lorena Škuflić
Keyword(s):  
Birth Rate ◽  
Gdp Per Capita ◽  
Member States ◽  
New Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Level Of Economic Development ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
New Eu Member States ◽  
The Eu

AbstractUnlike the old member states that compensate the negative net birth rate with immigration, the new EU member states face both migrational and natural demographic decline. In the last decade, poor level of economic development as well as the accession to the EU encouraged net emigration from the new member states. Panel data for the 12 new member states for the 2007 - 2016 period were used to determine how the length of membership and GDP per capita trailing behind the EU average affect the proportion of the net emigration. It has been shown that on average a country has to reach at least 85 percent of the average EU GDP p.c. (measured in PPS) to prevent emigration, but this level increases with each year of membership by 1.37 percentage points.

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