Theorising the EU in crisis: de-Europeanisation as disintegration

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Rosamond
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Real World ◽  
Past Experience ◽  
The Past ◽  
Perfect Storm ◽  
Eu Studies ◽  
The Eu

The current 'perfect storm' of European crises seems to provide evidence that the EU is suffering from severe tensions that could reverse many of the key integration gains of the past seven decades. The presence of apparently existential threats to the EU has provoked calls to theorise 'disintegration'. This presumes, first and foremost, that scholarship is lagging behind urgent real world developments. It could also be argued that any attempt to theorise integration should by definition be capable of theorising disintegration. EU studies scholarship has tended, in recent years, to shy away from the analysis of integration, developing instead a range of subliteratures that together presume institutional and systemic resilience. The paper makes three broad arguments. First, it notes that any return to the analysis of integration/disintegration presents a risk for scholarship, namely the fallacy of sampling from past experience to project future probabilities. Second, it demonstrates that earlier neofunctionalist scholarship had, in fact, developed quite sophisticated accounts of disintegration, which, in turn illustrated the importance of understanding the key role played by political economy and sociological dynamics in European integration. Finally, the paper explores the ways in which extant scholarly knowledge about the EU may inhibit the development of robust policy understanding of potentially disintegrative dynamics.

scholarly journals Conceptualizing the Parliamentarization and Politicization of European Policies

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels Gheyle
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
National Parliaments ◽  
Complete Understanding ◽  
Related Literature ◽  
The Past ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
European Policies ◽  
Eu Studies ◽  
The Eu

In the past 20 years, two related literature strands have gradually moved centre stage of the attention of EU Studies scholars. The first is preoccupied with the ‘politicization of European integration’, a multi-faceted concept that aims to tie together a multitude of political and societal manifestations underlying an increasing controversiality of the EU. A second concerns the parliamentarization of the EU, referring to the changing (institutional) role and EU-related activities national parliaments engage in. The key point of this contribution is simple, but often overlooked: We can and should be seeing parliamentarization as a necessary, yet insufficient, component of a wider process of politicization. Doing so goes beyond the often ad hoc or pars pro toto theoretical assumptions in both literature strands, sheds new light on the normative consequences attached to these phenomena, and furthers a more complete understanding of how a ‘comprehensive’ politicization of European policies develops.

The Concept of Europeanization and Possibilities of its Application to the Analysis of Ukraine-EU Relations

2017 ◽  
pp. 149-160
Author(s):  
Natalia Popova
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Member States ◽  
External Governance ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Eu Studies ◽  
The Eu

The concept of Europeanization has become quite fashionable in EU studies in recent years. It is often used for the analysis of the relations between the EU and non-member states. The aim of the article is to examine the possibilities of its application in explaining the relationship between the EU and Ukraine. The structure of the article is as follows: firstly, the concept of Europeanization is defined considering such two disputable issues as distinguishing among concepts of Europeanization and European integration as well as Europeanization and EU-ization. Next, the evolution of the theoretical research of Europeanization and definition of this concept are analyzed. Two main mechanisms of Europeanization (conditionality and socialization) are examined. The author considers main approaches to the analysis of the "external" Europeanization emphasizing the concept of "external governance". Three groups of factors which influence the effectiveness of Europeanization are briefly analyzed. And finally, the peculiarities of application of the Europeanization concept to the Ukraine-EU relations are outlined. Keywords: EU, Ukraine, Europeanization, EU-ization, ‘external’ Europeanization, conditionality, socialization, concept of ‘external governance’

19. The Single Market

2020 ◽  
pp. 360-378
Author(s):  
Simon Bulmer ◽  
Owen Parker ◽  
Ian Bache ◽  
Stephen George ◽  
Charlotte Burns
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Internal Market ◽  
Single Market ◽  
European Market ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
The Core ◽  
Single European Market ◽  
Recent Policy ◽  
The Eu

This chapter examines the European Union’s (EU’s) original decision to create a single market and the moves to complete the internal market—what became known as the single market programme—in the 1980s. The economic ideal of a common or single European market lies at the core of the EU. The decision to institute a drive to achieve a single internal market by the end of 1992 played a key role in the revival of European integration. The chapter first traces the development of internal market policy before discussing the record of implementation beyond 1992. It then considers recent policy developments in relation to the single market in the context of the Barroso (2005–14) and Juncker (2014–19) Commission presidencies. It also reviews the academic literature on the single market, focusing on the main explanations for its development and some key ideological or normative perspectives on its consequences, including political economy critiques.

scholarly journals Beyond the Post-Sovereign State?: The Past, Present, and Future of Constitutional Pluralism

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 6-23
Author(s):  
Michael WILKINSON
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Recent Decade ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
European State ◽  
The Past ◽  
Constitutional Pluralism

AbstractConstitutional pluralism is a theory for the post-sovereign European state. This only makes sense historically, emerging out of postwar European reconstruction through the repression of popular sovereignty and restraining of democracy, including through the project of European integration. It became unsettled at Maastricht and evolved from a series of irritants into a full-blown crisis in the recent decade, with sovereignty claims returning both from the bottom-up and the top-down, to the extent that we can legitimately ask whether we are now moving ‘beyond the post-sovereign state’? Constitutional pluralist literature fails to capture this in that evades material issues of democracy and political economy.

scholarly journals Pro-european orientation and perception of European integrations as a threat in Serbia and Croatia - the importance of sociodemographic variables and different forms of national attachment

1970 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-77
Author(s):  
Vladimir Mihić ◽  
Dragana Jelić ◽  
Margareta Jelić
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
National Identity ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Sociodemographic Variables ◽  
National Pride ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
National Attachment ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Eu

For the past few decades, European integration has been one of the primary issues not just in politics, but also in the social sciences. This issue becomes even more important when research takes place in countries where the population is ambivalent in their support for the EU and European integration. The main aims of the study presented in this paper are to determine differences in Serbia and Croatia in pro-European orientation and the perception of European integration (EI) as a threat, and to determine the factors underlying both constructs by focusing on sociodemographic variables, the importance of religion, and different forms of national attachment. The results show that citizens of Croatia have a stronger pro-European orientation, but there is no difference in the perception of EI as a threat. Pro-European orientation is determined by the respondents’ national identity (in both countries) and gender, the importance of religion, and national pride in the state (only in Serbia). The significant predictors for the perception of EI as a threat were constructive patriotism and national pride in successful individuals (in Serbia), blind patriotism (in Croatia) and the importance of religion (in both countries).

scholarly journals The past, present and future of the EU’s federal experience

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. I-V
Author(s):  
Francisco Pereira Coutinho ◽  
Martinho Lucas Pires
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Law School ◽  
60Th Anniversary ◽  
25Th Anniversary ◽  
The Past ◽  
Treaty Of Rome ◽  
Formal Dimension ◽  
The Eu

Abstract In 2017 we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome and the 25th anniversary of the Treaty of Maastricht. The commemoration of these historic events was the perfect excuse for a critical and renewed discussion of European integration. It was also an opportunity for discussing the EU through the lens of “federalism”, i.e. to look at it from the perspective of federal theory and / or through its substantive and formal dimension. This issue of Perspectives on Federalism includes papers presented in conferences organized at Warsaw University in June 2016 and at Lisbon Nova Law School on May 2017 under the Jean Monnet Project “More EU - More Europe to Overcome the Crisis”. The articles discuss, either from a more general or from a more specific standpoint, within a variety of subjects, some of the federal features of the EU.

scholarly journals The evolving role of EU Regional Policy: Implications for Australia?

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Wilson
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Regional Policy ◽  
External Action ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
The Past ◽  
Financial Framework ◽  
Social Recovery ◽  
Global Influence ◽  
The Eu

In 2013, ANZJES published an article on the significance of European Union (EU) Regional Policy in the process of European integration and its implications for Asia. Over the past decade, EU Regional Policy has evolved considerably. It is still centred on facilitating European integration, but also assumes a much more central role in focusing attention on harnessing resources, intellectual and economic, in order to address major societal missions. Regional Policy, or Cohesion, funds constitute approximately one third of the total European Commission budget and are, therefore, not only an important resource for integration, but also for addressing the wider priorities around the European Green Deal, and indeed, the planet. This is evident in the proposed Multiannual Financial Framework agreed by the European Council for 2021-27, in which Cohesion funding is seen to be a crucial resource for economic and social recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. This article reviews the evolution of this thinking in the last decade and considers its growing international significance. Whilst not necessarily imagined in 2010, when the EU established its European External Action Service (EEAS), a focus on regions and their innovation systems has enabled the EU to strengthen its global influence significantly.

Brexit and Euroskepticism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlene Wind
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
World Order ◽  
First Century ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Member States ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
The Past ◽  
European Project ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
The Eu

Doomsdays preachers suggested that Brexit and Trump would mean the end of the liberal world order as we know it and thus the end of the EU. The research presented here suggests the opposite. Not only have Europeans turned their back to populism by voting yes to reforms and pro-EU-parties and governments in different member states over the past months, but Brexit and Trump also seems to have given a complete new momentum to the European project. This chapter demonstrates why Brexit cannot be generalized to the rest of the continent but is the result of a complicated and special British conception of what it means to be a sovereign state in the twenty-first century. Moreover, and paradoxically, surveys show that the greatest fear among Europeans today is not more European integration but right wing populism and European disunion.

scholarly journals Organized Economic Interests and European Integration: the Question of (neo)corporatism

Equilibrium ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-20
Author(s):  
Anna Ząbkowicz
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
European Integration ◽  
European Commission ◽  
National Level ◽  
Institutional Framework ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Social Dialogue ◽  
International Environment ◽  
The Eu

When economic development is considered, political economy is at stake; in this perspective growth or counter-growth forces operate within the institutional framework. The analysis focuses on corporatist forms of social dialogue in the international environment of the EU and within the European structures. First, the notion of corporatism as opposed to other institutionalized channels of access is explained. Then, the paper presents corporatist forms at the national level under change. Next, it deals with interest coordination at the European Commission level. The paper concludes that an erosion of corporatist forms is visible; no embracing pattern in the EU should be expected instead; on the contrary, increasing fragmentation of lobbying is observed.

scholarly journals The EU at sixty: A watershed Or business as usual? (comparing Grexit to Brexit)

2016 ◽  
Vol 66 (s1) ◽  
pp. 61-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
László Csaba
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
Efficient Integration ◽  
Strategic Options ◽  
Dominant Discourses ◽  
To Come ◽  
Business As Usual ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Political Economy Approach

This essay is an attempt to put two major events in a broader perspective. Comparing the two dominant discourses, we attempt to address the meaning and thus the strategic options of European integration at a time of crisis. A political economy approach is adopted to explain the different dynamics of the two cases and to specify conditions for a more efficient integration in the years to come. Some proposals for policy reform conclude.

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