scholarly journals The enlargement process on hold? Comparison of the French and German positions towards the widening of the EU

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anes Makul ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
General Hypothesis ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Perceived Costs ◽  
The Eu

This work aims to compare the enlargement policies of France and Germany, which are regarded as the leaders of the EU and whose policies are assumed to have a significant impact on other states within the Union. Additional to the political significance, these two countries are among the founding members of the Union and have been part of every of the seven enlargement rounds. Besides similarities, there is also a significant difference between these two states in their approach to the expansion of the EU. While France acts as an enlargement skeptic, Germany acts as a supporter of the widening process. The general hypothesis is that the enlargement policies of these two states are determined by the perceived costs and benefits of such policy.

scholarly journals Justice Reform or Facade Reform: The case of the Western Balkans

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 479-497
Author(s):  
Zenun Halili
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
Transformative Power ◽  
Internal Politics ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
The One ◽  
Political Actions ◽  
The Eu

AbstractEU transformative power is put into question and constantly challenged by the political actions of leaders in the Western Balkans. Although the political elites in this region have internalised a pro-European discourse, they are still guided and governed by authoritarian logic and practices colliding with the EU’s governing model. The paper analyses precisely this relationship between the EU and internal politics, namely, the transformative power/powerlessness of the EU towards the aspiring countries for membership in a single dimension; namely, justice. The paper reviews the reforms developed and the effects they have produced in the justice system in a calculation relation: costs and benefits. In this logic, this paper analyses costs and benefits of the internal elites of the Western Balkans, representing a classic oxymoron. On the one hand, pro-EU discourse is superficially used and, on the other, substantive actions are far from the EU’s governing model. The central argument emphasises that the reform process in the region has turned into a repetitive system of itself and destined to fail right from the beginning. So, we see a loss in reforms and plunging into a vicious circle, whereby each time elements increase and intensify but deteriorate one another, inevitably leading to the deterioration of the situation and producing multidimensional corruption.

Las funciones del interregionalismo en la relación UE-CAN

Oikos ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (29) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Olga María Cerqueira Torres
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Present Article ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Association Agreement ◽  
Political Rationality ◽  
Article Analysis ◽  
Andean Community ◽  
The Eu

RESUMENEn el presente artículo el análisis se ha centrado en determinar cuáles de las funciones del interregionalismo, sistematizadas en los trabajos de Jürgen Rüland, han sido desarrolladas en la relación Unión Europea-Comunidad Andina de Naciones, ya que ello ha permitido evidenciar si el estado del proceso de integración de la CAN ha condicionado la racionalidad política del comportamiento de la Unión Europea hacia la región andina (civil power o soft imperialism); esto posibilitará establecer la viabilidad de la firma del Acuerdo de Asociación Unión Europea-Comunidad Andina de Naciones.Palabras clave: Unión Europea, Comunidad Andina, interregionalismo, funciones, acuerdo de asociación. Interregionalism functions in the EU-ANDEAN community relationsABSTRACTIn the present article analysis has focused on which functions of interregionalism, systematized by Jürgen Rüland, have been developed in the European Union-Andean Community birregional relation, that allowed demonstrate if the state of the integration process in the Andean Community has conditioned the political rationality of the European Union towards the Andean region (civil power or soft imperialism); with all these elements will be possible to establish the viability of the Association Agreement signature between the European Union and the Andean Community.Keywords: European Union, Andean Community, interregionalism, functions, association agreement.

Three Looks at German Foreign Policy before September 11: A Landscape Shifts

2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 73-81
Author(s):  
Karen Donfried
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
The Political ◽  
German Foreign Policy ◽  
State University ◽  
European Monetary ◽  
Monetary Cooperation ◽  
Policy Decision Making ◽  
The Eu

Wolf-Dieter Eberwein and Karl Kaiser, Germany’s New Foreign Policy: Decision-Making in an Independent World (Hampshire: Palgrave, 2001)Adrian Hyde-Price, Germany & European Order: Enlarging NATO and the EU (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000)Matthias Kaelberer, Money and Power in Europe: The Political Economy of European Monetary Cooperation (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001)

An Ever Further Apart Union? National and European Attachments in the European Union

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracey Raney
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Active Role ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Identities ◽  
Political Identification ◽  
The Eu

This paper is about the ways that citizens perceive their place in the political world around them, through their political identities. Using a combination of comparative and quantitative methodologies, the study traces the pattern of citizens’ political identifications in the European Union and Canada between 1981 and 2003 and explains the mechanisms that shape these political identifications. The results of the paper show that in the EU and Canada identity formation is a process that involves the participation of both individuals and political institutions yet between the two, individuals play a greater role in identity construction than do political institutions. The paper argues that the main agents of political identification in the EU and Canada are citizens themselves: individuals choose their own political identifications, rather than acquiring identities that are pre-determined by historical or cultural precedence. The paper makes the case that this phenomenon is characteristic of a rise of ‘civic’ identities in the EU and Canada. In the European Union, this overarching ‘civic’ identity is in its infancy compared to Canada, yet, both reveal a new form of political identification when compared to the historical and enduring forms of cultural identities firmly entrenched in Europe. The rise of civic identities in both the EU and Canada is attributed to the active role that citizens play in their own identity constructions as they base their identifications on rational assessments of how well political institutions function, and whether their memberships in the community will benefit them, rather than on emotional factors rooted in religion or race. In the absence of strongly held emotional identifications, in the EU and Canada political institutions play a passive role in identity construction by making the community appear more entitative to its citizens. These findings offer new theoretical scope to the concept of civic communities and the political identities that underpin them. The most important finding presented in the paper is that although civic communities and identities are manufactured by institutions and political elites (politicians and bureaucrats), they require thinking citizens, not feeling ones, to be sustained.   Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v2i4.179

scholarly journals Incorporating Ecosystem Services in the Assessment of Water Framework Directive Programmes of Measures

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioannis Souliotis ◽  
Nikolaos Voulvoulis
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Water Framework Directive ◽  
Water Status ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Ecological Condition ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Ecological Objectives ◽  
The Eu

AbstractThe EU Water Framework Directive requires the development of management responses aimed towards improving water quality as a result of improving ecosystem health (system state). Ecosystems have potential to supply a range of services that are of fundamental importance to human well-being, health, livelihoods and survival, and their capacity to supply these services depends on the ecosystem condition (its structure and processes). According to the WFD, Programmes of Measures should be developed to improve overall water status by reducing anthropogenic catchment pressures to levels compatible with the achievement of the ecological objectives of the directive, and when designed and implemented properly should improve the ecological condition of aquatic ecosystems that the delivery of ecosystem services depends on. Monitoring and evaluation of implemented measures are crucial for assessing their effectiveness and creating the agenda for consecutive planning cycles. Considering the challenges of achieving water status improvements, and the difficulties of communicating these to the wider public, we develop a framework for the evaluation of measures cost-effectiveness that considers ecosystem services as the benefits from the reduction of pressures on water bodies. We demonstrate its application through a case study and discuss its potential to facilitate the economic analysis required by the directive, and that most European water authorities had problems with. Findings demonstrate the potential of the methodology to effectively incorporate ecosystem services in the assessment of costs and benefits of proposed actions, as well as its potential to engage stakeholders.

ESMA as a Residual Lawmaker: The Political Economy and Constitutionality of ESMA’s Product Intervention Measures on Complex Financial Products

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Iglesias-Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Investor Protection ◽  
The Political ◽  
Regulatory Arbitrage ◽  
Financial Products ◽  
Intervention Measures ◽  
Binary Options ◽  
The One ◽  
National Competent Authorities ◽  
The Eu

AbstractThis article proposes that product intervention constitutes a form of residual lawmaking by ESMA that allows it to tackle aspects of investor protection not addressed by EU incomplete financial laws. Whilst product intervention may bring about certain advantages and may contribute to mitigating regulatory arbitrage problems, it constitutes a highly intrusive regulatory mechanism that raises important questions concerning: (a) ESMA’s rationale and motivations for its use; (b) its compliance with the EU constitutional framework; and (c) its adequacy for the regulation of complex financial products. This article addresses these questions through an analysis of the rationale and consequences of ESMA’s product intervention measures on binary options and contracts for differences of May 2018–July 2019, and of recent reforms of ESMA’s powers. It offers three main contributions to the existing literature. First, it contributes to the literature on administrative discretion and agencies’ rulemaking through an analysis of the political economy of ESMA’s deployment of product intervention powers and, also, of what this reveals about the relationships between ESMA and the EU Institutions, on the one side, and ESMA and National Competent Authorities, on the other. Second, it contributes to the literature on the constitutionality of EU agencies through an examination of the compliance of ESMA’s product intervention measures with EU constitutional law and requirements. Third, it examines whether product intervention constitutes an adequate mechanism to address problems pertaining to investor protection in complex financial products markets and, in doing so, it contributes to the scholarly discussion on complex financial products’ regulation.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words? The Untapped Potential of V4 Parliaments in EU Affairs

2021 ◽  
pp. 088832542110127
Author(s):  
Karolina Borońska-Hryniewiecka ◽  
Jan Grinc
Keyword(s):  
Early Warning System ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Veto Players ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Dialogue ◽  
Eu Policy ◽  
Green Card ◽  
Policy Ideas ◽  
Policy Making Process ◽  
The Eu

This article offers the first ever comparative analysis of the involvement of V4 parliaments in the sphere of European Union (EU) affairs. Its underlying research objective is to determine what conditions V4’s parliamentary participation in various EU-oriented activities such as domestic scrutiny of the government’s EU policy, the political dialogue with the Commission, the Early Warning System for subsidiarity control, and the green card initiative. Based on the actual scrutiny output, parliamentary minutes, and data from questionnaires, we address the questions: (1) To what extent domestic legislatures act as autonomous as opposed to government-supporting actors in these arenas? (2) Do they mostly act as EU veto players, or try to contribute constructively to the EU policy-making process by bringing alternative policy ideas? (3) What are their motivations for engaging in direct dialogue with EU institutions in addition to domestic scrutiny? and (4) How MPs envisage their own EU-oriented roles? While the article reveals that V4 parliaments mostly act as gatekeepers in the sphere of EU affairs, it also casts a new light on the previous literature findings related to the EU-oriented performance of the Czech and Polish lower chambers. We conclude that, generally, V4 parliaments refrain from fully exploiting their relatively strong formal prerogatives in EU affairs—a fact that can be partly explained by the composition of their ruling majorities.

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