scholarly journals Disciplining Europe – The Production of Economic Delinquency

2017 ◽  
pp. 63-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Biebricher

The main goal of the following article is to offer a Foucaultian reading of the economic governance structure of the European Union after the reforms passed and implemented over the last six years. The starting point is a reconstruction of Foucault’s analytical framework to scrutinize disciplinary power as well as the respective apparatuses and how this framework has been integrated into the more encompassing governmentality perspective. In the second section I provide a brief survey of the strategic terrain of the European Union as a site of multi-level governance that poses unique challenges from a governing perspective. The following sections are structured according to some key characteristics of disciplinary/governmental power arrangements (visibilization, norm(aliz)ation, prevention, normalizing judgement) which I try to identify in the context of the European Semester, the Six-Pack and the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure as elements of a broader disciplinary framework. The final section draws on Foucault’s famous point about the ‘productive failure’ of the prison as a disciplinary apparatus that ends up serving ends and purposes quite distinct from the ones officially declared and suggests that we should also consider the European regime of economic discipline and surveillance as one, which is ‘failing forward’, creating opportunity structures to pursue political projects that may differ markedly from those officially stated.

Author(s):  
Salvatore Caserta ◽  
Pola Cebulak

Abstract International courts are increasingly called upon to adjudicate socially divisive disputes. They are therefore exposed to a heightened risk of backlash that questions their authority and impedes the implementation of their judgments. This article puts forward an analytical framework for mapping the resilience techniques used by international courts to counter this growing resistance. Case studies involve the Court of Justice of the European Union, which has been cautious in its stance regarding democratic backsliding in Hungary and Poland, and the Caribbean Court of Justice, which has engaged in legal diplomacy while adjudicating both on the land rights of indigenous groups and on Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI) rights. It is argued that, in order to effectively avoid and mitigate backlash, international courts should deploy resilience techniques that go beyond merely exercising their judicial function. The successful deployment of resilience techniques can allow international courts to become significant actors in global governance during a time of crisis for the international liberal order.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 721-751
Author(s):  
Paz Andrés Sáenz De Santa María

Abstract This article examines the European Union’s (EU) treaty practice from the perspective of the international law of treaties, focusing on its most significant examples. The starting point is the EU’s attitude towards the codification of treaty law involving states and international organizations. The article discusses certain terminological specificities and a few remarkable aspects, such as the frequent use of provisional application mechanisms as opposed to much less use of reservations, the contributions regarding treaty interpretation, the wide variety of clauses and the difficulties in determining the legal nature of certain texts. The study underlines that treaty law is a useful instrument for the Union and is further enriched with creative contributions; the outcome is a fruitful relationship.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Bouzarovski ◽  
Sergio Tirado Herrero

Energy poverty can be understood as the inability of a household to secure a socially and materially necessitated level of energy services in the home. While the condition is widespread across Europe, its spatial and social distribution is highly uneven. In this paper, the existence of a geographical energy poverty divide in the European Union (EU) provides a starting point for conceptualizing and exploring the relationship between energy transitions – commonly described as wide-ranging processes of socio-technical change – and existing patterns of regional economic inequality. We have undertaken a comprehensive analysis of spatial and temporal trends in the national-scale patterns of energy poverty, as well as gas and electricity prices. The results of our work indicate that the classic economic development distinction between the core and periphery also holds true in the case of energy poverty, as the incidence of this phenomenon is significantly higher in Southern and Eastern European EU Member States. The paper thus aims to provide the building blocks for a novel theoretical integration of questions of path-dependency, uneven development and material deprivation in existing interpretations of energy transitions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 2111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dumitriu ◽  
Militaru ◽  
Deselnicu ◽  
Niculescu ◽  
Popescu

On their way towards assuring growth and long-term sustainability, many modern small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) from the European Union have set building a stronger brand as one of their primary goals. To achieve this, an integrated framework for managing the continuous enhancement of their brand equity level by adopting digital marketing tools and techniques (DMTTs), has increasingly become a necessity for most of the modern SMEs. However, even if such an approach provides plenty of benefits, such as better audience targeting and reduction of traditional marketing expenses, implementing these complex processes in their business models poses a series of challenges like choosing the best selection of DMTTs. For this reason, a conceptual model is proposed in the first part of the paper, with the aim to highlight a framework that will help underline the links between DMTTs and other key elements that can provide an increase in brand equity of SMEs, thus contributing to growth and enhancing the sustainability level. Following the proposed model, research aimed at two main directions has been conducted in the second part. The first direction was to analyze the degree in which modern SMEs from the European Union located in Romania dedicate themselves toward embracing sustainability goals and principles. The second one represents an analysis using also the SPSS software solution on the most used selections of DMTTs mentioned in the presented conceptual model. The results obtained provide a starting point for those modern SMEs that choose to follow the path of sustainability by creating and enhancing their brand equity through DMTTs.


2020 ◽  
pp. 002367722096858
Author(s):  
Ismene A Dontas ◽  
Kenneth Applebee ◽  
Martje Fentener van Vlissingen ◽  
Viola Galligioni ◽  
Katerina Marinou ◽  
...  

Article 23(2) of the European Union Directive 2010/63/EU, which regulates welfare provisions for animals used for scientific purposes, requires that staff involved in the care and use of animals for scientific purposes be adequately educated and trained before they undertake any such work. However, the nature and extent of such training is not stipulated in the Directive. To facilitate Member States in fulfilling their education and training obligations, the European Commission developed a common Education and Training Framework, which was endorsed by the Member States Competent Authorities. An Education & Training Platform for Laboratory Animal Science (ETPLAS) Working Group was recently established to develop further guidance to the Learning Outcomes in the Framework, with the objective to clarify the levels of knowledge and understanding required by trainees, and to provide the criteria by which these Learning Outcomes should be assessed. Using the Framework document as a starting point, assessment criteria for the Learning Outcomes of the modules required for Function A persons (carrying out procedures on animals) for rats, mice and zebrafish were created with sufficient detail to enable trainees, providers and assessors to appreciate the level of knowledge, understanding and skills required to pass each module. Adoption and utilization of this document by training providers and accrediting or approving bodies will harmonize introductory education and training for those involved in the care and use of animals for scientific purposes within the European Union, promote mutual recognition of training within and between Member States and therefore free movement of personnel.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARKUS PATBERG

Abstract:There is a growing sense that if the EU is to avoid disintegration, it needs a constitutional renewal. However, a reform negotiated between executives will hardly revitalise the European project. In light of this, commentators have suggested that the EU needs a democratic refounding on popular initiative. But that is easier said than done. Shaping the EU has been an elite enterprise for decades and it is hard to imagine how things could be otherwise. In this article, I map four public narratives of constituent power in the EU to sketch out potential alternatives. Political actors increasingly call into question the conventional role of the states as the ‘masters of the treaties’ and construct alternative stories as to who should be in charge of EU constitutional politics, how the respective subject came to find itself in that position, and how it should invoke its founding authority in the future. These public narratives represent a promising starting point for a normative theory that outlines a viable and justifiable path for transforming the EU in a bottom-up mode.


Author(s):  
Jean-Christophe Bureau ◽  
Luca Salvatici

Abstract This paper provides a summary measure of the possible new commitments in the area of agricultural market access undertaken by the European Union and the United States, using the Trade Restrictiveness Index (TRI) as the tariff aggregator. We take the 2001 bound tariffs as the starting point and attempt to assess how much liberalization in agriculture could be achieved in the European Union and the United States as a result of the present negotiations. We compute the index for 20 agricultural commodity aggregates under the actual commitments assuming a specific functional form for import demand. We compare the present levels of the TRI with three hypothetical cases: a repetition of the same set of tariff cuts commitments of the Uruguay Round according to a EU proposal prior to the 2003 WTO ministerial meeting, a uniform 36% reduction of each tariff, an harmonization ( "Swiss" ) formula based on the initial US proposal.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 141-156
Author(s):  
Antoaneta Vassileva ◽  
Mirjana Stevanović ◽  
Milica Simić

The main goal of this paper is to make a survey of the current state of the economic relations between Bulgaria and Serbia and to outline some recommendations for their future development. The analytical framework is based on a desk research of the economic cooperation between both countries and a study of several European projects in which they participate. Statistical data and information from official documents of the governments of Bulgaria and Serbia, as well as documents of the European Union have been used. The author does not aim to make just a comparative analysis but rather to look for the points of intersection of the mutual interests of both countries. The findings of the research enable the evaluation of the depth of economic cooperation between Bulgaria and Serbia and give grounds for conclusions about the prospects for expanding of their economic ties.


Equilibrium ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 43-53
Author(s):  
Joanna Rydarowska-Kurzbauer

The turn of the century was full of dynamic and multi-dimensional changes in the global economy. The most spectacular phenomena may include financial crises. They exerted influence not only on the economy, in which they appeared, but as a result of deepening of globalization, spread "infecting" others. The purpose of this article was an attempt to find similarities in the dynamics of changes in production and global demand that characterized the economy of the selected European Union countries. The starting point was to show the dynamics of gross domestic product (GDP) in selected countries and to find similarities between them. In the next section attention was focused on the changes in the two components of aggregate demand: consumption and investment, particularly on their correlation with the rate of change of GDP. For analysis and comparisons the following economies were selected: the economy of the European Union (represented by the euro zone) and the economy of Central and Eastern Europe.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 223-240
Author(s):  
Silvia Manessi

The aim of this paper is to analyse the legal framework regulating the careers of civil servants working for the EU institutions and reveal how the values of equality and diversity are communicated and embedded in their daily lives. The research examines the English language used in the HR legal framework of the EU institutions and explores the linguistic aspects related to equality and diversity management and inclusive language. The starting point of this research is the idea that the European Union is based on the values of democracy, the rules of law and the equal treatment of its citizen, who are celebrated for their diversity. It is thus highly relevant to look at the EU in action and see if it is consistent in the understanding and application of these values. The methodological approach of this research entailed the creation and analysis of a unique corpus composed of all the applicable HR legal provisions in force within the EU institutions, and the examination of the linguistic features (word lists by frequency, concordances, collocations and lexical bundles) of the terminology related to four different areas of equality and diversity – the LGBTI community, gender, the elderly and persons with a disability – with the final aim to take stock of the related developments in the use of the English language. The results indicate that the language used in the EU HRM legal framework is not in line with the EU values of equality and diversity, and the research concludes with highlighting possible improvements of the language used in the corpus.


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