scholarly journals Policy reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic: an overview of political and economic influences across Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 619-636
Author(s):  
Tamás Ginter
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Democratic Freedom ◽  
Restrictive Measures ◽  
The Eu

Abstract The reactions of the respective governments of the European Union both to the sanitary and economic risks of the Covid-19 pandemic varied tremendously. The objective of this paper is to explain the variation in lockdown and economic measures by political and institutional factors. Both the respective restrictive and economic measures throughout the European Union are presented. The first unit of the paper consists of a literature review of political factors (such as institutional structures and capacities, ideology and the effect of upcoming elections) that may have influenced the stringency of the restrictive measures introduced. As no previous study researched the effects of the above factors on the magnitude of economic packages, a regression analysis was conducted to examine if political ideology, democratic freedom and the timely proximity of elections influenced the extent of economic aid. While these factors could not prove to show significant influence on the extent of economic stimulus packages, several possible explanations are provided in order to understand the relative homogeneity of fiscal and monetary intervention in the EU.

Constitutional and Legal Restrictions in the European Union Countries in the Context of the COVID 19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
pp. 92-97
Author(s):  
A. V. Kuznetsov
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
International Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
European Union Countries ◽  
Legal Restrictions ◽  
Restrictive Measures ◽  
The Eu

The article examines the norms of international law and the legislation of the EU countries. The list of main provisions of constitutional and legal restrictions in the European Union countries is presented. The application of the norms is described Human rights conventions. The principle of implementing legal acts in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is considered. A comparative analysis of legal restrictive measures in the States of the European Union is carried out.

EU-Sanktionspolitik in geopolitischen Zeiten: Europas schärfstes Außeninstrument und seine Herausforderungen

IG ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 278-294
Author(s):  
Niklas Helwig ◽  
Juha Jokela ◽  
Clara Portela
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
European Union ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Global Competition ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Policy Tool ◽  
Restrictive Measures ◽  
Fine Tune ◽  
The Eu

Sanctions are one of the toughest and most coercive tools available to the European Union (EU). They are increasingly used in order to respond to breaches of international norms and adverse security developments in the neighbourhood and beyond. However, the EU sanctions policy is facing a number of challenges related to the efficiency of decision-making, shortcomings in the coherent implementation of restrictive measures, as well as the adjustments to the post-Brexit relationship with the United Kingdom. This article analyses these key challenges for EU sanctions policy. Against the backdrop of an intensifying global competition, it points out the need to weatherproof this policy tool. The current debate on the future of the EU provides an opportunity to clarify the strategic rationale of EU sanctions and to fine-tune the sanctions machinery.

scholarly journals Conclusions: What future for the Treaty of Lisbon?

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. e72661
Author(s):  
Ariadna Ripoll
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Political System ◽  
Window Of Opportunity ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Political Union ◽  
Treaty Of Lisbon ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Normative Issues ◽  
The Eu

This conclusion to the special issue reflects on the evolution of European integration since the early 1990s in order to better understand the contested origins of the Treaty of Lisbon and the consequences the latter have had for the EU’s political system. It considers the various contributions of the special issue and shows how the Treaty emerged in an era of shifting cleavages, disputed steps towards a more political Union and rising populism. This legacy has led to more polarisation and politicisation – a phenomenon that the Treaty of Lisbon struggles to encapsulate and conciliate with the culture of consensus and compromise inherent to its institutional structures. As a result, we observe a bias towards policy stability – and even failure – that affects the legitimacy and democratic standards of the European Union. In a context of polycrisis, the difficulty to find compromises – especially in highly normative issues – leads to the de-politicisation of the EU and reinforces the gap between EU institutions and its citizens. The COVID-19 pandemic is a window of opportunity for the EU, in which to choose between integration and disintegration; between values and inaction.

scholarly journals EU-Russia Energy Dialogue: economic and political dimensions

2021 ◽  
pp. 165-183
Author(s):  
Viktoria Ivcenko
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
Ukrainian Crisis ◽  
Nord Stream ◽  
The Eu

Against the background of strong and long-standing energy interdependence between the European Union and Russia, the two partners agreed in 2000 to launch the Energy Dialogue, which was intended to intensify their cooperation and to eliminate related problems. The political and economic dimensions of the EU–Russia Energy Dialogue are presented and studied in this article. The aim is to analyse the scale of their impact on the basis of some important projects within this dialogue, taking into account the overall context. The results of conducted analysis demonstrate that while this comprehensive instrument for jointly creating the future of the two co-dependent partners should bring apparent improvements, its functionality is hindered by various economic and political factors. The latter, in particular, have had a significant impact, putting the Energy Dialogue on hold, not lastly with the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis and growing bilateral and multilateral political tensions. Today, 20 years after the commissioning of this seemingly so fruitful platform of the Energy Dialogue, we are looking at a very disappointing intermediate assessment. Various problems of the Energy Dialogue hinder not only cooperation development based on trust, legal norms and understanding, but also existing and partly active projects, such as the Roadmap EU–Russia Energy Cooperation until 2050 and Nord Stream 2, which are being pushed into the uncertain future. However, in view of existing and possible further projects in the energy sector, it is necessary to create the functional dialogue format.

scholarly journals The Court of Justice of the European Union and the autonomous restrictive measures against natural and legal persons and non-state entities within the EU common foreign and security policy

2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (91) ◽  
pp. 117-139
Author(s):  
Boris Tučić
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
General Relation ◽  
Supporting Evidence ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Foreign And Security Policy ◽  
The One ◽  
Restrictive Measures ◽  
The Eu

As a part of its specific policies, the EU creates and implements numerous restrictive measures against different subjects. In recent years, the most interesting ones, especially from the perspective of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), have been the autonomous restrictive measures against natural and legal persons and other non-state entities within the Union`s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). After years of legal wandering in this regard, the Lisbon Treaty finally offered an explicit legal basis for this kind of measures, envisaging, as well, for the first time, the CJEU`s jurisdiction in the field of CFSP in some cases, including the one related to reviewing the legality of decisions providing for restrictive measures against natural or legal persons adopted by the Council of the EU on the basis of Chapter 2 of Title V of the Treaty of the European Union. In this regard, the subject matter of this paper are the activities of the EU courts related to the autonomous restrictive measures against individual subjects, analyzed at several relevant although inseparable levels. The first one considers the intention of the CJEU to "use" the situation regarding the autonomous restrictive measures in order to strengthen its position and competences within the CFSP. The second one is oriented to the efforts of the courts to secure the balance between the effectiveness of the CFSP instruments, on the one hand, and the protection of some of the major principles and values of the EU legal order, on the other hand, such as the rule of law, legal certainty, effective judicial protection or the protection of human rights as guaranteed by the EU Law in general. Thirdly, a very important step in this context has been the jurisprudential identification of the key procedural requirements that the Council`s decisions providing for restrictive measures must fulfill as well (aka the designation criteria, statements of reasons criteria and supporting evidence criteria). By constantly insisting on the fulfillment of these criteria, the EU courts exerted a pressure on the Council to improve its decisions providing restrictive measures in a qualitative manner. Recent jurisprudence, such as the Rosneft or Bank Refah Kargaran cases, shows that there is still enough space for the Court`s interventions in this field, and that some interesting Court`s decisions, related to its position within the CFSP or the general relation between the CFSP and other forms of Union`s external activities, could be expected in the years to come.

scholarly journals Migrations in Europe: Fears due to the enlargement of the EU to the East

Stanovnistvo ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 41 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 131-145
Author(s):  
Mirjana Morokvasic
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Migration Policy ◽  
Buffer Zone ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eastern Border ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Restrictive Measures ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

The European Union is confronted with the biggest enlargement in its history: ten states, among them eight middle European - the so called "buffer zone" in the new European migration landscape - will become members in 2004. Other candidates hope to join in the coming years. For all Eastern and Eastern European countries, including those that are not candidates, the end of the bi-polar world meant a hope of "return to Europe". When shifting its borders to the East, the European Union both includes and excludes. The final objective to achieve Europe as "a space of freedom, security and justice", is conditioned by the capacity and necessity to control the migratory flows. The prospect of free circulation for the citizens of the new Union members entails also fears: the EU countries are afraid of the consequences the enlargement would have on migratory flows from the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe and which transit through that area. The perception of migrants as a threat inspired the conditions that the Union imposed on the candidate countries concerning migration policy issues and which mostly focus on the protection of its Eastern borders. For the future Union members however, protecting of the thousand of kilometers of their Eastern border, implies a number of quite different problems. These countries are afraid of the impact the restrictive measures they are obliged to implement would have both on many economic and family ties which have been maintained since the socialist period and on more recently engaged cooperation with the neighbours which are not candidates. The challenge of enlargement is different therefore for the EU members, for the candidate countries and for those who are for the moment excluded from the process. The fears do not seem to be always grounded. Thus, the impact of enlargement which, it was feared, could have been so destabilizing for the Union because of potentially large migration flows, is more likely to be destabilizing for the new candidate countries, especially concerning their relations with their neighbours excluded from the enlargement process.

scholarly journals Impact of Social and Security Factors on the Intensity of Integration of Immigrants to the EU

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 101-123
Author(s):  
Zoran Milosavljević ◽  
Andrijana Maksimović
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Integration Of Immigrants ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Degree Of Regression ◽  
The Eu

The subject of the paper seeks to investigate the influence of social factors on the intensity of immigration of immigrants to the EU. Among the social factors that significantly influence immigration policies in the European Union, the authors singled out the following: demography, identity-culture, economy, socio-political and security factors. The main goal is to see how these social factors affect the intensity of immigration. The authors opt for MIPEX as an instrument for measuring immigration policy, which expresses political tendencies towards the integration of migrants. Based on the findings from the regression analysis, which determined the regression factor of the participation of indicators in correlation with MIPEX, the authors concluded that all indicators have a positive correlation, which indicates that the indicators were chosen correctly. In addition, the degree of regression factor is higher than 5%, which indicates a significant correlation.

The European Union and International Outcomes

1999 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 409-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Jupille
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Maastricht Treaty ◽  
Majority Voting ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
The European Union ◽  
External Relations ◽  
Qualified Majority ◽  
International Bargaining ◽  
Bargaining Positions ◽  
The Eu

Analysts of the European Union (EU) and international bargaining have generally failed to appreciate how the shift within the EU from unanimity to qualified majority voting has affected European bargaining positions and international outcomes. I analyze the international effects of changes in EU decision-making rules with a simple spatial model and assess the utility of the model in two cases of environmental bargaining that span the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty. The EU can decisively shape international outcomes by concentrating the weight of its fifteen member states on a single substantive position and rendering that position critical to any internationally negotiated agreement. The findings generalize to numerous areas of EU external relations and suggest that analysts should attend specifically to the EU and more generally to domestic and regional institutional factors in explaining international bargaining outcomes.

Regulatory Federalism: EU Environmental Regulation in Comparative Perspective

2000 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Daniel Kelemen
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Environmental Regulation ◽  
Regulatory Policy ◽  
Institutional Structure ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
The Us ◽  
Comparative Federalism ◽  
The Eu

This article analyzes the development of environmental regulation in the European Union from the perspective of comparative federalism. It presents a theory of regulatory federalism that explains how the basic institutional structures of federal-type polities shape the development of regulatory policy. The article assesses the theory by systematically comparing the development of environmental regulation in the EU, the US, Canada and Australia. The analysis suggests that the EU's institutional structure encourages the development of a US-style pattern of regulation, characterized by detailed, non-discretionary rules and a litigious approach to enforcement.

scholarly journals The concept of abuse in tax matters within European Union law

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 362-401
Author(s):  
Daniel E. Márquez Lasso
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Company Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Union Law ◽  
Freedom Of Establishment ◽  
Service Contracts ◽  
The Face ◽  
Restrictive Measures ◽  
The Eu

The principle of prohibition of abuse of rights is applicable in fields as varied as the free movement of goods (judgment of 10 of January 1985, Association des Centres distributeurs Leclerc and Thouars Distribution, Case 229/83), freedom to provide services (judgment of 3 of February 1993, Veronica Omroep Organisatie, Case C‑148/91), public service contracts (judgment of 11 of December 2014, Azienda sanitaria locale n. 5 Spezzino and Others, Case C‑113/13), freedom of establishment (judgment of 9 of March 1999, Centros, Case C‑212/97), company law (judgment of 23 of March 2000, Diamantis, Case C‑373/97), social security (judgments of 2 of May 1996, Paletta, Case C‑206/94; of 6 of February 2018, Altun and Others, Case C‑359/16; and of 11 of July 2018, Commission v Belgium, Case C‑356/15), transport (judgment of 6 of April 2006, Agip Petroli, Case C‑456/04), social policy (judgment of 28 of July 2016, Kratzer, Case C‑423/15), restrictive measures (judgment of 21 of December 2011, Afrasiabi and Others, Case C‑72/11) and value added tax (judgment of 21 of February 2006, Halifax and Others, Case C‑255/02) and, in that sense, the EU principle of prohibition of abuse of law has been developing within the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union since the mid-1970s, addressing it in multiple ways, not only in the face of different factual assumptions, which would be understandable and even necessary but, in its evolution, treating asymmetrically the handling of the requirements that must be met to reach the conclusion of the existence of practices abusive.

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