Indicators for measuring Europeanisation ad extra in the EU civilian mission in Bosnia and Hercegovina from 2003-2012

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 87-107
Author(s):  
Luiza Wojnicz

This paper presents a quantitative and qualitative measurement of the components of Europeanisation ad extra in the EU civilian mission in Bosnia and Hercegovina from 2003-2012. The study aims to show that Europeanisation ad extra affects third countries to a certain extent and it is thus a form of exporting the European organisational, normative, and axiological model. The exploration relates to a completed civil mission. For the needs of this study, the Author generated two basic indicators; one quantitative and one qualitative, and used them as tools for synthesising and categorising the studied area, based on the assumption that, in this way, it will be possible to measure the intensity of the Europeanisation process in the external trajectory (ad extra). The analysis of the quantitative and qualitative indices shows the number of activities in the area of security carried out in the framework of the civilian missions in question. As evidenced by these indicators, the export of European norms, values, solutions, and practices is more likely to succeed for the Balkans than for other continents where EU civilian missions are deployed. Measurement of the Europeanisation ad extra, taking the example of Bosnia and Hercegovina, proves that in its expeditionary policy, the European Union has a significant impact on third countries through transferring European standards in various areas of security such as social or axiological.

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-122
Author(s):  
Ewa Kaczan-Winiarska

The Austrian government is extremely sceptical about the accession negotiations which are conducted by the European Commission on behalf of the European Union with Turkey and calls for the negotiation process to end. Serious reservations of Vienna have been raised by the current political situation in Turkey under the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as by the standards of democracy in Turkey, which differ greatly from European standards. Serious deficiencies in rule of law, freedom of speech and independence of the judiciary, confirmed in the latest European Commission report on Turkey, do not justify, from Vienna’s point of view, the continuation of talks with Ankara on EU membership. In fact, Austria’s scepticism about the European perspective for Turkey has a longer tradition. This was marked previously in 2005 when the accession negotiations began. Until now, Austria’s position has not had enough clout within the European arena. Pragmatic cooperation with Turkey as a strategic partner of the EU, both in the context of the migration crisis and security policy, proved to be a key factor. The question is whether Austria, which took over the EU presidency from 1.7.2018, will be able to more strongly accentuate its reservations about Turkey and even build an alliance of Member States strong enough to block Turkey’s accession process.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-133
Author(s):  
Mariia Sirotkina ◽  
Olena Lomakina ◽  
Olena Shkarnega

The Association Agreement between the European Union and Ukraine is a new format of relations aimed at creating a deep and comprehensive free trade area (DCFTA) between Ukraine and the EU with the gradual integration of Ukraine into the internal market of the European Union. Focusing on the experience of rule-making of the EU member states, it is necessary to define and implement the legal rules and principles of the national judiciary, taking into account the rules and principles of European law (Chornomaz, 2016). In accordance with the strategy of European integration of our country, the adaptation of Ukrainian legislation is to approximate it with the modern European legal system, which will ensure the development of the political, entrepreneurial, social, cultural activity of Ukrainian citizens, economic development of the state within the EU to facilitate the increase of standards of living of the population. The implementation of the provisions of European legislation provided by the economic part of the Association Agreement (AA) is extremely important in the context of reforms, as the provisions can and should serve as a basis for a new model of socio-economic development of Ukraine. The deepening of the processes of humanization and democratization of Ukrainian society, the gradual introduction of principles and rules of European law into the national judiciary through reforms in the field of justice, inter alia, have led to qualitative updating of criminal procedure legislation of Ukraine, in particular: use of differentiated approach to legal conflicts between persons who have committed criminal offences, which do not pose a great public danger, and victims; simplification and reduction of the procedure of criminal proceedings; ensuring procedural savings; reduction of the caseload; allowing the parties of the conflict to resolve issues of exemption from criminal liability in case of reconciliation between the offender and the victim independently, the appointment of the negotiated punishment and release from serving with probation, etc. Given the specifics of the approach to improving relations with neighbouring countries on a differentiated basis, the EU seeks to identify and base on existing positive sources of sustainability, as well as to monitor and respond to weaknesses with the appropriate set of methods and resources at its disposal. The purpose of the article is to study a theoretical and practical definition of challenges of adaptation of Ukrainian legislation to the legislation of the European Union, institutional and organizational mechanisms of DCFTA implementation in the field of justice and certain norms of the current criminal procedure legislation. Ukraine is undergoing the second phase of radical reform of government structures; it has been continuing for 15 years but, unlike other countries, it is much more difficult for Ukraine to get rid of the burden of past problems. Judicial reform is also underway and domestic legislation is being significantly changed, including the transformation of the judicial proceedings. The topical issue of the development of judicial reforms is an imperfection, and sometimes a contradiction of regulations, which negatively affects the process of realization of rights and responsibilities of all subjects of public relations, slows down the development of Ukraine as a state governed by the rule of law. However, the introduction of institutions of concluding agreements, simplified proceedings, probation, and later mediation, into the criminal procedure legislation of Ukraine indicates the readiness of our state to change the concept of criminal procedure in accordance with the European standards, which will improve the situation of all parties to criminal proceedings. However, they need further completion and improvement. We are convinced that the introduction of such institutions will contribute to the legal development of society to achieve the European standards of restorative justice, which will encourage the further introduction of the latter in the legislation of Ukraine, resolving criminal conflicts by reaching a compromise between parties in cases specified by law. One of the ways to solve this problem in Ukraine is to regulate the process of adoption of regulations by the subjects of rule-making and taking into account the provision that legality as an objective property of law, in general, is the necessary condition and the main principle of the rule-making process.


2020 ◽  
pp. 39-42
Author(s):  
Sergey Asaturov ◽  
Andrei Martynov

The choice between modern nation-building and integration into supranational European and Euro-Atlantic structures remains a strategic challenge for the Balkan countries. Success in solving this problem of predominantly mono-ethnic Croatia and Slovenia has not yet become a model to follow. Serbian and Albanian national issues cannot be resolved. Serbia's defeat in the Balkan wars of 1991–1999 over the creation of a "Greater Serbia" led to the country's territorial fragmentation. Two Albanian national states emerged in the Balkans. Attempts to create a union of Kosovo and Albania could turn the region into a whirlpool of ultra-nationalist contradictions. The European Union has started accession negotiations with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Northern Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro. The success of these negotiations depends on the readiness of the EU and the ability of these Balkan states to adopt European norms and rules. The accession of all Balkan nation-states to the European Union must finally close the "Balkan window" of the vulnerability of the united Europe. Nation-building in the Balkans on the basis of ethnic nationalism sharply contradicts the purpose and current values of the European integration process. For more than three decades, the EU has been pursuing a policy of human rights, the rule of law, democracy and economic development in the Balkans. The region remains vulnerable to the influences of non-European geopolitical powers: the United States, Russia, Turkey, and China. The further scenario of the great Balkan geopolitical game mainly depends on the pro-European national consolidation of the Balkan peoples and the effectiveness of the European Union's strategy in the Balkans.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-55
Author(s):  
E. G. Entina

Traditionally the phenomenon of the European integration towards South East Europe is regarded starting from the XXI century. The explanation for such a periodization are resolution of the open conflicts on the territory of the former Yugoslavia and implementation of the complex EU strategy for the region. Starting point of the majority of researches is the year of 2003 when the EU Agenda for the Western Balkans was started in Thessaloniki. The topic of EEC-Yugoslavia relations, SFRY having been first socialist country to institutionalize its trade and economic relations with Brussels, are unfairly ignored in domestic and foreign scientific literature. It is regarded solely as a chronological period of trade agreements. Nevertheless, this issue is of fundamental importance for understanding the current neighborhood of the European Union. The main thesis the author proves is that in the 1960s and 1980s as it is the case nowadays, the main imperative of Brussels' policy towards the Balkans was to prevent Moscow from increasing its influence. This led to the formation of a very specific format of relations with Belgrade and was one of the reasons why the economic crisis in Yugoslavia became extreme and its economy irreformable. In addition, at a later and structurally much more complicated stage of relations between the countries of the former Yugoslavia and the European Union the specificity and main components of relations of the Cold War period did not fundamentally change. As for the policy of so-called containment of the external actors one could see that besides Moscow, we can speak about similar attitude of the EU towards China. It makes it possible to consider the EU policy towards the countries of the former Yugoslavia in the paradigm of neoclassical realism, rather than in the paradigm of traditional liberal European integration approaches which allows us to unite neorealists elements with the specifics of internal processes, including the modernization of institutes, relations between society and state, types of political leadership.


Author(s):  
Maxime H. A. Larivé

This empirical and historical analysis of the Western European Union (WEU), an intergovernmental defense organization, contributes to the broader understanding of the construction and integration of European security and defense policy. The WEU was established in 1954 by the Modified Brussels Treaty after the failure of the European Defense Community and at the time of the construction of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Over its lifetime, the WEU was confronted by two major trends: the centrality of collective defense agreement providing security on the European continent enforced by NATO and the construction of a European security and defense policy within the broad integration process of the European Union (EU). The WEU provided a platform for Western European powers, particularly France, the United Kingdom, and Germany, to engage in the construction of a European defense. Historically, these countries had diverging visions ranging from an autonomous force to one that should remain under the NATO auspice. The end of the Cold War accelerated the transfer of the WEU mission to the EU, but the crises in the Gulf region and in the Balkans in 1990s led to a period of activity for the WEU. The institutionalization of the EU, beginning with the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht, accelerated the construction of a European defense and security policy within EU structures. The transfer from the WEU to the EU began in the late 1990s and the WEU was dissolved in 2011.


Author(s):  
Ákos Kopper ◽  
Zsolt Körtvélyesi ◽  
Balázs Majtényi ◽  
András Szalai

Abstract This article scrutinizes the ‘insecurity toolbox’ that Hungary’s illiberal regime relies on in order to create an increasingly authoritarian system that sidelines the opposition and silences discontent. While authoritarian shifts are widespread, what makes the case of Hungary unique is that it involves a member state of the European Union. We identify three important features of the regime: (1) it relies on securitization by using an anti-immigrant meta-frame to justify virtually all policies and identify enemies whose presence justifies exceptional measures; (2)it applies law instrumentally and rules by law, which effectively undermines the rule of law and its guarantees against arbitrariness; (3)it maintains a screen of compliance with democratic and constitutional norms. While the EU seems impotent, or unwilling to halt this authoritarian backsliding, the Hungarian government feels it necessary to fake compliance with democratic norms by adopting policies that formally acquiesce to European standards but contradict them in essence.


2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 458-476
Author(s):  
Orlanda Obad

The author is using a series of examples from her three-year research on social perception of the European Union in Croatia in order to pose several critical questions regarding the current application of the Balkanist criticism in the region and beyond. The research was conducted with three groups of interviewees who were, in different ways, related to the EU. Various notions of Europe and the Balkans, which appeared throughout these interviews, differed from the predominant discourse of the 1990s. The article also indicates the decline of the importance of symbolic geography in the interpretation of notions associated with the EU. In the questioning of metatheoretical level, the author suggests several new paths of research in Balkanist and other, closely related fields of study: admitting the importance of economy, which has been, in the past twenty years, secondary to the examination of questions related to culture and history, and also the production and flow of knowledge. In conclusion, the author proposes examining the approaches which would also enable the inclusion of the enriching, non-repressive and useful encounters between the center and periphery.


2021 ◽  
pp. 176-193
Author(s):  
Svetlana Knyazeva

The article examines a wide range of the problems associated with the boundless enlargement of the European Union which makes it possible to place the Balkans in the context of general European development. To become a member of the EU is the important goal of the post-socialist countries of the Balkans/South-Eastern Europe. Bulgaria, Romania, and the post-Yugoslavian states of Slovenia and Croatia became full members of the EU. Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Albania are still at different stages of integration into the European community. This accession is the logical completion of the processes of social, political, economic and legal transformation of the Balkan countries, in which they themselves and the European Union as a whole and its individual member states are interested for reasons of geopolitics and geoeconomics. However, the accession to Europe (or the return to Europe) of the Balkan states with their authoritarian and socialist past includes not only the reform of the economic, political and legal systems, but also a change in value orientations. While in the states of the so-called «founding fathers» of the EU a Western European corporate civic identity is being formed, in the countries of the former Eastern Europe and the Balkan region, ethnic identity remains remains largely in the mainstream of public consciousness. The author examines axiological, ideological and psychological aspects of the accession of post-socialist countries to the EU, and also analyzes specific foreign policy problems associated with this process and the role of regional international organizations in the «europeanization» of the Balkans and in the settlement of ethnic and interstate conflicts in the region that still remain acute. Negative tendencies, first of all - the strengthening of populist sentiments and the coming to power of politicians reflecting these sentiments, pose challenges and threats not only to the European Union, but also to Russia.


This volume is timely in that it explores key issues which are currently at the forefront of the EU’s relations with its eastern neighbours. It considers the impact of a more assertive Russia, the significance of Turkey, the limitations of the Eastern Partnership with Belarus and Moldova, the position of a Ukraine in crisis and pulled between Russia and the EU, security and democracy in the South Caucasus. It looks at the contested nature of European identity in areas such as the Balkans. In addition it looks at ways in which the EU’s interests and values can be tested in sectors such as trade and migration. The interplay between values, identity and interests and their effect on the interpretation of europeanisation between the EU and its neighbours is a core theme of the volume.


ECONOMICS ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-58
Author(s):  
Tahir Mahmutefendic

Abstract Apart from the former EFTA members (Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) and a few former republics of the Soviet Union (Bjelorussia, Moldova and Ukraina) the countries of the Western Balkans are the only European states outside of the European Union. They are very keen to join the Union. The Balkans have always been the poorest part of Europe. The appeal of the wealthy European Union is apparent. Access to the largest market in the world, investment, modern technologies and generous regional funds give a hope that by joining the EU the Western Balkans countries will join the rich club. At the moment performance of the Western Balkan countries does not guarantee that they will become rich by joining the European Union. Their current production and trade structure makes it likely that the Western Balkan countries will be locked in inter-industry trade in which they will export products of low and medium technological and developmental level and import products of high technological and developmental level. This might lead to divergence rather than convergence between them and the European Union. In other to overcome this problem the Western Balkan countries need to conduct radical reforms in the public sector, fiscal policy, industrial trade and investment policy. They also need to tackle corruption, simplify administrative procedure, strenghten property rights and the lawful state. All this with the aim to change economic structure and shift from achievements of the second and third to fourth technological revolution. Only if these reforms are successfuly implemented the Western Balkan countries can hope to avoid the Greek scenario and possibly experience the Irish scenario.


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