scholarly journals Anti-EU Backlash from Below or Above? Public Opinion in Central and Eastern Europe Prior to the 2015 Migration Crisis

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-345
Author(s):  
Nikola Petrvić ◽  
Marko Mrakovčić ◽  
Filip Fila
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Cultural Threat ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Almost All

Relations between Brussels and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) worsened during and after the 2015 migration crisis. In order to see to what extent CEE citizens contributed to and/or resonated with this new state of affairs, this paper investigates public opinion before the migration crisis in seven CEE EU Member States. We inquire whether the main issues of the rift (CEE political elites’ opposition to following EU decisions and immigration and their emphasis on sovereignism, nationalism, Christian Europe and historical traumas) could also be traced to public stances towards these issues before the migration crisis. We used the ISSP National Identity module conducted in 2013 and 2014 in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia and Slovenia. The results show that opposition to EU supranationalism was not linked to ethnic nationalism and religious identity (except in Hungary). Contrary to political elites, who emphasised the cultural threat posed by migration, public opinion was more concerned with the economic threat. Moreover, the perception of cultural threat was not linked to opposing EU supranationalism in any of the countries. However, particularly support for sovereignism (in almost all the countries), but also pride in national history (in some countries) correlated negatively with support for EU supranationalism. The results suggest that political elites can bypass public opinion to construct an anti-EU climate, however not out of thin air. The conditions for such a process were present in Hungary with its emerging transnational cleavage, which shows the importance of cleavages in studying Euroscepticism.

scholarly journals Harmonising Private Enforcement of Competition Law in Central and Eastern Europe: The Effectiveness of Legal Transplants Through Consumer Collective Actions

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 33-59
Author(s):  
Katalin J. Cseres
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Private Enforcement ◽  
Collective Actions ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Harmonization Process ◽  
Effective Remedy ◽  
Law Making

The aim of this paper is to critically analyze the manner of harmonizing private enforcement in the EU. The paper examines the legal rules and, more importantly, the actual enforcement practice of collective consumer actions in EU Member States situated in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Collective actions are the key method of getting compensation for consumers who have suffered harm as a result of an anti-competitive practice. Consumer compensation has always been the core justification for the European Commission’s policy of encouraging private enforcement of competition law. In those cases where collective redress is not available to consumers, or consumers cannot apply existing rules or are unwilling to do so, then both their right to an effective remedy and the public policy goal of private enforcement remain futile. Analyzing collective compensatory actions in CEE countries (CEECs) places the harmonization process in a broader governance framework, created during their EU accession, characterized by top-down law-making and strong EU conditionality. Analyzing collective consumer actions through this ‘Europeanization’ process, and the phenomenon of vertical legal transplants, raises major questions about the effectiveness of legal transplants vis-à-vis homegrown domestic law-making processes. It also poses the question how such legal rules may depend and interact with market, constitutional and institutional reforms.

Public Opinion of Winners and Losers

2021 ◽  
pp. 114-121
Author(s):  
Kristen Ghodsee ◽  
Mitchell A. Orenstein
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
Soviet Regime ◽  
Current Regime ◽  
Western Democracy ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Widespread Belief ◽  
Market Capitalism

Chapter 10 analyzes public opinion data to identify individuals who were more and less likely to support transitional reforms. In the mid-1990s, significant numbers of disaffected Russians indicated a preference for the old Soviet regime when compared to the current regime or a Western democracy, which suggests evidence for a phenomenon termed “red nostalgia.” Public opinion data also suggest that market capitalism is more popular in Central and Eastern Europe, but that many of those who expressed support for reform did it out of self-interest. The beneficiaries of transition—mostly the wealthy, young, educated, urban, and men—were more likely to support markets and democracy than their demographic counterparts. The chapter shows that across the postsocialist world, differences in support for reform are indicative of widespread belief that transition was being led from above, and that political and economic reforms were being imposed on the socialist masses by liberal elites.

Meanings of Independence and Manifestations of Neoliberal Nationalism during the ‘Refugee Crisis’ in Central and Eastern Europe

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aija Lulle
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Eastern Bloc ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Human Suffering ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Eu

The Eastern European political and para-political responses to the ‘refugee crisis’ demonstrate a schism between the ‘old’ and the ‘new Europe’. Hostile attitudes reveal how unresolved post-imperial pasts currently manifest themselves in a seeming inability to show solidarity and empathy for the human suffering of others. To address this question critically, I utilize the notion of ‘independence’ to disentangle the specific neoliberal political mentality that has developed in the Central and Eastern European region, along with a variety of ethno-nationalisms which relive their own past wounds. In countries which have wiped away almost all reminders of their socialist past, solidarity and collectivity are not widely subscribed-to values. Apart from the immediate need to act alongside other European countries and help to accommodate current refugee flows, the Eastern Bloc has a long and necessary journey ahead. This is to negotiate and address their own social and cultural pluralities, which have been deliberately ignored in the rush to join the club of the worlds’ wealthiest democracies in the EU. During this formally accelerated political process, insufficient attention has been paid to social transformations in these new EU countries, including their reluctance to take in and accommodate new migrants and refugees.

Constraining Elites: The Impact of Treaty Networks on Foreign Policy

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-320
Author(s):  
Michael O. Slobodchikoff
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Customs Union ◽  
Association Agreement ◽  
Treaty Networks ◽  
Bilateral Treaties ◽  
The Impact

In democracies, elites should be responsive to public opinion. This is especially true in Eastern Europe, where politicians fear electoral sanctions in the process of reform (Roberts and Kim 2011). Public opinion in general in Eastern Europe has been overwhelmingly in favor of European integration (Caplanova et al. 2004). In Ukraine, public opinion was in favor of increased cooperation with the eu, while in Moldova, public opinion was in favor of increased cooperation with the Russian led Customs Union. Ukraine refused to sign an association agreement with the eu, while Moldova enthusiastically signed the same association agreement. Why should both Ukrainian and Moldovan political elites have chosen not to be responsive to public opinion in such an important decision? Using network analysis of bilateral treaties between Russia and Moldova and Russia and Ukraine, I predict the responsiveness of political elites to public opinion toward European integration. I argue that the denser a treaty network between a weaker state and the regional hegemon, the less likely political elites will be to cooperate and move toward European integration. Conversely, less dense treaty networks allow politicians more flexibility in following their own preferences. Further, I offer a prediction for other states in the fsu to seek further cooperation with the eu.

scholarly journals Regional Cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe and its Implications for the EU

European View ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktória Jančošekovà
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Central Eastern Europe ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
Visegrád Countries ◽  
The Eu

Regional cooperation is mutually beneficial collaboration between neighbouring countries. This holds regardless of whether it is a matter of cooperation between the Benelux countries, the Nordic–Baltic states, France and Germany, or the Visegrad countries. The last-mentioned countries' dismissive attitude to tackling the migration crisis has thrust them into the limelight. The most recent cooperative forums in the Central Eastern Europe region, such as the Slavkov Triangle and the Three Seas Initiative, evidence a new dynamic and a regrouping of forces on the basis of national interests and EU themes. Western and Eastern Europe have different approaches to the most pressing challenges, such as migration. These differences have caused deep divisions between their respective leaders. However, the disagreements on the migration issue and the future of the EU notwithstanding, regional cooperation among the Central and Eastern European countries remains valuable in areas that include the integration process, security and defence.

Clientelism, Elites, and the Media in Central and Eastern Europe

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 497-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Örnebring
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Mass Communication ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Communication Tools ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Elite Networks ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Many ◽  
Definition Of

This article argues that the traditional political science definition of clientelism is insufficient for explaining how the media fit in with clientelistic systems in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It is suggested that a broader understanding of clientelism, looking in particular at how media are used as elite-to-elite communication tools as well as elite-to-mass communication tools, better explains the place of the media in the clientelistic systems of the CEE nations. Empirically, it is based on a set of 272 elite and expert interviews conducted across ten CEE countries (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia) in 2010 and 2011. The article presents some general findings on the nature and character of the linkages between political elites and the media, and the extent to which such linkages can be considered clientelistic. Then follows a discussion of specific practices of media instrumentalization, charting the many ways in which the media can function as a resource in conflicts and negotiations between clientelistic elite networks, directly as well as indirectly. Particular attention is given to the phenomena of advertorials and kompromat.

scholarly journals “We are fortress Europe!” Nativism and religion in the ideology of Pegida in the context of the European crisis

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 53-68
Author(s):  
Mihai Murariu
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western Civilization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
European Crisis ◽  
Fortress Europe ◽  
The One

This article deals with the movement known as “Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the Occident,” or Pegida, focusing primarily on the nativist dimension which often takes centre stage in its ideological discourse. Pegida describes itself as a defender of Western Civilization and of its Christian legacy from what it sees as the perils of Islamisation on the one hand, and of globalist political elites on the other. In the context of the political changes and rise of alternative visions of civil society, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, Pegida should arguably be seen as a representative of a growing European nativist wave. Lastly, the article looks at the “Prague Declaration,” a document which was signed in 2016 by Pegida and a number of allied movements from outside of Germany.

scholarly journals The application of simplified financial reporting for micro and small enterprises in Central and Eastern Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 107 (163) ◽  
pp. 137-158
Author(s):  
Olga Martyniuk ◽  
Teresa Martyniuk
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Small Enterprises ◽  
Financial Reports ◽  
Country Analysis ◽  
Micro And Small Enterprises ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Almost All

Micro- and small enterprises (MSE) have come to constitute the most dynamic element of growth in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Only through transparent reporting and com-municating information on sustainability work and performance can MSEs build their reputation and trust, attract new capital, and develop a competitive advantage. The paper aims to provide a cross-country analysis of the financial-reporting requirements concerning MSEs, a few years after the introduction of Directive 2013/34/EU. The paper focuses on the transposition of the Directive into the national laws of sixteen CEE-region countries. The objectives have been achieved through a systematic review of the current academic literature, and an analysis of national legislation and questionnaires developed for academics. It turned out that a country’s political status does not affect the implementation of the Di-rective. Moreover, although the Directive allows countries to take the specific conditions of their markets into account when making decisions regarding the size thresholds and a simplified accounting regime, most CEE countries have applied standard definitions and requirements. As a consequence, in almost all CEE countries, about 90% of entities may draw up abridged financial reports, which significantly limits the use of financial statements for decision making.

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