Ghosts in the closet: anti-gender rhetoric and conspiracy theories in Georgia’s European Union accession

Violence, during war time of through large-scale repression, leaves societies scarred. How did European Union (EU) accession influence political dealing with the past in Bulgaria and Serbia (2000-2012)? Both countries experienced repressive socialism. Serbia additionally has a war past. The EU, it appears, was not consistent in addressing historical violence, especially repressive socialism. Nevertheless, Bulgarian and Serbian political parties – from left to right – claimed that EU accession required to either confront or forget their violent past(s). Some parties demanded justice to become a worthy EU member state; others made the exact opposite argument and propagated forgiveness in light of the European future. It is actually not that strange to connect the European future and violent history. The EU’s story of who we are today is rooted in how we interpret history. Specifically, it stems from our supposed triumph over fascism ánd (a recent addition to the story) over communism. The 2012 Nobel Peace Prize confirmed this identity. But Brussels has little control over the use of these stories. Nor could the EU fully control how parties would interpret its inconsistent policy. Sometimes, (imagined) demands of EU accession indeed helped achieving arrests of Serb war criminals – ending up in The Hague. EU accession was also essential in opening the archives of the Bulgarian socialist secret services. However, this dissertation warns that right-wing Bulgarian and Serbian political parties have used and still use EU accession to kick-start nationalist historical revision.

Despite the significance of politics and public diplomacy for nation brands, there is little research on the topic. The study seeks to contribute to the literature by investigating Turkey's European Union (EU) accession, which seems endangered by negative public opinion in other EU member states, as a case to understand how nation brand images can influence a given course of action in international politics. Specifically, through an exploratory qualitative research, the content of Turkey's nation brand image, its antecedents, and potential consequences within the political context of the country's accession negotiation are explored. The findings suggest that Turkey, at the moment, does not appear to be a well-run nation brand. Not only do the poor results indicate room for improvement, but also the management of Turkey in all relevant nation brand dimensions does not seem promising with regard to a successful EU application process. Furthermore, the analysis point to a truly complicated positioning dilemma for Turkey's nation brand and the challenge of accomplishing an integrated nation brand management. The paper concludes by outlining policy and research implications.

This article investigates the extent to which European Union (EU) accession and EU funding contribute to the professionalization of interest groups in Slovenia. Have EU accession and funding had a more profound impact on the professionalization of interest groups in Slovenia than the shift from socialism to capitalism? Our novel empirical evidence is drawn from two surveys of interest groups in Slovenia—the first in 1996 eight years prior to Slovenia’s membership of the EU (in 2004) and the second in 2012 eight years after its accession. Our findings show that EU accession and funding accentuate the professionalization of interest groups. However, these processes are intertwined with the partitocratic role of national political parties and parties mediate the shape and structure of interest group professionalization via their decisions on the allocation of EU funding to groups.

The knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of the high school students on Croatia’s European Union (EU) accession event were omitted in numerous public opinion polls conducted since the 2013 accession. Therefore, the paper shows key benefits of Croatia’s EU accession and the recent attitudes of high school students about the meaning of this event for their future lives. Research methods include desktop analysis regarding previous researches of the population attitudes and a quantitative survey conducted in January 2017 on a sample of a total of 1944 school graduates who were interviewed on issues of knowledge, perception and attitude to the event of Croatia’s entrance and membership in the EU. The results point out that although Croatia acquires significant benefits from the EU accession, the very event is not recognized as being the key one by high school students. Considering that in many cases the youth opinion is the best indicator of overall social problems and considering the future programs and obligations as well as the role expected from the youth in implementation of these programs, the research findings on the perception of the event of Croatia’s accession to the EU are a field within which future policy activities are envisaged.

At the present time, there are no clear outcomes in Turkey's European Union (EU) accession process. By the end of the two years following the rise of the pro-Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) to the government in 2002, Turkey's accession process entered into a stalemate. Potent political opposition to the Turkish candidacy in Europe has escalated, despite a staunch Turkish political commitment since 1999 to meet the Copenhagen Criteria for admission. In this article, we argue that Turkey's EU accession process has contributed to opening political spaces for Islamism and ethno-nationalism in the country, ironically producing societal and political forces undermining Turkish membership. We inquire first into the practical reasons obstructing Turkey's membership to the Union and second into the societal and political implications of the continuation of the bleak possibility of EU membership for Turkey. As far as the latter is considered, our focus is limited to an analysis of the politicization and institutionalization of the ethnic and Islamist politics in Turkey within the process of democracy. By the end of the two years following the rise of the pro-Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) to the Turkish government in 2002, Turkey's European Union accession process had entered into a stalemate. Paradoxically, the Islamists, who had broken away from the traditionally Islamist oriented Virtue Party (FP) and founded the AKP, became the self-proclaimed conservative democrats of Turkey and fervent supporters of EU membership. The reason for this enthusiasm was strategic and two-fold: On the one hand, the AKP pragmatically drew upon the discourses of human rights and democracy, which constituted the main premises of the EU accession requirements, against the secular state establishment for a political opening to legitimately maneuver in. On the other, the party used its successfully constructed pro-EU face to gather support from different sectors of the society, crosscutting class and ideological divisions. Hence, it garnered support among provincial capitalists, small bourgeoisie, urbanized and rural poor, left intelligentsia, as well as the high society of the business world, and emerged as the new center-right political party - analogous to what the Motherland Party (ANAP) and the True Path Party (DYP) had previously been. Nevertheless, while the AKP's liberal policies remained mainly in terms of extensive privatization of the public sector and a commitment to an IMF-led marketization, it failed to pass the test on issues such as freedom of expression, representation, transparency, accountability, and social equity ..However,theseshortcomingshave,by. byHowever, these shortcomings have, by and large, been ignored by a majority of the press and intelligentsia that faced one form or another of pressure, and/or collaborated out of mutual interest. Undeniably, Turkey's EU candidacy has been diplomatically troubling for the EU since the official negotiations began in December 2004. Political opposition to the Turkish candidacy in Europe has escalated, despite a staunch political commitment by Turkey to meet the Copenhagen Criteria. 1 Indeed, German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed the attitude shared by many European leaders when she recently expressed doubts about the viability of Turkish membership in the EU. 2 French President Nicolas Sarkozy is another ardent opponent of Turkey's accession. The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, also declared that any EU enlargement after the membership of Bulgaria and Romania would need to wait until all constitutional and structural issues within the EU had been worked out. 3 It is not surprising then that the EU suspended talks with Turkey in December 2006 on eight policy chapters - among them, the conflict between Turkey and the Greek-majority government of Cyprus. 4 In Turkey, the pro-PKK (Partiya Karkeren-I Kurdistan, Kurdistan Workers Party)/ pro-Kurdish groups, including the Democratic People's Party (DEHAP, recently renamed the Democratic Society Party or DTP) are among those that experienced one of the highest levels of frustration with the EU accession process. …

This paper provides new insights into the causal effects of the enlargement of the European Union (EU) on patent performance. The study focuses on the new EU member states (EU-13) and accession is considered as an intervention whose causal effect is estimated by the causal impact method using a Bayesian structural time-series model (proposed by Google). The empirical results based on data collected from the OECD database from 1985–2017 point towards a conclusion that joining the EU has had a significant impact on patent performance in Romania, Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Croatia and Lithuania, although in the latter two countries, the impact was negative. For the rest of the EU-13 countries, there is no significant effect on patent performance. Whether the EU accession effect is significant or not, the EU-13 are far behind the EU-15 (countries which entered the EU before 2004) in terms of patent performance. The majority of patents (98.66%) are assigned to the EU-15, with just 1.34% of assignees belonging to the EU-13.

Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) has difficulty integrating and moving closer to the goal of becoming a member of the European Union (EU). From the legal perspective, the main issue is the need to fulfil the accession criteria. The article aims to examine the relationship between the obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and Basic Freedoms (ECHR) and the obligations related to the European Union (EU) accession process, with emphasis on Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) as an EU membership candidate country. At first sight, those two obligations are separate. However, upon close examination, a strong link between those two obligations can be established using normative research with a historical approach, statute and case-based approach. On the other hand, the constitutional system of B&H has been described as discriminatory by numerous judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and, most prominently, by the Sejdic-Finci case. B&H has difficulties implementing those judgments. Implementing those judgments is also set as one of the requirements of EU accession. Even if the two obligations seem separate at first sight, the ECHR has a special position within the law of the EU and is especially important in the accession of new Member States, including B&H. The research results show a special position of the ECHR in EU law and a link between the obligations under the ECHR and EU accession.

The paper reviews the effects of European Union (EU) accession on Polish trade policy/regulation. Trade is one of the areas where changes for the EU New Member States (NMSs) were particularly profound. The author examines the changes resulting from EU accession and analyses the impact of the adoption of Common Commercial Policy rules and principles. The main conclusion is that the benefits of adopting the EU trade system in Poland outweighed the costs. The process of adaptation to the new rules and requirements was costly and burdensome for Polish firms, but it also had many positive effects. The new trade regime has had a rather positive impact on trade and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows overall. Poland has lost its sovereignty in conducting its own trade policy, but has gained in exchange the right to shape the EU's commercial policy.

Data protection and research in the European Union: a major step forward, with a step back

Allowing for the comparison of agricultural policies among countries and supporting the European integration process, a methodological tool was developed called the APM (Agri-Policy Measures tool). The tool enables the cross country qualitative and quantitative analysis of budgetary support to agriculture using uniform classification and systemization template primarily based on the current EU concept of the policy pillars. All agricultural policy measures are grounded on three main pillars: market and direct producer support measures, structural and rural development measures and general measures related to agriculture. Total budgetary support to agriculture should represent the sum of all transfers related to agriculture from all sources, but without administrative costs and transfers to non-agricultural sectors. The tool was applied for the analysis and comparison of agricultural policies in the Western Balkan countries and it proved to be useful for policy analysis in relation to the EU accession process.Keywords: agricultural policy, budgetary transfers, an assessment tool, Western Balkan, European Union enlargementJEL: Q181. IntroductionThe form, type and scope of budgetary transfers to agriculture, as well as their development over time, are important for agricultural policy analysis. A consistent and reliable policy measure database is the necessary foundation for effective agricultural policy-making based on a policy cycle. The main problem of quantitative analyses of budgetary transfers to agriculture is that a great variety of measures are applied by individual countries. One cannot obtain an overall picture based on the analysis of each individual measure; measures must be merged into larger groups with similar content. The merging of the measures can be done based on very different criteria which is often the case.Due to the differences in agricultural policy concept and measures, the European Union (EU) accession is a economic and political challenge for every acceding country. By the date of accession, a country needs to be prepared for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), its complex administration and instruments. After the accession, a new model of supports is introduced, which is usually significantly different from the existing policy in terms of the amount of support and the content of measures (Erjavec 2007). The efficient implementation of needed policy reforms requests a solid data base about the pre-accession agricultural policy measures in comparison with the CAP instruments.In the EU, the agricultural policy measures are grouped according to the policy field and the source of financing, which are both closely related to Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) regulations in a specific programming period. Taking into account the fund from which measures are financed, CAP is currently divided into two main pillars that are also recognized in the agricultural-economic literature (Gay et all, 2005). The first pillar is financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and consists of a series of measures relating mostly to interventions in agricultural markets and direct payments to farmers set down within the framework of a common organization of the markets and other market-related regulations, although some measures of a more general character can also be found here (veterinary and plant-health issues; promotion of agricultural products; issues related to genetic resources; agricultural accounting information systems - F ADN; agricultural survey systems; fisheries markets) (European Council, 2005). For the measures financed by EAGF, there is a uniform accounting classification (EC, 2009) which enables the monitoring of budgetary expenditures by sub-categories and measures.The second pillar is financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and consists of measures within the framework of rural development programs of the Member States implemented in the current programming period. …

The Roma have been referred to as a ‘European Minority,’ reflecting both their nature as a truly transnational minority and their importance for the process of European integration in Eastern Europe. Research generally argues that the European accession process, which has greatly influenced the development of politics in the region, has had a very direct effect on the states' policies towards this disadvantaged minority. This paper proposes to investigate the link between European Union (EU) accession and minority policy by comparing the situation of the Roma in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Romania. The paper uses survey data to compare the differences that exist between the situation of the Roma and members of the majority groups along several socio-economic indicators in these four countries. Our findings add to a body of literature that finds limited support for the role of EU accession in influencing Roma policy in Eastern Europe. The EU accession process seems to have narrowed the gap between Roma and the majority in several areas, while not achieving the expected result in a few others.

This article reviews the literature on state socialization in the context of Turkey’s European Union (EU) accession and the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Rationalist and constructivist approaches are considered in order to examine Turkey’s past opposition to norms that characterize the EU’s CFSP, the interest‐driven nature of its strategic culture, its foreign policy and the particular challenges of its EU accession process. In presenting the arguments that Turkey has been putting forth to avoid full socialization, it is concluded that prospects for Turkey’s socialization are grim due to the regulatory nature of this pillar.

Purpose– The purpose of this study is to assess how the recent financial and economic crisis has affected European Union (EU) member states’ ability to attract intellectual capital. The issue was found to be relevant, as one of the key elements of competitiveness today is the ability to attract intellectual capital and the question how the recent financial and economic crisis has changed this ability of EU member states can be asked. The question is relevant in relation to the diversity of effects that the crisis had on EU member states, including, the different levels of real economy adjustment constraints.Design/methodology/approach– The concept of competitiveness applied by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in constructing the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) was used. Based on selected WEF GCI sub-indicators and the WEF’s methodology, we a new index named “Ability to attract intellectual capital” was generated. EU member states’ performance was compared along this indicator for the 2007-2008 (pre-crisis) and the 2013-2014 (post-crisis) periods. In this way, EU member states can be ranked before and after the crisis; their performance can be compared in the two periods, relatively to each other, and in relation to their performance along other relevant indices.Findings– The findings show interesting results. First, many peripheral EU member states, deeply affected by the crisis, could considerably improve their relative positions between 2007 and 2013. Second, the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries show a rather mixed picture, drawing up rather different individual development paths. Third, the advancements in some countries do not imply that overall convergence is proceeding in the EU. Nevertheless, some countries have not wasted the “good” crisis to take those steps of structural reform.Research limitations/implications– Because we only look at two time periods (pre-and post-crisis), the authors are not able to describe the processes that were going on in the EU member states during the years of the crisis; the results can only show the difference between the two periods. Furthermore, there may be other methodological approaches to countries’ abilities to attract intellectual capital that may bring results different from this study’s results. For the countries who, according to our investigations, could improve these abilities, enhanced competitiveness is likely to occur in a few years’ time.Practical implications– For those countries aiming at improving their abilities to attract intellectual capital, or for EU policy design, this research may provide useful results. Moreover, not only this study’s results but also the methodology can be used by others, for other purposes: to compare different years, different sets of countries included in the WEF GCI or even along different dimensions.Social implications– This study’s research findings, the authors believe, will help EU member states and the EU as a whole in getting to know their abilities to attract intellectual capital better. In the introductory part of this paper, the aim was also to collect arguments from the economic theory to explain why such abilities are crucial for future competitiveness of countries.Originality/value– The methodology that was used is the adoption of WEF methodology, and the data are from the WEF GCI dataset. However, to the authors’s knowledge, no other research work has applied this methodology on this set of WEF GCI sub-indicators, with such purposes as to compare EU member states’ abilities to attract intellectual capital before and after the crisis.

Battered by Geopolitical Winds, Bulgaria Struggles to Restart Much Needed Reforms

Serbia’s economy is increasingly integrating with the economies of other countries in central and Western Europe, a change that brings many challenges and opportunities. A succession of new trade agreements has increased the opportunities for both exports and imports, with a consequent need to increase competitiveness. The launch of European Union (EU) accession negotiations will further this integration by aligning Serbia’s laws, policies and institutions with those of the EU. Introduction of the new laws and policies required for accession will entail deep-seated reform, however, and the creation of new institutions will require major investments in people and institutional structures. Hence, while there are huge potential benefits from these changes, they will entail difficult choices and incur significant costs. Decisions on how best to prioritize and manage change will thus be critical to success. This report reviews the context for agricultural sector development in Serbia and identifies the immediate priorities to prepare for membership of the European Union (EU). The analysis and recommendations are intended as an input to discussion between the World Bank and the Government of Serbia on ways to support agricultural development and EU accession.