Effects Of European Integration Research Articles

The Effect of European Integration on Swiss Energy Policy and Governance

The unique “Swiss way” of association with the European Union (EU) has received increasing attention in light of recent events such as Brexit as it is based on sectoral agreements without an overarching institutional framework. As such, Europeanization of Swiss domestic policy does not follow a straightforward process. We examine the external governance processes that drive the Europeanization of Swiss energy policy. Switzerland and the EU are highly interdependent in energy due to Switzerland’s geographical position but there is a relatively low level of policy alignment, as there is no formal EU-Swiss energy agreement nor has Switzerland autonomously implemented legislation equivalent to the EU energy acquis. The EU has fully liberalized the energy market and is focusing on consumer empowerment and decarbonization through the Clean Energy Package, whereas the Swiss energy sector remains only partially liberalized. Through a series of expert interviews with key stakeholders, we reconstruct the historical developments in Swiss energy policy, focusing on the relationship with, and the influence of the EU. We observe elements of each of the three ideal modes of governance—markets, hierarchies, and networks. The relative importance of these modes of coordination in governing EU-Swiss energy relations has shifted considerably over time. Gradual harmonization of EU energy markets and certain key events have driven Swiss exclusion from EU network governance processes, leading to more hierarchy. We identify the strengths and weaknesses of each mode of governance for EU-Swiss energy relations in their historical setting and discuss the implications for energy policy in Switzerland in the context of the Clean Energy Package and EU external relations in general.

Opportunistic legitimisation and de-Europeanisation as a reverse effect of Europeanisation

This paper will look at the concept of de-Europeanisation through the prism of the official relations between the EU representatives and the political elites in two countries – Bulgaria and Serbia. Here de-Europeanisation is defined as a process of deterioration of the quality of integration or more simply as 'it is worse than it was'. The article begins with a critical overview of the dominant theoretical approaches to enlargement Europeanisation. Then, from a theoretical perspective, the article explores the role of EU legitimisation for national political elites. While distinguishing between revolutionary and opportunistic legitimisation, the paper highlights the former, based on Bulgaria and Serbia. Going beyond the liberal political narrative of democratic backsliding in Central Europe, the article will approach critically the dominant Europeanisation assumption of the unequivocally positive effect of European integration on national political elites. Particularly, it will examine the relevance of the argument that in the case of rule of law and human rights, the existing formal Europeanisation not only does not lead to informal Europeanisation of the states, but it can also have a reverse effect through the preservation of pathological political practices and their infusion into the process of European integration. The research will use a qualitative method of analysis to juxtapose the official EU/nation state political elites' rhetoric with political practices at the national level in the context of rule of law and human rights. Based on the findings, the paper argues that the EU oriented institutionalised perspective of Europeanisation omits important interactions on a micro-level that lead to the accommodation of political practices contradictory to EU's fundamental political values. While these practices survive in the peripheries of the integration process, they have the potential to multiply and eviscerate the fundamental political practices and thus the EU's political system.

The effects of European integration and the business cycle on migration flows: a gravity analysis

This paper explores how European integration, economic fluctuations, and the interactions of these factors affect bilateral migration flows. It focuses on how migration flows developed in the wake of the establishment of the European Monetary Union, and whether migration flows became stronger, and more responsive to economic fluctuations, in the euro area. It estimates a gravity equation of bilateral gross migration flows on a global sample and on a sample restricted to the first 12 members of the euro area. It is found that unemployment is a strong and robust determinant of bilateral migration flows both globally and in the euro area. EU accession and the lifting of labour market restrictions on new member states had a large effect on gross migration flows. While mutual euro area membership is not associated with an overall rise in migration, it is associated with increased flows from countries where unemployment is high to those where it is lower. Migration flows among the euro-area 12 have been on an increasing trend since the late 1990s; after falls in 2009 they picked up again in 2010 and 2011. The evidence overall suggests that labour mobility plays an increasing role in the adjustment to asymmetric shocks in the EU and the euro area.

You can always get what you want: why religious organizations opposed the employment equality directive

The Employment Equality Directive expands protections for, among others, gays and lesbians from discriminatory employment practices. This directive has been implemented poorly in Ireland, the UK, and Germany, because religious organizations believed their core ideological and material interests were threatened by extending these protections, even though degrees of policy fit vary among all three countries. Furthermore, the European Commission’s enforcement measures have not been effective in securing compliance. The European Commission has permitted noncompliance to continue in Ireland and the UK. Only change in the partisan make-up of the government led to compliance. This article speaks to ongoing debates about the causes of noncompliance with European Union law and how religious groups, not often considered in the scholarly literature, are now trying to limit the effects of European integration.

The Effects of European Integration on European Identity

On November 13, 2015 a handful of terrorists unleashed a barrage of coordinated attacks at public gathering spots in Paris, France, followed by Belgium twin bombings on 22 March 2016. As the casualty figures climbed and investigators swung into action, news reports were filled with grim comparisons. Some calling it the worst night of violence in France since World War II (1939-1945), and others saying it could be Europe’s most horrific terrorist attack in history. Cutting past any hysteria or hyperbole, it is clear that the Nov. 13 and March 22 attacks have brought to a head the conversation on a number of difficult, overlapping questions facing both Europe and the Middle East. It raised critical European identity. The writer attempt to examine European integration impacts on its identity in descriptive analytical research, and founded that, it might be triggered 4 (four) main strategic issues surrounding the European decision makers, including: First, how might European states shift their stance toward the influx of migrants and refugees coming from war zones in the Middle East?; Second, are the capabilities of the Islamic State truly expanding, as recent claims suggest? What are its actual strengths and weaknesses?; Third, what options does Paris have in responding to the Nov. 13 attacks? As France steps up the tempo of airstrikes in Syria, will the Vienna talks on Syria’s conflict be radically reshaped?; Fourth, what does the future hold for the Schengen Agreement, and would its unraveling lead the European Union itself closer to dissolution? While investigators are busy piecing the story of what happened together and the mainstream media report their publicly announced findings. However, still attractive for those scholars who want to elaborate the European integration progress, as how to predict what’s likely to happen next.

Accession and association: The effects of European integration and neoliberalism on rising inequality and kin‐neighbor reciprocity in the Republic of Macedonia

AbstractSince the dissolution of socialist Yugoslavia more than twenty years ago, there has been a monumental shift in economic policy and governance in the Republic of Macedonia. Though political rhetoric claims that markets are regulated by the state, the implementation of neoliberal policies has resulted in private interests taking control of industries that were formerly socially owned and managed. This process has led to significant inequality in the country, from disparities in wealth and opportunities to unemployment and poverty. In its largest wine region, Tikveš, one finds evidence of the crossroads where habits of global consumption meet rural kinship structures in a unique geographical and political setting. As the country is seeking greater integration with the Euro–American alliance, the Macedonian case enables us to think about reciprocity and hospitality in terms of external, global impositions. However, it also shows resilience to such forces, where cultural traditions and customs (such as hospitality and reciprocity) not only remain but have been strengthened.

An ethnonational perspective on territorial politics in the EU: east-west comparisons from a pilot study

This paper examines the relationship between European integration and ethnonational demands with the example of selected regions in the European Union (EU). It follows the theoretical premises of new regionalism and explores the ways in which ethnonational groups use the opportunities and resources of European governance to express their identities, material interests, and political demands. Methodologically, it conducts a plausibility probe of the potential effects of European integration on ethnonationalism by testing for regional differences in identities, interests, and political attitudes. The case studies are drawn from the UK (Wales and Scotland), Belgium (Flanders), Austria (Carinthia and Burgenland), Romania (Northwest and Center regions), and Bulgaria (South-Central and South-Eastern regions) as a representative selection of regional interests in the EU. The paper finds that European integration affects ethnonational groups by reinforcing identity construction in the direction of inclusiveness and diversity. Although regional actors are more supportive of the EU than the European publics in general, they also seek access to representation in the authority structures of the state. Based on these findings, the paper concludes that European integration facilitates a growing public acceptance of its resources, in parallel with persisting allegiances to the nation-state, the community, and ethnoregional distinctiveness.

Identifying European Economic Integration and Globalization: A Review of Concepts and Measures

Krieger-Boden C. and Soltwedel R. Identifying European economic integration and globalization: a review of concepts and measures, Regional Studies. Processes of regional economic integration such as the European integration process have been shaping the economic relations between countries significantly during the last decades. At the same time an increasing integration of all national economies into the global economy has affected these economic relations, too. In an effort to contribute to operationalizing these integration processes for the purpose of empirical analyses, this paper reviews the concepts and actual measures of European integration and globalization. In particular, it discusses ways of separating the effects of European integration from those of globalization, thereby also reducing problems of endogeneity and collinearity.

Three Nordic Power Investigations on the Repercussions of the European Union on Sovereignty and Democracy

Public inquiries into the state of democracy and power were undertaken in three Scandinavian states—Norway, Denmark and Sweden—on the threshold of the twenty-first century. The parliamentary directives identified globalization and, above all, the effects of European integration as the main challenges to popular rule in these three small democracies. The Scandinavian power investigations arrived at different conclusions about the impact of European integration on national sovereignty and on the distribution of power in the respective societies, and each country saw their problem differently. The Swedish report acknowledged minor difficulty with regard to the distribution of power; the Norwegian investigation concluded on a bleak note; whereas the Danish conclusion was affirmative and was self-conscious of being a European role model. The article attributes national differences to different normative conceptions of sovereignty and to the historical and institutional character of the three states' relationship with the EU.

Empirical Evidence Regarding the Effects of European Integration on Banks Efficiency

The academic literature suggests that the European integration process enhances the development of the economic environment in the case of the candidate countries. The banking sector represents, especially in the case of the new EU member countries, the backbone of the economy, as it is the main channel through which the economic undertakings are financed. Thus, in this context, the aim of our research is to analyse if the ascension to EU membership and the preparation for the adoption of the European single currency, in the case of Bulgaria and Romania, the two countries that have joined the EU in 2007, have determined an enhancement of the overall estimated efficiency of their banking sectors. In order to achieve this we have employed a non-parametric analysis, namely the Data Envelopment Analysis, using one of the most comprehensive samples of banks for this type of researches. The obtained results suggest that during the analysed period of time 2003-2010, the overall estimated banking efficiency for these countries has registered a slight improvement.

One Trigger – Two Outcomes: The Role of EU Integration in Boosting and Eroding the Balkan Ethno-National Identities; The Case of Bulgaria and of (F.Y.R. of) Macedonia

This research focuses on mutations in national identities in contemporary Balkan context. It takes nations as dynamic communities, sharing some basic cultural codes of understanding. Having a common language is certainly a facilitating factor in such interpretative social activity. On the Balkans, despite the widespread national myths, nations are fairly recent phenomena.Multiple causal mechanisms, socially based or state-based, material or ideal, have helped painting the current picture of national communities. Unlike some authors within the literature, I do not see this process as irrevocably settled. The volcanoes may look extinguished, but new processes take place under the surface. Each new fundamental shift in the continental plate creates opportunities for renegotiating national contracts and galvanizing hidden social forces. European integration represents such a fundamental shift. It erodes from both above and below the principle that, according to Weber, state is a human community that successfully claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. Within the process of European integration member states give up their sovereignty within particular domains; their citizens find new channels for expressing grievances and influencing domestic political actors. People start questioning whether it is worth taking part in national political process instead of switching allegiance to supranational political bodies. And this process of integration is still an open-ended development that will hardly settle in a near future. This research, based on an interpretative and constructivist paradigm, provides findings as to what are the effects of this integration on state-owning national communities in the Balkans. It takes two cases, Bulgaria and Macedonia, as examples of states already within the Union and still waiting to become members. It uses qualitative methodology, mainly semi-directive biographical interviews and non-participant ethnographic observations from three field trips to these countries between 2009 and 2011 as part of my doctoral research question on the effects of European integration on political culture in post-communist countries. The findings confirm that these two national communities, far from being static objects, are in a state of perpetual motion. Informants report more attachment to or detachment from their respective national communities as a direct result of European integration as an interpretative process. People may become more or less Bulgarian, or Macedonian, or European; or they may become simultaneously more present within their respective national communities and the new supranational identity. There are many, instead of a single cultural trajectory.

Effects of European integration on Austria’s economy

High expectations were placed on the project of European economic integration and Austria’s participation in it. Economists had expected that the Single Market would provide a positive supply shock, i.e. rising productivity, resulting in more growth. The optimistic forecasts for neither the EU nor for Austria were borne out by actual economic trends. Economic growth as well as productivity growth decelerated, while unemployment increased. Monetary union was implemented with an economic policy framework, the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) that geared monetary policy only to price stability and at the same time prescribed restrictive fiscal policies. The SGP therefore reveals a deflationary bias. The existing literature on the effects of EU accession on the Austrian economy by design fails to account for the restrictive effects of the SGP. The paper presents simulation results allowing for supply shocks as well as demand shocks. The simulations are based on a medium‐sized macroeconometric model. The results indicate that recent studies overestimate the positive effects of European integration. A simulation of the restrictive demand‐side effects of the SGP, with the assumption that around half of the fall in public consumption growth in the Euro countries can be attributed to the SGP, produced significant negative growth effects. The net effect suggests a negative quarter percentage point p.a. during the period 1995–2004.

Securing the Only Game in Town: The EU's Political Conditionality and Democratic Consolidation in Post-Soviet Latvia

The state of democracy in post-communist Europe has been subject to some debate in recent years; but it needs to take account of longer-term trends. The focus here is on how far the EU's political conditionality has contributed to democratic consolidation using an in-depth case study of post-Soviet Latvia. The record of the impacts of conditionality up to EU entry is examined and then attention turns to whether post-accession tendencies have demonstrated any significant changes after the end of Brussels' monitoring. Using a comparative framework, this article shows that the outcome after four years of EU membership is mixed with both positive and negative results. It is concluded that there is no automatic locking-in effect of European integration; and that conditionality assists democratic consolidation more in structural than in attitudinal or behavioural terms.

Growth, convergence and EU membership

The effect of European integration on long-term growth of the EU-15 member states is studied by means of panel data methods. The length of EU membership is found to have a significant positive effect on economic growth, which is relatively higher for poorer countries. While previous empirical studies tend not to find positive growth effects of regional integration, the present study suggests an asymmetric, convergence-stimulating impact of EU membership on long-term growth.

European integration, regional growth and cohesion: an overview

This special issue of the International Journal for Public Policy focuses on the effects of European integration on regional production structures, in particular in border regions, as well as economic interactions across border regions in the enlarged European Union (EU). Furthermore, we discuss the impact of transport, cohesion and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) policies on border regions and more broadly on regional growth and cohesion.

When adaptation eludes transformation: The Losing Game of Portuguese Territories within the Context of Europe

What may be the expected effects of European integration on Portuguese regions, referring to the role of Community funding in public sub-national activity? The inclusion of Portuguese local and regional entities within the European context opens up new opportunities in a new administrative environment. This should influence the socio-political practices under which they usually operate. Significant consequences are also to be expected in the way they act, especially bearing in mind that Portugal is one of the countries that has benefited most from European regional policy. To what extent this has led to a modernization of the Portuguese political system, considering specifically the principles of transparency, subsidiarity and participation which are promoted by European discourse ? These should lead to an enhanced role of territorial forces in the decision-making processes.

The Europeanization of gender equality – who controls the scope of non-discrimination?

The paper examines the extent to which member states control the impact of European Union (EU) policies. It does so through an historical study of what is considered to be the ‘least likely case’ – the Europeanization of Danish gender equality. The analytical findings identify various and diverse effects of European integration over time on national policy, politics and law. Historically, the EU has had a major role in furthering and putting into effect equality rights – even in the ‘least likely’ case of Denmark. From a theoretical perspective, the paper argues that the study of Europeanization could learn from the insights of implementation theory. Empirically, the analysis demonstrates that the process of implementation involves a complex series of ‘decision points’ that extend beyond the control of national governments. These ‘decision points’ may veto, extend or enforce the impact of European policy. Furthermore, states do not act with a single purpose, but are comprised of a variety of, often competing, actors and interest groups.

Europe and health – national health care systems and the effects of European integration

Die Zeitschrift für öffentliche und gemeinwirtschaftliche Unternehmen (Journal for Public and Nonprofit Services) versteht sich als Informations-, Diskussions- und Dokumentationsschrift und ist zugleich Organ des Bundesverbandes Öffentliche Dienstleistungen - Deutsche Sektion des CEEP. Die ZögU wendet sich an Forscher, Lehrer und Studierende in wissenschaftlichen Hochschulen, Fachhochschulen sowie Verwaltungs- und Wirtschaftsakademien, ferner an wissenschaftlich interessierte Führungskräfte sowohl in den Unternehmen des Bundes, der Länder und der Gemeinden einschließlich der gemischtwirtschaftlichen Unternehmen als auch in den Unternehmen von Kirchen, Stiftungen, Parteien, Verbänden und Gewerkschaften einschließlich der öffentlich gebundenen und genossenschaftlichen Unternehmen, nicht zuletzt an Politiker und Angehörige von öffentlichen Verwaltungen, Verbänden und Gewerkschaften, die mit öffentlichen und gemeinwirtschaftlichen Unternehmen zu tun haben.

L'« européanisation » de l'administration publique maltaise : image inversée, laboratoire ou paradigme ?

The “Europeanisation” of Maltese Public Administration : Mirror-Image, Laboratory or Paradigm ? Malta’s adhesion to the European Union has raised a number of internal issues, crystallising around three points : Malta’s place in European institutions, the competencies of its government, and its administrative capacity. The different effects of European integration on all three, the administration in particular, make Malta a paradigm of the micro-state confronted with European integration.

The European Union at the Ballot Box?

Scholars have developed a large body of knowledge on the domestic underpinnings and effects of European integration. Students of the European Union (EU) have devoted considerable attention to the sources of citizen and party support for EU membership. This attention would suggest the presence of a dynamic process in which parties compete for votes by adopting stances on the EU, and citizens vote on the European issue. Evidence from the three new member states—Austria, Finland, and Sweden—shows that citizen attitudes about the EU affected vote choice in national elections in all three states before and after accession. This finding suggests the existence of an electoral dynamic between voters and parties over European integration, with mass publics having an important role in constraining future efforts at integration. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.