EU Action Research Articles

The European Union: the polycentric climate policy leader?

AbstractThe European Union's (EU) claims to be a leader in international climate policy are well known. Since the early 1990s, a rich and vibrant academic literature has analyzed the internal sources and international consequences of its leadership aspirations, especially in relation to the challenges of mitigation. More recently, attention has turned to adaptation policy. The literature highlights how policy actors have successfully exploited many of the opportunities afforded by the EU's ‘polycentric’ form, while minimizing its downsides, but that acute challenges lie ahead, particularly if a strong global‐level framework remains elusive. It has continually underlined the fact that the EU's climate policy activities have enormous relevance well beyond European borders. Both in terms of its role as a driver of international policy and a source of transferable policy lessons on how to govern in ‘polycentric’ settings, appreciating the EU's experience is vital for those seeking to understand the governance of climate change, both within and between states. WIREs Clim Change 2013, 4:75–90. doi: 10.1002/wcc.205This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance

The European Union as a model for regional integration in the Southern African Development Community : a selective institutional comparative analysis

The SADC has adopted EU model of integration. Most SADC institutions mirror their EU equivalents. These institutions are treaty based; hence this comparative discussion is relevant in showing how institutions in both SADC and EU play influential roles in economic integration as mandated by their Treaties. These institutions have defined roles pertaining to law-making processes and in relation to adjudication of EU's activities. The rationale behind this discussion is mainly informed by choice SADC has made in electing EU linear model of integration. The choice of using EU as a model was irresistible for SADC as the EU is a living laboratory for integration theory. It is for this reason that this article investigates rationale behind choice, its implications and, ultimately, whether such an ambitious agenda can produce desired results.

The European Union’s Normative Power in a more Global Era

The global environment in which the EU and other actors are constituted has changed significantly over the past twenty years, as the international system of the 16th century gives way to the global life of multipolarity. What this change suggests is that such widespread global transformations necessitate a rethinking of both power and actorness in global politics. This article argues that in a more global era the understanding of normative power, including the EU’s normative power, is more vital than ever. This globalising, multilateralising and multipolarising era requires a reconsideration of the nature of power and actorness and the theorisation of ‘normative justification’ in this context. This reconsideration is necessary because processes of globalisation have empowered transnational actors such as global credit ratings agencies; because multilateralising processes have empowered international fora such as the G20; and because multipolar processes have empowered emerging actors such as the BRICS. Second, the global era requires a reassessment by rethinking the nature of power, in particular because the breaking old dichotomies of ‘hard power’ vs. ‘soft power’ demands the reintroduction of an ideational dimension in the form of normative power. Here a discussion of ‘normative justification’ in action is useful in illustrating a rethinking of nature of power. Third, within this context of power and actors the article rethinks actorness because new global actors such as transnational movements, regional organisations, global governors, and emerging economies demand new thinking on how these actors are constituted through their use of new forms of power. Finally, the article argues that in this global era, the rethinking of power and actorness are crucial aspects of understanding the EU and understanding normative power in global politics.

EU Migration Governance in Central Asia: Everybody’s Business – Nobody’s Business?

Abstract The EU has been involved in various migration governance initiatives in Central Asia with ambiguous impact. Among the reasons given to account for EU external governance failures in Central Asia figure poor EU local expertise , “awkwardness” of states in the region, low level of regional cooperation and high conflict potential among Central Asian states. This article identifies previously neglected challenges for EU migration governance in Central Asia due to the nature of international governors present in the field and to the character of relationships between them: strategic – the lack of donors’ coordination, and operational – limited coordination and often open competition between implementing partners. The article concludes by arguing that current EU actions in this field form a set of disparate initiatives that do not amount to a comprehensive policy seeking to impact migration in Central Asia but rather strive to broaden and strengthen EU presence in the region.

Urban Governance in Europe: A Theoretical Aproach and Best Practices

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Can the Eastern Partnership Work?

The EU has been promoting its interests in Eastern Europe by exporting its values and building more political and business links with the region, but the strategy has thus far not worked to the EU's liking. This is mainly because most Eastern Partnership countries hope that the EU will eventually drop the values-based conditions and focus solely on interests such as trade and security. The EU's actions have sometimes encouraged such expectations. However, this is a false choice: in practice, there is not much difference between the interests and values the EU aims to promote in the region. To make the Eastern Partnership an initiative worthy of its name, the EU should continue to promote both its interests and values in its Eastern neighbourhood, but it also needs to invest much more in cultivating new partners in the region.

The evolving security environment in the eastern Mediterranean: is NATO still a relevant actor?

The article aims to briefly describe the main trends and drivers in the Mediterranean and the Middle East (with an emphasis on the eastern Mediterranean) and to assess whether NATO has a meaningful role to play, either as an autonomous actor, or in cooperation with the EU or regional actors. More specifically, the article will assess the possible contribution of NATO in the following areas/missions: (a) peacemaking operations/PSOs, humanitarian intervention (Libya-type) and post-conflict stabilization; (b) security sector reform; (c) maritime security; (d) combating WMD proliferation; and (e) energy security.

State Aid Policy, Territoriality and Federalism: EU Scrutiny and Control of Regional Aid and the Supranationalisation of Subnational Autonomy in Federal Member States

Whilst its impact on national industrial policy has attracted considerable attention in the scholarly literature, the implications of EU state aid policy on regional development policy and its effects on territorial relations inside EU member states have been largely neglected. Drawing on the experience of Bavaria, Flanders and Upper Austria, this article shows how EU action has imposed increasingly wide reaching and detailed constraints on subnational authorities, undermining and eroding their capacity to define and implement regional policy. It thereby also challenges the widely held presumption in the EU literature, as for example by proponents of multi-level governance, that European integration works invariably to empower and strengthen regions in Europe. To the contrary, the case studies show that the autonomy of subnational states in EU member countries with federal systems has been eroded as they have been forced to abandon traditional policies and practices. More generally, the article invites reconsideration of the relationship between European integration and subnational authorities.

Regional attachment and support for European integration

The European Union has evolved into a system of multilevel governance. EU actions have facilitated the involvement of regional/subnational authorities in EU policy formulation and implementation, thus enabling a downward shift in competencies toward subnational authorities. In this article, I argue that regional attachment facilitates support for European integration. Specifically, I show that individuals holding inclusive regional attachment sentiments perceive EU policies that result in the empowerment of subnational authorities in a positive light. In the process, these individuals are more likely to be supportive of European integration. This article’s findings contribute to the literature on public opinion and European integration by exploring regionalist sources of support for European integration. Moreover, these findings contribute to the growing research on the emergence of a ‘Europe of the regions.’

Shaping the global communications milieu: The EU's influence on Internet and telecommunications governance

This article evaluates the European Union's (EU) influence in shaping the global governance for telecommunications and the Internet. Through analysing EU behaviour within an actorness framework, we demonstrate how the external opportunity structure and the EU's internal environment has impacted on its ability to exert and maximize its presence in order to meet its goals and aims in these two very different sub-sectors of global communications in terms of evolution and development. Such a comparison of EU actorness, we argue, is revealing in terms of uncovering the underlying factors and conditions that allow the EU to influence two important and dynamic communications sub-sectors.

Dietary exposure to polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans via fish consumption and dioxin-like activity in fish determined by H4IIE-luc bioassay

Dietary exposure to polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) via fish consumption in two major electronic (e) waste sites: Guiyu (GY), Guangdong Province and Taizhou (TZ), Zhejiang Province, and dioxin-like activity in fish determined by H4IIE-luc bioassay. In the present study, all fish were below EU's maximum allowable concentration in muscle of fish (4pg WHO-TEQ/g wet wt), except crucian (4.28pg WHO-TEQ/g wet wt) and silver carps (7.49pg WHO-TEQ/g wet wt) collected from GY rivers. Moreover, the residual concentration in bighead carp collected from GY (2.15pg WHO-TEQ/g wet wt) was close to the EU's action level (3pg WHO-TEQ/g wet wt) which gives “early warning” to the competent authorities and operators to take measures to eliminate contamination. In addition, results indicated that the maximum human intake of PCDD/Fs via freshwater fish consumption in GY was 4.31pg WHO-TEQ/kg bw/day, which exceeds the higher end of the tolerable daily intake recommended by the WHO, EC-SCF and JECFA (1–4, 2 and 2.3pg WHO-TEQ/kg bw/day respectively). Furthermore, H4IIE-luc cell bioassay provides a very sensitive and cost-efficient screening tool for assessing the overall dioxin-like toxicity in the study, and is therefore valuable for high-throughput environmental monitoring studies.

Aktuelle Probleme bei der Anwendung der Fluggastrechte-VO 261/2004/EG und Perspektiven bei der geplanten Reform aus der Sicht des Passagiers

Regulation 261/2004/EC is one of the most important sources of travel-law. It establishes rules on compensation, reimbursement or re-routing and assistance to passengers in the events of denied boarding, cancellation or delay of flights. Since it has come into force on 17.02.2005 a lot of problems have arisen, airlines do not comply with the regulation or the judgements by the CJEU, complaint handling and enforcement are not effective. National enforcement bodies should take the measures necessary to ensure that passenger rights are respected, but there is no uniform interpretation and application of the Regulation because of different national processes and legislation on sanctions in the member states. And obviously there is a need for clarification of some provisions of the Regulation, nevertheless the CJEU has delivered seven judgements by now. Different problems and possible action have been discussed in articles, communications and consultations by European Commission, studies, position papers and a resolution by European Parliament. Examples from the practical experience of the author illustrate the current situation from the perspective of a passenger, respectively a consumer organisation. But since 2011 it seems likely that the Regulation will be revised. In this regard it is of great importance to consider the resolution on the functioning and application of established rights of people travelling by air, adopted by the European Parliament in March 2012, calling for more EU action to strengthen air passenger rights. The consultation on the possible revision of the Regulation, launched by the European Commission in December 2011, is also analysed in this article. Finally it is relevant to take a look at the opinion delivered by Advocate General Bot in the pending joined cases Nelson ea and TUI Travel ea, which are dealing the controversial judgement in joined cases Sturgeon ea and Bock and Lepuschitz.

Mental Models and the Europe 2020 Strategy: Neo-schumpetarian Ideas in Innovation and Education

This article asks how ideas have mattered for the establishment of policy goals for the Europe 2020 Strategy. I argue that despite the specification of new environmental and social targets, the overall policy goals of Europe 2020 remain consistent with the 2000 Lisbon Agenda because the European Council and the European Commission have had resilient causal beliefs about the challenges of globalization, as well as the appropriate responses to these challenges. Using Alan Jacobs's theory of mental models and attention heuristics, this article describes the connection between neo-schumpetarian ideas and the policy outcomes of Europe 2020, particularly in the domains of innovation and education policy. Establishing this connection is an essential first step to explain precisely how ideas can determine and maintain the policy preferences of particular EU actors, a direction for future research.
 
 Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v7i2.217

Mental Models and the Europe 2020 Strategy: Neo-schumpetarian Ideas in Innovation and Education

This article asks how ideas have mattered for the establishment of policy goals for the Europe 2020 Strategy. I argue that despite the specification of new environmental and social targets, the overall policy goals of Europe 2020 remain consistent with the 2000 Lisbon Agenda because the European Council and the European Commission have had resilient causal beliefs about the challenges of globalization, as well as the appropriate responses to these challenges. Using Alan Jacobs's theory of mental models and attention heuristics, this article describes the connection between neo-schumpetarian ideas and the policy outcomes of Europe 2020, particularly in the domains of innovation and education policy. Establishing this connection is an essential first step to explain precisely how ideas can determine and maintain the policy preferences of particular EU actors, a direction for future research.

‘More and better jobs’: is quality of work still an issue – and was it ever?

Quality of work is a core element of the European social model. In this article we analyse the role and instruments of EU actors in this policy area in order to discover the extent to which it has been institutionalized since the mid-1990s. We first demonstrate that quality of work has to be understood as a multi-dimensional concept, before analysing the respective roles of and interactions between the Council, the Commission, the European Parliament and the social partners. Both the definition of the subject as a policy problem and the construction of a comprehensive indicator-based monitoring tool represent necessary, albeit not sufficient, steps to promote the quality dimension of work. The article is based on document and secondary literature analysis as well as expert interviews.

The North African Revolutions: A Chance to Rethink European Externalization of the Handling of Non-EU Migrant Inflows

In this paper, I discuss EU and member state externalization of the handling of non-EU, irregular migration flows. Following a historical and theoretical Introduction, I address in section “European Reactions to the Migration Flows Following the Arab Spring” the migration consequences of the 2011 North Africa revolutions, focusing particularly on how they provoked an EU migration policy crisis. Then, I show in section “Migration Policy Development in the EU: Fortress Europe or Strategic Incoherence?” how this was an outcome of the ineffectualness and strategic incoherence of EU immigration policy. This is ironic because the EU is criticized—incorrectly, I claim—for having developed a well-oiled non-entree regime that skirts human/immigrant rights obligations by externalizing interdiction, detention, and processing of irregular migrants to countries with lower detention standards and higher human rights abuse rates. In section “The Member States' Role in the Externalization of European Migration Policy”, I demonstrate that when such externalization policies are enacted, they are less due to EU action and more a function of member state decisions. I show that EU periphery member states are responsible for the most problematic policies partially because constraints on EU-level policy making incentivize these member states to erect “Fortress Europe” through their own devices.

EU’s Human Rights Protection Policy

The overall objective of this paper is to outline the evolution of human rights policy in the European Union, with particular emphasis on the delimitation of time resulting from the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon signed on 13 December 2007, which revealed how strongly law is related to politics. Focusing on that issue is not accidental. This results from the fact that the European Union is an excellent example of an international organization whose priority aim at the moment of its creation was not the protection of human rights treated as an end in itself, and which in the course of its development has made the protection and promotion of human rights, “a silver thread running through all EU actions “. The specific objectives (though no less important from the point of view of the essence of human rights protection in the European Union) are: to show the systemic nature of the protection of those rights, the nature which is increasingly becoming part of the European Union, hitherto breaking somewhat the monopoly of the Council of Europe in this field; and to evaluate the European Union policy on the protection of human rights.

The EU ban on the import of seal products and the WTO regulations: neglected human rights of the Arctic indigenous peoples?

ABSTRACTThe EU ban on the import and commercialising of seals and seal products in the EU market, has attracted intense attention in recent years. As seal products mostly originate from outside the EU, it is argued that the EU action has been discriminatory and hence contrary to the WTO regulations. Canada and Norway have been critical of the EU regulation and have initiated dispute settlement procedures within the WTO since most of the products that enter into the internal market are mainly from these countries. The ban also provoked anger within the Inuit and other indigenous communities, mainly from Canada and Greenland. Although the EU regulation provides an exception for Inuit and indigenous hunts and the subsequent commercialisation of resulting products into the internal market, the exception suffers from clarity and lacks proper implementation procedures. The regulation is predicted to lead to the ultimate disappearance of the seal market in the EU, which directly affects the Inuit and other indigenous peoples engaged in sealing activities. They may lose their means of subsistence. While analysing the critical issues concerning the EU and the WTO regulations and its exceptions, the article focuses on the human rights perspective of the Arctic indigenous peoples affected by the EU ban.

The inclusion of the aviation sector within the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme: What are the prospects for a more sustainable aviation industry?

International aviation emissions of CO2 were excluded from the Kyoto Protocol. Global aviation has grown strongly, with traffic increasing at an average rate of 4.4% per year over the period 1989–2009 but there has been no regulatory action on CO2, owing to difficulties over agreeing how emissions should be allocated to Parties. Slow progress by the International Civil Aviation Organization to develop market-based mechanisms has resulted in the EU taking unilateral action, by including aviation within its emissions trading scheme, commencing January 2012. The cap for the allowances of the scheme is based upon the average 2004–2006 emissions for the EU-27, ∼219 million tonnes CO2. Aviation CO2 emissions for 2006 were calculated to be 587 million tonnes, globally, of which 135 million tonnes were attributable to international flights to/from the EU, 51 million tonnes for intra-EU, and 16.5 million tonnes for domestic EU-27. Thus, under the EU's emissions trading scheme, 35% of global aviation CO2 emissions would be captured. The EU's action has been opposed by a number of countries, airlines and trade associations, expressing concerns over its legality under ICAO's Chicago Convention. By contrast, non-governmental organizations have criticized the policy for not addressing aviation's non-CO2 impacts. Currently, there is no consensus on the most appropriate method for addressing aviation's non-CO2 impacts. A shift in policy governance from the EU to ICAO may help to alleviate some of the concerns that have been raised and a global scheme would facilitate a greater scope for emissions reductions.

The North African Revolutions: A Chance to Rethink European Externalization of the Handling of Non-EU Migrant Inflows

In this paper I discuss EU and member state externalization of the handling of non-EU migration flows. I begin with a discussion of the migration consequences of the 2011 Maghreb revolutions, which provoked an EU migration policy crisis. Then I show how this was an outcome of the ineffectual and strategically incoherent nature of EU immigration policy, which is incorrectly criticized as a well developed non-entree regime that skirts human/immigrant rights obligations by externalizing interdiction, detention, and processing to countries with lower detention standards and higher human rights abuse rates. Lastly I demonstrate that when such externalization policies are enacted, they are less due to EU action and more a function of member state decisions. I show that EU periphery member states are responsible for the most problematic policies in part because of constraints on EU-level policy-making that lead these member states to erect 'Fortress Europe' through their own devices.