EU Politics Research Articles

Negotiating with your mouth full: Intergovernmental negotiations between transparency and confidentiality

AbstractTransparency lies at the heart of canonical theories of international negotiations and institutions—yet it is rarely directly measured or explained. This paper explores the potential downsides of transparency reforms in intergovernmental negotiations and institutions. We argue that as formal international meetings open up to the public, negotiators face incentives to shift deliberations to more informal and opaque venues, especially for sensitive and domestically contested issues. To test when and why this occurs, we present new data on three decades of intergovernmental negotiations in the Council of the European Union (1990–2019), and in particular the use of informal breaks where no minutes are taken. We find that recourse to such breaks—especially at lunch time—has increased substantially, and that ministers often take these opportunities to discuss controversial topics. We deploy quantitative and qualitative analyses to show that variations in informal breaks correlate both with institutional enhancements to transparency and with specific concerns over antagonistic political mobilization at home, notably in the form of Euroscepticism. These findings challenge received positive and normative theories about transparency in international institutions, and contribute to the literature on informal governance, negotiation studies, EU politics, and the transnational democratic deficit.

Emotions in EU foreign policy – when and how do they matter?

ABSTRACT Despite the increasing importance of emotions in explaining political behaviour, the study of emotions in EU policies and politics remains still very limited. The core objective of this special issue is to fill this gap by shedding light on the role of ‘emotions’ in EU foreign policy and to launch a call to EU foreign policy scholars for taking emotions seriously. By analysing multiple foreign policy cases across different geographies and by elucidating the plurality of emotions expressed by the EU, the contributions to this special issue show how and when emotions bear an impact on the EU’s foreign policy decisions and actions in the cases of international norm violations by external actors. The introduction sets the framework for analysing different roles that emotions might play in EU foreign policy by introducing enabling and constraining mechanisms, whereby the EU’s emotional expressions lead to action/inaction through its institutionalised appraisal process.

Tapping the Conversation on the Meaning of Decarbonization: Discourses and Discursive Agency in EU Politics on Low-Carbon Fuels for Maritime Shipping

EU politics on decarbonizing shipping is an argumentative endeavor where different policy actors strive try to influence others to see problems and policy solutions according to their perspectives to gain monopoly on the framing and design of policies. This article critically analyzes, by means of argumentative discourse analysis, the politics and policy process related to the recent adoption of the FuelEU Maritime regulation, the world’s first legislation to set requirements for decarbonizing maritime shipping. Complementing previous research focusing on the roles and agency of policy entrepreneurs and beliefs of advocacy coalitions active in the policy process, this paper dives deeper into the politics of the new legislation. It aims to explore and explain the discursive framing and politics of meaning-making. By analyzing the political and social meaning-making of the concept “decarbonizing maritime shipping”, this paper helps us understand why the legislation was designed in the way it was. Different narratives, storylines and discourses defining different meanings of decarbonization are analyzed. So is the agency of policy actors trying to mutate the different meanings into a new meaning. Two discourses developed in dialectic conversation framed the policy proposals and subsequent debates in the policy process, focusing on (i) incremental change and technology neutrality to meet moderate emission reductions and maintain competitiveness, and (ii) transformative change and technology specificity to meet zero emissions and gain competitiveness and global leadership in the transition towards a hydrogen economy. Policy actors successfully used discursive agency strategies such as multiple functionality and vagueness to navigate between and resolve conflicts between the two discourses. Both discourses are associated with the overarching ecological modernization discourse and failed to include issue of climate justice and a just transition. The heritage of the ecological modernization discourse creates lock-ins for a broader decarbonization discourse, thus stalling a just transition.

EU transnational coalitions in polycrisis: the Visegrád-4 before and after the Russo-Ukrainian war

ABSTRACT The advances in EU integration since COVID-19 and Russia’s full-scale invasion have challenged the expectations of cross-cutting cleavages resulting in a ‘politics trap’. This article addresses this puzzle through a case study of the Visegrád-4 (V4), a key coalition in EU politics which significantly influenced many policy areas but whose effectiveness has strikingly diminished post-Brexit. Borrowing insights from EU integration theories and the literature on transnational coalitions, the article contends that inter-state cooperation depends on salience and national politicisation strategies. Based on a survey of policy documents and secondary literature, it argues that the V4 group effectively shaped EU policy through issue-specific bargaining in low-salience areas and joint politicisation of high-salience issues when it fitted the political strategies of incumbent leaders. However, in the ‘second polycrisis’, V4 unity and influence in EU politics have frayed due to overlapping conflicts in high-salience, non-negotiable areas, prominently, security.

Successful adoption of maritime environmental policy: The Mediterranean emission control area

Emission Control Areas (ECAs) are geographical locations designated by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to reduce the negative impacts of shipping on health and biodiversity. The first ECA was adopted in 2005 in the Baltic Sea and three more have followed. Since 2004, the 21 countries located around the Mediterranean Sea have discussed the introduction of an ECA, and the final adoption by the IMO occurred in 2022, 18 years later. In this paper, we apply Kingdon’s Multiple Streams policy framework to a case study of this successful project in order to identify the key success factors that may be generalised to the difficult process of international environmental policymaking in the maritime sector. The findings revealed that policy entrepreneurs were able to align the three streams by financing studies and workshops (problem stream), adopting an existing successful policy (policy stream) and leveraging an existing close political relationship in the EU (politics stream) as well as overcoming issues raised by other parties through further analysis and studies showing the benefit of the ECA policy for all Mediterranean countries (linking the problem and policy streams). The study also highlighted the importance of first achieving regional agreement before approaching the IMO global level, a lesson that may also be pertinent to other areas of maritime policy making.

Converging on Europe? The European Union in mediatised debates during the COVID-19 and Ukraine shocks

ABSTRACT European integration is at risk of becoming stuck in a ‘politics’ trap: Diverging national EU politicisation inhibits joint agreements which fuels public debates further. What can break this vicious circle? We argue that large and symmetrical exogenous shocks may reduce the divergence of national public EU debates to then study how the COVID-19 and Ukraine crises have altered mediatised EU portrayals across 753,435 articles from 228 major online news sites in the 27 EU member states during the 2018–2023 period. We find that the Covid and especially the Ukraine shock led to higher convergence in the public salience of the EU and the issue areas associated with this while partially also muting domestic party presence. However, we note that these effects appear short-lived. Large exogenous shocks thus do not lift the politicisation constraints on European integration permanently but offer at least windows of opportunity that may facilitate intergovernmental compromise.

Second-order Economic Voting in Elections to the European Parliament

When examining citizens’ behaviour in elections to the European Parliament (EP), second order elections (SOE) and economic voting (EV) have overlooked each other as alien traditions. However, they should not be seen as incompatible: voters may use EP elections to support national incumbents but, at the same time, this support may be the result of an economic assessment. This paper blends both frameworks and finds that, even though EP elections are not intended to evaluate domestic politics, voters use them to reward or punish national incumbents (i.e. SOE) for the state of the economy (i.e. EV); a behaviour referred to here as ‘second-order economic voting’. The predominance of second-order EV is relevant for EU politics. If EP elections enhance national incumbents’ accountability while the European executive remains unacknowledged, this could be disturbing for European economic institutions.

Variations in Social Europe? National political parties' positions on EU‐level social regulations

AbstractHow do national political parties vary in their views on Social Europe? I focus on an aspect that has received less attention despite its growing prevalence—EU regulations with ambitions to diminish social inequality to encourage social convergence among Member States. Since the Juncker Commission, the European Commission has become increasingly active in pursuing this aspect of Social Europe. Thus, understanding parties' positions on this aspect of Social Europe has become more important. However, current literature lacks measures of national party stances towards Social Europe, and explanations for these stances. Here, I use data from the Chapel Hill Expert Survey (2006, 2009, 2014 and 2019) to develop an indirect measure of party positions on Social Europe. Leveraging studies in party politics and EU politics, I propose that party families and national economic conditions may affect parties' positions on Social Europe. The analyses suggest substantial variation in parties' positions on Social Europe both within and across party families. The analyses also demonstrate that socialist and green parties support Social Europe most, whereas radical right parties support it least. Lastly, I do not find systematic evidence that national economic conditions influence parties' support for this aspect of Social Europe.

Substantiating EU citizenship: an unintended route to anti-establishment support

ABSTRACT This study explores the relationship between European Union citizenship and support for anti-establishment parties across the EU’s older and newer, post-communist democracies. By conceptually linking EU support to substantive EU citizenship, this study identifies the contingent nature of EU citizenship’s effect on support for anti-establishment parties. We conduct a multilevel regression analysis across 22 EU member-states, using data generated by a Eurobarometer survey conducted in 2018. This survey counts on support for EU coordinated foreign policy, in addition to conventional EU support measures, enabling an analysis at different levels of EU politics. Findings show that citizens’ support at these different levels depresses their support for anti-establishment parties across old democracies, yet increases it across new democracies. Hence, the effect of EU citizenship emerges as being contingent on whether citizens are in an old or a new, post-communist democracy of the EU, and on where the borders of the EU are drawn. This contingency has potential to be an instrument of deepening the emerging transnational cleavage between liberal, cosmopolitan and traditional, authoritarian values for old democracies and of manipulation by inward looking parochial, populist politics for new democracies. This will affect the nature of European politics and the future of integration.

Social movements and Europeanisation: framing ‘responsibility’ and ‘responsiveness’ in times of multiple crises

ABSTRACT Movements on the Right and Left have long contested EU politics and policy choices. By analysing public opinion data and the positions of right- and left-wing movements, the article highlights increasing criticism of European integration on the Right, and a persistent critical vision on the Left which challenges the content of EU policies rather than the existence of a European polity. Far-Right movements have moved from Euroscepticism to radical EU-refusal, while the Left has remained anchored in critical Europeanism. We present how these debates are linked with public opinion before looking in some depth at frames in Left and far-Right social movements. We then reflect on how these frames have targeted or reconfigured the meanings attributed to EU responsibility. While addressing how social movements voice and bring citizens’ opinions into the policy-making process (responsiveness), our research illustrates the contested nature and construction of the idea of ‘responsible government’. We find a clear line of demarcation between the Left and the Right concerning the legitimate territorial scale of the EU’s responsibility: while the Left calls for responsibility to expand beyond the continent to the global scale, the Right criticises the intrusion of the EU into national policy making as illegitimate.

Europe 2020: The EU Commission and Political Entrepreneurship

This study deals with the European Commission and Communication Europe 2020, which was a result of the global economic crisis of 2007–2008 and forward. Europe 2020 was an initiative to deal with the crisis by promoting smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth. The Commission addressed the crisis as an existential threat to Europe, but also as a window of opportunity to build a new prosperous region. This study explores the political entrepreneurial efforts taken by the Commission as well as assesses the outcome of reforms implemented. The Commission has achieved many targets, although some challenges remain unsolved.

The imbalanced effect of politicization: How EU politicization favours Eurosceptic parties

This article investigates how the systemic politicization of the EU is associated with support for different political parties. We argue that, while politicization involves actions by both Eurosceptic and Europhile parties, it does not affect parties at both extremes of the continuum in the same way. To investigate these differentiated effects, we leverage data from the European Elections Study and the Chapel Hill expert survey covering two decades (1999 to 2019). The evidence supports the hypothesis that, when it comes to voters’ preferences, politicization strongly favours Eurosceptic parties. We conclude that the systemic politicization of European issues is thus a one-way street leading to the reinforcement of the constraining dissensus on the EU.

Программа «Эразмус» в европейском и многополярном образовательном пространстве

This article delves into the role of the “Erasmus” Programme within the context of European and multipolar educational spaces. Recognized as a significant tool for international academic mobility, the “Erasmus” Programme serves as a catalyst for higher education cooperation between participating countries. The program has grown beyond its initial European scope, encompassing universities, youth organizations, and transnational corporations worldwide. The “Erasmus” is not only instrumental in fostering innovative approaches to education, encouraging knowledge exchange, and strengthening international partnerships, but also performs broader political functions. It contributes to socio-economic resources for European citizens, reinforces the EU's political stability, and promotes solidarity among the member states. The “Erasmus” Programme has become a unifying foundation for not only European countries but also a wide range of partner nations, making it an attractive model for regions worldwide and a successful instrument of the EU's foreign policy. The relevance of the “Erasmus” Program is enhanced from a practical point of view in the context of reforming the higher education system in Kazakhstan and closer integration with European educational models.

EU Institutional Failures and EU Political Economy

EU Institutional Failures and EU Political Economy

EU economic sanctions against russia and the effectiveness of their application

EU economic sanctions against Russia and their effectiveness are a topical study that examines the impact of sanctions on the russian economy and politics. The aim of the study is to substantiate the effectiveness of the application of EU economic sanctions against russia, in particular, to determine their impact on the economic situation of the aggressor country, including changes in GDP, export-import operations, the state of the financial sector and other economic indicators. In the course of the study, key aspects that affect the effectiveness of economic sanctions were identified: political support, the power of the object of sanctions, the compliance of sanctions with specific goals, the effective application of sanctions, alternative options for the addressee country, the time aspect, and the impact on the population. The nature of the impact of sanctions is also determined: trade obstruction, financial constraints, economic downturn, humanitarian impact, changing alliances and economic relations, long-term economic consequences, global economic consequences, adaptive response, and it is proved that the impact of sanctions can vary greatly depending on the economic stability of the object country, its ability to adapt, the scope and severity of sanctions, as well as global geopolitical dynamics. The analysis of measures imposed by the EU in the context of sanctions, including restrictions on access to financial markets, sectoral restrictions on trade and sanctions against individuals or companies, is carried out. The authors analyzed the effectiveness of sanctions from the point of view of achieving EU political goals in the context of the war in Ukraine, as well as their impact on the economic situation in russia. It is revealed that russia's GDP growth is projected in the coming years, which indicates insufficient effectiveness of the sanctions imposed and applied to the economy of the aggressor country. In addition, the results of the study allowed us to assess the dynamics of relations between the EU and russia in the context of sanctions policy and their possible impact on economic and political processes in both regions.

Smart Contracts and International Trade: European Legal Strategies for Managing Challenges

Objective: the automation inherent in smart contracts makes them an attractive tool for global trade applications, especially for the automation of transactions. The prospects foreseeable will significantly impact international economic relations and the transformation of international trade rules. This fact determines the study objective - to identify the possibilities of transforming the said rules and the political and legal strategies adopted by European countries to implement smart contracts in international trade.Methods: the study, devoted to the current international trade regulation in the context of contracts digitalization and spread of smart contracts, uses a combination of formal-legal and comparative-legal methods. They allow researching the international trade rules, analyzing and comparing the UK and the EU political and legal positions on the smart contracts introduction in international trade, as well as predicting the legal consequences of using smart contracts in international trade.Results: the research shows that the proliferation of smart contracts has significant implications for international trade and its regulation. Smart contracts have numerous advantages, such as increased efficiency, reduced costs, and wide availability. However, they may lead to legal challenges when harmonizing traditional legal principles with the digital environment, in particular concerning the authentication of subjects, enforceability under specific circumstances of a case, and jurisdictional issues.Scientific novelty: the current literature on the transformation of international trade regulation in the context of digitalization processes and the spread of smart contracts is complemented by the results of a comparative analysis of the legal positions existing in the European legal space and developed on the basis of problems, lessons and achievements in the smart contracts implementation in international trade.Practical significance: understanding the legal implications of smart contracts is important for businesses involved in international trade. The study provides insights into the UK and the EU legal positions from which guidance can be provided to companies navigating the digital landscape. Policymakers can also benefit from the findings when developing appropriate legal acts to balance the benefits of smart contracts with the need for legal certainty and protection in international trade.

Myth of the near future? Assessing the European Green Deal’s potential to become a political myth for the European Union

ABSTRACT Questions have long revolved around the European Union’s (EU) capacity to develop ‘post-national’ political myths – sacred narratives that provide a basis for long-term political legitimacy. The need for new EU political myths has become particularly severe with the declining power of the Union’s foundational myths of peace and prosperity, and as the EU has entered an era of almost permanent crisis. This article critically assesses whether one contemporary EU policy innovation – the European Green Deal (EGD) – has the potential to transform from a set of policies and an accompanying narrative into a sacred narrative for the Union. The analysis is conducted by applying a novel framework that assesses a myth’s features, including significance, development, and impact, to draw conclusions about the EGD’s mythic capacity. Drawing on key speeches, texts, and Eurobarometer findings, the conclusion is drawn that the EGD does have mythic capacity in terms of its significance and development. However, its impact has been limited by critical voices on both sides of the climate action debate. This conclusion has important implications for the possibilities of post-national mythmaking.

Examining distrust of science and scientists: A study on ideology and scientific literacy in the European Union

There is considerable evidence that, in the United States, public distrust in science is amplified by a conservative ideology and by lower levels of scientific literacy. By emphasizing the discussion on reflexive modernity and (de)politicization of science and politics, we use the Eurobarometer 95.2 to explore these relationships in present-day European Union. We document a significant relationship between conservatively oriented opinions and lower scores on the scientific literacy scale and EU respondents’ levels of distrust in science. We notice that conservative attitudes – measured by dummy statements such as focus on morality instead of innovation, and national isolation due to fear of international crime instead of international co-operation – cause higher distrust in science and scientists. Unlike several studies carried out in the United States, we observe that in the European Union countries, trust in private companies to tackle with scientific issues such as climate change does not predict much when it comes to trust in science and scientists. The obtained results highlight the conceptual confluence between politicization of EU politics and expertization when it comes to policymaking at the EU level, emphasizing the debate regarding the ideological tension that fuels the distrust in science and scientists.

Farewell to constituent power? The Conference on the Future of Europe, citizens’ assemblies and the democratic minimum

Abstract In this article, I ask about the extent to which the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) has advanced democracy in the European Union. I critically engage with the claim that the CoFoE’s success should not be measured by whether it enabled constituent power, or ultimately results in treaty reforms, but by the fact that, by introducing citizens’ assemblies to EU politics, it has laid the foundation for participatory democracy in the European Union. Drawing on established theories of participatory democracy, I argue that this interpretation misses the point. To put forward an alternative view, I revisit James Bohman’s concept of a democratic minimum. The best democratic defence of permanent EU citizens’ assemblies is that they could provide citizens with the capacity to initiate deliberation about common concerns – and thus function as a nucleus for constituent power in the European Union. Nevertheless, the idea should be viewed with caution, as permanent citizens’ assemblies could just as well become a democratic fig-leaf allowing EU institutions to reject calls for fundamental reforms. Much therefore depends on their institutional design.

EU’s ‘Eastern discontents’ – when ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ politicisation collide – the case of Romania in the future of Europe debate

ABSTRACT Over the past decade, the wave of successive crises that hit the EU has tested the EU’s legitimacy and resulted in increased EU politicisation. In the period between the Brexit referendum up until the 2019 European elections, several CEE member states (such as Poland and Hungary and to a lesser extent Romania) contested the EU for breaching their national sovereignty, claiming that their countries’ values and identities are ‘threatened’ by the EU’s interference. In this article, we analyse the case of Romania’s clashes with the European Commission between 2017 and 2019 on the topic of rule of law backsliding. We analyse these discursive clashes in connection to the country’s first Presidency of the Council, as an illustration of the increased politicisation placed in the overall context of the Future of Europe debates. The empirical part is based on a chronological account of selected qualitative data about how this national-supranational ‘power struggle’ unfolded in the studied period. The findings show that in the case of Romania two forms of politicisation coincided and collided - one that was ‘bottom-up’, marked by highly polarised national politics and an East–West division and another that was ‘top-down’ - defined by the tensions inside EU’s own political dynamics between the Council and the Commission.