EU Politics Research Articles

Justice Reform or Facade Reform: The case of the Western Balkans

Abstract EU transformative power is put into question and constantly challenged by the political actions of leaders in the Western Balkans. Although the political elites in this region have internalised a pro-European discourse, they are still guided and governed by authoritarian logic and practices colliding with the EU’s governing model. The paper analyses precisely this relationship between the EU and internal politics, namely, the transformative power/powerlessness of the EU towards the aspiring countries for membership in a single dimension; namely, justice. The paper reviews the reforms developed and the effects they have produced in the justice system in a calculation relation: costs and benefits. In this logic, this paper analyses costs and benefits of the internal elites of the Western Balkans, representing a classic oxymoron. On the one hand, pro-EU discourse is superficially used and, on the other, substantive actions are far from the EU’s governing model. The central argument emphasises that the reform process in the region has turned into a repetitive system of itself and destined to fail right from the beginning. So, we see a loss in reforms and plunging into a vicious circle, whereby each time elements increase and intensify but deteriorate one another, inevitably leading to the deterioration of the situation and producing multidimensional corruption.

Does differentiated integration strengthen the democratic legitimacy of the EU? Evidence from the 2015 Danish opt-out referendum

Differentiation has become a durable feature of European integration but we know little about its effects on citizens. Does differentiated integration improve the democratic quality of the European Union and strengthen citizens’ support – or does it promote political divides and foster citizens’ alienation from European integration? This article develops a theoretical argument on the positive attitudinal effects of differentiated integration, contending that differentiation accommodates heterogeneous preferences in a diverse EU and strengthens citizens’ ownership of European integration. A quasi-experimental analysis of public opinion of the 2015 Danish Justice and Home Affairs opt-out referendum demonstrates that the public vote increased citizens’ EU efficacy, indeed. Eurosceptic voters in particular strengthen their belief that their individual voice counts in EU politics, suggesting that differentiation can have a positive effect on the perceived democratic quality of the EU.

The populist turn in EU politics and the intermediary role of civil society organisations

ABSTRACT The introduction to this special issue identifies an analytical and empirical gap in studies on European civil society organisations (CSOs) in the wake of the rise of populism. It explains how different contributions address these gaps. To this end, it first provides a definition of the main terms, including populism and anti-populism. It reconsiders assumptions regarding the role of CSOs and social movements as agents of European democratisation and legitimation. The main argument is that the populist turn has led to significant changes regarding the role of CSOs in the EU policy process. These changes are visible in three different but interrelated ways: the relations between European institutions and CSOs, the changes in CSOs goals and strategies, and the changes in the patterns of interaction between CSOs and populist groups. The final part of the introduction gives a brief overview of the contributions to this special issue and highlights how they provide further insights into the overall topic of relations between the EU and CSOs.

Supporting the Tunisian transition? Analysing (in)consistencies in EU democracy assistance with a tripartite nexus model

ABSTRACT This article puts forth a new heuristic model for analysing the EU's democracy assistance to non-accession countries. The EU's democracy assistance has predominantly been scrutinized in academia through the so-called democratization-stability dilemma, whereby allegedly the EU is found to single-mindedly promote regime stability to the detriment of democracy. Nevertheless, we argue that this conceptualization falls short of analysing the full dynamics of EU democracy assistance. Our contribution provides an alternative to the traditional conceptualization of EU democracy assistance, by proposing three alternative nexuses of analysis: formal/substantive democracy, elite/non-elite engagement and security/stability. We apply this new analytical framework to the study of EU's democracy assistance to Tunisia from 2011 to date. While EU's political and financial investment in the transition has been considerable in the three nexuses, negative interaction effects have generated several inconsistencies that affected several areas of EU's democracy assistance.

In praise of ambivalence- another Brexit story

ABSTRACT The paper offers a defence of ambivalence as a response to the political polarisation of our era using multiple languages to present its case from psychology to sociology, political science, philosophy and critical theory. It suggests that the Brexit story can be told in a different key, whereby the politics that have led to entrenching ‘leave’ and ‘remain’ identities overlay a harder to assess ambivalence about the EU both in the UK and in the EU, a dynamic referred to as the ‘Machiavelli Trap.’ Accordingly, we ought to ground the future relationship in the recognition of the ‘Brexit paradox’ (you can leave and therefore you shouldn't), and its implications for the core principles that have shaped the Brexit debate and negotiations. In the end, the paper offers a plea for a politics that allows citizens to tune into their constructive ambivalence about the fundamental tension between control and cooperation which pervades both Brexit, EU and global politics at large.

Higher Sustainability of Mental Models Acquired from a Digital Game in Comparison with a Live Action Role-playing Game and a Traditional Lecture

This article analyses the effectivity of teaching EU law using various educational media. It specifically explores the differences between, and sustainability of, mental models constructed within three various educational environments: (1) a digital game played on PCs, (2) a non-digital role-playing game, and (3) a traditional lecture with discussions. We conducted a laboratory experiment, in which participants (253 high school students, M = 112, F = 141, mean age 16.5) studied EU laws, institutions, and politics in the three above-mentioned environments. We evaluated and compared mental models participants constructed through content analysis of the concept maps they drew immediately after the experiment and others made one month later. Within the analysis, we studied content, architecture, and changes in mental models over time. The resulting data offer unique insight into the process of mental models creation and sustainability thereof within game-based learning; particularly, when using a digital game. Digital game-based learners’ concept maps differed in comparison with those of the educational role-playing and traditional lecture groups; the students tended to keep less altered mental models in their long-term memory: even after the one month period. The results suggest that a digital game-based learning environment could be more successful in mental model retention and for efficacy of future recall; particularly, when dealing with complex phenomena like EU law.

Austerity’s failures and policy learning: mapping European Commission officials’ beliefs on fiscal governance in the post-crisis EU

After an initial phase of firefighting against the euro crisis that began in 2010, one that was characterized by policies that focused on strict austerity, from 2014 onwards the European Commission gradually began to ease its recommendations about fiscal consolidation. Between 2015 and 2016, this policy turn was reflected in series of procedural changes in the European Semester. These gave the Commission a certain degree of discretion in applying the rules and interpreting the benchmarks of the post-crisis EU economic governance arrangements. This article investigates if this double shift in fiscal policy and governance that was initiated in 2014 has been consolidated in 2019, and, if so, what has driven that consolidation. By building on the literatures on EU politicization and policy learning, it asks whether the character of this intra-paradigm policy shift has been more Bayesian or sociological. Based on interviews and on a small-scale survey conducted with key civil servants working at the European Commission, we find evidence to support the putative explanation that, through a political process of policy learning, European Semester officials have acquired a more politicized and flexible practice of fiscal governance and a more social vision of the European Semester.

Euroscepticism is here to stay: what cleavage theory can teach us about the 2019 European Parliament elections

ABSTRACT In the 2019 European Parliament elections, Eurosceptic parties were able to consolidate their strong results from 2014. Based on a specified conceptualization of Euroscepticism, this article provides an overview of the Eurosceptic vote and argues that Eurosceptic parties have by now established themselves as a fixed part of the EU party system. It interprets Euroscepticism as the upshot of an emerging centre–periphery cleavage in EU politics. In analogy to the emergence of opposition to processes of administrative centralization and cultural homogenization during nation-building, this perspective sees Euroscepticism as a reaction to the process of centre-formation at the European level, as a way of defending the specific cultural, economic and regulatory traditions of member states against the process of centralization of authority at the European level since the 1950s. The article concludes by discussing the implications of this argument for both EU scholars and practitioners.

Responsive withdrawal? The politics of EU agenda-setting

ABSTRACT This contribution asks whether and why the newly political environment of EU law-making impacts on the European Commission's choice (not) to announce the withdrawal of legislative proposals. We argue that the Commission uses ‘responsive withdrawal’ in response to bottom-up pressure, so as to signal self-restraint or policy-determination to different audiences. Bottom-up pressures are driven by (1) the national contestation of ‘Europe’; (2) visible controversy about optimal (crisis) governance; and (3) the domestic salience of EU legislation. Our hypotheses are tested on a new dataset of all codecision files concluded, withdrawn, rejected or ongoing between 2006 and 2018. We show that the Commission reacts to bottom-up pressure by either politicising or depoliticising the EU's legislative agenda: ‘withdrawal announcements’ are more likely when Euroscepticism is high and when legislation touches core state powers, but less likely when legislation is domestically salient. We also demonstrate the continued importance of cyclical and technical reasons. Our analysis complements extant explanations of withdrawal as the upshot of functional factors or of uncertainty, and contributes to the nascent debate about whether, why and how supranational actors respond when the systems in which they operate – and the policies they produce – come under attack.

Following the Money: Exploring Business Financial Contributions to the European Union's Political Parties*

AbstractDo business groups donate to the European Union's (EU) political parties? Does the party's ideology influence the donations it receives? Since 2008, the EU's political parties can receive financial contributions from private actors. This paper systematically maps and analyses the entire population of donations given to EU political parties from 2008 to 2015. The results show that business interests follow a selective strategy targeting with their donations right‐wing parties; with Eurosceptic parties performing better than pro‐integration parties. Conceptually, this study provides a hard resource for conceptualizing EU lobbying beyond information‐access models, and potentially opens a path for comparatives with the US literature. Furthermore, it reveals that some parties have moved away from the public utility paradigm, raising question over donations impact on EU politics and policy‐making. Empirically, it provides a unique image of interest group donations to EU parties over time.

The EU Multi-Level System and the Europeanization of Domestic Blame Games

Blame games between governing and opposition parties are a characteristic feature of domestic politics. In the EU, policymaking authority is shared among multiple actors across different levels of governance. How does EU integration affect the dynamics of domestic blame games? Drawing on the literatures on EU politicisation and blame attribution in multi-level governance systems, we derive expectations about the direction and frequency of blame attributions in a Europeanized setting. We argue, first, that differences in the direction and frequency of blame attributions by governing and opposition parties are shaped by their diverging baseline preferences as blame avoiders and blame generators; secondly, we posit that differences in blame attributions across Europeanized policies are shaped by variation in political authority structures, which incentivize certain attributions while constraining others. We hypothesize, inter alia, that blame games are “Europeanized” primarily by governing parties and when policy-implementing authority rests with EU-level actors. We test our theoretical expectations by analysing parliamentary debates on EU asylum system policy and EU border control policy in Austria and Germany.

Mismatch? Comparing elite and citizen polarisation on EU issues across four countries

ABSTRACTNational politicisation of European Union issues has risen following events such as the economic crisis and the refugee influx. This has led to changes at the party (rising Eurosceptic parties) and the voter level (increasing public Euroscepticism). EU politicisation is thus assumed to influence the overall distribution of EU positions in terms of EU polarisation. This raises the question to what extent there is a (mis)match between polarisation at the party and voter level, and its dependence on structural and supply-side dynamics. Using CHES 2017 data and survey data across four EU countries (Germany, Spain, Hungary and the Netherlands) this paper compares elite- and citizen-level EU polarisation. The results show a strong association of party- and citizen-level EU polarisation – for both general and policy-specific EU positions – with higher polarisation among citizens than among parties. Country-specific patterns are due to different political competition on the supply side.

Georg Hegel on Social Inequality and Lessons from History for the Modern Welfare State

Complementing the strand of literature on problems of social inequality we offer a perspective inspired by the work of Georg Hegel. The German philosopher’s prescient view on the dialectical bond of emerging capitalist system and the role of the fiscal state was impressive in its development potential with insights for the industrialized society. Taking stock of the post 2008-crisis environment of greater social marginalization, the adjustment path to a stable modern social equilibrium appears to be lengthy, filled with patches of low growth and higher social costs. A pragmatic policy response is needed. We critically analyze some of the ambitious recent policy proposals on income redistribution and welfare state (e.g. Obama plan, Sarkozy-Hollande plan, global wealth tax, and more recent debates prompted by the US and EU political cycles). Despite the preferred model, the role of the fiscal contract is instrumental and rising social value of the welfare state on a global scale is just one component of the social-economic puzzle. The paper offers some conclusions deeply rooted with economic history analysis weighing somewhat subjective assessments on practicality of the welfare state resurrection in the new century.

EU Political System’s Resilience in the Age of Politicization: Lessons From the 2019 European Parliament Elections

The democratic deficit problem in the EU polity is becoming more relevant in the context of the multifaceted crisis and the politicization of European integration. Taking into account that the category of resilience is actively used in the official EU discourse as a system’s ability to reform and to counter threats, it is interesting, from a research point of view, to consider the use of resilience as an analytical optics to view the current EU internal political development. This article analyzes, in terms of resilience, the attempts of the EU’s mainstream actors to improve the democratic elements of the EU’s institutional structure during the European Parliament (EP) elections 2019 and their relationships with the agents of EU politicization – right-wing populist actors. The main findings suggest that (1) EU politicization exacerbates the problem of the democratic deficit and forces mainstream actors to seek strategies to increase the resilience of the whole system; (2) in order to preserve their own subjectness in the face of growing populism and the politicization of European integration, mainstream actors choose a strategy of depoliticization, which has decreased the EU resilience; (3) right-wing populist actors are agents of politicization, they play an ambivalent role in relation to EU resilience, being a resource and a threat.

Does Differentiated Integration Strengthen the Democratic Legitimacy of the EU? Evidence from the 2015 Danish Opt-Out Referendum

Since the 1990s, European integration has been characterized by a combination of politicization and differentiation. Starting with the Danish referendum on the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, which has led to a series of Danish opt-outs from the Treaty on European Union, domestic politicization has been one of the major drivers of differentiated integration in the EU. Whereas recent theorizing and research has covered the causes and conditions of differentiated integration extensively and has also addressed some of its institutional effects and dynamics, we lack any empirically based understanding of its micro-level consequences. Does differentiated integration improve the democratic quality of the EU and strengthen citizens’ support – or does it promote political divides and foster citizens’ alienation from European integration? This paper develops a theoretical argument on the positive attitudinal effects of differentiated integration, contending that differentiation accommodates heterogeneous preferences in a diverse EU and strengthens citizens’ ownership of European integration. A quasi-experimental analysis of public opinion of the 2015 Danish Justice and Home Affairs opt-out referendum demonstrates that the public vote increased citizens’ internal EU efficacy, indeed. Eurosceptic voters in particular strengthen their belief that their individual voice counts in EU politics, suggesting that differentiation can have a positive effect on the perceived democratic quality of the EU.

Possible Impact of a European Agency for the Strategic Management Against Cancer (EASMAC) on Treatment, Diagnosis and EU Politics

Possible Impact of a European Agency for the Strategic Management Against Cancer (EASMAC) on Treatment, Diagnosis and EU Politics

Possible Impact of a European Agency for the Strategic Management Against Cancer (EASMAC) on Treatment, Diagnosis and EU Politics

Possible Impact of a European Agency for the Strategic Management Against Cancer (EASMAC) on Treatment, Diagnosis and EU Politics

European Constitutional Imaginaries: On Pluralism, Calculemus, Imperium and Communitas

This chapter draws on the theory of societal constitutionalism to analyse polysemy and polyvalence of the European constitutional imaginaries. It argues that European constitutional imaginaries have to be distinguished from the imagination of EU constitutional theory as much as European political ideologies and utopias. They spontaneously evolve in European society and, despite their theoretical contextualisations and uses, cannot be purposively constructed by theorists to justify integration and constitutionalisation of Europe. Imaginaries are societal power which precedes structures of political power and constitutes the common understanding of social reality despite all its fragmentations, diffusions and differentiations. The chapter thus highlights the sociological meaning of the concept of imaginary as background power of both national and transnational legal and political systems which determines legitimacies and illegitimacies in EU law and politics. It subsequently analyses specific imaginaries of EU integration and their general components. It concludes by arguing that these European constitutional imaginaries are part of societal constitutionalism of the EU beyond constraints of law and politics and the old semantics driven by the imaginary unity of statehood.

Supranational Agents as De-Commitment Devices: The ECB During the Eurozone Crisis

We argue that the independent agency of EU institutions can serve not only to tie the member states to previous policy commitments, as argued in the extant literature, but also to untie member states from commitments that have become outdated and harmful. The European Central Bank saved the Euro in 2012 not by enforcing the monetary financing prohibition or the no-bail-out clause of the Treaty more strictly but by flouting them. We develop our de-commitment account of supranational agency theoretically, show its workings empirically by a case study of the Eurozone crisis, and discuss its scope conditions. We surmise that supranational de-commitment is a common feature of EU politics.

Rethinking legacies in internet history: Euronet, lost (inter)networks, EU politics

Mainstream internet histories employ legacy perspectives to establish lineages of continuity that demonstrate how American pasts still operate in and affect our Internet present. This article rethinks legacies in internet history by positioning the notion of legacy systems as conceptual basis for a genealogical and non-teleological framing of internet history aimed to investigate lost network events as legacies of European pasts that persist and continue to affect our networked present. To demonstrate its historiographical value, I use the history of Euronet as a case in point, using a variety of primary and secondary sources, to argue that the legacy system of European cooperation and politics on which Euronet was imagined and built, persists within internet history through a variety of “successes” and “failures,” of which Euronet is only one.