European Union Agenda Research Articles

The European Union agenda in Erdogan’s argumentative discourse: an analysis of the ideational sources and interactive functions of political reasoning

ABSTRACT This article presents the findings of an in-depth analysis of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s position and argumentation regarding the European Union (EU). The study explores the ideational sources (cognitive and normative) and interactive functions (communicative and coordinative) of his foreign policy discourse. We argue that Erdogan instrumentalises and politicises foreign policy discourse for the coordinative function of political mobilisation. First, Erdogan’s dual approach is shaped by his leadership roles (president versus party chairperson), his target audience (national versus international), and timing (election versus non-election periods), with Euroscepticism and antagonistic argumentation featuring prominently in his discourse. Second, as party chairperson, Erdogan employs nationalist chauvinism, a normative source shared by relevant institutional actors, to fulfil a coordinative function. Third, cognitive dissonance stemming from his positional dichotomy, alongside misrepresenting actors and processes, allows him a blame strategy, framed by accusations of 1) double standards, 2) the EU’s miscalculation, 3) pacta sunt servanda, and 4) the actions of ‘certain’ member states.

Building a Virtual Medical Environment for Online Rehabilitation: The e-KINE Pilot Application

The digital transformation of healthcare (eHealth) has been a longstanding priority on the European Union's agenda. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrably underscored the critical importance of eHealth solutions. This paper presents a response to this urgency by outlining approaches and solutions for online rehabilitation developed within the Erasmus+ joint project " Development of digital skills for online rehabilitation therapies/e-KINE" with the close collaboration and efforts of hospitals and higher education institutions from Turkey, Bulgaria, and Romania.

Environmentally driven migration in EU discourse: norms, policies and realities.

For decades, the European Union (EU) has been addressing issues related to climate change and ecological degradation as a self-proclaimed pro-environmental and human rights-oriented actor. Correspondingly, the topic of the so-called environmentally driven migration entered the EU discourse at the dawn of the new millennium. Considering the EU's interest in the human rights and environmental/climate issue areas, I argue it is important to ask what the Union's approach to this matter has been. Thus, this article assesses the European Union discourse related to the topic of environmental migration over the past 20-year period. Through the theoretical lens of the Copenhagen School of Security Studies and the normative power EU conception, this paper critically analyses the EU's securitisation of climate change in relation to persons referred to as environmental migrants. Based on a qualitative discourse analysis, the preliminary results imply that the topic has been receding into the background of the EU agenda. In line, environmental migrants have been pushed aside by a multiplicity of other subjects threatened by climate change, thus receiving lesser attention in the EU climate change and migration management policies. Overall, the findings show a shift from an alarmist discourse to more pragmatism on the EU's behalf and a larger focus on adaptation and resilience in most affected areas. With this in mind, this article questions the normative standard the EU sets for itself when it comes to the case of environmental migrant protection.

Policy Diffusion, Environmental Federalism, and Economic Efficiency – How Institutions Influence the Implementation of EU Legislation in Two Nordic Countries

Abstract We explore the changes in central government administration due to European Union (EU) membership and its consequences for policy outcomes and economic efficiency in Finland and Sweden. Both countries became members of the EU in 1995. Upon joining the union, member states are expected to adopt common legislation and are encouraged to develop similar rule-making procedures. The actual implementation of EU directives varies considerably between member states, however. This is also the case for Finland and Sweden. Despite the two Nordic countries for historical reasons having had similar government systems, upon becoming members of the EU, they started to diverge. Using a model of delegation and comparing the more centralized Finnish system with the decentralized institutional setup in Sweden, we show that the Swedish approach leads to a stricter than optimal environmental policy, which in turn makes EU policy non-optimal from a global point of view, ceteris paribus. We also provide empirical support for our findings in the form of some example cases. We focus on environmental policy since this is an area that has been high on the EU agenda.

Structuring and Measuring Environmental Sustainability in the Steel Sector: A Single Case Study

Climate change policies are affecting the economic and structural viability of European Union (EU) industries, particularly in the energy-intensive sector, with very challenging goals of EU Agenda 2030 in terms of CO2 reductions and energy efficiency. This ecological transition can be supported by the employment of innovative technologies, enabling production process efficiency, resource optimization and supply-chain integration. Nevertheless, it is still empirically unclear how energy-intensive industries will complete their ecological transition successfully, especially in terms of achieving environmental sustainability practices within the organization and in the supply-chain without endangering their economic availability. Moreover, the assessment of environmental sustainability performance is still not a unique standard framework, causing loss of transparency and traceability towards internal and external stakeholders, such as managers, investors and business partners. With 20 qualitative interviews of customers and experts of a company leader in the steel construction sector in Italy and Germany, the Feralpi Group, this paper explores the implications of strategic environmental sustainability indicators, which can transparently assess company performance. Preliminary results underline how shared standardized indicators are fundamental for a tighter supply-chain integration, giving impulse and significance to the steel producers’ efforts for environmental sustainability excellence. Future research should further investigate the connection between environmental sustainability strategies and performance indicators for a more integrated sustainability framework.

In Search of Digital Sovereignty and Strategic Autonomy: Normative Power Europe to the Test of Its Geopolitical Ambitions

This article analyses the recent use of European Union (EU) terminology of digital sovereignty and strategic autonomy, aiming to identify tensions between policy considerations of fundamental rights, free market principles and geopolitical concerns. These tensions are rooted in the disparity between the EU's considerable economic and regulatory power in digital matters and its limited mandate and capabilities in foreign policy. The article also explores the translation of the notions of digital sovereignty and strategic autonomy into EU policy. It identifies three important trends in the geopoliticisation of the EU agenda on digital technologies: (1) the instrumental use of ‘classic’ internal market policies to exert geopolitical influence; (2) the imposition of foreign policy imperatives on national markets; and (3) new ‘hybrid’ digital policies that combine internal market concerns, fundamental rights and geopolitical concerns. Ultimately, digital sovereignty has inherent tensions with the EU's normative power in digital issues and may also result in a strategic cacophony.

Golden visas and golden passports policy crisis in the European Union

In recent years, residence by investment schemes (RBI), so-called “golden visas”, and citizenship by investment schemes (CBI), so-called “golden passports”, have been established in several countries around the world. They are legal mechanisms of states that allow third-country nationals to obtain a residence permit or citizenship in a host country on the basis of a significant financial investment in his/her territory under less stringent conditions than under the standard procedures. Although this topic has received global attention, we analyse, in this article, the present issue in the European Union (EU) regional context. From the beginning, these schemes have been a point of contention between the EU institutions and the Member States that operate them. Such practices are generally perceived as opening up a privileged path for the richest third-country nationals to the EU territory and EU freedoms with an impact on all EU Member States. Due to the problems related to these schemes, combating RBI and CBI has become an EU agenda. Ever since the establishment of golden visas and golden passports policies in some EU Member States, they have been subject to external influence, not only by pressure from the EU but also by other circumstances (home affairs and public opinion in Member States, Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine) with a direct impact on their functioning and their very existence. This article primarily identifies these circumstances and analyses their implications for RBI and CBI schemes in the EU. At the end of the article, we conclude that in the regional context of the EU, the policies of golden visas and golden passports are in crisis and their existence in their current form is under threat.

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The article analyzes the institutional and legal foundations of combating transnational drug trafficking in the European Union (EU), as well as the regulatory and legal regulation of Ukraine's cooperation with relevant EU structures in the specified area. The regulatory and legal regulation and policy of the EU in the field of combating drug trafficking are studied from the point of view of their implementation in Ukraine as part of the implementation of the policy aimed at gaining full membership in the European Union. The works of Ukrainian and foreign scientists related to combating illegal drug trafficking in the context of the implementation of the EU anti-drug policy were analyzed. It was concluded that the European Commission sees the fight against the drug trade and organized crime in general as a key component of the EU agenda, emphasizing the need to develop a new strategic approach to the drug problem. Effective activity in this direction requires cooperation at the EU level and beyond, while the European Union tries to act as a driving force at the global level. The article points to the importance of Ukraine's acquisition of the status of an EU candidate country in June 2022. Acquiring full membership in the European Union requires our country to carry out a number of reforms and adapt its legislation in line with European criteria. Further steps in this direction will also require the implementation of strategic documents in the field of combating organised crime, and the integration of the activities of the Security Service of Ukraine into the overall European security environment. The author concludes that bringing Ukraine's anti-criminal policy in line with European standards will significantly contribute to the implementation of the European integration policy in general. It is noted that the Agreement on Operational and Strategic Cooperation between Ukraine and Europol, signed in 2017, is the main legal act regulating cooperation between Ukraine and the EU in the field of combating transnational drug trafficking. For the SSU, Europol is one of the most important international partners, the use of which is crucial for ensuring effective operational and service activities in a number of areas. Countering drug trafficking is embedded in the core of the EU's external relations, and the role of this area is increasing as the threats to the EU's security from this phenomenon grow. Such relations in this area should be based on the principles of shared responsibility, multilateralism and coordination of the global response. In the international arena, the European Union is promoting an approach that is evidence-based, holistic, balanced and multidisciplinary. Cooperation should be established with countries of origin and transit of drugs and international organisations. The application of approaches in this area developed in the European Union is important for the implementation of the European integration policy of Ukraine, which should be taken into account in the organisation of operational and service activities of the Security Service of Ukraine.

Spatial configuration and the Messina Strait question: A discussion on Reggio-Calabria and Messina road-networks linkage

A permanent traverse across the Messina Strait connecting Sicily to the Italian mainland at Calabria has been discussed since the 19th century. From this period onwards, several studies addressed aspects that ranged: from its political significance; to project costs and engineering-design feasibility. Interest in the matter declined during the 2010's due to the ever-unstable Italian political scenario. This, associated to an incipient development of instruments and methods to analyze urban networks, has hindered further studies on Messina and Reggio di Calabria cities' spatial configuration, or the consequential changes that their permanent connection across the Strait would ensure. As the Messina Strait question resurfaced in the 2020–2022, exploratory analyses on urban configuration become crucial in providing spatial-knowledge for decision-making process, as Southern Italy's territorial and transport integration are part of the Italian government and European Union agenda regarding post-pandemic recovery. This paper addresses this question from a territorial-configurational standpoint and simulates spatial changes in the advent of a permanent connection amongst Messina and Reggio di Calabria road-circulation networks. The objective is to compare and discuss these changes within the context of twin-cities, as Messina and Reggio di Calabria have the potential to be interdependent in geographical and socio-economic terms. Modeled with Space Syntax – a quantitative method that estimates centralities and movement patterns in urban road-networks – simulations demonstrate how changes in the Strait cities' urban configuration could alter the twin-cities functional and hierarchical dynamics. Results and discussion present evidence on how the road-circulation networks react to the cross-strait connection, and conclusions point-out lessons to be learned from the simulations and what can be applied in other projects worldwide.

Spaces of the forest-based bioeconomy in Finnish Lapland and Catalonia: practitioners, narratives and forgotten spatialities

Over the last decade, the bioeconomy has been increasingly promoted as a strategy able to shift our economies away from fossil fuels and boost local economic growth, especially of rural areas in Europe. The bioeconomy is an important part of the European Union agenda, it is promoted through European wide strategies that are translated into local and regional policies. However, the bioeconomy does not unfold equally across regions; it has different implications influenced by the spaces and the narratives with which the policies are created and implemented. Amongst all the actors participating in the bioeconomy strategies, local practitioners play a crucial role in interpreting the narratives and implementing the policies in a way that makes sense for their local contexts. Hence, there is a need to understand how local and regional practitioners apply bioeconomy strategies to grasp how those are expressed in different regional contexts. Through the case studies of the forest-based bioeconomy in Catalonia and Finnish Lapland, this paper explains why economic narratives prevail in the local bioeconomy and how regional spatialities are affected by it. The cases show that the bioeconomy remains close to economic growth and is applied through regional economic development policies, thus focusing on specific economic sectors and hindering the role of the bioeconomy in a wider regional transformation. Understanding the narratives and how these reflect the spatialities help us to advance a spatially sensitive approach to the bioeconomy, this is, a bioeconomy practised according to the socio-spatial conditions, closer to ideas of inclusivity, plurality and justice, and with a greater role in a wider regional transformation, rather than the greening of specific economic sectors.

I had no idea that Europe had internal borders: Migrants’ ‘secondary movements’ before the EU internal border regime

This paper looks at the so-called ‘secondary movements’, namely, migrants’ unauthorized movements across Member States of the European Union (EU). Over the past few years, secondary movements have become a main concern on the EU political agenda because they seem unstoppable, despite the more rigid migration regime designed at different levels to manage them. Secondary movements are a relatively understudied topic within the vast critical migration debate on border regimes. This paper bridges this gap by looking at unauthorized movements within Europe on two levels. Firstly, it explores them by focusing on the emergence, conceptualization and embodiment of the term ‘secondary movements’ within the EU agenda; secondly, it sheds light on this kind of movement from the migrants’ perspective. Based on empirical research carried out along the Italian–French border and in Rome from September 2018 to December 2018, this paper aims to highlight the tensions between unauthorized mobilities and the EU asylum system, which forces migrants to stay in (or move to) specific countries without taking into consideration their personal plans. Thanks to a bottom-up perspective, this analysis shows how complex migrants’ reasons for movements are and it sheds a necessary light on how EU asylum policies and border control mechanisms influence migrants’ journey without stopping them. Reading the border regime of Ventimiglia through the lens of ‘secondary movements’ allows for a more nuanced account of the systems of power within which this EU internal border regime takes form.

Accession versus Exit: European Union’s Size Issue Throughout The Decades

The European political map has been constantly changing since the World War II. The Czechoslavakia and Yugoslavia dissolved, Germany reunited and the European Union (EU) has been expanding. The original European Economic Community (EEC) has grown from 6 to 27 members and the process has been on-going. Enlargement is a permanent and continuous item on the EU agenda and by far one of the most speculated policies. Enlargement policy aims at preparing the countries concerned to become full members of the EU when they, as well as the EU, are ready. Therefore, EU has provided a well-designed institutional framework for enlargement. Nevertheless, it doesn’t necessarily mean that EU enlarges only. Even though United Kingdom's EU departure represents the sharpest challenge of recent times, the cases of Algeria, Greenland and Saint Barthélémy show that withdrawal from the EU and the institutions that preceded it, is not an absolutely new phenomenon. The objective of this article is to depict and to compare the institutional framework and the historical background of the enlargement and withdrawing facts. A discussion of theorization falls outside the scope of this illustrative paper and it is aimed to provoke thinking.

Eighty-six EU policy options for reducing imported deforestation

Eighty-six EU policy options for reducing imported deforestation

La postura de la Unión Europea frente al separatismo en Cataluña

Secessionist sentiments are more common for the European Union than for other world regions. This tendency takes place to a large extent because of a crisis in the European values and religious traditions, and new priorities. Catalonia, as well as the Basque Country, tries to hold a direct dialogue with Brussels bypassing Madrid, which is accompanied with numerous difficulties: a discontent and warnings on the part of the official government of Spain, the necessity for the European Union to take into consideration the position of its member-state and many others. Despite the fact that regions started to play a more significant role in the European Union agenda, it still continues to follow the policy of a cautious attitude towards the autonomy separatism. Moreover, the EU tries to limit capabilities of the further existence and development of autonomies as independent states by institutional means. In addition, after the separation, a state is not yet a member of the European Union – it has to create new currency, it faces some economic problems. Given all these factors, autonomies will think twice before organizing a referendum, which is also difficult to hold, because it contradicts the Constitution of Spain.

European Morality Politics in the European Union: The Case of Prostitution

Prostitution is a standard case of morality politics (MP), defined as a particular type of politics that engages issues closely related to religious and/or moral values, giving way to strong and uncompromising value conflicts in both societal and political spheres. This kind of issues have increasingly become a European policy matter due to their transnational nature and the tensions they create between different legal principles. Our hypothesis is that this leads to the emergence of a specific type of European morality politics (EMP) reflecting the particular constraints of the policymaking of the European Union (EU). The purpose of this article is to understand to which extent the rise of prostitution on the EU agenda alters usual patterns of MP to shape a distinctive type of EMP. Our findings suggest that prostitution characterizes EMP albeit with a significant difference, namely the challenge to regulatory inertia through the successful mobilisation of European values by some policy entrepreneurs to promote a neo-abolitionist approach.

Оцінка енергетичної надійності країн Європейського Союзу.

The article deals with discussing scientific, practical and methodological approaches to determining the assessment of countries' energy security and reliability, regardless of whether they have their own energy resources or importing it. To ensure their own economic and energy security, each state must constantly implement legal, economic and administrative measures aimed at protecting its national interests, while relying on a long-term strategy.It’s worth noting the fact that the definition of the category "energy security" should contain technological and economic components, combined in some way. That is, in the modern sense, the energy security guarantee is the achievement of a technically reliable, stable, costeffective and environmentally balanced provision of energy resources to the needs of the economy and the population, as well as the creation of conditions for the formation and implementation of a policy to protect national interests in the energy sector.The article discusses indicators that contribute to the growth of economic stability of energy enterprises and, consequently, countries' energy security. With the help of these indicators, the capabilities of the selected outsourcers are compared, and also analyzes the feasibility of a contract form or the feasibility of creating a separate enterprise, on the basis of which the existing divisions for the production of energy products of diversified production, will ensure the country's energy security. The article emphasizes 3 countries with the highest level of energy security – the UK, Russia and Belgium. Russia due to natural resources, Great Britain and Belgium due to internal economic potential. The European Union is forced to import almost all energy resources and ensuring energy security has become a critical issue on the European Union agenda. The EU has the largest energy supplies among the regions of the world, approximately 15% of the entire world market. At the same time, the gap between production and consumption of solid fuel is very large, more than in the United States. The main supplier of Europe is Russia, which to some extent puts European countries in a dependent position. Therefore, an important area of European policy is the energy supplies diversification and ensuring the country's energy security. From the point of view of determining the future role of energy carriers in the European countries energy supply, it is important to evaluate the main factors that determined considered in the article trends in world energy consumption. It is worth noting that almost every energy carrier has a technological niche, where its use is predominant or even exclusive. Therefore, it is very important for the countries of the European Union to achieve the highest level of energy security and independence.

Under the guise of resilience: The EU approach to migration and forced displacement in Jordan and Lebanon

ABSTRACTBuilding “resilience” to insecurity and crisis is high on the European Union (EU) agenda. EU uptake of this buzzword is especially significant with regard to migration and forced displacement. Uncertainty, however, remains about what resilience is, how it translates into practice, and what its implications are. In this article, we analyze EU humanitarian and development policies and provide empirical insight into resilience-building in Jordan and Lebanon. We show that EU resilience thinking highlights strengthening the humanitarian-development nexus, responsibilizing crisis-affected states, and framing refugees as an economic development opportunity for refugee-hosting states. We also find that how resilience translates into practice depends on the local context and interests of the actors involved. For the EU, resilience-building is primarily a refugee containment strategy that could jeopardize the stability of refugee-hosting states. We conclude that resilience-building in Jordan and Lebanon may ultimately threaten rather than safeguard the security of Europe.

Remapping French higher education: towards a multi-tiered higher education system?

The global trend of increasing participation rates, coupled with regional goals to increase participation in higher education, such as the European Union’s Europe 2020 Strategy target of 40% of all young people to hold a tertiary education qualification by 2020, has led to a strain on public resources, and a review of funding priorities in mass higher education systems, in some cases prioritising funding towards an elite. Reforms within European higher education systems have been further prompted by the lacklustre performance of European higher education institutions in international university rankings. The paper aims to contextualise French reforms within the broader European Union agenda for the modernisation of higher education, and its focus on greater differentiation, in order to assess how this has been disseminated and translated in the French context, and how it breaks with the French egalitarian tradition. Through a policy document analysis of French and EU strategies for higher education and research and political communications and data extracted from the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation’s Excellence Initiatives scheme, the paper seeks to understand whether France is creating a multi-tiered higher education system for which no precedent has existed before. However, because of the sui generis structure of French higher education that makes it difficult to classify within the various structural models of higher education, policy implications for other countries will not be discussed. The French case will provide insights on the converging trends of globalisation, and the agency of institutional carriers such as the European Commission in interpreting and disseminating particular strategies.

A health screening of European political party manifestos to inform priorities and strategies for influence

Abstract Background The European Parliament (EP) elections gave way for a new political cycle for the European Union (EU), and thus for public health (PH); an area 70% of the European citizens want the EU to do more on. This research clarifies if and how EU political parties prioritise health and where the gaps are. Methods A literature search was undertaken to 1) gain insight in which sectors the EU can establish policy impacting PH, 2) map actors that play a role in PH policy, and 3) find building blocks for a receptive environment. Four interviews were held with NGOs. Eleven EU political parties’ manifestos were thoroughly screened and two interviews were held with MEPs of two different parties. Results Eight sectors were identified in which the EU has (shared) legislative power and can positively impact PH. How these policies are packaged depends on who places their beliefs on the EU agenda. Actors in the political arena such as, parties that will dominate the EP, the Member States, NGOs, and epistemic communities need to make use of building blocks such as trusting relationships, broad and long term coalitions between different actors, and effective translation of expert knowledge, in order to create a receptive environment. In the manifestos health is (in)directly touched upon, but not prioritised. They look beyond the medical sector, but whether plans are meant to be linked to PH improvements is not always clear. MEPs are keen to prioritise health more at EU level, but respect the EU’s health competences. Conclusions Health is recognized by parties as relevant in non-medical sectors, which offers positive perspectives for the future, as other EU sectors’ policy can impact public health. The agenda-setting of health can be boosted by organizing actors in such a way that they create receptive environments amongst each other.

Sustainability for Food Consumers: Which Perception?

A sustainable future for the community is one of the objectives established by the European Union Agenda 2030. Furthermore, sustainable consumption has been identified as one of the possible trajectories for sustainable development. It is for this reason that food production, distribution and consumption ways cannot be overlooked for sustainability achievement, as well as the consumer’s related perception. In this research the Best–Worst scaling methodology was adopted to explore the priorities declared by a sample of 801 consumers among 12 different sustainability definitions selected from the scientific literature. The choice experiment was carried out through face-to-face interviews during two food and wine events closely related to the sustainability theme in the food sector. The respondents considered as sustainability priority definition the “preservation of natural resources”, followed by “decent working conditions” and “accessibility for everyone to healthy and safe food”. Moreover, 5 consumer’s clusters were identified according to the priorities assigned to the different sustainability definitions, as well as to individuals socio-demographic characteristics. The description of the priorities assigned by the clusters to the different sustainability definitions have also been described as guidelines for consumer attitudes towards the different sustainability dimensions (environmental, social, economic and governance).