European Union Crisis Research Articles

Defining “Crisis” in Migration Governance: a Critical Legal Mapping of EU Crisis Response Mechanisms

Abstract Over the past ten years, the language of crisis has become increasingly common in discourse about migration governance at the European Union (EU) level, and policy responses have been oriented by an emergency rationale that prioritizes short-term solutions over long-term planning. EU migration and asylum law incorporates several crisis response mechanisms, and the addition of a new set of instruments has recently been proposed. This paper offers a critical legal mapping of what counts as a “crisis” in EU migration and asylum law, and the mechanisms for responding to such crises. It exemplifies a complex system in which the tension between the imperative to address threats purportedly arising from unwanted migration is intricately intertwined with the necessity of granting Member States flexibility to respond to contingencies without compromising the integrity of the common EU asylum and migration system.

Rescuing the liberal international order: crisis, resilience and EU security policy

Abstract This article reflects on how European Union (EU) narratives of the crisis of the liberal international order (LIO) have reshaped its resilience approach and its foreign and security policy more broadly. Drawing on qualitative textual analysis, we trace the evolution of the EU's resilience approach over time and the way it has been shaped by crisis narratives. While the idea of resilience was introduced in EU foreign policy to foster the resilience of crisis-affected societies from the bottom up, the perception of an increasingly contested world first led to a reinterpretation of resilience in pragmatic ways, with values and interests combined selectively to protect the rules-based international order. More recently, on the grounds of a worsening crisis of the LIO, resilience has taken a defensive turn, adopting a more geopolitical stance to strengthen the EU's own resilience and that of the LIO. We argue that EU crisis narratives about the LIO thus serve to sustain and to rescue it. Furthermore, we conclude that the defensive reinterpretation of resilience is eroding the normative character of EU foreign and security policy. It also challenges the persistence of the LIO in the long term.

Senior official speeches and severe price discontinuities in the foreign exchange market

Purpose This study aims to better understand the effects of speeches as a valuable communication tool for central banks. It extends the analysis of the effects of public speeches on jumps to determine whether individual speakers matter partly because of their name, position or institution. Design/methodology/approach This study detects intraday jumps using a robust-to-jump volatility estimator that accounts for deterministic seasonality. As a result, this study removes spurious jumps that occur when volatility is high and consider the relatively small jumps that occur when volatility is low. After identifying jumps, this study examines their reactions to senior official speeches and macroeconomic news surrounding the US and European Union (EU) financial crises. Findings Despite having the most influential individual speakers, this study finds that the impact of the Federal Reserve (Fed) and European Central Bank (ECB) is mitigated because the two institutions have a relatively small impact on currency jumps. This finding shows that the speaker’s name is more important than his or her institution affiliation. While the Federal Reserve Bank President and Chief Executive, as well as ECB board members, significantly reduce jump sizes, particularly during the EU crisis period, both the Fed Chairman and the ECB President increase the magnitude of the jump in both the US crisis and noncrisis periods, contributing to market instability. Practical implications The implications of the results include international portfolio management, currency derivatives pricing and hedging, risk management and market efficiency. Originality/value The findings contribute to a better understanding of the effects of senior official speech attributes on currency jumps in various economic states. The results raise questions about the speaker’s name, institution and position’s effectiveness in calming markets and reducing uncertainty.

Human Papillomavirus vaccines: Call for a European change to tackle current and future shortages

ContextThere is a global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine shortage until 2024. The World Health Organization recommended a temporary suspension of HPV vaccination for boys until all girls who need the vaccine can get it. In the European Union (EU), practices to define and monitor HPV vaccine shortages differ between the Member States. Prior policy initiatives were insufficient to address current vaccine shortages.Policy optionsDifferent policy options are recommended, divided into three self-developed clusters: prevention, response, and supply side. The policy options for the prevention part include decentralised surveillance and centralised surveillance. The policy options for the response part include dose sparing, EU joint procurement, postponing injection for young children, postponing vaccination for boys, and prioritisation in favour of low- and middle-income countries. The policy option for the supply side part is novel procurement agreements.RecommendationsA traffic light system to assist policymakers has been developed. The traffic light system recommends when policymakers should implement the suggested policy options. The traffic light system describes four stages: Green light (shortage prevention); Amber light (imminent shortage prevention); Red light (shortage management); Shortage lessons. These recommendations will improve EU crisis management.

Norm collisions in European Union sectoral governance during the COVID‐19 pandemic: How the European Commission reconfigures norms in crises

AbstractThis article argues that the COVID‐19 pandemic has incited the collision of norms in sectoral European Union (EU) governance and provided an open juncture for the European Commission to engage in norm reconfiguration. Herewith, the paper expands the conceptual scope of EU‐related norm research, which by focussing on the diffusion of norms within and beyond the EU has largely omitted dynamic perspectives on norms so far. We combine International Relations norm research with EU governance literature to scrutinise the normative underpinnings of the immediate crisis response within Commission sectoral strategies and working programs. Empirically, the paper focuses on the higher education and transport sectors, which have been particularly impacted by the COVID‐19 crisis and targeted by the EU crisis response. The interpretative‐qualitative analysis uncovers COVID‐19‐related collisions within the ideational constellation of EU governance and shows that the European Commission has engaged in different reconfiguration practices, potentially altering the norm constellation in the investigated sectoral governance areas.

Coping with an EU and Domestic Crisis: Ireland’s Approach to Brexit

ABSTRACT Following the UK decision to leave the EU (European Union), Ireland was confronted with profound political and economic challenges linked to its relationship with both the EU and the UK. With a view to protecting Irish interests, the Irish government pursued determined efforts to ‘seek shelter’ from the EU and to develop a ‘hedging’ strategy. In contrast, Irish national authorities faced a decidedly more difficult challenge in balancing different logics of action vis-à-vis the EU, to which Ireland remains committed, and the UK, which continues to be an economically and politically important neighbour for Ireland. Largely successful EU-focused coping strategies co-existed alongside a less positive effort at maintaining a cordial and constructive British-Irish bilateral relationship. The sum of Ireland’s coping strategies, however, unleashed a series of Europeanisation dynamics which reflect a shift in the nature of Ireland’s traditional relationship with the EU. Brexit has stimulated and motivated a greater propensity to upload Irish preferences, including in relation to the EU’s foreign policy landscape.

Geographical Differentiation in the EU and the link to EU Crisis Solving with an Outset in Denmark

Does differentiation in the European Union (EU) have a geographical dimension? This has been suggested in parts of literature on EU crises and differentiation in the EU. Europe is often divided into three geographical parts: North, South and East. The article focuses on a particular crisis in the EU, the EU populist crisis. Using Denmark as a case study, we ask whether populism exist in the Nordic countries, in which form, and whether the Nordic countries may be seen as a specific geographical area in this field compared to East, South and maybe even North Europe. Finally, the link between the growing distance between metropolitan big cities and small cities in rural areas, and EU crisis solving is drawn.

Perspectives on the Development of the EU Crisis Management System

The article reveals the main features of the European Union crisis management system and outlines the endeavors undertaken to improve it further by introducing a more proactive approach through enhancing the response mechanism and expanding the capabilities for prevention, preparedness and resilience. The article highlights the ability of the EU crisis management to meet the challenges of the security environment and respond to different scenarios, including overseas political-military crises having a strong impact on various aspects of common security. Furthermore, the article explores the capabilities of the Union to conduct military and civilian missions and operations within the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and analyzes their specific contribution to international peace and security. The article underlines the importance of self-reliant strategic airlift as a token of strategic autonomy and a provider of flexible mobility options. It goes on to argue that matters of strategic air mobility should be addressed along with the concerns preventing the use of the EU multinational battlegroups so far. Then, the article identifies the Strategic Compass, due to be adopted in 2022, as a platform for a common strategic vision for the Union’s security and defense priorities, a sound basis for consensus on future response options and a facilitator for further integration of the military component of defense into the EU crisis management system. It also maintains that increased responsibilities would impose higher requirements upon the key elements of the crisis management process. The article points to intelligence as an integrated effort supporting CSDP military and civilian missions. Finally, it suggests three main approaches to the development of the European crisis management system and concludes that the main goal should be reinforcing the role of the EU as one of the pillars of international peace and security.

Female entrepreneurship and economic crisis in EU-28: the case of Greece

Entrepreneurship is considered one of the most important solutions to unemployment, poverty and low economic growth. Creating new businesses and growing existing businesses are vital factors that contribute to any economy. Women's entrepreneurship is an important key factor in economic growth. Taking into account the period 2006-2018, we find that in Greece female entrepreneurship in its early stages is moving at slightly lower levels than in Europe and innovation countries. The high unemployment of women and the difficulties of finding dependent work seem to lead Greek women to entrepreneurship more than in European countries and innovation countries. The negative image is complemented by the fact that in Greece a woman is more likely to shut down her business compared to other European countries. The main objective of this paper is to study female entrepreneurship in the European Union crisis and the case of Greece.

How do executives communicate about crises? A framework for comparative analysis

AbstractA plethora of accumulating crises, and the public frustration with how they were tackled, have provided fertile ground for growing public scepticism towards the European Union (EU). The way in which political leaders manage these crises may well decide the future of the EU. Research has addressed these developments comprehensively. However, it has not, to date, provided an adequate analytical lens to confront the crisis theme explicitly and therefore needs analytical advancement. We contribute to the debate by developing a framework for comparative analysis and evaluation of public political crisis communication, identifying four aspects along which public political crisis communication can be analysed: (1) how accessible it is, (2) how well it can contribute to allaying fears, (3) to what extent it accommodates public concerns, and (4) how politically aligned crisis managers are in their communication. We analyse a dataset of 10 years of speeches and press releases of the governments of Austria, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom in addition to the EU's executive institutions (EU Commission and Councils). Drawing on different approaches to automated text analysis, we score texts on the four identified dimensions and draw dimensions together in a holistic similarity index. Results demonstrate the cohesion of crisis‐relevant communication in contrast to non‐relevant communication. They also show that accommodation, is consistently emphasised more in crisis than in non‐crisis communication; however, political crisis managers have practiced a politics of fear rather than allaying concerns, potentially fuelling political frustration and disenchantment. In addition, the EU's crisis communication is not found to be different from communication about non‐crisis topics, opening up avenues for future research concerned with legitimation processes at different political levels. Overall, the results do partly resonate with the insights provided by the existing literature but also shine a new, holistic light on how political executives have managed crises in the past decade.

Varieties of organised hypocrisy: security privatisation in UN, EU, and NATO crisis management operations

ABSTRACT International organisations (IOs) have increasingly resorted to private military and security companies (PMSCs) as providers of armed protection, training, intelligence, and logistics. In this article, we argue that IOs, seeking to reconcile conflicting international norms and member states’ growing unwillingness to provide the manpower required for effective crisis management, have decoupled their official policy on and actual use of PMSCs, thereby engaging in organised hypocrisy. Due to its stricter interpretation of norms like the state monopoly of violence, the United Nations (UN) has showcased a more glaring gap between talk and action than the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which display a more pragmatic, but not entirely consistent, approach to the use of PMSCs. By examining the decoupling between UN, EU, and NATO official contractor support doctrines and operational records, this article advances the debate on both security privatisation and organised hypocrisy.

The Treaty of Lisbon and the gender–blind responses to the EU crises: impact on the quality of European democracy

This article analyses the state of democracy in the European Union (EU) using gender lens on the Treaty of Lisbon and three of the main European crises in the first decade since its entry into force (2009-2019): the economic crisis (2008-2014); Brexit (2017–2020) and the democratic decline and triggering of Article 7 TEU against Poland and Hungary (2017 and 2018 respectively). By drawing on feminist democracy theory, it shows the interdependent connections of democracy and gender equality in the analysed European crises. It examines the two dimensions of the double democratic deficit through gender lens –the underrepresentation of women and gender sensitivity– in the adoption and provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon and European decision-making and responses to the crises. It argues that the gender-blind European responses to the crises of the first decade of the Treaty of Lisbon have contributed –among other factors– to the deterioration of the EU’s democratic structures and procedures, and have also, in turn, contributed to restraining progress on gender equality and exacerbating gender inequality across different member states. Given Ursula Von der Leyen’s declared plans for a “new push for European democracy”, and the new EU crisis emerged by the Covid-19 virus pandemic, the article points to some key gender aspects that might be worth considering for the future of the European democratic project.

Strengthening the EU’s Response Capacity to Health Emergencies: Insights from EU Crisis Management Mechanisms

What could a European Union (EU) response mechanism to health emergencies look like in the context of a more integrated Health Union? Despite an increased EU role in the preparedness, monitoring and coordination of health emergencies over the past two decades, Member States’ responses to the first wave of COVID-19 were surprisingly uncoordinated. In light of calls to improve cooperation regarding future health emergencies, this article discusses the creation of EU surveillance, preparedness and response mechanisms for health emergencies. Using insights from previous research and secondary literature, we highlight gaps in the existing serious cross-border health threats regulatory framework and discuss opportunities for further EU action. Based on a comparison with other EU crisis management mechanisms (the Banking Union, risk preparedness in the electricity sector and food safety), we discuss different crisis decision-making and coordination models and their potential applicability to the health sector. We then formulate several propositions to strengthen Decision 1082/2013/EU on serious cross-border health threats to streamline ex ante pandemic preparedness and organise emergency responses.

Federal dynamics, solidarity, and European Union crisis politics

ABSTRACT In this article, I analyse solidarity between regions during times of crisis. To begin with, I define two types of solidarity preferences. Negative solidarity means that territories will regard solidarity only as appropriate in the limits of intergovernmental contracts and consider the fiscal consequences of solidarity to be more important than the social consequences. Positive solidarity implies that regions consider solidarity even if it goes beyond existing intergovernmental contracts as they regard social consequences to be more important than fiscal consequences. I argue that the combination of regional collective identities, the relative importance of intergovernmental over parliamentary decision-making, and the complexity of policy problems impact on preferences for solidarity. To illustrate my argument empirically, I use the European Union (EU) and federal states as examples. More generally, I make a theoretical contribution to understanding the politics of solidarity.

Plugging the capability-expectations gap: towards effective, comprehensive and conflict-sensitive EU crisis response?

ABSTRACTSince the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, the European Union (EU) has spent considerable time and energy on defining and refining its comprehensive approach to external conflicts. The knock-on effects of new and protracted crises, from the war in Ukraine to the multi-faceted armed conflicts in the Sahel and the wider Middle East, have made the improvement of external crisis-response capacities a top priority. But has the EU managed to plug the capability–expectations gap, and develop an effective, comprehensive and conflict sensitive crisis-response capability? Drawing on institutional theory and an approach developed by March and Olsen, this article analyses whether the EU has the administrative capacities needed in order to be an effective actor in this area and implement a policy in line with the established goals and objectives identified in its comprehensive approach.

Економічна, політична та соціальна кризи Європи в XXI столітті.

The article identifies current trends and prerequisites for the emergence of the European Union crisis in the 21st century. The research outlined in this article explains how and how controversial the process of European unification was; how the consequences of this process in the form of multiple intertwined crisis phenomena affect the current world political order in general and, in particular, Ukraine. The author has reviewed and analyzed the work of the Spanish post-Marxist sociologist, Manuel Castells, who specializes in the theory of the post-information society, together with other European authors – "Europe`s Crises". The authors of this book were intended to return to European integration, focusing on the period from 2008. to the present, and strove to understand the distinctive features of numerous crises that disturbed the peace of Europe during this period of time. The factors of the formation of the concept of European and national identity were considered. This article states that in the case of the EU, an attempt to impose the identity for the implementation of the European project has provoked strong resistance that threatened the project. The process of European integration achieved its goal, namely the prevention of wars and conflicts between its member states, but, perhaps, the integration was not as positive at the economic level as we could expect. It should be noted that today the EU needs a strategy to respond to migration and refugees, but cannot create it. This is recognized in EU documents, but the relevant directives have failed to implement this policy. The article states that the crisis in Europe is multifaceted: it is economic, financial, social and political crisis. And, as we can see, these are also cultural, intellectual and moral crises that affect the very essence of the values that define Europe and its identity. The fact that European crisis phenomena directly or indirectly influence Ukraine, its information presence and ideas of Europeans about Ukraine is unconditional.

Earth Observation for Security and Defence: The European Union Satellite Centre Experience and Future Views

The European Union Satellite Centre (SatCen) was founded in 1992 under the framework of the Western European Union. Today it is a Council agency of the European Union. It supports decision-making and actions under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), in particular the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). It thus provides the European External Action Service, as well as European Union crisis management missions and operations, products and services based on the exploitation of relevant space assets and collateral data, including satellite and aerial imagery, and related services. The Centre, under the operational direction of the High Representative for the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Mrs Frederica Mogherini, is located in Torrejón de Ardoz, Spain. It has approximately 130 members of staff and a global budget of EUR 26 million

EU politicization beyond the Euro crisis: immigration crises and the politicization of free movement of people

This article explores the applicability of democratic functionalism as a theoretical framework explaining mechanisms of European Union (EU) politicization during immigration crises. Since most existing studies on the politicization of EU crisis situations focus on the Euro crisis, it is unclear if and how the politicization of EU immigration crises differs. Drawing on a 2011 crisis with legislative implications for the free movement of people in the Schengen Area, the article illustrates that immigration crises are politicized along exclusionary identities rather than along pro-/anti-European lines—as expected by democratic functionalism. Moreover, unlike in the Euro crisis, the 2011 case illustrates how the media can be instrumentalized by governments during immigration crises, with little political mobilization from the public. This case is relevant given the widespread politicization of the 2015 refugee crisis, which conversely attracted close media attention and caused serious public concern. As it stands, democratic functionalism is shown to lack a conceptualization of how much and for how long an issue needs to be contested in the European public sphere for the mechanisms of EU politicization described by the theory to hold.

Federalism: is it the solution to the European Union crisis? A Portuguese view

Federalism: is it the solution to the European Union crisis? A Portuguese view

“This is an EU crisis requiring an EU solution”: Nation and transnational talk in negotiating warrants for further inclusion of refugees

AbstractDiscursive social psychological research shows the centrality of treating arrival nations as unitary entities that are incompatible for nonnation others (immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees) in legitimately warranting their exclusion. We extend these findings for the current Special Issue and for broader literature in examining inclusion issues in the European Union (EU) in the ongoing context of the “refugee crisis.” We offer a discursive analysis of transcribed talk in the Dáil Éireaan (Irish Parliament) for the year 2015 when issues of migration and refugees were prominent. Analysis shows that Deputies treat the adequacy of ongoing inclusion efforts as a concern. This was worked up through foregrounding possibilities for Ireland to take up inclusive efforts and managed through avowals of commitment to inclusion juxtaposed to treating the issue and responses to it as EU concerns. Findings show that unique aspects and sovereignty of nations can be downplayed in negotiating warrants for inclusion. Alongside this, in specific contexts and settings transnational collectives, such as the EU, can be treated as stand‐ins for nations and used to negotiate inclusion of nonnation others. These are discussed in relation to implications for inclusion advocacy.