European Union Eastern Research Articles

From Business to Politics: Cross‐Border Inter‐Firm Networks and Policy Spillovers in the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood

AbstractThe European Union (EU) encourages cross‐border inter‐firm networks as a part of its external governance approach. What is the effect of these networks? Do they lead to regulatory convergence around EU standards in the eastern neighbourhood? Using original survey data, as well as data on regional enterprise‐related regulations, this article argues that the density of interaction among private actors and between private actors and regional governments in such networks create conditions for private actors to lobby for regulatory change, resulting in approximations to EU standards. By testing the transnational mechanisms of policy change, the article points to the possibility of integration, even in the absence of membership prospects. However, the findings also indicate that the extent of regulatory change is conditioned by cross‐border network structure as well as the institutional distance between the partnering regions.

Eastern Enlargement Ten Years On: Transcending the East–West Divide?

AbstractThis introduction summarizes the findings of nine research articles that examine the consequences of the European Union's eastern enlargement ten years on. The volume reaches three surprising conclusions: since 2004, the EU's economic effects have been more far‐reaching than its political effects; all of the new Member States (NMS) have had problems with democratic consolidation; and, despite four years of intense crisis in the eurozone, both the EU's enlargement and neighbourhood‐shaping efforts have continued. We set these economic, political and institutional developments in the context of the long‐standing east–west divide in Europe, and ask whether EU membership for post‐communist countries upends the continent's traditionally persistent divisions. Notable achievements of EU enlargement notwithstanding, the volume points to the continuing important differences between east and west and highlights the issue areas in which the EU transcends but also reinforces the centuries‐old partition.

European Union Governance towards the Eastern Neigbourhood: Transcending or Redrawing Europe's East–West Divide?

AbstractHow does the European Union (EU) shape the integration of non‐member states in transnational markets and why are other external actors more effective than the EU in fostering regulatory change in such a context? Examining the case of Ukraine, the article finds that international financial institutions and donors are better at eliciting reform than the EU because they empower state and non‐state domestic actors, who in turn demand and enforce new rules in their home markets. Overall, because the EU limits itself to intergovernmental co‐operation and other external actors only engage in reform of select sectors, we do not observe comprehensive regulatory change in the eastern neighbourhood. Shallow transnational market integration is the result. Eastern neighbours are therefore economically worse off than even the laggards of EU enlargement, Bulgaria and Romania. Consequently, a new developmental divide at the EU's eastern borders between countries in‐ and outside the EU is emerging.

Cross-border cooperation over the Eastern EU border: between assistance and partnership under the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument

The article explores the practices of cross-border cooperation (CBC) at the Eastern border of the European Union (EU) from the point of view of contributing to the emergence of non-hierarchical interaction patterns in the EU-neighbour relations. Using the concept of regional mobilisation, it builds upon the network of governance literature by providing a framework for including the impact of external partners on the process of creating the “shared policy spaces” transcending the external EU borders. The article analyses nine European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) CBC Programmes and argues that the partnership principle enshrined in the EU's policy approach has not yet resulted in the emergence of new, partnership type and cooperation practices. It demonstrates that although the Programmes’ institutional structures have been created on the principle of partnership, the ENPI's implementation framework is still guided largely by the traditional hierarchical mechanisms of EU external relations. As a result, the engagement of neighbouring partners remains insufficient to allow for the emergence of “shared spaces of network governance” across the EU's Eastern borders. It is suggested that the partnership principle within the ENPI CBC can be strengthened by creating more opportunities for the mobilisation of regional actors in the Eastern neighbourhood.

Is tuberculosis crossing borders at the Eastern boundary of the European Union?

Background: The Eastern border of the European Union (EU) consists of 10 countries after the expansion of the EU in 2004 and 2007. These 10 countries border to the East to countries with high tuberculosis (TB) notification rates. We analyzed the notification data of Europe to quantify the impact of cross-border TB at the Eastern border of the EU. Methods: We used TB surveillance data of 2010 submitted by 53 European Region countries to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe. Notified TB cases were stratified by origin of the case (national/foreign). We calculated the contribution of foreign to overall TB notification. Results: In the 10 EU countries located at the EU Eastern border, 618 notified TB cases (1.7% of all notified TB cases) were of foreign origin. Of those 618 TB cases, 173 (28.0%) were from countries bordering the EU to the East. More specifically, 90 (52.0%) were from Russia, 33 (19.1%) from Belarus, 33 (19.1%) from Ukraine, 13 (7.5%) from Moldova and 4 (2.3%) from Turkey. Conclusions: Currently, migrants contribute little to TB notifications in the 10 EU countries at the Eastern border of the EU, but changes in migration patterns may result in an increasing contribution. Therefore, EU countries at the Eastern border of the EU should strive to provide prompt diagnostic services and adequate treatment of migrants.

Threat Appraisal and Authoritarianism in Context: Reactions to the European Union Enlargement in Border Regions

The present study uses European Union (EU) enlargement as the treatment in a “natural” quasi experiment to analyze the relationship of threat appraisal and authoritarianism. Theoretically it is based on the discussion about the role of contextual variables in the genesis of authoritarianism. Two contradictory perspectives are explicated: the trait model and the situationist model. To test the competing causal hypotheses panel data collected before and after the EU eastern enlargement on perceived threat, authoritarian attitudes, and xenophobia among inhabitants of the German external frontier of the EU (at Wave 1) were analyzed. The use of a cross‐lagged panel design demonstrated that the type of relationship between authoritarianism and perceived threat depended on the kind of threat (material or cultural) that was addressed.

Cross‐border Inter‐firm Networks in the European Union's Eastern Neighbourhood: Integration via Organizational Learning*

AbstractThe European Union (EU) is seeking to generate stronger integration in the wider Europe without further enlargement by involving its immediate neighbours in various regional partnerships. What are the effects of such co‐operation across the eastern borders of the EU and what are the prospects for bringing this region's countries closer to the EU without offering them the possibility of formal EU membership? Using the tools of social network analysis and regression methods, this article investigates the effect of the EU's external governance on the previously neglected societal level by focusing on cross‐border inter‐firm networks. The findings show that the diffusion of organizational practices is occurring within these networks which have emerged as the result of EU governance efforts abroad. The article explores the causal mechanisms of this diffusion, and also identifies factors that impede or catalyze the transfer of organizational practices. It also points to the relevance of neofunctionalism in explaining integration between the EU and its eastern neighbours.

The social construction of European solidarity: Germany and France in the EU policy towards the states of Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific (ACP) and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC)

This article compares the foreign policies of France and Germany in the 1990s towards the European Union (EU)'s special relationships with the countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) on the one hand and the Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) on the other. Whereas France advocated support for ACP interests, Germany supported those of the CEEC. We argue that French and German prioritisations cannot sufficiently be explained by rationalist, interest-based approaches (i.e. neorealism, economic liberalism and institutionalism) and offer a constructivist supplement to fill in the gaps. This approach is based on the concept of solidarity. First, we develop our theoretical concept and identify three principles of solidarity action (i.e. ties, need and effort). We then apply our concept of solidarity to show how French and German policies towards the Cotonou Agreement, concluded in 2000 with the ACP, and the EU's Eastern enlargement process were shaped by different social constructions of solidarity, resulting in strong preferential support for either the ACP (France) or the CEEC (Germany).

Contested neighbourhood: Toward the ‘Europeanization’ of Moldova?

The lack of a credible membership promise and a re-invigorated Russia have transformed the environment in which the European Union (EU) seeks to bolster its external policy in Central Eastern Europe. Examining Moldova, a country with concurrent commitments to creating strong bonds with the EU and Russia, the article analyses the challenges and opportunities to ‘Europeanize’ the EU's Eastern neighbourhood. It shows that the effects of Europeanization do not solely depend on the incentives offered by Brussels, but significantly on the willingness of the elite and population to adopt these concepts and on external factors, such as the politics of Russia.

Cross-border co-operation Euro-regions at the European Union eastern frontier within the context of Romania's accession to the Schengen area

The paper analyses a sector of the EU and NATO eastern border, basically, the frontier-line between Romania on the one hand, and the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, on the other, a sector supposed to become also a Schengen border. The ethnical structure of the population living close to the frontier-area, the cohesion and functionality of the local and regional settlements systems, as well as the cross-border cooperation euro-regions are also discussed. Both banks of the Pruth River are heavily populated, doublet settlements acting as relays interconnecting the two settlement systems formed within the framework of a common historical background. The ethnical unity is a major binder of the territories lying on either side of the Pruth River and constituting the three Euro-regions. Romania's strivings to integrate into the European and Euro-Atlantic co-operation structures makes it necessary to secure its eastern border and control migration fluxes in this part of the Continent. The Pruth River becomes an axis of integration due to the continuity of the ethnical-linguistic element, as well as to the density and continuity of settlement on either bank; on the other hand, it also becomes an axis of fragmentation given its future role of relatively stable NATO and EU frontier-line, fact that imposes specific cross-border cooperation.

Enabling harmonization – Business actors and the eastern enlargement of the EU

In recent years, most enlargement research has focused on theorizing the process of eastern enlargement and analysing the incentives of both the European Union (EU) and candidate member states to initiate a gradual process of legal and policy approximation with the prospect of eventual membership. Although the bulk of the literature draws on bilateral executive negotiations between the European Commission and central governments, there is little systematic account of the role of non-actors in the process of policy approximation with EU standards during the pre-accession negotiations. In light of the enormous economic, political and administrative challenges posed by the EU's eastern enlargement, we raise the question of the extent to which eastern enlargement has provided new opportunities to private actors from the Central Eastern European region to pursue their interests in the process of aligning domestic regulatory regimes to European policies. Drawing on empirical evidence from pharmaceutical harmonization in Hungary and Poland, the article analyses the extent to which enlargement has empowered non-state actors as shapers of success or failure in the efficient and effective adoption of and adaptation to EU regulatory requirements.

A lacking legitimacy in the transposition of the EU's equal opportunity directives: The case of Romania

Synopsis The academic feminist analyses of the European Union's eastern enlargement were also focused on the process' legitimacy. This article argues for an analytical differentiation between legitimacy in reference to an external process – the European Union's enlargement – and as a marker for an internal process, at the national level, of legislative change and institutional building. Focusing on the Romanian case between 2000 and 2004, it analyzes the internal processes surrounding EU-mandated gender equality legislative and institutional reforms, and tests them for legitimacy. It concludes that that internal legitimacy was profoundly lacking and reveals a democratic deficit in Romania.

Challenges for EU governance through Neighbourhood Policy and Eastern Partnership: the values/security nexus in EU–Belarus relations

Whereas the European Union (EU) has had some effect on political and economic reforms in the Ukraine and Moldova, it almost completely failed to impress the regime and population of Belarus. Despite growing consensus at the EU level that the Union's policies for Eastern Europe cannot succeed without Belarus, few attempts have been made to account for the failure of EU governance in Belarus. Having recalled the current legal and institutional set-up of EU–Belarus relations, this article introduces the notion of the ‘values/security nexus’ to explain the limited impact of EU governance in Belarus. It argues that the highly contradictory normative objectives in the Union's current Neighbourhood Policy towards Belarus effectively undermine the EU's credibility in the country: idealist values of ‘winning the hearts and minds’ of the Belarusian population increasingly collide with traditional realist goals of protecting EU interests and the stability of the Belarusian state. By way of conclusion, the article highlights the challenges facing the EU's new Eastern Partnership, including Belarus.

Beyond conditionality: international institutions in postcommunist Europe after enlargement

According to the dominant incentive-based explanation, European Union (EU) conditionality has been particularly effective when the EU offered a credible membership incentive and when incumbent governments did not consider the domestic costs of compliance threatening to their hold on power. However, after the EU's eastern enlargement the influence of international institutions could then be expected to decrease in three different contexts: (i) the new member states after accession; (ii) the current candidate countries; and (iii) the postcommunist countries in the European neighbourhood policy. Yet although the incentive-based explanation receives support in some issue areas, in others, external influence is more enduring than predicted. To the extent that our understanding of the power of incentives is complicated by post-enlargement findings, there are new avenues for research into the full range of mechanisms that international institutions have at their disposal for influencing target states.

Democracy and Human Rights-Not for Gay People?: EU Eastern Enlargement and Its Impact on the Protection of the Rights of Sexual Minorities

Gays and lesbians in Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) did not have any rights under communism, where homosexuality had either been a criminal offence or, at best, the official attitude towards it could be characterised as repressive tolerance. The development of civil rights and freedoms, which started after the collapse of the communist regimes, did not immediately result in a break through in the sphere of gay rights: "[i]n the midst of the multifaceted transformation of [the CEECs], the status of gay and lesbian residents has undergone varied and dramatic changes and is still in flux." Many hopes for change in this situation were related to the process of enlargement of the European Union (EU) and were fuelled by the belief that the EU would ensure that no country turning a blind eye to the problems related to gay rights and allowing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation would be permitted to join. As it turned out, these hopes were only partly justified. The actions of the EU were timid, ill-focused, and stopped short of realising the potential for change offered by the legal context of enlargement preparation. Such developments can be explained by the limited nature of Community competences in this field, especially true at the very beginning of the enlargement process and which were certainly influenced by the questionable gay rights record of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The EU did not decouple the pre-accession human rights monitoring of the candidate countries from its own internal incompetence in the field of gay rights and the limited scope of the acquis in this area. While the situation improved slightly over the last few years preceding the enlargement, it is clear that the current adopted practice is unsustainable and that the EU should seriously consider allowing gay rights to play a more prominent role in the course of the preparation of future enlargements.

Redrawing the Map of Europe: Spatial Formation of the EU's Eastern Dimension

AbstractHow to write about the many, diverse, politically contested and often highly contradictory meanings of Eastern Europe in a short text? In this article, I approach Eastern Europe from the perspective of the recent (2004) expansion of the European Union (EU) by introducing two among the many geographical themes that have appeared in research within the past few years. I examine the recent EU expansion first from the constructionist viewpoint by introducing the political geography of the ‘return to Europe’ discourse championed by the drivers of the enlargement. Second, I discuss the possible boundary regimes in the eastern part of the EU. These two phenomena are inescapably interlinked and form what might be called the EU's eastern dimension. Finally, I introduce some themes that merit scholarly attention as the EU is preparing for future expansion.

1918 barrier on the road to the membership of the European Union

The European Union (EU) and Serbia?s accession to this international organization in a relatively distant future are linked, in the eyes of the Serbian public, with numerous expectations, dilemmas, misunderstanding fears, joys and periodical manipulations. The topic is important, broad and complex, so there is a need for the basic and understandable explanations. While in Serbia this topic is one of the most important and high on the government?s agenda. In the EU and its member countries, it attracts almost no attention and is not a priority issue. Simply, the EU is concerned with much more important issues, such as its future constitutional system security, energy, globalization, unemployment, immigration, demographic problem (population ageing), monetary union, preservation of the single market and adjustment to the EU eastern enlargement of 2004 and 2007. After introduction to the advantages and problems relating to Serbia?s potential accession to the EU, the attention is turned to the issues that include geopolitical conditions for accession to the EU, legislation and functioning of the EU, as well as its budget. Effects of integration, the EU?s interest in Serbia and Serbia?s interest in the EU are presented before conclusions.

Early Childhood Education and Care in Advanced Industrialized Countries: Current Policy and Program Trends

WHETHER in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, the countries of the EU (European Union), the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) and Central and Eastern European countries, the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries, or others, interest in and attention to early care and education (ECE) is clearly growing. For the first time in about three decades, the OECD carried out a thematic review of ECE policies and programs in 20 of its 30 member countries, and UNESCO joined with the OECD in a subsequent review of ECE in four developing (or less-developed) countries, Brazil, Indonesia, Kenya, and Kazakhstan. ECE is a policy priority throughout the EU countries in particular, even if curricula and rates of coverage vary. My focus here will be on three trends in ECE policy that have emerged in the EU and in selected OECD countries that are collectively referred to as industrialized Two factors have been especially important in bringing ECE to the forefront in these countries. First, increasing numbers of women have entered the labor force. Thus ECE services have become necessary to ensure that men and women have equal work opportunities and to facilitate the reconciliation of work and family life. Second, there has been a growing recognition that a positive group experience enhances the cognitive, social, and emotional development of children and can help compensate for early disadvantages that many children experience. THREE POLICY TRENDS Among the advanced industrialized countries, there have been three important recent developments in the area of ECE policy: * specifying targets for achieving an expansion of ECE services, often by the year 2010; * extending the duration of paid parental leaves, both to support the nurturing and caring role of parents and to reduce the need for out-of-home infant and toddler care; and * changing the governance structure of ECE so that all policies and programs fall under the auspices of education, rather than being divided between education and health or social welfare. EXPANDING ECE SERVICES Increasing the employment rate in the EU, especially the percentage of women in the labor force, is an explicit goal of the European employment strategy. (1) At its Lisbon summit in March 2000, the EU set a goal to increase the rate of female employment from 51% at that time to 57% by 2005 and 60% by 2010. Two years later, at the Barcelona summit, the EU took an important step toward achieving this goal by setting specific targets for the expansion of ECE services: at least 90% of children between age 3 and the age of compulsory school entry (age 5, 6, or 7) and at least 33% of children under age 3 are to be enrolled in ECE programs by 2010. Although not binding, the Barcelona targets emphasize the importance of ECE for working parents, just as earlier the OECD had emphasized the importance of ECE for children's socialization and future school success. (2) The Barcelona targets for young children have not yet been achieved; however, access to ECE programs is clearly increasing. Nine of the 25 EU countries plus Norway and Iceland have already achieved the 90% goal for this age group, and half of the 16 remaining countries have 80% of this group enrolled. Among the OECD countries, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the UK enroll around 90% of their children by the age of 4 in free (or very low-cost) early education services. Not all of the programs cover the full workday, but the school day in these countries is often significantly longer than the U.S school day. EXTENDING PARENTAL LEAVE Now we turn to the goal for the under-3s. While not all countries have a sufficient supply of services to cover one-third of the under-3s, some countries have established an alternative approach: paid and job-protected leaves from work to allow parents to care for a very young child at home. …

Do norms matter? The principle of solidarity and the EU's eastern enlargement

This article explores whether and how the norm of ‘solidarity' has been demonstrated in the enlargement policy of the European Union (EU) towards the ten former communist countries from Central and Eastern Europe aspiring for EU membership. According to constructivist approaches, which dominate the literature on eastern enlargement, the EU's decision to enlarge was norm-driven and is therefore better understood within a constructivist rather than a rationalist framework. However, this article argues that, while the norm of solidarity has provided some of the initial impetus for the start of the EU's eastern enlargement process, it has had a more limited impact on defining the EU's enlargement policy as regards concrete policy issues. This article aims to contribute to the current debate between rationalist and constructivist theories in European integration by arguing that there is a difference in the degree of influence of normative factors on EU policies when considering long-term — as opposed to — short-term interests. It demonstrates there are limits to the role of norms in the EU's eastern enlargement policy when the focus of analysis shifts from the EU's decision to enlarge to the level of substantive policy issues, where EU actors' short-term interests prevail.

Bridging the European Union and Eastern Europe: Cross-border Cooperation and the Euroregions

This article explores the development of Euroregions on the European Union's eastern border and then suggests how their contribution to overcoming the various barriers between societies may be assessed. In particular, this analysis focuses on both the stated goals and actual activities of one Euroregion, the Euroregion Pro Europa Viadrina on the German-Polish border. With its focus on small-scale projects that affect people's daily lives, the Euroregion provides opportunities for elites and average citizens on both sides of the border to overcome mutual suspicions, work together to promote the regional economy, and foster linkages with the European Union.