European Union Member Research Articles

Between Populism and Technocracy: How National Executives in Bulgaria and Serbia Manipulate EU Rule of Law Conditionality

This article explores how national executives in Serbia and Bulgaria address European Union (EU) rule of law conditionality by framing it within the populism/technocracy dichotomy. The rule of law remains one of the main problems of EU relations with the two countries. While acknowledging the nuances of pre- and post-enlargement Europeanisation, this article explores the technocratic and populist narratives exploited by the national executives in their interactions with the EU and their domestic public. Rather than positioning the current executives unequivocally either as populist or technocratic, we argue that the political elites act strategically in using both populist and technocratic techniques towards their publics when explaining interaction with the EU. We explore the extent this type of executive behaviour is determined by the countries’ formally different status. While we look for the levels of possible similarity and distinction in the two cases/countries stemming from their different EU membership status, our findings confirm the existence of strategic defensive populist and technocratic techniques applied towards the EU and the national public in both countries The aim of this strategy is to mitigate the impact of the EU rule of law pressure and to secure the persistence of the existing rule of law shortcomings within the process of European integration. Interestingly, our research did not identify substantial impact of the formally different status towards the EU of the two countries.

The impact of economic growth on the financial and capital market

"Sustainable development, in the light of the aimed objectives, has a key role in each country’s economy, but also in the world. We have taken this initiative out of our wish to find a scientific explanation of how economic growth influences the capital market and the private insurance and pensions sector across the European Union (EU) member states. Economic growth is part of the indicators measuring the progress made in implementing the Sustainable Development Goal 8. Starting from the fact that in any country, savings and investment play a particularly important role, both at macroeconomic level and at company level, and from the existence of a set of factors that influence savings/investment decisions to the detriment of the current consumption of funds, thus generating a future advantage, this paper aims to study the influence of changing the real gross domestic product on the main ways of placing the sums available in the economy on the capital/financial market."

Resolving the United Kingdom and European Union Membership of Regional Fisheries Management Organisations Post Brexit

Resolving the United Kingdom and European Union Membership of Regional Fisheries Management Organisations Post Brexit

Yeni Nesil Üniversite: Bir Model Önerisi

In the last quarter century, since the university is the main source of the human resources required by the knowledge society, structural and functional restructuring efforts of the university institution have been increasing to strengthen the positive impact on economic growth and social development through education and research activities. Today, the Anglo-Saxon and the Far East countries have the most successful university examples in this context; European universities come second in performance, although there are tremendous differences among member countries. Being a candidate for the European Union membership and as a member of the Council of Europe as the first signatory states of the Cultural Convention; implementation of reforms in the European Higher Education Area is obligatory for Turkey. In this study, an organizational and operating model has been developed in line with the European university reform agenda. CoHE's university approach which focuses on thematic and regional development has also been taken into consideration. Five innovations can be mentioned in terms of organizational and functional configuration of the model: (i) Profile of graduate and mission of the new generation university in the fields of education, research and community services, (ii) Policy development and implementation offices, (iii) University ecosystem consultation and steering committee and other committees and boards, (iv) Concept courses and branded courses, (v) Recognition of prior learning, (vi) Coop-education and solution partnerships.

Race and rage: Mourning loss in right-wing populism and ethnonationalism

Four recent books—two edited volumes and two monographs—applying anthropological and ethnographic methods to contemporary right-wing populism and illiberalism, around the world but with a special interest in the United States, are reviewed. While the authors discover great diversity in conservative, populist, and ethnonationalist movements and agendas based on local circumstances (for instance, European Union membership) and national history and culture, all identify anger and identity (racial and/or ethnic) as central to the current global wave of populist mobilization. The review concludes with an analysis of cultural loss and the appeal of illiberal democracy as a winning strategy.

Impact of regulatory trade barriers and controls of the movement of capital and people on international trade of selected Central, Eastern and Southeastern European economies

Free movement of people, goods, services and capital is one of the cornerstones of the European Union (EU). Although various obstacles to free movement still exist, all EU members are dedicated to reducing barriers. While the role of tariffs is gradually declining, other barriers to free movement are becoming increasingly important in recent years. Therefore, this paper focuses on the impact of regulatory trade barriers and controls of the movement of capital and people on international trade of selected Central, Eastern and Southeastern European economies (CESEE), i.e. post-communist economies that eventually became EU members. CESEE economies stem from a centrally-planned economy environment which is why it is particularly interesting to analyse how these countries managed to establish free movement and reduce trade barriers. Employing panel data methodology, the findings of the paper suggest that reducing regulatory trade barriers and controls of the movement of capital and people leads to an increase in international trade. Moreover, accompanying the results of the empirical analysis with the indicators of corruption and ease of doing business highlights the necessity of implementing various structural policies and tackling corruption as a prerequisite of fostering the free movement of people, goods, services and capital.

The Role of Human Values in Explaining Support for European Union Membership

In recent years, there has been greater scholarly enquiry into explaining variation in support for European Union membership. We theorise that one cause of such variation is likely to be non-political psychological predispositions, such as one’s personal values. We test this proposition by applying Schwartz’s theory of basic human values to predict voting intentions in hypothetical referendums on EU membership. We theorise that these values determine both voting intentions and more proximate explanatory variables of support for EU membership: attitudes to immigration and identifying as European. Using data on 13 countries from the European Social Survey ( N=24,703 citizens) and multigroup structural equation modeling, we demonstrate that this psychological framework effectively predicts voting intentions, notably in terms of the consistent cross-country evidence for indirect effects of values on support for membership via European identity and attitudes to immigration. We then discuss the implications of our findings, including differences in effects between countries.

A Century of French Railways: The Value of Remote Sensing and VGI in the Fusion of Historical Data

Providing long-term data about the evolution of railway networks in Europe may help us understand how European Union (EU) member states behave in the long-term, and how they can comply with present EU recommendations. This paper proposes a methodology for collecting data about railway stations, at the maximal extent of the French railway network, a century ago.The expected outcome is a geocoded dataset of French railway stations (gares), which: (a) links gares to each other, (b) links gares with French communes, the basic administrative level for statistical information. Present stations are well documented in public data, but thousands of past stations are sparsely recorded, not geocoded, and often ignored, except in volunteer geographic information (VGI), either collaboratively through Wikipedia or individually. VGI is very valuable in keeping track of that heritage, and remote sensing, including aerial photography is often the last chance to obtain precise locations. The approach is a series of steps: (1) meta-analysis of the public datasets, (2) three-steps fusion: measure-decision-combination, between public datasets, (3) computer-assisted geocoding for ‘gares’ where fusion fails, (4) integration of additional gares gathered from VGI, (5) automated quality control, indicating where quality is questionable. These five families of methods, form a comprehensive computer-assisted reconstruction process (CARP), which constitutes the core of this paper. The outcome is a reliable dataset—in geojson format under open license—encompassing (by January 2021) more than 10,700 items linked to about 7500 of the 35,500 communes of France: that is 60% more than recorded before. This work demonstrates: (a) it is possible to reconstruct transport data from the past, at a national scale; (b) the value of remote sensing and of VGI is considerable in completing public sources from an historical perspective; (c) data quality can be monitored all along the process and (d) the geocoded outcome is ready for a large variety of further studies with statistical data (demography, density, space coverage, CO2 simulation, environmental policies, etc.).

AVROPA İTTİFAQININ MİLLƏTLƏRLƏ ƏMƏKDAŞLIQ MEXANİZMLƏRİ: İQTİSADİYYATDAN SİYASƏTƏ DOĞRU

The article deals with mechanisms for cooperation of the European Union with nations considered from the scientific point of' view. The author analyzes the details of the European Union technical assistance program for CIS couintries, its aims and positions in the frame of TACIS. Each candidate country that intends to get European Union membership has to follow the common principle and standards. But sometimes in addition to the membership obligations EU member states attitude to the candidate countries may playe great role to get the final result. The article analyzes different European countries attitude to Turkey’s membership as one of the barriers that Turkey faces in the frame of Turkey integration policy to EU. This is explained by the complexity of project co-ordination between the countries in the region, and the economic and political systems in transition countries. Thus, the desire of the commission to use the TACIS program as a tool for regional co-operation and the settlement of existing conflicts corresponds to the existing reality. İn this context, the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan is a clear example of TACIS programs. The expansion of the Armenian TACIS program to Nagorno-Karabakh has been denied by the European Union as it has no consensus by the Azerbaijani government. Key words: European Union, South Caucasus, Central Asia, cooperation mechanisms, economy, politics

Sustainable Development in EU Countries in the Framework of the Europe 2020 Strategy

The Europe 2020 Strategy was proposed with a long-term vision to ensure prosperity, development, and competitiveness for the member countries. This strategy is divided into three main areas named “growth”. One of these is sustainable growth. This is an area of sustainability, where the partial targets are referred to as the “20-20-20 approach”, and includes a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, an increase in energy efficiency, and the sharing of renewable energy sources. However, questions arise, including: How do member states meet these targets? Which countries are leaders in this area? According to these stated questions, the aim of this article is to assess how EU countries are meeting the set targets for sustainable growth resulting from the Europe 2020 strategy and to identify the countries with the best results in this area. We looked for answers to these questions in the analysis of sustainable indicators, which were transformed into a synthetic measure for comparability of the resulting values. Finally, we identified the Baltic states, Nordic countries (European Union members), Romania, and Croatia as the best countries in fulfilling the sustainable growth aims. As sustainable development and resource efficiency are crucial areas for the future, it is important to consider these issues.

How can the effects of EIA procedures and legislation foreseen for the mining operation activities to mining change positively in Turkey?

Environmental criteria have an impact on the decisions made whether to realize mining operating activities or not alongside with criteria for production and investment such as reserve, cut off grade, sales price, cost. In this direction, according to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), it is determined whether mining projects will be carried out or not. Necessary arrangements have been made in the EIA Regulations since the first time they came into force in Turkey. And environmentally sensitive EIA reports were prepared to carry out mining activities. Additionally, the participation of local community to the EIA process is ensured and mining enterprises also contribute economically to the mining region. Turkey has adopted legislation similar to EU legislation and carried out its applications in EIA and other environmental legislation in compliance with EU legislation for the European Union (EU) membership. Thus, in Turkey, being sensitive to the environment, EIA for mining is carried out under a tighter audit and more controlled way compared to EU countries locally and no mining projects that do not comply with the environment are approved and current activities are halted. However, bureaucracy has increased in EIA assessments, permitting processes have been prolonged, and mining investments have become difficult. This situation can be observed with the decline of Turkey in the worldwide rank regarding the mining investment attractiveness index (IAI) category and the other categories determining it, or with the fact that Turkey doesn't have a steady progress when compared to the EU member states. For the solution of the problems in Turkey, it was suggested that legislation which would enable projects with EIA Positive decisions to be carried out by being subjected to only one law and being obtained from one institution was made. Also, it is beneficial to take account of the suggestion which says each mineral group shall be subject to different processes in terms of EIA due to the fact that each may have a significantly different environmental effect. According to the survey conducted, majority of mining sector agrees with this view.

Sources of bias in memory for emotional reactions to Brexit: Current feelings mediate the link between appraisals and memories

SummaryThis investigation examined the relation between two sources of bias when people remember how they felt about political events: their current appraisals of the past political event and their current feelings about it. We assessed participants' memories for their emotional response to a major political event: the 2016 United Kingdom referendum on European Union membership. Participants reported their emotional experience and appraisals within 2 weeks after the outcome. After 18 months, participants reported their current appraisals and emotions concerning the referendum's outcome and their remembered past emotional response. The results showed that current negative emotions fully mediated the link between current appraisals and remembered negative emotions. We discuss this result within a feeling‐is‐for‐doing approach.

FACTORS HINDERING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORM AND EU ACCESSION: CASE STUDY OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Public administration represents operations and practice of the government through management, administration and implementation of government policies having in mind public interests and the society as a whole. However, analysis of the political system and public administration in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) reveals that this definition is rather “modified” when it comes to the mentioned country. Even though public administration reform is one of the priorities for BIH, the reasons why it has not been more successful are post-conflict reconstruction and state building, unique political organisation as a result of a peace agreement, veto mechanisms and ethnic quotas which makes the consensus harder to achieve and delays adoption of important strategies. Even though political elite in BIH is committed to public administration reform and the key reform institutions have been established there is a lack of necessary knowledge and skills, competences and most importantly, political will. However, public administration reform definitely represents one of the key conditions for the future of BIH and its accession to the European Union (EU). Undoubtedly, public administration reform is a complex reform, and in this paper, the focus is on the case study of BIH by identifying its key issues on the way to the EU membership. This paper is based on analytical method with an explorative and descriptive purpose, comparative legal method, literature review method, and finally, synthesis of results, combined with professional insight and conclusions.

PRIORITY PRINCIPLES OF STRUCTURAL REGULATION OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMY OF UKRAINE

The article defines the principles of structural regulation of the national economy in the near future in the form of restructuring. The tasks of structural policy actors at the micro-, macro- and meso- levels are considered. According to the results of structural and temporal analysis conducted in the previous works of the author, four target areas are identified: general indicators, sectoral development and development of productive forces, export-import of goods and services, wages and international labor migration. The formed goals are generalized in the form of three dominants of development: focus on economic growth, stabilization of structural, spatial and temporal development, equalization of levels of development. It was noted that in the short term and medium term, Ukraine should benefit from its competitive advantages and, above all, develop industries in which it already has some achievements and can successfully compete in the domestic and global markets. These are primarily agriculture and the processing industry, light and furniture industries, information technology and the production and sale of weapons. It is proposed to develop and implement targeted comprehensive programs, similar to those implemented for regional structural development of the community in European Union (EU) member states: national programs, namely, «Intellectual Development», «Infrastructure and Environment», support of regions, «Development of knowledge education»; a number of regional programs ‒ support for research, entrepreneurship, activities related to road and railway infrastructure, municipal government, revitalization, health care infrastructure and social services, etc. To implement programs and goals, it is proposed to use the tools of «soft» and «hard» influence.

Brexit and British Business Elites: Business Power and Noisy Politics

This article analyzes business power in the context of noisy politics by comparing business involvement in two British referendum campaigns: one about membership in the European Communities in 1975, and the Brexit referendum about European Union membership in 2016. By exploring these two contexts, the article seeks to identify the conditions under which business elites can and cannot be effective in a context of noisy politics. Three key factors are identified as determinants of business influence during periods of noisy politics: the incentives to get directly involved in noisy politics; the legitimacy of business involvement; and, finally, the capacity to act in a cohesive way. The article shows that these factors have changed substantially over the last four decades because of wider changes in the nature of capitalism, and their impact on business power in the United Kingdom and more generally is discussed.

The role of pro-reform civil society in Serbia’s accession to the EU: oppositional discourses, watchdog role and EU advocacy

This article critically assesses the role of pro-reform and pro-EU civil society in the process of Serbia’s accession to the European Union (EU). Civil society (the so-called non-government or third sector) has played a fundamental role in the democratisation of former Communist countries, including in the Western Balkans where the majority of aspirant EU members still reside. Serbia’s democratic transformation began soon after its regime-change occurred on 5 October 2000. This country’s process of democratic consolidation is ongoing and is strongly supported by pro-EU civil society actors who are key drivers of Europeanisation. Civil society organisations and actors have increased general knowledge about the quality of democratic reforms in Serbia and brought in technical expertise which has assisted Serbian society to align better with the EU’s acquis. Specific examples of civil society’s activism in this article will demonstrate some unique characteristics of Serbia’s third sector. Its evolution from an anti-war movement and loosely connected individuals and citizens’ associations in the 1990s to becoming a major advocate of EU membership in Serbia and a partner to the Serbian Government on EU accession is worthy of further academic research and analysis.

Serbia on its way to EU membership – the remaining challenges and obstacles

Fifteen years after the European Union (EU) promised all the Western Balkan states an EU future by adopting the Thessaloniki agenda in 2003,1 Croatia is the only Western Balkan state to have succeeded in joining. Although Croatia’s journey to EU accession was not quick and smooth (especially when compared with that of its ex- communist counterparts from East Central Europe and the Baltics who joined in 2004 and 2007), Serbia and other Western Balkan neighbours of Croatia have had an even harder and (much) bumpier road to the EU. Western Balkan accession had been effectively stalled for several years due to the emergence of enlargement fatigue in the mid-2000s. It was briefly re-activated with Croatia’s accession and the launch of the so-called Berlin Process in 2014 (Juncos and Whitman, 2015; Petrovic and Wilson 2018; and Mtchedlishvili, 2018 in this Special Issue). However, the accession process stalled again in 2016 and early 2017 with the shock of Brexit and the migration crisis. As of 2018, Western Balkan accession has returned to a prominent place on the EU enlargement agenda.

Relative gains and the Common Agricultural Policy: the French government’s decision to reject the Blair House Agreement and block the completion of the Uruguay Round in 1993

CESAA 19th ANNUAL EUROPE ESSAY COMPETITION 2011 - Undergraduate winner: Dan Norrie (Monash University)The French government’s rejection of the Blair House Agreement in 1993 enabled France to resist agricultural reform and achieve relative gains over other European Union States. The existence of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) allows France to extract the economic surplus of European Union (EU) members through taxes and subsidies, which artificially improve the competitiveness of French agriculture. France took advantage of the EU principle of consensus by adopting a strategy of non-compliance to agricultural negotiations, positioning it to directly influence EU Commission policy. This allowed France to benefit from EU bargaining power in the Uruguay Round, and ensure greater concessions from States driving agricultural reform. The reinstatement of veto power in the EU Community has made future agricultural reform more difficult, allowing France to continue to realise welfare gains at the expense of other EU members. The paper adopts a literature review to analyse French national interest and the costs and benefits of foreign policy strategies.

The Impact of Political Uncertainty on Asset Prices

How did expectations of the outcome of the United Kingdom's (UK) referendum on European Union (EU) membership in 2016 affect prices in financial markets? We study this using high frequency data from betting and financial markets. We find that a one percentage point increase in the probability of "Leave" result caused British stocks (FTSE All-Share) to decline by 0.004 percent, and the Pound to depreciate by 0.006 percent against the euro. We find negative and significant effects for most sub-sectors, and negative spill-overs to other EU member countries. We show that the differential impact across sectors and countries can be explained by differences in the trade exposures.

Working Capital Management vs Profitability in Agricultural Holdings (in the Context of Integration for “Old” and “New” EU Members)

Purpose: The aim of this article is the analysis of the relation among the net working capital and the profitability (ROA, ROS) of agricultural holdings in the European Union (EU) taking into consideration the difference between “old” and “new” EU members. Approach/Methodology: The source of data on the production and economic situation of approximately 8400 agricultural holdings is Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). Analysed objects are divided into four classes considering the length of the net working capital (NWC) cycle (less than a year, more than a year) and of the date of accession to the European Union. The centres of gravity in each class are estimated with the use of the Gretl program. The relationship between the NWC to assets and profitability is also estimated. Findings: A statistically significant and positive relationship between these categories is revealed in all four analysed classes. Therefore, the relation of the NWC to assets affects the profitability of agricultural holding. The factor differentiating the strength of this impact is the length of the NWC cycle. It allows formulating concluding remark that most holdings maintain it up to 1 year, therefore the situation of agricultural holdings in this respect is safe. Practical Implications: The study examines the current situation of agricultural holdings in the EU. The research may serve as a unique source of information on the financial situation of European agricultural holdings. Achieved results may be useful to agriculture managers, politicians and managers of companies cooperating with agricultural holdings. Originality/Value: The capital management framework is similar in both groups of countries – “old” 15 EU countries and “new” 13 EU countries. It appears that agricultural holdings of working capital period up to achieve more favourable results concerning the NWC 1 year, production factors and profitability. The longer the cycle, the less favourable the conditions. However, the working capital practices appear to be relatively stable over the analysed period.