European Union Officials Research Articles

The integration paradox: an ILC view on the EU contribution to the codification and development of rules of general international law

The contribution of international organisations (IOs) to the process of identification, codification or development of rules of general international law is one still enveloped in a measure of mystery. While the United Nations (UN) International Law Commission (ILC) has long relied on IOs’ practice, and the practice of States within IOs, in carrying out its work, it has only recently begun to address the role that IOs might play in the formation or expression of rules of customary international law, jus cogens or general principles of law. In this process, the European Union (EU) has long been seen as an ‘odd’ fit. From the point of view of general international law, EU integration forms an apparent paradox: on the one hand, the degree of transfer of powers to the organisation renders it particularly well suited to be a ‘jus generative’ force and a useful source of practice for the ILC’s work; on the other, its ‘exceptionalism’ often militates against the reliance on EU-related practice as evidence of existing or emerging rules of general application. This article looks at the effects of this ‘integration paradox’ in the ILC’s work by reviewing the references to, and the use of, EU practice in eight distinct codification projects, combined with interviews with ILC members and EU officials. It provides an ILC (outside) view on the relevance of EU practice for the identification, codification, and development of rules of general international law. This view, in turn, has implications for the operation of an EU (inside) foreign policy objective: its ambition to contribute to the development of international law, as expressed in Article 3(5) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU).

Behind the screen: Understanding national support for a foreign investment screening mechanism in the European Union

What determines national preferences for institutionalizing foreign direct investment (FDI) screening? Over the past decade, advanced economies worldwide have tightened their national investment screening mechanisms (ISMs). In March 2019, the European Union (EU) adopted its first common FDI screening framework. This article explores variations in Member State preferences for the creation and nature of a pan-European screening framework. Based on extensive interviews with high-level EU and country officials involved in the negotiation process, and using a unique measure of national support for the EU-wide ISM created through the first-ever elite survey on this subject matter, we find that countries with higher technological levels were more supportive of FDI screening due to concerns over unreciprocated technological transfer. We also show the effects of Chinese FDI on country-level support for FDI screening sector-dependent. We found no evidence that total Chinese FDI predicts preferences for ISM. Instead, countries with high levels of Chinese FDI in strategic sectors are more likely to support the ISM, while those with high levels of Chinese investment in low-tech sectors tend to oppose screening. Our overall findings suggest that EU investment screening, and national-level screening in general, might become more restrictive in the future, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11558-021-09436-y.

Joint bodies in the European Union's international agreements: Delegating powers to the European Commission in EU external relations

In many international agreements, the European Union sets up joint bodies such as ‘association councils’ or ‘joint committees’. These institutions bring together European Union and third-country officials for agreement implementation. To date, we know surprisingly little about how much discretion the European Commission enjoys in them. Drawing on a principal–agent framework, we hypothesise that the complexity of agreements, the voting rule, conflict within the Council, and agency losses can explain Commission discretion in these institutions. Drawing on an original dataset covering nearly 300 such joint bodies set up by the European Union since 1992, we find robust empirical support for all expectations except for the agency loss thesis. Our findings suggest that the European Commission is the primary actor in the implementation of many of the European Union's international agreements, allowing it to influence EU external relations beyond what is currently acknowledged in the literature.

The relevance of EKC hypothesis in energy intensity real-output trade-off for sustainable environment in EU-27.

Considering the prevailing wave of global warming and other environmental challenges, which can be attributed to increasing environmental pollution as a result of economic activity, thus, it is essential to understand the effect of economic progress on the environment. More importantly, this endeavor is especially suited for the European Union (EU) member states, which account for a sizable portion of the world economy. However, by considering the open border or trade policy approach of the bloc, this study applies a battery of econometrics analysis that consists of mean group, augmented mean group, common correlated effect mean group estimators, and Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality analysis for direction of causality. These techniques are superior to first-generation methods to substantiate the relationship between real income, energy intensity, and carbon emission between annual frequency data from 1990 to 2017. Empirical results from series of cointegration tests reveal the long-run equilibrium relationship between the highlighted variables in the EU. Our study validates the existence of EKC phenomenon where emphasis is based on GDP growth at the expense of environmental quality. This implies that EU growth trajectory comes with an environmental trade-off and consequences. However, few countries in the region have made substantial strides of carbon reduction but not as a bloc. This position is resonated by the regression from all estimators in harmony where energy intensity dampens environmental quality in the blocs investigated. On the direction of causality, feedback Granger causality is observed running from GDP growth and carbon emission. A similar direction of causality is seen between energy intensity and carbon emission. These outcomes have far-reaching consequences on the environment. This study recommends the need for energy transition to cleaner and friendlier energy technologies by EU officials. That is, the need for a paradigm shift from conventional energy based on fossil fuel to renewable energy should be pursued in the region. More policy directions are outlined in the concluding section.

The European Union-United States cybersecurity relationship: a transatlantic functional cooperation

ABSTRACT This article explores the European Union (EU)-United States (US) cybersecurity relationship through an international relations perspective focusing on threat perceptions and interests, principles and norms and institutions. It uses data from publicly available EU and US documents and speeches and from three interviews conducted by the author with EU officials. The main argument of this research is that the transatlantic security relationship is not in a process of rift with regard to cybersecurity; cooperation and coordination continues despite the broader political disagreements that arise from time to time. The EU and the US share common threat perceptions and interests, they converge around a number of cybersecurity principles and norms, and they coordinate their actions in practice. In other words, the EU-US cybersecurity relationship has taken the form of a functional cooperation which aims at safeguarding common interests and avoiding the costs and the vulnerabilities that arise from the EU-US interdependencies in the cyber realm. At the same time, not all policy areas related to cybersecurity have been equally prioritised by the two actors.

The nature of peace: How environmental regulation can cause conflicts

• Local conflict from natural reserves can be extended to larger-scale conflicts. • Exclusion of endogenous systems contributes to poor governance mechanisms. • Inadequate design of environmental regulations foster conflict dynamics. • Environmental exclusion may result in environmental degradation and conflicts. This article examines how the environmental protection of national parks can impact negatively both conflict resolution and peacebuilding. This research focuses on the Arly National Park, integrated into the W., Arly and Pendjari (WAP) peacebuilding and development initiative, one of the two main sources of insecurity in Burkina Faso. By excluding local social-ecological systems, Arly Park’s top-down environmental protection program leads to conflict situations rather than peacebuilding opportunities. This paper is based on field research carried out in Burkina Faso between October 2018 and April 2019. Forty interviews conducted with security actors, international observers, government officials, European Union officials and inhabitants of the Arly Natural Park reveal that both exogenous environmental regulation and poorly designed international development projects create a fertile breeding ground for conflicts. This field study investigates how the inadequate design of the initial initiative and personal agendas retard development and peacebuilding opportunities. It also highlights how national authorities seize the opportunity to attract development funding and use environmental regulation as a tool for the distribution of central power and authority in peripheral areas. Furthermore, it demonstrates how greed and looting linked to environmental regulation create a causal chain resulting in environmental degradation and conflicts. Finally, this article stresses the strong interconnection and interdependence of ecological and sociological systems, which embed ecological regimes of knowledge and practices that sustain an ecosystem’s preservation and perpetuation. Discounting this particular and holistic understanding when designing environmental regulations or, worse, emphasizing its exclusion, exacerbates in the end both environmental degradation and conflict.

Eiropas Savienības Tiesas spriedumu teksta interpretācija un analīze

The aim of the work is to analyse the texts of the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), to study the influence of the language form on the interpretation of the content of these texts. The Court must ensure the uniform interpretation and application of European Union (EU) law in all Member States and all the official EU languages through translations from one language to another, thus affecting the form and content of judgments and making them difficult to read. This study uses discourse analysis to examine the narrative form of judgments – their syntactic and semantic macrostructure – to determine how such textual form affects the communication process in a situation where there is no single official language for communication between EU Member States. This paper finds that, although the structure of CJEU judgments is specific and difficult for many readers to understand, it serves as a key to the correct interpretation of these texts.

Behind the Screen: Understanding National Support for a Foreign Investment Screening Mechanism in the European Union

What determines national preferences for institutionalizing FDI screening? Over the past decade, advanced economies worldwide have tightened their national investment screening mechanisms (ISMs) for foreign direct investment (FDI). In March 2019, the European Union (EU) adopted its first common FDI screening framework. Based on extensive interviews with high-level EU and country officials involved in the negotiation process, and using a unique measure of national support for the EU-wide ISM created through the first-ever elite survey on this subject matter, we find that countries with higher technological levels were more supportive of FDI screening due to concerns over unreciprocated technological transfer. We also find sector-dependent effects of Chinese FDI on country-level support for FDI screening: Countries with high levels of Chinese FDI in strategic sectors are more likely to support the EU ISM, while those with high levels of Chinese investment in low-tech sectors tend to oppose screening. Our overall findings suggest that EU investment screening, and national-level screening in general, might become more restrictive in the future, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prospects for Taxation of Digital Companies in the European Union: Problems and Contradictions

In the article, the author examines the trends in taxation of digital companies in the European Union (EU), as well as analyses the challenges posed by digitalisation to the current tax system, alternative approaches to taxation of digital companies; identifies existing problems in the taxation of digital companies; considers the challenges and contradictions of introducing additional taxes on digital services. Based on official EU statistics, the author analyses the specifics and problems of taxation of digital companies in the territory of the EU Member States and the entire region as a whole, and consider the role of various tools in the development of optimal taxation of such companies. The result of the study revealed a separate injustice in the taxation of digital companies compared to traditional companies, identified the main problems of the taxation of digital companies, defined the future direction of development of the taxation of digital companies in the EU.

EU peacebuilding’s new khaki: Exceptionalist militarism in the trading of good governed for military-capable states

This article explores how European Union (EU) peacebuilding is being reconfigured. Whereas the EU was once a bulwark of liberal peacebuilding, promoting a rule of law–based international order, it is now downplaying the goal of good governance and placing military capacity as central for international peace and security. Several works have analysed these changes but have not theorised militarism, despite war-waging and war-preparation have marked EU peacebuilding’s direction. The article argues that EU peacebuilding continues to expose elements of liberal militarism since its origins but is now changing from what Mabee and Vucetic call a nation-statist to an exceptionalist militarism. This shift implies that peace has ceased to be served by the intervention of sovereignty with a discourse based on the link between order, good governance, and human rights and is now premised on the upholding of sovereignty, even if that means the suspension of rights. The research draws on thematic analysis of EU documents and interviews undertaken with EU and G5 Sahel officials and managers of EU-funded peacebuilding programmes. It also briefly analyses the case of the Sahel as an example of how the build-up of states’ military capacity is strengthening states’ capacity to override human rights and repressing dissent.

The EU’s global health policy in times of Covid-19: challenges and prospects

The Covid-19 crisis has laid bare weaknesses in the capacity of the European Union (EU) to act as a global health player. Most of those challenges have existed prior to the pandemic and are linked to a limited implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - the global agenda acknowledging interconnections between different policy fields. Despite the EU's commitment to implement the Agenda 2030 in its internal and external policies, there is a lack of visibility and sufficient reference to the SDGs on a strategic level as well as in the EU's actions and partnerships in global health. The Union has shown during the Covid-19 pandemic that it is a relevant global health actor; however, there seems to be a lack of strategic visions and resources.The poster aims to illustrate on the one hand the weaknesses and challenges of the EU global health policies in times of Covid-19 and beyond. On the other hand, it identifies advantages of the EU in the field of global health and explores future pathways. Applying a mixed-method approach I did a review of academic and grey literature; content analysis of official EU documents and statements, expert interviews and gathered insights from events such as policy dialogues.Preliminary results indicate that the EU has a strong focus on infectious disease control in its external health policies and hereby neglects the health system dimension and interlinkages with other foreign policies such as trade. Covid-19 has highlighted the importance of resilient health systems in a crisis and the interlinkages between different policies for an effective response. To pursue a genuine health-in-all-policies approach prioritising health system strengthening within a updated strategic roadmap is necessary. Moreover, efforts to ensure an equitable distribution of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics should be pushed through the development and implementation of respective criteria.Key messages The focus of the EU in global health should shift from a narrow health security lens towards health system strengthening including disease control.The EU should prioritize and implement the health-in-all-policies approach in its global health policies through an ambitious roadmap.

The 23rd Language: Official EU Status for Irish as Portrayed in the Republic of Ireland's English-Language Press

Irish became the 23rd official language of the European Union (EU) in 2007. Due to a lack of qualified translators and interpreters, it is currently subject to a derogation which restricts its use in the EU institutions, a situation which aims to be remedied by 2022. Yet the Irish language represents a unique case even within the Republic of Ireland itself. Under British rule, centuries of repression confined its usage to the rural fringes of society, a state of affairs that an independent Ireland has attempted to improve with limited success. This article analyses how recognition of official EU status for Irish has been depicted in the Republic of Ireland’s English-language print media. By performing a qualitative content analysis of the online archives of the country’s three major English-language newspapers, the aim is to illustrate how official EU status for Irish has been portrayed, paying specific attention to political, cultural and economic factors.

Securitization, migration-related conditionality in the European Union Official Development Assistance

In this article, it is explained the consequences of migration-related conditionality for the EU development policy which appears after a process of securitization of migration. In this way, it contributes to a better understanding of the security-migration-development nexus in the European Union (EU). For this, two key documents are critically reviewed to understand the external axis of the EU migration policy, such as the European Agenda on Migration and the Partnership Framework with third countries. In the study it is concluded that migration-related conditionality redirects development policy to objectives which are alien to it. In addition, these imposed objectives are in contradiction with some of the most important consensus of the global development agenda.

Networked Cooperation: How the European Union Mobilizes Peacekeeping Forces to Project Power Abroad

How does the European Union (EU) recruit troops and police to serve in EU peacekeeping missions? This article suggests that pivotal EU member states and EU officials make strategic use of the social and institutional networks within which they are embedded to bargain reluctant states into providing these forces. These networks offer information on deployment preferences, facilitate side-payments and issue-linkages, and provide for credible commitments. EU operations are consequently not necessarily dependent on intra-EU preference convergence—as is often suggested in the existing literature. Rather, EU force recruitment hinges on highly proactive EU actors, which use social and institutional ties to negotiate fellow states into serving in an EU missions.

Can official control laboratories quantify reliably fipronil in eggs? Evidence from a proficiency testing round.

ABSTRACTA proficiency testing (PT) round dedicated to assess the competence of European Union (EU) National Reference Laboratories (NRLs), EU Official Control Laboratories (OCLs) and OCLs from associated countries for the determination of the insecticide fipronil in eggs is described. The content of the target analytes (sum of fipronil plus its metabolite fipronil sulfone, expressed as fipronil in the PT test material) was set around the regulated Maximum Residue Level (MRL) set by EU legislation. The PT was organised by the European Commission‘s (EC) Directorate General (DG) Joint Research Centre (JRC) – in agreement with the EC DG for Health and Food Safety (SANTE) – following a request by the Belgian Authorities. Eighty-six NRLs and OCLs from 22 EU Member States, Norway, Serbia and Albania participated. The test items used were two materials made of frozen liquid eggs, processed and characterised at the JRC facilities in Geel (Belgium). The majority of the participants (94%) were shown to have a satisfactory performance, expressed as z scores, thus demonstrating the analytical capability of most of the participating NRLs and OCLs to enforce the relevant EU Regulations ((EC) 396/2005 and 1127/2014). Furthermore, 93% of the participants who provided a compliance statement classified, correctly, one of the test items as non-compliant.

Revision of a European Union Official Method to Enforce Legal Provisions: The Case of Diclazuril.

Background: Diclazuril is a coccidiostat currently authorized as feed additive in the European Union (EU), with a legal limit set at 1 mg/kg. For official control, an official EU method based on reversed-phase HPLC coupled with UV detection at 280 nm needs to be applied. Recently, the EU Reference Laboratory for feed additives was informed that the recovery rate for diclazuril was very low when implementing this method and performed experiments demonstrating that the indicated sorbent mass of the solid-phase extraction (SPE) was too low. Objective: Therefore, the paper presents a modified method protocol and the results of an interlaboratory study, performed on two compound feedingstuffs containing diclazuril around the legal limit. Methods: The official method was modified by using a higher SPE sorbent mass and was further subjected to validation. Results: The obtained values for the relative standard deviation for repeatability were 4.5 and 11.2%, and the corresponding values for the relative standard deviation for reproducibility were 14.3 and 18.1%; the calculated HorRat values were 0.95 and 1.14. Furthermore, acceptable mean recovery values of 98 and 111% were obtained for the two test materials, respectively. Conclusions: Based on the obtained performance profile, it was concluded that the modified official method was fit for purpose. In consequence, the official EU method will be corrected accordingly. Highlights: The highlights of this work are reflected by the following terms, namely Diclazuril, correction of EU official method, and interlaboratory study.

Work and Family Life Reconciliation Policies in Turkey: Europeanisation or Ottomanisation?

This paper is an endeavour to explore and explain the Europeanisation patterns of gender equality in a longstanding candidate country, Turkey, with regard to the specific policy areas of work and family life reconciliation over the last two decades. To achieve this goal, this paper has utilised a combination of literature review, document analysis and 43 semi-structured in-depth interviews with European Union (EU) officials, representatives of social partners and international women’s organisations, as well as Turkish political elites and representatives of civil society organisations. The collected data have been analysed through the thematic analysis research method. Relying on an extensive review of the related literature and policy documents together with the data collected, this paper contends that the process of Europeanising Turkish work and family life reconciliation policies has remained contradictory, incomplete and patchy. Although the Turkish government has made various legislative changes in response to the adaptational pressure coming from the EU, a closer examination of those legislative amendments indicates a continued disconnect between Turkey and the EU in the specific policy area of work and family life reconciliation.

Borderization theatre: geopolitical entrepreneurship on the South Ossetia boundary line, 2008–2018

ABSTRACTBorderization refers to the construction of physical barriers to transform a territorial ceasefire line into an international border. The term was used first by European Union officials to refer to the administrative boundary line between Georgia and de facto state of South Ossetia. The article analyses how physical border construction in this area became a theatre of symbolic (geo)political gamesmanship, a background prop for political competition between Georgian domestic parties and a pilgrimage site for visualizing Georgia’s victimhood to international audiences. Presenting borderization as evidence of domestic irresoluteness or geopolitical aggression is a rhetorical gambit that may or may not work. Those most associated with it in Georgian domestic politics lost power. Internationally, though, borderization is now part of standard litanies of Russian geopolitical aggression, cited even by politicians who support border walls. The relative success of Georgia’s borderization theatre complexifies hegemonic socialization arguments for it reveals the capacity of small states to socialize hegemonic states into sharing their tropes of victimhood and vulnerability.

Analysis of the Effects of the EU Official Development Assistance to the Western Balkans

Official development assistance (ODA) implies the movement of capital with a minimum of one quarter of grant. It was established in the second half of the previous century, with the aim of getting developed countries to set aside a part of their gross domestic product (GDP) as an aid intended for developing countries. In the European Union, development assistance implies a policy which was established at the very beginning of the integration process, but it was not until the Treaty on the European Union was signed that it obtained its legal basis. Today, the European Union is a key partner of developing countries, and together with member states it ensures more than a half of the ODA assets. The countries of the Western Balkans are categorized among the developing countries and receive aid via loans and grants from developed countries and international institutions. The European Union’s support is divided into the aid intended for the countries that are in the process of accession and the aid which is meant for other, less-developed countries. The distinction between these two forms of assistance is very difficult, because the character of the support changes in the course of accession process. The scientific problem that this paper deals with pertains to identification of the intensity of the European Union Official Development Assistance and the level of development of the Western Bal-kans. The assets of the European Union’s assistance to the region of the WesternBalkans are necessary, yet not sufficient for achieving a higher level of developmentand the European standards in all directions.

Energy renovation rates in the Netherlands – comparing long and short term prediction methods

Energy renovation rates in the Netherlands – comparing long and short term prediction methods