European Union Accession Negotiations Research Articles

Battered by Geopolitical Winds, Bulgaria Struggles to Restart Much Needed Reforms

Battered by Geopolitical Winds, Bulgaria Struggles to Restart Much Needed Reforms

Agricultural policies and European Union accession processes in the Western Balkans: aspirations versus reality

ABSTRACT One of the main political objectives of Western Balkan (WB) countries/territories is accession into the European Union (EU). From the perspective of the agricultural sector, this implies that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) represents the benchmark for setting their future agricultural policy. This paper analyzes the structure of the currently implemented agricultural policies in the WBs, and their level of harmonization with the CAP. The uncertain nature of the final date of EU accession, and changing nature of the CAP, may imply that the agricultural policy choice in the WBs is an outcome of the EU’s accession requirements and domestic political pressures. We developed a conceptual framework to define the key harmonization principles of agricultural policiesand the Agricultural Policy Measures (APM) classification scheme to gain a detailed understanding of the existing agricultural support in the WBs. While the WBs is committed to adhere to the CAP in future, the agricultural policies actually implemented depart from this declared future planning, and rather reflect domestic political economy interests. The pressures of the EU accession negotiations, and the EU pre-accession support, are the key elements of the EU accession process which push the WBs to adapt their agricultural policies to the CAP.

International Coercion and the Diffusion of Regulatory Data Protection

Prior to 1990, regulatory data protection existed only in 14 highly developed countries. Since then, 60 additional countries have adopted regulatory data protection. New adopters include a large number of countries with no domestic pharmaceutical industry. These countries will face higher pharmaceutical prices as a result of offering regulatory data protection. Why would countries that stand to lose from offering regulatory data protection choose to do so? The author argues that the global diffusion of regulatory data protection can be directly traced to international coercion from the United States and the European Union (EU). The US coerces weaker trading partners into adopting regulatory data protection by requiring such protection as a condition of concluding trade agreements or bilateral intellectual property agreements. Meanwhile, the EU coerces applicants by demanding that they adopt such rights during EU accession negotiations, on average four years prior to accession. He tested these claims using a multi‐method research design that combines event history analysis with evidence from leaked US diplomatic cables and public EU accession documents. His findings demonstrate that coercive diffusion can take place by means of threats, and that countries often actively oppose adopting intellectual property rights, but nevertheless adopt them due to international coercion.

Will Energy Save FDI Inflows to Turkey from the Cool Down of EU Accession Prospects? A Case Study of How Geo-political Alliances and Regional Networks Matter

Turkey has historically struggled to attract foreign investors. This paper discusses how the start of the European Union's accession negotiations in 2005 encompassed a wide set of reforms in several chapters of the acquis communautaire that resulted in higher foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction. However, it seems that the global economic slowdown of 2009 coupled with increasing Euro-skepticism have already started to erode this effect. Only large a volume of foreign investment in the energy sector observed in 2009–13, explained by the energy security strategy of the European Union and the internal liberalization agenda, has prevented the collapse of FDI inflows to Turkey.

Turkey and the West: Bargaining for Realignment

As the only Muslim majority secular country in its region with a pro-western democracy, Turkey is pivotal to western interests in the Middle East. However, Turkey's European Union accession negotiations are currently at a deadlock, and disparity between Turkey and the West is increasing on many critical issues. Despite its liberal market orientation, a more socially conservative Turkey is causing apprehension to its western partners. Turkey has started to drift eastward, while the West seeks to consolidate ties and establish common values. This paper offers an agent-based game theoretic model to assess the policy trade-offs that might align Turkey's interests more closely with those of its potential western partners and to determine where the impetus will come from to revive the enthusiasm of both Turkey and the EU for further integration.

The Politics of ‘Norm Diffusion’ in Turkish European Union Accession Negotiations: Why It was Rational for an Islamist Party to be ‘Pro‐European’ and a Secularist Party to be ‘Anti‐European’*

AbstractThe article will suggest a bottom‐up approach to analyzing the impact of European Union (EU) conditionality on candidate countries. If requiring comprehensive reforms, EU accession negotiations offer domestic actors a legitimacy standard, external constraints and a focal point for electoral coalitions as resources in the domestic political arena. The Turkish case serves as a hypothesis‐generating case study suggesting that domestic actors who are disadvantaged in domestic resources in these dimensions embrace EU accession, whereas domestic actors who feel threatened in their domestic resources adopt an opposite strategy. It will be demonstrated that the two major Turkish political parties adopted a cost–benefit calculus in their position towards EU accession. The Turkish case is particularly intriguing because the positions adopted by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Republican People's Party (CHP), respectively, have been counter‐intuitive, and in fact both parties have drastically reversed earlier positions towards EU accession and done so in disregard of the preferences of their core electorate.

The Role of Agriculture in Turkish Economy at the Beginning of the European Union Accession Negotiations

The Role of Agriculture in Turkish Economy at the Beginning of the European Union Accession Negotiations

Gender(ed) Politics in Central and Eastern Europe1

This article examines the role of mainstream political participation in the quest for gender equitable citizenship as a measure of the attainment of democracy. Citizenship stands here as the appropriate measure for the implementation of women's rights as human rights. The article examines citizenship status through the prism of representation in mainstream politics in the context of democratisation in Central and Eastern Europe. Prior to European Union accession negotiations, gender was marginal on the political agenda in most countries in the region. Indeed, what counts as ‘political’ had been narrowed to denote formal party and legislative politics alone. The contradiction between this definition and the discursive validation of civil society involvement is explored, both within the region and by international donor agencies and supranational governments such as the European Union. Some empirical evidence of the barriers hindering women's access to the public sphere of the polity is presented. Finally, strategies such as the introduction of quotas that are designed to overcome the factors curtailing women's capacity to become active citizens in the public sphere of politics are discussed.

The Baltic Republics and Language Ideological Debates Surrounding European Union Accession

This paper describes the impact of European Union accession negotiations on language ideological debates regarding minority (language) and citizenship rights in the Baltic Republics. It explores issues pertaining to the transferability of standards developed for established democracies in the West to the situation of democratising countries in Central and Eastern Europe, where the demographic legacy of the Soviet past has left its imprint on the structure and outlook of society. Finally, it considers a range of factors which need to be taken into account in Western discourses on diversity and integration, or sameness and difference, when applied to postcommunist or post-imperialist contexts.

International Constitutional Law and Anti-Corruption Measures in the European Union's Accession Negotiations: Romania in Comparative Perspective

A. Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey 629 B. Enlargement and International Constitutional Law. 633 C. Enlargement and Corruption 635 Table 1: Ratification of COE Conventions by Pre2004 EU Member States 639 Table 2: Ratification of COE Conventions by Class of 2004 EU Member States 639 Table 3: Ratification of COE Conventions by EU Candidate States 640