European Union Interest Research Articles

The European Union Interest System in Comparative Perspective: A Bridge Too Far?

Can we meaningfully compare within a single theoretical framework the politics of interest representation in the European Union with its counterparts in the United States and other national political systems? We address this question by first considering several candidate explanations for the lack of broad-ranging comparative research on interest representation, focusing in the end on the problem of context. We then argue that much of the recent progress in the literature is a result more of segmentation of theoretical issues. The third section discusses how this successful strategy of segmentation has unfortunately raised new theoretical barriers to comparative analysis. This argument is explored by comparing work on organised interests in the EU with two other cases – the hyper-pluralistic interest politics of the United States and the neo-corporatist politics of the Netherlands.

Impact of Port Investment on Efficiency and Capacity to Attract Traffic in Spain: Bilbao versus Valencia

The growth in intermodal transport has led to an increase in competition between ports. Other factors, such as the globalisation of the economy, European Union interest in integrating the port system into the Transeuropean Transport Network and the reform of the Spanish port system, have encouraged the Spanish Port Authorities to develop competitive strategies to extend their hinterlands. These strategies have often focused on improving port infrastructure in order to improve the efficiency of their services. In this paper, we analyse the extent to which investment expenditure has led to improvements in efficiency and how far this improved efficiency has increased the port's ability to attract traffic. To do so, we use DEA and study inter-port traffic redistribution from the land side. The analysis focused on the Ports of Bilbao and Valencia not only because they are very important in the Spanish port system but also because they both stand out for their investment expenditure, which has led to quite different results. We conclude by discussing the consequences of investment and port location for efficiency and the capacity to attract traffic, respectively.

A European Housing Policy?

Abstract Formally, the European Union (EU) should not, and does not, formulate housing policy, this being a function lodged with the individual member states. Against the background of the Lisbon objectives and the Kok report, however, the present paper argues that the EU has actually appeared to promote a housing strategy for the member states based on increasing home ownership rates. Drawing on a range of evidence, the paper examines what might be referred to as a stealth housing policy. It does so from the points of view of both whether the housing system objectives are likely to be achieved and, if they are, what they might mean for some aspects of the EU's wider economic and social objectives. Finally, the paper considers whether a more explicit EU interest in housing policy would be desirable.

The Changing Turkish Approach towards the European Union after 9/11

For over thirty years, Turkey has sought membership in what is today called the European Union (EU). This article argues that the most likely scenario to reach that goal is that Ankara will speed up its efforts to meet the EU's membership criteria, and that the EU will begin accession talks and later admit Turkey as a member in a reasonable time period. There are two main reasons for this. The first is that Turkey's determination to meet the accession criteria has increased in the post-g/n era. Today, a growing number of Turkish people concur that meeting the accession criteria, let alone acquiring full membership, will serve Turkey's interests. This is especially true when security considerations are taken into account. The second reason is that the EU itself has started to change its attitude toward Turkey's membership application. An increasing number of EU citizens now believe that the membership of a gradually Europeanizing Turkey will be in the EU's interests, mainly defined in terms of security and identity considerations.HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF TURKEY'S VIEW OF THE EU UNTIL THE LATE 1990SThirty years after the signing of the association agreement, Turkey-EU relations have undergone radical change. Since 1996, Turkey has been in a eustoms union agreement with the EU and, since late 1999, Turkey has been a membership candidate with full membership ostensibly dependent upon its meeting a set of criteria (i.e., the Copenhagen criteria) that has been applied to all other recent aspirant countries. Since 1999 and following the announcement of Turkey's candidacy, there have been radical developments in EU-Turkey relations. With the accession partnership document and Turkey's national program, Ankara is today closer to the EU than ever before. Turkey and the EU finally solved their dispute over the European security and defence policy (ESDP) in 2002, and the decision adopted at the Copenhagen summit in December 2002 for the first time overtly stated that accession talks with Turkey should start without further delay, provided that the European Commission report of late 2004 recommended this. In the November 2002 elections, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in Ankara, and because of the party's prevailing pro-EU inclinations the pace of reform has also increased, not only in the domestic sphere but also in Turkey's foreign policy practices. Lastly, at the December 2004 Brussels summit, the European Union agreed to start the accession talks with Turkey in October 2005 pending Turkey's prior approval of extending the customs union agreement to the recently admitted 10 EU members, including the Republic of Cyprus.However promising such developments might appear for achieving Ankara's long-held goal of EU membership, problems remain. First, Turkey's approach towards the EU has traditionally rested on ideological grounds, rather than on a rational cost-benefit analysis. Turkey has long argued that it should be admitted to the union due to its European character. At the same time, the majority of the Turkish elites have believed that to solidify Turkey's European/western/modern identity, EU membership is a must. The problem with such an approach has been that Turkish policymakers have long failed to understand why the EU members hesitated to offer a clear membership prospect to Turkey based on their own cost-benefit calculations.1 Turkish elites have tended to believe that just as Turkey wants to join the EU on identity related grounds, the EU also adopts the same rationale vis-a-vis Turkey. Rather than believing that the EU's reluctance might emanate from its own cost-benefit calculations with respect to Turkey's admission, Ankara has long believed that the EU does not want Turkey mainly because it sees Turkey as non-European.Second, the majority of the Turkish elites have long thought that Turkey has the right to join the EU, as article 28 of the 1964 Association treaty vaguely mentions this possibility. …

The European Union and democratization in Ukraine

The European Union (EU) has encouraged democratic development in a number of post-communist states. This article examines the extent of EU involvement in Ukraine and its results. It notes that there has been a substantial disconnect between the rhetoric of Ukraine's “European Choice” and authoritarian trends in the country. Ukraine signed a series of agreements with the EU, but membership in the organization was never offered. The EU's interest in Ukraine, however, was rather meager and it never gained means to have much leverage. As authoritarianism became more pronounced, the EU began to disengage from the country. The article argues that part of the problem was that the EU never applied political conditionality to Ukraine as it had with other states. The “Orange Revolution” opens up new possibilities and challenges, and the EU now must come to grips with a more democratically and Western-oriented leadership.

EU enlargement and immigration policy in Poland and Slovakia

With the enlargement of the European Union (EU), Poland and Slovakia have become crucial border areas at the eastern edge of EU. This has important implications for the EU's immigration policy. Both countries have been traditionally known as countries of emigration. In recent times, however, they have increasingly become transit and target countries for immigrants and asylum seekers. The EU has exerted pressure on both countries to tighten their borders in order to fight illegal immigration; they have also been urged to restrict their entry conditions and increasingly consolidate their asylum systems. This article shows that in adopting new immigration and asylum policies these countries have mainly responded to EU interests and less to interests linked to domestic issues.

Multilevel Governance and Business Interests in the European Union

The article analyzes how business interests responded to European integration. It draws on survey data of eight hundred German, French, British, and European Union (EU) trade associations as well as thirty‐four large firms. The argument is that the multilevel governance approach to European integration captures the realities of EU interest intermediation better than neofunctionalism and intergovernmentalism. The article suggests that the strategies of interest organizations depend mainly on their location in the EU multilevel system and on their governance capacities. I distinguish two kinds of governance capacities: negotiation capacities and organizational resources. The analysis proceeds in the following steps: After outlining the three theories of European integration and presenting their implications for interest groups, a brief overview of the relative importance for interest organizations of EU and national institutions over time is provided. Then, cluster analysis techniques serve to identify types of interest groups according to their lobbying strategies in the multilevel system: niche organizations, occasional players, traditionalists, EU players, and multilevel players are distinguished. The composition of these clusters and the characteristics of their members support the multilevel governance approach and indicate that multilevel players have greater governance capacities than organizations in the other clusters.

A European Research Council: an idea whose time has come?

The vision of a European Research Area (ERA) has encouraged proponents of basic research to propose the setting up of a European Research Council (ERC) as a correction to the national limitations of existing funding agencies and the applied nature of the European Union (EU) framework programmes. This paper examines the recent rise of the idea of an ERC, including the historical-institutional background, the positions of the most important players and the factors working for and against it becoming a reality. A distinction is drawn between radical and incremental variants of the idea, implying either a large, independent funding agency, or a lighter, co-ordinating ‘agency of agencies’. Even if the radical idea of an ERC has been revitalised in the context of ERA, it still faces a difficult environment dominated by basic research organisations attached to the national level and EU institutions and interest groups wedded to applied research, as well as a divergence at European level between focused and general research organisations. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Developing health impact assessment in the European Union.

It is not surprising that the use of impact assessments has been pioneered at local and regional levels, where the potential impacts of a proposal cover a limited geographical area and the projects tend to be specific and tangible, such as infrastructure plans for roads and airports. Evaluating the potential impact of a piece of legislation, or even a whole policy area, is much more complex; to do so at the European Union (EU) level adds further layers of complexity. As EU interest in health matters and powers regarding them has increased, so has its interest in intersectoral approaches to health. This is attributable to several factors. First, the European Community's involvement in health is largely through work outside its narrow public health competence. Secondly, there is already a strong tradition of impact assessments within the Community, in particular environmental impact assessment (EIA). Thirdly, the Community institutions are insisting on coherent approaches to health across policies. An initial starting point to understanding the rationale behind applying health impact assessment (HIA) within the EU is to examine the legal base of its activities. The Treaty of Rome stipulates, in Article 152, "A high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities". This obligation is unique compared with most Member States in introducing a basic requirement to give consideration to possible health implications of measures and actions. The European Commission has put into place procedures to implement the Treaty objective. These include a mandatory consultation of the Commission's Directorate General in charge of health on proposals for policy or legislation with a potential health dimension. Moreover, the Interservice Group on Health was established to coordinate health-related initiatives across different areas of Community policy. Strengthening health-related work is a central priority of the current Commission; the Community's health strategy, published in May 2000 (Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, COM (2000) 285 final of 16.5.2000), ensures coherence and coordination between health-related policy areas. In order to improve understanding of how different policy areas link to health, the Commission has taken an interest in the assessment of health impacts of policies, legislation and proposals, the scientific background and methodology of the impact assessment, and its application to decision-making processes. As far as the application of HIA is concerned, the Commission has drawn on national experiences across Europe--set out elsewhere--and on experiences with related impact assessments at Community level. The Community's EIA legislation foresees compulsory impact assessments to be undertaken for projects of a certain size and cost. Effects on human beings, which must include health effects, are an integral part of the EIA regulatory framework. It is not surprising that in some countries HIA has developed as a sub-speciality of EIA. However, health issues tend not to be in the forefront of regular EIAs. Experience in the Community has therefore been to develop independent work on HIA, while at the same time exploring synergies with and connections to other impact assessments. Especially at Community level, a number of key questions arise concerning the application of HIA (summarized in Box 1). These questions need to be answered convincingly before large investments in health impact assessments would be feasible. For example, the amount of research and analysis necessary to assess a particular policy or proposal will differ considerably from case to case. Decisions have to be taken on whether--because of time pressures--a superficial analysis is sufficient or whether in-depth analysis is required. …

Democratization through European integration: The case of minority rights in the Czech Republic and Romania

While scholars have tended to focus on domestic factors as most critical to the consolidation of democracy, the post-communist European Union (EU) candidate states have exhibited a unique confluence of domestic and foreign policies, due to their objective of EU membership. This article assesses and compares the impact of the EU on policy making in two diverse candidate states in their first decade of transition, focusing on minority rights protection as a fundamental requirement of both EU membership and a stable democracy. I find that the EU has played a principal role in the reform process and democratic consolidation of candidate states, even in the controversial field of minority rights. The degree and nature of the EU’s impact, however, has depended in part on the activism of the particular minority, EU interest and pressure, EU Member States’ own domestic policies, and the persistence of racism in society.

A European Geopolitical Subject in the Making? EU, Russia and the Kaliningrad Question

This article engages the recent studies that have treated the European Union (EU) in geopolitical terms, as an empire engaged with enlargement. The article introduces the meta-concept of geopolitical subjectivity. This meta-concept enables us to situate such imperial interpretations of the EU into a theoretically informed, comparative setting. The meta-concept is defined as goal-oriented ordering of territories and political spaces, extending from one's own sphere of sovereign rule to broader regional contexts. It is used to study the EU-Russian interaction in creating order to the Kaliningrad region that is set to become a Russian enclave/exclave within the enlarged EU. The article concludes by arguing that in this case, the EU's geopolitical subjectivity is constituted more strongly by Russia's recognition of this status than by the EU's own identity and interest projects.

Building an international identity: the EU and extraterritorial competition policy

The 1997 Boeing-McDonnell Douglas (BMD) merger is a remarkable case of international state-market interaction whereby the European Union (EU) intervened in a merger between two foreign firms. T his article offers an initial investigation into the development of the EU's international identity via the extraterritorial application of competition policy in the BMD case. Evidence from the case suggests that the EU's exercise of extraterritorial competition policy derives from reasonable objections to the merger, the practical desire co ensure market access opportunities for European firms and the need to enhance Union credibility in the eyes of member states. Evidence further suggests that when the EU's interests are exercised against a non-Union third party, the EU has greater opportunity to build an international identity. The article also assesses Union responses to the potentially destabilizing effects of extraterritorial competition policy by establishing bilateral agreements, lobbying for a multilateral regime, and encouraging informal co-operation.

Strategic regionalism and the remaking of the triangular relation between the USA, the European Union and Latin America

This paper analyzes the extent to which the United States’ (US) proposal of establishing a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) has influenced the design of the new European Union (EU) policy towards Latin America. The main argument is that FTAA is a modality of strategic regionalism affecting EU interests in Latin America in sectors such as commerce and investments. Similarly, FTAA can be used by the US to regulate, in a regional framework and according with its interests, sectors such as intellectual property, about which there is still no multilateral regulation. The EU has also promoted a strategic regionalism to defend its interests in Latin America's economic affairs. The reasons for the emerging of this strategic policy and its evolution in the last few years are also accounted for.

'Euroscepticism', Political Agendas and Spatial Planning: British National and Regional Planning Policy in Uncertain Times

Over the last 10 years, European Union interest in planning has increased significantly. Although land use planning remains a function of each member state, the legal obligations imposed by the EU in the fields of environmental law, structural funds, the Common Agricultural Policy, and Trans-European Transport Networks, have all impacted upon the context of the operation of the British planning process. Many of the EU initiatives have had to be transposed into domestic legislation, while others form an important-if oft-times uncertain-framework for British policy-makers. This paper examines the relationship between the European Union's policies and initiatives as they have potentially impacted upon the British planning system and the contents of Britain's national and regional planning policy guidance to local planning authorities in the assessment period 1988-1997. But the Conservative governments adopted a 'Eurosceptic' approach to their relations with Europe and, as demonstrated within this paper, also towards spatial planning issues that caused uncertainty in practice. The research indicates that although the EU has impacted upon British planning, particularly at the local level of government, this has not been reflected at the national and regional levels in planning policy documentation, mainly because of the 'Eurosceptic' attitude of the government. Policy-makers at both the national and regional levels in England, Scotland and Wales are now recognizing the need, however, to keep apace with changes occurring simultaneously with regard to enhanced European integration, and the approach of the Blair government since 1997 has re-focused the relationship between the EU and UK over spatial planning.