EU's Capacity Research Articles

Autarky penalty versus system cost effects for Europe of large-scale renewable energy imports from North Africa

We quantify in more detail than earlier studies the cost trade-offs of establishing import-export links between Europe and North Africa for two quintessential energy carriers needed for the energy transition: electricity and hydrogen. Using the TIAM-ECN model, we show under what assumptions Europe will make a net energy system cost gain or, inversely, pay a net price for exploiting such interlinkages. We find that allowing for trade of renewable energy between Europe and North Africa substantially reduces the EU's domestic renewable energy capacity investments needed to implement its Green Deal and Fit for 55 Programme. In addition to creating import-export scenarios for electricity and hydrogen across the Mediterranean and investigating the cost implications of a European-African energy partnership until 2050, we perform a detailed sensitivity analysis regarding possible technological developments and sectoral shifts, as well as vis-à-vis potential cost, sectoral and technical asymmetries between Europe and North Africa. We introduce a new concept in energy analysis, autarky penalty, which is the price paid by a region for restricting energy trade with its neighbors. If domestic hydrogen production from solar and wind energy through electrolysis is constrained, Europe's autarky penalty may increase to 30 billion $ annually by 2050.

Constitutional Courts Asking Questions: A Deliberative Potential of Preliminary Reference Mechanism

AbstractThis Article interrogates the role of national constitutional courts within the Article 267 TFEU preliminary reference mechanism from both descriptive and normative angles. First, I demonstrate that although a clear majority of the constitutional courts submit references to the ECJ on a more frequent basis, differences in individual approaches remain significant. Subsequently, I argue that the core normative attractivity of the questions submitted in the course of domestic constitutional review lies in their participative and deliberative potential. Compared to ordinary courts, constitutional courts are better suited to amplify the ‘unheard’ voices of immobile EU citizens. By counterbalancing the demands of the EU's functional constitution, which is primarily based on the ideals of market capitalism, constitutional courts’ questions may contribute to the EU's capacity to generate legitimate decisions. Finally, I put my theoretical claims in context and analyse the main ways in which such deliberative potential can translate into practice.

Can the European Union be a “Change Master” in the Climate Change–Defenсe Nexus?

This article examines the “climate change – defence” nexus in order to identify opportunities for unlocking the EU's potential as a “change master” in a complex world. The paper aims, on the one hand, to showcase the Union as a “multidimensional power” with a unique toolkit for action and, on the other hand, to explore the EU's capacity to be a “change agent” in the green transition and the defence sector's involvement in it. A 'multidimensional power' is defined as a combination of aspects and tools of – soft, economic, normative, military, transformative, smart and tranquil powers. By implementing the Moss Kanter's innovative approach from the theory of change and exploring the numerous documents and initiatives generated by the European institutions in the last three years, the publication seeks to answer to what extent the Union has the capabilities to be a "master of change", namely to adapt to the environment and to identify new opportunities, threats and ideas; to use kaleidoscopic thinking; to communicate a clear vision and inspire others, to create coalitions, to work through teams, not to be discouraged by obstacles and to recognise everyone's contribution. As a result, it is concluded that while the Union has all the prerequisites to be a “change master” on climate change and defence issues, this potential is not yet unlocked, as: on the one hand, there is an imbalance between high proactivity by the European institutions and moderate caution in implementation by the Member States, and on the other hand, communication deficits exist regarding the EU's global green transformation efforts and investments. The sooner it is realised globally that the time is changing us, but we are changing it too, the sooner action will be taken on both the environmental footprint and the defence sector's contribution to climate emergency issues.

European Digital Sovereignty: A Layered Approach

The paper uses a stack model to come to an estimation of the EU's digital capacities on the global stage. Digital capacities are hard to measure and involve a wide variety of technologies ranging from semiconductors and network infrastructure to artificial intelligence and Internet of Things-devices. By adopting Benjamin Bratton's speculative work on the stack as the contemporary organizing principle of sovereignty, this paper presents a layered approach to digital technology and then assesses the EU's capacities across those layers. It aims to provide a framework to discern connections across different digital technologies and reason about required policies to achieve the EU's goal of digital sovereignty.

The EU's Capacity to Lead the Transatlantic Alliance in AI Regulation

In the face of Chinese advances in AI in terms of technological prowess and influence, there has been a call for collaboration between the EU and the US to create a foundation for AI governance based on shared democratic beliefs. This paper maps out the EU, US, and Chinese approaches to AI development and regulation as we analyze the capacity of the US and EU to establish international standards for AI regulation through channels such as the TTC. As the EU rolled out a proportionate and risk-based approach to ensure stricter regulation for high-risk AI technologies, it laid the foundation for international rule-shaping in the AI domain. The important question is whether the EU can effectively collaborate with the US in response to China’s aggressive AI initiative and, more importantly, lead the transatlantic effort to become the “world-leading region on developing and deploying cutting-edge, ethical and secure AI.”

Features of cyber security policy formation of the European Union: legal aspects

The article deals with the current legal and organizational principles of the European Union`s cybersecurity, the problems and prospects for the development of the relevant EU mechanism in the context of modern cyber threats. The evolution and qualitative dynamics of the EU cyber policy from the adoption of the first legal acts in the early 2000s to the publication of the second EU Security Strategy draft in December 2020 are analyzed. The study found that the European Union has the potential to achieve strategic autonomy in cyberpolitics. However, it needs a more coherent policy of coordination, further increase of funding and building of institutional capacity of the EU, equalization of member states possibilities. The conclusions state that Europe is interested in the comprehensive development of EU cybersecurity policy. The cross-border nature of cyber threats means that the EU's resilience in this matter directly affects its security. The current direction of the EU's capacity building and especially close cooperation with NATO provide a chance to avoid difficult political dilemmas. Official data from the European Union's Cyber Security Agency show that the number of violations of privacy is growing among the types of cyber attacks. This puts on the agenda the activities of EU structures and Member States the need to develop a system of human rights protection in the field of cybersecurity. One of its basic elements should be updated legislation, in particular, the new EU Cyber Security Strategy. The European Union does not stop there and constantly strives to develop opportunities to counter and prevent cyber threats in order to achieve strategic autonomy of the organization. The EU needs to overcome its excessive bureaucratization and imbalance in the funding of cyber policy management programs and the practical development of cyber attack protection, prevention and repulsion systems. The EU’s place in the future global cybersecurity system will depend on the real strengthening of this second segment of programs.

EU Counter-terrorism Law: What Kind of Exemplar of Transnational Law?

AbstractThis article examines counter-terrorism efforts in the EU as it matures as a field of law. It sets out three critiques of EU counter-terrorism law: that of ineffectiveness, of anti-constitutionalism, and of contrariness to human rights and the rule of law. It considers these critiques in light of the development of policies and legal initiatives—against foreign terrorist fighters and against radicalisation. It concludes that there are both persistent problems, and some improvements, in the law. The EU's capacity to meet the challenges posed by terrorism and the counter-terrorism imperative, and how it does so, has global impact. The article concludes with an argument for better law-making in the EU to ensure it serves as a better exemplar of transnational law.

Theorizing the EU's Actorness: Towards an Interactionist Role Theory Framework

AbstractFor decades, actorness has been a much‐debated concept central to the theorization and analysis of the EU's evolution as an international actor. While this concept is often presented as a set of factors, which together shape the EU's capacity to act internationally, the literature displays a surprisingly deficient understanding of how these factors interact in the emergence of actorness. To address this gap, this article theorizes about actorness from an interactionist role theory perspective, which draws on the works of social psychologist George Herbert Mead. In building on this perspective, the article conceptualizes actorness as an entity's capacity to (re)‐imagine and realize roles for its ‘self’ in (specific contexts of) international affairs. This capacity, the approach suggests, emerges in the interplay of (social and material) resources, creative action and (domestic and external) role expectations.

Human Rights on the Losing end of EU Enlargement: The Case of Serbia

AbstractBy scrutinizing the effectiveness of EU human rights conditionality through the case of freedom of expression and media freedom in Serbia, the present study argues that Serbia has pursued the strategy of introducing some reforms that fall short of implementation. While the inconsistency of the EU's conditionality policy partially explains Serbia's under‐performance, Serbian authorities also lacked the incentives for compliance. As Serbia was willing to compromise on its perceived national interests concerning international war crimes prosecution and Kosovo, both highly significant issues for its national identity, the real threat now as perceived by the authorities is well functioning independent institutions and free media that can put constraints on their power. Considering that the EU assigned a key role to human rights in its conditionality policy, the Serbian case demonstrates how geopolitics can interfere to limit the EU's capacity to achieve compliance even from a candidate country.

CSDP Missions and the Security and Defence Committee of the European Parliament

Over the past 15 years, the EU has experienced two significant developments—the development and deployment of security and defence capabilities, and the evolution of an increasing role for the European parliament in everyday policy-making. As an oversight body, however, the European Parliament has had a very limited role in influencing decisions on when to deploy military missions in the field and assessing the impact of those missions once deployed. This paper, based on documentary analysis and interviews with members of the Security and Defence (SEDE) Committee (a sub-committee of the Foreign Affairs committee) of the EU parliament, attempts to assess to what degree the parliament has the means and the will to assert a more influential role in this key policy area. It places the SEDE in a comparative context with the role of parliaments in scrutinising overseas deployments in member states, and it argues that although its role in deployment decisions will always be limited given the intergovernmental structure of the funding and manning of Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) missions, it can play a role in improving the EU's capacity in relation to mission planning and in challenging overly optimistic assessments of mission success that have marked the CSDP deployments to date.

The Struggle to Perform the Political Economy of Creditworthiness

Analysing the European Union's regulatory response in the wake of the credit and sovereign debt crises, this paper argues how its adoption of risk management as the core strategy for governing the credit ratings space may undermine European efforts to rebalance the growing asymmetry between private expertise and public democracy. While centralised oversight, enhanced transparency and restorative, technical intervention seem like sound regulatory initiatives, I problematise the methodologies, models and assumptions of sovereign ratings to show how the new ratings framework may actually impede the ability of the technocratic European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to redress the most egregious deficiencies of ratings. Drawing on the performativity of market relations, the paper argues how ESMA's supervisory conflicts undermine the EU's capacity to perform an alternative political economy of limits. Neither is it democratically sanctioned to interfere in the analytical substance of ratings nor should it distort the social facticity of creditworthiness by relying primarily on quantitative risk analysis, ESMA will be forced to either repoliticise the ratings process or promote the status quo, which diminishes fiscal sovereignty.

A União Europeia como Ator na Vizinhança do Leste: O Caso da Ucrânia

O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar e discutir o protagonismo da União Europeia (UE) na sua vizinhança do Leste, visando demonstrar que as relações UE-Ucrânia têm sido instrumentais no aprimoramento da condição de ator internacional desta organização. Tomando como ponto de partida a conceitualização de actorness proposta por Bretherton e Vogler (2006), e sob o pano de fundo da evolução positiva que tem pautado as relações UE-Ucrânia, o presente estudo confirma estarem reunidos, no contexto dessa relação bilateral, os requisitos teóricos indispensáveis à caracterização da UE como ator internacional. Por um lado, no caso ucraniano, Bruxelas conseguiu maximizar as oportunidades abertas pelo sistema internacional, ao passo que tem sabido usar a atração que Kiev sente pelo modelo europeu (presença) como catalisador da influência da UE neste país. A evolução da relação bilateral é, igualmente, sintomática da capacidade da UE, quer na definição da Ucrânia como prioridade da sua atuação internacional, quer no empenhamento de uma diversidade de instrumentos políticos tendo em vista o estreitamento dessa relação (na ausência de uma perspetiva de adesão). Por fim, ficará demonstrado que iniciativas tais como a Parceria Oriental (PO) ou a Sinergia do Mar Negro (SMN) escapam ao modelo teórico de Bretherton e Vogler, configurando casos de aperfeiçoamento da assertividade internacional da UE.

Does the EU Meet its Policy Objective of "Promoting Sustainable Use of Arctic Resources''? An Analysis from the Viewpoint of Arctic Energy Resources

The EU started to develop its own Arctic policy in 2008. One of the three main objectives of this policy is the promotion of sustainable use of Arctic resources. ``Sustainability'' was also a focus of the 2011 resolution of the European Parliament as a guiding principle in developing European policies toward the Arctic. Against this background, this article investigates the question of whether the EU meets its respective objective - sustainability - in regard to the development of Arctic hydrocarbon resources. The article contrasts the development of the EU's overall policy toward Arctic mineral resources with specific EU measures and examines the EU's capacity to influence sustainable Arctic hydrocarbon resource development. The article also elaborates on specific questions related to the EU's energy policy and the development of Arctic hydrocarbon resources in recent years as well as on the EU's dependency on oil and gas imports and respective tendencies to conclude on the aforementioned questions.

The European Programme for the protection of critical infrastructures – meta-governing a new security problem?

Critical infrastructure protection (CIP) constitutes a paradigmatic as well as challenging case for EU security governance, which has received limited academic attention to date. This article draws on a heuristic framework to survey the EU's capacities to ‘meta-govern’, that is, to stimulate and steer governance efforts across multiple sectoral and political divides, in this complex issue area. The main part of the paper assesses the European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection (EPCIP), which comprises a variety of policy instruments and initiatives, on this basis. It is shown that the attempt of an authoritative regulation of European critical infrastructures has remained narrow and of questionable effectiveness. Scientific networks have developed more dynamically, while the participation of private companies and corresponding EU financial instruments are yet to show their potential. Finally, the EU's organizational capacity in CIP suffers from a lack of coordination structures in the European Commission, but also needs to take the scarcely known Joint Research Centre (JRC) into account. The conclusions highlight the barriers to comprehensive governance of as well as large research gaps on European critical infrastructure policies.

Animal Botulism Outcomes in the AniBioThreat Project

Botulism disease in both humans and animals is a worldwide concern. Botulinum neurotoxins produced by Clostridium botulinum and other Clostridium species are the most potent biological substances known and are responsible for flaccid paralysis leading to a high mortality rate. Clostridium botulinum and botulinum neurotoxins are considered potential weapons for bioterrorism and have been included in the Australia Group List of Biological Agents. In 2010 the European Commission (DG Justice, Freedom and Security) funded a 3-year project named AniBioThreat to improve the EU's capacity to counter animal bioterrorism threats. A detection portfolio with screening methods for botulism agents and incidents was needed to improve tracking and tracing of accidental and deliberate contamination of the feed and food chain with botulinum neurotoxins and other Clostridia. The complexity of this threat required acquiring new genetic information to better understand the diversity of these Clostridia and develop detection methods targeting both highly specific genetic markers of these Clostridia and the neurotoxins they are able to produce. Several European institutes participating in the AniBioThreat project collaborated on this program to achieve these objectives. Their scientific developments are discussed here.

Western Balkans' European Perspective and EU's Absorption Capacity

The paper examines relationship between the EU’ s absorption capacity and the time and size of of future enlargements. First we discuss the EU’ s absorption capacity. Next, three scenarios of future enlargements are considered. The first is scenario for fast inclusion of Croatia into the EU, under extension of the Nice Treaty voting or application of the Constitutional Treaty rules. The second scenario deals with accession of Western Balkans countries into the EU. The third scenario deals with inclusion of Turkey and Western Balkans countries in the EU. For each scenario allocation of votes in the Council is considered. Implications of identified solutions on the decision making efficiency and on the distribution of power among present and perspective EU members is examined. The analysis shows that main institutional arrangements are likely to depend on size and time of the next enlargement(s). Absorption capacity heavily depends on institutional design. Consequently, the institutional setting should be developed in parallel with candidates’ capacity to take on the obligations of membership, and adapted according to the size of new entrants.

The External Dimension of European Union Marine Governance: Institutional Interplay between the EU and the International Maritime Organization

This article focuses on the emergence of a decentralized institutional complex, interplay management, and the institutional interplay between the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the EU in the issue area of environmental shipping policies. It shows that the synergistic relationship between both institutions has been driven primarily by commitment and compliance mechanisms. By influencing IMO decision-making and improving the implementation and effectiveness of IMO conventions, the EU has become a driving force in international environmental shipping policies, and its new initiatives may even enhance its leadership role within the IMO in the future. Despite the still-existing lack of cognitive leadership by the EU, the synergies between both institutions provide evidence for the EU's leadership capacities in global environmental politics.

Facing Up to Britain's Europe Problems

The European Union is no longer a problem just to British government; it is now a problem to Europe's governors as well. This paper reviews distinctive ways in which the British government has attempted to address these interdependent problems. It also makes recommendations about what it might realistically do, because much of its content is drawn from the author's written submissions to British parliamentary committees on the 2011 EU referendum lock; the need for the British government to develop an EU policy that can be acceptable to other EU member states as well as to Conservative backbenchers; the challenge to foreign policy if Scotland became independent; and the challenge to the EU's capacity of applying rigorous standards when evaluating countries for further enlargement.

Environmental Policy “Outside-In”: How the EU's Engagement with International Environmental Law Curtails National Autonomy

The EU legal system, with its many hands and complex architecture, in which national and European powers are closely interwoven, requires a particular form of cooperation. This delicately developed cooperation may be influenced by the EU's ambition to take a statelike role in international relations. Indeed, the basic assumption underlying this Article is that it is not only the EU's complexity that influences the EU's external actions—usually seen as limiting the EU's capacity to speak with one voice—but also that the EU's external actions influence its internal set-up and cooperation practices. As a result of the EU's participation in international legal regimes, established organizational principles might come under pressure. Furthermore, within the complexity of the European legal order, the potential consequences could be more disturbing for stability than within the—monolithic, in comparison—structure of states.

EU civilian crisis management and organizational learning

Commentators and policy-makers stress the need to learn the lessons of EU civilian crisis management. Yet despite numerous case studies on mission performance, we know little about the EU's overall capacity for such learning. The first part of this article outlines a theoretical framework for analyzing organizational learning in the context of peace operations. It recommends focusing on administrative reform and conceptual development in Brussels, and lists various factors that are expected to facilitate or inhibit organizational learning cycles. On this basis, the second part presents a historical survey of the EU's learning efforts in civilian crisis management. Despite a dynamic expansion of mission tasks as well as corresponding review processes, organizational learning has remained haphazard and limited to capacity expansion or mission support requirements. Only since 2009 did the EU invest in more formalized lessons-learning processes, which led to more systematic information gathering and more in-depth conceptual discussions. So far, however, these initiatives could not overcome political constraints to more ambitious reforms of EU peace operations.