Supranational Decision-making Research Articles

QUANTIFYING THE ECONOMIC SURVIVE ACROSS THE EU USING MARKOV PROBABILITY CHAINS

The multiple global crisis has made the economies of the world’s countries, including EU’s economy, vulnerable through the downgrading of the pandemic and the subsequent outbreak of geo-political conflict. These two events had the effect of decelerating the European economy and increasing the poverty level of the population, even that these developments are weaker than in rest of the world. The main objective of the present scientific approach is to identify a risk function based on Markov probability chains and to assess the possibilities of economic recovery through a package of policies structured over different time horizons. The used methods consist of meta-analysis, statistical analysis and geo-spatial and temporal modelling. The results of the study capture the integrated developments of risk-generating macroeconomic elements such as inflation, unemployment, public debt growth in a regionally segregated manner. These elements are useful for supranational decision-makers to increase the economic survival rate after multiple shocks through our proposed policy package.

Ideological cleavages beyond the nation-state: The emergence of transnational political groups in international parliaments

AbstractTerritorial divisions are commonly believed to dominate the international realm, supposedly leaving no room for ideological distinctions to take shape. However, the formation of over fifty transnational political groups (TPGs) across thirteen international parliaments challenges this assumption, calling into question the previously accepted insignificance of ideology beyond the boundaries of the nation-state. Previously unexplored in comparative perspective, this paper investigates TPGs’ puzzling existence and delineates the conditions for their emergence within international parliaments. The theoretical argument is that homogeneity across the member states of the international parliament along three dimensions – political systems, economic development levels and geographical proximity – fosters the creation of transnational political groups. Results from regression analysis on time series cross-sectional data lend support to the theory. With the rise of international parliamentary institutions and their increased involvement in supranational decision-making over time, it becomes highly important to understand how they organize as well as the implications of their institutional designs.

The Relationship between the Budgetary Fiscal Policy and Macroeconomic Indicators, a Comparative Study of Germany-France versus Romania-Bulgaria

Abstract Fiscal-budgetary policy in the current economic context is a challenge for all EU27 governments. The literature, although consistent on this topic, still does not provide sufficient modeling-based solutions for decision-makers. The objectives of the study are to identify relevant indicators for fiscal-budgetary policy analysis, to build a related statistical database, to conceptualize a fiscal-budgetary policy efficiency model, to test and validate this model and the working hypotheses, to formulate relevant conclusions on the influence of macroeconomic indicators on fiscal-budgetary policy elements and to establish a ranking of fiscal-budgetary efficiency at the level of the four Member States in the European context. As a result, our scientific approach becomes necessary and is based on econometric research on the correlations between fiscal-budgetary policy elements and the evolution of macroeconomic indicators. The main results of the study are the conceptualization of the regional model of correlation between budgetary fiscal policy and macro indicators and the identification of the differentiated influences of macroeconomic elements on the fiscal-budgetary policy according to the level of development of the Member States. The results are useful for supranational decision-makers in setting medium- and long-term fiscal and budgetary policy measures, as well as for economic entities that can adjust their macroeconomic risk behavior and future economic development strategies based on this information.

New Approach to Modelling the Impact of Heavy Metals on the European Union's Water Resources.

The present research aims to address the highly topical issue of heavy metal water pollution from an integrated European perspective, i.e., to quantify through modelling a general model of water pollution reduction in the EU. The objectives of the study are mainly aimed at identifying effective solutions to reduce heavy metal water pollution and providing supranational decision-makers with public policy directions in the field. The research methods consist of the foundation of working hypotheses based on the study of the literature, the consolidation of official statistical databases in the field, econometric modelling and the conceptualisation of a general model and its testing and validation by statistical methods. The results of the analysis consist of the following marginal contributions: the identification of a general model for combating heavy metal pollution; the calculation of the degree of contribution of regional policies to the general model; and the identification of effective solutions to improve the combating of heavy metal water pollution in Europe. The main conclusion of the analysis shows that significant progress has been achieved at the EU level in the field of combating heavy metal water pollution. However, the level of disparity and poor policy coordination are real vulnerabilities for the EU.

A new approach on renewable energy as a support for regional economic development among the European Union

Energy security in the current geo-political context is an essential aspect and directs supranational strategies and policies, especially at European Union level, towards finding new sustainable solutions to restore the balance in the European energy system. We propose to analyse sustainability objectives in the energy sector through a spectral analysis of the dynamics of the main indicators over a period of 11 years, judging that this period adequately captures the causal vulnerabilities induced by economic crises and other socio-economic events, which makes renewable energy relevant as a new support for regional economic development among the European Union. The novelty of the approach lies in the assessment of renewable energy at the regional level in the context of the global economic and pandemic crises, which have been determining factors in the current geo-political and economic developments. We also aim to create energy sustainability clusters in the presence and absence of seasonality. The methods and procedures used will be represented by a critical literature review in order to verify the working hypotheses and to design, test and validate a new statistical model of energy sustainability seasonality. The modelling results will enable the creation of an EU-wide sustainability profile useful to supranational decision-makers for adjusting energy policies to ensure the energy transition towards 2050.

Analysis of the Dynamics of Productive Performance of Organic Farming in the European Union

This research is focused on identifying the potential of organic farming by testing the efficiency of productive yields and identifying pragmatic means to quantify it such as the function of the productive yield of organic farming. The results of the study are concretized in the definition of a new tool (the organic productivity function) and its testing in order to capture the evolution of organic farming in relation to external influencing factors (economic and epidemiological crises) during the analyzed period and the influence of support measures adopted at European level. The study is useful to national and supranational decision makers for adjusting organic agriculture development strategies.

Towards Ego-Ecology? Populist Environmental Agendas and the Sustainability Transition in Europe

ABSTRACT The concept of Ego-Ecology captures environmental agendas that challenge a shared European environmental conscience in many respects. In fact, diverse populist actors such as the gilets jaunes movement and the extreme right of the Rassemblement National in France, or the right-wing populist party Fidesz in Hungary, do not reject environmental protection and climate action completely, but rather utilise them for their own agendas. The populist re-framing of environmental agendas challenges comprehensive problem-solving and supranational decision-making at the EU level. This potentially undermines a swift sustainability transition in Europe.

The European Commission’s new role in EU security and defence cooperation: the case of the European Defence Fund

ABSTRACT European Defence is in a new and formative phase in which the European Union’s long list of defence acronyms has steadily grown. One of the most noticeable new policy initiatives is the European Commission’s European Defence Fund (EDF). This article consequently investigates and outlines the establishment of the European Defence Fund and the European Commission’s new role within the field of security and defence through the lens of revised neofunctionalism. This article thus asks how and through what steps did the EDF come about; and secondly how can neofunctionalism explain the dynamics involved in the establishment of the European Defence Fund. The analysis uses a process-tracing method and draws on interviews with relevant policymakers and officials in Brussels as well as official EU documents. The conclusions argue that the ever-increasing involvement of the European Commission in a policy field close to national sovereignty is starting to blur the traditional dichotomy between intergovernmental and supranational decision-making. In this way, this study contributes to the growing literature on the weakening of intergovernmentalism within the EU security and defence policy field.

Can EU judicial intervention increase polity scepticism? Quasi-experimental evidence from Spain

ABSTRACT The mantra of ‘take back control’ has become a staple of eurosceptics across the European Union. At the centre of the slogan's message is a call to arms against the (perceived) challenge that EU membership represents for national sovereignty. In this paper, we theorize that supranational decisions taken by the European Court of Justice can increase ‘polity scepticism’ – increased opposition to the EU and decreased satisfaction with national democracy – by cueing citizens regarding the effects of EU integration on the perception of diluted sovereignty. Empirically, we leverage quasi-experimental evidence to support our theory, establishing that ECJ rulings have a significant causal effect on euroscepticism and dissatisfaction with democracy. The implications of our findings suggest that EU institutions seeking to ensure compliance with the rule of law and EU norms should proceed with caution. Interventionist action may backfire by increasing scrutiny of the EU's legitimacy and undermining polity support.

Charles Beitz’ idea of human rights and the limits of law

ABSTRACT In this contribution, I challenge Charles Beitz’ account of international human rights law within his practical account of human rights. Throughout his path-breaking book, Beitz insists that the predominant human rights practices are political rather than legal at the global level, which has important implications for the structure and content of his account. Yet, the criteria used to reach that conclusion concentrate on issues of effectiveness and compliance. I show that this lens leaves out important aspects of the current legal practice of human rights. More precisely, I argue that that practice’s overarching and distinctively legal function of human rights is to facilitate the consideration of supranational decisions and norms by domestic authorities, which requires significant procedural conditions established by states. I illustrate this function by looking at the ‘follow-up procedure’ that states have established (with the support of UN agencies) when a decision from UN treaty bodies is rendered against them. I also explain how this function is shaped by the broader relationship of the state with international law defined by the constitutional order. I finally draw some implications of my critique for the Beitzian model of human rights and its practice-centered methodology.

Politicisation and economic governance design

ABSTRACT The functional pressures shaping policy design may be disrupted in salient policies and politicised contexts, according to recent postfunctionalist/new intergovernmentalist theories. We contrast these expectations with those derived from liberal intergovernmentalism and neofunctionalism by analysing the reforms of the European Union economic governance. Its Council-centred enforcement, which has been a dominant feature until the euro crisis, despite noncompliance, does not sit comfortably with traditional theories but can be explained by policy salience and implementation uncertainties. Instead, the emphasis that traditional approaches assign to noncompliance, commitment problems, threats of exclusion and veto, issue linkages, path dependencies and supranational decision-making, allows to adequately account for the overall direction of reforms toward more tightening and delegation, notwithstanding the pooled enforcement in recent ancillary measures. Postfunctionalist theories overall fall short in highly politicised contexts, exactly where they should do most of the explaining. We conclude discussing politicisation as a strategic elite response.

Behind the State: Domestic Mechanisms and Procedures for the Implementation of Human Rights Judgments and Decisions

AbstractIt is the state to whom the supranational body directs its decision on a human rights violation, and it is the state who is found in violation and must provide the appropriate remedies. The state, however, is not a single entity: it is composed of the executive (and a web of different ministries and departments), the legislature, and the judiciary, including administrative bodies and tribunals. Depending on the type of reparations ordered, one, several, or all of these actors may be implicated. By tracking the mechanics of what happens in practical terms at the national level after decisions from UN treaty bodies and the regional human rights commissions and courts are adopted, findings from a three-year research project underscore that implementation is a multi-faceted process and whether implementation and ultimately compliance occurs can be explained, in part at least, by the regulatory, practical and technical processes in place to respond to those supranational decisions. By examining the role of these state actors and the procedures by which reparations are implemented and complied with at the national level, this article attempts to dissect the concept of ‘political will’. We conclude by providing some further thoughts on how litigators, states and supranational bodies themselves can adjust their methods accordingly.

The Commission’s initiative on the passerelle clauses – Exploring the unused potential of the Lisbon Treaty

The Treaty of Lisbon introduced general and special passerelle or bridging clauses into primary law. They can be used to alter voting arrangements from unanimity to qualified majority in the Council or from a special to the ordinary legislative procedure. This is to enable a shift to more supranational decision-making without the need for a full-fledged treaty revision. The European Parliament called on the European Council and the Council to make use of the passerelle clauses, also to involve Parliament as a co-legislator under the ordinary legislative procedure. The former Commission had started a discussion on the use of the passerelle clauses in four policy areas and it appears that the incumbent Commission President has endorsed this ambitious project. This article aims to explore the potential and the shortcomings of the bridging clauses as part of the unused potential of the Lisbon Treaty and discusses the enhanced cooperation procedure as a possible alternative.

Leave or remain? European identification, legitimacy of European integration, and political attitudes towards the EU

AbstractIn this paper, we look at the relationship between European identification and political support for (or opposition to) EU membership. First, we argue that conceptualizing political attitudes towards the EU as a direct product of European identification (a) neglects the distinction between the social reality of Europe and the political reality of the EU and (b) leads to psychological reductionism. We propose that the relationship should instead be conceptualized as mediated by legitimacy perceptions and as moderated by social‐level variables. Second, we look at three spheres of European integration and propose that their perceived legitimacy is appraised through the following principles: (a) normative solidarity for wealth sharing, (b) political authority for sharing political decisions, and (c) collective self‐realization for the sharing of practices. We illustrate the key mediating role of those principles by drawing on data from a survey ran across five European countries. Third, we argue that these meditational relationships are in turn moderated by social, political, and ideological realities and illustrate this point by looking at the case of United Kingdom in the context of the EU membership referendum. We point to an ideological assumption in the U.K. political landscape about the illegitimacy of EU supranational decision making and argue that this contributed to shape both the debate of the referendum campaign and its result.

German and British parliaments and conceptions of the global climate threat during the United Nation Earth Summit of 1992

ABSTRACT Ever since the beginning of international climate conservation politics there has been variation across nations in political traditions in debating the climate issue. Political decision-makers have interpreted the scientific findings on global warming with different emphases, thereby giving rise to variation in views on preferred national or international solutions. These tensions first became evident before and during the Earth Summit of the United Nations in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, when the United Nations Climate Change Convention was prepared and eventually signed. This article discusses the historical background of international climate conservation politics and illustrates the tensions between contrasting parliamentary traditions in conceptualizing the climate issue. It analyses concepts and arguments presented in the German and British parliaments, which debated the necessity and justifications for international and national climate politics and the form these should take. Empirical analysis of the parliamentary debates of the period shows that during this phase in the early 1990s of introducing and initiating climate conservation policies parliamentarians debated the limits and prospects of national, international and supranational decision-making. The German and British parliaments have traditionally articulated different ideas on international and European co-operation and this difference is also apparent in the field of climate conservation policies.

Solidarity rebooted: Trust and the rise of civil society in times of crisis

Abstract Citizens’ distrust in political institutions has reached an all-time high in the European Union in recent years. Since the outbreak of the European sovereign debt crisis in 2009, the public’s faith in the community of nations has slumped, and EU institutions have made slow progress in regaining their citizens’ trust. What began as an economic crisis has sparked off mediated debates about European integration and therein about processes of exclusion and inclusion on multiple levels. Gradually, the media have turned their attention to national and supranational decisions as a means of solving the crisis. Not only the effectiveness and legitimacy of political decisions, but also the European Union per se, and any claims for European unity, were challenged in this process. Under these circumstances, we argue, there is a struggle over whose ‘voice’ is to be heard. Elites, political and financial in particular, have historically found in media a platform to be represented. Citizens’ voices, however, have not had this access. They pursue this by circumventing established media practices to generate and circulate counter-narratives to those of governments, financial corporations and the media. This article discusses the ways in which falling trust in institutions and institutions’ failure to maintain a welfare state, to resolve the crisis and to demonstrate solidarity as a matter of obligation to the EU constitutional underpinnings have reinforced the rise of civil society connectedness. Although, as we discuss, this is a wider European phenomenon, we examine the situation in a crisis hot zone, Greece, and the ways in which civil society has aimed to counterbalance a failing welfare state. The article aims to take stock of on-the-ground strategies of solidarity, which need to be understood not only against the backdrop of distrust and institutional failure, but also by the side of lack of acknowledgement and recognition and depoliticization of citizens’ dissent.

Counting votes in coupled decisions

We consider scenarios with distributed decision processes, e.g., coupled majorities and personal union in parliament chambers, supranational decisions and supervisory boards. When computing the adoption rate for reaching a decision in these scenarios, multiple linear inequality restrictions in combinatorial countings are present. These rates cannot be computed in closed form. We introduce a general method for incorporating multiple inequality conditions in multiple majority decisions, which significantly reduces the number of involved summations and removes restrictions on the summation indices. Exact solutions are provided through (a) integral representations which can be evaluated numerically, and (b) unrestricted, contracted sums over discrete events. Further, we provide methods to reduce the number of necessary summations by splitting or recurring the original problem to easier sub-problems. For five dedicated scenarios, full results are given which indeed require a single unrestricted summation only.

Strengthening European Union Democratic Accountability Through National and Treaty-Based Pre-Legislative Controls

This article considers whether greater accountability for EU supranational decision-making can be achieved through a combination of member states' legislative processes and EU treaty-based mechanisms. The EU is formed by member states' national consent through treaty ratification and a system of domestic pre-legislative controls on consent—parliamentary approval, public consultation and referendum—which operates to limit the nature and extent of EU law. Using the UK as an example to compare with other member states, the article contends that such domestic controls are prerequisites to national incorporation of EU law and strengthen democratic accountability. Consent alone, however, does not provide an adequate basis for accountability of supranational decisions; EU constitutional principles of citizenship, democracy, and political rights illustrate how the EU fulfills a role as protector of rights. The article further argues that the EU's protector role represents partial legitimacy and accountability for supranational decisions. Greater legitimacy and accountability derives from national parliaments' pre-legislative controls under EU law—scrutinizing legislation, monitoring subsidiarity, and exercising veto powers. The article concludes that if these controls are exercised properly, they represent powerful accountability mechanisms.

Роль национальных парламентов в управлении Европейским союзом

Institutional structures and decision-making processes, which have been established in the European Union, fall beyond the scope of national rules for the functioning of parliamentary government. National parliaments of the EU member states have not succeeded in acquiring solid positions in the multilevel constellation within the Union. Yet nowadays they are assigned an important mission in their efforts to overcome, alongside the European Parliament (EP), the growing democratic deficit at both the European and national levels. The article is meant to assess the potential of national parliaments in capitalizing on the Lisbon Treaty provisions and on new forms of their engagement with supranational institutions (the European Council, the European Commission and the EP in particular), aimed at enhancing their legitimizing influence. General paradigm for the analysis is determined by the multilevel governance concept (MLG). It allows for a picture of European decision-making, which is shared by actors placed at different levels of the governance structure. National parliaments are supposed to be provided with multiple access points to the political process in the European Union as well. But the MLG vision doesn't contradict the fact that the key role within the EU belongs to those who occupy the highest executive power positions at the national level. Three directions for the national parliaments to intensify their involvement are put into spotlight: parliamentary control over national executives; control of compliance with the subsidiarity principle in European legislative proposals and supranational decisions; political dialogue with the European Commission and interparliamentary cooperation. The analysis proves that conditions are ripe for more active stance of national parliaments in the EU affairs. The “system of early warning” of the subsidiarity principle violations, provided for in the Lisbon Treaty, seems most promising. But national parliaments themselves will still have to demonstrate more persistence when using new instruments. Acknowledgment. The article has been supported by a grant of the Russian Foundation for Humanities (RFH). Project № 14-07-00050.

Patterns of EU Energy Policy Outputs: Incrementalism or Punctuated Equilibrium?

Although macro-level analyses of EU policy outputs are common, few empirical studies have measured the long-run evolution of the Union’s energy policy sector. This article provides an overview of European energy legislation to show past sectoral developmental trends, current characteristics and potential future directions. During this period, EU energy policy has evolved sequentially to encompass multiple sectors, including coal, nuclear energy, oil and gas production, energy conservation, market harmonisation and climate change concerns. Moreover, by measuring the velocity of legislative output as an indicator of policy activity, the overall picture is one of gradual incremental growth centred broadly on several episodes of shallow, delayed action punctuated equilibrium that has resulted in an uneven mixture of national and supranational decision-making. Expansion is perhaps set to continue along a similar path as a common EU climate–energy policy emerges, although some constraints are evident.