Showing papers in "Journal of Common Market Studies in 2015"

The New Intergovernmentalism: European Integration in the Post‐Maastricht Era

Abstract: The post-Maastricht period is marked by an integration paradox. While the basic constitutional features of the European Union have remained stable, EU activity has expanded to an unprecedented degree. This form of integration without supranationalism is no exception or temporary deviation from traditional forms of European integration. Rather, it is a distinct phase of European integration, what is called ‘the new intergovernmentalism’ in this article. This approach to post-Maastricht integration challenges theories that associate integration with transfers of competences from national capitals to supranational institutions and those that reduce integration to traditional socioeconomic or security-driven interests. This article explains the integration paradox in terms of transformations in Europe's political economy, changes in preference formation and the decline of the ‘permissive consensus’. It presents a set of six hypotheses that develop further the main claims of the new intergovernmentalism and that can be used as a basis for future research.

Money Makes the EU Go Round: The Objective Foundations of Conflict in the Council of Ministers

Abstract: Many examinations of the dimensions of conflict in the EU Council of Ministers focus on the ideological roots of contestation in the European Union. In this article, we examine for the voting records of the Council in general and five of its subunits Councils (Agriculture, Fisheries, Financial Affairs, Environment, Economic Affairs) to what extent structural indicators explain the conflict between the member states. This is in contrast to the extant studies on the topic which, by and large, use the aggregated voting records to identify general dimensions of conflict and the preferences the member states have on them. Drawing on previous work such as Zimmer et al. (see also 2005) and Mattila (2009), we show that redistributive interests shape the interactions considerably in some of the domains that we examine. The article concludes with a discussion what our disaggregated analysis implies for general studies of conflict in the EU.

Rethinking the ‘Erasmus Effect’ on European Identity†

Abstract: The Erasmus programme for university student exchange was developed, in part, to foster European identity among its participants, who complete a short-term sojourn studying in another European country However, two previous panel studies of the impact of Erasmus participation on European identity find no significant ‘Erasmus effect’ This article analyzes new survey data ‐ a novel panel study of 1,729 students from 28 universities in six countries ‐ and finds the opposite: participation in an Erasmus exchange is significantly and positively related to changes in both identification as European and identification with Europe Furthermore, the data underscore the significance of cross-border interaction and cognitive mobilization for explaining identity change: transnational contact during the exchange is positively related to change in both dimensions of European identity, and increased knowledge of Europe and attention to European news over the course of the exchange is associated with enhanced identification with Europe

The Legal and Political Accountability Structure of ‘Post-Crisis’ EU Economic Governance

Abstract: How should decision-making under EU economic governance be understood following the euro-crisis? This article argues, contra existing depictions, that the post-crisis EU has increasingly adopted methods of decision-making in the economic field which marry the decision-making structure of inter-governmentalism with the supervisory and implementation framework of the Community Method. While this ‘post-crisis’ method has arisen for clear reasons – to achieve economic convergence between eurozone states in an environment where previous models of decision-making were unsuitable or unwanted – it also carries important normative implications. Post-crisis governance departs from the mechanisms of legal and political accountability present in previous forms of EU decision-making without substituting new models of accountability in their place. Providing appropriate channels of political and legal control in the EU's ‘new’ economic governance should be seen as a crucial task for the coming decade.

‘Pre-Accession Europeanization’: The Case of Serbia and Kosovo

Abstract: This article argues that there is much confusion surrounding Serbia’s landmark decision to engage in a process of normalization with Kosovo. Rather than undergoing a process of Europeanization, whereby a fundamental transformation in the underlying rationale and processes of decision-making occurred, as some have argued, the changes in Serbia’s policy are in fact based on material concerns. By tracing relations in the EU-Serbia-Kosovo triangle, the article shows that change in Serbia’s approach towards Kosovo is based on pragmatism and political opportunism, rather than absorption, adaptation, convergence or identity formation. What we have witnessed is a more short-term, interest based policy shift serving very specific economic purposes. In conceptual terms, this is better understood as a policy of rationally instrumental ‘pre-Accession Europeanization’ rather than as a process of adaptive normative Europeanization as more conventionally understood in the literature.

Agri‐Food Export Competitiveness in European Union Countries

Abstract: This article investigates the competitiveness of agri-food exports of the European Union (EU-27) countries on global markets, using the revealed comparative advantage (B) index over the years 2000–11. Panel unit root tests, mobility index and the Kaplan-Meier survival rates of the B index are used. The majority of agri-food products in the EU-27 countries show a comparative disadvantage on global markets. The B indices of the EU-27 countries tend to convergence. Most of the old EU-15 Member States experienced a greater number of agri-food products having a longer duration of revealed comparative advantages than have most of the new EU-12 Member States. Among the most successful Member States in agri-food export competitiveness on global markets are the Netherlands, France and Spain.

‘As I Drifted on a River I Could Not Control’: The Unintended Ordoliberal Consequences of the Eurozone Crisis†

Abstract: Germany has a long history of institutionalized ordoliberalism. While these ideas may be implemented almost unreflexively within Germany, its status of ‘reluctant hegemon’ within the European Union has led to purposive uploading of many of these ideas to other Member States. In this article, we first define what these ordoliberal actions consist of, before tracing their evolution within Germany and the EU. Our intention is to detail how acting within ordoliberal tenets has led to some rather messy and unpredictable results for Germany and other EU Member States alike – a state particularly emphasized by the crisis. In so doing, we (re)invoke Robert Merton's treatment of unintended consequences. In particular, we are concerned with Germany's increased role in enforcing fiscal order in the EU, counter to our interviewees’ (drawn from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) express intentions to retain Germany's political distance.

Reworking the Eurosceptic and Conservative Traditions into a Populist Narrative: UKIP's Winning Formula?

Abstract: This article brings the interpretive approach to the study of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), with the aim of exploring the different traditions informing UKIP's thinking and the way it has responded to various dilemmas since the party was founded 20 years ago. Three traditions interact in UKIP's thinking: the Eurosceptic tradition, the conservative tradition and the populist tradition. This article examines how the party is positioned in relation to each of these traditions and how they have been incorporated and modified into a distinctive narrative and as responses to dilemmas. It appears that UKIP's populist form of Euroscepticism stands in contrast to the elite-based form of Euroscepticism embodied by the Conservative Party – to which UKIP is considered as a threat. The article also addresses the implications of the rise of UKIP for the Conservative Party.

The Battle for Influence: The Politics of Business Lobbying in the European Parliament†

Abstract: The European Parliament (EP) has become an increasingly important lobbying venue for business due to the recent enhancement of its regulatory powers. Existing research, however, disagrees on the extent to which the intensified business lobbying has resulted in increased business influence on EP policy outcomes. Some studies find a ‘business bias’ in the EP, while others still perceive it to be a forceful promoter of diffuse interests (such as consumer and environmental groups). This article examines the conditions under which business groups shape policy outcomes in the EP. The article uses a comparative qualitative case study design of four recent legislative dossiers, and draws on process-tracing of EU documents and lobbying letters, and 145 interviews. It finds that the ability of business to leave its fingerprints on EP reports depends on a number of factors – most notably business unity, low issue salience and dossiers being dealt with by mainstream committees.

Explaining Interest Group Interactions with Party Group Members in the European Parliament : Dominant Party Groups and Coalition Formation

Abstract: This article develops and tests a theory of party group lobbying that demonstrates how the European Parliament's decision-making process shapes interest group interactions with legislators. Interest group behaviour is highly conditional on two motivations: lobby powerful MEPs, and lobby friendly MEPs. Friendliness is based on ideology, with power shaped by institutional rules and seat share. These goals can mutually reinforce each other. However, because these two motivations exist, and because political power is not fully predictable, there are strong incentives for interest groups to lobby party groups that are non-natural allies to ensure that their policy information reaches the winning side. But, when interest groups engage in this behaviour, they retain their preference to lobby the friendliest members. The analysis is carried out on nine policy-related categories of interest group, with MEP data from three parliaments in the period 1999–2011, combined with information on the parliamentary role of 724 respondents.

Commission Entrepreneurship and the Debasing of Social Europe Before and After the Eurocrisis

Abstract: The bulk of the literature on ‘social Europe’ has suggested that social policy at the level of the EU remains to be characterized by the interplay of courts and markets. While we do not disagree with this argument, our objective is to shed light on the European Commission’s entrepreneurship, an element which appears to be somewhat bereft of scholarly attention. We show how, by displaying social acuity, defining problems and building teams, the Commission has actively promoted a policy agenda focused on liberal market building at the expense of socially minded regulation. This was however only made possible by a new constellation among the Member States after 2004. We substantiate this claim by documenting the activity of the Commission in two crucial policy domains of the post-Lisbon era: the liberalization of service provision, and the impact of the new macro-economic governance on social policy after the financial and debt crisis.

The Economy Strikes Back: Support for the EU during the Great Recession†

Abstract: This article looks at the role of economic conditions in shaping people's attitudes to the EU during the Great Recession. In contrast with previous research, findings suggest that in this particular instance support for the EU across Member States was affected by economic factors. In particular, both higher unemployment and higher interest rates were strongly associated with lower levels of support. Findings also suggest that young Europeans responded more strongly to adverse economic conditions during the crisis. Even though young citizens tend to have more positive attitudes towards the EU than older people, this difference has been significantly reduced in contexts of higher interest rates.

Euroscepticism and the Anglosphere: Traditions and Dilemmas in Contemporary English Nationalism

Abstract: British participation in the historical process of European integration has been persistently framed as a policy dilemma of the highest order. This dilemma was itself coloured by the existence of policy traditions that oriented Britain away from Europe and towards political communities tied to a historical interpretation of British nationality. Euroscepticism is symptomatic of these traditions and dilemmas while at the same time sustaining them. But Eurosceptics face a dilemma of their own. What serious alternative do they propose? The notion of the ‘Anglosphere’ was adopted on the Eurosceptic right of British politics as an alternative to European integration. As a politics of disengagement by the Cameron government played out in Europe, a policy of re-engagement began with Britain's former Dominions. Here was a response to a political dilemma that not only used historical consciousness and political tradition as its point of departure, but as its place of destination too.

EU Confidential: The European Parliament's Involvement in EU Security and Defence Policy

Abstract: In 2002, the European Parliament (EP) and the Council concluded an Interinstitutional Agreement that gave the EP privileged access to sensitive documents in the area of security and defence. It is argued that the Council let the EP become involved in this sensitive policy area because it accepted the legislature's argument for its right to access. In addition, the EP's bargaining strategy concretized the procedures and contributed to finalizing the deal after two years of negotiation. It is shown in this article that despite the EP's marginal powers in the area of security and defence and the traditional conception of this policy as an executive prerogative, it cannot be isolated from democratic principles. This article provides new evidence for previous claims that the EP's involvement in EU foreign policy is increasing due to legitimacy concerns. It also offers a theoretical account for why this is so.

Mediating International Conflicts: The European Union as an Effective Peacemaker?

Abstract: This article examines how the EU's effectiveness as a mediator in peace negotiations can be appropriately conceptualized and analysed Mediator effectiveness is analysed along two dimensions: goal-attainment and conflict settlement Investigation of the conditions of mediator effectiveness is structured around four key sets of variables: mediator leverage, mediation strategy, coherence and the conflict's context In our empirical analysis of EU mediation between Serbia and Kosovo (Belgrade–Pristina dialogue) we find that the medium degree of EU effectiveness (both in terms of goal-attainment and conflict settlement) can be explained by its great leverage vis-a-vis the conflict parties due to their EU membership aspirations and its strategy of a mix of manipulation and formulation that draws on this leverage to move parties toward agreement through the use of positive incentives A limited degree of EU coherence and spoiler problems in Northern Kosovo seem to have had a constraining influence on EU effectiveness

Does Immigration Undermine Public Support for Integration in the European Union

Abstract: It is well established that negative attitudes towards immigrants are strongly associated with lower public support for European integration. But the impact of actual immigration levels on immigration attitudes is still contested. As a result, the relationship between immigration levels and EU public support remains uncertain from a theoretical point of view. We offer an empirical study of the link between immigration from the new EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and EU support at the regional level in Spain, France, Ireland and The Netherlands. The results of the analyses suggest that in all four countries immigration from CEE had negative effects on support for European integration in the host societies. In short, immigration seems to undermine integration, although internal migration within the EU is necessary for the successful functioning of its economic union and the future of political integration.

The Euro Plus Pact: Competitiveness and External Capital Flows in the EU Countries

Abstract: The Euro Plus Pact was approved by the European Union countries in March 2011. The pact stipulates various measures to strengthen competitiveness with the ultimate aim of preventing accumulation of unsustainable external imbalances. This article uses Granger causality tests to assess the short-term linkages between changes in relative unit labour costs and changes in the current account balance for the period 1995–2011. The main finding is that changes in the current account balance precede changes in relative unit labour costs, while there is no discernible effect in the opposite direction. This suggests that capital flows from the European core to the periphery contributed to the divergence in unit labour costs across Europe prior to the global financial crisis. The results also suggest that the measures to restrain unit labour costs may have only limited effect on the current account balance in the short term.

The Effectiveness Dimension of the EU's Performance in International Institutions: Toward a More Comprehensive Assessment Framework

Abstract: In this article, we develop a comprehensive framework for assessing the effectiveness dimension of the EU's performance in international institutions, consisting of three elements: (1) the quality of the EU's policy objectives; (2) EU engagement in the negotiations, including its fit with the international constellation of power and interests; and (3) goal achievement. We apply this assessment framework to two cases with two phases each: (1) the negotiations on the 2010 Nagoya Protocol on genetic resources to the Convention on Biological Diversity and (2) the negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change toward the 2009 Copenhagen and 2011 Durban climate summits. The analysis demonstrates that the assessment framework (1) facilitates a more complete and richer appreciation of EU effectiveness in international institutions than the established understanding of effectiveness as goal achievement and (2) allows us to start to systematically explore the interaction between the framework's three components.

Interpreting the Outsider Tradition in British European Policy Speeches from Thatcher to Cameron

Abstract: This article investigates how British European policy thinking has been informed by what it identifies as an ‘outsider’ tradition of thinking about ‘Europe’ in British foreign policy dating from imperial times to the present. The article begins by delineating five phases in the evolution of the outsider tradition back to 1815 through a survey of the relevant historiography. The article then examines how prime ministers from Margaret Thatcher to David Cameron have looked to various inflections of the outsider tradition to inform their European discourses. The focus in the speech data sections is on British identity, history and the realist appreciation of international politics that informed the leaders' suggestions for EEC/EU reform. The central argument is that historically informed narratives such as those making up the outsider tradition do not determine opinion-formers' outlooks, but that they can be deeply impervious to rapid change. We can therefore understand why Britain has come to hover near the EU exit door because British leaders have consistently drawn upon ‘outsider’ narratives as the organizing frame for their European policy discourses.

The European Union as Security Community‐Building Institution: Venues, Networks and Co‐operative Security Practices

Abstract: How does the European Union promote security beyond its borders? This article answers this seemingly straightforward question by exploring how the EU works as security community-building institution vis-a-vis non-members. Drawing upon practice theory in International Relations, the article unpacks the security community concept, focusing especially on the relation between co-operative security practices and the expansion of security communities. The article discusses how recent practice-inspired insights can be applied in empirical research to generate novel and interesting results of relevance for EU studies. It does so by recapitulating the main findings from a study on Spanish-Moroccan co-operation on civilian and military crisis management. The findings support the claim that common practice precedes collective identity in processes of security community-building in that the EU has helped bring together and perpetuate a community of security practitioners in the western Mediterranean that builds upon, as well as transcends, already existing bilateral relations.

‘One Woman's Prejudice’: Did Margaret Thatcher Cause Britain's Anti-Europeanism?

Abstract: Were the British fated to clash with the European Union? Powerful traditions in British political culture certainly inclined the UK to be an ‘awkward partner’ in Europe. Yet traditions are material from which politics is constructed, not fixed frameworks for destiny. This article argues that a careful historical reconstruction of the development and consolidation of today's British Euroscepticism – with its stronghold on the political right – passes substantially through the distinctive personal influence of Margaret Thatcher. The Iron Lady's individual action and legacy, magnified by a series of contingencies, generated the core dynamics that soured Britain's ties to Europe so bitterly. Had Thatcher not personally inspired this course, the traditions of British national identity and British Conservatism in particular could very plausibly have evolved in less anti-European directions.

Three-Level Games in EU External Migration Policy: Negotiating Mobility Partnerships in West Africa†

Abstract: In order to increase the effectiveness of migration management, the EU increasingly enters into agreements with third countries. Such co-operation aims to engage third countries in migration control mechanisms in exchange for enhanced legal migration opportunities, yet this externalization of migration policy is highly selective with regard to both participating Member States and third countries. In this paper we develop a three-level game perspective to explain why Member States and third countries participate in EU external migration policy initiatives. The three-level game links three sets of actors in two strategic interactions: Member States, EU institutions and third countries. We argue that two factors determine the outcome of negotiations: the cost of no agreement and the autonomy of central decision-makers. The model is illustrated by the successful and failed Mobility Partnership negotiations between EU Member States, the European Commission and, respectively, Cape Verde and Senegal.

Normative Power Europe and the Power of the Local

Abstract: In this article, the unfolding events surrounding the publication of the EU Guidelines prohibiting the allocation of funds to Israeli entities in the Occupied Territories are used to offer three observations about the impact of ‘the local’ on ‘Normative Power Europe’ (NPE). First, the case study reveals the growing influence of the power of ‘the European local’ on the decision of whether or not to deploy normative power. Second, it underscores the fact that local power relations in the target country often determine the reaction to NPE, while the reaction often produces the visibility of the normative edicts and thus helps empower NPE. And third, NPE's visibility has an impact on the EU's self-identification, but not necessarily on the policies it criticizes. These observations underscore the importance of analyzing the various levels of ‘the local’ and their relation to NPE in order to understand the latter's political impact.

Introduction: Interpreting British European Policy

Abstract: Britain has had particular problems reconciling itself to the idea of being a ‘European’ actor and a wholehearted member of the EEC/EU since 1973. Now, potentially, the ‘awkward partner’ is edging towards the exit door of the EU because a membership a referendum gauging the opinion of a sullenly Eurosceptical UK public is a likely prospect in the coming years. The aim of this special issue of JCMS is to consider how one can account for the present state of affairs by adopting an interpretivist perspective on British European policy over the past four decades. The article begins with a comprehensive review of the extant literature on Britain and Europe and an elaboration of the ‘traditions and dilemmas’ framework within which the contributors have studied the empirical material in their articles. It then explains the major themes that connect the articles and suggests how future research might build on the agenda proposed in this special issue.

The Political Economy of Borders in a 'Borderless' European Labour Market

Abstract: The reconfiguration of political space lies at the heart of the European project and is the subject of manifold studies on the new shape of the European Union, but relatively little attention has been paid to the ways in which borders are de- and reconstructed in a pan-European labour market. In a pan-European labour market, state borders shift. Postings made via subcontractors and agencies providing temporary workers also rearrange the borders of the firm. However, we know very little about how these bordering practices interact within the pan-European labour market. This study argues that while borders have become porous, their porousness is one-directional, in the sense that it is in favour of capital but impacts negatively on labour rights. In developing a framework for understanding the relationship between changes in sovereign borders and changes in employment relations in the EU, this article integrates insights from international relations, political economy and border research.

‘Living by Example?’ The European Union and the Implementation of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P)

Abstract: Most empirical contributions to the normative power Europe (NPE) debate concentrate on whether and when the EU promotes its core internal norms abroad. In contrast, we investigate how norms emerging from international fora come to be accepted and internalised by the EU in the first place. We examine the case of the emerging responsibility to protect norm (R2P) and argue that the EU’s implementation has been more limited and slower than one would expect from the NPE procedural ethics of ‘living by example’. We examine the potential reasons for this failure to ‘live by example’: the role of persuasion by norm entrepreneurs; the role of inducements and costs; the goodness of fit between R2P and existing EU norms; and the clarity of the norm. We find that the lack of goodness of fit and clarity of the norm are important factors, but argue that low levels of bureaucratic receptivity were the greatest obstacle.

EU leverage and democratic backsliding in central and eastern Europe: the case of Romania

Abstract: This article examines the effectiveness of European Union post-accession leverage to contain democratic backsliding in the Member States by employing as a case study the EU's intervention concerning the impeachment of the Romanian President B?sescu in July 2012. It is argued that a set of domestic factors, such as political miscalculations, tensions within the ruling coalition and opportunistic actions, facilitated the success of EU material leverage to halt democratic deterioration in Romania. The comparison drawn with the anti-democratic turn in Hungary demonstrates that facilitating domestic conditions, available in the Romanian case but lacking in the Hungarian one, can affect the exercise of EU post-accession leverage to contain democratic regression in the Member States

Free Trade Agreements, Institutions and the Exports of Eastern Partnership Countries

Abstract: Following popular protests at home and the fall of the government, Ukraine reversed course and joined Georgia and Moldova in signing Association Agreements in June 2014. This article has two main aims. First, using a gravity model of trade, it estimates the effects of deep and shallow free trade agreements for the EaP (Eastern Partnership) states with Russia and the EU respectively. Second, by relating the outcomes of the first estimation to the quality of institutions, proxied with the level of democracy and the level of corruption in the selected countries, the paper estimates the effect on exports of changes in the quality of institutions. The main results show that the EaP countries gain significantly from free trade agreements with the EU but little if anything from free trade agreements with Russia, and that improvements in the quality of institutions in EaP countries have played an important role in fostering exports.