Showing papers in "Journal of Common Market Studies in 2020"

Evaluating the Determinants of EU Funds Absorption across Old and New Member States – the Role of Administrative Capacity and Political Governance

Abstract: This article assesses the impact of administrative capacity and political governance factors on the absorption of structural and cohesion funds (SCF). We drew on EU‐27 country level data and developed a dynamic panel data model for the 2007–15 implementation period. By using a tobit estimation technique, the results indicated that government effectiveness and public diversion of funds significantly affect the recipient countries ability to absorb EU funds. The results revealed that increasing government effectiveness and combating corruption had significant stronger boosting effects on the absorption of SCF, especially in the new member states (NMS). This might explain why bottlenecks of administrative capacity and political governance are highly relevant for NMS and why these countries generally faced lower absorption rates, as compared to EU‐15. Moreover, the results also underlined that the recent great recession reduced the ability of countries to absorb SCF. Against our expectations, domestic financial capacity and political decentralization were not shown to be decisive for EU funds absorption. In policy terms, our study suggests a focus on administrative capacity‐building and fighting corruption in NMS and across lagging regions of older member states in order to improve absorption rates, while also focusing more on the efficiency and effectiveness of European cohesion policy. Finally, several suggestions are made on how our analysis can be replicated and taken forward by analysts of the European Union's internal development cohesion policy.

Identity Politics, Core State Powers, and Regional Integration: Europe and Beyond

Abstract: This article concentrates on the path from the development of collective identities to the integration of core state powers. Firstly, we focus on the European experience. We argue that the identities of political, economic, and social elites have been crucial for the evolution of European integration. With regard to mass public opinion, European integration has been made possible by a consensus of EU citizens with inclusive national identities. Most recently, the politicization of EU affairs in many member states has been driven by populist forces mobilizing minorities with exclusive nationalist identities. Secondly, we discuss the extent to which insights from Europe have travelled to other regions of the world. Elites involved in region‐building almost always develop identity narratives linking their national experience to the respective regions. Moreover, there is evidence that the difference between inclusive and exclusive nationalist identifications has also travelled beyond Europe.

Democracy and Collective Identity in the EU and the USA

Abstract: Core state powers continue moving to the centre of the European polity, yet a sense of collective identity among EU citizens remains fragile. We argue that participatory democracy at the European level is a missing element that might create a more robust collective identity in Europe. We examine the history of polity formation in the early American case to probe the link between collective identity and practices of democratic participation, focusing on contestation about the 1789 US Constitution and the creation of pan‐US political parties in the early 19th century. Everyday democratic practices helped both to represent and to constitute the nationalization of politics in the early USA, as it moved from being a de facto international organization to a unified polity. This suggests that practices of democracy may likewise help to generate a more robust collective political identity in the EU. The historical record makes clear, however, that these processes are often exclusionary, uncertain, and far from unidirectional.

Collective Identities and the Integration of Core State Powers: Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract: This special issue explores the relationship between collective identities and the integration of core state powers, that is, the delegation of powers to a centralized institution in policy areas that are essential for the functioning of the modern state. In this introductory article we present the main conceptualizations of the contributions to the special issue that define our understanding of collective identities and core state powers. We discuss the multi-level nature of collective identities and we discuss theoretical expectations over the link between collective identities and core state powers. Finally, we briefly present each of the contributions to the issue and discuss how they relate to the broad research goals, the special issue and to each other.

Juncker's Curse? Identity, Interest and Public Support for the Integration of Core State Powers

Abstract: In this study we analysed the patterns and covariates of public support for the European integration of core state powers based on an original new survey. We found considerable variation across integration instruments, member states and policy issues. Horizontal transfers are supported more than vertical capacity building; member states from the EU's South‐East are more supportive than states from the North‐West; and support increases from debt relief to unemployment assistance, sharing the burdens of refugees, and military defence to disaster aid. Identity is a strong and fairly consistent predictor for individual variations in support. The association with respondents’ interest is less consistent, but can be quite strong with respect to specific policy issues such as debt and unemployment. Overall, support for the integration of core state powers is higher and more variable than expected. This suggests there is considerable room for political agency rather than a general constraining dissensus.

Collective Identities, European Solidarity: Identification patterns and preferences for European social insurance

Abstract: A degree of collective identity is often perceived to be a requirement for integration of core state powers, and even more so when redistributive measures are at stake. Existing research has shown that European identity is an important correlate of support for European social policy in general. This article explores the ways in which collective identities relate to the multidimensional nature of social policy at the European level. We explore in particular the features of European social policy that receive the most support from European publics, and how local, national and European identity moderates these preferences. We expect that people who have primarily sub-national or national attachments are less supportive of generous schemes and schemes that involve greater cross-country redistribution, and are more in favour of decentralized schemes administered by the member states than those with stronger European identities. We find support for these expectations in a conjoint survey experiment fielded in autumn 2018 in 13 EU member states.

In Search of Lost Time: Memory‐framing, Bilateral Identity‐making, and European Security

Abstract: Bilateral relations between France and either Germany or the UK are the backbone of European security and defence cooperation. From a strategic and cultural point of view, these relations are not self‐evident. In this article, we track the memory‐framing processes accompanying the creation of major bilateral initiatives. Leaders such as Adenauer and De Gaulle, Mitterrand and Kohl, Blair and Chirac, and Sarkozy and Cameron imagined bilateral communities of fate informed by mutually understandable historical memories: the World Wars for the Franco‐German relationship and the Empire for the Franco‐British relationship. Based on these memory frames, Franco‐German identity undergirds a policy‐based integration of core state powers while Franco‐British identity informs capacity‐building and force projection (a resource‐based integration). These bilateral identities led to earmarking national military forces for common purposes and intertwined defence industries. In some cases, they also provided an impetus for EU cooperation in the context of the Common Foreign and Security Policy or the Common Security and Defence Policy.

Did the Governance of EU Funds Help Italian Regional Labour Markets during the Great Recession

Abstract: European and national policy‐makers have highlighted the role of the cohesion policy in smoothing the effects of the crisis during the programme period 2007–13. To support these claims, however, specific evidence is needed. This article studied the relations between the absorption of the EU funds and regional labour markets in Italian regions during the Great Recession. By applying different panel data models to new data on cohesion policy, three main results were achieved. We found that the cohesion policy made a contribution to the resilience of Italian regional labour markets. Yet the short‐term consequences of the cohesion policy on regional economies were conditional on the heterogeneous quality of regional institutions. We also found that the policy changes introduced in Italy during the crisis increased the effectiveness of the cohesion policy. The analysis was controlled for endogeneity issues and alternative specifications.

Access to European Union Agencies: Usual Suspects or Balanced Interest Representation in Open and Closed Consultations?

Abstract: To facilitate stakeholder representation, European Union (EU) agencies use a range of procedures, including closed consultation or advisory committees and open or public consultations. For analysing what kind of stakeholders gain access to advisory committees, we compare these two particular procedures. Two theoretical perspectives guide this analysis. The first is a resource-based account, which emphasizes informational needs and leads to the expectation that not only regulated interests but also EU-level associations and European Commission expert group members will gain representation through closed consultations. The second is a norm-based perspective that stresses the importance for agencies to establish a credible reputation, leading them to balance interest representation. A systematic comparison of stakeholders represented in agency committee with those participating in open consultations demonstrates that regulated interests have no systematic advantage in gaining access to closed consultations. Instead, closed consultations may diversify interest representation and facilitate the involvement of non-business interests.

Crisis, Climate Change and Comitology: Policy Dismantling Via the Backdoor?

Abstract: The European Union (EU) is reputed to be a climate pioneer. However, the EU has been beset by crises, with potentially negative consequences for climate ambition. Analysis and coding of EU climate legislation between 1998 and 2015 reveal that while the rate of climate policy creation has increased since the onset of the crisis, the ambition of these policies has waned. Technical policy instruments (comitology) at the EU level – ‘Delegated and Implementing Acts’ (DIA) – are analysed alongside legislation adopted under the ‘Ordinary Legislative Procedure’ (OLP). If applied as indicated in the treaties, technical DIA measures should not influence policy ambition, but in fact during the crisis era, DIA measures were used more frequently, and used in three out of the four cases of policy weakening, suggesting that minor dismantling of climate policy is taking place at EU level, but via the backdoor.

Don't Mention the War! Second World War Remembrance and Support for European Cooperation

Abstract: The notion that through increased state cooperation and dependency, national divisions can be overcome and peace can be secured, is at the core of European integration. Political elites often refer to the devastations of the Second World War (WWII) as a way to convey the added value of European cooperation today. Do references to the devastations of WWII enhance public support for European cooperation today? By presenting evidence from survey experiments conducted in the six largest member states (France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the Great Britain) in July 2017, this study suggest that they do, albeit only when it comes to financial assistance for other member states in dire economic need. References to the devastations of WWII do not make respondents more willing to support free movement of people or the establishment of a European army. These findings suggest that reminding people of the devastations of WWII triggers a largely transactional response among the public: a willingness to provide financial support, but nothing more. This evidence suggests that securing public support for free movement of people or European security cooperation through historical rhetoric might be difficult to achieve.

Contesting the European Central Bank in Banking Supervision: Accountability in Practice at the European Parliament

Abstract: The establishment of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) raised expectations regarding the ability of the European Parliament (EP) to hold the European Central Bank (ECB) accountable for its decisions. This article examines the accountability interactions between the two institutions in the first years of the functioning of the SSM (2013-18). The focus is on the extent to which the EP contests ECB supervisory decisions in practice through letters and public hearings. The analysis shows a frequently-used infrastructure of political accountability that is however limited in ensuring the contestation of ECB conduct in banking supervision. The study identifies problems with the performance of the EP as an accountability forum and with the tight confidentiality rules of the SSM, which allow the ECB to silence contestation on many politically salient issues. The findings are based on an innovative analytical framework on the study of accountability interactions.

Cohesion Policy Meets Heterogeneous Firms

Abstract: In this paper, we empirically test the effects of the EU ‘cohesion policy’ on the performance of about 500,000 European manufacturing firms after combining regional policy data at NUTS- 2 level with firm-level data. In a framework of heterogeneous firms and different absorptive capacity of regions, we show that financing of ‘cohesion policy’ by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) aimed at direct investments in R&D correlates with improvement of firms’ productivity in a region. Conversely, funding designed at overall Business Support correlates with negative productivity growth rates. In both cases, we registered an asymmetric impact along the firms’ productivity distribution, where a stronger impact can be detected in the first quartile, i.e. less efficient firms in a region. We finally argue that considering the heterogeneity of firms allows a better assessment of the impact of ‘cohesion policy’ measures.

Humanitarian protection as a european public good: the strategic role of states and refugees

Abstract: The surge of refugees arriving in Europe has accentuated the malfunctioning of the common European asylum system: the lack of coordination between nation states and failure in the common protection of refugees were the main outcomes of the so‐called refugee crisis. This article builds on the literature on public goods and policy compliance in order to explain the failure of European countries to provide humanitarian protection to refugees. A sequential game‐theoretical model serves to demonstrate the strategic interaction between states and refugees in European asylum policy. The analysis demonstrates that although both groups of actors benefit from a functioning European asylum system, they also have few incentives to contribute to the public good. States aim to reduce their individual refugee burden and refugees seek protection in their preferred destination country. The findings suggest that an effective provision of refugee protection requires both member states and refugees to contribute mutually to the public good.

‘We Serve the People of Europe’: Reimagining the ECB's Political Master in the Wake of its Emergency Politics

Abstract: In the wake of the Euro crisis, the mission statement on the European Central Bank's (ECB) website was changed from ‘Our mission is to serve Europe's citizens’ to ‘Our mission is to serve the people of Europe’. This article situates this discursive shift within a broader change of the ECB's self-presentation in public discourses and explores its meaning in terms of political theory and public law. The article argues that the shift represents a response to the perceived necessity of reimagining the ECB's foundation of legitimate governmental authority following its exercise of emergency powers during the Euro crisis. The discourse emphasizes an organic link between the ECB and ‘the people of Europe’ as a political subject able to authorize previously unauthorized governmental practices such as the outright monetary transactions programme. It reflects, furthermore, a new governing philosophy that stresses flexibility and discretion rather than strict adherence to rules in the ECB's exercise of power.

European Integration and the Politics of Economic Ideas: Economics, Economists and Market Contestation in the Brexit Debate

Abstract: Debates about the economy are central to political exchange and political choice is typically presented as a matter of selecting among rival economic competence claims. The capacity to speak with authority about the economy or to draw upon accredited economic expertise is an important source of political advantage. However, the Brexit process is a form of politicized market contestation that has taken place against the backdrop of significant challenges to expert authority. This article shows how key parts of the Leave campaign developed three strategies within the discursive politics of Brexit: setting aside the economy as a central issue in Brexit; advancing alternative economic knowledge to that of institutionally advantaged professionals; and creating a cadre of alternative economic experts. The article suggests that attempts to use the inherently depoliticizing logic of causal ideas derived from authorized economic knowledge has not prevailed over the central normative beliefs that drive ‘Brexitism’.

Postfunctionalism, Identity and the Visegrad Group

Abstract: This article elaborates on the development of the Visegrad group (V4), consisting of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, in relation to the European integration process in the afterma ...

The Politicisation of the European Central Bank: What is it, and how to study it?

Abstract: The politicization of the European Central Bank (ECB) is a recurrent theme in debates on the EU after the crisis, yet it is one that still suffers from a considerable degree of vagueness. This is unfortunate as it hinders the development of useful discussions on the place and legitimacy of the ECB within Europe's institutional order. To tackle this problem, this article presents a systematic analysis of the concept of ECB politicization and an agenda for future research on this phenomenon. After reviewing existing uses of the term in the form of three dichotomies - politicization versus independence, impartiality, and convention - the article proposes an alternative, preference-based definition of politicization as a deviation from technocratic policy-making in the ECB. Building on this definition, the article then indicates three avenues for the empirical study of politicization centred, respectively, on elite interviews and surveys, the analysis of central bankers' networks and the study of ECB language.

Bending and Breaking the Single Resolution Mechanism: The Case of Italy

Abstract: This article examines the political economy and law of bank resolution in the case of Italy – spe- cifically, its treatment of three failing banks – the Monte dei Paschi, Veneto and Vicenza banks – which were resolved in 2016–17. These three cases stand out for the relatively large degree of dis- cretion exercised by the national resolution and state aid authorities, ultimately with the permission of their European counterparts. This article examines the motivations of Italian authorities in lobbying the Commission for leeway in applying the bank recovery and resolution directive and analyses the intricacies of the legal framework to underline the extent of discretion exercised by policy-makers. It concludes that the discretion visible in these three cases is not (entirely) contained within EU law, and that bending the law or turning a blind eye to infractions was key to understanding the EU approach to Italy.

Mind the Gap: Southern Exit, Northern Voice and Changing Loyalties since the Euro Crisis

Abstract: In this article, we examine whether the EU's unequal encroachment on its northern and southern members' core state powers since the Euro crisis – manifested in highly uneven burdens of economic adjustment and the reversal of intra‐EU migration dynamics – has in turn affected individual European identity. Using individual‐level data from Eurobarometer pooled over time, we investigate the micro‐foundations of EU citizens' continued sense of belonging, be it shared (national or EU) or exclusive (national). Though a steady majority of EU citizens continues to identify at least partially as European, we observe a rather puzzling North–South divergence in identity among the young and a widening skills gap overall. We argue that the Euro crisis triggered dynamics of southern exit (through surging South–North migration), northern voice (based on EU adoption of policies preferred in the North) and shifting national versus European loyalties, which may have consequences for the changing nature of European identity research.

Reform of the Posting of Workers Regime: An assessment of the practical impact on unfree labour relations

Abstract: The 2018 Amending Directive is the most recent response to the failings of the European Union (EU) legal framework for the posting of workers. This article uses an original case study of workers posted from Serbia via Hungary to Slovakia as a basis on which to assess the practical impact of this latest Directive. We recognize the capacity for EU Member States to do more to protect posted workers than was possible previously. However, we also note significant regulatory omissions relating, in particular, to the manufactured uncertainty of employment and immigration status, limited supply chain regulation and obstacles to trade union representation. We identify the need to address in greater detail the complex operations of transnational temporary work agencies involving third country nationals which can produce legal uncertainty and foster unfree labour relations.

Incoherence in regime complexes: a sentiment analysis of EU-IMF surveillance

Abstract: The proliferation of international institutions means that states can be subject to multiple, overlapping and potentially incoherent international obligations. The regime complexity literature draws attention to this problem but says little about its character and causes. This article investigates whether and why two key components of the international economic surveillance regime – the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU) – impose conflicting obligations on the same states. Based on a comparative sentiment analysis of more than 400 surveillance documents and using differences in tone as a proxy for incoherence, our results show that the IMF was more pessimistic about member states’ economic policies before the global financial crisis but less so thereafter. Our results point towards the importance of discretionary authority rather than the distribution of power, with the EU and IMF responding to different rules with differing degrees of intensity, leading to incoherent assessments of member states’ economic policies. Keywords: international institutions; EU; IMF; regime complexity; international economic surveillance; sentiment analysis

Fish Fingers and Measles? Assessing Complex Gender Equality in the Scenarios for the Future of Europe

Abstract: In 2017, at a time when the EU was experiencing a triple crisis, the European Commission published a White Paper containing five scenarios outlining potential ways out of it. In his State of the Union address Commission President Juncker added a sixth. Although the Commission refers to fundamental values it neglects gender equality and reduces equality to the harmonization of the quantity of fish in fish fingers and EU‐wide access to vaccination against measles. Despite the neglect of gender equality, the scenarios are not gender neutral. A feminist institutionalist analysis unpacks the potential direct and indirect positive and negative gendered consequences of each scenario and illuminates how the choice of scenario makes a difference as to their gendered impacts and as to the access for feminist actors to bring gender issues to the table.

Overcoming Dissent: Socialization in the EU's Political and Security Committee in a Context of Crises

Abstract: Various crises have plagued the EU's foreign policy over the last decade. As some member states increasingly question the founding principles of the EU, it is reasonable to expect that national rep ...

Consumption Taxation in the European Economic Community: Fostering the Common Market or Financing the Welfare State?

Abstract: The literature on the comparative political economy of taxation often links consumption taxation to the welfare state. It argues that the expansion of consumption taxation paid for the expansion of welfare states and that bigger welfare states therefore tax consumption more heavily. We challenge this perspective by looking at the introduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) in the European Economic Community in 1967, the breakthrough of this form of consumption taxation. Studying the crucial case of Germany, and complementing it with the shadow case of the Netherlands, we demonstrate that political struggles about this reform did not center on a conflict between supporters and opponents of welfare state expansion. Instead, the VAT was primarily a tool to foster market integration in Europe by reducing barriers to trade. As we show, the coalition in support of the VAT only succeeded after it won the backing of important export interests.