Suchergebnisse

The German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) ruling of 14 January 2014 deserves a thorough evaluation on several accounts: It is the first ever reference by the FCC to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), it represents a continuation of FCC case law aimed at restricting the impact of European Union law as interpreted by the Court of Justices of the European Union (CJEU) on German law as well as questioning Germany's participation in an ever closer European Union, and it has the potential to dictate the future course of the EU's Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). This case note discusses three aspects of this decision. First, it considers the aims of challenging the youngest measures to contain the euro currency crisis before the FCC, focusing on the question in how far the claims are based on national closure as opposed to an ever closer union of the peoples of Europe. Secondly it analyzes in how far the aims the claims pursue are reflected in the FCC's response. Thirdly, it considers the substantive relevance of this reference, highlighting the surprisingly vague consequences the FCC envisages should the CJEU not re-interpret the OMT decision as the FCC suggests, and illuminating the strategic aims of the reference without deference. In conclusion, it sketches the remaining scope for the EU to engage in or at least facilitate transnational solidarity.

Europe's failure to specialise in new ICT sectors and firms is likely to hold back Europe's post-crisis recovery. Europe lacks in particular leading platform providers, who are capturing most of the value in the new ICT ecosystem. In-depth analysis of some specific new emerging ICT sectors shows that the problem in Europe appears not to be so much in the generation of new ideas, but rather in bringing ideas successfully to market. Among the barriers are the lack of a single digital market, fragmented intellectual property regimes, lack of an entrepreneurial culture, limited access to risk capital and an absence of ICT clusters. The EU policy framework, particularly the Innovation Union and Digital Agenda EU 2020 Flagships, could better leverage the growth power for Europe of new ICT markets. The emphasis should move beyond providing support for infrastructure and research, to funding programmes for pre-commercial projects. But perhaps most important is dealing with the fragmentation in European digital markets.

AbstractThis article seeks to enhance our understanding of the European Parliament (EP) elections in an era of populist and anti-European Union (EU) politics. Specifically, it aims to evaluate both the conventional second-order elections theory as well as an alternative approach that regards EP elections as an arena for conflict between liberal-democratic Europeanism and populist, extremist and euroskeptic alternatives. It does so by deriving a series of hypotheses from both approaches and testing these with party-level data from all EU member states in the context of 2019 EP elections. Our results challenge both explanations. Party size is a robust predictor of electoral performance in EP elections, and its effect is moderated by electoral system design. While large parties lost votes across the EU, their losses were more pronounced in countries where national legislatures are elected under plurality or mixed systems. We find no evidence of incumbent losses or electoral cycle effects. Party-level populism, extremism and euroskepticism did not systematically predict electoral performance but party ideology appears to have moderated the effects of incumbency and party size. Incumbency was associated with vote gain among populist and far-right parties but not other parties, and the effect of size also varied across party ideologies. In sum, these results suggest that vote fragmentation in the 2019 EP elections is partly explained by electoral system design, while it was not driven by the desire to punish political incumbents. Populist and far-right parties in power appear to be particularly immune to punishing behavior often associated with EP elections.

Celem artykułu jest ukazanie uwarunkowań reorientacji polityki Unii wobec regionu Afryki Północnej po roku 2011, w związku z jej zaangażowaniem podczas 'arabskiej wiosny', a także analiza zakresu nowego podejścia w odniesieniu do praktycznych możliwości wdrażania unijnych instrumentów polityk. Powyższe rozważania pozwolą na przedstawienie wniosków dotyczących dalszego zaangażowania Unii Europejskiej w regionie Afryki Północnej i budowy nowych ram podejścia strategicznego UE w tym regionie, zarówno na płaszczyźnie ustalania interesów na arenie brukselskiej, jak i przedstawienia wypracowanego stanowiska i uruchomienia działań na arenie międzynarodowej. ; The paper attempts to indicate the determinants of the reorientation of the European Union's policy towards North Africa after 2011 on account of the EU's involvement in the Arab Spring and to analyze the new attitude to the possibilities of practical implementation of EU policy instruments. These considerations allow conclusions on further EU involvement in North Africa and building new frameworks for the EU's strategic approach in this region to be presented both in terms of how various interests are established in Brussels and how the joint standpoint is presented and practical activities launched internationally.

In the last two decades, Quality of Working Life (QWL) has become a core element of the European social model and the European Employment Strategy. "More and better jobs" is a strategic goal promoted within Europe for emphasising the attention in QWL. However, there is a large debate in the literature on the definition of QWL, its dimensions, and consequently on the methods to use for its measurement. To the best of our knowledge, the systematic reviews currently available in the literature on QWL measurement in European organisations investigate only a particular industry and/or working population. Moreover, they do not focus specifically on composite indicators, although they appear promising in facilitating QWL understanding and comparisons for supporting decision-makers and policy makers. To overcome these gaps, we conducted a systematic review to identify composite indicators for measuring QWL in European organisations. The review returned 19 studies that are analysed based on a set of factors related to QWL locutions, index name, geographical area, industry or population, level of analysis, dimensions, type of data, inputs, outputs, and test and/or validation. The results highlight a significant heterogeneity among the indicators, confirming the lack of an agreed upon QWL composite indicator for Europe. Such heterogeneity concerns also QWL dimensions. A critical comparison of the different composite indicators is provided, along with a unifying proposal of QWL macro-dimensions. Several gaps in the literature are pointed out suggesting directions for future research.

The article deals with a comparative analysis of Austrian & Polish foreign policy towards Central Europe. Central Europe is presented as a core composed of Austria, the Visegrad Group of countries, Slovenia & potentially Croatia as well. The article is introduced by a brief description of the development of formulation & priorities of Austrian & Polish foreign policy design towards Central Europe since the early 1990s with a strong emphasis on the last few years. Austria & Poland represent different types of countries but both have (or at least have had) aspirations for leading positions in Central Europe. These attempts have emerged during the last fifteen years. The authors claim that Austria has an ambition to play an important role in the Central European region & this approach was based on Austria's EU membership status. On the other hand, Poland describes itself as a regional leader whose leading position resulted from the fact that the Polish contribution to European security & stability is obvious. We have not observed similar leadership tendencies from other Central European countries. The main concern is paid to analysis of these issues in regard to the general diplomatic & political environment in Central European countries. The EU & NATO perspectives are discussed briefly. The article is concluded by an evaluation, with a comparative perspective, of the probability of these countries playing a leadership role in Europe. References. Adapted from the source document.

In order to foster peace, stability and prosperity in its near abroad, the European Union has invoked the European Neighbourhood Policy that seeks to transform the domestic structures of the Newly Independent States in the post-Soviet space thus building a "ring of friends" that share European norms and principles of democracy, rule of the law, market economy, and good governance. Empirical evidence, however, suggests that the EU's capacity to hit across its borders and to realize its reform agenda seems limited. Moreover, most neighborhood countries appear to be stuck in transition and suffer from serious problems of both weak state capacity and defect democracy. Hence, EU efforts may also bear the danger of unintended and negative effects on the domestic structures of states, as its policies and institutions do not only empower liberal reform coalitions, to the extent that they exist in the first place, but can also bolster the power of incumbent authoritarian and corrupt elites. This paper intends to capture this "dark side of Europeanization" (Schimmelfennig 2007). It thus conceptualizes ENP as a political opportunity structure that provides opportunities and constraints to both supporters and opponents of the European Union's reform agenda. Which of the two ultimately get empowered depends not only on the EU's capacity to push for reforms but also on the pull of domestic actors.

Considers the implications for Canada of the current NATO crisis, deemed one of existential relevance, arguing that the kind of multilateralism Canada prefers hangs in the balance. Following an elaboration of NATO's travails, attention turns to North American & European economic & security integration in terms of Canada's identity & potential to forge new ties across the Atlantic. Elements of a Canadian response to the crisis are delineated, concluding that a more concerted multilateral effort on the part of likeminded Canadians & Europeans is required to strengthen transatlantic relations. J. Zendejas

Consonant media coverage, ie, a very similar presentation & evaluation of issues in all media of a particular country, is usually considered to bring about powerful media effects. Though plausible, this notion has hardly been put to the test. This study investigated whether consonant coverage affects support for European integration. The study linked, at the individual level, content analytic measures to survey data in 13 European countries. If the media in a particular country evaluated EU representatives consonantly, then positive evaluations increased people's support for further European integration, while negative evaluations decreased it. This effect was boosted by the visibility of EU representatives. Conversely, if the media in a particular country evaluated EU representatives dissonantly, then no effect of the coverage emerged. Cognitive selection mechanisms did not protect EU citizens from the influence of consonant media coverage, which indicates powerful media effects. The findings suggest that media effects research may benefit from the 'concept of powerful mass media'. 2 Tables, 2 Figures, 58 References. Adapted from the source document.

This volume provides an introduction to some of the issues and challenges related to platform regulation and the conundrums and paradoxes involved. It highlights regulatory responses from four jurisdictions - the European Union, USA, India, and Australia.

AbstractWith the enlargement of the EU agenda, an increasing number of actors contest the legitimacy of EU‐level decisions in policy areas where ethical preferences are at stake. This discourse, which is articulated by mainstream political parties and civil society actors, represents a new type of political contestation in the Union.