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While the EU's policies towards non-member states are often discussed within frameworks of 'high politics', one of the most important features of the European Neighbourhood Policy is its emphasis on the 'low politics' of sectoral dialogue in functionally differentiated policy fields. Examining policy change triggered in Ukraine by the EU's neighbourhood policy framework, the essay focuses on environmental policy as a typical 'low politics' policy field. The results show that in four sub-fields of environmental policy case-specific constellations of domestic veto players, policy-specific conditionality and external capacity building determine domestic policy change. Adapted from the source document.

The article presents the multifold dilemmas of Romanian politics regarding Kosovo's unilateral proclamation of independence. Romania tries to position itself independently in the framework of the European Union; yet the country is also clearly under pressure to support EU policies. Romania is confronted with internal claims for autonomy by the Hungarian minority in Transylvania and, externally, with the "frozen conflict" between the Republic of Moldova and Transnistria. Romania has refrained from recognizing Kosovo, demonstrating that the country is more concerned about autonomy movements within its own borders, than about following the mainstream policy of the EU. Adapted from the source document.

The Lisbon Treaty established the Early-warning-system (EWS) for the scrutiny of subsidiarity which provides parliaments of the member states with the opportunity to influence law-making at the European level. In the case of Germany, this provision affects not only the Bundestag but also the Bundesrat, the second chamber. While the Bundesrat is an executive body, state parliaments can also make use of the new subsidiarity instruments. Nevertheless, there are wide differences whether and how they use these instruments. This article highlights the role played in this process by one under-researched parliamentary actor: the parliamentary staff. Usually, parliamentary staff is assumed to be apolitical. However, the low politicization of European issues at the subnational level and the limited expertise of politicians in this field can potentially turn politically neutral administrative staff members into influential players. Hence, the described EU-related professionalization of the state parliaments, including the horizontal and vertical cooperation, is very important for their functioning. Adapted from the source document.

This article investigates whether EU accession can help Bulgaria and Romania limit state capture and the undue influence of business actors on the policy process. Particularly vulnerable to such influence, Bulgarian and Romanian institutions are monitored through the EU's co-operation and verification mechanism and the Commission and ECJ infringement procedures. We argue that, under certain conditions, these tools can improve the quality of democracy in both countries. The key conditions are the presence of domestic actors able to use the EU and carry over procedural policy requirements from the acquis to other policy-making. Analysing policy-making processes in the forestry sector, we find NGOs able to use EU links and governments sensitive to naming and shaming can result in a positive influence of EU rules on the policy process and quality of democracy. This is true even in least likely cases, such as non-acquis policy areas in Bulgaria and Romania. Adapted from the source document.

Starting from the empirical observation of high levels of absorption of EU cohesion funds but strikingly low levels of substantive change in regional cohesion, this essay offers a contextual analysis of regional development policies in Hungary. Based on theoretical frameworks dealing with Europeanisation, new regionalism and participative development, it explores the reasons for this observation by analysing the role of administrative and planning structures and of development discourses. The essay shows that the Europeanisation of regional development policy triggered several changes in the planning process and led to the partial inclusion of new actors. However, the main effect of this was a growing centralisation of development policy making. The essay explains this by pointing to the domestic political context and the historical foundations of regional development discourses of the conservative and leftist liberal parties. While there are overlaps between the discourses on both sides of the ideological divide, they are perceived as incompatible by political actors. Thus, it is argued that considerations of political power, rather than ideological nature, shape Hungarian regional and development policy and explain the incremental reform process. Adapted from the source document.

The subsidiarity control mechanisms of the Lisbon Treaty have received much attention with their promise to redress the position of national and regional parliaments, which were seen as losers in the integration process. Two years later, beyond formal rules and good intentions, the question remains as to whether these novelties actually succeeded. Given the greater scrutiny capacity of national parliaments, the variety of member states' adaptations is assessed, such as using binding mandates, the role of second chambers but also diverse concepts of the subsidiarity principle. The record shows that while there is significant activism among legislative actors, actual change has been very limited so far. Additionally, two structural challenges are addressed: Firstly, given high thresholds to step into the EU policy cycle, national legislatures face a collective action problem when forging majorities. Secondly, incentives of individual MPs to engage in matters of subsidiarity remain limited. Adapted from the source document.

How has Europeanisation of environmental policy, as represented by the adoption of European Union (EU) biodiversity policies, influenced the agendas and repertoires of action employed by environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) in Hungary, Poland and Romania? The EU's environmental acquis gave ENGOs new and often forceful tools to reach their aims by emphasising the importance of collaborative relations between state and non-state actors and by offering opportunities to civil society actors to circumvent their national governments in the policy process. Implementation of the EU's Natura 2000 network in Hungary, Poland and Romania further reinforced endogenously driven professionalisation and institutionalisation of civil society groups. While EU accession benefited from the expertise of professional ENGOs, the logic of the accession process together with the weakness of both state actors and civil society has not led to the development of sustainable cooperative state-society relations in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Adapted from the source document.

Accession appears to be both a blessing and a curse to transition countries. On the one hand, EU membership supports their transformation from authoritarian regimes with centralized planning economies into liberal democracies with market economies. On the other hand, the accession countries face great difficulties in restructuring their economic and political institutions in order to meet the conditions for EU membership. The systematic involvement of non-state actors in the adoption of and adaptation to EU requirements was thought to be a remedy for the problems of European Enlargement towards 'weak' transition countries. Companies and civil society organizations could provide the governments of the accession countries with important resources (money, information, expertise and support) that are necessary to make EU policies work. The article explores the role of non-state actors in governing the double challenge of transition and accession. Focusing on the field of environmental policy, we seek to find out to what extent accession has empowered non-state actors by giving them a voice in the adoption of and adaptation to the EU's green acquis. Our study on the implementation of EU environmental policies in Poland, Hungary and Romania shows that accession left little room for the involvement of non-state actors into the policy process. The article argues that both state and non-state actors in transition countries were often too weak to make cooperation work during the accession period. The double weakness of transition countries and a political culture hostile to public involvement seriously constrained the empowering of non-state actors by 'Europeanization through accession'. Adapted from the source document.

Five years after launching the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) two ideas seem to be undisputed about it: it aims to promote deeper and broader relationships between the EU and its neighbours. Nevertheless, these claims have not been tested empirically, especially when it comes to the broadness hypothesis. Thus, this article enquires about the extent to which the EU is promoting the adoption of rules by neighbourhood countries in allegedly new and less politicized issue areas. In order to address this question we look at the environmental dimension of the ENP, focusing on the cases of Morocco and Ukraine. We conceptualize the environmental dimension of the ENP and put forward an account that highlights the institutional logics of rule promotion under the ENP, as well as its double contingency on agents that are central for the implementation of the policies: bureaucratic structures and non-state actors. Adapted from the source document.

Recent debates regarding the effectiveness of regulatory policymaking in the European Union (EU) focus on the merits of soft, non-binding forms of regulation between public and private actors. The emergence of less coercive forms of regulation is analyzed as a response to powerful functional pressures emanating from the complexity of regulatory issues, as well as the need to secure flexibility and adaptability of regulation to distinctive territorial economic, environmental, administrative, and social conditions. In this article we empirically assess the above normative claims regarding the effectiveness of soft regulation vis-a-vis uniformly binding legislation. We draw on an exploratory investigation of the application of the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive of the EU in four countries. Our study reveals that effectiveness in the application of soft policy instruments is largely contingent upon strong cognitive, material, and political capacities of both state regulators and industrial actors involved in regulatory policymaking. In the absence of those conditions, the application of soft, legally non-binding regulation may lead to adverse effects, such as non-compliance and the 'hollowing out' of the systems of environmental permits to industry. In the medium term, such developments can undermine the normative authority of the EU. Adapted from the source document.