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The personalization of politics is a popular thesis but often challenged when it comes to media personalization. While previous research compared the prominence of different types of political actors across national political contexts, this article situates its research in the context of European Union (EU) politics and, thereby, studies similar reference points across countries. Its focus lies on the European Commission and its members. Personalization is conceptualized as individualization and presidentialization, respectively. The article proposes that the EU integration process provides journalists with the opportunity to report more often about individual politicians, while political developments should further incentivize journalists to personalize their news from Brussels. To test this argument, the article investigates personalization patterns in seven broadsheets from Ireland, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, and Poland. In total, 119,070 articles are analyzed by automated content analysis over a period of twenty-five years. The article finds no pan-European trend toward greater personalization of politics with respect to news coverage of EU executive politics. The findings nonetheless provide important implications for future research. The article particularly discusses the universal applicability of the phenomenon, the time frame for analysis, and journalistic styles in covering European politics.

Decades of liberalization have transformed the original structure of the EC common market, being a synonym of the validity of the Four Freedoms — free movement of persons, goods, services and capital — into an integral instrument for conducting EU economic policy, but not without many constraints, both formal and informal. The process of globalization of the world economy means, in the opinion of EU institutions, that currently the European Union more than ever needs a single market that would support reforms to boost growth and increase its competitiveness. The Single Market Acts of 2011 and 2012 suggest measures to further its development. It is treated as a continuous process. However, for many Member States the evolution of the single market is a kind of a perpetual transaction — a tender, in which a concession to EU group interests is expected equivalent of particular benefit. Quite often all concessions are treated by public authorities as downright harmful to the national interest, especially in times of economic and financial crisis. The aim of this paper is an attempt to answer the question why building consensus on further proceeding to the single market is seemingly more difficult to achieve than ever in the past? The problem looks even more serious, once we accept as a starting point the "bicycle theory", which shows that the halting of the evolution of the single market may cause the opposite process — the disintegration of the EU market.

Decades of liberalization have transformed the original structure of the EC common market, being a synonym of the validity of the Four Freedoms — free movement of persons, goods, services and capital — into an integral instrument for conducting EU economic policy, but not without many constraints, both formal and informal. The process of globalization of the world economy means, in the opinion of EU institutions, that currently the European Union more than ever needs a single market that would support reforms to boost growth and increase its competitiveness. The Single Market Acts of 2011 and 2012 suggest measures to further its development. It is treated as a continuous process. However, for many Member States the evolution of the single market is a kind of a perpetual transaction — a tender, in which a concession to EU group interests is expected equivalent of particular benefit. Quite often all concessions are treated by public authorities as downright harmful to the national interest, especially in times of economic and financial crisis. The aim of this paper is an attempt to answer the question why building consensus on further proceeding to the single market is seemingly more difficult to achieve than ever in the past? The problem looks even more serious, once we accept as a starting point the "bicycle theory", which shows that the halting of the evolution of the single market may cause the opposite process — the disintegration of the EU market.

The book provides the first comprehensive comparative analysis of the development of EU enlargement conditionality across four different enlargement waves - the first (2004) and the second (2007) phase of the Eastern enlargement, the EU enlargement to Croatia (2013), and the ongoing enlargement round involving Turkey and the Western Balkans

Does the EU matter in international security? How can the deployment of EU crisis management operations to different regions of the world be explained? What have been their effects on the EU and its member states, on host states and societies, and on other international security providers? The authors identify and explain the drivers of and brakes to EU foreign security action and offer methods of assessment to ascertain influence. On the basis of a comprehensive analysis of EU security operations utilizing extensive primary resources and fieldwork, the authors conclude that the union has become a niche international security provider. However, the Common Security and Defense Policy, like other policy sectors of the EU, will remain a work-in-progress, partly finished, partly effective, and yet of interest to a world that has always expected more of the union than it has been willing to give. With a foreword by Javier Solana.

We still do not fully understand why attitudes toward the European Union differ among citizens. In this study, we turn to the Big Five personality traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism as antecedents of European Union attitudes. In a national survey, we focus on attitudes toward widening and deepening of the European Union, trust in European Union institutions, identification with the European Union and negative affect experienced toward the European Union. We theorize that the Big Five traits are heterogeneously associated with the different European Union attitudes. We confirm that the Big Five traits are indeed associated with some but not all European Union attitudes. Accordingly, personality is expected to shape how citizens' respond to changes in the institutional set-up of the European Union.

"Does the EU matter in international security? The authors identify and explain the drivers of and brakes to EU foreign security action, offer methods of assessment to ascertain influence, and conclude that the union has become a niche international security provider that has in turn strengthened EU foreign policy"--

"The use of legislation by EU governments to define environmental standards for industry has been criticised for its poor track record in arresting the decline in the quality of Europe's environment. Environmental economists in particular have proposed that legislation should be supplemented or replaced by New Environmental Policy Instruments (NEPIs), such as eco-taxes, environmental charges, tradable permits and voluntary agreements. This book focuses on practical experiences with NEPIs in the EU and tests their application using the case study of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive. It traces the ways in which member states have adapted NEPIs to suit their preferred styles of environmental policy, then assesses their performance and how NEPIs have both assisted and hindered the EU environmental programme. It suggests options for ensuring that the environmental programme does not become fragmented by the use of NEPIs and discusses the implications of EU enlargement."--Provided by publisher.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Tables -- List of Figures -- Preface -- Chapter 1 Introduction -- 1.1 Implementing European Union Environmental Policy: Themes and Issues -- 1.2 Aims and Objectives of the Book -- 1.3 Structure of the Book -- Chapter 2 EU Environmental Policy: Political Processes, NEPIs and Policy Implementation -- Part 1 - Environmental Policy and Politics in the EU -- 2.1 The Rise of European Environmental Policy -- 2.2 The Nature of European Environmental Decision-Making -- 2.3 Models of European Environmental Policy-making -- 2.4 Issues in EU Environmental Politics -- 2.5 Concluding Comments -- Part 2 - Environmental Policy Instruments -- 2.6 Introduction -- 2.7 Command-and-Control Regulation -- 2.8 Environmental Taxes and Charges -- 2.9 Tradable Permits -- 2.10 Voluntary Agreements -- 2.11 Experiences with NEPIs in the European Union -- 2.12 Conclusions -- Chapter 3 The Packaging Waste Directive -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 National Policies and the Packaging Waste Directive -- 3.3 Negotiating and Transposing the Packaging Waste Directive -- 3.4 National Packaging Waste Management Systems -- 3.5 Comparison of the UK and German Models -- 3.6 Conclusions -- Chapter 4 Recycling Infrastructure in Britain and Germany -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Voluntary Agreements in Britain and Germany -- 4.3 Hypothecation and The Expansion of Recycling Infrastructure -- 4.4 PRNs and Tradable Permits in Packaging Waste -- 4.5 Conclusions -- Chapter 5 Corporate Responses to Environmental Taxes and Charges -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 National Indicators of Packaging Production -- 5.3 Producer Perceptions of Economic Instruments -- 5.4 Corporate Waste Management -- 5.5 Economic Instruments and Packaging-Waste Management -- 5.6 Alternative Policy Strategies -- 5.7 Conclusions -- Chapter 6 NEPIs and EU Environmental Policy

The marginal involvement of the European Union (EU) in redistributive policies and its limited fiscal resources have led to a notable lack of attention by EU scholars towards the EU budget and its dynamics. Yet the nature of the budgetary data and their high usability for statistical analysis make them an excellent tool for studying and measuring policy change in the EU. In this article, I analyse an original dataset containing yearly data for the main categories of expenditure and how they have changed over the last three decades (1979–2013). Using time-series analysis, I find that the ability to form winning coalitions in the Council, the ideological positioning of the co-legislators and the inclusion of the cohesion countries have played a significant role in driving budget change.