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A review essay on books by (1) Helen Wallace & William Wallace (Eds), Policy-Making in the European Union. Fourth edition (Oxford: Oxford U Press, 2000); (2) Simon Hix, The Political System of the European Union (London: Macmillan, 1999); (3) John Peterson & Elizabeth Bomberg, Decision-Making in the European Union (London: Macmillan, 1999); (4) Beate Kohler-Koch & Rainer Eising (Eds), The Transformation of Governance in the European Union (London: Routledge, 1999); & (5) Ben Rosamond, Theories of European Integration (London: Macmillan, 2000). These works, primarily textbooks, attest to the vibrant state & quality of current scholarship, particularly theory-based, on the European Union (EU) by European scholars. The new edition of a classic work by Wallace & Wallace, perhaps the definitive textbook on the EU, is arranged around 15 sectoral case studies illustrating the wide range of policy-making activities in EU member states. Hix offers a comparative politics approach to the EU, describing the governments, politics, & policy making of each member state. Peterson & Bomberg analyze political decision making in the EU in terms of three analytical categories -- history making, policy setting, & policy shaping -- drawing on different theories to explain decisions at different levels of government. Kohler-Koch & Eising's edition explores why a specific mode of governance -- network governance -- emerged in the EU & the processes by which it will disseminate into the member states in favor of other types of governance, eg, statism, corporatism, & pluralism. Rosamond offers a rich analysis of the role of theory in studying the EU & reviews extant theoretical studies & debates. K. Hyatt Stewart

This paper provides a comparative analysis of Romanian and Greek exports in the context of EU-integration. The Romanian revealed comparative advantage in exports is investigated by calculating the specialization index. The same indicator is examined in the case of Greece. The evolution of bilateral trade flows between Romania and Greece is addressed further. The current economic crisis poses serious challenges for both countries' exporters. The impact of the crisis on the structure of Greek exports is compared to Romania's situation. Subsequently, some conclusions and policy recommendations are issued to improve Romania's and Greece's export competitiveness in the following period. ; peer-reviewed

Combating child poverty is desirable to ensure equality of opportunities across children, as well as fostering the sustainability of the societal well-being for future generations. This paper focuses on the study of child poverty in the 28 Member States of the European Union over the period 2008–2018. We analyse the relationship between child poverty and government social expenditure by controlling it with tax structure (ratio direct taxes over indirect taxes), economic growth and socio-demographic characteristics. For that, we rely on panel data methodology. This paper has verified that the effectiveness of the government social spending programmes to reduce child poverty also depends on the progressiveness of the country's tax structure. Government spending on health and education programmes could be more effective in reducing child poverty in Member States with less progressive tax structure, provided they reached the average level of public spending for the whole of the European Union. By contrast, a positive relationship between child poverty and government social protection spending regardless of the tax structure of countries was found. In this case, the underlying forces that lead to less effectiveness of social protection programmes are also stronger in the less progressive Member States. ; Junta de Andalucia SEJ-393

The European Union (EU)'s external action is a policy area which continues to be split between an intergovernmental (Common Foreign and Security Policy, CFSP) and a supranational legal regime. Despite this dualism of legal orders the authors of the Lisbon Treaty envisage nevertheless a coherent EU foreign policy. This article will take a look at the reforms brought about by the Lisbon Treaty and will examine the separate legal orders and in particular the demarcation line drawn by Article 40 TEU, which has not been applied by the European Court of Justice yet. It will also analyse legal principles in the Treaties which promote coherence, the role of the High Representative (HR/VP) in securing coherence and the EU's external representation. This article argues that despite the continuing difficulties the Lisbon Treaty has made the coherence of the EU's external action more likely.

The turbulent economic conditions that the European Monetary Union is facing, has created the need for an urgent change of the current fiscal policy of member states in the European Area. This research focuses on the use a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Model (DSGE) that tries to analyse the policy effectiveness of two main innovations in fiscal integration. The first one is the introduction of the Eurobond and the second one is the creation of a European Unemployment Insurance. The first one is the introduction of the Eurobond and the second one is the creation of European Unemployment Insurance which will try to evaluate the welfare and business cycle effects of fiscal integration of the European Union. A New-Keynesian theory model could be estimated from the Euro Area due to the heterogeneity of the different countries.

peer-reviewed ; The Presidency plays a crucial role in the management and organisation of the Council's work and the institution's interactions with third parties. Formally, the Presidency just chairs the meetings of Council bodies; but over time, member states have endowed it with a range of procedural prerogatives to structure the Council's agenda and broker agreements, which post holders can potentially use to advance their own private interests. The potential for abuse of these powers raises two related questions: first, why would member states grant these powers to the Presidency; and second, is the Presidency actually able to use these powers to advance its own priorities and policy preferences? In response to the first question, functionalist theories suggest that member states delegate powers to the Presidency to reduce transaction costs and solve collective action. Member states grant the Presidency procedural prerogatives and provide it with administrative resources to ensure an efficient management of the Council's agenda, avoid inadvertent negotiation failure or sub-optimal negotiation outcomes, and provide adequate representation of the institution vis-à-vis external actors (Tallberg 2006, 2010). Another theory suggests that the Presidency acts as an adjudicator of the legitimacy of demands for concessions by member states that find themselves in the minority but claim to experience strong domestic pressures for non-compliance. By making impartial and thus credible recommendations about whether the formal voting rule or consensus decision-making should apply in these situations, the Presidency contributes to the long-term sustainability of international cooperation (Kleine 2013b, 2013a). The two explanatory accounts disagree about whether the growing role of the Presidency reflects an incremental accumulation of powers over time in response to new tasks or just an extension of already existing powers into new areas. Historical research on the development of Presidency powers could shed more light on ...

Structural limitations in models of representative democracy have enhanced the space for other mechanisms of legitimacy in the European Union, including participatory models in which organized civil society interests are significant players. To some observers, such actors are likely only to aggravate already problematic input legitimacy. A range of less hostile approaches also prevail, from a neutral standpoint through to those sharing the perspective of EU policy practice where such actors are seen as a complementary mechanism of democratic input. Whilst concerns about the impact of asymmetries of power between different types of organized civil society interests arise as potential issues in any democratic setting, a particularly vigorous neo-pluralist regime, in which EU institutions actively create and develop as well as empower citizen interest groups, effectively mitigates these asymmetries in an EU context, although it can give rise to paradoxical tensions of elitism.

Recently, various Central and Eastern European countries have experienced a regression of democratic quality, often resulting in the emergence of competitive (semi‐)authoritarian regimes with an illiberal governing ideology. This has often been accompanied by a closing political space for civil society groups. Based on a survey of more than 400 Polish, Hungarian, Czech, and Slovenian interest organizations, we explore, in the context of backsliding, the conditions under which organized interests shift their lobbying activities to alternative, i.e., EU or regional levels. Our statistical analyses indicate that it is rather exclusive policy‐making in general than a lack of individual group access to domestic policy networks that motivate organizations to engage in multilevel lobbying. However, it appears that organizational self‐empowerment and inter‐group cooperation are the "name of the game." Even under the adverse conditions of democratic backsliding, organizations that are accumulating expertise, professionalizing their operations, and cooperating with other organizations not only can sustain access to (illiberal) national governments but also branch out their operations to the European and regional levels.

CARIM-India: Developing a knowledge base for policymaking on India-EU migration ; The development of European policies on higher education in the last two decades has facilitated and encouraged (inward) non-European student mobility. This paper examines the issue of student mobility between two European host countries, namely Germany and France and a leading source country, namely India. Often regarded as the "middle players", the paper identifies factors that drive the demand for higher education in these alternative destinations and elements that have contributed to their growing visibility among Indian students. The paper draws on findings from a recently conducted survey on Indian students in Europe to also identify the challenges associated with pursuing higher education in Germany and France. The paper further examines the role of competition and its impact on the international competitiveness of these destinations and concludes with policy recommendations, which can facilitate international student flows to Germany and France. ; CARIM-India is co-financed by the European University Institute and the European Union.