Suchergebnisse

This paper analyses the implications of collegiality in the European Commission for policy outcomes in European Competition Policy (ECP). The structure of the Commission creates a dilemma, since the antitrust regulator (DG COMP) can either submit its decisions to a vote in the College, or engage in costly strategizing to circumvent it. Relying on the College maintains organizational unity but also risks producing decisions unfavourable to DG COMP and the non-recovery of sunk costs. Forging external alliances, on the other hand, secures policy positions but may also lead to generalized crisis. In this game of strategy I identify the distance between DG policy preferences, the ability of DG COMP to rely on national competition authorities, and the costs of forging external alliances as the main variables affecting equilibrium strategies, and thus equilibrium policy outcomes. Additional empirical work, on ECP and other common policies, should follow.

Why have referendums on European integration proliferated since the 1970s? How are referendums accommodated within member states' constitutional orders and with what impact on the European integration process? What is the likely institutional impact of referendums on the future of the European integration process? Drawing on an interdisciplinary approach, these are just some of the fundamental questions addressed in this book. The central thesis is that the EU is faced with a 'direct democratic dilemma', which is compounded by the EU's rigid constitutional structure and a growing politicisation of the referendum device on matters related to European integration. Referendums and the European Union discusses how this dilemma has emerged to impact on the course of integration and how it can be addressed

It has always been important for Italian foreign policy to have a political weight both in the EU and in the Mediterranean. The country is trying to play on several boards, building different configurations, and does not limit itself solely to the ideas of the Rome – Paris – Berlin triangle. Realizing their vulnerability and the danger of being in a subordinate position among France and Germany, Italy is relying on the «Mediterranean card», building an informal union of the countries of Southern Europe (Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Portugal). With G. Meloni becoming primeminister, the Mediterranean continues to be in the rank of priority areas of Italy's foreign policy. Playing the «Mediterranean card» is now easier because countries are creating the image of a common enemy for Europe. Despite attempts to consolidate informal cooperation between the countries of Southern Europe around the Mediterranean, it is not quite successful due to the economic weakness of the countries and the lack of proper political authority. However, there is tactical cooperation in the context of inter-Mediterranean energy cooperation, where Italy is achieving a coordinating role. After the British withdrawal from the EU, Rome is keen to take over the British seat, which could also strengthen the country's role in the Mediterranean. The main competitor, jealous of Italy's claim to leadership in both the EU and the Mediterranean, is France; the sub-regional competitor in the Mediterranean is Spain, which does not currently have enough resources to pursue its political ambitions.

AFTER THE RESULTS OF THE SEPTEMBER 1997 REFERENDUMS IN SCOTLAND AND WALES, DEVOLUTION WITHIN THE UNITED KINGDOM HAS BECOME A CERTAINTY. THIS ARTICLE CONSIDERS THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT AND A WELSH ASSEMBLY FOR "BRITISH" FOREIGN POLICY. THE AUTHOR TRACES VIEWS OF "BRITISHNESS" FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE CENTURY, WHEN "HOME FOR ALL" HAD A BRIEF VOGUE DURING THE IMPERIAL HEYDAY, THROUGH THE MID-CENTURY PERIOD WHEN AN ESSENTIALLY ANGLOCENTRIC "BRITISHNESS" SEEMED RELATIVELY UNCONTROVERSIAL, TO THE MORE CONTENTIOUS SCENE OPENED UP BY THE END OF THE EMPIRE, THE RETREAT OF THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE INCREASING PROMINENCE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY/UNION. HE EXAMINES THE NEW LABOUR GOVERNMENT'S OFFICIAL STATEMENTS ON THE REMIT OF THE DEVOLVED INSTITUTIONS AND CONSIDERS THE PROSPECTS AFTER DEVOLUTION FOR A UK FOREIGN POLICY THAT IS MORE GENUINELY "BRITISH" THAN BEFORE, AND FOR THE EMERGENCE OF, IN PARTICULAR, A DISTINCTIVELY "SCOTTISH" FOREIGN POLICY.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of tables -- Notes on contributors -- Preface -- List of abbreviations -- Introduction: building bridges between the EU's immediate and broader neighbourhood -- Part I Political, legal and security challenges -- 1 The externalization of border controls towards the EU's broader neighbourhood: challenges of consistency -- 2 The European Union and the challenges of trans-Saharan migration -- 3 The EU and the neighbours of its neighbours: security challenges and strategic roles -- 4 The fight against terrorism in the EU's broader neighbourhood -- Part II Economic and societal challenges -- 5 EU trade relations beyond the 'Neighbourhood Economic Community' -- 6 The EU and state fragility in its broader neighbourhood: development cooperation in the name of the 'security-politics-development nexus' -- 7 'Gendering the neighbours': the European Union's policies on gender and equality in Saharan Africa and Central Asia -- 8 The limits of EU democracy support: Central Asia and the Gulf Cooperation Council -- Part III Opportunities for connecting the neighbours' neighbours -- 9 Building, bridging, blocking: the EU's approach towards sub-regional integration in its broader neighbourhood -- 10 Financing investments connecting the neighbours of the EU's neighbours -- 11 Geopolitics vs. governance in the European Union's energy cooperation with its broader neighbourhood -- 12 Challenges and opportunities related to transboundary waters in the EU's broader neighbourhood -- Conclusion: lessons and policy proposals -- Index.

Abstract Brazil-European Union relations punch below their weight. Cooperation takes place at three levels: relations with European Union (EU) member states, Brazil`s partnership with Brussels, and EU-MERCOSUR negotiations. This multilevel governance contrasts with poor results: there is no free trade agreement, development cooperation became irrelevant, and international positions rarely converge. The article explores the reasons for the underperformance by comparing foreign policy shifts in Brazil and the EU, and analyzing multilevel governance in selected sectors of cooperation. It is based on four assumptions: multilevel relations are uncoordinated, idealist inter-regionalism doesn't work, and crisis-driven, liberal realist foreign policies in Brazil and the EU facilitate bilateralism.

Urban shrinkage represents a constellation of ongoing changes that manifest with different severity in cities and regions. With effects on urban fabric, economic development and social factors, scientists have long attempted to 'diagnose' shrinkage in a robust way. Yet, when looking from the perspective of policy making and planning, understanding shrinkage remains difficult and so do the responses to it. European cities and regions have been experiencing shrinkage and the consequences of population decline for a long time. Some of those responses have prompted discussions for the possibility to identify new planning approaches to dealing with shrinkage. To what extent, however, have those responses been guided by a unifying idea, a planning concept? How has shrinkage been framed in policy and planning approaches in different contexts in the European Union and how has this interpretation affected the approaches to it? Applying interpretive policy analysis as a discourse analytical technique to policy and planning efforts from the Netherlands, Germany and Spain, this presentation outlines the interdependencies between the effects of shrinkage on urban and regional scale and the solutions that have been identified in the respective cases. By introducing a post-positivist approach to the question of handling urban shrinkage, the preliminary results of this ongoing research outline the conceptual heterogeneity of shrinkage as a challenge for policy and planning. Further reflection on this framing enables the identification of possible future approaches to urban shrinkage, potentially in the form of a new planning concept under the label of "Shrinking Smart".

This book investigates the new challenges confronted by the EU as an international actor within the context of recent economic and political developments, with particular attention to common foreign and security policies; the appraisal of development-aid policies; EU sanctions in the post-Soviet space, as harder instruments complementing the toolbox of the EU "soft power" polity; preferential trade agreements as a key element of EU external trade policy; external relations of the EU; international aspects of the monetary policy of the ECB in the context of the financial and sovereign debt crisis; massive capital flows and the boom-bust cycle in the emerging Europe; and the macroeconomic modelling of the relationship between the EU and the rest of the world.Thoroughly up-to-date, the contributions to this volume offer analyses of recent, tense global events, including EU responses to the uprising in Arab countries and the Ukrainian conflict.The book concludes with the proposal of a unique macroeconomic model in which the EU is conceptualised as constituting a block "against" the rest of the world, but also a two country model in itself, made up of Eurozone and non-Eurozone members