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Abstract. What should be the grand strategy of the European Union (EU)? What are the main arguments about the EU's role in the world that compete in public discourses in Europe? What are their sources and characteristics? The objective of this paper is to identify, clarify, and discuss critically four alternative grand strategies for the EU that can be termed Euro-neutralism, Superpower EU, Euro-Atlanticism, and Civilian power EU. These four grand strategic conceptions underline the policy debates regarding the EU security strategy as well as its implementation. First, I defi ne the notion of grand strategy and I explain its signifi cance for foreign policy making. Second, I uncover and discuss the four competing visions for the EU grand strategy.

The European Union (EU) has required accession states to adopt its acquis communitaire in internal security. Turkey has presented an important case because it has been seen both as a source of threat to the EU, in terms of the spread of organized crime and illegal drugs, and as a problematical candidate for accession. This article looks at the impact of the EU's accession process upon the internal security policies of Turkey, from its application for membership in 1987 to the present. It argues that the EU has exerted a substantial influence on Turkish policy, especially during the period when the prospect of accession was strongest. In spite of the paralysis in its accession negotiations, Turkey remains aligned with EU internal security policy because it has come to internalize the EU's security standards and share its fears of the domestic threats associated with organized crime and drug trafficking.

This paper examines the regulatory systems for the private security industry in the European Union (EU). Building upon other studies to compare regulatory systems it proposes a much more sophisticated approach to assess the quality of regulatory systems using 22 different criteria based on two areas: legislation and societal foundations. From this analysis a maximum of 100 points are possible and the paper is able to rank 26 of the 28 member states of the EU. The league table ranks Belgium and Spain as having the most comprehensive regulatory systems in the EU. The paper then provides analysis of some of the key findings from the league table noting some of the implications. One of the most important of which is the substantial differences between member states and the challenges this poses for an effective single market in the provision of security services.

The idea that the European Union (EU) is a major force in UK environmental policy is now well recognised but was new fifteen years ago, The integration of environmental considerations into other EU policies is now receiving more attention as is the implementation of EU legislation. Both are necessary if the EU is convincingly to pass the test of contributing to the handling of global issues particularly climate change.

AbstractWhat type of enforcement is the most effective to punish violations of food law or to prevent them from occurring in the first place? This article examines the question of which mix of private and public enforcement exists in European Union (EU) food law and whether this mix corresponds to the recommendations of existing social science research. Based on this research, we contend that EU-determined enforcement mechanisms differ in effectiveness across Member States. New technologies have the potential to stimulate a novel mix of public and private enforcement tools at the EU and national levels.

This article explores the impact of the European Union (EU) on homelessness policy-making. Homelessness policy has undoubtedly been influenced at different levels, but the main framework for working on homelessness at the EU level in a targeted way over the last 10 years has been the social Open Method of Coordination (OMC). The article examines the emergence, through the social OMC, of the foundations of of an EU homelessness policy by looking at key mechanisms through which homelessness emerged on the EU agenda, and the first signs of EU impact on homelessness policy dynamics. The interconnection between local actions, national measures and the EU policy arena on homelessness is increasingly evident, to the extent that the EU is now in a position to support Member States to address homelessness.

This article aims to discuss the role of the European Union (EU) in Brazilian foreign policy by analyzing the Brazil-European Union Strategic Partnership. To do so, this investigation involves the use of qualitative data, literature review, and documentary research. Both Brazil and the EU do not present precise definitions for what they understand as strategic partnerships and, hence, this phenomenon must be framed through structural elements in these actors' foreign policy. The European bloc is an important actor in Brazilian foreign policy, given the historic evolution of Brazil-EU relations, the establishment of the Strategic Partnership, and the EU's economic relevance for the country. In turn, the current locus of the EU in Brazilian foreign policy is still unclear, due to overlapping levels of interaction between Brazil and the EU and to the difficulties in the domestic scenarios of both actors.

The creation of the European Single Market (ESM) and the adoption of the Euro eliminated barriers for capital mobility. This paper analysis the dependency of investment on domestic savings across European Union (EU) economies over three different time frames split by major milestones in the economic history of the union. Using a panel error correction model, I find evidence of low capital mobility before the creation of the ESM and after the crisis of 2008, suggesting that a solvency constraint can bind investment to domestic savings even when barriers for capital mobility are eliminated. The estimates suggest that there is a long-run relationship between the aforementioned aggregates associated with a solvency constraint. However, this constraint does not appear to be binding between 1993 and 2007, matching with an increased spread in the current account balances between high and low income economies among the EU. Between 2007 and 2020, restrictions on borrowing faced by some EU economies reduced capital mobility, despite the absence of capital controls and exchange rate risk. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The production of biofuels is strongly supported all over the world as a renewable energy source for reducing dependence on the unstable oil market. Bioethanol, the main biofuel produced in the world, is widely used to power vehicles in both the USA and Brazil, but concerns exist in both places regarding its sustainability. In Brazil, it is produced from a by product of the sugar cane industry, while in the USA it is manufactured from food crops. The production of biogas and biodiesel is growing rapidly, but neither has outpaced the production of bioethanol. The European Union (EU) is greatly interested in this issue, and in 2011 adopted an extensive strategy to reduce carbon dioxide emissions related to transport by 60% by the year 2050. In order to achieve this result, the current European transportation system must be transformed. This ambitious goal will require the implementation of complex measures including the reduction of fossil fuels in favor of renewable fuels. This program has various options regarding the development of biofuels (e. g., biogas, bioethanol and biodiesel) and their related technologies, which are still on trial (mainly regarding the bioethanol production), and must also analyze their sustainability from a social and economic standpoint. The paper discusses the use of biofuels for transport in the European setting, and shows that their sustainability may result in relevant negative social effects due mainly to the use of land for energy crops (e.g., change of food price and world food shortage). ; A produção de biocombustíveis é fortemente reconhecida em todo o mundo como uma fonte de energia renovável para reduzir a dependência do mercado instável do petróleo. Bioetanol, o principal biocombustível produzido no mundo, é largamente utilizado para a mobilidade no Brasil, e também nos EUA, mas com diferenças de sustentabilidade, porque no Brasil ele é produzido a partir de um subproduto da indústria de cana-de-açúcar, enquanto nos EUA é fabricado com culturas alimentares. Biogás e biodiesel estão crescendo rapidamente, mesmo que em um nível muito menor do que o bioetanol. A União Europeia (UE) observa este assunto com grande interesse e, há dois anos, adoptou uma ampla estratégia para reduzir em 60% as emissões de dióxido de carbono no setor de transporte, até o ano 2050. A fim de alcançar esse resultado, será necessária a transformação do atual sistema europeu de transportes. A ambiciosa meta implicará em medidas complexas, incluindo a limitação do uso de combustíveis fósseis em favor de combustíveis renováveis. Este programa abre várias possibilidades de desenvolvimento dos biocombustíveis (ou seja, biogás, bioetanol e biodiesel). Para concretizar este avanço, é preciso se desenvolver tecnologias de nova geração em fase de experimentação (principalmente para a produção de bioetanol a partir de resíduos florestais), bem como a análise da sustentabilidade econômica e social desta nova fonte de combustível. Este artigo trata da utilização de biocombustíveis nos transportes no cenário europeu e mostra que a produção de biocombustíveis pode aumentar efeitos sociais negativos relevantes, principalmente ligados ao uso da terra para culturas energéticas em vez de alimentos com efeitos sobre o preço de mercado e da escassez mundial de alimentos. ; The production of biofuels is strongly supported all over the world as a renewable energy source for reducing dependence on the unstable oil market. Bioethanol, the main biofuel produced in the world, is widely used to power vehicles in both the USA and Brazil, but concerns exist in both places regarding its sustainability. In Brazil, it is produced from a by product of the sugar cane industry, while in the USA it is manufactured from food crops. The production of biogas and biodiesel is growing rapidly, but neither has outpaced the production of bioethanol. The European Union (EU) is greatly interested in this issue, and in 2011 adopted an extensive strategy to reduce carbon dioxide emissions related to transport by 60% by the year 2050. In order to achieve this result, the current European transportation system must be transformed. This ambitious goal will require the implementation of complex measures including the reduction of fossil fuels in favor of renewable fuels. This program has various options regarding the development of biofuels (e. g., biogas, bioethanol and biodiesel) and their related technologies, which are still on trial (mainly regarding the bioethanol production), and must also analyze their sustainability from a social and economic standpoint. The paper discusses the use of biofuels for transport in the European setting, and shows that their sustainability may result in relevant negative social effects due mainly to the use of land for energy crops (e.g., change of food price and world food shortage).

Nordic trade union approaches to European integration, EU social policies and co-operation in transnational groups, are the issues of this article. With EU-sceptical constituencies, Nordic unions adopted a careful approach to EU membership. Except in Norway none of the main confederations (LOs) took a clear stance. The main sources of union ambivalence were familiar to unions inside the EU: concern about erosion of national labour standards, welfare and union strength,owing to the restrictive economic policies of the EMU, fear of market deregulation and the lack of a credible EU social dimension. Nordic unions support the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) call for a more Social Europe, negotiations covering the whole EEA-area, and qualified majority voting in labour and environmental issues. They are, however, ambiguous towards extension of supra-national authority in other policy areas. With well organised unions, containing one sixth of the ETUC membership and social-democratic governments, the Nordic countries may positively influence the political balance of power in EU/EEA social policies. The European Works Councils Directive will be implemented possibly via collective agreement in Norway, and perhaps Denmark, while the legislative route seems most probable in other Nordic countries. Transnational worker co-operation is establised in roughly one half of major Nordic groups, of which one half includes consultation with management. Current trends suggest further spread of voluntary agreements with a European scope. This accentuates the need for exchange of union experiences concerning skill formation and organisational adaptation to ensure that group level co-operation complements national practices and strategies for Europeanisation of union policies at sectoral and confederallevel, according to Nordic unions.

This book shines new light on the political system of the European Union (EU) by focusing on civic resources as a keystone of the EU's ability to sustain. Less-tangible resources such as trust, solidarity, mutual recognition and citizens' social and political participation have been, until now, largely ignored in the research on European integration. Due to the fundamental changes to the EU in recent years and the challenges ahead, European citizens have become increasingly critical of a long-lasting unification process in Europe. This volume theoretically and empirica.

International audience ; Practitioners as well as scholars of European integration have for decades debated why it takes so long for the European Union (EU) to adopt legislation and how to improve decision-making efficiency. Four studies have investigated decision-making speed using survival analysis, a particularly appropriate quantitative technique. In this paper I show that all four studies suffer from serious methodological problems that render their conclusions unreliable. I then outline where work in this area should focus, and take an initial step in this direction by fitting a methodologically more appropriate survival model to my 2002 EU decision-making data set (Golub, 2002). Substantively, the results indicate that throughout the EU's history, for the most important types of legislation, qualified majority voting (QMV) and EU enlargement have increased decision-making speed, whereas empowerment of the European Parliament and extreme preference heterogeneity amongst decision-makers have decreased it. Theoretically, formal approaches — spatial models and especially coalition theory — do a better job of explaining these results than do perspectives that privilege informal norms.