Suchergebnisse

Northern Ireland is caught between war and peace. On the one hand, there is a widespread desire for a permanent end to violence, but on the other hand big political divisions continue to keep unionism and nationalism apart. One issue that divides the two blocs is the role of the EU in Northern Ireland's economic and political affairs. This article assesses the various arguments made on this issue and suggests that it would be inappropriate for the EU to have a permanent role in the internal governance of the region. The article goes on to show that the debates about neofunctionalism and intergovernmentalism long associated with European integration are now emerging in Ireland with regard to cross-border economic co-operation. It is argued that the EU could play an important role in creating a form of symbiotic co-operation on the island whereby cross-border economic links and political stability in a new Northern Ireland go hand-in-hand. (Journal of Common Market Studies / FUB)

Maintaining an awareness of the developments within spiritual care and chaplaincy in Scotland, the UK and in Europe is a challenge. In previous issues we have endeavoured to keep readers informed and have featured articles on registration of chaplains, standards and competencies for spiritual and religious care, agenda for change, and other key topics. With the permission of the European Network of Healthcare Chaplaincy and Fr. Stavros Kofinas (consulting editor) we are pleased to bring you details of recent developments with the European Union.

EU legislation on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is the most stringent legislation governing the matter in the world, laying down strict conditions relating to labelling, traceability, threshold and release on the market. In light of a recent Commission proposal to amend Directive 2001/18, which currently regulates the release of GMOs on the European market, this article asks whether and on what basis such stringency is justified. This is done through an in depth analysis of the EU regulatory framework for GMOs while at the same time highlighting the multiple interests at stake (environmental, scientific, industrial, political, national and European).This article argues that the European institutions should proceed to amend Directive 2001/18 on the basis of a detailed examination of the benefits as well as the risks that GMOs present. This article, however, raises concern that the European regulatory framework will focus exclusively on the risks or on political concerns relating to GMOs instead, for it is a fear of GMOs that seems to permeate the system from top to bottom.

International audience ; This paper examines the link between unemployment volatility and the sectoral composition of economic activity in the regions of the European Union over the period 1980-2004. To that end, I use different spatial econometric techniques, which allow one to investigate the role played in this context by spatial effects and geographical spillovers. The results show that unemployment volatility is positively related to regional specialization in the European Union. This finding is in fact robust to the inclusion in the analysis of various additional explanatory variables, such us the level of total employment, employment density, the ratio of active population to total population, the economic growth rate and the amount of structural change experienced by each region. Additionally, it should be noted that the observed correlation between unemployment variability and the sectoral composition of economic activity does not depend on the use in the analysis of absolute or relative specialization measures.

Abstract. Within European politics, a distinction is currently being made at the elite level between internal and external immigration, with individuals from EU countries being given special rights and privileges when they migrate within the EU. This paper addresses the question of whether individual EU citizens also view the two types of immigrants differently and what structures their beliefs regarding these two sources of migration. The findings indicate that (a) the vast majority of EU citizens view internal and external migration as identical and (b) elite cues and debates regarding immigration within each of the countries are helping individuals form their opinions regarding the two different types of immigration. These findings and their implications are discussed in the body of the paper.

The trend towards flexible career arrangements has not left EU institutions untouched, as is manifest in the growing reliance on temporary and part‐time officials. How does the increasing career hybridity within and across EU institutions affect European socialization, i.e. the extent to which officials embody the spirit of 'working for Europe' and adopt supranational norms? We conceptualize European socialization as a mutually reinforcing process shaped by the interaction of officials with the institutions of which they are members. We argue that a focus on career arrangements provides a good starting point as these arrangements shape individuals' interaction with the organization. Consequently, they generate diverging socialization processes which lead to different socialization products. Our empirical insights are based on a study of different types of career arrangements within the European Commission bureaucracy and specialized and independent EU agencies through structured and semi‐structured interviews and surveys with officials.

[Highlights] For political reasons, European Union member states' opinions on joining banking union range from outright refusal to active consideration. The main stance is to wait and see how the banking union develops. The wait-and-see positions are often motivated by the consideration that joining banking union might imply joining the euro. However, in the long term, banking union's ultimate rationale is linked to cross-border banking in the single market, which goes beyond the single currency. This Policy Contribution documents the banking linkages between the nine 'outs' and 19 'ins' of the banking union. We find that some of the major banks based in Sweden and Denmark have substantial banking claims across the Nordic and Baltic regions. We also find large banking claims from banks based in the banking union on central and eastern Europe. The United Kingdom has a special position, with London as both a global and European financial centre. We find that the out countries could profit from joining banking union, because it would provide a stable arrangement for managing financial stability. Banking union allows for an integrated approach towards supervision (avoiding ring fencing of activities and therefore a higher cost of funding) and resolution (avoiding coordination failure). On the other hand, countries can preserve sovereignty over their banking systems outside the banking union.

Abstract:  This article critically examines institutional versions of cosmopolitan democracy and institutional ideas of global federalism. Assuming global institutions to be as they are designed in conceptions of cosmopolitan democracy, the paper addresses a feasibility question: (To what degree) would such global democratic structures meet normative standards of democratic accountability. As there is no global democracy existing, the argumentation makes a detour, first investigating the experiences of the most advanced project of cosmopolitan democracy – the European Union – and then, second extrapolating from persistent, structural democratic deficits in the EU to the feasibility of global democracy. Compared to national arenas, the EU faces a gradual deficit in democratic capacities and the global reality of cosmopolitan democracy would be –even compared to the EU – a downgraded democracy as well. The main findings are: Vertical accountability is either more ineffective or more inegalitarian or both. Neither unitary nor federal systems should be seen as a plausible solution for the threat of 'Verselbständigung' caused by multilevel politics. And nationally segmented public spheres will not promote a similar type of politicised discourses around 'common' global issues.

Thanks to the recovery fund Next Generation EU, the EU considerably increased the size of its fiscal capacity by increasing its borrowing power. Yet, the post-pandemic EU has left the key issue of how to distribute fiscal sovereignty across the EU and the member states unsolved. Departing from influential concepts in the political science literature, this article argues that we still lack a thorough analytical framework to operationalise the coexistence of two fiscal sovereignties—the fiscal sovereignty of the centre (here, the EU) and the fiscal sovereignty of the units (here, the member states). By resorting to comparative federalism, the article first operationalises fiscal sovereignty as the power to collect, administer, and spend resources. A level of government (the centre or the units) is fiscally sovereign if it can decide on its revenues, the administration of its resources, and its expenditures alone or together with the other level of government (what I call "fiscal self- or co-determination"). The coexistence of fiscal sovereignties becomes impossible if one level systematically and unilaterally encroaches upon the other ("fiscal out-determination"), as is still the case with the post-pandemic EU. On the contrary, in a union of states by aggregation like the EU—namely, Switzerland—the centre (Confederation) has its own fiscal powers, while the units (cantons) retain most of their fiscal sovereignty: The coexistence of fiscal sovereignties is thus possible. The article concludes by outlining which "fiscal features" of the Swiss system could not work in the EU and which could instead potentially work.