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In an era when many fear the breakdown of the global trading order through the emergence of relatively closed regional trading blocs, assessing the effects of European integration on external European Union trade is particularly important. Surprisingly, despite a severe recession accompanied by record levels of unemployment, a history of increasing protection under similar economic circumstances, and alarming predictions about "fortress Europe," external trade policy in the region has liberalized in recent years. Prominent trade policy explanations emphasizing changing interest group demands or changing ideas of policymakers are inadequate to account for this significant change in trade policy. Instead, much of this liberalization can be best understood as an unforeseen consequence of the Single European Act. Completing the single market undermined the effectiveness of national trade measures and made it difficult to enact new trade barriers, thus producing a liberal bias in European policy.

This paper offers an explanation for variations in the effectiveness of trade unions to obtain legislative and policy concessions in peak-level tripartite negotiations in post-communist East Central Europe. I examine the usefulness of some standard interpretations for such variations, namely economic-structural arguments, arguments originating in democratization literature, political cycle arguments, and neo-institutionalist arguments (particularly from the corporatist literature). I argue that none of them offers a fully satisfactory explanation for the problem at hand. Standard explanations mostly offer static accounts which either neglect the importance of key actors? strategies or assume that these strategies are predetermined. Instead, I argue that the sources of these variations are to be attributed to distinct paths of state-labor relations which are the product of continuous strategic interactions within the general framework of tripartite institutions. To present a mechanism through which these paths evolve, this paper sketches a model of government-union interactions that combines institutional and behavioral variables. I propose a set of hypotheses with respect to the conditions that determine initial choice of strategies and factors that influence continuation or modification of these strategies later on. The paper further illustrates how these interactions shape tripartite institutions in such a way that they start reflecting accentuated power disparities between the contending actors, thereby limiting the scope of future choices for weaker actors. I demonstrate how the interplay of the proposed variables has shaped distinct paths of statelabor relations, and influenced the effectiveness of unions, in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. ; Das vorliegende Discussion Paper bietet eine Erklärung für den unterschiedlichen Erfolg, mit dem Gewerkschaften in Mittel- und Osteuropa in tripartistischen Verhandlungen legislative und politische Konzessionen erlangt haben. Hierzu gibt es bereits eine Reihe von gängigen Erklärungen, etwa der Verweis auf die Demokratisierungsliteratur, die Betonung von politischen Zyklen oder unterschiedlichen Wirtschaftsstrukturen, aber auch neoinstitutionalistische Argumente insbesondere aus der Korporatismustheorie. Keiner dieser Ansätze bietet aber eine wirklich zufrieden stellende Erklärung für das vorliegende Problem. Die gängigen Erklärungen sind meist statisch und messen entweder den von den zentralen Akteuren verfolgten Strategien keine große Bedeutung bei oder sehen diese als weitgehend prädeterminiert an. Der Aufsatz erklärt Unterschiede im gewerkschaftlichen Erfolg hingegen mit unterschiedlichen Entwicklungspfaden der Staat?Gewerkschaftsbeziehungen. Sie sind das Ergebnis fortwährender strategischer Interaktionen innerhalb tripartistischer Institutionen. Ein Modell der strategischen Interaktionen zwischen Regierungen und Gewerkschaften erklärt, wie sich diese Pfade entwickeln. Das Modell kombiniert institutionelle und Verhaltensvariablen und setzt diese in Verhältnis zu einer Anzahl von Hypothesen über die Faktoren, die die anfängliche Strategiewahl und spätere Strategiewechsel beeinflussen. Dabei spiegeln tripartistische Institutionen die veränderten Machtverhältnisse zwischen den zentralen Akteuren wider, und begrenzen damit auch die Bandbreite zukünftiger Handlungsoptionen schwächerer Akteure. Der Aufsatz zeigt, wie sich durch diese Interaktionen spezifische Entwicklungspfade der Staat?Gewerkschaftsbeziehungen ausbilden, die die Unterschiede in der Durchsetzungsfähigkeit der Gewerkschaften in der Tschechischen Republik, Ungarn und Polen erklären.

Este artículo analiza la historia de Europa desde un triple punto de vista. Por un lado, valora cómo llegó a construirse la cultura europea y su integración política, y cómo fácilmente pudo desaparecer o pasar a la irrelevancia. Por otra, se describe el vaivén de fuerzas centrípetas y centrífugas que han jugado sus cartas en el continente a lo largo de los siglos. En tercer lugar, se analiza el papel, a menudo ignorado, que en todos esos procesos ha jugado España. Por último, se estudian las amenazas internas que dominan el momento presente, así como las lecciones que podemos sacar del pasado para lograr un nuevo renacimiento cultural europeo, evitando así una decadencia a la que parecemos estar abocados ; This article analyzes the History of Europe from a threefold point of view. On the one hand, it evaluates how European culture and political integration came to be built, and how it could easily disappear or become irrelevant. On the other, it describes the swing of centripetal and centrifugal forces that have played their cards in Europe over the centurie. Thirdly, it analyzes the role, frecuently underestimated, played by Spain in these processes. Finally, it examines the internal threats of the present moment and the lessons we can draw from the past in order to achieve a new European cultural renaissance, avoiding a decline to which we seem to be heading

Este artículo analiza la historia de Europa desde un triple punto de vista.
Por un lado, valora cómo llegó a construirse la cultura europea y su integración
política, y cómo fácilmente pudo desaparecer o pasar a la irrelevancia. Por otra,
se describe el vaivén de fuerzas centrípetas y centrífugas que han jugado sus
cartas en el continente a lo largo de los siglos. En tercer lugar, se analiza el
papel, a menudo ignorado, que en todos esos procesos ha jugado España. Por
último, se estudian las amenazas internas que dominan el momento presente,
así como las lecciones que podemos sacar del pasado para lograr un nuevo
renacimiento cultural europeo, evitando así una decadencia a la que parecemos
estar abocados.

The findings of Heat Roadmap Europe 4 (HRE4) proves that a common and coordinated effort of all Europeans for the transition to a low-carbon future in accordance with the Paris Agreement is not only possible, but cost-effective and affordable with existing technologies available on the market today. Therefore it would be an ethical, political and organisational failure, if the European Commission, its Member States as well as regional and local governments together won't be able to ensure the change required to keep global warming significantly below 2 °C compared to the preindustrial area. In particular, current and planned policies should be aligned with the vision of a carbon emission free heating and cooling sector by 2050, as the sector corresponds to about 50% of the final energy demand in Europe and has a crucial role to play in the connectivity and affordability of the entire sustainable energy system of the future. This includes energy, environmental, economic, tax and educational policies, while ensuring that the impact of any legislation on all levels does not hinder the development towards this goal, but instead encourages and accelerates the transition. There is no sustainable alternative for the future of Europe than a decarbonised, integrated energy system. Postponing the challenges will only make the transition organisationally more difficult and unnecessarily expensive, but will not make the challenge itself become obsolete. The emission targets required to meet the Paris Agreement must be reached sooner, rather than later in order for society to benefit from the improvements created. The scientific and technolocially neutral research initative Heat Roadmap Europe verifies how choosing the path of decarbonisation in an integrated manner will be beneficial for all governmental levels, wether if the main priorities are economic, social or environmental. Based on the outcomes of Heat Roadmap Europe, the authors call for action from all politicians in Europe to accept their responsibility to take on their necessary role as leaders towards a fossil fuel free energy system by setting up the decisive framework which will have guided Europe to an economically feasible, socially accepted and environmentally needed low-carbon future.

This article examines a number of aspects of the industrial relations practices of foreign investors in central and eastern Europe, focusing on trade union structures, employee interest representation, and consultation and social dialogue at the company level. Based on evidence from selected companies in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, the paper argues that the experiences of multinational companies with regard to employee interest representation and shop-floor trade unionism should be regarded as 'laboratories of learning processes' which are not only having an impact on the ongoing transformation of industrial relations and corporate cultures in the new Member States but also on the whole of Europe, most notably the future shape of institutionalised employee participation.