Suchergebnisse

'Im Dezember 1991 begann eine neue Epoche in den Beziehungen zwischen Europa und dem postkommunistischen Rußland. In vielen Erklärungen von Politikern und in unterzeichneten Dokumenten ist davon die Rede, daß diese Beziehungen in eine Partnerschaft einmünden sollen. Zwar sind schon bemerkenswerte Erfolge erreicht worden, daneben hat sich aber auch gezeigt, daß der Weg zur Partnerschaft schwieriger und länger ist, als es zunächst den Anschein hatte. Heute ist noch nicht klar, ob es gelingen wird, dieses Ziel zu erreichen oder ob die sich bietende historische Chance versäumt wird. Dieser Bericht beschreibt die Chancen und Probleme im Zusammenhang mit dem am 24. Juni 1994 unterzeichneten Abkommen über Partnerschaft und Zusammenarbeit (APZ) zwischen der Europäischen Union und Rußland und untersucht verschiedene Szenarien, nach denen sich die Beziehungen zwischen Rußland und der EU in Zukunft entwickeln könnten.' (Autorenreferat)

AbstractThe central aim of this article is to explore whether or not the EU is an effective security actor. To assess the strengths and weaknesses of the EU, three security functions (conflict prevention, peace‐enforcement/peace‐keeping and peace‐building) and three core components of governance (co‐ordination, management and regulation) are applied. Security governance is seen as a helpful framework for studying the interactions between a diverse number of actors and for conceptualizing EU security policy‐making in a meaningful way.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate whether a statistically significant relationship exists between environmental quality, as measured by consumption-related air pollution, and public debt in Europe. In addition, since the debt burden is one of the most important indicators of fiscal soundness within the European Union (EU) Treaty and the subsequent fiscal compact, the authors propose a simple test to determine whether participation in EU Treaties has shaped the empirical relationship between fiscal policy/public debt and environmental performance.Design/methodology/approachTo this end, the authors built a panel data set that covers 24 European countries over the period 1996–2015.FindingsThe aspect that the authors want to underline is a possible trade off, which is confirmed in the empirical analysis, between the public finance equilibrium and the maintenance of a public good such as air quality. However, there are important non-linearities that shape the interaction between public debt and environmental pollution. Similarly, threshold effects arise when the authors examine the interaction between EU regulation and public debt and when the authors separately examine high debt and low debt countries. When the authors account for the stabilization rules introduced by EU Treaties, a negative effect on pollution is evident; in this way, fiscal consolidation limits the positive effect of fiscal policy.Practical implicationsThe results point out the existence of a potential trade-off between the role of EU as a regulator aiming to mitigate environmental pollution, and its role within the Stability and Growth Pact. The analysis highlights that fiscal consolidation policies, while facilitating the achievement of macroeconomic stability within EU, might have a negative side effect on the environment quality, which spreads beyond the borders of one single country.Originality/valueWhile a number of studies have suggested that fiscal spending might contribute to the level of pollution in European countries, there is scant evidence of the effect of public debt on environmental performance. This lack of scientific knowledge is a serious shortcoming, since it may allow for an underrepresentation of the wide-ranging consequences of stabilization programmes targeting the debt-to-GDP ratio, which could affect environmental quality.

The global economic order has shifted dramatically over the past decade, moving from a business-centred liberal logic of trade and commerce to a politicised logic of conflict and power maximisation. This geoeconomic turn, the theme of a Special Issue forthcoming with JCMS, has also materialised in the European Union (EU) and the Single European Market (SEM), and has far-reaching implications for the world of business where policymakers replace companies as the main manager of economic interconnectedness.
The post Business Power and Geoeconomics in the European Union appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

This paper deals with the Air Traffic Management (ATM) situation in the South East Europe (SEE) countries. The current status indicates that the SEE air space users require increased capacity, higher flexibility and improved cost efficiency. On the other hand, some of these countries were in a war situation a few years ago, and now they are seeking a regional cooperation to ensure regional stability and prosperity towards their integration to the European Union. The paper starts with a description of the cooperation schemes, already in operation in the area. Then the attempt to converge the ATM of the region towards the EU Single European Sky is investigated. The FABA (Functional Airspace Block Approach), a European Union (EU) initiative, applied in the SEE is presented in detail. In the continuation, the paper reports on the definition phase of the SEE FABA initiative, which is to provide a well founded basis for the reorganisation of the SEE air space into FAB's. It is concluded that the FAB solution stemming from the EU Single European Sky policy is feasible, highly beneficial and necessary for the SEE region development.

Explores the European Union's legal personality, highlighting the uncertainty characterizing it given the ambiguity of treaty texts & contradictions arising from a lack of consensus on formal recognition of that personality. After showing that the treaties establishing the EU did not explicitly cite a legal personality, discussed is the implicit conferment of a legal personality to the EU in international public law via the precedent set by International Court of Justice regarding the United Nations. Limits set by international public law on the legal personality of international organizations are examined before looking at the EU's practice in international relations, which is manifest in treaty-making power & the active & passive right of legation. Given the implicit nature of the EU's legal personality, formal recognition of it is advocated. D. Edelman

This paper assesses the trade criteria for EU membership and the extent to which Croatia fulfills those criteria. The relationship between trade criteria and the economic ability to pursue EU accession is discussed and a gravity model of Croatian trade is constructed in order to measure the level of trade diversification achieved in an objective manner. Significant trade biases towards the former Yugoslav republics are found as well as an emerging bias in imports from Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC). Moreover, the process of trade liberalization
that was promoted recently did in general not significantly contribute to trade diversification towards countries with which preferential trade agreements had recently been concluded, rather reinforced existing biases, although there are some differences between export and import flows.
In order to mitigate the consequences of delays in the integration processes, reduce long-term costs of trade restructuring and encourage the trade integration with the EU necessary for successful accession, Croatia should seek to eliminate the remaining institutional barriers to trade with the EU. Also, the continuation and faster implementation of structural reforms are necessary preconditions for an increase of openness in trade.

IFPRI3; CRP2; PBS ; EPTD; PIM ; PR ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

This dissertation explores delegation and democracy within the European Union (EU). The EU now constitutes one of the cornerstones of the democratic systems of its member states. The most vital instrument of democracy is lawmaking, which increasingly occurs at the European level. Many different actors contribute to the shaping of EU legislation. Among the most important of these are national bureaucrats representing their member states in Council negotiations. This thesis focuses on these bureaucrats. In particular it analyzes the delegation and accountability relationship between member states' governments and their national bureaucrats stationed at the permanent representations (PRs) in Brussels. It is based on semi-structured elite interviews with 80 French and Swedish senior civil servants in Brussels, Paris and Stockholm. Using an explorative and descriptive comparative case study of two EU member states, France and Sweden, the dissertation seeks to describe and analyse how delegation between member states' capitals and Brussels are affected by: i) the coordination and preparation of EU issues in member states' government offices, ii) the organisation and functioning of the permanent representations, and, most importantly, iii) existing accountability mechanisms. Applying a principal-agent approach, this study shows that the delegation between governments and their Brussels-based bureaucrats is adequate, despite relatively weak delegation and accountability designs. The study identifies institutional divergence between France and Sweden as regards the design of national systems of EU delegation, particularly monitoring and reporting requirements, where Sweden seems to have a more developed system. Both countries have similar contract design and screening and selection systems for employing national agents stationed at the PRs. The impact of domestic coordination of EU affairs is important in order to understand processes of both preference formation precedent to delegation and of preference transfer through instructions. In this case it is obvious that French coordination is more efficient. The functions of the permanent representation also influence delegation between national and European levels. For example, administrative procedures in the PRs in Brussels have had effects on the drafting of instructions, something that is particularly notable in the Swedish case. The study identifies several central problems as regards delegation between bureaucrats in Brussels and governments in member states' capitals. The first problem has to do with the ongoing blurring of political and bureaucratic dimensions. This inhibits the ability of principals (in our case member state governments) to hold their agents (Brussels-based bureaucrats) accountable. The second problem identified by this study as regards the working of democracy is the distinction between formal and informal processes. One conclusion is that informal processes should be formalised or made more transparent. Opacity in lawmaking processes has detrimental effects on long-term legitimacy of democratic systems. Holding de facto lawmaking bureaucrats, caught in a cross-pressure between national demands and European ambitions, accountable is essential for democracy. The dissertation includes practical suggestions as to how to improve delegation, and argues that additional research on both the roles and power of bureaucrats as well as issues of cross-pressure is necessary.