Suchergebnisse

The results of the convention on the future of the European Union confirm and extend the regional dimension of European integration. In connection with this, one can also expect regional mobilizing effects for the new EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe. However, the ambitious demands of the German Lander, which have traditionally taken the lead in this field, were only partly met. Some observers now expect that the enlargement of the Union will strengthen regional tendencies in the EU and could even set off a new dynamic leading in the direction of a "Europe of the regions". However, the preferences expressed by the new members in the convention suggest that this round of enlargement will not increase the pressure on the EU in the field of regional policy. Adapted from the source document.

Transformation Towards a new Public Administration of the Network UtilitiesDuring the 1980s and 1990s privatisation and deregulation movements have been shaken up the European network industries-telecommunication, electricity and railways. These reforms did affect also those parts of the public administrations in charge of managing and controlling the industries. While usually the changes in the relationship 'administration-market' have been the centre of academic attention, this paper attempts to investigate whether the very functions of the public administration themselves have been affected, i.e. altered or even transformed. Goes the emergence of the regulatory state hand in hand with the arrival of a new public administration? Comparing the examples of regulatory reform in the United Kingdom and Germany this paper attempts to provide a first answer.

"Die Europäische Kommission ist während der letzten Dekade in die politische Defensive geraten. Die im Zuge der Santer-Nachfolge angekündigten administrativen Reformen scheinen im Sande zu verlaufen. Spielt die Europäische Kommission noch eine zentrale Rolle im Integrationsprozess? Der Artikel gibt einen kurzen Überblick über die wissenschaftliche Debatte zur Rolle der Kommission und ruft auf Basis einer Defizitanalyse der akademischen Erklärungsansätze dazu auf, supranationale Policy-Managementfragen stärker als bisher mit der Governance-Debatte zu verbinden, um auf dieser Grundlage zu einer Neubewertung der Kommission und ihrer künftigen Rolle zu kommen." (Autorenreferat)

This article analyses the 'partnership principle'—which is of particular importance for multilevel governance interpretations of European integration—as it evolved in EU regional policy-making. After sketching the crucial analytical lines of the current debate on 'partnership' on the example of the implementation of the EU structural policy in Germany, I examine how it functions. A closer look at two important sub-fields of 'partnership'—'societal participation' and 'policy evaluation'—reveals that theoretical expectations regarding its transforming potential, in terms of pitting supranational and subnational actors against central state authority and thereby cir-cumventing the latter, have not materialised. On the contrary, recently rising resentment and out and out conflict between the European Commission and regional authorities so far point to theoretically unexpected limitations of 'partnership', calling into question whether it is an appro-priate and sustainable inter-administrative co-ordination device—at least when viewed from the perspective of the multilevel governance thesis. In the light of the reported insights into the prac-tice of 'partnership', this 'new mode of EU governance' thus needs to be reassessed.