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UACES 35th Annual Conference and 10th Research Conference
The European Union: Past and Future Enlargements

Research Session 2

UACES reserves the right at all times to make changes to the programme where necessary.

Session 1  |  Session 2  |  Session 3  |  Session 4  |  Session 5  |  Session 6  |  Full Programme

Monday, 5 September (14:15-15:45)

The panels listed in the table below are followed by the abstracts for each of the papers.

Alves, Rui (University of Porto, Portugal, rhalves@fep.up.pt)
European Constitution: Going for Federalism?
In this paper, we evaluate the most important changes in the political, institutional and economic organization of the European Union included in the new Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. The analysis takes account of the present challenges and deficits that the European Union (EU) is facing, namely those resulting from the recent enlargement, also as the characteristics of the main federal systems existing in the world nowadays.
As a main result of this analysis, we argue that the most positive aspects of the European Constitution seem to be those that take the EU closer to a real federal model, but, as the same time, its major lacunas correspond to the features where it fails the way towards a federation. In particular, progress on transparency, efficiency on decision-making and accountability of responsibilities seem not to be entirely achieved with the proposed model, as well as in what concerns the coordination of economic policies and the reinforcement of the EU financial resources.
In this context, we discuss the design of an adequate institutional framework for the political organisation of the EU, presenting an alternative proposal based on the characteristics of a truly federal system. Following an eventual change of the EU towards a real federation, we also discuss the consequences in what concerns the design and implementation of European economic policies, showing how they would fulfil the “rules” of “fiscal federalism”.

Bell, Mark (University of Leicester, mb110@le.ac.uk)
Civic Citizenship and Migrant Integration
There is a well-established debate around the position of third country nationals and citizenship of the Union. This has often focused on the possibility for specific groups of third country nationals, most notably long-term legal residents, to be granted access to Union citizenship. Whilst certain NGOs have advanced such proposals, the Member States have demonstrated little willingness to pursue this route, a preference confirmed in the recent EU Constitution. Even though there appears little political appetite to expand the membership criteria of Union citizenship, the need to improve the integration of migrant communities has been acknowledged by the Council as an essential element of the immigration policy framework. In this context, the Commission has floated the idea of developing ‘a form of civic citizenship’ as an alternative pathway for the integration of third country nationals (COM (2000) 755, p. 14). This paper will explore the potential contents and boundaries of ‘civic citizenship’ and how it could interact with the pre-existing Union citizenship. Moreover, as a dimension to policy on migrant integration, it demands scrutiny of the underlying model of integration that the Union seeks to promote and how this informs the role of citizenship.

Bernaciak, Magdalena (Central European University, Hungary, p04bem01@student.ceu.hu)
Labour Transnationalism in the Enlarged EU ? Cross-border Cooperation between Polish and German Trade Unions
This paper will explore under what conditions cross-border cooperation between nationally based trade unions from new and old EU member states develops. The two case studies concern the transnationally organized and operating sectors, the metal and construction industries, a choice based on the criteria of different level of import competition and factor specificity. I conclude that, in the case of transnational sectors characterized by high levels of capital and human intensity, cross-border links between labour organizations are likely to occur. In contrast, within sectors abundant in low skilled labour only, trade unions will not cooperate transnationally. At the same time, however, I argue that high competitive pressure within the enlarged EU and individual trade unions’ interests set clear limits for the development of East-West cooperation.

Beveridge, Fiona (University of Liverpool, f.c.beveridge@liv.ac.uk)
Gender Mainstreaming and the Lisbon Process
This paper examines the record of the EU in acting out its commitment to gender mainstreaming, in particular through an examination of outputs in the period 1995-2005. A central focus of the paper is the impact of the Lisbon process on the Commission’s mainstreaming strategy. This process, by adding impetus to policy-making areas governed by the Open Method of Co-ordination, by increasing the political impetus behind certain parts of the mainstreaming agenda, and by articulating meta-goals of apparently overriding importance for the EU appears to have produced a step-change in (some) mainstreaming activities. This paper considers the implications of the Lisbon process for the gender equality agenda and the lessons, if any, that can be drawn.

Bicanic, Ivo (University of Zagreb, ivo.bicanic@zg.htnet.hr)
Joint paper with Vojmir Franicevic
EU Accession and Croatia’s Two Economic Goals: Modern Economic Growth and Modern Regulated Capitalism
Croatia’s long term economic development faces two challenges, both of which have a long term track record of failure going back to 1905- the first is generating Modern Economic Growth and with is accelerated real convergence with the most developed economies. The second is building the institutional framework and capacity of Modern Regulated Capitalism. In the paper these two goals are treated in relation to the main short and medium term barriers they face and the implications of EU membership. The barriers are discussed as deficits in initial conditions and EU membership as part of the wider implications of Europeanization. The paper shows that even though these goals are possible they are by no means automatic and success is not guaranteed. The final section of the paper indicates that policies matter and that possibly the best policy is not that of quickest membership to the EU.

Bicchi, Federica (London School of Economics & Political Science, f.c.bicchi@lse.ac.uk)
'Our Size Fits All': Normative Power Europe and the Mediterranean
The article focuses on the normative connotation of European foreign policy and makes three points. First, through the criteria of inclusiveness and reflexivity, it draws a distinction between ‘normative power Europe’ and Europe as a ‘civilising power’. Second, the article puts forward a sociological institutionalist interpretation of the EU as a ‘civilising power’. It suggests that much of the EU’s action can be characterised as an unreflexive attempt to promote its own model because institutions tend to export institutional isomorphism as a default option. Third, the article shows the utility of a sociological institutionalist analysis by examining the case of the EU’s promotion of regionalism in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership.

Bohle, Dorothee (Central European University, Hungary, bohled@ceu.hu)
Joint paper with Bela Greskovits
Transnational Capital, Labor, and the Prospects ot the European Social Model in the East
During the past decade of European economic integration vastly worse standards have emerged in work conditions, industrial relations, and social welfare in Eastern Europe than in the West. Area scholars explain this divide by labour weakness caused by the ideological legacy of communism. In contrast, this paper aims to bring transnational capital back in the debate, and to explore its role in preventing/fostering social progress in the new EU member states. The main driving force of the eastward expansion of transnational capital of European origin has been the relocation of labor-intensive activities where business relies on masses of workers, whose importance as consumers is marginal, and who are weak in the workplace and the marketplace. With this general conceptualization of how the emerging new European division of labour constrains the social aspects of East European market societies as a background, the paper studies the cases of Hungarian electronics and Slovak car industries in order to better understand how particular features of various leading sectors mediate the general pattern.

Cuckovic, Nevenka (Institute for International Relations, Zagreb, nena@irmo.hr)
Joint paper with Will Bartlett
Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness: Europeanisation of SME Policy in Croatia
As part of its drive to develop an EU-wide policy towards small and medium enterprises (SMEs) the European Commission has recently promoted the adoption of the European Charter for Small Enterprises which sets out indicators of best practice for policy makers to follow. Croatia endorsed the Charter at the Thessaloniki summit in 2003, and has given a leading role to SME support in Croatia’s industrial policy. Yet, as in the EU, this ambition to promote an entrepreneurial and competitive economy in Croatia is beset by multiple obstacles and policy inconsistencies. In the paper we summarise the current position of the SME sector in Croatia, present some selected indicators of the level of entrepreneurial activity, and evaluate different components of SME policy performance. We analyse the critical directions for future policy development in the context of Croatia’s progress in the European integration process. We draw on the findings of recent comparative empirical studies carried out by the OECD and the European Commission in which the authors have been involved, and other recent research studies. In conclusion, we identify some main obstacles to effective policy implementation, and question what role the process of Europeanisation of policy can play in improving the process of policy implementation in this field.

Dearden, Stephen (Manchester Metropolitan University, s.dearden@mmu.ac.uk)
Is EU Development Policy a Candidate for the Open Method of Coordination?
This paper reviews the current state of the EU’s development policy reform agenda. It suggests that the extension of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) to this area of EU activity would offer significant advantages. It reviews the EU’s experience with the OMC, identifies the strengths and weaknesses of this process and examines how it might relate to the current formulation and implementation of development policy.

Diez, Thomas (University of Birmingham, t.diez@bham.ac.uk)
The Paradoxical Role of Norms in EU Foreign Policy
The EU has been described as a ‘normative power’. Indeed, norms play a crucial part in the EU’s relations with third parties, and the EU has the power to shape norms in domestic societies in particular in its ‘near abroad’. Yet at the same time these norms are inconsistently applied and interests do override norms in many circumstances. Furthermore, the norms articulated in the EU’s foreign policy are not simply given as ‘European norms’ but are particular constructions in the very moment of their articulation. This paper explores further the paradoxical role of norms in EU foreign policy. I argue that while the inconsistencies can be minimised, the basic ambiguity of the reference to and the construction of a norm in the moment of the norm’s articulation is unsolvable. The appropriate strategy of critique is therefore to maintain an equally ambivalent stance, i.e. to problematise the naturalisation of the norm while at the same time arguing for the upholding of particular norms.

Hadfield, Amelia (University of Kent, aeah@kent.ac.uk)
European Identity and the Euro: The Currency of Collective Identity
How does national identity construction contribute to concepts of monetary integration? The single currency project at the heart of EMU is clearly an instrumental attempt at promoting monetary integration, but is it also a project contributing to identity creation? This paper first investigates the way in which currency contributes to national identity, the broader socio-cultural implications associated with European monetary integration and finally explores the possibility of a European identity arising within the boundaries of euro usage. Using an approach that combines constructivist theory and its subset of strategic culture with integrationist theories, the paper focuses on the socio-cultural components inherent in European monetary integration. If the euro does indeed represent an effort to construct a European identity, we need to determine whether we are dealing with a symbolic or functional identity. Additionally, the paper explores the possibility that the euro is in fact utterly separate from the concept of identity construction and represents merely an extension of the institutional foundations of the EU. Bringing together the theories of identity construction and European integration theory, this paper knits together the politics of identity and the currency of polity formation to explore the coincidences between European monetary integration and identity construction.

Heintel, Martin (University of Vienna, martin.heintel@univie.ac.at)
Networking in Border Regions
European regions are territorial units of different size and character. There is a wide variety, ranging from urban and small rural regions up to large European cross-border regions. The changes of the European political landscape in the wake of 1989/1990 initiated a redefinition process of the border between Eastern and Western Europe. The enlargement of the European Union in 2004 created a new framework for policy options, regional-management and institutions of networking in cross-border regions.
To serve as an example for cross-border-networking the EU’REGIO’NET is a framework of Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary to bring together the institutions of regional development in the border regions. It is the objective of the EU’REGIO’NET, to offer all institutions and political decision-makers in the region the opportunity to exchange their experiences and elaborate solutions together. It is the aim of EU’REGIO’NET to establish a cross-border network and a “learning region” between the various institutions of the Central European Region dealing with the task of new border-communication.
Special focus is on: potentialities and variations of cooperation between cross-border-regions, institutions of cross-border-regional-development, recent problems of cross-border-networking and regional-management, “visions” of future cross-border-cooperation, etc.

Hernandez Lopez, Lidia (Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain lhernandez@dede.ulpgc.es)
Joint paper with Rosario Ramos
A Theoretical Approach to Regional Integrative Capacity in the European Dynamics
In the European Union, there are many regions that have an insufficient innovation capacity and difficulties in maintaining economic growth despite having adequate infrastructures and human capital (Third Cohesion Report, 2004). Moreover, a significant part of EU territory suffers geographical disadvantages that make it difficult to integrate into the European dynamics. The “geo-morphological zones” - mountainous areas, coastal and maritime areas, and island regions – are highly heterogeneous in their administrative levels and socioeconomic indicators, but with the common criteria of having geographical or natural disadvantages that act as a handicap in the European regional integration process.
That Structural Funds are not sufficient in delivering integration in the European dynamics unfolds important questions: How should the European geo-morphological zones be assimilated in the European regional integration? Article 299.2 of the Treaty on the European Union establishes that it has to be done without undermining the integrity and coherence of Community legal order, the internal market and common policies. What resources and capabilities do the territories comprising the European Union need to acquire, learn and exploit in the dynamics processes driving European integration?
Following a theoretical approach to the analysis of this aspect of European integration, as highlighted by Rosamond (2000), the research focuses on the importance of including regional integrative capacity as a relevant factor of integration in the model proposed by Laursen (2002). The paper does a literature revision on the main theories and perspectives on European integration in an attempt to identify from them the independent variables that enable regions to develop an effective role in the European dynamics processes.

Holden, Patrick (University of Cambridge, holdenp2002@yahoo.co.uk)
Conflicting Principles of the EU’s Efforts to Organise its Aid Policy for Foreign Policy Purposes: A Case Study of Mediterranean Aid
This paper links concepts from the study of aid organisations and the policy process with a particular conception of aid as foreign policy. EU aid may be usefully understood as an instrument of a form of structural foreign policy (Keukelaire, 2002). In the case of MEDA the ‘political’ objective is to reform the institutions of neighbouring Mediterranean states. If successful this would bolster European security and its structural power. To do this requires a degree of strategic/ organisational coherence and indeed recent reforms of aid policy have attempted to provide this. However this objective also requires the ability to intervene in the complex political-economic systems of third countries. This in turn requires effective knowledge management/ organisational intelligence on the donor’s part, another guiding principle of the recent aid reforms. These two principles, organisational coherence and organisational intelligence, need not automatically conflict, but in practise they may. An analysis of the MEDA system reveals that increased coherence (political leadership) of the aid policy has not helped cultivate organisational intelligence in the deeper sense of the term. What chance is there that the EU’s proposed new aid instruments can avoid this pitfall?

Hughes, James (London School of Economics & Political Science, j.hughes@lse.ac.uk)
Disenfranchised Minorities in the EU: EU Conditionality and National Policies towards the Russophones in Estonia and Latvia
Minorities with citizenship are a significant policy issue in many EU states, but how much more problematic is policy towards a minority group that is significant in number, territorially concentrated and yet generally does not have citizenship. The Russophones of Latvia and Estonia are one of the EU’s largest non-citizen minorities. The lack of citizenship has an immensely detrimental impact on their political, economic and social rights. This article assesses the extent to which external pressures has secured improvements in the citizenship and/or rights position of the Russophones. The paper examines the interaction of three types of external pressure on the domestic policies of Estonia and Latvia regarding the treatment of the Russophone minority: EU enlargement conditionality, the OSCE, and Russia. The article challenges the view that external pressures were a strong constraint on national policies. Policies towards minorities in Estonia and Latvia are compared to illustrate the weak compliance with EU conditionality and international norms, and the marginal impact of Russia in this policy area.

Kasic, Biljana (Centre for Women’s Studies, Zagreb, zenstud@zamir.net)
Europe as a Place for Women Citizens: Paradoxes of Belonging and Positioning from a Croatian Perspective
In this paper the author will address some of the most pressing and complex issues facing the status of women as European citizens in its very meaning of democratic stands.
The very idea of the paper is to explore how the politics of identity and identification within respective context/s produce and at the same time challenge the paradoxes of belonging both to European and Croatian citizenship that affect women in different ways and within different discursive procedures (normative, ideological, social, national/istic, feminist). Also, by giving a critical insight into the distinctive momentum of women’s positioning when women’s issues ought to be the instruments of a gendered regulational order, the paper will also deal with different gaps, approaches, (mis)use and conflictual positioning.
A special emphasis will be given to three issues: the issue of citizenship that embraces women’s, national and European; the issue of gender mainstreaming in its implication at institutional body-levels (Europe-Croatian) and the issue of community, power and togetherness within the European map of inclusion/exclusion that probes the key concepts in contemporary feminist thought.

Major, Claudia (University of Birmingham, cxm316@bham.ac.uk)
France, Germany and the United Kingdom: Why Commit to European Security and Defence Policy? Understanding the Ongoing Europeanisation of Security and Defence Policy
This paper deals with a paradoxical contradiction evident in the spectacular development of a European security and defence policy: namely, the emergence of distinctive structures of European governance for ESDP, alongside a concomitant insistence on the prevalence and primacy of national sovereignty in this area.  Conceptualising the creation and development of ESDP as Europeanisation in its ‘uploading’ dimension, it is considered as the emergence of new structures of governance at the European level that are shaped by a conscious projection of national preferences.  The paper sets out to analyse the reasons behind the British, French and German commitment to ESDP as well as how, and to what extent, the three countries have influenced, via successful ‘uploading’, the emergence and further development of ESDP.  It is hypothesised that the Europeanisation of this policy field occurred not only on account of the international considerations of these three large states but also because of a range of security and (complex) domestic political factors. Three case studies central to ESDP development will support this analysis: (1) the leadership (institutional) dimension, (2) the functional-material dimension (Rapid Reaction Force) and (3) the conceptual-doctrinal dimension (European Security Strategy).

Marchi, Ludovica (University of Reading, lmbr4@compuserve.com)
Italy’s Initial European Vocation Put at Risk?
This paper examines whether the Euro-sceptical tendencies that Italy nurtured in 1980 and that, more recently, have manifested under Berlusconi’s government are exposing critical weakenings in its pro-European vocation, or whether it is not yet the moment for alarming conclusions. It first queries how Italy expressed its Europhile attitude particularly in reference to the European Political Cooperation (EPC) policy area. It then looks at the way in which the conflict between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA, under Euro-sceptical influences) and Parliament was going to upset the country’s final domestic agreement on a Middle Eastern stance to be taken in EPC at the end of Italy’s 1980 Presidency of the European Community (EC). Finally, in the light of Fini’s new role of foreign minister (November 2004) in Berlusconi’s government, it considers whether a change in Italy’s foreign policy putting Europeanism out of its course seems a likely move. It takes its strength from hitherto unexplored sources in the MFA (the 1980 EPC archive) in addition to parliamentary debates, Italian press, parties’ archives, and secondary material. From a bottom-up perspective, it relies on Foreign Policy Analysis modified to examine the behaviour of individual actors, bureaucratic politics and ideas of personality factors influencing policy-making.

Millns, Susan (University of Kent, s.millns@kent.ac.uk)
Mainstreaming Gender Equality in the EU’s Constitutional Future
Both the EU Constitutional Convention and resulting Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe present an ideal occasion to assess the implications of constitutional change for the furtherance of gender equality in Europe and the important contribution that women can and should be making to the debate on the Union’s political, institutional and legal evolution.
This paper will offer a gendered reading of the present ‘constitutional moment’ through an exploration of the effects of the Convention process in terms of gender balanced participation and representation of women and their interests, followed by a gender impact assessment of the Constitutional Treaty’s treatment of core issues such as democracy, solidarity, citizenship, equality, fundamental rights and gender mainstreaming.
These issues are explored through a process of gender auditing three main features of the constitutional text: 1) the values and objectives which it enshrines in Part I (particularly those regarding the promotion of equality between women and men); 2) its capacity to further the protection of women’s fundamental rights through the inclusion in Part II of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, together with the potential adhesion of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights; and 3) the Constitutional Treaty’s ability to maintain and further develop the acquis communautaire in the area of gender equality and mainstreaming as suggested in Part III.
Overall, an assessment of the ‘added value’ of constitutionalising gender equality measures will be undertaken and suggestions made for improving the substance and practice of EU constitutional commitments to gender mainstreaming within the context of what are a proliferating number of gender equality guarantees.

Olsen, Gorm Rye (Danish Institute for International Studies, gro@diis.dk)
Joint paper with Jess Pilegaard
The Politics of Inconsistency: Denmark in the UN Security Council and the CFSP
Since the end of the cold war, Denmark has pursued a remarkable activist foreign policy. The military component has been a conspicuous mark of this policy. In the same period, Denmark has sought to coordinate numerous policy initiatives with its partners in the European Union. At the Edinburgh Council in 1992, Denmark was granted the possibility not to abstain from participating in the development of the ESDP. It was granted on the background of a referendum where a majority of Danes voted no to the Maastricht treaty. The Danish non-participation in the ESDP creates a still stronger element of inconsistency in Denmark’s policy towards the EU in line with the continuous strengthening of the CFSP. In particular, the situation is highlighted with Denmark seat in the UNSC in 2005 and 2006 with puts particular emphasis to conflict prevention. The paper addresses the issue of political credibility and policy inconsistency of an (old) EU member state where the political elite favours still more integration whereas a significant part of the electorate is sceptical towards integration in selected policy fields such as the ESDP. Thus, the paper touches upon the issue of a Union in paces and also the issue of lacking policy coherence.

Samardzija, Visnja (Institute for International Relations, Zagreb, visnja.samardzija@irmo.hr)
Towards Negotiations: Economic Aspects of the Pre-Accession Process in Croatia
After attaining candidate status for EU membership, Croatia is facing the challenge of the next phase of its relations with the EU. Its goal is to catch up with the remaining candidate countries (Romania and Bulgaria) in the process of the EU further enlargement. The key issue is to prepare the country successfully for negotiations and membership and to examine in advance the economic impact of future membership so as to minimise negative consequences. The paper aims to analyse the economic aspects of the pre-accession process and the prospects and challenges of Croatia’s fast track integration. The paper focuses on preparations for negotiations and negotiating structures in Croatia, and attention will be given to some potentially difficult areas of negotiations, compared with the recently accessed new member states. The paper will be based on a comparative institutional analysis, as well as on author’s practical experiences gained in the accession process as a former Assistant Minister of European Integration.

Sasse, Gwendolyn (London School of Economics & Political Science, g.sasse@lse.ac.uk)
Migration and Minorities in Europe: Interlocking Policy Paradigms
Migration and minority issues are now at the forefront of the political debate in Europe, although the conceptual and empirical links between the two issue areas have remained underexplored. Migrants and minorities affect domestic and international policy-making, and they have developed a distinctly European or EU-dimension. The parallel processes of EU enlargement and constitution-making have underscored the relevance of these issue areas. The distinction between ‘old’ and ‘new’ minorities, permeating the current debate about minority rights, highlights the issue linkage as well as the potential pitfalls inherent in implicit or explicit hierarchies translating into an entitlement to political, social and economic rights. While migration centres primarily on access to territory and basic rights, minority rights and integration are essentially about membership of and participation in a polity. This paper explores the conceptual and empirical linkages between migration and minorities based on a critical overview of the literature and research in the respective fields of study. It will present a taxonomy of themes and categories for the analysis of the nexus and establish the extent to which the migration-minority linkage helps us understand the dynamics, the scope and limits of EU policy-making. The paper draws on political science approaches and concepts as well as on comparative, qualitative research and fieldwork in Eastern Europe.

Schelkle, Waltraud (London School of Economics & Political Science, w.schelkle@lse.ac.uk)
How can we Understand the Framework of Economic Governance in the EU?
Economic governance of the monetary union amounts to a profound regime change that cannot be understood as a replication of a federal policy regime at the member state level. It exhibits a peculiar institutionalisation of the four components that any macroeconomic policy regime of a mature political economy combines: monetary, fiscal and social policies, and the wage bargain. The framework is based on conflicting assumptions about government’s role: With respect to macroeconomic policymaking, governments should follow “rules rather than discretion” that tie their hands. However, it also called for considerable government activism as regards structural reforms to underpin fiscal discipline. This suggests an interpretation of EU economic governance that highlights domestic reform agendas as driving forces. Thus, governments were unwilling to transfer fiscal competencies and that prevented any attempts to emulate member states’ macroeconomic policy regime at the supranational level. They allowed only soft intervovernmental coordination of structural reforms that can be opportunistically invoked. Two pieces of evidence will be provided to support this interpretation: (i) the plethora of coordination processes that has emerged since the monetary union’s inception; and (ii) the disappointing implementation of the Lisbon Agenda.

Selanec, Goran (University of Zagreb, gselanec@umich.edu)
Lost in Translation: Incorporating EU Gender Acquis into Croatian Legal System
Although Croatia did not finish its accession negotiations (did not even start at the moment of writing this abstract), it already experienced an effect of the EU gender acquis on its legal system. Moreover, this effect was of an apparent “constitutional quality”.
The main focus will be the 2003 Sex Equality Law. I will identify the legal instruments that the Law incorporated into the Croatian legal system from the EU sex/gender equality acquis (such as the direct and indirect discrimination, positive action and gender mainstreaming obligation).
More importantly, I will critically asses the doctrinal “(non)fit” between these instruments and Croatian legal system with its dominant legal doctrine. I will argue that new equality instruments have a potential for a significant positive impact. However, their open-ended nature, rather low social importance accorded to the ideal and almost a formalistic approach of the Croatian judiciary to legal interpretation, makes it unlikely that potential of these instruments will be realized.

Smith, Karen (London School of Economics & Political Science, k.e.smith@lse.ac.uk)
The EU’s Effective Multilateralism: How Effective? How Multilateral?
Almost two years ago, the European Security Strategy proclaimed ‘effective multilateralism’ as one of the EU’s core strategic objectives, though ‘multilateralism’ has long been considered to be a guiding norm of EU foreign policy cooperation and practice. Multilateralism is both an internal norm and one to be exported. This paper concentrates on the external dimension, analysing how the EU defines ‘effective multilateralism’ and how it has sought to export the norm in two case studies: EU-UN relations and the European Neighbourhood Policy. The first case highlights some of the difficulties the EU faces in seeking to act within the UN, a much larger multilateral organisation. The second case shows that the ‘unilateral temptation’ is still quite strong, as multilateralism is not well-embedded in the ENP. The papers concludes by analysing why multilateralism is so difficult to express in EU foreign policy.

Tsakatika, Myrto (Athens University of Economics & Business, Greece, mtsaka@hotmail.com)
Europeanization or Mere ‘Repackaging’’? The Impact of the European Employment Strategy on Slovenian Policy and Policy-making
The European Employment Strategy (EES), operative since 1997, can be defined as (a) the European Union’s broad and eclectic, but substantive and delimitative ideational framework for employment policy in the Member States and (b) a model of inclusive policy-making, meant to involve social partners and promote concertation. The process whereby the EES was adopted by the CEECs and Mediterranean group of 10 in the pre-accession period is best understood in the context of the discussion on horizontal, ‘soft’ policy Europeanization, whereby it is ideas and ‘puzzling’ rather than conditionality and ‘powering’ that represent the dominant modality of policy transfer. The question addressed in the paper is how effective this process of transfer was in reality. Taking aspects of Slovenian employment policy as a case study, it is argued that it is doubtful whether substantive policy changes were brought about because of the EES. Rather, it seems to be domestic factors that were more important in inducing key changes, which for the most part had been put in place before the EES could have had any impact. Similarly, consensual policy-making and social partnership in the socio-economic field were consolidated in Slovenia in 1994, before the EES came to play, due to domestic patterns of political co-operation and industrial relations.

von Toggenburg, Gabriel (European Academy, Italy, gabriel.vontoggenburg@eurac.edu)
The Diversity Momentum in the European Condominium: Allocating the Legal Issues of Entry, Integration, Identity Preservation and Participation Between the Union and its Member States
Migration and minority protection are distinct, but interrelated issue areas. Migration is a dynamic phenomenon characterised by transnational features revolving around the integration of groups moving from one state to another. This dimension explains the more outspoken engagement of the EU in this area. Minority protection in its traditional form is more static in nature and concentrates on the preservation of traditional groups within a state. This constellation explains the dominance of the Member States in this field. Over the last decade ‘the respect for and protection of minorities’ has become part of the regular EU-speak, but the EU still lacks a proper competence in this area. Europe-wide phenomena, such as the rights of the Roma or the presence of tens of millions of third-country nationals inside the EU, demonstrate that related policy choices reach beyond the control of individual Member States and have Europe-wide ramifications. In the context of European and EU politics the boundary between migration and minority protection is beginning to blur. This article will analyse how meaningful the distinction between ‘old’ and ‘new’ minorities is within the EU’s new framework. 

Warleigh, Alex (University of Limerick, Ireland, alex.warleigh@ul.ie)
Thawing Out European Citizenship? The Transnational Petition from a Normative Perspective
This paper asks, from a normative perspective, what the new right of transnational petition included in the Constitutional Treaty could do to ‘thaw out’ EU citizenship. The latter has been effectively ‘frozen’ since Maastricht: although the Charter of Fundamental Rights has since been agreed, and measures to increase consultation of civil society groups have been put forward, there has been no significant innovation which promises to increase the actual participation of EU citizens in EU policy-making. The new provisions on petition could change this by giving citizens the right and opportunity to shape the EU’s legislative agenda by forming transnational alliances with other ‘active citizens’. Thus, should the Treaty be ratified, it will help transform EU citizenship from a rather static and rights-consumption/market-driven focus to a more genuinely useful political tool. In the process, it may help shift the EU’s under-specified normative framework away from ersatz liberal democracy and towards a more mixed model of participation (demos-construction) as well as representation (demos-assumption).

Zrinščak, Siniša (University of Zagreb, sinisa.zrinscak@zg.htnet.hr)
Joint paper with Paul Stubbs
Structures and Cultures of Welfare in Transition: Europeanisation and Croatian Social Policy
This paper suggests that social policy reforms in countries in transition have a different dynamic to those in developed countries, being related in complex ways to economic (market-based) and political (pluralist democratic) reforms. This is illustrated through an examination of the case of Croatia, where in the context of war and authoritarian nationalism the processes of transition were both specific and delayed. This paper seeks to provide a starting point for a more elaborate treatment of the structural and cultural features of social policy reforms, discussing the formal and informal processes, the complex meaning of historical legacies and memories, and the sets of new policy assemblages related to the role of diverse supra-national actors. The paper concludes by discussing the Europeanisation of Croatia’s social policy and the likely continuance of an inconsistent and contradictory transition, marked both by the high expectations of the state and by a belief in the modernizing nature of privatization and the creation of markets.

Last modified: Friday, 14 July 2006
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