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

Research Session 6

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

Wednesday, 7 September (09:00-10:30)

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

Alanko, Jennifer (AEA Technology Environment, jenniferalanko@yahoo.com)
Energy: At the Heart of the EU’s Northern Dimension?
The author considers the extent to which energy (and particularly energy security) is at the heart of the EU’s Northern Dimension. The term “Northern Dimension” has its roots in the initiative that was developed by Finland and recognised by the EU in 1997. Energy has been a crucial component of the initiative, which has supported co-operation between the EU and Northern European neighbours (including Russia), since its inception. The argument is presented that, since the May 2004 EU enlargement, Russia has become increasingly relevant for the EU and an important element of the EU’s Northern Dimension, with energy being a vital component of EU-Russian relations. The author draws on relevant theoretical approaches (particularly historical institutionalism) to argue that the development of the initiative, of the relationship between the EU and its Northern European neighbours and of the wider international system has followed a path that has put and maintained energy at the heart of the EU’s Northern Dimension. This paper builds upon the author’s previous scholarly research (including her PhD thesis and work published by the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, as Jennifer Novack) and relies on sources including official documents, speeches, interviews, newspaper articles and scholarly articles and books.

Bailey, David (London School of Economics & Political Science, d.j.bailey@lse.ac.uk)
Understanding (the Failure of) European Governance through the Lens of Critical State Theory
This paper seeks to improve upon the adequacy of existing theoretical accounts of the increasingly omnipresent concept of “governance”, as employed in relation to the EU polity, by drawing on theoretical frameworks developed to conceptualise the nation-state. Contrasting liberal democratic, social democratic and critical state theory, the paper seeks to understand the ascendancy of the concept of “governance” within the EU polity. The paper argues that, due to their predominantly liberal and/or social democratic theoretical basis, existing attempts to conceptualise “governance” have been overly-optimistic in their analyses. Tracing the historical ascendancy of “governance” within the EU polity, the paper argues that this process can be most adequately understood through the lens of critical state theory, according to which “governance” can be understood as part of an ongoing and unsuccessful attempt to overcome the obstacles facing representative democracy within developed market economies. In particular, the history of the concept of “governance” illustrates clearly the association between that concept’s rise and empirical manifestations of the insurmountable obstacles facing representative democracy, including the inability to secure democratic legitimacy, economic growth and/or social cohesion.

Dierx, Adriaan (European Commission, adriaan.dierx@cec.eu.int)
Joint paper with Fabienne Ilzkovitz
Economic growth in Europe: Pursuing the Lisbon strategy
The aim of this paper is to assess whether the Lisbon strategy is an effective tool to revive economic growth in the European Union. This paper starts by examining the rationale for the Lisbon strategy, which is to increase population welfare by raising the growth potential of the European economy in a sustainable way. The second section explains why a comprehensive strategy of structural reforms can contribute to stimulating growth but why possible tensions may exist between the economic, social and environmental objectives of this strategy. The next question is how to better implement such a strategy of structural reforms. These reforms touch on sensitive areas of national competence, such as taxation, social benefits, public service provision. This implies that a soft form of co-ordination is used in the area of structural reforms. In a fourth section, the paper analyses in more detail the progress made towards the main Lisbon targets and concludes that it has been impossible to make simultaneously progress in raising productivity and employment. The fifth section discusses whether the difference in standard of living between the EU and the US is simply a reflection of different social preferences. Finally, the last part of the paper discusses the appropriateness of the Lisbon strategy, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses.

García García, Borja (Loughborough University, b.garcia-garcia@lboro.ac.uk)
Bottom-up Integration? Agenda-setting and the Origins of European Sports Policy
Despite the lack of Treaty legal base, the European Union has become involved in an incremental process of sport regulation which has now reached a level marked by the introduction of an article on sport in the Constitution for Europe. This paper aims at presenting the origins and development of the EU’s involvement in sport through the examination of the landmark decisions that have shaped its approach towards sport. The initiation and development of sports policy is considered as an example of task expansion, in which the EU has extended the scope of its activities as a consequence of outside actors instrumentalising institutional venues to their own benefit.
Following qualitative research based on interviews and policy documents, I draw on concepts from problem centred agenda-setting to argue that the initial insertion of sport in the EU’s systemic agenda can be explained by the commercialisation of sport in the 1980s and 1990s. However, actor centred agenda-setting models are more suitable to explore the consideration of sport in the institutional agenda. At first, sport was treated just as an economic issue and was heavily influenced by the perceived consequences of the Bosman case ruling. The response to Bosman from actors both outside and within the system (mainly sports federations and Member States) changed this definitional bias, constructing a European Sports Policy that takes into account the socio-cultural and educational particularities of sport.

Gore, Tony (Sheffield Hallam University, t.gore@shu.ac.uk)
Learning Lessons or Repeating Mistakes? Horizontal Priorities in Structural Fund Programmes in 'Old' and 'New' Europe
In recent times policy co-ordination and integration have become important watchwords for the EU project. Such moves may be interpreted at several levels, at once political and social. Thus, they may reflect a neo-liberal concern to retain control over complex or ‘wicked’ issues by inserting additional layers into an institutional structure that remains fundamentally unchanged. Another view is that existing ‘epistemic communities’ use them to re-establish distinct domains of professional practice, in the face of growing knowledge and associated challenges on the part of service users. Alternatively, they may be seen as representing a concerted attempt by EU institutions to bridge the ‘implementation gap’ that exists with respect to many of its policies. One manifestation of this is the requirement for major expenditure programmes like the Structural Funds to incorporate the key principles and objectives of other policy domains as ‘horizontal priorities’ Typically these domains include environmental sustainability, the information society and gender equality. This paper explores these issues by examining and assessing of two related Structural Fund experiences. The first concerns the incorporation and early implementation of the horizontal priorities in the current (2000-2006) round of Objective 1 and 2 programmes in the UK and Ireland. The second relates to the ways in which they have been inserted into the more recent Community Support Frameworks being developed as part of the roll-out of EU regional policy in the ten new member states, with particular reference to the Czech Republic. The review concludes that there remains a great deal of resistance to extensive policy integration, and that the prospects for overcoming this by means of programme commitments and administrative arrangements alone are severely limited. Rather, attention should be paid to key matters like resource availability, political mobilisation and support for theme ‘champions’.

Hansen, Morten (Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, morten@sseriga.edu.lv)
The Irish Economic Convergence: Lessons for the New Member States
Ireland’s economic development since the late 1980s has been remarkable: From languishing at the bottom of the EU to one of the top spots in income per capita.
It is thus not strange that the Irish “miracle” has attracted much attention among the New Member States in Eastern Europe. Some similarities with Ireland of the 1970s and 1980s are glaring: Small, open, poor economies on the periphery of Europe.
This paper reviews the driving factors behind the Celtic Tiger and asks to what extent a similar development may be possible for the New Member States. The present paper examines the case of Latvia.
A classification of the reasons behind Ireland’s growth paints a somewhat pessimistic picture for Latvia: Many features have long been implemented (e.g. macroeconomic stabilization) but several are unique to Ireland (e.g. language and substantial FDI from the US). Worse still, necessary reforms successfully introduced in Ireland are either difficult to implement in Latvia or the consensus is that they have, largely, been implemented (e.g. education and research).
The idea of Latvia as an “Ireland copycat” is thus very deceptive which should send a strong policy signal.

Horak, Hana (University of Zagreb, hhorak@efzg.hr)
Joint paper with Josip Stajfer
Consumer Contracts on Internet
In accordance with Stabilisation and Association Agreement between Croatia and the EU, new Croatian Code of Obligations is harmonised with EU directives on contract law, among others with Directive 2000/31/EC on electronic commerce.
Contract made through the Internet is in the first place a contract like any other contract in daily life. It can be compared to contracts made over the phone or by mail order, so general contract law as well as the more specific rules on distance selling will be applicable.
When making contracts, mutual assent of contractual parties is needed, and their will is expressed in offer of the contract and its acceptance. This is a complex mechanism that results with many problems that might arise, especially when contracting on Internet.
After the new Croatian Code of Obligations is brought, some questions arise; if the legislator should have regulated the issues of new means of electronic commerce in new Code of obligations, such as issues of offer and acceptance on Internet, regardless of existence of Law on electronic commerce. Our opinion is that those issues should have been regulated in new Code of obligations due to emerging importance of electronic world and electronic commerce in everyday life.

Ivanov, Kalin (University of Oxford, kalin.ivanov@politics.ox.ac.uk)
EU Conditionality and Nuclear Reactor Safety in Central & Eastern Europe
Drawing on the conditionality literature, this paper examines the effectiveness and legitimacy of EU efforts to compel Central and East European countries to decommission nuclear power reactors.   Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Slovakia breached or evaded shutdown pledges made in exchange for foreign aid in the early 1990s. EU policy was inconsistent because of the divergent perceptions of pro- and anti-nuclear lobbies within the EU, and the entrenched interests of old elites in Central and Eastern Europe.  These interests were reinforced by reluctance to abandon prior investments in safety upgrades.  Mutual stereotypes and poor communication among recipients and donors exacerbated the situation.
Conditionality proved more effective later in the decade, when the European Union required candidates to close down reactors as a condition for accession.  The reward of EU membership proved a stronger incentive than the previously offered financial assistance.  However, EU pressure on candidate country governments sidestepped domestic democratic procedures, raising legitimacy concerns.  Governments in Sofia, Vilnius, and Bratislava bowed to EU demands in spite of popular opposition.  EU requirements for early closure of nuclear reactors in the candidate countries can be viewed in the context of the EU’s general legitimacy problems.

James, Mark (Manchester Metropolitan University, m.james@mmu.ac.uk)
Liability for Professional Athletes’ Injuries: A Case Study of Tort Laws in the Member States
This paper examines the use of personal injury litigation to secure compensation from the employers of professional sports participants who injure an opposing player.  In common-law jurisdictions employer-clubs can be expected to be proactive in controlling the behaviour of their employee-players, and the paper compares the common law approach with that of two major civil law jurisdictions, France and Italy, to highlight the similarities that exist under the two systems.
The paper pays particular attention to developments within the sport of rugby, where the key cases are the French court’s ruling in X v. Club Rugby de Aureilhan, and Canterbury Rugby Club v. Rogers (which is the seminal case in common law jurisdictions). In an era of increased player movement throughout the European Union, as guaranteed by the interpretation of Article 39 in Bosman and Deliege, and given the status of rugby (both codes) as a professional sport in several member states, the paper considers the advantages and drawbacks that synergy in the member states’ approaches to liability for injuries sustained in this particular sport may bring.

Kochenov, Dimitry (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands, d.kochenov@rechten.rug.nl)
Promotion of the Acquis vs. Promotion of Democracy: Some Lessons from the Fifth Enlargement
Based on the analysis of the whole body of documents released by the Commission and the Council in relation to the Copenhagen Criteria, I argue that during the pre-accession the Union was assessing the level of democracy in the candidate countries largely based on the elements of the Union acquis, which is, by itself a great example of a lack of democracy and is clearly insufficient an instrument as far as the check of democracy and human rights is concerned. Since it seems that the Copenhagen criteria are here to stay it is vital at this stage to see how the existing lack of objective analysis of the development of democracy in the candidate countries can be remedied in the EU. In this respect, the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (Art. 57) has clearly missed a unique opportunity of enlargement regulation reform.
The check of democracy, human rights and the rule of law and not the check of their elements to be found in the acquis communautaire should become a priority in the pre-accession both on paper and as applied. My contribution will offer some explanations as to why the split between the assessment of democracy and compliance with the acquis occurred and will propose a reform of enlargement law to avoid the dangerous mistakes made in the course of the preparation of the last enlargement.

Lang, Maroje (Croatian National Bank, mlang@hnb.hr)
Exchange Rate and Monetary Policy in Accession to the European Monetary Union: The Case of Croatia
The future of Croatian exchange rate and monetary policy is within the European Economic and Monetary Union. However, although one can identify three distinct phases of the monetary policy setting in the accession to the EMU, individual countries are allowed to set their own pace. The first phase takes place before the accession to the EU. During that phase there is some scope for independent monetary policy. A more challenging regime takes place once the country joins the EU and before it accedes to the EMU. Upon joining the EU, a decision needs to be made when to enter the ERM II, which is a prerequisite for the accession to the EMU. This final phase is considered to be potentially unstable, since it allows for both flexible exchange rate and free capital flows. During the entire EMU accession, Croatian monetary policy will face a challenge of dealing with capital flows and keep (real and) nominal exchange rate within certain limits.
This paper builds on the existing optimal currency area literature, as well as on the experiences of the new EU Member States, in discussing monetary policy choices Croatia is facing in the accession to the EU and the EMU.

Langer, Josef (Universitaet Klagenfurt, Austria, josef.langer@uni-klu.ac.at)
Alternative Futures for the European Union: Reflections from the Perspective of ‘Path Dependency’
This contribution will provide a short analysis of the concept of “path dependency” and its relevance for understanding the European Union (EU). It is assumed that apart from the official (documented) objectives which are supposed to put Europe on a specific track of peace, prosperity, multi-laterlism, human rights, democracy etc. in reality a very ambiguous process is unfolding. In contrast to the universalistic declarations and intentions the real process depends very much on the diverse “path dependencies” of member states. The question is whether or not member states patterns can balance in a single “path dependency” of the EU as such. This constellation which is becoming more complex with each enlargement makes any prediction about the future of the EU increasingly uncertain.  Under this circumstances any prediction by self-proclaimed goals or programmes is threatened to become waste paper. Nevertheless, one can try to identify a number of future scenario for the EU. In this contribution the likelihood of  network-state, federation, empire and protectorate as possible futures for the EU will be discussed. The concept of “path dependency” will provide the integrating thread for this discussion.

Mlikotin-Tomić, Desa (University of Zagreb, dmlikoti@inet.hr)
Candidate Countries and European Contract Law
Laying down legal framework of consumer protection in Croatia lasted longer than harmonization of other commercial rules with EC law. The first drafts and ideas on that appeared already in 1990-ies. Meantime the main legislation on market economy has been adopted, such as: Companies Act (1993), the Law on Protection of Market Competition (1995), Croatian Securities Act (1995), Commercial Act (1996) and many others, but Croatian Consumer Protection Act was laid down in 2003.
By regulating the issues of consumer protection with EC law not only new rules on consumer’s position had been introduced, but also new terms and principles of product liability that did not exist in previous European civil codifications.
Introducing new and stricter forms of liability does not derogate existing rules on contractual and non-contractual liability nor special cases of liability. Consumer can choose on which legal basis he would claim for damages.

Pahre, Robert (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA, pahre@uiuc.edu)
Joint paper with Burcu Ucaray
The Myths of Turkish Influence in the European Union
Among the many objections to Turkish membership in the European Union lie claims about how Turkey will be a powerful actor in the EU of the future, with a population as large, or larger than Germany. Many also claim that this power will have negative effects on the EU. We examine such claims in a series of spatial models of EU policy-making. We find that Turkey’s preferences lie sufficiently outside the EU mainstream that it will have little influence in day-to-day policy-making under the assent, codecision, consultation, and cooperation procedures. Its influence may be more evident in areas such as the CFSP or JHA, where unanimity remains the normal procedure. Still, Turkey’s veto power here is no different than that of other, much smaller countries. Furthermore, veto power can only block changes and cannot be used to pull the EU into undesirable new directions. Even this veto power can be avoided if the EU-25 establish the policies that they desire prior to Turkish membership, forcing Turkey to accept a fait accompli. Despite these limitations to its power, Turkey may have some influence in purely intergovernmental settings such as negotiations over new treaties that might occur some decades hence.

Parrish, Richard (Edge Hill College, parrishr@edgehill.ac.uk)
Home Grown Players – Home Grown Trouble: Nationality Restrictions in Sport
This paper examines the recurring problem of nationality restrictions in European sport. These restrictions have been successfully challenged in Walrave (1974), Dona (1976) and most spectacularly in Bosman (1995). The principles of these judgments have been transposed into third country international agreements containing non-discrimination provisions and have been successfully relied on by non-EU nationals in Kolpak (2003) and Simutenkov (2005 – opinion of AG). Furthermore, debate continues into the legality of nationality restrictions in amateur sport and in the composition of national teams. In response to these developments, some sports governing bodies have sought to re-introduce nationality restrictions. If such rules are incapable of finding legal protection in the Treaty, can they find political protection? Analytically, this question raises issues concerning the balance of power within the EU’s sports policy subsystem (theoretically constructed by employing actor-centred institutionalism). In this connection, the paper also investigates the likely impact of the new sports competence outlined in Article 182 of the Constitutional Treaty.
This work has been informed by research conducted for the author’s book ‘Sports Law and Policy in the European Union, MUP (2003) and by information gathered throughout 2004 as a consequence of participation in the European Commission project ‘Promoting Social Dialogue in the European Professional Sector’ (budget heading B3-4000).

Puetter, Uwe (Central European University, Hungary, puetteru@ceu.hu)
Governing the Euro Area in an Enlarged EU: Preserving the Deliberative Process
The enlargement of the European Union has significant repercussions on the institutions and processes of European economic governance - most notably in the area of economic policy coordination. The current institutional set-up is exposed to two challenges simultaneously. Most notably, the enlargement implies a drastic increase of membership in the key decision-making institutions, thus altering patterns of interaction and coordination procedures. This paper highlights how these challenges have been addressed by the Convention, the most recent Intergovernmental Conference and through Council decisions. The main argument brought forward is that the strong intergovernmental bias of the Economic and Monetary Union’s institutional set-up and its reliance on non-binding coordination arrangements require the preservation and further development of working methods, which trigger processes of policy deliberation and consensus formation among independent decision-makers. In the light of these considerations the paper assesses the most recent decisions on the constitutional framework of European economic governance.

Schroth, Daniel-Alexander (University of Cambridge, das53@cam.ac.uk)
Measuring EU Impact on South-Eastern Europe’s Energy Sector Institutions or the Energy Community in SEE: Enhancing Institutional Quality Through Sectoral Co-operation
This paper will provide evidence of the predominance of EU influence on the institutional restructuring of south-eastern Europe’s energy sector, thereby seeking to cross-fertilise the research on New Institutional Economics in the context of transition economies with the Europeanization agenda. It proposes an analytical framework to assess EU impact on institutional quality through a decomposition of the energy sector into a set of empirically testable institutions alongside three dimensions: energy law, energy policy and energy administration. For each of the defined institutions, a number of performance indicators have been elaborated and linkages between each set of indicators and the most closely connected EU influence parameters established. These influence parameters comprise of several key elements covering energy acquis, EU assistance, the provisions of the Europe Agreements, the accession negotiation mechanisms and regional integration.
The empirical evidence gathered in this paper, based on extensive interviewing of decision-makers within the European institutions, national ministries, regulators and International Financial Institutions, suggests that (notably as regards the Western Balkans) regional integration via the EU initiated and sponsored Energy Community enhances institutional quality within all three dimensions: fostering the creation of regulatory institutions, promoting effective tariff reform, industry restructuring and energy efficiency. It will be shown that the Energy Community approach helps to meet three intertwined objectives: firstly, the realisation of potential gains from increased energy trade and improved security of supply; secondly, the strengthening of institutional structures in the energy sector and the approximation of the Western Balkans to the EU based on the EU acquis; and, finally, the attempt to use this ‘coal and steel’ approach to create spill-over effects that promote regional co-operation beyond the energy sector.

Shields, Stuart (University of Manchester, stuart.shields@manchester.ac.uk)
Caught Between the Regional and the Global: Europeanisation, Global Restructuring and the Polish Political Economy
This paper is concerned with the impact of EU enlargement on Poland. Mainstream approaches to enlargement and transition have conceptualised the emerging forms of governance as “Europeanisation”, comparing it to similar developments in earlier enlargements. The neo-Gramscian approach adopted here stresses the unequal form of transnational governance, and points to the asymmetric power relations between the EU and candidate countries, to the role of conditionality, and of external agents in formulating and expanding their concepts of control.  The paper asks the crucial question of how these transnational social forces are “nationalised” in the Polish context exploring whether or not the neoliberal basis of Poland’s transition is something that will be ameliorated by EU membership or will the EU need to respond with increased liberalisation and rejection of the European social model once the applicant states join. It contrasts two particular time periods in Poland’s transition, first, the initial early 1990s period of transition, and second, the later post-1995 impact of prospective EU membership. Both demonstrate how Poland’s integration into the EU reflects broader changes in the European constellation as both Europeanisation and transition articulate the broader framework of the restructuring of global capitalism.

Sigalas, Emmanuel (University of Reading, e.sigalas@rdg.ac.uk)
Transactionalism Re-Visited: Does Student Mobility Foster a Transnational Identity?
The presence or absence of a European identity has been at the forefront of academic interest in particular after the outcomes of the Maastricht referenda and the increasing concerns about EU’s democratic deficit. This paper re-visits the transactionalist theory of Karl W. Deutsch, and its relevance on European integration today. Karl Deutsch favoured a functionalist definition of the nation centred on the concepts of transaction and communication. In 1987 the European Commission launched the Erasmus exchange programme one of its most well-known and popular education programmes. According to Deutsch the increased interaction between (young) people of different nationalities bears the seeds of a transnational identity. My work borrows concepts and ideas from social and cross-cultural psychology necessary to complement Deutsch’s previously untested macro-sociological theoretical framework. A brief presentation of the history and the prospects of the Socrates-Erasmus programme will cast some light on the Commission’s ambivalent stance towards the concept of the European identity. The paper closes with the presentation of some preliminary results of the first ever longitudinal survey on the Erasmus students’ collective identities and their disposition towards the EU.

Soljan, Vedran (University of Zagreb, vedran.soljan@efzg.hr)
Joint paper with Jasminka Pecotic
Incorporation and Validity of not Individually Negotiated Terms in Croatian Contract Law
Today, every person engaged in the business is aware of the benefit and importance of the use of general conditions and standard forms. They certainly contribute to the rationalisation of transactions of contracting parties by diminishing the costs of negotiation of the terms of each contract individually and make it easier for the party having general conditions to forecast the cost of doing business. In general, standard forms and general terms raise two different questions: first, as the general conditions are outside the context of the contract, it is necessary to incorporate them into a contract; and second, the validity. Today the legal systems became more sensitive to the problem of inequality of the negotiating power of the parties,  particularly with respect to the inclusion in contract unfair terms not individually negotiated, which implies, both for the general conditions and standard forms the judicial (and administrative) control of such clauses. The rigidity of criteria applying to the question of incorporation and validity depends on the type of the transaction in question (international/non border-crossing; commercial/non-commercial). The inquiry of the problem focuses on the treatment of the clauses not individually negotiated between parties in the reformed Croatian contract law and legal practice in the light of the solutions set out in the Principles of European Contract Law, UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts and Council Directive 93/13 on unfair terms in consumer contracts.

Velluti, Samantha (University of Liverpool, s.velluti@liverpool.ac.uk)
OMC, Gender Equality and Eastern Enlargement
This paper considers the social dimension of Eastern enlargement and looks at how effective the implementation of soft mechanisms such as, for example, the Open method of Co-ordination (OMC) can be in the context of economies that are still in the process of moving from a ‘central planning system’ to a mainly ‘neo-liberal driven system.’
In particular, the paper examines the implementation of gender equality legislation and gender mainstreaming policies in the context of the modernisation of work organisation after Eastern enlargement from two perspectives, that is, within the EU and from the point of view of CEECs, respectively.
By way of employing an open and explorative analysis, the paper takes into consideration the political, economic and legal dimension of gender equality and embraces a wider notion of ‘institution’ as defined by new institutionalism.
The main contention of the paper is that soft law instruments, as opposed to traditional forms of harmonisation, could represent a leverage for the introduction of reforms in the area of gender equality and mainstreaming in (Central Eastern European) CEE countries while respecting their characteristics and, at the same time, allow the EU to promote the adoption of policies aimed at fostering gender equality in the re-articulation of labour market organization.

Verney, Susannah (University of Athens, Greece, deplan@otenet.gr)
Justifying the Second Enlargement: Promoting Interests, Supporting Democracy or a Return to the Roots?
The 1970s are usually perceived as the heyday of European Community intergovernmentalism. The predominantly economic view of the EC was indicated by the prevalent usage of the term ‘Common Market’. Yet the decision to admit Greece suggests a different interpretation. The accession of economically backward Greece was opposed by strong interests (French farmers, German labour unions). It also threatened, via the Greek-Turkish dispute, to import a conflict into the EC. The Commission’s “Opinion” proposed an extended pre-accession period. But the Greek candidacy was accepted and accession negotiations began. How was the consensus around such a weak candidate reached?
The paper examines the decision to admit Greece as the outcome of a process of deliberation. It analyses the intra-Community debate on Greek accession to ascertain whether the predominant arguments concerned the promotion of economic or security interests, support for the new Greek democracy, or a process of identity creation referencing Greece’s cultural role in the history of European civilisation (Giscard d’Estaing’s “return to the roots”). It concludes that the decision to admit Greece constitutes a defining moment, changing perceptions concerning the appropriate basis for Enlargement and opening the way for the Iberian, East European and future South-east European Enlargements.

Walter, Jochen (University of Bielefeld, Germany, jochen.walter@uni-bielefeld.de)
Strategies of Inclusion and Exclusion: The Debate on Turkish Accession to the EU
The role of language in constructing social reality is nowadays widely appreciated throughout the social sciences as a result of the so-called linguistic turn. Discourse analytical approaches in IR following this constructionist line have convincingly demonstrated that politico-cultural entities such as “Europe” can be treated as communicatively constructed. For this construction, however, an opponent Other is required. Through history, Turkey has served as one of the most important “Others” for European identity formation. While numerous studies have dealt with the question of how Europe is constructed by distinguishing itself from Turkey, only scant attention has been paid to the complex semantic dynamics on a micro-level which underpin this process.
The present paper argues that the ongoing debate on Turkish accession to the EU comprises several strategies of semantic inclusion and exclusion. The concepts of inclusion and exclusion help to understand how contingent frontiers are drawn and re-drawn and how the included is affected by the excluded. It will be argued that Turkey is neither completely included into nor excluded from Europe: Turkey is sometimes excluded with respect to cultural or religious characteristics, while at the same time included with respect to geopolitical or economic interests and vice versa.

Yildirim, Engin (Sakarya University, Turkey, yildirim@sakarya.edu.tr)
Joint paper with Suayyip Calis
Europeanization or Eu-Ishization? The Case of Social Dialogue in Turkey
While the Turkish state has made efforts to introduce and implement a series of political reforms towards further alignment with the standards of the EU, the pace of the reform has been rather slack in the field of social policy. Beyond legislative efforts there remains the question whether Turkey is able to follow European policies in this field. The Europeanization literature documents the difficulties of achieving Europeanization of industrial relations in member countries.
The paper investigates the above question by focusing on a particular area of social policy; namely social dialogue. Social dialogue depends on favourable institutional environment and economic and political developments of societies. From this point of view, Turkey does not seem to be a fertile ground for the development of social dialogue at all levels. The overemphasis on harmony in the Turkish polity constitutes a serious barrier to the development of pluralistic policy-making structures through participation of civil societal elements. The paper argues that EU-ishization rather than Europeanisation of social dialogue and its institutions takes place in the course of preparing for the accession.
Research methods include semi-structured interviews with key informants and analysis of official documents and secondary literature.

Last modified: Wednesday, 31 August 2005
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