Franco-German Cooperation and the Management of the Refugee Crisis
October 13, 2016 Author : Adina Șerban
This paper analyses the Franco-German relationship in the context of the refugee crisis and aims to asses if the two countries cooperate to reach a joint or common position regarding the proper ways for managing the refugee crisis and to determine the extent to which we can speak about a Franco-German common agenda for addressing the current refugee crisis. The methodology is based on qualitative methods, namely on content analysis, interpretative analysis and interpretative case study. Therefore, this research analyse a series of documents issued by various European institutions on the topic of the refugee crisis and especally the discourses of the German Chancellor and the French President regarding the current refugee crisis, during the period between April 23, 2015 and April 7, 2016. This analysis is undertaken in the light of three analysis dimensions: the discursive dimension, the bilateral interactions dimension and the designing of a common agenda dimension. The results of the research demonstrated that the refugee crisis has created the context of an enhanced Franco-German cooperation on migration and also leaded to a growing convergence of visions and designing of a common Franco-German agenda to address the refugee crisis. This study has a great relevance because it represents the starting point for a more comprehensive research regarding the existence of a Franco-German engine in the context of the refugee crisis.
Coalition-building: the key of success in EU’s intergovernmental negotiations
June 1, 2015 Author: Adina Șerban
Abstract: Coalition formation represents a major feature of the negotiations and decision-making processes in the Council of the European Union and it became a theme of interest for researchers during the EU15 and EU25. This paper analyses the interngovernmental negotiations of the EU on the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020 and aims to present insights on the decision-making process in the EU Council during EU28. This paper focuses on the member states’ coalition-building during the intergovernmental negotiations of the EU and identifies the major coalitions encountered in the EU Council and the premises which lead to the establishment of alliances in the Council. The methodology is based on qualitative methods, namely on content analysis of the relevant EU official documents. Furthermore, to identify the current situation in the Council of the European Union, especially how the alliances are structured, the paper employs a case study –the negotiations of the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework – and it provides an analysis of the public deliberations on the adoption of the MFF 2014-2020.
The Transport Success Story: Europeanization in The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania
June 1, 2011 Author: Eleanor E. Zeff & Ellen B. Pirro
Abstract: This paper explores the nature of success in EU transport policy implementation in three of the newer Eastern member states, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania, to see how their governments and administrations are integrating with the European Union. It utilizes the concept of Europeanization (as used by the European Union) to examine how multi level governance works for this one sector of policy implementation. In particular, we focus on supra national, national and regional inputs and development to explain how these nations are integrating their transport sectors within their nations and with the European Union. Our case histories show three different stages of transport sector development: the great progress in the Czech Republic; the plans and programs created by Slovakia with the European Union which should bring notable success within the next five years; and the initial stages of Romania’s efforts in the transport area.
Key words: European Union, multi-level governance, Romania, Slovakia, transport policy
The role of national parliaments in the European decision-making process after the Treaty of Lisbon The EU early-warning system for subsidiarity control
June 1, 2011 Author: Corina Turşie & Ciprian Niţu
The Lisbon Treaty introduced an early-warning mechanism for subsidiarity control, which formally gave an institutional procedure to enforce the subsidiarity principle. This mechanism has been developed as a way to increase the national parliaments input in the European system of governance, but, beyond that formal competence, the system proves to be of little practical relevance because it presents some weaknesses and does not bring a relevant shift inside the traditional institutional triangle designed for making decisions for the EU. The method used to reach such a conclusion is the analysis of the early-warning system for subsidiarity along four key elements of an efficient mechanism of risk prevention.
Europeanization of Administrative Law with a view to Hungary
December 1, 2010 Author: Anita Boros
The Europeanization of administrative law is a prominent issue in public administration: the problem, however, is well beyond administrative law. The effect of Community law on member state administration beyond administrative law is also an issue of constitutional and state law, as well as of political science.The effect of the implementation of Community law, Community court rulings and the specific internal administration of Community organs, the organs serving the enforcement of Community law and established in the member states (e.g.: agencies) on member state administration is getting more and more evident. Our article attempts to introduce the general issues of the Europeanization of administrative law, the issues emerging in connection with the Lisbon Treaty, and the administrative sectors where the effect of Community law is the most obvious, so we are examining the most important Community and domestic interfaces with procurement law and the role of the Internal Market directive simplifying the administrative procedure.As a conclusion we can say that more and more areas of public administration are affected by the administrative provisions of EU. The effect of such provisions is partly direct, partly indirect, but still perceptible. Regarding the examined areas of public administration we can state that the role of national (member state) public administration is changing and this is influencing the freedom of the public administration authorities and thus the question of state sovereignty as well.
The European remembrance between unity and diversity – Creating a common EU identity through discourse
December 1, 2010 Author:Cristina Stanc
Much has been said on how important a common European identity
is for governance in the European Union. Most often put in the context of the so called
‘democratic deficit’, the European identity is thought to be an answer to legitimacy problems
of the EU, by creating a European public sphere. The following paper goes beyond this
discussion and investigates processes of identity building in the European Union. It begins
with the premise that remembrance is a way of creating a common identity and that the
EU starts creating a common remembrance through discourse. Applying the frame analysis
to policy documents, this paper aims at presenting the strategy by which the EU policy of
remembrance strikes the balance between creating a sense of commonness and respecting
diversity of memories.
The Romanian Political System under the Influence of the European Union
December 15, 2009 Author:Florin ABRAHAM
Abstract: The author emphasized to analyze the relations between Romania’s European integration and transformations of political system. The main concluding observation is that European integration produces a national consensus around this objective. The effects of the integration modernization mechanisms’ variable geometry over Romania can be easily acknowledged: modernization was achieved faster and more profoundly in areas where a bureaucratic monitoring mechanism existed, where a form of communitarian acquis was present, and much slower in the space of “national sovereignty”. The party system did not witness a qualitatively radical transformation as a result of the European Union influences. After Romania’s accession to the European Union, “Brussels” quickly lost its influencing capacity over the Romanian political space.
Keywords: European Union, modernization, political parties, political system, Romania
Decision-making in the European UnionThe role of the European Commission
June 1, 2009 Author: Iordan Gheorghe Bărbulescu
The EU decision-making process is the key which offers answers to issues related to the nature of the EU organization, participation of the supranational actors and the role of the state and/or professional organization and interests groups in adopting normative acts or other decisions of major importance for the European Union. The paperexplicitly presents the responsibilities exercised by the European Commission, Council of the European Union and thepermanent representatives of the EU member states within the decision-making process. Their responsibilities are analyzedusing a double perspective: Treaty provisions and participation in advancing proposals and the correlation with the memberstates and interest groups interests. The European Commission-Council dialogue is analyzed in the light of the role of the ECof elaborating normative act projects. The role of the European Commission which plays the role of the EU executive ishighlighted by examining the competences attributed through EU treaties.
Keywords: COREPER, Council, decision making, European Commission, European Union
Multi-level Governance- A theoretical Approach
June 1, 2009 Author: Petre Prisecaru
The main contribution to the concept of multilevel governance was brought by neoinstitutionalism. The advocates of multilevel governance which have similar views with the advocates of network governance concept identified two dimensions: a political one and a social one and also two major phenomena: a)the transfer of sovereignty or competences from national level to supranational level; b)the application of subsidiarity principle which involves the decentralization of decision making process. A lot of definitions, meanings and interpretations have been set for governance, but World Bank and European Commission definitions are maybe the most suitable ones for understanding and characterizing this concept.Multilevel governance represents a distinctive type of governance and can be characterized by three attributes: a) non-hierarchical institutional design b) non-majoritarian mode of decision making, c) dynamic dispersion of authority. Bob Jessophas identified three major phenomena specific to the evolution of national states which are members of EuropeanCommunity: a) the de-nationalization of territorial statehood; b) de-statalization of political system; c) internationalizationof policy regimes. Postwar Keynesian welfare national state which was more interventionist and used demand side policieswas replaced in the 80’s by Schumpeterian workfare post-national regime, which is more liberal and less interventionist, andfocuses on supply side policies. The three governance methods – Community method, Open Method of Coordination and Enhanced Cooperation – reflect how different policies are elaborated and implemented at EU level and at national level based on different institutional arrangements and multilevel governance and its fundamental principle: subsidiarity.
Key words: multi-level governance, jurisdictions, European Union, decentralization, suprantionalism
Citizenship, the Road towards the European Union
June 1, 2009 Author: Luigi Moccia
The concept of European citizenship grew in importance as a research topic in the academic and public debates, especially after the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty. The paper seeks to analyze the featuresof the European citizenship in close relation with core values like dignity, freedom, equality, solidarity andjustice. The European citizenship is also approached from the perspective of its functions within the Europeanintegration process : 1) to operate as a framework legitimising the united Europe; 2) to ensure that private individuals have full legal status; 3) to motivate and reinforce the formation of a European cultural identity; 4)to postulate and justify a capacity to participate in decision-making processes in a European framework on thepart of (groups of) individual citizens, i.e. civil society. From a more technical angle (and not just in terms ofvalue), the benefit of having Union citizenship as a basic reference framework legitimizing the jurisdiction ofCommunity institutions to intervene, through measures of standardization and harmonization above all in thefield of private law, is provided by its nature – as we explained earlier – as a “complement” to nationalcitizenship
Keywords: cultural identity, European citizenship, European Union, fundamental rights, national citizenship