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This paper provides an up-to-date overview of the gradual development of differentiated integration and the ensuing changes in the nature of European integration. It considers the dynamics of deepening and widening of the EU and proposes the metaphor of a 'European Onion' that is designed to capture the bigger picture. Further, this paper expands upon the centripetal effects of differentiated integration and shows its potential to generate more cooperative public opinion in future enlargement rounds. Finally a state of play in European integration theory is offered that incorporates differentiated integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The open method of co-ordination (OMC) has received much attention in the recent EU literature. The predominant view claims that the OMC is not only a new but also an effective policy-making instrument. This paper raises doubts about both claims by offering a comparison of soft law policy co-ordination in three international organizations. More specifically, this paper compares the European Employment Strategy to the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines of the EU, the OECD Economic Surveys, and the IMF Article IV Consultations. Based on expert interviews, it seeks to demonstrate that these procedures are forms of multilateral surveillance that do not differ in kind. Such a comparative analysis of the OMC refutes claims to its novelty. Having compared the four procedures, a more general model of multilateral surveillance consisting of six elements is generated that facilitates further comparisons. This paper concludes that governments select voluntarist procedures mainly to secure their own competencies rather than to realize common goals. Effective problem-solving is therefore not necessarily the dominant objective of soft law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to evaluate and explain the degree of supranational entrepreneurship shown by the European Commission following the global financial crisis. Focusing on the period 2007–2011, it finds that the Commission used its right of initiative and/or mobilised ideas and information to pursue a supranational European Union (EU) economic policy in few cases. These findings are explained with reference to strategic entrepreneurship, that is the Commission’s reluctance to support integrationist initiatives unless they stand a chance of success, and by the fact that partisanship took precedence for the EU executive over the pursuit of integration in some cases. The Commission could yet capitalise on the crisis but its actions in this period call for greater attention by scholars to preference formation by supranational actors as well as a reconsideration of what it means for the EU executive to lead. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper discusses results of empirical research focused on the barriers to cooperation of Western Balkan countries and Turkey (WBC&T) in EU Framework Programmes (EU FP).1It reveals that WBC&T and member states of EU share a very similar pattern of barriers dominated by ‘Project managing weaknesses’ and ‘Bureaucratic barriers of the European Commission’. However, same barriers present much greater difficulties to researchers from WBC&T due to low intensity in international research cooperation, weak mobility and specific socio-political factors like political instability and scientific inferiority. The weak participation of WBC&T in FP is an obstacle not only to integration of WBC&T into the ERA but also slows down overall cohesion process that is nowadays dependent on human capital and innovation capacities supported by research. Therefore, the balance between social cohesion policy and scientific-merit research policy should be put in place. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Is the European Union (EU) influencing national bureaucracies' implementation of international law? This paper reports findings from interviews with ship inspectors and their superiors about European training aimed at harmonization. The maritime sector's highly institutionalized global regime may constitute an unlikely case for European influence over national bureaucrats for historical, institutional and economic reasons. This examination of ‘sea-level bureaucrats’ shows how European executive capacity is acquired at the national level even in this sector, adding to our insights on implementation and compliance in European governance. We find evidence that inspections seem Europeanized, and together with research on other sectors, this indicates the development of a new, international, multi-level administrative order with stronger traits of direct implementation. In it, the EU may have developed into an interpretative filter for national implementation of global maritime safety rules. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Europe's 'political space', its dimensionality and its impact on European policies have received increased academic attention lately. Yet, one very basic element of this political space, the party composition of EU member states' governments, has never been studied in a systematic way in the rich literature on European integration. In this paper we explain why the EU literature should pay more attention to the analysis of Europe's party-political 'centre of gravity'. We give a systematic overview of the party composition of member governments from 1957 to 2003. This includes analyses of how the support for integration, the left/right political conviction, and the ideological homogeneity or heterogeneity of the member states affected the Council over the course of time. We draw on expert surveys, the data of the Comparative Manifesto Project, and data about government composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of articles and books on new form(s) of governance in the EU is blossoming. The Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) has often been portrayed as one of the best example. This paper addresses three inter-related questions by presenting two different policy areas: the European Employment Strategy (EES), and poverty and social exclusion OMC (OMCincl). First, why have social topics (employment, pensions, poverty, health care) arrived at the EU level? Second, could we label the different versions of OMC as new forms of governance? And if so, is OMC a fertile ground for an informal form of governance? Our approach is to consider the EES and the OMC as classic bargaining processes with structural possibilities (the so-called openness) to develop a more deliberative dimension (which could increase the potential for informal exchanges). These two dimensions are not (necessarily) conflicting or exclusive but could be also complementary. Focusing on informal governance and the question of legitimacy, two processes will be analysed through a historical approach, which allows us to distinguish the big moment when the Member States will want to (re-)control the agenda and set the objectives from the intermediate period when all actors and institutions (re-)interpret the rules and try to modify/complement them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]