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Abstract This article argues for a fresh approach to debates on democratic backsliding and European Union (EU) influence in East Central Europe (ECE), drawing on the discursive institutionalism of Vivien Schmidt. Underlying assumptions about backsliding in CEE largely reflect a set of ideas derived from the rational institutionalist and historical institutionalist schools. Moreover, the same theoretical assumptions were previously deployed to explain the apparent success of democratization and EU leverage in CEE. A discursive institutionalism perspective, stressing the role of actors and their discourses in making and unmaking institutions, suggests that democracy in CEE was always less secure than assumed. It also highlights the key role of liberal mainstream parties in embodying democratic institutions. Case studies of the liberal centre‐right in Bulgaria and social democrats in the Czech Republic highlight the way background ideas of ethnically exclusive titular states have increasingly impinged on foreground ideas of liberal pluralism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines transnational environmental networks as an important and thus far under-studied mechanism that can influence the pathways toward compliance with European Union ( EU) legislation in new Member States. The argument stipulates that transnational networks, on balance, increase the capacity and political leverage of Central and Eastern European states and societal actors to activate management and enforcement paths to compliance with EU environmental norms. The theoretical framework specifies the network assets and the mechanisms through which they can support the two paths to compliance. In the empirical section, this framework is used to examine the impact of transnational environmental networks on the compliance with EU biodiversity directives in two of the most recent Member States: Bulgaria and Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does criticism of the European Union ( EU) by elites cultivate support for democratic values among ordinary citizens? All Eurosceptic messages are critical of European integration; they do not all vilify similar aspects of the European Union. This article proposes a framing model of the effects of Euroscepticism on citizens' domestic political attitudes. EU critiques that are framed in terms of 'democratic deficit' lead citizens to consider which political values are desirable in democratic society and may promote support for liberal democratic norms among citizens exposed to these messages. Eurosceptic rhetoric is built into framing experiments that vary the content of EU-critical messages. Subjects in the United Kingdom and Bulgaria are randomly exposed to a 'cultural threat' or 'democratic deficit' criticism of the EU. Both Eurosceptic frames reduce support for integration, but subjects exposed to the 'deficit frame' more strongly embrace liberal democratic values. Under certain conditions, Euroscepticism may carry benefits for representative democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes an analytical model of implementation that is used to examine the implementation of the European Union's cultural heritage policy in Bulgaria. It begins by outlining a rational choice framework conceptualizing implementation as a three-stage game with key roles for an enforcer, domestic policy-makers and implementing actors. This model is then applied to the case of transposition and implementation of the EU rules regarding cultural heritage in Bulgaria. Different implementation outcomes stemming from one and the same formal policy are found. To explain the variation of implementation outcomes, the theorized model is applied and it is found that, given the high levels of polarization between political decision-makers, the implementing actors have broad discretion to apply different informal policies. The analysis of implementation also shows that under these conditions implementing players have followed their normative orientations to apply different policies as if they live in parallel universes of implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author examines issues related to political corruption and crime in European Union (EU) member states that were once under the control of communist governments in Eastern Europe. The article focuses on official misdeeds and criminality in Bulgaria and Romania, two post-communist era countries that are also the European Union's newest members. Also discussed in the article is official corruption in a number of candidates for membership in the EU such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia.

The accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Union (EU) on 1 January 2007 concluded its fifth enlargement and brought its membership to 27. Beyond the fifth enlargement, however, relations with the wider Europe were characterized by reassessment, stagnation and setbacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]