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In the European historiography on social inequality one aspect is strikingly missing: the ecological aspect. Therefore, this paper introduces the concept of "environmental justice" to the discussion. The concept originally stems from a US-social movement that emerged in the 1980s. Today, "environmental justice" is at the same time a social claim, a political principle, as well as an academic concept. While the concept entered the discourse of several academic disciplines from sociology to public-health studies, it is still seldom used in European historiography. This paper argues that "environmental justice" can be employed as an analytic category especially in economic, social, and environmental history, while at the same time being able to connect these disciplines. With the example of the introduction of centralised water infrastructures in European cities, the article explores difficulties and potentials of an application of the "environmental justice"- concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arctic is becoming increasingly important in terms of energy, security and climate issues on a global scale. Following the coastal states of the Arctic Ocean, which have presented Arctic strategies in recent years, the European Union has started developing an Arctic policy. While more or less consistent guiding principles have been established via several papers and communications, these have been backed up with concrete instructions and practical action to a diverging and an overall rather low degree. As a non-coastal state, the European Union will have to rely on its membership in relevant international and regional organisations, instruments such as the Northern Dimension and cooperation with member and partner states, also in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roughly during the last decade, European Competition Policy has undergone a series of fundamental changes. All four areas - cartel policy, merger policy, abuse control, and state aid control - have been subject to a modernization process, which led to a focus on analysing the effects of individual cases and established a tendency towards deciding each case on its individual merits. These changes can be understood as a move away from rule-based competition policy towards a case-by-case approach. The case-by-case approach especially includes consensual arrangements, so-called 'deals' between the competition authority and business companies. Therefore, this paper will discuss the pros and cons of 'deals' as an instrument of (European) competition policy. The paper's central focus lies on the economic analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of using consensual arrangements as a relevant instrument of European competition policy. With respect to European competition policy, we conclude that we need to issue a note of caution. From an economic perspective, an expansion of consensual elements necessarily walks hand in hand with a continual weakening of the protection of competition. Consumer welfare will not benefit from expanding the role and importance of consensual arrangements as a means of European competition policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can we analyze the (dis) integration of supranational orders and societies? Studying loyalty offers a research perspective that has the potential to address the societal sustainability of emotion, disposition, and agency. However, a sufficient theory of loyalty remains to be developed. The article discusses the analytical potential of the concept of loyalty in relation to other concepts like trust, fidelity, identity and solidarity. It provides a short introduction to historical research that has mainly focused on loyalty as a question of patriotism, citizenship, nationalism, and religion within nation states and empires. Drawing on questions of loyalty with in the European Union, the paper concludes by discussing the institutional aspects of loyalty in order to offer a better explanation of the conditions of societal and supranational coherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Politik is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sozialer Fortschritt is the property of Duncker & Humblot GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Sozialreform is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen (ZIB) is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Sozialreform is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Politik is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

It is analysed whether the EU's Eastern Enlargement has been an obstacle to further European integration. Does the Enlargement provoke protectionist policies in core member countries, such as Germany? The paper deals with the institutional settings pertaining to labour supply and trade in services within the Union. It is shown that Germany is one of the two EU 15 countries still denying free access of new member countries to its labour market. In addition, Germany has been pushing for protection regarding trade in services. Statistics indicate that German protection and EU free trade have made the UK a winner in the game of labour migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the assumption that the political integration in Europe needs some underpinning of social integration among EU citizens, this paper inks "How much trust is there between EU nationalities?" The question is answered by using mass survey data. The indicator used is "transnational trust", which is compared to the level of trust people have in their own countrymen. -- The evidence shows that Europeans tend to trust their countrymen more than other EU nations, but the distinction they draw between fellow citizens and foreigners is less sharp in some places than others. Southern Europeans have lower levels of transnational trust, and, in turn, are regarded by Europeans as less trustworthy than those from the countries of the North and West. Albeit transnational trust has somewhat increased in the past two decades in most countries, there are only three countries where it has increased more than national trust. This finding is contrary to the expectation of ongoing 'Europeanization'. With respect to Eastern enlargement, the surveys show a rather low level of trust on the part of current EU members in the people of the acceding countries, which may indicate growing difficulties for European social integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eastern enlargement will be costly to incumbent EU countries, as the new members will all be net recipients of EU funds. A balanced view requires that the gains from integration be set against this cost. Drawing on established theories of economic integration, this paper first identifies typical fallacies present in policy-oriented thinking about gains from trade liberalization and the role of preferential trading blocs like the EU. Using detailed data on east-west trade for each of the present member states, as well as the relevant trade barriers of the EU and applicant countries, it then presents empirical estimates on the likely orders of magnitude for integration gains. Comparing these to country-specific estimates of the fiscal burden from enlargement, it identifies likely winner and loser countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home Affairs is one of the most controversial policy fields both within nation states and the European Union. Moreover, the NSA affair has led to an increasing awareness of internal security based on information and communication technology (ICT). On the one hand, it sensitizes for questions of European security with regards to foreign surveillance. On the other hand, it underlines the salient conflict between interests of ensuring internal security with means of information technology as well as interests of individual freedom and privacy. Questions arising from these issues are how and in which way European parties considered them in their party manifestos for the elections to the European Parliament in 2014 and to what extent the NSA affair might have changed the parties' stances. Based on these concerns, the differences of party manifestos in Germany and the United Kingdom are analysed in this paper. Referring to examples of U.S. and European surveillance activities, it is revealed in how far the public debate is integrated in the European party manifestos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Miscellaneous announcements related to the social sciences are presented, including the successful collection of 1.4 million signatures in support of a citizen petition on the privatization of water services addressed to the European Commission, regarding a conference on redistribution and distributive justice in Berlin, Germany, from May 24-26, 2013, and the publication of the working paper "Wie sozial sind die Piraten? Die soziale Frage in Programmen und Piratendiskursen," by Herbert Hönigsberger and Sven Osterberg, in the series OBS-Arbeitspapiere.

Copyright of Swiss Journal of Sociology / Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of Sciendo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen (ZIB) is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Sozialreform is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on current legislative procedures, which will frame European Cohesion Policy from 2014 to 2020, by analyzing the cleavages between the European Parliament, the Commission and the member states. It points out that five major conflicts dominate the debate on the strategic conception of the regional development policy. In particular, the questions of the appropriate budget, its spending and future budgetary commitments by the introduction of ex post and macroeconomic conditionalities represent key notions within the negotiation process. The paper points out that Cohesion Policy serves as a legitimacy resource for all involved negotiation partners. Hence, it is unlikely that future support programs will abandon the "watering can approach" of European Cohesion Policy, which has been subject to much allegation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal for Sociology of Education & Socialization / Zeitschrift für Soziologie der Erziehung & Sozialisation is the property of Julius Beltz GmbH & Co. KG Beltz Juventa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Information about several papers discussed at the conference on the Treaty of Lisbon, held from November 11-12, 2010, in Bochum, Germany, is presented. Topics include the implications of the Treaty of Lisbon for the European Common Market and the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice of the European Union, the European Sovereign Debt Crisis, and the relationship between the offices of President of the European Commission and President of the European Council.

This article analyses the relevance of a regional approach to explain electricity market integration in the EU. It describes obstacles to market integration and argues that 'regional integration' has helped to overcome these obstacles and is a guiding principle of EU Energy Policy with regard to creating the Single European Electricity Market. The paper identifies a strategic shift in EU energy policy towards the promotion of regional electricity markets. Overall, the analysis reveals that both formal EU policy instruments and initiatives triggered by informal sectoral governance networks stimulate regional integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the 8th of May 2010, the EU Reflection Group "Horizon 2020-2030" presented its final report "Project Europe 2030" after 17 months of deliberation. After a decade of being bound up in oneself, the report aims to prepare the EU for the tremendous challenges of the future. The work of this recent Reflection Group has hardly been noticed -- even by EU experts. Therefore, the paper starts by outlining the history of the Reflection Group before discussing the manifold problems concerning the content and method of the Group's work. Finally, a preliminary assessment of the final report, which is intended to be a wake-up call for the EU, is tried. Whether the relevant actors and the public hear the alarm bells toll, however, depends on a number of factors; therefore, the timing of the report can turn out to be an obstacle as well as an opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Monatsschrift fuer Kriminologie und Strafrechtsreform is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sozialer Fortschritt is the property of Duncker & Humblot GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The current economic and financial crisis can be seen as a considerable challenge for the European Monetary Union. The European Central Bank (ECB), the European institutions and the member states tried to prevent the European economies from sliding into a depression by undertaking monetary as well as fiscal policy actions. The aim of the paper is to analyse the sensitivity and absorbability of the EU with respect to exogenous shocks, in doing so, monetary policy as well as fiscal policy tools are presented and evaluated. Hereby is referred to the reactions of the ECB in comparison to those of the FED as well as the investigation of the impulses of fiscal policy actions undertaken by the EU on its member states. In line with the analysis, weaknesses, mainly in the area of fiscal policy, are identified and possible threats are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Schmollers Jahrbuch is the property of Duncker & Humblot GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper discusses fundamental aspects of the European emissions trading system which has been implemented in January 2005. We show how institutional features set by the EU Commission and the required subsidiary decisions by the respective Member States are potentially in conflict with the objectives of efficiency, compensation and competition neutrality. Inefficiencies can emerge from the decisions on the number of emission allowances and the way in which they are allocated. These problems are intensified by pressure from political interest groups. We argue that costs from recurring political debates and decisions on the National Allocation Plans could be avoided by using truly lump-sum-free allocation rules or moving towards auctioning off emission allowances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses individual supermarket prices and analyses to what extent absolute deviations from the law of one price are attributable to transaction costs. The results indicate that absolute percentage price differences increase with distance, but at a decreasing rate. Similarly, crossing borders increases price deviations, while being inside the former Belgo-Luxembourg currency union has the opposite effect. This result nurtures the hopes that the euro may be able to reduce regional and cross-border price differences in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sozialer Fortschritt is the property of Duncker & Humblot GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses how General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union changed the basis for archiving records in the 21st century. It reports that due to new regulations there are fears of empirical values, that the offer of documents for archiving due to data protection law. It mentions there ere are no concerns, which seriously disrupts the archiving process and systematic tradition formation would be prevented.

The article presents the author's views on conflict in the European Court of Justice. Topics discussed include distribution and solidarity issues in the European Court; opinion that European integration was rife with conflict from the beginning; increasing politicization of the conflicts over European governance; and how the conflicts have become the subject of European public debate.

The article offers information on the law and order of Europe which is based on three foundation stones including human rights, democracy and solidarity. Various topics discussed include fundamental values within European Union, role of democracy in financial crises, and factors working as strength of human rights and solidarity.

The article reports on justice pluralism of the European Constitution. Topics discussed include the concept of constitutional dialogue; the increasingly stronger role of the Court of Justice of the European Union and of the European Court of Justice Court of Human Rights (ECHR); and the increasing fundamentalist pluralism, resulting from the strengthening of the protection of fundamental rights on the supranational and international levels.

This article embeds the EU's attempts to reform its asylum policy in the context of the refugee crisis in a more longitudinal analysis. It focuses on the question of how the EU has sought to achieve more solidarity between states with high and others with low numbers of refugees. It is argued that the European Union has not managed to make a paradigm shift in this issue, regardless of the ever-increasing problem pressure. The EU was unable to tackle the 2015 refugee crisis within the existing rationale of EU asylum cooperation. Thus the European Commission is now pushing for a new system of refugee distribution within Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pre-eminent issue in British European policy since the general elections returned a Conservative majority government in May 2015 is the 'in-or-out' referendum on Britain's European Union membership which will take place before the end of 2017. David Cameron had committed to such a referendum in January 2013, primarily for intraparty and electoral reasons. On the European level, Cameron demands European reforms and further special arrangements for the United Kingdom which would allow him to make the case for staying in the European Union at the time of the referendum. However, the European bargaining position of the British government to achieve its objectives is relatively weak. While Cameron's referendum pledge has so far paid off in the domestic arena, the outcomes of the European negotiations and the British referendum are still open. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two central questions arise with the first being how national parties and interest groups, which have in common the ambition to influence their national state on behalf of their citizens, operate and change at the EU level. The second question is concerned with the consequences these changes have with regard to their influence capacity at both the European and the national level. Within the frames of 'democracy' and 'influence' and based on new empirical evidence, it is described how national parties and interest groups function at the EU level and how they change due to their Europeanisation. Following those frames, new evaluations of how they function on both political levels are presented. Evidence found strongly suggests that the national parties are the current losers and the national interest groups are the current winners of Europeanisation. Finally, recommendations are offered, how the parties could best start to diminish their influence-lag at the EU level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the representation of citizens in the European Parliament with special attention to the historical development of European constitutional law, democracies, and the German government policy as well as constitution. The author analyzes the European Union, its government policy, and guidelines. Other topics mentioned in this article include the legitimacy of political systems, the role of federations, and German constitution with special attention to its democratic aspects.

One of the big surprises of the 2013 German federal election was the good result of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a party that was founded just six months before the election and none-the-less only by a small margin missed the five-percent-threshold necessary to gain seats in the Bundestag. Using the Rolling Cross-Section/pre-post-panel survey conducted as part of the 2013 German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) vote intentions and vote choices for the AfD are analyzed. The electorate of the AfD consisted of two groups: a small group of early-deciding voters that found the party mainly attractive because of its Euro-critical stances in economic policy, and a larger group of late-deciders who were attracted to this party through the immigration-critical stances that it emphasized during its campaign alongside its core theme of denunciation of the European currency union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sozialer Fortschritt is the property of Duncker & Humblot GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discuses constitutional law of European Union members states in the context of the European Union. Among other topics addressed are various types of ratio decidendi or legal reasoning or argumentation associated with the interaction of European Union laws and member states' Constitutional law, a decision of the German Constitutional Court called the Lisbon Judgment with the legal questions it involved, and the practical function in terms of legal decisions for actual courts of comparative law.

The participation of the German Bundestag in European affairs has become a topic of interest for scholars as well as for policy-makers since the German constitutional court's verdict on the Lisbon Treaty. Decisions by the federal court and the financial crisis made Europe a crucial issue in the debates of the German parliament. A set of participatory rights has been established to ensure parliamentary legitimacy and a decisive role of the elected deputies. The most important law is the accompanying-act EUZBBG which has been reformed in summer 2013. This article deals with its creation, its content in particular and the role it might play in the upcoming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union has undergone a severe crisis since 2007. This crisis is not only of a financial, economic and public debt matter but in fact is it a severe crisis of European integration. The time of urgent rescue measures, however, seems to have been overcome but any mistaken decision might potentially revive the crisis. Under the circumstances of this uncertainty, the article compares the current crisis with other crises in the long history of European integration crises and discusses what is new about it and which patterns have been repeated. Based on three crisis narratives (crises swirling down, periodical crises and constructive crises) the author presents a typology of crises of European integration and thereby, identifies four necessary conditions for constructive crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On January 1st 2013, Ireland assumed the Presidency of the Council for the 7th time. Taking over the responsibilities of the Presidency coincided with the 40th anniversary of Ireland's accession to the European Union in 1973. Ireland's 7th Presidency was challenging. First, Ireland found itself in the unenviable position of being a 'programme country' having had to request a bail-out from the other euro states and IMF in November 2010. Second, this presidency was conducted under the rules of the Lisbon Treaty which made substantial changes in the role and prerogatives of the rotating presidency. Ireland has always prided itself on running efficient and effective presidencies and achieving tangible negotiating outcomes. This presidency had the added priority of completing the repairs to Ireland's battered reputation following the crisis. Beyond the presidency, Ireland's future prosperity in the euro area depends on a return to growth and on euro area that has addressed the design faults in Euro zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Politik is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Politik is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)