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Focusing on the emergence of ideas and the knowledge networks involved in producing a counter-narrative to the liberal and neoliberal ideational consensus of the 1990s and 2000s, this contribution traces the intellectual trajectory of the illiberal turn in Poland and Hungary. We make use of the ideational scholarship differentiating between public philosophies, problem definitions and policy solutions to discuss how illiberal state transformation and heterodox socio-economic policies became the new paradigm that the two ruling parties PiS and Fidesz have promoted during the last decade. We suggest that the viability of PiS and Fidesz's policies was largely conditioned by the increasing influence of conservative networks in the public sphere which prepared the grounds for these reforms. The contribution discusses the main intellectual actors, structures, and ideas paving the way and legitimizing illiberalism in the two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the countries under discussion in this symposium, the path to EU-membership is no longer topical, and the transformative power of "Europe" is no longer the dominant determinant of environmental policy and governance. Published not long after the 2004 and 2007 accessions, that volume focused on how environmental activism in the post-socialist states had been regulated and configured first by the "transition" from communism to liberal democracy, and then by the stipulations and choreography of the EU accession process. Impaling Dracula: how EU accession empowered civil society in Romania. Their actor-centred perspective highlights the importance of the strategic capacity of movement actors and contradicts those assumptions made in the Europeanization literature that overemphasized how EU accession and membership shapes social movements. [Extracted from the article]

This article illustrates the post-euphoric development of the environmental movement in the period since 2010 that was marked by democratic backsliding and the consolidation of 'illiberalism' in Hungary. Embedded from a historical perspective that spans the last three decades, we present two case studies of urban environmental mobilisation and identify 'localization', the reorientation towards grassroot activism, as a new trend driven by the closure of political opportunity structures. Localization combines with the alienation of protesters from institutional channels of influence-seeking and the weakening of ties with potential political allies, such as political parties or professionalised NGOs, and the increase of mistrust between the different actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses how populist parties in power contest the external democratization agenda within the European Union (EU)'s European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). We present an analytical framework that conceptually unpacks both contestation and populism to argue that radical right, market liberal, regionalist and left-wing populist parties differ from each other concerning their views on external democratization. Our empirical focus is on the discursive strategies of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from PiS, Fidesz, Lega, Forza Italia and Movimento Cinque Stelle in European Parliament (EP) debates. The exploratory analysis reveals that populist actors rarely and selectively use the European arena for contesting democracy promotion. While an emphasis on stability and security in the neighbourhood prevails among all populist parties in our study, other considerations, such as migration policy, support for ethnic kin, suspicion towards Russia but also membership in the EP's Party Groups inform the differences between the parties. Supplemental data for this article is available online at at [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil society networks have received little attention when it comes to sectoral analysis of adaptation of EU rules beyond borders. This article offers a remedy by conceptualizing EU influence as an opportunity structure, a resource, and a discursive frame used by civil society organizations. Empirically, it describes how EU rules are used to support environmental reforms by civil society networks in Georgia and Ukraine. Civil society activism and mobilization can lead to high levels of policy approximation despite weak sectoral conditionality, entrenched domestic interests, and low public salience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An environmental frontrunner in the Central and Eastern European regions since the late 1990s, Hungary followed a gradual but steady approximation progress to the EU environmental legislation. Previous research established an important role of the participation of economic and societal stakeholders in the decision-making and implementation process based on EU environmental legislation in Hungary. With the victory of the FIDESZ party in the parliamentary elections of 2010, the new government started to change the 'rules of the game' by nationalising infrastructures and weakening market access to foreign stakeholders. Focusing on the water and waste management sectors, the article analyzes the stages that brought Hungary to the recent governments' policy changes. We argue that these changes have departed from the environmental policy practices established during the EU accession process and represent a challenge and a potential backsliding in the implementation of the EU environmental legislation in Hungary. Such changes in policy policies need to be seen in the context of the recent transformation of the political order and of the state–market relations in Hungary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ruling right-wing populist parties in Europe have significantly changed foreign policies and advanced criticism against core values of liberal democracy, including dismissive stances vis-à-vis the European Union. This paper argues that the reorientation of foreign policies in Hungary and Poland is consistent with ideas developed by incumbent populist right-wing parties and intellectuals of statecraft in the wider conservative movement supporting them. The contribution studies the foreign policy conceptions of right-wing forces and builds on critical geopolitics to trace these back to ideas shaped in broader right-wing networks that have played leading roles in developing a right-wing ideological alternative to liberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union's (EU) Green Deal gives increased attention to the sustainability of international product cycles by implementing 'due diligence' requirements. We examine the difficulties in the implementation of the European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR) in two countries with weak management capacities such as Romania and Ukraine. We find that domestic and transnational civil society actors can support the implementation of due diligence requirements mainly by challenging the dominant position of private and state actors engaged in cutting deals with the EU-based wood industry, as well as contributing to increasing politicisation, raising awareness and public mobilisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysing roll call votes from the energy and climate policy field in the Eighth European Parliament (2014–2019), this article asks why has the European Parliament succeeded in maintaining its relatively ambitious position and how national and partizan factors explain voting behaviour of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on EU energy and climate legislation. We find the Eurosceptic vs. pro-EU cleavage to be the main conflict line structuring voting on energy and climate policy. Additionally, EU energy and climate policy has been supported by MEPs from member states with a track record of more ambitious climate policymaking and those with higher energy dependence. We show that increasing party fragmentation in the European Parliament has strengthened the influence of some progressive party groups, particularly the Greens, and has enhanced the European Parliament's ability to mobilize support for a relatively ambitious energy and climate legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overwhelming part of EU scholarship has singled out Romania and Bulgaria as examples of failed integration. Studies dealing with these two countries' EU accession have highlighted that EU membership was premature and found pre-accession expectations largely confirmed when looking at failures to implement anti-corruption policies, deficiencies in the use of rule of law or backsliding in democratic practices. This contribution takes issue with these pre-accession expectations in the literature and focuses on legal compliance with EU legislation as the most direct way to assess whether EU rules are followed or not. Based on transposition data and infringement proceedings between 2007 and 2017, the contribution shows that while the number of infringements from the two countries has increased over time, the record does not show extreme developments when compared to other groups of EU member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) has become the main driver for environmental policy output for its member states whose number has more than tripled over the past four decades. The EU's deepening and widening has led researchers to expect more non-compliance with EU environmental legislation. In fact, however, the implementation gap has narrowed over the past 25 years. Except for Southern enlargement, taking on new member states has not exacerbated the EU's compliance problem in the field of environmental policy. Nor has the expansion of the environmental acquis. This is explained by the European Commission's strategies of managing and enforcing compliance. EU environmental policy has become less demanding on member states since it increasingly tends to amend existing rather than set new legislation. Simultaneously, the Commission has developed new instruments to strengthen member state capacities to implement EU environmental legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the spread of neoliberal ideas through networks has attracted much attention worldwide, the ideational content of the recent counter-waves to liberal democracy has still received relatively little consideration. This article focuses on the ideational dimension behind the current illiberal backlash in Central and Eastern Europe. We ask how political conceptions critical of the Western liberal paradigm came about and what their main components are in Hungary, a country which is often seen as the avant-garde of the 'illiberal backsliding' in the region. The article shows that political illiberalism in Eastern Europe has intellectual underpinnings forged in conservative intellectual networks that have grown disillusioned with liberal democracy and neoliberalism long before the current illiberal political wave. Combining the reception of Western critiques of liberalism with a critique of post-communist liberals' perceived lack of willingness to break with the communist past, these intellectuals have slowly but continuously extended their networks and influence since the 1990s. Our analysis suggests that the contestation of liberalism is not reducible to political parties and instead should be approached as a broader phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty has important implications for regional parliaments with legislative competences, most studies have focused on cross-country differences or examined the activities of regional parliaments at the EU level. This contribution shows the existence of substantial intra-country differences in the formal scrutiny rights of regional parliaments. We analyse how German regional parliaments (Landtage) have addressed the challenge of controlling their governments in EU affairs. Using fuzzy-set comparative qualitative analysis, we find that institutional and partisan factors (vote share in the second chamber, economic potential, and conservative governments) explain the differences found among German Landtage particularly well. Landtage with otherwise weak parliamentary prerogatives were successful in using the reform momentum to strengthen their rights in the field of EU policy. Combined with the party political salience of EU policy-making, the integration process has thus empowered formally weaker Landtage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the political achievements, campaigns, and challenges faced by the Austrian Green political party. Topics explored include the failure of the Green Party to earn parliamentary representation in the October 2017 national elections, the election of Green Party Leader Alexander Van der Bellen as Austrian President in the 2016 presidential elections, the evolution and growth of the Green Party since its entry to the Austrian National Council in 1986, and factors which contributed to the decline in the electoral support maintained by the Green Party.

This article analyses the democratic involution in Hungary, which was followed by the country embracing a pro-Russian policy in 2010. These processes came to be viewed as a rare case of authoritarian diffusion taking place towards an EU member state. Based on the discussion of interest versus ideational appeal as factors of authoritarian diffusion, the article develops a relational and dynamic framework to analyse the question of authoritarian diffusion. The framework underlines the importance not only of “sender state” attributes, but also those of receiver states. The analysis finds no empirical evidence for authoritarian diffusion; Hungary’s slide into illiberalism was not inspired or supported by Vladimir Putin. Instead, mutual interests are sufficient to understand Russo-Hungarian cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the last decades, regional parliaments were considered to play a minor role in European affairs. Not only was the salience of the EU low at the regional level, but politicians elected into these bodies also often lacked vested interests and capacities to become more involved in dealing with complex multi-level questions. After the constitutional strengthening of regional parliaments in EU decision-making, this paper considers one under-researched aspect behind the growing appetite of regional parliaments to become more involved in the scrutiny of EU affairs: the role of unelected parliamentary officials. Based on qualitative interviews in 12 German regional parliaments, the authors highlight how regional parliaments exert control over their governments and what role horizontal administrative networks among parliamentary staff play in the engagement of regional parliaments in EU affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy sources are central to building low-carbon energy systems but there is little secured knowledge about the structural factors that shape national renewable energy policies and energy transition pathways. Drawing on the literature on 'varieties of capitalism', this article offers an in-depth account of the evolution and impact of renewable energy policies in two countries that are commonly labelled in the literature as two opposite forms of capitalism: 'coordinative market economy' (CME) in Germany and 'liberal market economy' (LME) in the UK. Based on recent political economy literature, this dual perspective is complemented by including a third subtype, 'dependent market economies' (DMEs), which are found in the transition states of central and eastern Europe. The analysis reveals an initial convergence of the three varieties of capitalism towards stronger government involvement and CME-style targeted policy measures. The effectiveness and scope of these measures, however, continues to be constrained by the political economic settings. More recently, centralization and market-based renewable energy governance has gained the upper hand at both national and EU-level. The article concludes with emphasizing the risks of national and EU climate and energy policies driven by short-termism and cost-effectiveness for both renewable energy and climate change goals in the long-run. Policy relevance The article has policy implications for EU and national policy makers and stakeholders concerned with renewable energy and climate change governance. It underlines the need for comprehensive renewable energy policies targeting domestic market creation and industrial development as well as civic participation. Domestic and external constraints that different varieties of capitalism within the EU face in advancing these three components of renewable energy development are emphasized. The article stresses the need for enhanced coordination and balanced development of renewable energy sectors across all EU economies as essential for achieving climate change goals and a genuine low-carbon energy transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central aspect of the EU’s influence over countries located in its neighborhood consists in its ability to export regulatory governance arrangements beyond its borders. Taking the example of developments in the field of forestry and chemical security management in Ukraine, this contribution underlines the importance of the interplay between domestic and external interests by pointing to macro-political and micro-political (i.e. sectoral) dynamics. While the first case study illustrates how inter-sectoral conflict can hamper harmonization with EU rules, the second shows that macro-political decisions relating to the geopolitical orientation of the state can override sectoral logics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Starting from the empirical observation of high levels of absorption of EU cohesion funds but strikingly low levels of substantive change in regional cohesion, this essay offers a contextual analysis of regional development policies in Hungary. Based on theoretical frameworks dealing with Europeanisation, new regionalism and participative development, it explores the reasons for this observation by analysing the role of administrative and planning structures and of development discourses. The essay shows that the Europeanisation of regional development policy triggered several changes in the planning process and led to the partial inclusion of new actors. However, the main effect of this was a growing centralisation of development policy making. The essay explains this by pointing to the domestic political context and the historical foundations of regional development discourses of the conservative and leftist liberal parties. While there are overlaps between the discourses on both sides of the ideological divide, they are perceived as incompatible by political actors. Thus, it is argued that considerations of political power, rather than ideological nature, shape Hungarian regional and development policy and explain the incremental reform process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While the EU's policies towards non-member states are often discussed within frameworks of ‘high politics’, one of the most important features of the European Neighbourhood Policy is its emphasis on the ‘low politics’ of sectoral dialogue in functionally differentiated policy fields. Examining policy change triggered in Ukraine by the EU's neighbourhood policy framework, the essay focuses on environmental policy as a typical ‘low politics’ policy field. The results show that in four sub-fields of environmental policy case-specific constellations of domestic veto players, policy-specific conditionality and external capacity building determine domestic policy change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

How has Europeanisation of environmental policy, as represented by the adoption of European Union (EU) biodiversity policies, influenced the agendas and repertoires of action employed by environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) in Hungary, Poland and Romania? The EU's environmental acquis gave ENGOs new and often forceful tools to reach their aims by emphasising the importance of collaborative relations between state and non-state actors and by offering opportunities to civil society actors to circumvent their national governments in the policy process. Implementation of the EU's Natura 2000 network in Hungary, Poland and Romania further reinforced endogenously driven professionalisation and institutionalisation of civil society groups. While EU accession benefited from the expertise of professional ENGOs, the logic of the accession process together with the weakness of both state actors and civil society has not led to the development of sustainable cooperative state-society relations in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]