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One of the characteristics of a successful electoral campaign is its ability to construct a consistent message over time, which can contribute to electoral gains. This paper analyses the political communication strategies of the two official campaigns (Britain Stronger in Europe and Vote Leave) during the 2016 UK referendum on EU membership. It does so by analysing their ability to remain on point during the speeches, press releases and interviews given by campaigners in the context of the core campaign frame. The analysis finds that throughout the official campaign Vote Leave remained on point both in terms of the key frame operationalised and the components within the frame; meanwhile, Britain Stronger in Europe subjected the electorate to no fewer than five different frames, which were often internally cluttered and, as a result, reduced the campaign benefits of repetition. The differences between the two campaigns represents a further explanatory variable to account for the outcome of the 2016 referendum. The findings also draw attention to the role of political differences within BSiE as an underlying cause of its inconsistent campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data from Eurobarometer for the years 2007 and 2015 to investigate the determinants of trust in official statistics across 28 countries and 2 regions in Europe. Our estimation follows a multilevel modelling approach, which allows us to distinguish within-country and between-country variation in individual trust in official statistics. Our estimation results show that the within-country variation is mainly explained by individual-level statistical literacy and education, as well as occupational status. With respect to the variation between countries, we show that neither the level of GPD nor the index of inequality are important in explaining cross-country variation. Instead, EU membership history, i.e. the 'acquis communautaire', is the main macro variable that explains the increase in trust for the official statistics across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on three of the Central and Eastern European countries - Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary - the paper investigates the evolution of spatial planning systems and the introduction of strategic planning practices from the beginning of the post-communist transition in the early 1990s to the present. It sheds new light on this issue by applying the conceptual lens of historical institutionalism to explain this process and elucidate the role of the accession to the European Union (EU) as a catalyst for change. In particular, the paper identifies and analyses the critical junctures at which path dependencies emerged and later constrained the capacity of the regional and local actors to adjust to the EU Cohesion Policy framework and engage in strategic planning as part of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the idea that Europe 2020 Strategy is a too ambitious project for many Member States. The analysis is focused on PIGS countries. In order to demonstrate the impossibility to achieve the Strategy's goals, the analysis uses six representative economic indicators: GDP growth rate, employment, R&D investment, gas emissions, educational attainment and risk of poverty and social exclusion. The analysis uses regression, clusters, forecasting models and comparisons with Euro area average. The intermediate conclusion of the paper is that PIGS countries can be analysis under a cluster approach. The final conclusion is that PIGS countries are not able to achieve the Strategy's goals in 2020, even that their socio-economic trend is positive for almost all indicators. The analysis and the conclusions in the paper are supported by pertinent statistic tables and diagrams, coupled with dedicated IBM-SPSS software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with re-imaginings of 'Europe' following the accession to the European Union (EU) of former 'Eastern European' countries. In particular it explores media representations of post-EU accession migration from Romania to the United Kingdom in the UK and Romanian newspaper press. Todorova's (1997) notion of Balkanism is deployed as a theoretical construct to facilitate the analysis of these representations as first, the continuation of long-standing and deeply embedded imaginings of the 'East' of Europe and, second, as a means of contesting these discourses. The paper explores the way in which the UK press construct Balkanist discourses about Romania and Romanian migrants, and then analyses how the Romanian press has contested such discourses. The paper argues that the idea of the 'East' remains important in constructing notions of 'Europe' within popular media geographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper documents the failure of the EU's current merger control architecture to address the misallocation problem and proposes changes to the architecture which would virtually eliminate this major concern. This will streamline the working of the architecture by removing the need for correctives to either prevent misallocation or reassign cases that have been misallocated. Moreover, and just as importantly, the resolution of this problem will improve the application of the principle of subsidiarity in merger cases and bring to an end the multiple notification issue, thereby strengthening the operation of the one-stop shop approach. The changes to the architecture and how they interact to virtually end the misallocation problem and thereby bring about the aforementioned benefits are revealed. More specifically, it demonstrates how the use of the three or more Member state notification rule and the distinct market test, the retention of the existing two Community Dimension tests and the two-thirds rule, as well as the shared competence of the Competition Directorate and Member state regulators to apply EU merger law, albeit intentionally in different situations, reinforce each other to resolve the stated problem. Moreover, this limited sharing of the right to apply EU merger law-currently the EU Commission has the exclusive right-allied with other forms of envisaged cooperation between the regulators is not just simply a reinterpretation of the Commission's most appropriate authority goal but also the possible beginnings of a more cooperative architecture, relative to the current architecture of separate jurisdictional zones, aimed at improving the efficacy and efficiency of merger control within the Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although countries in South-East Europe (SEE) traditionally use less pesticide in agricultural production than more developed countries in Europe, primarily due to the extensive character of their agriculture production, it is important to find the level of pesticide use because their usage can have a significant negative impact on the environment, health and social costs. The main objective of this paper is to find the correlation between pesticide use and economic development in SEE countries. In that context, the model for determining economic factors that can influence pesticide use is constructed and estimated. The results show that gross domestic product and precipitation had a positive impact on pesticide use, while farm size, trade openness, and membership in the European Union (EU) had a negative impact. This paper makes a significant contribution to the literature of pesticide use in SEE countries and answers questions which are significant for determining economic factors. This is important for policymakers, especially in countries that are candidates for EU membership, countries that should adopt EU legislation of pesticide use and establish new agri-ecological measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on the paper "Origins and Resolution of Financial Crisis: Lessons From the Current and Northern European Crises," by Finn Østrup, Lars Oxelheim and Clas Wihlborg presented at the Asia Economic Panel Meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia on March 23, 2009. He says that the crises were different from the U.S. subprime one. He cites the similarities of the crises with the Nordic banking crisis in the 1980s and the Asian crisis in 1997. He notes that most of the countries were not prepared for European Union (EU) membership rules.

Despite differences between EU member countries, most experience demographic change characterised by a decrease in mortality and fertility rates leading to a growing proportion of older people with effects on the working population. This poses a range of economic challenges in terms of financing health care and retirement as well as maintaining the employment skills base. This paper is based on a research project with the aim of identifying what policies employers and employment related organisations need to adopt in order to extend the labour market participation of older workers. Between 2005 and 2007 the ESF Article 6 funded CAWA (Creative Approaches to Workforce Ageing). This project was carried out by four European partner institutions based in: Spain, Austria, Sweden and the UK with further input from Bulgaria. The project partners had strong links to trade unions, employers organisations and regional authorities, facilitating multilayred debates related to raising awareness of demographic change among policy makers and developing best practice guidelines. The findings presented relate to key employment areas and are explored from employers' and workers' perspectives. The organisational identities/commitment literature provides a conceptual framework to gain understanding of the push and pull factors associated with workforce ageing. The paper concludes by arguing that the debate on workforce ageing among trade unions, employers and policy makers needs to be focussed on deeper understanding of the work and non-work related identities of older workers and aim to facilitate flexible working arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the 'regional dimension' of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in the Black Sea area. Specifically, it analyses the emerging forms of regional cooperation and their interrelation with ENP. It has been demonstrated that the different regional cooperation initiatives, of varying quality and importance for the countries of the area, have been experiencing substantial change due to the dual challenge of dealing with their immediate environment and European integration. Alongside established regional organizations, like the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), new types of regional cooperation, such as the Black Sea Synergy (BSS), have also been growing in importance, not least because of the dominant role of the European Union (EU) and its wish to make a success of the ENP. Finally, the paper makes concrete proposals regarding the possibility of transforming and upgrading both the existing regional cooperation bodies and ENP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of membership on a country in EU on the ownership of its banking system. The ownership of a banking system is important for a country. A growing number of studies provide empirical evidence that well operation of financial systems accelerates long-run economic growth by allocating funds to more productive investments than poorly developed financial systems. So, the foreign ownership of banking system, if the owners are from more developed economies, through know how can influence for greater financial intermediacy and for better allocation of resources, too. Also if the owners are global systemically important financial institution they can provide financial support and can make a bank competitive advantage with cheap credit lines. The down side is that all the decisions are taken on group level and the subsidiary can be affected of strategy for deleveraging or reduced support although the driver is the economic conditions of the mother company. In order to evaluate the impact of the EU membership, this paper will compare the ownership of the banking systems in Romania and Bulgaria before and after the EU accession. Also, the analysis will include the ownership of Macedonian banking system, and having in mind the changes in the other two sample countries, will be assessed the impact of EU membership on the ownership of the banking system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU is clearly in the process of developing an external dimension to the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ). This paper focuses on ex. Police and Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters (PJCCM) provisions. These developments pose specific legal basis issues for the EU, given its complex EU–member state legal relationship, and the inter-institutional balance, all reflected in the treaty framework post-Lisbon. New Court of Justice rulings are now emerging which will assist in this issue. Equally the approach to be taken in developing these relationships will be crucial. This paper proposes the adoption of an Onuf style constructivism in order to best capture the reality of the process that is developing, and has developed for the ex. PJCCM measures internally. This then needs to be allied with a constitutionalism model to ensure a balanced development of all three aspects of the AFSJ. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of International Forestry Review is the property of Commonwealth Forestry Association 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 analyses the determinants of people’s support for European institutions, mainly focusing on the impact of European identity, after the economic crisis and in a moment in which – after profound uncertainty for its immediate future – there is a new feeling toward European integration. Previous research on support for European institutions, before the economic and financial crisis which had hit Europe since 2008, found that people’s evaluations followed mainly an instrumental logic – support being contingent on a perception of personal or national benefit accruing for EU membership – with an additional role played by European identification. This contribution expands the analysis after the beginning of the economic crisis, so to assess whether the former has affected the structure of such support, and deepens the analysis of the impact of EU identity on European institutional confidence. Using a recent Eurobarometer survey (86.2, 2016) and combining both individual and contextual data, the paper shows that European identity plays a crucial role in explaining European support also after the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses how the European Commission employs cultural policy to facilitate EU enlargement processes. Since 1989 the European Commission has funded cultural programs in accession states as a ‘soft’ complement to its ‘hard’ conditionality. It reflects a more general trend in which the EU employs alternative modes of governance to deal with resistance against EU interference in national affairs. By investing in culture, the EU hopes to stimulate transnational cooperation, economic growth, social cohesion and identification with the EU. However, the outcomes of these investments cannot be predicted. Characteristic for soft policy programs is that participating states are responsible for their eventual interpretation and implementation. By comparing the policies and practices of EU cultural investments in accession states Southeast Europe, and particularly in Serbia, this paper discusses the limits and possibilities of EU funded initiatives to enlargement revealing an increasing governing through soft conditionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the expansion of the European Union in 2004 unprecedented numbers of Accession 8 migrants from Central and Eastern Europe entered the UK. These migrants are often concentrated in particular urban neighbourhoods, which are already routinely home to diverse communities and/or characterised by high levels of social deprivation. Using original data from a study in a northern English city, this paper explores the ways in which established communities experience and make sense of the local impact of new migration within their neighbourhoods. The belief that newly arrived migrants are in competition with established communities for finite local jobs and welfare resources is central to the expressed concerns of established communities about the potential for A8 migration to have a localised negative impact.Utilising Ellison's (2000) theoretical insights, the paper argues that established communities’ concerns, rather than being simply an expression of xenophobic intolerance, have their basis in how the expansion of the EU facilitates opportunities for the ‘proactive engagement’ of citizenship status among A8 migrants, whilst often triggering a more ‘defensive engagement’ among members of local host communities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is difficult to estimate the size of the irregular migrant population in a specific city or country, and even more difficult to arrive at estimates at the European level. A review of past attempts at European-level estimates reveals that they rely on rough and outdated rules-of-thumb. In this paper, we present our own European level estimates for 2002, 2005, and 2008. We aggregate country-specific information, aiming at approximate comparability by consistent use of minimum and maximum estimates and by adjusting for obvious differences in definition and timescale. While the aggregated estimates are not considered highly reliable, they do -- for the first time -- provide transparency. The provision of more systematic medium quality estimates is shown to be the most promising way for improvement. The presented estimate indicates a minimum of 1.9 million and a maximum of 3.8 million irregular foreign residents in the 27 member states of the European Union (2008). Unlike rules-of-thumb, the aggregated EU estimates indicate a decline in the number of irregular foreign residents between 2002 and 2008. This decline has been influenced by the EU enlargement and legalisation programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the question of whether or not the current level of corruption in Turkey constitutes a major drawback for European Union (EU) membership. After elaborating the different types of corruption in Turkey, the paper argues that a full-scale anti-corruption strategy should include not only policing-type regulations and improved institutional structures, but also systemic reforms to deal with patron-client networking, informality and tax evasion. Assuming that the EU anchor will continue to be important, the EU's impact on combating corruption in Turkey will be greater to the extent that the EU manages to better understand the full picture in Turkey with regard to corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore government preferences and cleavages in the bargaining process on the European Constitution, across the range of 25 EU member states. The study focuses on preferences concerning socioeconomic policymaking and explores whether divisions can be discerned between preferences held by actors according to locations on the left-right policy scale, actors in older as compared to newer EU states, net EU budget positions, domestic rates of support for European integration, and smaller as compared to larger states. The analysis also controls for possible external effects, such as recent domestic macroeconomic developments. Negotiations on the European Constitution are found to be determined less by general transnational left-right divisions, but cleavages according to the length of EU membership and the size of EU member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cohesion policy of the European Union reflects the communitarian financial priorities. As all public policies of the EU, the cohesion policy is financed from the EU budget. Therefore, it has a major role in shaping the budget. The paper analyzes the interdependence between the cohesion policy and the EU budget, indicating the direct connection between the expenses made from the communitarian budget and the architectural design of the cohesion policy. The paper presents the parallel evolution of the European Union budget, on the one hand, and of the cohesion policy, on the other hand. At the same time, the changes brought about by the accession of new Member States are described and analyzed, as well as the multi-annual financial programming periods. The focus of the research and analysis will fall on the 2000-2006 and 2007-2013 financial frameworks. Finally, the paper will attempt to identify the possible changes predicted for the 2014-2020 period, brought about by the new challenges faced by the European Union, both in terms of budgetary construction and regarding the architecture, objectives and programs of the cohesion policy. Hence, the dynamism and mutual influence in the relationship between the cohesion policy and the EU budget will be once more demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the twenty years that have passed since the revolutions of 1989 and the collapse of communism across Central and Eastern Europe numerous fundamental changes have occurred across the region. One of the general trends associated with the post-communist transition has been rising levels of crime in general and organised crime in particular across countries in the region. Concerns about the perceived threat posed by increased levels of organised crime in Central and Eastern Europe became particularly prevalent in connection with European Union expansion to include countries from the region in 2004 and 2007. This paper seeks to analyse and explore the apparent “explosion”€™ of organised crime throughout Central and Eastern Europe in the aftermath of 1989, considering the relationship between the post-communist transition and the development of organised crime, and exploring the complex realities behind the evolution of organised crime in contemporary Central and Eastern Europe. This paper seeks to demonstrate that while the process of post-communist transition has facilitated a fundamental reshaping of organised crime in terms of its structure, composition and activities, the “worst case”€™ scenarios posited in relation to EU enlargement have not come to bear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Economic Review: Journal of Economics & Business / Ekonomska Revija: Casopis za Ekonomiju i Biznis is the property of University of Tuzla, Faculty of Economics 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 has a clear objective. To reflect about the question: Is the Social Europe fit for globalization? This reflection will be organized in three parts. In first we present the institutional framework of reference: The Welfare State. In the second we try to offer a panoramic about the Welfare State in the European Union across the time. We deal with the concept of European Social model and with the social statistics of the different Member States in the E.U. We try to answer to another intermediate question: do exist really the European Social Model? The third part of the paper we deal with the main question: the Social Europe and the globalization challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the convergence of shocks in new member states (NMSs) to their European counterparts through time. The decision to adopt the euro is associated with higher implicit costs for NMSs with a more asymmetric shock structure. I employ rolling regressions and the Kalman (1960) filter to calculate time-varying regression coefficients relating previously identified structural shocks in NMSs and the European Monetary Union. In general, the results show no evidence of convergence and therefore imply limited merits of accession. Additionally, they suggest that the catching-up process in NMSs is slowing down. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a legal philosophical overview of the operation of European law, the paper aims at describing the mentality working in it by also answering the query whether the European law itself is to be regarded as the extension of some domestic laws or it offers quite a new and sui generis structure built upon all member states' laws. In either option, the connection between the European law and the composing national laws recalls the embodiment of post modern clichés, as the former's actual working (both purposefully and through its by-effects) exerts a destructive impact upon the bounds once erected by the latter's anchorage in the traditions of legal positivism. In addition, the excellence in efficacious operation of the European law is achieved by transposing the control on its central enactments to autonomous implementation and jurisdiction by its member nations. According to the conclusions of the paper, (1) the (post) positivism as the traditional domestic juristic outlook is inappropriate to any adequate investigation of the reality of European law. As part of the global post modernism itself, the European law stems from a kind of artificial reality construction (as the attempted mnaterialisation of its own virtuality), which is from the outset freed from the captivity of both historical particularities and htuuan experience, i.e., of anything concretely given hic et nunc. At the same time, (2) by its operation the European law dynamises large structures, through which it makes to move that what is chaos itself. For it is the reconstructive human intent solely that may try to arrange its outcome according to some ideal of order posteriorly-without, however, the operation itself (forming its construct and assuring its daily management) striving for anything of order (or ordered state and systemicity). This is the way in which the European law can be an adequate reflection upon the (macro) economic basis to which it fonims the superstructure. Accordingly, (3) the whole construct is frameworked (i.e., integrated into one working unit and also mnobilised) by an artificially animated dynamism. Concludingly, no national interest can be asserted in it without successful national self-positioning ready to launch it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the role of labor market institutions in explaining different labor market developments in European countries, paying special attention to the new EU member countries. This may allow us to analyze the effects of various institutional setups and their changes to major labor market indicators. We complement several studies from the late 1990s by using more recent data that allow us to compare institutional setups from the mid-1990s and early 2000s in both old and new EU member states. We estimate the effects of labor market institutions on various performance indicators (unemployment, long-term unemployment, employment, activity rate). Our results confirm that high taxes increase unemployment, whereas active labor market policies tend to reduce it. We also show that stricter employment protection, higher taxes, and a larger economic burden represented by the minimum wage decrease employment and activity rates. Statistical tests indicate a difference in the institutional effects between old and new EU members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Romania's EU accession made significant changes in the tax area imposed by the harmonization of national laws system of member countries. Thus it disappeared the concepts of export and import in the relationship between Member States, which are replaced by new notions, such as: intra-community acquisition (instead of import) and intra-community supply (instead of export). Given the changes occurring in the tax laws and their complexity, in this paper/work I proposed to approach the specific tax treatment inside-community with reference to triangular transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Antropológicas is the property of Edicoes Universidade Fernando Pessoa 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 analyses the accession to the euro-area by new members using a stylized new-Keynesian model. We analyze macroeconomic adjustment in the pre- and post-accession case and calculate welfare in both situations to obtain net benefit/loss from accession. It is shown how the effects of accession is related to the conduct of monetary policy and fiscal policy in the pre- and post-accession case. The simulation examples point at the potential costs that accession might entail due its consequences on monetary and fiscal policy design. These consequences from accession in terms of macroeconomic stabilization ability of monetary and fiscal policies have not always been fully acknowledged and may need more attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates current issues surrounding the role and development of rural tourism in southeastern Europe (SEE) (Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and much of former Yugoslavia), setting this within the wider context of change in post-communist central and eastern Europe (CEE). It examines local and global factors of development and change, particularly within the context of aspirations towards sustainability. The paper concludes that the impacts of EU membership — both of the 2004 enlargement, and later potentially for the countries of southeastern Europe themselves — is likely to be crucial in market and product development for rural tourism. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) represents one of the most advanced pieces of water policy developed during the last decades. Since its introduction in 2000, several technical and political issues arose regarding this Directive and its implementation, and have to be managed by European Member States at the national level, but in strict collaboration with local authorities and stakeholders. Whilst several studies have analysed the WFD from a technical point of view, a few are available that assess and compare the quality of public participation processes in river basin management at the European level. The present paper shows the outcomes of an own-developed questionnaire sent to European water and environmental authorities during 2015, which highlights the variable situation in terms of stakeholders' involvement and methods adopted to interact with them, and also points out the scarce results that the consultation has obtained in terms of innovative measures to fulfil the requirements of the WFD. In light of the present situation, a better consideration of public consultation and associated methodologies is necessary for future management cycles, as well as a better coordination between Member States sharing river basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the analyses of the Europe 2020 Strategy's indicators and on the economic growth trend. The analysis is built on three steps: regression under ANOVA approach, two-step cluster analysis based on Euclidean distance and forecasting under ARIMA procedure. The main conclusions of the paper are connected to the increasing of the socio-economic disparities between the Balkan economies and between them and EU average during 2014-2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses policies of 22 European Union member governments, designed to encourage corporate social responsibility (CSR) between 2000 and 2011. It categorises these policies by their regulatory strength and identifies the range of issues to which CSR policies are directed. The paper argues that Northern European, Scandinavian and UK governments are reconstructing their respective institutional structures to embed CSR concerns more explicitly therein. It concludes that these government CSR initiatives are converging, particularly around their increased regulatory strength and the broadening of their issue application. Policies in Mediterranean and the former communist countries do not reflect increasing institutionalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates reverse knowledge transfer of foreign multinational subsidiaries in Central and Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary) in the light of the current political and economic transformations of these former communist countries. The study examines whether foreign subsidiaries in the region share their knowledge base with their sister-subsidiaries and parent company, and the role of various factors in this knowledge sharing. These factors include subsidiary initiative, subsidiary autonomy, local dynamism and corporate embeddedness. A proprietary dataset is used for statistical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focuses on the principles of mutual recognition and mutual trust in the area of justice and home affairs, with which the current Member States are supposed to comply and which are so vigorously applied in the Western Balkans. The growing importance of these principles both for the Member States and the candidate and potential candidate countries will be discussed, since the pre-accession framework is a very powerful tool to export these values and principles to the Western Balkans. In addition, the paper will argue that on the one hand the EU is aware that the current Member States do not comply with these values and principles and the tools available to force the Member States to comply are very weak. On the other hand, the Western Balkan countries are not allowed one step further towards membership if they do not comply with these values and principles. This illustrates that the EU has double standards in the application of its values and principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its crucial role in sustaining better integration, multilingualism is not discussed as widely as the other topics of multiculturalism within the context of the European Union (EU) enlargement. The accession process requires Turkey to take notice of the opportunities and shortcomings as well as the challenges of European multilingualism and to communicate the relevance of the Turkish language to the completeness of European multiculturalism. The present article aims to assess the EU language policy in light of the future imperative of incorporating Turkish into Europe's linguistic family by referring to the EU's laws, norms, and values as well as NGOs' reports and opinion papers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Turkish-EU relations have occupied the Turkish political agenda since 1959. However, it was only after the Cold War that relations gained momentum and began to have a deep running impact on Turkish socio-political developments. One such area of impact has been the political regime of Turkey. In an effort to accommodate the standards of Turkish democracy with the Copenhagen Criteria, Turkish governments have initiated several constitutional amendments. This paper analyses the context and the nature of constitutional amendments made in the last three decades, and examines the role that EU-Turkish relations played in the modification of the Turkish political regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I examine responses to norm indeterminacy in the transnational context, focusing on regional integration in post-War Europe. I argue that the development of the European Union has been facilitated by the use of a legitimizing device whereby policy decisions at a European level are cast as beyond the scope of reasonable political disagreement and therefore distinct from the conditions which make democracy a desirable political form at the national level. This rejection of the political significance of norm indeterminacy has led to a widely diagnosed trend of "depoliticization" in European politics. The paper examines how best to understand this trend, and explores how an adapted account of "enlightened localism" might offer better ways of coping with indeterminate norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influenced by international donors and policy institutions, civic activism in Turkey has increasingly become synonymous with carrying out projects. Project culture is reshaping what civil society is, and what civic activism means. By showing how civil society is changing due to the integration of Turkey with the outside world, particularly with the EU, this article aims to move beyond the prevalent approaches to the study of Turkey-EU relations, which emphasize macro-policy issues and most often discuss pros and cons regarding Turkish EU-membership or evaluate how far Turkey is from fulfilling various criteria. Instead, this paper argues for an increased focus on how Turkey-EU relations reshape Turkish political culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several countries in Europe have recently adopted obligatory language and country-knowledge requirements for settlement, naturalisation and immigration. Integration tests, courses and contracts are only a few examples of the new 'civic integration policies' states are using to promote individual autonomy and common values for newcomers. Are these requirements in response to concrete problems of immigrant integration? Do they enable, or actually inhibit, integration? This paper examines the various pressures behind attaching mandatory integration requirements to status acquisition. To systematically examine these policies, I develop a civic integration index (CIVIX) to measure language, country-knowledge and value-commitment requirements across the EU-15. While there is a general shift toward civic requirements across Europe, evidence reveals important differences in the degree of policy change. Finally, I explore how new civic requirements complement or challenge existing citizenship practices, identifying where integration is facilitated and rewarded with citizenship. I also show where civic requirements fill strategic goals, mainly controlling the inflow and impact of immigration. The arguments made here support a critical rethinking of the conventional wisdom about national models of integration and a dynamic understanding of state citizenship strategies, where policies define not only the rules but also the content of national membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue of JEMS deals with the challenges of migration for citizenship attribution in Western Europe. In this introductory paper we analyse recent developments in citizenship attribution across Western Europe over the past 25 years. Despite the contradictory impact of the instrumentalisation and politicisation of citizenship policies, and the fact that countries have different citizenship traditions and migration experiences, we observe six broad trends. These relate to the descent-based transmission of citizenship by women, men and emigrants; ius soli provisions for second- and third-generation immigrants; the acceptance of multiple citizenship; the introduction of language and integration requirements for naturalisation; the avoidance of statelessness; and the increasing relevance of EU membership. We describe the background and core features of each of these six trends and provide empirical examples from citizenship policies in 18 West European countries since the early 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Positive action is a highly contested concept and its meaning varies across states. Law plays a key role in shaping the boundaries of positive action. This paper presents the findings of a comparative study of law and positive action both inside and outside the European Union. It sets out the approach to positive action within European Community (EC) law and, based on that, constructs a legal definition of positive action. It then turns to consider practice at domestic level and uncovers a broad diversity of approaches. The non-EU comparator countries (USA, Canada and South Africa) have been more willing to impose obligations on public and private bodies to engage in positive action than have been the EU Member States considered in this study. Notwithstanding the constraints deriving from EC legislation on positive action measures, there is some evidence of a trend towards duties to take positive action emerging within the EU Member States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between territorial representation and fiscal redistribution in the European Union. Given that small states are over-represented in both the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers, simple models of legislative vote-buying predict that over-represented member states will be favored in the distribution of EU transfers. We examine this proposition for each manifestation of the EC or EU since 1977 with data on agricultural, regional development, and total net transfers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking into account the attempts to render the European integration process a new cultural and value-based quality on the one hand, and the prevalence of sceptical positions on the other, the role of religion as a factor shaping the process of European integration and its accompanying features such as Euroscepticism deserves special attention. It may be argued that the entire EU is a project inaugurated and pushed along primarily by Christian Democratic forces and inspirations. However, the EU is currently characterised by an advanced state of secularisation in most of its member states and high levels of religious and cultural pluralisation. This article raises the question to what extent religious, in particular Christian, actors such as religious parties and the churches have strayed from this integrationist past and contributed to Euroscepticism. Furthermore, the second question is whether a confessional pattern of Euroscepticism can be identified. The paper addresses these questions by empirically and comparatively analysing the positions and influence of religious actors on Euroscepticism in a selected group of EU member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]