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The mantra of 'take back control' has become a staple of eurosceptics across the European Union. At the centre of the slogan's message is a call to arms against the (perceived) challenge that EU membership represents for national sovereignty. In this paper, we theorize that supranational decisions taken by the European Court of Justice can increase 'polity scepticism' – increased opposition to the EU and decreased satisfaction with national democracy – by cueing citizens regarding the effects of EU integration on the perception of diluted sovereignty. Empirically, we leverage quasi-experimental evidence to support our theory, establishing that ECJ rulings have a significant causal effect on euroscepticism and dissatisfaction with democracy. The implications of our findings suggest that EU institutions seeking to ensure compliance with the rule of law and EU norms should proceed with caution. Interventionist action may backfire by increasing scrutiny of the EU's legitimacy and undermining polity support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 17 January 2023, the Court of Justice delivered its judgment in the Spain v Commission (Kosovo) case, ruling that despite the EU's non-recognition of Kosovo as a State, Kosovo may participate as a third country in an EU agency under the obligations laid down in Article 35(2) of the BEREC Regulation. The judgment is significant because it clarifies Kosovo's relations with the EU and, more specifically, the ability of Kosovo as a third country to participate in EU agencies. This article analyses the Court of Justice of the European Union judgments in Spain v Commission (Kosovo) and discusses the impact on the future accession of Kosovo to the EU. The paper argues that while these judgments have a positive effect on the consideration of Kosovo as a 'third country' in joining EU bodies and agencies, non-recognition of Kosovo as an independent State by five EU Member States is an obstacle to advancing further its prospects of European integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is an open question to what extent the accession countries will be able to benefit from an increase in the quality of FDI that they receive due to EU membership. The point here is that the benefits that accrued from EU membership to the countries that joined earlier are substantially attenuated for later entrants to the EU because of globalization. This paper will discuss the similarities between the economic structures of those two countries, the Spanish investments in Romania and how the Spanish experience after its EU accession could be used for Romania after 2007 when it acceded to EU, too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to analyse party attitudes towards the European Union (EU) and the issue of citizenship as voiced by the party central office in the official programmatic platforms. For this purpose, Euromanifestos have been coded by applying the common framework of the IntUne project. Accordingly, the article attempts to assess the degree of convergence between the attitudes of both the party central office and the MPs towards the EU in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The article attempts as well to assess the validity of the main theoretical arguments available in the literature that explain these attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After Romania joined the European Union in 2007, a massive wave of Romanian immigrants reached the Western countries in search for work, and the most significant migration took place in the Spanish kingdom. They were not the first Romanians to arrive in Spain, so they added their number to that of those who immigrated before, in the two decades after the fall of the Communist regime. Many Romanian children were born in Spain, so when they reached school age, they were at best bilingual; nevertheless, there are children who need to take Romanian classes in school, as they chose not to learn their native tongue at home. Our article analyzes the ways Spanish influence their pronunciation and orthography of Romanian, based on test papers and homework that demonstrate the level of confusion produced in these children by their bilingualism, with Castilian being their first choice of language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In late 2004, the Conference for EU-Related Affairs (CARUE) approved two agreements governing the participation of the autonomous communities in the Council of the European Union and its preparatory bodies. After more than seven years of implementation, the system is not bringing the expected results. The problems identified in practice in a context, moreover, of institutional and economic crisis, call for new approaches. The following paper analyses the main obstacles that have arisen since the implementation of the 2004 agreements with a view to determining future prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current productivity slowdown has stimulated research on the causes of growth. We investigate here the proximate determinants of long‐term growth in Spain. Over the last 170 years, output per hour worked raised nearly 24‐fold dominating gross domestic product (GDP) growth, while hours worked per person shrank by one‐fourth and population trebled. Half of labour productivity growth resulted from capital deepening, one‐third from total factor productivity (TFP) and labour quality contributed the rest. In phases of acceleration (the 1920s and 1954–1985), TFP was labour productivity's main driver complemented by capital deepening. Since Spain's accession to the European Union (1985), labour productivity has sharply decelerated as capital deepening slowed down and TFP stagnated. Up to the Global Financial Crisis (2008) GDP growth mainly resulted from an increase in hours worked per person and, to a less extent, from sluggish labour productivity coming mostly from weak capital deepening. Institutional constraints help explain the labour productivity slowdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Applied Linguistics 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.)

Abstracts, in English, of articles published in the issue are presented, including one on residential tourism in Spain, one on action research in sex and relationships education, and one on the effect of public opinion surveys on attitudes towards the accession of Turkey to the European Union.

Since its accession to the European Community in 1985, Spain has been considered a pro-European country. However, in 2005 the referendum on the European Constitution revealed the existence of some fractures among parties, while Spaniards' acritical acceptance of the relationship between Spain and Europe has also been denounced. The article asks whether these developments suggest an increasing euroscepticism among Spanish political parties and citizens. It reviews the euroscepticism of Spanish parties and citizens and concludes with a reflection on the links between parties and citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elite perceptions about Europe are very important in understanding the current trajectory of the European integration process, as well as the future perspectives for the continent. In this article, we present the main descriptive results of an empirical analysis looking at the attitudes of Spanish political and economic elites along the three dimensions of the IntUne project: representation, identity, and scope of governance. We examine the set of explanatory factors that may account for such attitudes. These factors are also tested through multivariate analyses. The 2007 IntUne project survey is used as the main database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article demonstrates that the constitutionalization of the EU began with a political struggle to set the rules by which the community would respond to applications for membership. By mobilizing to block Spain's association with the EEC in 1962, European parliamentarians, trade unionists, and others who believed that democratic and human rights principles should be institutionalized within the community established an informal rule governing the community's policy practice that laid the groundwork for the subsequent constitutionalization of democratic and human rights principles within the community's treaties and jurisprudence. It demonstrates the critical contribution to the political construction of Europe made by non-state actors willing to challenge the preferences of member state governments and shows that otherwise weak actors are significantly empowered when they are able to identify their preferences with pre-existing domestic and international norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no foundation for the view that the balance between small and large member countries has changed through the successive enlargements of the EU. In most cases, the share of votes of the large countries is about 75 percent of what it would have been if the votes had been distributed in proportion to their population, and this figure has changed very little over the years. The great exception is Germany, which is due to the reunification. The effects of the enlargements and of a greater share of small and overrepresented countries have been borne to the same extent by all member countries. The relationship between the over/under representation of small and large countries has not changed since 1958. The share of the total population needed for a decision by qualified majority has, however, fallen, particularly with the accession of Spain and Portugal and the German reunification, and the majority has in a way become "less qualified." This will continue with the coming enlargements, but the widespread belief that the small countries could outvote countries with a majority of the population is erroneous. This article examines the changes in the system that were suggested during the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference. A change of the same magnitude as these could be achieved through a simple formula based on objective criteria and would also eliminate the inconsistencies of the present system and the need for new negotiations at each enlargement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]