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We examine the effects of European integration on economic redistribution in Central and Eastern Europe. While accession to the European Union provided new economic opportunities, it also imposed considerable constraints. Using cross-sectional time-series analysis of 11 post-communist countries between 2004 and 2018, we focus on the impact of trade flows, cohesion policy funds, emigration, remittances, and Economic and Monetary Union membership. We find that emigration and commercial reorientation toward the European Union are associated with greater efforts to alleviate income inequality. In contrast, the adoption of the euro induces lower redistribution. Finally, the receipt of European Union cohesion funds does not affect income differentials. To our knowledge, this is one of the first systematic analyses of how the European Union shapes inequality dynamics in Central and Eastern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the political origins of diverse peripheral growth models in Europe, focusing on debt-based consumption-led growth model in Southern Europe and FDI-based export-led growth model in Central and Eastern Europe. Contrary to existing approaches that attribute this East-South divergence to their geographic position and systemic features of European monetary integration, the paper argues that these growth models stem from different national and EU-level policy responses to the challenge of core-periphery market integration. While the Southern states sought to protect domestic firms, allowing for, or even directly contributing to deindustrialisation in the face of competition with the European core economies, Central and East European states aimed to preserve their industrial legacy even at the expense of FDI-dependency. These policy responses were, in turn, shaped by distinct patterns of interaction and accommodation between segments of state elites and domestic economic groups, as well as by dramatically different EU strategies of governing integration. In contrast with society-centred perspectives on the politics of growth models, the paper highlights the autonomous role of the state as a key actor balancing between the demands and accommodation of domestic economic groups, and the constraints and opportunities created by regional institutions governing market integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Progress made in European defence-industrial integration has been subjected to the hardest test with the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The conflict has had profound implications for European defence industries across the board and spurred on massive investment into the sector. Based on extensive analysis of procurements, adopted policies, and shifts in discourse, we argue that the practical steps undertaken by Central and Eastern European (CEE) defence industries in the wake of the conflict are disintegrational. This is contrary to many discernible indicators which align with European integrational initiatives in defence. Moreover, the paper argues that the pattern of decisions taken by Central and Eastern European countries reinforces structural barriers to potential future European defence-industrial integration. The findings are significant to EU-wide, regional, and bilateral defence-industrial co-operation as well as national defence industrial strategies in reaction to the ongoing war in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the US financial meltdown in 2008 that sparked a Eurozone crisis, the European Union has introduced new financial market initiatives that were intended to advance integration, bring stability, and create shared prosperity for EU members. Innovations included Banking Union, Capital Markets Union, and the European Fund for Strategic Investments. We find, however, that tensions between supranationalization and retaining national control in institutional design diminished incentives for full participation, particularly among the EU's East Central European members. Uneven levels of foreign bank ownership between East and West Europe, disparities in the depth of capital markets, and varying institutional capacity have often led Eastern member states to opt out. Paradoxically, initiatives intended to advance integration and overcome developmental inequalities have instead compounded national fragmentation and restricted pathways to catching up for some of the EU's less prosperous members. Thus, European financial integration was stalled by design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the Central and Eastern European (CEE) states undergo a populist-nationalist revival, perhaps the most perplexing phenomenon has been the vibrancy of subregional cooperation initiatives. The Three Seas Initiative (TSI) is the most recent platform to join the list. While it is still too early to deliver a verdict on the effect this initiative will have on the future of European integration, it is indisputable that it marks a shift in the dynamics of European subregionalism. Namely, some of the states that are spearheading and supporting the initiative seem to be openly contesting European unity, which runs counter to the previous initiatives that were formed in support of further EU integration. This article analyses CEE's standing within the EU in the context of TSI and argues that both rationalist and normative foundations of the most recent wave of subregionalism have significantly changed compared to the previous instances of subregional cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent is political fragmentation associated with changes in democracy? The article uses the European integration process of ten Central and East European democracies to argue that political fragmentation is distinctly related to changes in democracy, depending on whether it is the government or opposition that is fragmented. Moreover, this association is mitigated by EU conditionality in the integration process. The paper tests the argument through the use of time-series cross-sectional data. The findings illustrate the importance of opposition fragmentation as an essential factor in explaining changes in democracy. In conclusion, the article draws attention to the understudied literature on opposition fragmentation by highlighting the theoretical implications of the findings for comparative politics and European integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The journal known as Socialist World—the short-lived publication of the Committee of the International Socialist Conference—is instructive for what it reveals about European Social Democracy at the beginning of the Cold War and about the problems of internationalism among Socialists. At first, the journal served to mediate between West European anti-Communist Socialists and the Communists in Eastern Europe. The Socialists tried to reach a common understanding of world affairs through a dialogue across borders, but divergent ideas and the impact of international events tore this cohabitation apart. After the Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia in February 1948, Socialist World became an instrument of anti-Communist propaganda. The articles in the journal also reveal the interests, concerns, and opinions of Socialists during the early Cold War regarding bipolar confrontation, planning, European integration, and colonialism. The journal was too public to allow frank discussion and too overburdened with rules to focus on topics of greater interest. Socialist parties that aspired to gain election in their countries wanted to protect their respectability—a concern made more urgent by the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the countries of Eastern Europe as a democratic legal state is primarily determined by how rational and efficient the organization of state power is. Recently, one can observe a tendency for riveted attention to change from central to local government, which is represented by local authorities. Local self-government is one of the fundamental democratic foundations of the constitutional system in postmodern society. That is why its modern transformation is being updated by the role of the most important factor in the development of the entire system of Ukrainian statehood. And having chosen the European direction as the vector of external integration, it became expedient to study the experience of countries that have gone through a complex, but progressive, path of reform in a postmodern society. Comparing the European integration aspirations with the program of changes that Ukraine needs, one should choose the right benchmark on which one can or must rely on in the process of modern institutionalization of the power system. In our opinion, the option of choosing a country of permanent democracy, which have gone the path of many years of change, containing revolutionary upheavals, and have a specific historical development, is erroneous. But neighboring European countries, not only bordering Ukraine, but have also gone through similar stages of development, can set the basic vector for domestic institutional changes. For a long time, the Interstate Association of the Visegrad Four Countries has been a partner and conductor of Ukraine's foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's cooperation approach demonstrated through the Belt and Road Initiative is quite different in comparison to regional integration in Europe. Geographical limits, differences in culture, value systems, social and political realities make such a comparison disputable. The aim of this paper is not to compare the European integration experience with the most significant Chinese cooperation project. The study is rather focused on briefly evaluating the cooperation model applied by China towards the region of Central and Eastern Europe and the way it interacts with and affects the EU integration model. It also gives consideration to the evolving geopolitical situation at the regional and global levels. Methodologically, the study builds on an interdisciplinary approach that allows for assessing the problem in historical, legal, economic, and diplomatic aspect. The methodological framework is supplemented by the application of some instruments of geopolitical analysis. The paper argues that China's approach towards the CEE region has the potential to exacerbate some of the divisions within the increasingly fragmented European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To many citizens in post-communist states European Union (EU) membership represented a historical–civilisational choice: an end to the Cold War division of Europe and symbolic reuniting of Eastern Europe with a 'West' that they had always considered themselves to be part of culturally and spiritually. In fact, in spite of its multiple crises, there continued to be high levels of support for EU membership and 'Hard' rejectionist Eurosceptic discourses were confined to the margins of politics. However, the increasing sense of East European cultural distinctiveness, highlighted by the post-communist states' responses to the European migration crisis, meant that pro-EU discourses were less romantic and more instrumental, driven increasingly by a cost–benefit analysis based on an evaluation of the tangible material benefits that the Union was felt to deliver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and over a decade after its reunification, the European Union (EU) is experiencing increasingly more challenges toward its unity. The EU has experienced a number of crises in the early 2000s, the breakaway of one of its members in 2019, and is challenged by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The latter crisis exhibits, on the one hand, the need for social coherence and unified policies, and on the other, has prompted the physical closure of borders, and divergent responses by domestic political elite. One such reaction—the adopted strengthening of power for Hungary's Prime Minister—has prompted an international outcry and re-heated the debate of the democratic backtracking of some of the new EU member-states. Analyzing the process of European Enlargement and the changing sentiments about European Integration in a number of East European countries, this symposium brings to the fore important questions about the relationship between Eastern and Western Europe. Although there is a general consensus that both the East and the West have benefited and continue to benefit from their reunion, it is nevertheless the case that the quick assimilation of liberal values has led to policies seen as threatening the liberal democracy model of the EU that we need to address in order to preserve the stability of the Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Iron Curtain stands for the division of Europe and is a symbol of the global political order of the twentieth century. Its fall is also a symbol of overcoming the division and the new European unity. Paradoxically, the Iron Curtain was also useful in the process of European integration and in construction of European communities. It served as a boundary which helped to build a sense of belonging to a community of values--the core of European identity--because on the other side of it there was another Europe representing different, even opposite, values on which the communist Eastern Europe was established. From the point of view of identity construction some new questions were raised as Europe after 1989 appeared to be more complicated than before. Where would the new European borders be placed? What do we all united Europeans have in common? Are we meaningfully different from whoever will be on the other side of the new border? Who will be excluded from the European integrating community and on what grounds? What will be the basis of the new collective identity of the EU? Do we, all European, in the West and in the East, share the same values and consider them to be the foundation of the united Europe? It seems that it will not be possible to build a common European identity on the basis of shared cultural tradition and common heritage as there is too much diversity to overcome. It is more likely that a common European identity may be constructed on the basis of liberal, civic values, less exclusive and more forwardlooking. It is therefore of utmost importance that European institutions firmly stand by their liberal values, especially in view of the current illiberal turn in many EU countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-communist Central and Eastern European legal cultures in general, and judicial style in particular, are often characterized as formalistic. This article reconstructs two ideological narratives about the formalist heritage of CEE judiciary, variants of which have dominated academic and policy debates about rule of law, judicial reforms and European integration in the last three decades. As the debate becomes linked to deeply rooted and long-term, sometimes traumatic issues of national and political identity, patterns of ideological thinking resurface easily. While it is symptomatic of CEE political cultures that the debate on judicial method has become a battleground for fierce controversies about collective (political) identity, arguably this exemplifies a broader phenomenon. Other weak or peripheral national cultures also face and struggle with issues of collective identity and inferiority complexes which may resurface in professional discourses and seemingly unpolitical domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a mixed-methods measurement of the mass-elite congruence of opinions on the EU based on a combination of speech and survey data. It focuses on two countries (Bulgaria and Romania) that were known for their pro-European profile until their EU accession, but which faced many political difficulties afterwards. The analysis covers the 2013–2017 period that includes a great deal of these post-accession difficulties. The article illustrates how we can make meaningful comparisons between short-term, dichotomous mass, and elite attitudes with timeframes determined by non-electoral events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although civil societies in Central and Eastern Europe are often portrayed as similar, united by a shared communist past, they have developed along increasingly divergent trajectories over the past three decades. This article investigates the current state of civil society in the region and the role the institutional context plays in it. Drawing on historical institutionalism and the process of European integration, we classify the 14 countries under investigation into three distinct groups and analyze data from a survey of more than 350 local civil society experts. We find that, together with domestic governments, international donors and the EU are perceived as the most influential institutional actors for civil society organizations. Their respective influences, however, depend largely on a country's stage in the EU accession process. Overall, the study provides a differentiated mapping of civil society in this region and a better understanding of how the institutional context relates to a country's civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper qualitatively explores how runners orientate themselves to a time and a route to run in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. The experiences of urban running enable a better understanding of the embodiments and techniques involved in physical activity participation in an urban environment. The paper draws on data from a mixed methods research project of recreational running in Sofia, offering a discussion of everyday experience, running practices and urban space. The study combines participant observation, running diaries and in-depth qualitative interviews with runners to think through the many processes involved in learning and maintaining a physical practice in an urban environment. The paper concludes by identifying the key issues and experiences of the runners and how these can be utilised to improve our knowledge of running in cities. This study draws attention to the challenges in establishing landscapes of movement for European cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current European policies for agriculture are characterized by efficiency and economic performance. Their main objective is the stability of the environment. For any European country, European integration represent or must represent stability and economic growth, this two elements being essential to adapt to the current macroeconomic changes. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the evolution of the situation of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe regarding the influence of European funds for agriculture. Being members of the European Union, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe had to adopt the acquis communautaire regarding European agricultural policy and must use EU funds for rural development. The aspect that individualizes this paper is the analysis of regional specialization and concentration of European funds for agriculture using the Herfindahl-Hirschman index. The analysis will be based on data from international institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With democracy declining and becoming sporadically illiberal and populist in Europe and elsewhere, the questions of democratic transformation gain new resonance and topicality. Within the European Union and its neighbourhoods, the results of long-pursued Europeanisation are being reconsidered against the new criteria of democratic transition resilience, as well as against the new realities of emerging de-democratisation and de-Europeanisation undercurrents - and the re-emerging split of Europe. The thirtieth anniversary of the Central and Eastern European countries' democratic transition and 'return to EUrope' provides a good opportunity to reassess successes and shortcomings of their transformation trajectories. Rather than engaging in a metrical exercise of measuring the quality of democracy in each EU member state, this article approaches the puzzle of East-Central European states' transition resilience from an interdisciplinary law and politics perspective on the respective countries' transition to EU 'member-statehood' and 'neighbour-statehood' as distinct types of statehood. In so doing, it develops an account of European Union 'member state-building' and 'neighbour state-building' as an inherent part of the respective countries' simultaneous transformation, European integration, and state-building agendas. Drawing on the democratisation, Europeanisation and state-building literatures, as well as a wealth of primary sources, this article bridges the discussion of the differentiated EU-induced and EU-centric transition trajectories of candidate and non-candidate countries in light of them becoming successfully, or less so, 'ideal' EU members or neighbours, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical grievances of different political groups in the EU contributed to the rising opposition to "Brussels". This opposition is often framed through memories that contest the official EU narrative of the peaceful and prosperous continental integration that was able to overcome the destructions of the two world wars and the Cold War divisions. Based on the analysis of the development of some of the most prominent Eurosceptic parties (le Front National, die Alternative für Deutschland, Syriza, Podemos, Fidesz, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość), it is argued that recent EU crises and especially their interpretations have been influenced by the legacies of some of the most important periods of twentieth-century European history. The legacy of the Second World War and its aftermath in two founding member states (France, Germany), the legacy of right-wing dictatorships in two Southern European member states (Greece, Spain) and the legacy of communist dictatorships in two Central and Eastern European member states (Hungary, Poland) still shape narratives and stances towards European integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Soviet and post-Soviet period, countries of Central and Eastern Europe experienced difficult social transformation processes. At the same time, these states remained marginal in European integration projects. In this context, the European integration vision of Pope John Paul II became relevant. He emphasized the important role of Central and Eastern part of Europe, its identity, spiritual and cultural heritage in the context of the European unity concepts. St. Cyril and Methodius became the special symbols and the personification of identity of Central and Eastern Europe in Pope's vision. On the basis of analysis of researches, works and speeches the connection between the figures of St. Cyril and Methodius and the European vision of John Paul II is analysed. Particular attention is paid to his interpretation of actuality of St. Cyril and Methodius heritage for modern Europe in three important aspects: European integration, ecumenism, spiritual and cultural European identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European policy responses to the Global Financial Crisis and its European manifestation have set off a scholarly debate whether different national varieties of capitalism are equally able to cope with deepened European integration. To date, this debate has mostly focused on the contrasting fates of the thriving northern export-oriented capitalisms and the ailing southern European ones. This paper seeks to broaden the debate by focusing on Europe’s Eastern periphery. It argues that a combination of domestic transformation strategies and the EU’s accession policies resulted in two different growth regimes on Europe’s Eastern periphery: a dependent export-driven in the Visegrád countries and a dependent debt-driven in the Baltic States. On the basis of the pre- and post-crisis trajectories of these two growth models, this paper finds that because East Central European capitalisms were profoundly shaped by EU integration, they are on balance also more compatible with deepened integration than Southern European capitalisms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is an assessment of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) energy framework. It presents the research results concerning the impact of the initiative on energy transition of the EaP countries. We try to make the way through the maze of legal acts and EU reports on support in the energy sector and to identify the key trends. Firstly the evaluation focuses on the financial help awarded to the region and based on that we draw the conclusions on effectiveness of the EaP agenda. Secondly this study determines the place of the EaP energy platform within the already existing legal framework in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between the years 1870 and 1914, leftist intellectuals in the Kingdom of Serbia theorized and promoted a project of Balkan Federation as a strategic priority in the social, economic, and political transformation of the region. This article offers a genealogy of these federalist ideas and places them in dialogue with rival projects of regional unification in the Balkans and Eastern Europe during the long nineteenth century.It begins by developing a typology of federalist projects in Europe, categorizing these according to the underlying models of sovereignty upon which they were founded. I identify four categories: revolutionary-republican, imperial-reformist, imperial-irredentist, and revolutionary-social. Instead of organizing these federalisms according to their authors’ ideological commitments (socialist, nationalist, pan-Slavic) or their geographic scope (Balkan, Danubian), the article argues that examining their respective models of sovereignty offers intellectual historians a more productive approach to identify the unexpected convergences and divergences of federalist projects during this period.The article then moves into a discussion of the development of Serbian socialist ideas of Balkan Federation, beginning first with the work of Svetozar Marković (1846–1875) and then turning to the writings of the fin de siècle Social Democratic Party in the decade before World War I. Situating this genealogy of socialist Balkan federalism in its broader European intellectual milieu, I use the above typology to identify the ways in which Serbian socialists converged and diverged from contemporary federalist projects, including the reformist ideas of the Austro-Marxists, the irredentist strategy of the Serbian Progressive Party, and the republican ideas of Karel Kautsky. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the unity of the European Union (EU), focusing on the influence of former communist countries on the split in the EU. It talks about the differences in political culture and economic interests between the East and West Europe. Topics include contemporary politics of European integration, government deficit, and political views on immigration.

This article enters in dialogue with the findings of the ‘Europeanization East’ literature that the Central and Eastern European countries adjusted to the European Union (EU) policies due to the overwhelming effect of the EU pre-accession conditionality. It is examined here whether this conclusion also applies to the foreign-aid policy adoption in two candidate states: Slovenia and Latvia. Also, the post-accession performance is studied to draw conclusions about what factors can account for the continuation of the policy evolution from 2004 to 2010. It is argued here that EU conditionality was present also in the foreign-aid policy area, but it was vague and not the only factor that mattered. Moreover, it is claimed here that identification and social influence can explain why the countries adopted foreign-aid policy in the pre-accession period and why they continued the policy even after accession. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article seeks to contribute to the burgeoning literature on how parties assign salience to their issue stances. With regard to European integration, recent research has pointed not only to growing public Euro-scepticism but also to an increase in the importance that the public assigns to European issues. But are parties matching this shift with appropriate salience shifts of their own? The existing literature points to important constraints on parties achieving such salience representation that arise from the nature of inherited issue ownership and the nature of political cleavages. There are also reasons to expect important differences between Western European and Central European parties in the extent to which such constraints apply. We investigate these issues using data from expert surveys conducted in twenty-four European countries at two time points, 2007–2008 and 2013, that provide measures of the salience of European integration to parties along with other indicators that are used as predictors of salience. The results do not suggest that CEE parties assign salience in ways that differ substantially from their counterparts in Western Europe. What matters most in both regions is the position that parties adopt on the issues, with parties at the extremes on the European dimension being the ones to make the issue most salient in their appeals. We also note that some predicted determinants of issue salience, such as government status, electoral support and time spent in office, and party organization, are dogs that do not bark in both regions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents an introduction to special section in the periodical which discusses political party systems in Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe and reviews the articles on European integration, party organization, and mobilization of students.

The transformation of the Eastern European countries from communist states to EU members was supported by massive investments in Western discourses and social science knowledge and export programmes for these from the West to the East. In the West, and specifically in the US, a market for discourses and knowledge production professionalized and intertwined with institutions that exported specific forms of policy visions of US modes of the State. In the East, the importation of discourses and knowledge became pivotal in the struggles for power of modelling the state and its institutions, and thus as knowledge tools to guide and legitimize the path towards democracy and later towards membership of the EU. Based on the notion of co-production, this study focuses on how leading American and European lawyers, think tanks and different agencies were involved in the reorganisation of the Bulgarian field of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, a wide literature has critically analysed individual aspects related to the role and the impact of international aid to Southeast Europe (SEE), bringing to light both its successes and failures. However, 22 years after the communist collapse and the Yugoslav dismemberment, a broad re-examination of the aid policies pursued in SEE and of the rationale behind these policies is becoming increasingly necessary, in light of (a) the global financial and economic crisis, (b) the sharp decline of support from external bodies and (c) the persistence of controversial and unresolved conflicts and rivalries at the macro-regional level, particularly where reconciliation remains to be reached. Therefore, this article aims to discuss whether, under these new conditions, the support so far offered to SEE requires the most relevant donors to change their strategy and methods in order to achieve the proclaimed goals of stability, development and integration into the Euro-Atlantic framework, which appears to be still fragile in the region under scrutiny. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article sheds new light on the interrelation between Western European integration and the Cold War by unveiling and bringing under scrutiny the active role of the EEC in East–West relations. It argues that the EEC's pro-active Eastern policy was pivotal in loosening Cold War constraints in Europe and engendering instead a new kind of intra-European relations. Relations between the EEC and socialist bloc countries grew more intense and diversified, irrespective of the renewed superpower confrontation. Not only were détente and integration compatible, they actually reinforced each other, and the EEC proved to be a major and successful promoter of the overcoming of the Cold War in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes how official journalists in the state-socialist dictatorships communicated economic co-operation with the West to the domestic audience. It discusses the hypothesis of West–East transfers causing a structural differentiation of the official spheres of state socialism regarding the issue of European co-operation and integration. Both a legacy of Stalinist narratives and rigid media control hampered a consistent explanation of East–West co-operation. Ultimately, growing ambivalence in the official public sphere undermined the legitimacy of state-socialist rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Euromaidan protests on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv, or Kiev, Ukraine from November 2013 through January 2014. The role that student protesters played in the Euromaidan protests, including in regard to their putative desire that the Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych sign the Association Agreement with the European Union (EU), is discussed. An overview of the social movement behind the Euromaidan protests, including its representation of civil society groups, the political opposition, scholars and activists, is provided.

The article describes the library of the ERSTE Foundation in Vienna, Austria. Information is provided about the library's collections, which focus thematically on social and cultural policy, European integration, and democratization and geographically on Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Additional information on archival holdings and special collections on contemporary Austrian and Eastern European art and on the history of credit unions in Austria is also presented.

A large body of work within the Europeanization and conditionality literature has examined the European Union's effect on governance quality in Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). This article aims to contribute to existing work by addressing two questions. First, was the European Union's accession conditionality conducive to better governance in CEECs or was it designed to pick up already committed reformers? Secondly, during which period was the European Union more influential on governance quality in CEECs: accession or membership? To address these questions, we propose a simple model of moral hazard and adverse selection, and draw on survey-based governance quality data to test its predictions. We report that the European Union has offered candidate status to countries that already had better governance quality relative to their peers before 1997. Nonetheless, EU conditionality also had some positive effects on CEEC governance during the accession period, but this effect tended to disappear during the membership period. On the basis of these findings, we argue that the European Union's impact on governance quality in CEECs has to be examined in conjunction with path dependence, and therefore, the perceived risk of 'backsliding' requires more detailed analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The manuscript analyzes negative developments in Bulgarian and Romanian politics in the aftermath of the two countries’ accession to the European Union, with a special focus on the worsening corruption problem, the destabilization of previously coherent normative frameworks, and the reversal of processes of state building. It also explores the main characteristics of a novel form of elite behavior, post-accession hooliganism, which began to emerge as soon as Bulgarian and Romanian political leaders felt strong and confident enough to disregard the demands of their West European counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

How and with what effects have three South-East European countries (Greece, Slovenia and Croatia) responded to the EU’s migration and border security acquis?The paper shows that European integration can strengthen central state actors, but can also change the constellation of actors and resources in trans-boundary policy sectors such as international migration and border security. To demonstrate these effects the paper specifies functional, political and administrative dimensions of the EU’s migration and border security ‘capacity bargain’. It also specifies the limits of an EU approach to migration and border security – and associated capacity-building – that has a strong regulatory focus on the EU’s external frontier swith less attention paid to more complex regulatory and distributive dynamics that arise once migrants are ‘in’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article aims at critically reviewing the European compliance literature. As this literature is dominated by a rational and positivist understanding of norm adherence primarily emphasizing domestic implementation costs, administrative capacities or external incentives during EU enlargement, this paper reinvigorates a constructivist epistemology of norm compliance in contrast to the analytical limitations of the rational approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early nineties the region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE, more than 1 million km² and 100 million inhabitants) went through fundamental political, economic and social changes which eventually led to the European integration process. This positively influenced urban water and wastewater management, which had an unbalanced structure and rather low level of development. The paper outlines first the 1990 situation (water supply, sewerage and wastewater treatment (WWT)) and the infrastructure development of the last two decades, on the basis of a comprehensive data collection for six countries (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia). Austria serves as a reference basis. Alterations of some of the drivers such as GOP (Gross Domestic Product), water tariff, investment funding and legislation are studied in detail. Then, the paper focuses on WWT by analyzing data of 20 large plants. lnfluent and effluent quality is evaluated. Technology indicators are estimated and assessed. They include plant removal rates and violation ratios assuming the application of the Urban Wastewater Directive, primary clarifier removal rates, actual anoxic volume and sludge age in comparison with the recommendations of the AN guideline, criteria of secondary settling tanks and energy consumption. Finally, nutrient removal rates and upgrading options are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union has achieved a substantial contribution to building a new order in Europe after the fall of the Berlin wall. Its main instrument was the accession of new member states. By associating and finally the accession of the ten central eastern European countries, the EU extended the values and standards on which it is founded. Moreover, it benefited politically and economically from this export of stability. However, the conditions in the Eastern Neighbourhood for further enlargement as a foreign and security policy are difficult. Considering this, the article recommends a further development of the European Neighbourhood Policy and a prioritisation of deepening European integration. [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]

This study tries to remedy the current lack of tax compliance research analyzing tax morale in 10 Eastern European countries that joined the European Union in 2004 or 2007. By exploring tax morale differences between 1999 and 2008 we show that tax morale has decreased in 7 out of 10 Eastern European countries. This lack of sustainability may support the incentive based conditionality hypothesis that European Union has only a limited ability to influence tax morale over time. We observe that events and processes at the country level are crucial to understanding tax morale. Factors such as perceived government quality, trust in the justice system and the government are positively correlated with tax morale in 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the integration process commenced, there has been debate over whether the countries in Central and Eastern Europe have seen a surge or decline in democracy after signing accession treaties to join the European Union (EU). Drawing upon a sample of 24 Central and Eastern European countries, I test whether EU candidates and members have experienced an increase in levels of democracy since the onset of accession, as opposed to their non-EU neighbours. I also test the effects of EU candidacy and membership on state-level civil liberties and political rights. These analyses are conducted while controlling for relevant factors: gross domestic product per capita, trade openness and type of democratic — parliamentary versus presidential — system. All countries in Central and Eastern Europe that have complete and comparable data available are included in the empirical analysis. In conclusion, I find that there is a positive and significant relationship between integration and civil liberties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Twenty years on from their declaration of independence, the countries in the EU's eastern neighbourhood, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, have not only failed to become democratic states, their democratic progress has actually been reversed or stalled. This article provides an analysis of the political trends in the three countries, arguing that their rapprochement with the European Union coexists with certain Russian-style models of governance and societal moods. The author argues that while the region's democratic transition is not certain in the short-to middle-term, European integration and an embracing of European values in Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus is highly likely in the longer-term perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author argues that the countries of the New Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova) now constitute a distinct and durable geopolitical reality. He discusses their relationships with Russia, the European Union (EU), and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on an empirical study of business associations, trade unions and value-based NGOs from new EU member states this contribution argues that interest groups from the new Central and East European member states could smoothly be integrated into the EU system of interest representation with the help of European umbrella organisations. European umbrella organisations offer immediate access to the EU level, provide a role model of engagement at the EU level and also increase information flows from the EU level to national interest groups and with that into national debates and national policy-making processes. Accordingly, theories of horizontal integration should not only look at the limited impact of interest groups on the implementation of the EU acquis communautaire, but also at the effects the smooth integration of new interest groups at the EU level has on the Europeanization of new and prospective member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, belles paroles such as 'Europe without borders' and 'the family of European nations' announced in discourse - if not in reality -- the 'reunification of Europe.' However, as the years of perpetual transition wore on, many Eastern European writers and intellectuals began to suggest Anschluss as a more appropriate description of East-West rapprochement. In fiction and in feuilletons, these writers and intellectuals pointed to the fact that while communism may have become water over the dam, generations of Eastern Europeans, unable to find their feet in the new circumstances, were drowning in the flood of Europe's 'new happiness.' This paper considers Dubravka Ugrešić's novel Ministarstvo boli (The Ministry of Pain, 2004) and Milan Kundera's L'ignorance (Ignorance, 2000) as alternative narratives of the post-Wende years; attempts to articulate the experiences of those whom Svetlana Boym would call "Europeans without euros." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political representation in Western democracies is largely accomplished through and by parties. Surprisingly, however, few studies directly examine how well parties in post-communist democracies function as effective agents of representation. Furthermore, the few exceptions to this rule focus on one time point only even though the concept of representation contains a dynamic component: parties need to offer consistent choices in order to communicate with voters in ways that provide clear alternatives to voters, and that establish incentives for parties to follow through on election promises. We therefore examine party stances towards European integration between 2003 and 2007. Contrary to the predominantly negative assessments in the research literature, we find that parties' policy stances establish several preconditions for political representation in new democracies in Central East Europe (CEE). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1989, as the countries of the Soviet bloc took a turn toward democracy and Europe, Yugoslavia and Serbia plunged into a bloody war and moved in the opposite direction. This article argues that the legacy of that era is still strongly felt in postwar and post-Milosevic Serbia. Now, like then, the choice is not simply for or against Europe. By holding on to the nationalism of the Kosovo myth, which territorializes both the Serbian ethnos and the opposition between Christianity and Islam, Serbia is tracing a tortuous path toward democratization and European integration. In the contemporary context, the Kosovo myth impedes Serbia’s recognition of Kosovo as an independent state; it continues to fuel the rhetoric of fractious elites that never cease to tap its capacity for rallying the public; and it provides room for “pro-European” leaders to negotiate EU integration, straddling the fence between Europe’s Atlantic propensities and the resurgent power of Russia. This nationalist myth thus plays a normative and an instrumental role, both domestically and internationally. Outside Serbia, it also engages with a narrow and “thick” notion of Europe, which gained traction within Europe itself in the post-9/11 climate of heightened fear of Islam, where cultural identity trumps the values of liberal democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]