The UEFA Champions League: a political myth?

Discussing the UEFA Champions League (CL) as a political myth, we want to focus on specific renderings of this continent-wide competition in club football. Two broad narratives are identified in th...

Introduction: conceptualizing EU policy on labour migration

This introduction sets the scene for the articles in this themed section. The starting point is the relatively recent but important developments that have occurred in the area of EU labour migratio...

EU external policy at the crossroads: The challenge of actorness and effectiveness

The goal of this Special Issue is to improve our conceptualisation and empirical understanding of EU actorness and effectiveness in International Relations. While the European Union aspires to play a greater global role, its actorness and effectiveness cannot be taken for granted given the nature of the EU as a multi-level and semi-supranational polity encompassing 28 Member States with diverse foreign policy preferences. The EU is presently at an important crossroad. On the one hand, its external policy stature and capacity have been boosted by institutional innovations and by the Union’s increased involvement in the full spectrum of international issues. On the other hand, a number of fa…

Challenges in EU External Climate Change Policy-Making in the Early Post-Lisbon Era: The UNFCCC Copenhagen Negotiations

The 15th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting held in Copenhagen from 7 to 18 December 2009, which took place one week after the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on 1 December 2009, has brought about rather disappointing outcomes from the perspective of the European Union (EU), which had previously displayed substantial leadership within the UN climate regime. Contrary to the EU’s objectives for the COP15 meeting, no legally binding agreement was reached to succeed the Kyoto Protocol after 2012 and the final Copenhagen Accord contained disappointingly few ambitious targets. This chapter tries to explain how this resul…

The COVID‐19 pandemic and government responses: A gender perspective on differences in public opinion

Abstract Objective The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis has led to shutdowns of the cultural, associational, and economic life in many parts of the world and had a severe impact on gender relations in many societies. This study engages with gender differences in public support of severe infringements of personal and economic freedoms. Methods We use data from an original survey conducted by CINT in the United States and Germany in June 2020. Descriptive statistics both aggregated for the two countries and then split by country as well as multinomial logistic regression analyses gauge gender differences in support of COVID-19 related confinement measures. Results Men and wome…

The EU’s Role in International Climate Change Policy-Making: A Global Leader in Decline?

This chapter assesses the European Union’s (EU) role in international climate change policy-making by comparing the EU’s degree of goal attainment at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) negotiations in Copenhagen in 2009 and Cancun in 2010. By making use of three analytical factors (coherence, the opportunity structure and politicisation) we assess the outcomes of both negotiations for the EU. The Durban negotiations of 2011 are touched upon in the conclusions.

A European mind? Europeanisation of football fan discussions in online message boards

Across Europe, national professional football leagues have seen increasing numbers of players from other EU states, while the Champions League and the Europa League have become a focal point for ma...

Outside‐in Politicization of EU–Western Africa Relations: What Role for Civil Society Organizations?

This article explores the empirical relevance of researching outside-in politicization processes in European studies. To this end, it examines to what extent and how civil society organizations (CSOs) have contributed to the politicization of EU policies towards Western Africa in two cases: the negotiation of Economic Partnership Agreements and the EU's engagement with the G5 Sahel. CSOs were strongly engaged in the trade negotiations, while they were largely excluded from the G5 Sahel process. In both cases this was due to CSOs' own initiatives, or the absence thereof, with these strongly linked to being either invited or discouraged by official actors. The article argues that authority tr…

Impact of the Agent’s Environment on Discretion in the Field of EU Conflict Resolution

Employing an agent–principal perspective on EU conflict resolution and focusing on the politics of discretion, we argue that the context in which the agent acts affects the principal–agent relation. Our conceptualization draws on the agent’s actions as a source of discretion, which can be either an unintentional product of the characteristics of the external environment in which the agent performs (structure-induced discretion) or a product of intentionally pursued agent action (interest-induced discretion). Focusing particularly on the European External Action Service, we find that the agent can exploit urgency and third party interplay as characteristics of EU conflict resolution in order…

EU Refugee Policies and Politics in Times of Crisis: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives

Phenomena such as civil war, protracted conflict, and deteriorating internal security, especially in the Middle East, Africa and Southern Asia, have triggered massive departures of civilian populations in recent years. The war in Syria alone has displaced over 5 million people (UNHCR, 2017a). While most of these forced migrants are either internally displaced or remain in Syria’s immediate neighbourhood, the numbers of those trying to come to Europe have steeply increased in 2015 and 2016. In each of these two years more than 1.2 million asylum-seekers submitted their asylum claims in the EU (Eurostat, 2017a), as compared to 625,000 in 2014 (Eurostat, 2015, p. 4). This represents the larges…

From Neo-Functional Peace to a Logic of Spillover in EU External Policy: A Response to Visoka and Doyle

In their recently published JCMS article, Gezim Visoka and John Doyle have proposed the concept of ‘neofunctional peace’ as a means to conceptualize the EU's peacemaking practices in the case of the EU-facilitated Belgrade-Pristina dialogue. This article challenges the ‘neo-functional peace’ on conceptual and empirical grounds. We critically discuss Visoka and Doyle's (2016) reading of neofunctionalism and question parts of their empirical evidence given for the existence of a ‘neo-functional peace’. Going beyond a mere critique of the article by Visoka and Doyle and arguing that the authors may not have fully exploited neofunctionalism's potential for theorizing EU external policy, we stip…

Motives, Roles, Effectiveness and the Future of the EU as an International Mediator

AbstractThis article concludes this special issue on the European Union as international mediator that set out to advance our theoretical and empirical knowledge aboutEUmediation. Providing a comprehensive reflection ofEUmediation activities and the diverse settings where they take place, this concluding article identifies some connection points between the articles and discusses their findings on the motives/drivers, roles/strategies, effectiveness and institutional capacities ofEUmediation. It discusses the implications of these findings for policymaking, focusing on the conditions forEUmediation effectiveness, the advantages of the multi-layered nature ofEUmediation and the need for flex…

Migration and the Mediterranean: The EU’s Response to the “European Refugee Crisis”

This chapter describes and examines the origin, nature and development of the so-called “European refugee crisis” and particularly analyzes the internal and external measures taken by the EU and its Member States in response to it. Our inquiry focuses on the following measures: (1) hotspots and emergency support for affected Member States, (2) relocation, (3) resettlement and other legal ways of entry, (4) the CEAS reform, (5) addressing irregular migration through border controls and countering smuggling and trafficking, (6) return and readmission, (7) the EU–Turkey Statement, (8) additional cooperation with third countries as well as (8) (trust) funds to support regions of origin and tran…

Mediating International Conflicts: The European Union as an Effective Peacemaker?

This article examines how the EU's effectiveness as a mediator in peace negotiations can be appropriately conceptualized and analysed. Mediator effectiveness is analysed along two dimensions: goal-attainment and conflict settlement. Investigation of the conditions of mediator effectiveness is structured around four key sets of variables: mediator leverage, mediation strategy, coherence and the conflict's context. In our empirical analysis of EU mediation between Serbia and Kosovo (Belgrade–Pristina dialogue) we find that the medium degree of EU effectiveness (both in terms of goal-attainment and conflict settlement) can be explained by its great leverage vis-a-vis the conflict parties due t…

The European Union at the Copenhagen climate negotiations: A case of contested EU actorness and effectiveness

This article analyses the extent of European Union (EU) actorness and effectiveness at the 15th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009. Although the EU has been characterised as a leader in international climate policy-making for some time, the COP 15 meeting in Copenhagen has overall brought about disappointing outcomes for the Union. This casts doubts on EU actorness and effectiveness in this field. We take the article by Jupille and Caporaso as a conceptual point of departure and then specify a more parsimonious actorness framework that consists of coherence and autonomy. Effectiveness is conc…

National Preferences and the European Union Presidency: The Case of German Energy Policy towards Russia*

This article analyses the formation and development of Member State preferences and positions before and during the European Union (EU) Presidency term. The empirical analysis focuses on the Federal Republic of Germany's policy concerning EU–Russian relations, especially regarding energy policy. The extent to which liberal intergovernmentalism (LI) furthers our understanding of state behaviour in the context of the EU Presidency is questioned. The findings suggest that LI adequately explains the formation of German positions prior to assuming office, as its policy objectives are chiefly influenced by domestic producers' interests. However, LI cannot satisfactorily account for German governm…

Cosmopolitans and communitarians: A typology of football fans between national and European influences

International audience; The past 25 years have seen an unprecedented Europeanisation of the structures and governance in football across the continent. A European (and global) transfer market for players and managers has become the norm and a pan-European league system has been established that regularly exposes supporters to transnational competitions and players from all over Europe. At the same time, manifold typologies of football fans have been established, distinguishing groups of fans based on, for example, fan intensity, fan behaviour or their attitudes towards different actors in the field. The attitudes towards Europe and the self-identification of these fans within Europeanised f…

Equally at risk? Perceived financial differences, risk assessment and containment measures in the COVID-19 pandemic

introduction – eu simulations as a multi-dimensional resource: from teaching and learning tool to research instrument

Simulations, understood as complex role plays, are nowadays widely used in (university) teaching to actively engage students and promote content-specific interactive learning, understanding, and communication. There is a growing debate about the functions and benefits of simulations in the university teaching context. Simulating the EU is not yet as common as simulating the UN, but the use of EU simulations gradually increases. In this paper, we discuss several aspects of EU simulations. First, we briefly review the importance of the EU in current European politics, and to its growing complexity, which represents a challenge for teaching and studying European integration. Second, we indicat…

Introduction: The EU as International Mediator – Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives

AbstractIn this introductory article of the special issue, we examine European Union (EU) mediation practice and identify different conceptual and empirical perspectives from which it can be analyzed. We present different understandings of mediation in research and practice a definition and conceptual clarification ofEUmediation practice, and offer a definition that covers mediation efforts and mediation support activities. Then, the institutional architecture forEUmediation activities is presented. Next, the focus of this special issue is examined and research questions that have not yet been sufficiently addressed in existing research ofEUforeign policy and mediation are discussed. Based …

The “Refugee Crisis,” Immigration Attitudes, and Euroscepticism

Between 2015 and 2017, the European Union (EU) was confronted with a major crisis in its history, the so-called “European refugee crisis.” Since the multifaceted crisis has provoked many different responses, it is also likely to have influenced individuals’ assessments of immigrants and European integration. Using data from three waves of the European Social Survey (ESS) — the wave before the crisis in 2012, the wave at the beginning of the crisis in 2014, and the wave right after the (perceived) height of the crisis in 2016 — we test the degree to which the European refugee crisis increased Europeans’ anti-immigrant sentiment and Euroscepticism, as well as the influence of Europeans’ anti-…

A Neofunctionalist Perspective on the ‘European Refugee Crisis’: The Case of the European Border and Coast Guard

Initial literature on the ‘European refugee crisis’ discerned intergovernmental tendencies in its management. This paper examines whether neofunctionalism may be able to explain a major case of ‘European refugee crisis’ policy-making, the negotiations on the European Border and Coast Guard regulation. We argue, somewhat counterintuitively, that the theory considerably furthers our respective understanding. The crisis acted as a catalyst exposing the weaknesses of a system that pitted a supranational Schengen against a largely intergovernmental external border regime, notwithstanding a developing Frontex. These dysfunctionalities have been widely fostered by both national and supranational d…

Europeanised identifications among football fans. The analysis of discussions in online message boards.

International audience; Across Europe, national professional football leagues have seen increasing numbers of players from other EU states, while the Champions League and the Europa League have become a focal point for many teams. This article seeks to investigate how far this Europeanisation on the organisational level of football is reflected in identities and discourses of fans. We develop a framework to analyse Europeanisation of identities among football fans. In the empirical part we conduct a qualitative content analysis of fan discussions on publicly available message boards among fans of four first league teams in England and Austria. Our empirical findings indicate that fans’ iden…

Non-elite conceptions of Europe: Europe as reference frame in English football fan discussions

International audience; Discursive approaches to Europe usually focus on elite discourses and target a narrow political understanding of Europe. Against the backdrop of rising Euroscepticism and the known elite-mass divide on issues of European identity, it seems important to shift the focus toward non-elite discourses on Europe. Given that club football is largely Europeanised (player markets, continent-wide club competitions and broadcasting of matches), we analyse how fans of the English Premier League club Manchester United discursively construct ‘Europe’ in relation to their sport. Our main research question aims at identifying how identifications of fans have been unconsciously Europe…

The two-track Europeanization of football: EU-level pressures, transnational dynamics and their repercussions within different national contexts

This article contributes to the under-researched literature on the Europeanization of sports. We distinguish between two modes of Europeanization (broadly signifying the impact of European integration on the domestic realm): the traditional top-down approach and the neglected societal/transnational Europeanization track. Both modes are examined with regard to their effects within two national contexts (Germany and Austria), and across two cases: the Bosman ruling (the nationality issue) and European club competitions as an engine of Europeanization. Our analysis reveals some important differences: the domestic countermeasures regarding the nationality aspect of the Bosman ruling were more s…

Das Prinzipal-Agenten-Modell und EU-Konfliktbearbeitung – Strukturelle Erklärungen für Agenten-Autonomie

Ein wichtiger Ansatz, um die Beziehungen zwischen verschiedenen Akteuren innerhalb einer Organisation zu untersuchen, ist der Prinzipal-Agenten-Ansatz. Der ursprunglich aus den Wirtschaftswissenschaften stammende Ansatz, der in der Politikwissenschaft zunachst vor allem als theoretischer Rahmen fur die Analyse von Beziehungen zwischen Parlamenten und Behorden genutzt (Epstein und O’Halloran 1999) und auch auf internationale Organisationen bezogen wurde (Hawkins u. a. 2006), findet vermehrt in der Forschung zur Europaischen Union (EU) Anwendung. Vor allem durch Mark Pollacks Arbeit (1997, 2003) ist das Modell nun ein wesentlicher Bestandteil der Forschung zu intra-institutionellen Beziehunge…