Search results for "European integration"
showing 10 items of 134 documents
Business Cycle Affiliations in the Context of European Integration
2007
We study affiliations for the countries of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) with Germany and the USA, using various business cycle measures derived from quarterly real GDP. These measures are Hodrick-Prescott and Baxter-King filtered series and annual growth rates. By using rolling contemporaneous and maximum (over a short lead/lag interval) correlations, we document increasing correlations of EMU countries with Germany, with these typically being largest during the 1990s. We also document a strong leading role for the USA in relation to these countries in the period since 1993, thereby correcting the fallacy that the European business cycle was disjointed from the USA for mos…
Exogenous Interference: The European Union’s Economic Partnership Agreements and the Stalled SADC Customs Union
2017
Focussing on the struggle for the scheduled SADC Customs Union, Muntschick reveals that extra-regional actors can actually have a negative impact on regional economic integration in the SADC. Firstly, this chapter refers to the organisation’s agenda on market integration and clarifies the intra-regional demand for the envisaged customs union. Secondly, it highlights the SADC member states’ important but asymmetric trade relations to the European Union and, in regard to this shadow structure of extra-regional interdependence, explains the interfering impact of Brussels’s Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) on deeper market integration in the SADC. This chapter concludes that the European U…
Brexit: An Introduction
2020
This section examines the consequences of the United Kingdom (UK)’s decision to leave the EU. Though chapters acknowledge that most will depend on the outcome of the UK–EU negotiations as Brexit will be an unpredictable case of differentiated disintegration. This section offers contributions that aim at stimulating the debate on how Brexit might be understood and analyzed. Will Brexit cause breakdown, heading forward or merely continuous muddling through? The case of Brexit serves as a research laboratory in which we can test existing theories of European integration. Are they able to explain patterns of disintegration equally to integration, or do we need new theoretical and conceptual too…
Labour Mobility in Construction: European Implications of the Laval un Partneri Dispute with Swedish Labour
2006
The accession to the European Union of new member states from central and eastern Europe, with weak trade union movements, poorly developed social dialogue and inferior working conditions, has been viewed as a threat to regulated labour standards in the EU-15. This article examines a high-profile labour dispute arising from the conditions of Latvian construction contract labour in Sweden. The dispute exposes weaknesses in the protective floor of minimum standards offered by the posted workers Directive. It also goes to the core of the debate about the preservation of a ‘European social model’ and the proposed Services Directive.
From the poster boy of Europeanization to the sick man of Europe: thirty years (1990–2019) of Poland’s European policy
2021
The Eurosceptic turnabout which has taken place in the CEE constitutes one of the most significant factors weakening the cohesion of the EU. In this group, Poland is the key element in view of its size and the status of the ‘poster boy’ of Europeanization acquired in the previous years. This paper analyses the major trends in the European policy of the Polish governments in the long-term period of 1990–2018 on the basis of standardized data (addresses by the Polish ministers of foreign affairs) and a quantitative analysis. These data also shed light on the essence of changes taking place in Poland’s EU policy. What appeared to be important was both the change in the country’s status after j…
Die verwertbarkeit auslÄndischer beweise im deutschen strafverfah ren
2001
Processes of Differentiation of Political Power in the EU
2018
This chapter starts with reflections on the difficulties of studying the EU. The author then presents some of the research that develops a political sociology perspective to European integration and political power. Key concepts include structural differentiation and stratification. Scholars explore European integration as a process of structural differentiation and stratification, which provides politicians and civil servants new power resources. In this transnational political ‘market’, old resources tied to the nation-state, resources like legislative experience and national political visibility, are exchanged into newer resources tied to the EU. In other words, something old such as a n…
The Circumstances and Dynamics of Eurosceptic Contagion
2021
This part of the book tries to explore to what degree the process under study is itself influenced—mitigated or amplified—by the decorum in which Eurosceptic Parties do well and in the process tests the corresponding hypotheses from the theoretical framework. I tackle possibility of Eurosceptic Contagion being part of a self-reinforcing mechanism, whereby growing public discontent with integration, growing popularity of antisystemic fringe parties, and the growing salience of the EU issue might go hand in hand, strengthening each other’s effect over time. The rise of Eurosceptic actors has been a dynamic phenomenon, closely intertwined with the development of the European Union, as well as …
What Does the Technological Shift Have in Store for the EU? Opportunities and Pitfalls for European Societies
2021
This introductory chapter sheds light on the opportunities and challenges that the digital era has in store for the European Union (EU) at a time when its fundamental values are being called into question by prominent political currents. The chapter sets the scene by an account of how previous periods of technological transformation affected European societies and considers the financial and regulatory resources at the disposal of the EU to manage the technological shift of the 2020s. The chapter introduces the book’s interdisciplinary approach, which offers various disciplinary perspectives on how the technological mega-shift impacts the EU’s ability to meet the multifaceted challenges it …
Latvia: 20 Years Stability … or Stagnation?
2021
Fraught with the legacy of a former Soviet Republic, Latvia has had to (re-)establish democracy, market economy and a nation state simultaneously. Today, Latvia is a consolidated democracy, backed by a vibrant civic sphere. Yet its political parties and parliament still lack capacity and societal embeddedness. Short-lived government coalitions have failed to facilitate more investment in competitive economic sectors, higher education and research. Key policy challenges include economic development, mitigating a dramatic demographic crunch and managing complicated relations with Russia.