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The EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) is a transitory immigration regime rolled out by the Home Office as part of the measures for the UK withdrawing from the EU. More can be said about whether the EUSS can truly be hailed an overall "success", as per official Government messaging, several years after its initial introduction. This paper evaluates this by considering two case studies of vulnerable immigrant women required to apply to the Scheme to successfully remain in the UK after the transition period: those at risk of or facing violence against women and girls (VAWG), and non-EU family members (NEFMs) of EU citizens. Using the theories of intersectionality and vulnerability, the paper outlines how gender and immigration status intersect to make women more vulnerable by virtue of the legal framework of the EUSS and its criteria, arguing that it entrenches intersectional oppression faced uniquely by these women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is much evidence that the 'European social model' is under threat, with neoliberalism increasingly dominating policy both at EU and national levels. Within this trend, Britain stands Out as already having a long-established free market tradition - Anglo-American in both industrial relations and corporate governance systems. This article seeks to illustrate how British state allegiance to a 'flexible' labour market has brought new restrictions to accessing statutory employment protection, the chief defence for 'unorganized' workers - those who are neither unionized nor covered by collective agreements and who now comprise the majority of workers in Britain. The New Labour government, committed to voluntarism and flexibility, has used the very instrument it avers to avoid - legal regulation - to limit access to employment tribunals, the final resort for legal enforcement of employment rights. The government has thus constrained its concessions to the European social model, which comprise a range of laws since 1997 enhancing individual employment rights, in its overarching neoliberal policy, by ensuring legal regulation remains difficult to achieve and does not 'burden' business. This article, based on research both on legal developments, and on the social support mechanisms for non-unionized workers, seeks to demonstrate the extreme vulnerability of the unorganized worker in an increasingly free market Britain. How far this portrait has relevance to the rightward drift of Europe depends on the degree to which it can be exported, how far continental European systems are sufficiently institutionally embedded to resist this, and how successfully the European social model is defended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While social policy falls predominantly under national rather than European Union (EU) jurisdiction, there are nonetheless multiple ways in which social policy and social outcomes in EU member states have been affected by EU membership. This paper draws on existing evidence and analysis to review the consequences for UK social policy of the decision to leave the EU. We focus predominantly on the implications of the British government's pledge to 'take back control' of money, borders and laws. Our conclusion is that Brexit is likely to have negative effects on the quality of public services and, for some groups in particular, social rights, and that these effects are likely to be greater the more distant are the future trading and wider relationships between the UK and the EU27. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2004 expansion of the European Union saw over one million people from Central and Eastern Europe register to work in the United Kingdom. Early studies into this phenomenon found a highly qualified migrant workforce taking low skilled roles, and research in regions of high unemployment saw migrant workers viewed favourably by managers as compared with locals. Using a qualitative case study approach, this paper significantly adds to regional studies of migration to investigate comparisons of migrant and local workers in regions of low unemployment, where managerial views towards locals are not as negative. The paper finds that, owing to low levels of labour market power as a result of basic English language skills and problems of transferability of qualifications, migrants are finding new ways of signalling their higher productivity. These are low levels of absence and a willingness to work longer hours, frequently termed a ‘good work ethic’ by managers, and used to positively distinguish migrant workers even in regions of low unemployment. The paper then investigates what happens to the demonstration of this ‘work ethic’ over time, finding that these behaviours are less likely to be used as labour market power increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing interest in island economies within Europe. In the European Union (EU) this has led to enhanced Cohesion Policy support for islands, along with a number of other regions facing geographical challenges. Because of major problems with data, comparative research on islands across different EU member states has been of limited extent. This paper explores the use of national data sets to undertake comparative cross-country analysis of islands. The paper concentrates on two member states, Greece and Britain, which have large numbers of offshore islands. Data from national population censuses are drawn upon to allow typologies of the islands to be developed. These typologies are utilised to identify similarities and differences between British and Greek islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores trade union strategies to protect wages in the face of EU migration after the enlargement of the European Union. We argue that unions have three instruments at their disposal to deal with the risks linked to downward wage pressure: closure through immigration control, equalisation through collective bargaining and minimum wages, and the organisation of migrant workers. Using comparative case studies of Sweden, Germany and the UK, we show how different types of power resources shape union strategies: unions with substantial organisational resources (in Sweden) relied on a large membership to pursue an equalisation strategy and expected to be able to 'afford' openness. German unions with low membership but access to the political system pushed for a mix of closure and equality drawing on political intervention (e.g. minimum wages). British unions, unable to pursue either, focused their efforts on organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses urban planning practices in South Yorkshire to reveal how EU strategic spatial ideas and values are reproduced. Specifically, the paper examines how the notion of spatial justice was interpreted as the organising concepts within the European Spatial Development Perspective became situated within a territory severely affected by deindustrialisation in the 1980s, but subsequently a major beneficiary of EU Structural Fund programmes. The analysis reveals how policy-making at this scale used a construct of polycentric urban development that reasserted a model of economic growth based on the indigenous assets held in city centres at the expense of more redistributive measures targeted at the former coal-mining communities in the sub-region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper is based on a qualitative empirical study of forced marriage in the UK and offers a multidimensional view which challenges four key points that are currently central in the forced marriage debate. First, the study explores the problematic of current UK and European Union policies on preventing forced marriage which focus on raising the age of sponsorship and marriage age for non-EU nationals migrating to the UK. Second, current conceptualizations of forced marriage focus on consent at the entry point into marriage. In contrast, survivors of forced marriage, and women's organizations experienced in providing services to this group, both attach equal importance to exiting (forced) marriages. Third, within the forced marriage debate, South Asian and Muslim communities are perceived as being largely responsible for forced marriages, whilst our research demonstrates that the range of communities in which forced marriage occurs is much wider. Fourth, forced marriage is often seen as a product of a 'backward' culture or religion in a pathologizing manner. The narratives in our study illustrate the interplay between culture, religion, poverty and state practices including immigration practices which points to the need for a more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of forced marriage. We end our paper by outlining measures that could be put into place to support women experiencing forced marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the evidence about ownership of the UK national daily press, and the possibility of new entrants succeeding, in the light of concern about media concentration in European fora. It demonstrates that this market is concentrated and effectively closed and explores why this is so. The article shows that this market is stratified in ways which also display closure and concentration and demonstrates that the existing law is ineffective in preventing concentration. It concludes that the nature of the UK national daily press market results from the natural workings of the free market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK government's e-Borders project presents an intriguing anomaly: despite repeated and acknowledged failings of the project over two decades, it has remained a core part of border strategy across successive administrations. This article seeks to explain the surprising resilience of this programme by developing the concept of political lock-in. We combine insights from critical security studies with science and technology studies concepts of 'tech hype' and lock-in. We apply these insights to trace how e-Borders was constructed as a compelling technological solution to pressing security issues. This created a form of political lock-in, whereby the project became impossible to abandon because of its political urgency, despite increasing awareness of its unfeasibility. With the project caught in a liminal state of non-completion, successive governments expanded the scope of the programme by attaching new security problems to it, thereby rendering it even more unviable. Our analysis thus throws up a paradox: rather than mobilizing resources to accomplish its tech vision, securitization created forms of lock-in and paralysis that made the programme more difficult to accomplish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how income poverty is affected by changes to the scale of tax-benefit policies and which are the most cost-effective policies in reducing poverty or limiting its increase in seven diverse EU countries. We do that by measuring the implications of increasing/reducing the scale of each policy instrument, using microsimulation methods while holding constant the policy design and national context. We consider commonly applied policy instruments with a direct effect on household income: child benefits, social assistance, income tax lower thresholds and a benchmark case of rescaling the whole tax-benefit system. We find that the assessment of the most cost-effective instrument may depend on the measure of poverty used and the direction and scale of the change. Nevertheless, our results indicate that the options that reduce poverty most cost-effectively in most countries are increasing child benefits and social assistance, while reducing the former is a particularly poverty-increasing way of making budgetary cuts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developments in biotechnology present difficult social and ethical challenges that need to be resolved by regulators among others. One crucial problem for regulators of new technologies is to ensure that regulation is both clear and sufficiently flexible to respond to new developments. This is particularly difficult to achieve in contentious fields such as medical biotechnology. In the European Union there is a divergence in the solutions to this problem which has lead to different regulatory frameworks for medical biotechnology. This paper compares and contrasts the British and Dutch regulatory frameworks for the selection of embryos by preimplantation genetic diagnosis as an example of the regulation of medical biotechnology. Some of the outcomes of the regulatory choices and possible reasons behind the divergent frameworks are discussed, such as the ethical outlooks and political systems in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) have significant incentives for close collaboration in foreign, security and defence policies, given their shared strategic interests, the clear potential for efficiency savings in working together, and the intensity of prior working relations. That the recently negotiated EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement contains no provisions in this area is thus puzzling for followers of European security, who predicted prompt agreement, and for theories of international cooperation, which emphasise the importance of shared threats, absolute gains and prior interaction. We argue the failure to reach such an agreement stemmed from the politics of the withdrawal process itself, which resulted in acute problems of institutional selectivity, negotiating dynamics that polarised the relationship, institutional change that made an agreement less likely, and distributional scrabbling to supplant the UK. Our findings show that the dynamics of moving away from existing forms of cooperation are highly distinct from those motivating cooperation in normal times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the integration of the City of London into the single market for financial services in the European Union (EU), theories of transnational governance would expect the United Kingdom (UK) to favour close regulatory alignment with the EU27 post-Brexit to maximise market access and financial stability. Surprisingly, however, the UK has consistently demanded regulatory flexibility in financial services and has accepted reduced market access. We argue that the explanation is twofold. First, UK preferences reflect the need to balance the competing demands of elected officials, the financial industry and financial regulators. Second, drawing on a bureaucratic politics perspective, we suggest that UK preferences have been strongly shaped by the importance to UK regulators of retaining autonomy over high-status policy competences. This article contributes to the broader literature on the politics of financial regulation by highlighting the added value of incorporating a bureaucratic politics perspective when explaining financial regulatory preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the properties of decision regret have been widely explored in experimental and game theoretic studies, the empirical features of regret from large-scale 'binary decision' national events in practice have garnered less scrutiny. This study is an empirical investigation of novel survey data reporting 'Brexit' voting choices and expressions of a desire to change voting choices post-referendum. We investigate if Leave voters are more or less likely to express a change to their binary referendum vote choice than those who voted Remain or abstained and then identify the particular characteristics of those who regret their vote choice. A large-scale pan-European survey is used to capture citizens' perceptions of the European Union containing 17,147 interviews of adults from 15 EU member states. Using responses from UK citizens (n = 1500), focus is directed to the vote choice for the 'Brexit' referendum and the corresponding choice if the referendum were held 'today'. Probit regression estimation identifies the key differences in the characteristics of those who expressed regret by indicating a desire to change voting choices. Results show that knowledge of EU funding policies, permanence of residential location, population size of the local area, educational attainment, employment status and income are key drivers for regretting the referendum voting decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flexicurity approach to labour market policy may offer advantages for trade unions but also poses challenges, given their weak situation in policy formulation at EU level and in many member states. This article explores unions’ capacity to mobilize around flexicurity issues and to influence policy debates and outcomes in two member states. In the UK, flexicurity has low political salience and unions have little capacity for mobilization or influence, although they have linked flexicurity to campaigns on agency workers and restructuring. In France, unions have developed alternative proposals on making employment pathways secure and have succeeded in shifting debate towards these proposals rather than the Commission’s flexicurity recommendations, although differences with the positions of employers and the state have limited outcomes to date. EU policies provide only weak leverage, since trade unions’ ability to influence labour market policy depends on their position within domestic institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on events and changes related to the judicial system of several countries including Australia, Canada and Great Britain. It states that Victoria and New South Wales released publications that recommend changes to the complex trial system of Australia on criminal cases. It adds that the Law Society published reports regarding evidence presentation in England and the European Union (EU). Moreover, it offers information on the Coroners and Justice Act of 2009 of Great Britain.

Reports on miscellaneous developments regarding environmental law in Great Britain and the European Union. Mandatory scheme for radioactive substance pollution reporting; European Commission proposal for a regulation on persistent organic pollutants; Environment Agency policy on building development on or within 250 meters of a landfill site; Landfill allowance trading scheme; Fees for substitution plans for high-risk solvents.

This article evaluates the provisions for information disclosure to employees contained in the UK Takeover Code, following the implementation of the Directive on Takeover Bids (2004/25/EC) in 2006 and further amendments resulting from the Kraft/Cadbury takeover in 2010, among other developments. It contrasts information and consultation (I&C) provisions across other EU directives on employment relations and emphasizes that the Takeover Bids Directive restricts itself to information disclosure, allowing employees merely to append their opinion to the offeree board circular. Detailed analysis reveals that very few opinions have actually been given over the past 12 years (2006–2017 inclusive), and of these almost one-third complain about lack of information. These empirical findings highlight the weakness of the UK provisions, and the article concludes by proposing areas where further regulatory reform might strengthen I&C in the takeover process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through group thinking and thorough research, this article critically examines the democratic quality of the June 2016 UK referendum on EU membership. The Brexit 'mandate' is based on 52% of the voters but just 26% of the UK population. On a rigorous scrutiny, the referendum failed key tests on democratic legitimacy, such as human rights and the definition of the franchise. The UK Referendum Act 2015 excluded 3.3 million settled EU citizens from the franchise, which cast serious doubts: the political and legal status of common EU citizenship conferred by EU Treaties (based on equality and non-discrimination on grounds of nationality) was disregarded by the UK and by the EU. The article concludes that a democracy which intentionally excludes and marginalizes a whole group within its own political community is not legitimate enough. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social scientists have begun to offer varied diagnoses of why Brexit has happened, and what its consequences have been and will likely be. This article does so by drawing upon Elias-inspired notions of longer-term de-civilizing processes, shorter-term de-civilizing spurts, and short-term de-civilizing offensives. Brexit is conceived of as involving a set of interlocking phenomena and tendencies which are de-civilizing in nature, and therefore de-cosmopolit(an)izing too. Diverse empirical phenomena in the UK are made sense of through the unifying conceptual apparatus of 'de-civilization', allowing analysis to start to relate them to each other systematically. The article also uses this sociological approach to look ahead tentatively to what the post-Brexit socio-political landscape may look like in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the passing of the Statutory Instrument (SI) law by the United Kingdom (UK) Parliament to fulfil its obligations to implement the European Union (EU) directive on databases. Effective date of the law; Implications of the change in the law; What the law states regarding any database collection; Four groups in which the rights in databases are divided into; Announcement of a Database Market Strategy Group by the UK Government in December of 1997.

Drawing on a framework that integrates discursive practices and relationalism, we explore the relevance of relational ties for the cross-state mobility of naturalised third-country nationals (NTCNs) within the European Union, examining how relational ties facilitate their mobility to the UK. Our data derive from in-depth interviews with NTCNs of West African origin living and working in the UK. Emphasising how co-ethnic diaspora-based networks produce (un)planned cross-state mobility outcomes, we identify five stages in the mobility process: sensemaking of an imperfect structural incorporation in the naturalised country; co-ethnic diaspora conversations; squaring circles; reconnaissance visits; and taking the plunge. Our study reveals how shared collective identities are replicated in transnational networks to inform mobility decisions. Although West African NTCNs may lack the social and cultural capital needed to exploit opportunities in industrialised societies, relationally they are well endowed. The geographically extended relational capital they bring with them, and the access to opportunities this affords, we suggest, helps compensate for deficits in situated social capital and constitutes a primary determinant of success in cross-state mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically examines the literature dealing with the British Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) Regulations (2004). It is argued that notwithstanding significant academic interest, the implications of the legislation for employees, trade unions and managers remain under-explored and inadequately theorised. Outlining the principal deficiencies the article suggests scholars could derive much inspiration from the voluminous output relating to both the (sister) European Works Council (EWC) Directive and the continental works council format. The absence of research dealing with the interconnectedness of the ICE and EWC Regulations is similarly highlighted. It is suggested that researchers might usefully import the concept of ‘institutional complementarity’ to extend knowledge of the synergies potentially derived from the operation of both pan-European (EWC) and national (ICE) fora in those organisations where such bodies coexist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the changing role of the state, through an analysis of the development and implementation of the EU Temporary Agency Work Directive in the UK. The article outlines and utilizes the concept of the ‘competition state’ to help frame and comprehend the UK Government’s approach to negotiating and shaping the Directive. Using archival, secondary and primary research, the article shows how the state continues to exercise important choices nationally and internationally which, in turn, have profound implications for the operation of labour markets. The article shows how, despite a veneer of fairness, the state has developed a regulatory instrument which provides uneven protection for workers, favours the actions of employers, promotes further flexibility in the use of temporary labour contracts and, by taking advantage of compromises at the European level, creates further market-making opportunities for well-established large agencies in the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Great Britain's court case R (UK Recyclate Ltd and Ors) v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Anor which dealt with the interpretation of the European Union Waste Framework Directive concerning environmental outcomes for separate waste stream collection. It mentions the proper interpretation of Articles 10 and 11 of the directive and presents a detailed analysis of the decision of a British court on the case.

This article examines dynamics of financial surveillance and risk-based regulation in the context of ongoing activities to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. Close analysis of the situation in the UK reveals entangled forms of co-regulation and ultimately co-production of surveillance that challenge ‘institutional boundaries’ of the state regarding policing and intelligence practices. It is argued that ongoing transformations in the anti-money laundering field reveal a dual movement that combines forms of indirect administration with a process of ‘neoliberal bureaucratization’. The article aims to show how current policies against ‘dirty money’ still paradoxically work on the basis of heterogeneous goals and misapprehensions between ‘professionals of security’ and ‘professionals of finance’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The growth in statutory provisions in the UK requiring employers to inform and consult employee representatives has been driven primarily by EU law rather than domestic policy. The 2002 EU information and consultation Directive was widely seen as having far-reaching implications for UK law and employment relations practice, but the 'reflexive' design of the UK regulations transposing the Directive has limited its impact to date. An assessment of the available evidence suggests that the regulations have prompted considerable voluntary activity in terms of reviewing, modifying and introducing information and consultation arrangements but that this has been largely employer-led. The article argues that the reform of key aspects of the UK regulations is necessary to overcome trade union ambivalence towards the legislation and the low uptake of its provisions by employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2007, the Dutch state secretary for European affairs lamented the narrow focus on the rules of European integration in the public debate, overshadowing the EU’s impact on citizens’ daily lives. This study compares the amount and type of news about the EU in the British, French and Dutch press during the period 1990—2003. A content analysis of Dutch EU coverage for the years 2004 up to 2006 was subsequently undertaken, which saw key events such as the EU enlargement and referenda on the constitution. The results show how Dutch EU news is notable for its domestic viewpoint until 2003. The prominence of EU news in all three countries seems unrelated to the EU’s growing authority. Besides key events regarding the integration process, the EU appears to rely on crises and rows to draw media attention. Everyday politics remain invisible. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents findings from a qualitative research project on the environmental experiences of trans-European migrants, drawing on conversational interviews with young people who have moved to Britain over recent years from the new European Union Member States in Eastern Europe. It explores these migrants' practical and emotional relationships with physical (and media) environments, also drawing on the literature of phenomenological geography, in which there is a helpful concern with environmental experiences and associated senses of place. Such experiences and perceptions are not usually objects of reflection in day-to-day social circumstances, precisely because of their routine, familiar and taken-for-granted character. However, transnational migra-tion can bring a profound disturbance of lifeworlds, throwing senses of place into sharp relief. Therefore, a major theme of this article is the close connection between matters of migration and those of place-making in daily living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within democratic theory, the deliberative variant has assumed pre-eminence. It represents for many the ideal of democracy, and in pursuit of this ideal, online discussion forums have been proposed as solutions to the practical limits to mass deliberation. Critics have pointed to evidence which suggests that online discussion has tended to undermine deliberation. This article argues that this claim, which generates a stand-off between the two camps, misses a key issue: the role played by design in facilitating or thwarting deliberation. It argues that political choices are made both about the format and operation of the online discussion, and that this affects the possibility of deliberation. Evidence for the impact of design (and the choices behind it) is drawn from analysis of European Union and UK discussion forums. This evidence suggests that we should view deliberation as dependent on design and choice, rather than a predetermined product of the technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why are international institutions designed in one way and not another? Using the European security and defence policy (ESDP) as a case study, this article suggests that the social representations dominating the national and organizational world of institution-makers are key to our understanding the shape and content of an emerging institution of international security cooperation. A focus on social representations, which are the product of institutional practices, helps to break the interest/idea dichotomy that underpins most theories of preference formation when they try to explain institutional designs. This article shows that foreign and defence policy-makers from France, Germany and the United Kingdom have shaped ESDP by projecting their respective social representations, notably with regard to the role of the state, the nature of security challenges and the purpose of their organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents news briefs related to environmental laws from around the world. The draft Corporate Manslaughter Bill in Great Britain introduces a new offence for holding organizations accountable for gross failings by their senior management where these have had fatal consequences. This would complement other forms of liability, including prosecutions under health and safety legislation and would be linked to the standards required under those laws. A draft guidance produced for Environment Agency officers in Great Britain, waste producers and the waste management industry, provides information on the sampling and testing of wastes to meet the landfill waste acceptance procedures. The "Communication From the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament: Declaration on Guiding Principles for Sustainable Development" of May 25, 2005 declares the European Union as having identified sustainable development as integral to all European Community policies, as set out in the Amsterdam Treaty introduced in 1997 following the Declaration at the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

The movement of live animals and plants, their germplasm, food and other products derived from them ('animal and plant material') into, from and within the United Kingdom is governed by animal and plant health (sanitary and phytosanitary) laws that implement several important EC Directives. Since 1993 the Directives in force (as frequently amended) have reflected the principles of the Single European Market. The removal of internal borders has entailed the harmonisation of import requirements in EC law, so that documentary checks and physical inspections are only made at the first point of entry into the EU. Harmonised requirements for imports from third countries reflect risks of introducing harmful material to the Community as a whole rather than only to the country of entry (in this case the United Kingdom). To this end, the regulatory innovations in plant health of plant passports, protected zones and buffer zones try to balance the demands of the free market with the need for phytosanitary controls. The influence of the Single Market, however, is compounded by the effect of global trade rules through various agreements of the World Trade Organisation. Another aspect to be discussed is that controls over the importation of animal and plant material should be considered as part of environmental protection and protection of human health. This is seen in the effect and consequences of the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 2001 but also in the regulation of genetically modified organisms and controls over the importation of products from endangered species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As change in European security behavior interfaces with parallel change in United States security priorities and approach, the transatlantic security relationship is being reshaped. The implications of this evolution in security cooperation are profound both for the European Union as it emerges into a new and uncertain state of development and for the Atlantic relationship that has for so long coupled the world's largest economies with a shared strategic vision. The authors challenge the view that -- as a security actor -- the EU is limited to soft or civil forms of power that lock it into a subordinate position to the US. Attention is focused on the structural capabilities and the political will with which the EU and its member states have responded to the deep changes in Europe's security environment. This combination of institutional development and converging security priorities is producing, the authors contend, a paradigm shift in the EU that is changing the traditional transatlantic relationship. The crucial but troubled role played by the United Kingdom in that relationship is given particular attention. The research on which the article draws includes recent interviews with security officials in Western Europe and the Balkans as well as with international corporations active in the security arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]