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The British paper and board industry opposed plans to establish the Western European free trade area and the more modest EFTA, arguing that British producers would be unable to compete successfully against their Nordic rivals. The paper industry did support British entry to the EEC, but only because this was considered to be a less bad option than continued membership of EFTA. It is argued that while the British government could not fundamentally change its European policy solely because it harmed the interests of one particular industry, pressure from business and fears that increased competition would lead to increased unemployment gradually persuaded it to find ways to reduce competition. However, this policy probably encouraged many companies to delay efforts to modernise production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Helmut Schmidt has often been depicted as a ‘reluctant European’ who only came to embrace European integration because of US policy under Carter, this article shows that Schmidt's conceptions of Europe have remained largely consistent since the late 1940s. Using rare materials from his private archive, it analyses how Schmidt utilised the EC in dealing with the multiple crises of the 1970s, regarding European and transatlantic cooperation not as antagonistic but as complementary processes. With the reheating of the Cold War from the late 1970s onwards, however, the international and domestic preconditions of Schmidt's two-pillar foreign policy gradually began to erode. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper analyses the impact of European Union (EU) funds on corruption in the EU ex-communist countries by following a panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach. The panel includes 10 former EU communist countries, over 2007–2019. The key findings reveal that an improvement in the EU funds paid and their rate of absorption can reduce the level of corruption in the long-run in the recipient EU ex-communist countries. This is due to better monitoring of EU funds paid compared with national resources, and a more efficient and fairer channel of EU funds absorption. In parallel with the EU funds, corruption can be controlled in certain conditions by the degree of economic development, size of government, level of democratisation and religiosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on Euroscepticism tends to portray parties opposing European integration or criticising the European Union (EU) as a family of Eurosceptic parties (either hard or soft). Recent literature, however, offers empirical evidence on the ambivalence and diversity of the EU critique. What is still unclear are the reasons behind the chameleonic nature of Euroscepticism and the implications that this may have for the EU critique and the changes proposed about EU policy or institutions. The present article addresses this question exploring the role of EU crises to capture the changing nature of Euroscepticism and suggests that it is related to contextual pressures on the political debate around the EU. The paper develops this argument and illustrates it through the analysis of the Alternative für Deutschland in Germany, covering the EU crises of the last decade, including the recent period of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine invasion. Drawing on a corpus of party manifestos and speeches between 2013 and 2022, this study shows that there are three main frames used by the party to criticise the EU. It also concludes that these frames involve distinct political implications for the EU critique and the alternative proposals presented by the party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Commission has traditionally held a weak position in the policy domain of EU security and defence policy and has been seen as a 'least likely' case of supranational integration. Nevertheless, in recent years, the Commission has steadily expanded its role and ambition within this policy field – a process which gained in momentum after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Thus, this article investigates how the war in Ukraine has led to the establishment of new security and defence initiatives and to a stronger geopolitical role for the Commission. This paper theorises that the war in Ukraine is serving as an engine of integration. The article traces how the Commission seizes the windows of opportunity created by crises to strategically expand its mandate on security and defence policy and in the development of the sanctions policy regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between equality and social Europe, which has remained underdeveloped in the process of European integration. In contrast to the social dimension of the EU, the principle of equality has been significant from the beginning of European integration. The paper opens with an overview of how equality functions as the basis for a social Europe. Next, two interpretations of equality are introduced. The EU's preferred interpretation, which is based on merit, is in sync with market ideals. One of the shortcomings of merit-based equality as a foundation of social Europe, however, is its inability to properly disconnect the vulnerable person from the employment market. This paper argues that an alternative interpretation of equality based on value is more suitable, because value-based equality can challenge the potentially harmful social structure of the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the temporalities of EU investments into Southeast European (SEE) roads. Road construction and maintenance and related institutional frameworks, regulation, and project planning signify different modes of infrastructural time. Roads carry narratives of development and progress, but they also confront visions of desired futures with ruins of forgotten pasts. Promises of infrastructural potential intersect with project cycles, financial flows, and construction timelines, and work delays and material malfunctions. As such, infrastructures are a productive entry point to understanding how Europeanisation works through different temporalizing practices and techniques. The paper maps complex temporalities and temporal politics that shape infrastructural development and showcases how Europeanisation works also outside of promises of linear progress to EU membership on the one hand and corresponding classifications of absent futures on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ernst B. Haas pioneered the formation of European integration studies outside the field of International Relations. The European Coal and Steal Community of 1951 was already more supranational than any existing international organisation to date. Supranationalism subsequently expanded with European integration. In his attempt to account for the supranationalism of European regionalism, Haas had developed his neofunctionalism as a general theory, which could be applied to other regions as well as the global level. EU scholars, in contrast, began to treat the EU as a case sui generis insisting on its unique supranational nature. The paper revisits the question of the uniqueness of European regionalism. Combining Ernst Haas' works on supranational regionalism and liberal nationalism, the EU is approached as a strong form of supranational regionalism that has transformed interstate relations in Europe towards what he called 'cosmopolitan internationalism'. The paper argues that liberal nationalism is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for this transformation. It, however, provides an explanation for the contestation of the EU as a model of liberal regionalism by non-liberal forms of nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the concept of decompression as a specific process of differentiation. Decompression can be anchored as one of the phenomena of non-compliance, representing a distinctive phenomenon, however. Governments or leaders acting in a decompression way are not Eurosceptics and they do not want to reverse the course of integration. We define decompression as a sudden violation of an EU rule by a member state, which leads to immediate disruption of shared trust in a basic EU policy or principle. In the case of a crisis, we can see a 'compression', an unexpected crisis-driven demand placed on domestic institutions. Decompression is a relaxation of this pressure triggering the non-application of an EU policy or principle in reaction to changes external to the political equilibrium. It sheds new light on the persistent power of individual politicians to compromise European integration in an unintended way, so far under-reported by the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional frameworks of immigrant integration in Western Europe are conceptualised within a nation-state framework of thinking. Transnational ties, relations, activities, and attachments of immigrants as well as transnational state and non-state actors have largely been neglected. This paper introduces/promotes a balanced theoretical approach to study immigrant integration in contemporary Western Europe, namely, integration as a three-way process and negotiation, which takes both national and transnational contexts into account together. To further elaborate on the three-way approach, the paper examines transnational Islam, as a form of transnationalism writ large, which has received enormous negative publicity with a particular emphasis on violent/jihadist networks, and is often conceived as an inhibiter of the Muslim integration. Applied in transnational Islam case, the three-way approach indicates that integration and transnationalism are not necessarily mutually exclusive; transnational Islam and Muslim organisations are diverse, thereby, must be studied as such, and some forms of the latter promote Muslim integration into Western European societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the interconnectedness among European equity REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) due to increased financialization of the real estate sector and European economic integration. It uses two models, Diebold and Yilmaz's generalised variance decomposition and Barunik and Krehlik's time-frequency dynamics framework. The study covers a sample of 42 Pan-European REITs over a 15-year period from 2004 to 2018 and finds that the connectedness among REITs is influenced by the geographical location and performance of commercial real estate sub-sectors. The dynamic analysis shows that the source of shocks does not determine the persistence, but rather how the markets interpret the shocks during high-frequency intervals. The paper concludes that the connectedness structure among REITs reflects uncertainty interaction, with some effects observed mainly at high frequency levels, and few unexpected shocks found in the long-term stability of REIT returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Western Balkans EU candidate countries face rule of law challenges far more serious than Hungary or Poland did at the time of their accessions in 2004. Despite extensive EU conditionality and support, with 16% of EU pre-structural funds dedicated between 2014 and 2020 to rule of law projects, governance indicators show no substantial change. The European Court of Auditors (ECA) also found little impact in advancing the rule of law in the candidate countries in the Western Balkans. The European Commission, however, does report signs of progress. By drawing on public procurement data from the two sectors concentrating most public expenditure, namely health and construction, between the years 2017 and 2019, this paper solves the dilemma of how allegedly successful reforms can happen without much impact. By directly measuring government favouritism in procurement, before and after EU-driven reforms, the paper finds that evolution has so far been limited despite proving the effect of certain interventions. The paradox is explained by providing evidence of versatile behaviour by the main rent owners and the increasing discretionary power of Albania's governing party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the debate on domestic politicisation of EU issues by suggesting hitherto overlooked explanation of (non)politicisation. This paper uses Czechia as an intriguing case in which the mainstream explanations of a low level of domestic politicisation of EU issues do not apply. The Czech case illustrates that, first, even in the context of high public Euroscepticism, EU issues do not necessarily become politicised, particularly so when the public does not consider them to be important. Second, high politicisation does not occur when there is a path dependency of a mismatch between positions of political parties and significant parts of their electorates on EU issues. Finally, the rise of catch-all populist parties prevents a high level of politicisation of EU issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to assess the effectiveness of individual management systems in the analysed EU countries (Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, Hungary), an econometric analysis of the interdependence between the quality of the institutional and regulatory framework and the absorption of EU funds and economic growth was conducted. Conceptually, the econometric analysis aims to identify two levels of interdependence between institutional and regulatory variables on the one hand and dependent variables on the other: (1) the effect of the quality of the institutional and regulatory environment on the absorption of EU funds; (2) the effect of the quality of the institutional and regulatory environment on economic growth. The results of the analysis confirm that EU funds have led to increased economic growth in EU countries which provides basis for economic convergence. However, the allocation of funds alone did not necessarily increase the quality of the institutional framework and competitiveness of the analysed countries. Thus, the paper confirms the importance of improvement of the institutional and regulatory framework of particular grant recipient country, as this not only increases the absorption of EU funds, but also improves the economic growth prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Which kind of European Union is emerging from the polycrisis? This paper argues that the EU is gradually becoming a ‘reinsurance polity’. In this system of transnational public reinsurance, European states remain their citizens’ primary insurers against individual and societal risks. As their insurance capacity is repeatedly overstretched by transboundary crises, the EU creates standing resources to provide back-up support. In contrast to federal co-insurance, EU reinsurance is directed towards states, with citizens affected merely indirectly. The paper defines public reinsurance, theorises its emergence and functioning, and provides three illustrative examples from the polycrisis (rescEU, Frontex standing corps, HERA). Reinsurance is a novel path of EU institutional development. Though a compromise among diverging national interests, it moves the EU beyond the regulatory polity without pushing it toward positive state-building. Formulating a pragmatic standard of transnational risk-sharing congruent with demoi-cratic notions of legitimacy, reinsurance could also provide a finalité of integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Was the European response to the Covid-19 crisis coherent to the challenges posed by the pandemic? The paper argues that the response to the pandemic had little to do with the characteristics of the crisis at hand and was rather linked to pre-conceived priorities of key actors in Europe (particularly surrounding the need to foster the green transition). The pandemic was thus considered as the epitome of an exogenous shock, to which no clear long-term policy response could be given, if not one that strengthens on previous political economic plans. The paper contributes to the literature on crisis-management in the EU, arguing that the multiple streams framework's focus on ambiguity is a fruitful complement to the historical institutionalist emphasis on critical junctures, particularly when studying exogenous shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the institutions and regulations that govern the transnational movement of dead bodies in contemporary Europe. With the extension of free movement across the European Union and the subsequent expansion of transnational employment, tourism, and retirement, the repatriation of corpses from one member state to another lies in an ambiguous regulatory space. In exploring how dead bodies move between EU member states, and how their movements are regulated within transnational and national systems, the paper pays particular attention to the legacies and continued relevance of mid-century international agreements. Section 1 contextualises the issue of the transportation of mortal remains, discusses our broader theoretical background, and explains our research methods. Section 2 provides an historical overview of the foundational international regulations governing the repatriation of corpses: the 1937 Berlin Agreement and the 1973 Strasbourg Agreement. In Section 3, we present a comprehensive review of the discussion of repatriation of EU citizens between EU countries that occurred in the European Parliament and Commission between 2000 and 2018. In so doing, we focus on the ways in which understanding institutional action and inaction provides a lens on the operation of supranational competency development and its limits, and on the complex ways in which institutional arrangements are interwound within national, international, and transnational practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe Builds was a mobile exhibition designed by the Visual Information Unit (VIU) of the Economic Cooperation Administration, which administered the Marshall Plan (MP), visiting seventeen cities throughout western Europe in 1950. The US conceived of the MP to shape western European nations into dependable allies. Often seen as a unilateral application of US hegemony, this paper claims that it was an example of multilateral global governance. The VIU's multinational designers embodied the multilateralism they promoted, and the exhibition they designed combined modern aesthetic with circus pomp to communicate the benefits of European integration. Beyond reading the exhibition's content, this paper reads the architecture of exhibition, organising it into three tropes: mobility, lightness, and ingenuity, which related to separate aspects of the MP. Beyond representing European integration, the exhibition performed it. Its users absorbed the lessons of the MP and through their participation thus, consenting to be governed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While higher education is not a 'classical' single market domain, considerable efforts have been made at the European level to advance integration. The European Higher Education Area (and the European Research Area have represented important drivers in the construction of a single market for education, despite uneven implementation and a lack of convergence around common values. This paper explores a very recent initiative in the field of higher education, i.e. the European Universities Initiative (EUI), characterised by a hybrid type of university collaboration based on transnational alliances linking education, research and innovation. Using the lenses of the 'governance architecture framework', the paper shows that the EUI can act as a catalyst for renewed integration in higher education through a multi-tiered, flexible mode of cooperation among different actors' constellations. However, the paper also identifies a potential alternative trajectory of integration with (trans)national institutions as key actors driving the alliances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union is often seen as a bulwark of progressive values, including LGBTI rights. By restricting such rights, politicians thus appear to reject the EU's fundamental principles. This paper argues, however, that anti-gender politics is often a surprisingly pro-European phenomenon. Many of its practitioners rebuff accusations of Euroskepticism. For them, rights restrictions are less an attempt to reject European integration than to redirect its trajectory. They aim to reconnect the EU with Europe's civilizational roots. The paper illustrates this argument by analyzing the discourse actors have used to justify anti-gender policies in three countries: Hungary, Lithuania, and Slovakia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brexit has been a major crisis facing the European integration process. The paper examines how Brexit was framed and exploited by two EU member state governments, Czechia and Hungary. We conceptualize Brexit as a "distant crisis" for these two countries: although it is likely to have significant impacts, these are uncertain and not immediate. Building on the crisis-framing literature, we apply frame analysis to examine governmental rhetoric and find that both governments have instrumentalized Brexit for internal purposes by pragmatically adapting their discursive positions on it to fit their political calculus on both domestic and European issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies determinants of international mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in Poland using the predictions of the knowledge capital model of multinational enterprise. The empirical implementation of the theory is based on the negative binomial model and the bilateral dataset covering 143 countries over the period 1995–2015. Our estimation results indicate that M&As in Poland are explained by both differences in relative factor endowments and in market size which confirms the importance of both market seeking and efficiency seeking motives. Moreover, the efficiency seeking motive is losing its importance over time while the market seeking motive becomes more important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public attitudes towards the free movement of workers in the European Union vary substantially between countries and individuals. This paper adds to the small but growing research literature on this issue by analysing the role of national welfare institutions. We investigate the relationship between the degree of 'institutional reciprocity' in national systems of social protection and attitudes to EU labour immigration across 12 European countries. We do not find evidence of an effect of institutional reciprocity on opposition to EU labour immigration among the public at large. However, institutional reciprocity appears to matter for economically vulnerable groups. We identify an interaction effect indicating that higher degrees of institutional reciprocity in national social protection systems, and in unemployment insurance systems specifically, are associated with lower levels of opposition to EU labour immigration among unemployed people. Hence, reciprocity in welfare state institutions appears to shield free movement from opposition, at least among vulnerable groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of proposals for a stronger focus on results in Cohesion Policy post-2020, it is necessary to strengthen the link between interventions and evidence on effectiveness. This paper argues that growth regressions and regression discontinuity analysis focusing on regional growth do not provide sufficient detail to support policy-makers in intervention design. A more nuanced picture would be achieved by unpacking intervention in different policy areas at the micro-level and analyzing the channels through which policy contributes to economic growth. The paper reviews the main direct and indirect transmission channels in three areas: research and innovation; support to enterprises; and infrastructure. In this respect, impact evaluations at beneficiary and, in particular, firm level offer a rich potential source of evidence and need to be systematically built into data collection and evaluation of post-2020 Cohesion Policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that some EU member states have been smart, or even dishonest. Splitting off capital cities from existing NUTS2 regions has given them an advantage in the Cohesion Policy funds allocation scheme but worsened the position of others. To explain the reasons and implications, we review the issue of delimiting the NUTS2 regions and the related allocation of financial resources. We evaluate how modifications of NUTS2 regions, carried out by Hungary, Poland, and Lithuania, impacted the allocation of financial resources for the 2021–2027 programming period. The analysis shows the shift of billions of euros towards these countries. We also argue that this experience is and could also be an inspiration for other countries. [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]

The conference 'Life and death of psychoanalytic societies: lessons from history and new prospects for unions' was held on 23-24th January 2021 online via Zoom with the main location in Kyiv, Ukraine. It was the Ist conference initiated by the Division 'Psychoanalytic Psychology and Psychotherapy' of the National Psychological Association of Ukraine, a new valid member of the European Federation of Psychologists' Associations (EFPA). The organisers of the conference managed to involve 62 colleagues from different psychoanalytic societies from Ukraine, Italy, Japan, and Armenia. 6 institutions became the co-organizers of the conference. The conference created a place for psychoanalysts to reflect fruitfully on the history and the present functioning of psychoanalytic societies and to discuss current challenges and future prospects for the unions. The generous exchange of thoughts and the atmosphere of acceptance of otherness established a favourable platform for psychic investment in the future of psychoanalytic societies in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do members of regional parliaments engage in EU policymaking? This paper examines how and why members of the Walloon, Flemish and Brussels regional parliaments vary in their EU-contacting activities, by adapting a German survey. Belgium makes a relevant case, as the 'in foro interno, in foro externo' principle entitles regions to conduct foreign policy, including EU affairs in those areas they possess internal competency. Our data show that the level of EU-contacting activities of Belgian regional parliamentarians is overall low, mainly directed towards informational activities and taking place in the direct environment of the parliamentarians. The variation in EU-related activities is best explained by individual-level factors such as the perceived salience of Europe for their own careers, their perceived influence on EU policymaking and their position towards European integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fear of falling behind has been a driving force of European integration. Historically, Europe's response to the looming angst of declining competitiveness has been more market-creation, not market-direction. Recently, however, Europe has – in the name of safeguarding Europe's technological sovereignty – taken on a much more active role in directing economic activity towards sectors and technologies deemed geopolitically or geoeconomically important. In this paper, we attempt to explain this 'geo-dirigiste' turn. We reconstruct the evolution of EU industrial policy through the lens of Europe's fear of falling behind, drawing not only on primary (including archival) and secondary sources, but also on original interviews and deep transfer learning applied to an original dataset of 66.548 documents. Focusing on Europe's changing technological and geopolitical context, its coalitional underpinnings, and the role of ideational politics, we document and explain the historic shift away from market-creation and towards supranational market-direction in EU industrial policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since the beginning of the European integration process, Germany’s role within the EU has been a contentious topic in political and intellectual debate. Following German unification, this has been further exacerbated by various crises. On the one hand, many have expressed concerns about power politics aimed at establishing a ‘German Europe’ or a ‘European Germany’, as Thomas Mann declared in 1953. On the other hand, voices across Europe have criticised Germany for its lack of more forceful power politics. At the same time, German leaders have repeatedly pledged to assume greater responsibility after being accused of showing insufficient commitment, no doubt borne out of pacifist sentiments, reflecting the dark shadow of Germany’s history. In this paper, we examine not only how the coalition government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz that came into office in 2021 has articulated a tacit and increasingly explicit claim for leadership, but also how the Chancellor has transformed his narrative in line with the ‘Zeitenwende’ following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We argue that the key to understanding Germany as a driving force is its remarkable shift from a federalist narrative to an adapted geopolitical, security-driven master narrative covering a broad set of policy fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the debate about the integration of refugees in European nation-states, several scholars have recently noted a so-called 'agency paradox' (Klaver et al., 2018), which draws a contrast between, on the one hand, the initiative and inventiveness of refugees during their flight and, on the other hand, an allegedly lethargic attitude upon arrival in a new country. In this paper, we will unpack this paradox in a critical analysis of civic integration in the Netherlands. We shall write 'against integration' (cf. Rytter, 2019) by recovering the muted voices of a group of Eritrean refugees whose future depends on the obligation to complete civic integration exams. Using Dialogical Self Theory (DST), we will demonstrate that a seemingly passive attitude among migrants must not be interpreted as a lack of agency. Instead, we will show that their agency is silenced and subordinated by the integration process, but that they are simultaneously involved in a hidden dialogue with the new society in order to negotiate a future in which their multiple identifications as both Eritrean and Dutch are recognized. By facilitating the recovery and recognition of the muted voices of Eritrean refugees, Dialogical Self Theory contributes to their empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses whether "enlargement fatigue," slowing down the European Union integration process of 6 Candidate Countries (C6), can be explained by the poor economic and trade performance of those economies, especially in trading with the EU. We comprehensively analyzed the merchandise trade of those economies with the EU in 2007–2018 using numerous quantitative techniques and applying a very high level of data disaggregation. First, the value of similarity indicators between the C6's export and EU import structures and indices of intra-industry trade was calculated. Then we controlled for additional factors: the changes in C6's exports (imports) to the EU through shares of goods at higher levels of processing, as well as their export (import) specialization. The conclusion is that the weak trade performances of C6 are not the cause of enlargement fatigue, as these economies saw moderate structural improvements in their trade with the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have applied theories of European integration to interpret crisis-led policymaking processes and integration outcomes in the EU. However, there has been little attempt to appraise the analytical leverage offered by major integration theories as a function of different crisis pressures. We theorize that diverse combinations of crisis pressures generate four decision-making scenarios in the EU, each of which can be ascribed to different combinations of analytical insights from neofunctionalism, intergovernmentalism, postfunctionalism, and federalism. We illustrate the value of our framework in relation to four EU crises concerning the euro area, refugees, Brexit and Covid-19. Overall, the paper makes a theoretical contribution to advance the debate on crisis-led integration in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study demonstrates how the EU contributes to a self-reinforcing administrative bias due to domestic-level organizational factors. Strong European integration without membership reinforces a politico-administrative gap and this gap expands over time. The paper applies an extreme case of high integration without formal EU membership represented by Norway. The findings suggest that the EU contributes to reinforce the administrative state through strong unintended assimilation effects. The findings are probed by a novel and comprehensive longitudinal data-set consisting of a large-N single case (N = 3562) questionnaire study among government officials at three points in the Norwegian central administration: 1996, 2006 and 2016. Theoretically, the paper examines the role of organizational factors in administrative integration and how the impact of the EU is mediated by organizational variables at the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2014, several European Union (EU) member states have adopted their own versions of "Feminist Foreign Policy" (FFP). Increasingly, feminist bureaucrats, politicians, activists and scholars are calling for the EU to do the same. This article scrutinises claims to the feminist actorsness of the EU by introducing the analytical concept of Feminist Power Europe (FPE). In employing FPE the article examines whether the EU can adopt a FFP that upholds transformative potential of feminism. Undertaking critical content analysis of key documents, we identify three overarching feminist frames that emerge in the EU's external policies: (1) Liberal; (2) Intersectional; (3) Postcolonial. We demonstrate that the EU's propensity for a transformative feminist foreign policy is limited by the setup of global politics and the main drivers of European integration, which continue to be situated in a traditionally masculine environment and are defined by prevailing hierarchies. In undertaking this work, we highlight the constraints of advocating for the EU to adopt a FFP. This paper concludes by cautioning against the uncritical deployment of "feminism" in foreign policy articulation within an FPE configuration that excludes reflexivity about the EU's external relations vision and indeed, its practice. [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]

The regulatory state has provided a useful framework for conceptualizing the nature of the EU and its role in policy making. Although it is widely accepted that the conditions of European integration have dramatically changed since the 1990s, when this approach was formulated, few scholars have sought to theorize the EU 'beyond' the regulatory state. To fill this gap, this article puts forward the concept of the catalytic state, tracing its emergence within the field of climate and energy. The article proposes an initial theorization of the EU's role as a catalytic state, situating it between the direct approach of the positive state and the indirect one of the regulatory state. On that basis, it provides a detailed mapping of catalytic state capacities in the climate and energy sector. Rather than replacing existing regulatory capacities, the paper argues, these new capacities have expanded the scope of EU action, following the logic of policy layering. To what extent this has indeed increased the ability of the EU to achieve its declared policy targets remains an open question, however. The paper concludes with a discussion of further research questions regarding the effectiveness, accountability and scope of the EU as a catalytic state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the notion of spatial justice has been discussed as a possible conceptual foundation for rethinking EU Cohesion Policy. While scholars have adopted a dual distributive and procedural understanding of spatial justice, the paper argues that, applied to cross-border areas, such a conceptualisation is challenged to explain how the border contributes to disparities. We argue that actively questioning the role of law is paramount for better examination of the dynamics within border areas. An understanding of spatial justice informed by legal geography allows examination of how law fosters and impedes movement across borders. The paper presents three recent examples where policy representatives from affected communities have fought to adapt legal provisions to cross-border spatiality. Whether such initiatives increased border communities' capacities to shape their own development (i.e. European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation) or not yet (i.e. co-development at the Lorraine-Luxembourg border; European Cross-Border Mechanism), these examples show that analysing EUropean borderlands as a spatio-legal category helps understanding of how space and law constantly struggle with one another, and how spatial justice emerges from a movement out of this conflict. The paper concludes by discussing the practical and conceptual implications of combining legal geography and spatial justice for analysing EU Borderlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Euro crisis has produced a plethora of new institutions, policies, and projects to reform the Euro Area. This paper offers a theoretical and empirical contribution in the study of the New Economic Governance. By building on insights from classical Neofunctionalism and Liberal Intergovernmentalism, the paper revisits the static component of Philippe Schmitter's 'Neo-Neofunctionalist' framework. Static Neo-Neofunctionalism is then applied as a means to provide a systemic interpretation of crisis-led integration in the Euro crisis. The large majority of episodes of crisis-led integration in the 2011–2016 years is included in the analysis. In assessing Neo-Neofunctionalist expectations on the New Economic Governance, the paper matches analysis of legal documents with the results of a dedicated Expert Survey on the EMU governance fielded in October 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has become one of the greatest security crises since World War 2, with profound geopolitical and socio-economic implications for Europe and beyond. The upsurge of political and media attention to this war may have increased public support for EU enlargement, with new countries in the Eastern neighbourhood and the Western Balkans receiving the official EU candidate status. By drawing on mechanisms of securitisation and solidarity, this paper tests to what extent the Russian invasion has generated a positive politicisation of EU enlargement. While this crisis may have indeed fostered a permissive consensus in EU public opinion regarding Ukraine's future accession, I observe no such effects for the Western Balkans or Turkey. This finding also remains robust to identity and socioeconomic controls, which have traditionally structured public support for European integration. The empirical part is based on descriptive and regression analyses of data from a representative survey of 7678 respondents in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain conducted at the end of 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU faces an existential crisis. The 'liberal core', which played an important role in transforming the illiberal regimes in much of the post-war period, suffers from a series of setbacks. This paper argues that the possibility of reverse transformation – that is, the power of the emergent illiberal bloc to influence the liberal core, has become a real possibility for the first time in the history of European integration. The paper contributes to the growing debate on the sources of the EU's existential crisis and its future from a global political economy perspective. We suggest that a push-and-pull framework provides a coherent analytical toolkit to explain the properties and nature of the illiberal turn in the EU with its potential implications for the future of European integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the second half of 2018, Austria for the third time has taken over the EU Council Presidency and is therefore particularly interested in promoting an image of itself as a reliable partner and a European country which accepts and protects European values. Foreign cultural policy is one of the suitable instruments for achieving this goal. The present paper analyses Austrian foreign cultural policy with the aim of finding out how European integration affects it. The paper uses qualitative research methods such as desk research, document research and expert interviews. The results of the analyses show that Austrian stakeholders traditionally consider Europeanization primarily as a tool to promote Austrian national interests on the international stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the recent debates on the benefits of European economic integration, the purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of EU membership on the migration process in the case of Romania. The paper focussed on two directions of research: comparisons with neighbouring countries that are not member or candidates for EU and the explanation of the remittances based on the economic situation in the destination countries. The approach based on comparisons used difference-in-difference estimator as quantitative method, while the approach based on economic factors in destination countries employed mixed-effects models. The results based on these two approaches indicated that Romania did not send more migrants abroad in the period 2002–2017 compared to Ukraine and Republic of Moldova due its EU membership. On the other hand, Romania gained around 2.5 percentage points more remittances due its EU membership compared to Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. However, the unemployment and the GDP per capita in the destination countries are more important determinants of remittances rather than EU membership in the period 2010–2017. The results reveal that the remittances of Romanian migrants are conditioned by labour market issues in the destination countries, the unemployment in host country having a greater impact on remittances compared to GDP per capita and EU membership. It is expected that a future economic crisis will reduce remittances gained by Romania from other EU countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper problematizes European dis/integration from the location of Southeast Europe, particularly social and political struggles of the 2014 protests and plenums in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The European project is understood as a product of multiple assemblages to transgress various binaries that capture the European Union as a unitary entity and define the conceptual work on European integration and disintegration. In its central argument, the paper suggests that the political and everyday practices and claims articulated by the protests and plenums help us rethink the peripherality of Bosnia and Herzegovina vis-à-vis the European project and therefore also the spatio-temporal and institutional boundaries of the European project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new books on landscape (architecture) teaching, provided the rationale for this paper. It aims to place these into the context of the development of the landscape architecture discipline in Europe. A description of the beginnings of European university education follows an outline of the genesis of the profession. Moves towards European integration in the 1980s supported the establishment of an institutional framework, allowing the creation of a critical mass of academics, giving new impetus to teaching and research. An EU-funded Thematic Network supported the preparation of a common education guidance document, responding indirectly to the European Landscape Convention's call for university courses for landscape specialists. The Convention also stimulated a renewed focus on landscape in other fields of study. This has also broadened the horizons of landscape architecture teaching to encompass approaches from related disciplines. Finally, the paper discusses how landscape architecture education should respond to emerging societal challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Defence Fund (EDF) is considered a game changer for European defence. The unprecedented co-funding of research and development expenses of cutting-edge defence systems is functional to strengthen the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB) and the EU's Strategic Autonomy. This paper analyses the factors that enabled a partial shift from intergovernmental to supranational governance in the European defence market, applying the lens of the new intergovernmentalism theory. The cost of non-cooperation in defence and the Brexit impact will be taken into account to explain the observed shift. The paper highlights the role of the Commission in the integration of the European Defence Agency's activities with those of the newly created DG for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS). It also examines the extent to which diverging strategic industrial interests of Member States and of industrial players seek to prevent a deeper integration of the European defence market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) represents an institutionalized attempt by European Union Member States to respond to the security challenges they confront. This paper discusses the evolution of this policy through the lens of political integration and international relations theories. The analysis integrates both the supranational and the national level, and demonstrates that European institutions have extended their privileges and sphere of influence with increasing organizational mandates. At the same time, participation by various levels in the creation of European security policies has evolved, and the inter-governmental level is often recognized as dominant. However, the question remains open whether this evolution of policy might be properly explained by several influential political theories that have shaped the European integration and security architecture in recent decades. Aspects of the CSDP institutional setting (its creation, goals and role) and the explanation of why security and defense policy is a complex dilemma of the integration process are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Support for EU membership has long been an important topic of study. Individual-level research shows that winners of globalisation, including the higher educated, express greater EU support as they profit from economic and cultural conditions resulting from European integration. Recent context-focused work suggests that individuals in 'left-behind' places are less supportive of EU integration because of their home regions' weaker long-term economic conditions. This paper brings these two research strands into conversation with each other by examining how the relationship between EU support and individual-level education is contingent on subnational economic conditions. Using harmonised Eurobarometer data from almost 750,000 respondents spanning 2004–2019, combined with subnational economic data from 201 European regions, we find no evidence that subnational economic conditions influence the relationship between EU support and respondents' education level. At the same time, when cross-sectionally comparing long-term differences between regions, we find that EU support is positively related to regional GDP per capita (though unrelated to regional unemployment), among both the higher and lower educated, and especially in the post-Great Recession period. Longitudinally, EU support is positively related to declining regional unemployment, both among the higher and lower educated, but not to increasing regional GDP per capita. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The war in Ukraine has forced approximately eight million people into neighboring European countries. As part of sports clubs' societal commitment, many have received Ukrainian refugees. However, compared to previous so-called 'refugee waves', forced migration from Ukraine is different in terms of demographics, culture, and (sports) traditions. This paper aimed to assess these 'new' nuances and their implications for the European sports movement. Data were gathered through 17 semi-structured interviews with Swedish sports club representatives, analyzed with a critical realist-inspired thematic analysis, and interpreted with Bronfenbrenner's process-person-context-time framework. The representatives expressed that Ukrainian refugees are more in-tune with organized sports compared to other refugee populations; however, there are also culturally discrepant ideas about sports. Specifically, there seems to be an influx of skilled (youth) refugees, who approach sports in ways incompatible with Swedish conventions about youth sports. While the sporting capital often enables easier inclusion, it also presents challenges in extreme cases. The findings show that the European sports movement must be attentive to new challenges and opportunities associated with the current humanitarian crisis. Sports representatives need to balance culturally sensitive approaches with ethical considerations regarding youth sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reconstructs the complex diplomatic negotiations that led to the peculiar organization of molecular biology at the European level, by focusing in particular on the establishment of the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC), the intergovernmental structure founded in 1969–70 to support the scientific program of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). By combining the analysis of the informal decision-making kept in the Nobel Prize laureate John C. Kendrew’s personal papers (Oxford) with the in-depth exploration of the institutional documentation available in the EMBO and CERN archives (Heidelberg and Geneva) and the Swiss Federal Archives (Bern), the article sheds light on the importance of the EMBC not only for the construction of molecular biology as a scientific, social, and political field in the European context, but also for the broader process of definition of the European research policy. Far from being just a mere replica of CERN, the EMBO/EMBC inaugurated in fact an alternative and flexible ‘bottom-up’ model of science policy in the European context, based on competition, networking, and scientific excellence, which paved the way to the establishment of the European Research Council (ERC) in the early 2000s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]