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Tax mixes are important components of welfare systems, affecting income inequality, labour market outcomes and economic performance. Still, they are relatively under-examined in the literature studying the convergence of EU welfare states. Most existing analyses of tax mix convergence are limited to western Europe, mainly use twentieth-century data and do not control for domestic determinants of tax policy. I therefore study the determinants of tax mix composition and convergence in a panel of 30 EU and OECD countries between 1980 and 2019 using linear regressions. I find that tax mixes converge and shift from personal income taxes towards more regressive revenue sources. Contrary to theoretical predictions, both observations are almost unrelated to proxies of tax competition. Instead, the main driving factor is EU membership. Tax mixes of Central and Eastern European member states, however, do not Europeanise: they constitute a distinct group with low and persistently regressive taxation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability of the European community to respond to the multiple crises threatening the European Union and Europe depends in part on citizens' shared European identity giving legitimacy and support to communal action. Men's elite European club football is an example of a cultural practice that is highly Europeanised, reaches diverse audiences and is a known carrier of collective identities. This article examines the emergence of a European public football sphere through the convergence of football coverage across national media spaces, serving as a foundation for European identity constructions. It connects the concept of a European public sphere to the Europeanisation and mediatisation of football and its potential effects on European identity formation. Results indicate a convergence of football coverage around high‐profile and high‐status aspects of European football, creating a strongly aligned, homogenous but exclusive European public football sphere that leaves many parts of Europe on the sidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilising expert interviews, the article examines how different but overlapping logics of action guided the policies of the EU and its member states in the first year and a half of the Covid pandemic. We see three distinct logics – selfishness, emulation and coordination – taking shape, which together form a framework of cyclical Europeanisation. Efforts to cope with the pandemic made tensions between the Commission and its self-interested member states apparent. However, the member states were simultaneously able to learn from each other and thus emulate policy practices under conditions of uncertainty. Hence, regardless of the problems incurred, the ability to revert the tensions between the different logics of action and combine them pragmatically has reinforced some sense of Europeanisation within the European polity. External shocks intensify the cycles through which Europeanisation evolves and materialises, and bring to light the EU's ability to act and react, improvise and adapt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the extent to which European Council summits contribute to the Europeanisation of national public spheres, focusing on the use of X (formerly known as Twitter). The empirical analysis provided here entails quantitative elements on four European Council summits held in 2023: to what extent did X users located in different EU member states post about the European Council summits? On which issues did X users focus during the summits? To what extent did this activity generate transnational interactions? Through which language did X users mostly communicate? The findings seek to feed both the public discussion and academic dialogue about the impact of social media on the establishment of an online European public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is missing in our understanding of the stagnation and/or regression in the Europeanisation of the Western Balkan candidate countries? The current paper aims to present a conceptual novelty, coined as 'state-captured Europeanisation', which is based on rational choice institutionalism (RCI). The proposed alternative concept traces its origins to the literature on state capture and the episodes observed in the Western Balkan (WB) countries through state capture assessment diagnostics (SCAD). Designed as an article, this paper offers an in-depth literature review of the main concepts surrounding Europeanisation and state capture. It examines corruption from the perspective of the literature on rational choice institutionalism. In this theoretically inclined research paper, the references to the Western Balkans reveal a resistance to Europeanisation. In fact, Europeanisation in the WB countries can be, and has been, hijacked or manipulated by vested interests within the state apparatuses, resulting in what we have termed as 'state-captured Europeanisation'. State capture can be described as an evolutionary institutionalisation of corruption relations. Adapting the conceptualisation that explains how Europeanisation is seized by an illegitimate monopoly on the governance and economy of the countries on track to EU accession, the paper builds on the literature that explored the rationale behind the institutionalisation of corruption to advance an additional view about the effects of state capture on Europeanisation. The methodological framework used is that of rational choice institutionalism, focused on unveiling the causes of stabilitocracy, stagnation, and regression in Europeanisation. To contrive arguments and identify the episodes of state-captured Europeanisation, the article uses SCAD, bringing into the spotlight several instances in which political elites, bureaucratic agencies, and interest groups have acted as driving forces for mimicking Europeanisation (with examples from Serbia between 2007 and 2018). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the case of the EU-Armenia cooperation on the rule of law and judicial reform, this study contributes to the EaP performance assessment based on the five-element conceptual framework developed by Baltag and Romanyshyn (Int Polit, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-023-00475-3). To trace the behaviour of the policy in the context of recent internal and external challenges and characterise its acceptance by multiple stakeholders, two assessment criteria from the conceptual framework were chosen for evaluation: policy relevance and resilience. It is argued that regardless of the significantly increased level of EaP resilience in the period of the EU-Armenia CEPA conclusion and high relevance of the promoted RoL reform in legal and political domains, its low practical relevance led to the policy's underperformance. The transition of power in 2018 strengthened the practical relevance of the RoL reforms and the level of EaP resilience allowed the EU to respond to this change. However, the existence of contestations from inside and outside of the judicial system is still to be addressed in the policy design. Finally, it is suggested that in the progressively complex geopolitical environment, more flexible and adaptable foreign policy can increase the perceived relevance of the EU as a regional actor thus contributing to better EaP performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The institution of a simplified taxation system provided for in the tax system of Ukraine is characterized by permanent variability, which is always aimed at achieving an optimal balance between national interests (reduction of the shadow economy sector; attracting funds to budgets; reducing the level of tax administration costs; preventing the use of simplified taxation system in minimization schemes; etc.) and individual interests of taxpayers (reducing the tax burden; promoting the competitiveness of taxpayers; improving the convenience of paying taxes; minimizing the amount of tax reporting; etc.). Since the introduction of the simplified taxation system, it has been significantly transformed and, compared to 1998, is qualitatively better. Despite this, discussions in political and scientific circles about the need to take steps to further modify this special tax regime, up to its complete abolition, do not stop. The article considers the National Revenue Strategy until 2030 approved by the supreme executive body of Ukraine, which defines a medium-term roadmap for reforming tax policy and tax administration in Ukraine. The article outlines the main principles that should be followed in modernizing the national simplified taxation system and considers the goals that the state seeks to achieve through the practical implementation of the approved strategy. The author describes in detail the key measures envisaged by this national strategy for reforming the simplified taxation system, including in the context of Europeanization of the tax system of Ukraine, and points out the uncertainty of certain elements of these measures, which leads to complications in the tax planning process for entities. The author concludes that the approved national strategy, which is aimed at approximating the national tax policy and tax legislation of Ukraine to the provisions of the European Union legislation, provides for depriving legal entities (including agricultural producers) of the right to tax their income with a single tax, and defines measures to tighten the requirements for single tax payers (individual entrepreneurs) and increase their tax burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article delves into the intricate relationship between contested state- hood and European Union (EU) integration, explicitly focusing on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Since the early 1990s, amidst the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the EU’s enlargement efforts, BiH has grappled with challenges to its statehood, which have impeded its alignment with EU requirements. Despite being universally recognised as an independent state, BiH faces internal contestation, evident in its consociational constitutional framework and the divergent nationalist narratives among constituent groups. Moreover, while BiH maintains external sovereignty, it coexists with significant international oversight, complicating its path toward EU integration. The EU’s expansion into internally contested states like BiH necessitates a nuanced approach considering the entanglement of Europeanisation and de-Daytonisation processes. This article emphasises the complexity of BiH’s governance landscape, where internal dynamics and external influences converge, creating formidable obstacles to sovereignty assertion and governance efficacy. To surmount these challenges, BiH must address internal divisions, foster inclusive governance mechanisms and balance external supervision and internal autonomy. In shedding light on how contested statehood influences the EU’s role and policies, the article discusses the concept of ‘complex sovereignty’, particularly relevant to BiH’s context.

This article provides insights from a 1-year-long collaboration of four cities, a university of applied sciences and the regional authorities of South-Holland (Netherlands) on how to increase awareness of European (funding, knowledge-sharing, influencing) opportunities for local and regional administrations. Increased Europeanisation can bring significant opportunities for cities and regions, while a lack of awareness amongst directors and decision-makers in local and regional authorities can hinder the ability of these organisations to capitalise on these European opportunities. On the basis of the community of practice a toolbox with 13 practical lessons was developed, and this article provides practical strategies for unlocking the European potential of cities and regions. [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 European Union's Recovery and Resilience Facility is an unprecedented investment opportunity for economic modernisation. However, while the supranational European Commission assumes considerable influence over the design of national Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRPs), there is substantial diversity among RRPs. This paper analyses the interaction between national governments and the Commission in the coordinative RRP design process. We argue that national policy preferences, rooted in the partisan profiles of governing coalitions, ultimately explain variation in RRP content. We analyse the policymaking process in three semi-peripheral economies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) – Estonia, Romania, and Slovakia. CEE countries are especially suitable because as expected rule-takers, they function as least likely cases for the relevance of government agency, i.e., national partisanship. Through elite interviews, we trace various elements of each RRP to specific positions of governing coalitions and, with national variation, the Commission's ability to impose its own policy preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europeanisation research (ER) focuses on the domestic effects of European integration. Despite the importance of capital and labour for the political economy of EU Member States, ER has paid little attention to the impact of Europeanisation on social classes. This article addresses this blind spot and asks how European integration affects the power relations between capital and labour. For this purpose, I propose to augment ER with a power resource perspective. The article analyses the effects of 'Europeanisation through law' and 'Europeanisation through monetary integration' on the distribution of power resources between employers and wage earners and their organisations. Four lessons can be drawn from the findings for ER: (1) in the selected integration fields, Europeanisation has asymmetric effects on social classes, weakening wage earners' power resources (2) more attention should be paid to the effects of integration on the relation between state and market; (3) integration through law and monetary integration are more powerful Europeanisation mechanisms than has been acknowledged; (4) the concept of power resources offers a fruitful approach for examining the effects of Europeanisation on social classes. Moreover, adopting a power resource perspective would make it better visible how European integration affects relations of power and domination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Criminologie is the property of Presses de l'Universite de Montreal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A burgeoning empirical literature on attitudes towards Europe shows that highly educated individuals are more likely to hold pro‐European dispositions than non‐highly educated individuals. The literature provides structural and cultural accounts for this relationship. The structural account highlights that formal education contributes to earning higher incomes and attaining an upper‐class occupation, which are conducive to pro‐European dispositions. The cultural account instead highlights that formal education instils universalist and non‐traditionalist values in individuals, which are conducive to pro‐European dispositions. This is the first article to assess the relative predictive power of these two approaches. Using structural equation models, Rounds 8–10 of the European Social Survey and three indicators of pro‐European dispositions, this article examines whether socio‐economic location measured by income and upper‐class occupation or commitment to human values measured by universalism and traditionalism mediates this association. All in all, the structural approach receives stronger support than the cultural one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European integration has been promoted, shaped and criticised by a variety of actors in different frameworks since 1945. Non-state actors such as employers' associations became involved in this process very early on and, contrary to the widespread assumption in political science, created or revived transnational business associations in order to debate and shape the development of European integration from the second half of the 1940s. One of these platforms was the Council of European Industrial Federations (CEIF), which was founded in 1949 and consisted of representatives of all the national peak employers' associations from the member states of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC). It officially advised the OEEC and represented European industry. The article analyses transnational business associations' conflictual engagement with European integration and 'Europe' on the basis of the CEIF's Europeanisation process in the 1950s. It argues that contestation acted as a main driver of Europeanisation and that the early period of European integration must be understood as one of fights over different 'Europes'. However, it also shows that 'Europe' must be understood as a fluid category that was used in various ways and imbued with a range of meanings by economic actors in different circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the active participation and, in some cases, resistance of farmers' associations in Italy and France to European integration from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. The article examines, firstly, how Italian associations became active, due to their faltering relationship with the Christian Democrats, in searching new forms of political influence through more radical methods of mobilisation. Secondly, through the case of the so-called wine war between France and Italy, the article reveals how resistance to European Economic Community (EEC) reform and even other EEC member states could lead to forms of Europeanisation: exchanges between European organisations reflected shared resistance to specific policies, creating new arenas for collaboration. The analysis of the French–Italian case also offers an opportunity to explore the contrast between agriculture in the Mediterranean and northern countries in the EEC, showing complex Europeanisation dynamics in which both solidarity and competition become evident. Challenging the notion of a 'permissive consensus', this article aims to dismantle the notion of a conflict-free past in the history of European integration. In this regard, it underscores the multifaceted nature of European integration, marked by continual clashes and compromises, and provides a critical lens for interpreting the present state of the Brussels institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of Moldova became an EU accession candidate in December 2023 and is currently busy laying the foundations for future membership negotiations. If the ambitious goal of entering the European Union in 2030 is maintained, much has to be done within a short space of time to ensure that the country meets all the membership criteria and achieves alignment with the EU’s acquis communautaire. The aim of the current article is to deploy a novel ‘gender lens’ through which to consider the Republic of Moldova’s evolving EU perspectives and, in so doing, capture fresh and nuanced findings that traditional, political, economic, security scholarly, and policy approaches to EU enlargement tend to discount. Findings suggest that Moldova performs significantly better on multiple gender-indicators than its country peers in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) region. However, despite palpable improvements and examples of alignment with EU gender norms and international best practice, the article ascertains notable shortcomings and disparities with relevance for Moldova's EU accession. The article adopts a mixed-method qualitative approach, intersecting content analysis of key documents, social and economic data and civil society reporting with stakeholder interviews. The added-value of the research derives from its use of a gender lens aligned with the specificity of the Republic of Moldova, which represents a novel contribution to EU enlargement studies.

Since the 2004 accession to the European Union (EU), Poland, like many other post-communist countries, have gone through a significant process of convergence to the EU institutions, laws and processes. In this process, the European values, policies and institutions have become an important reference point for the legitimacy of major national system reforms. In education, there have been a significant number of reforms aligned with 'European standards' as integration with the EU was seen as a priority for Poland's national interest. This paper is interested in the changing policy discourses that have been defining and legitimising Poland's education policy objectives, with a particular attention given to the idea of 'quality education' and the role of education. In this way, it is also interested in the processes of Europeanisation and de-Europeanisation – turning away from 'EU-isation' of policies. The emerging picture from the analysis illustrates the tensions between the neoliberal and populist policy discourses pursued by a variety of Polish governments, including significant policy shifts under the government of the Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS) (Law and Justice) coalition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores the Europeanisation processes that take place in the post-socialist Eastern European space, focusing on the case of Timisoara, Romania. In the analysed case, the adoption of EU cultural policies is instrumental in driving economic growth and urban development. The study focuses on how EU cultural policies integrate into the urban regeneration strategies, aiming to make cities more attractive to the creative classes who usually have higher consumption capacities and are key actors in urban development. Timișoara’s designation as one of the cities to hold the European Capital of Culture title in 2023 and its hosting of the Art Encounters Biennial amplify these dynamics by bringing upfront the capitalist market logic within the cultural field. In this context, there is also observed a subtle withdrawal of state’s responsibility in the act of educating and mediating the public, while private institutions are increasingly taking over this role. Overall, the paper showcases the shift towards a neoliberal orientation within the local cultural strategy while also underlining its effects within the two mega-events analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence-based policy making (EBPM) has been a key pillar of the better regulation agenda of the European Union. However, the extent to which it has genuinely impacted domestic policy making practices has remained largely unexplored. This study sets out to address this gap by focusing on EBPM adoption in settings with historically weak culture of technocratic rationality. To this end, the article proposes a novel analytical framework combining the concept of Europeanisation with insights from the scholarship on knowledge and evidence utilisation. The framework is then applied to the "least likely" case of Bulgaria and its National Climate and Energy Plan for 2021–2030. The article draws on 26 semi-structured interviews to analyse the use of different types of evidence in the Plan's formulation. The study finds that genuine adoption of EBPM practices remains relatively low with evidence serving predominantly a perfunctory role. In contrast, instrumental and conceptual uses of evidence remain rare. Still, the findings point at the possibility, albeit limited, for gradual Europeanisation and uptake of evidence-based practices even in highly unfavourable conditions. This can be facilitated by a prolonged exposure to evidence-based practices, targeted EU pressure, the establishment of forums facilitating evidence exchange and the presence of "evidence-friendly" individuals within the civil service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Europeanisation of national political parties is often considered a crucial element in the democratisation of the EU. Yet, party Europeanisation has remained limited. The traditional argument explaining this is that the low political relevance of European affairs creates limited incentives for party organisations to Europeanise. But what happens in a context where Europe ìs politically relevant? Denmark, with its high parliamentary and public scrutiny of European affairs, provides us with such a case, allowing a view through the looking glass on whether and how national political parties Europeanise in a Europeanisation-friendly context. This article finds that Danish parties Europeanise rather differently from what has previously been found elsewhere, focusing strongly on internal cohesion, to the detriment of transnational cooperation. As such, empirically scrutinising a long-standing theoretical argument, this article adds much-needed nuance to the debate on party Europeanisation, its causes and relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introduction to the special issue on 'The Europeanisation of identities through everyday practices', we argue for a more thorough shift towards everyday practices, lifeworlds and leisure-time activities as important terrains for research into (ultimately also politically relevant) identifications among Europeans. Doing so entails the idea that the Europeanisation of identities might unfold in a more subliminal manner, and might hence be anchored less in policy changes and people's positionings towards political issues in a narrower sense. In contrast, mindsets, aspirations and frames of reference might undo a more unconscious transformation due to various activities in lifeworldly, cultural, leisure time-related, and even private spheres. Drawing on a multitude of fields (e.g. cultural heritage, university cooperation, everyday routines in the border region, arts, sports and gaming) as well as varying approaches and different methodologies, this Special Issue aims at demonstrating that ever more Europeanised identities might emerge from multiple sources and activities, which are not obviously tied to political agendas and frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How has the Europeanisation of football at the level of governance (due to for example the effects of the Bosman ruling and the formation of the UEFA Champions League) – influenced the identities of football fans? This paper explores how such structural Europeanisation in football is influencing identifications among fans. Based on an analysis of articulations in selected online message boards, we distil the positioning of fans towards 'Europe' in football, and the factors which shape it. We control for three main avenues of impact: the club level, the league level, and the societal context. Our inquiry is based on a set of paired comparisons of fan scenes for football clubs in four different European countries. Results show that the factor carrying the most explanatory power is the club's participation in European-level competition. Although this broadly confirms a 'contact hypothesis' – according to which the more fans are exposed to cross-border contacts, the less relevance they attribute to aspects of national belonging – significant variations of how frequent exposure to European-level competition translates into more Europeanised perceptions do exist. For European identity studies, the work corroborates that a lifeworld arena such as football can foster Europeanised identifications, albeit not in a uniform manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I discuss Lithuanian LGBQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer) people's views on belonging to the West/EUrope. I will argue that the research participants' age group, location of residence, their (not)involvement with LGBTQ+ leisure culture and/or their migrant status made a significant impact towards forming their subjective sense of (not) belonging to the West, when they discussed their personal experiences of spending time abroad. When belonging to the West/EUrope was discussed against the backdrop of national belonging, the research participants syncretised the elements of the dominant nationalistic narrative, and the Rainbow Europe narrative in order to homosexualise the national canon and to construct an accommodating version of Lithuania as the Rainbow Nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, scholarship on postfunctionalism in European integration has drawn attention to how processes of Europeanisation are not restricted to policymakers, but exist equally (if not more significantly) in the quotidian. The 2016–2020 Brexit process and debates on the relationship between national identity and 'Europeanness' urge a new consideration of how Europeanisation is narrated in everyday discourses. This paper analyses British fictional portrayals of the EEC and EU and posits a new theoretical framework of 'Imperial Gothic 2.0'. Pre-2016 representations of the EU were entirely dystopian. But post-2016, Brex-Lit fiction has reversed this trend and the EU now appears as a flawless utopia. Early twentieth-century 'Imperial Gothic' saw popular fiction defined by themes of British decline and oppression by foreign powers; a century later, Brex-Lit has resurrected these themes by narrating Britain in terminal decline, reflecting cultural anxieties, a reversal of Self and Other, and a loss of identities. This 'Imperial Gothic 2.0' reveals anxieties which reflect and influence political action, and reveals the extent to which imaginations and narratives of the EU have transformed from depictions of a distant, technocratic entity used for comedy or conspiracy, into a site of intense emotional affiliation, nostalgia, anticipation, and regret. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of growing nationalisms and Euroscepticism, this paper develops the original concept of 'Everyday Europeanhood' on a theoretical level, building on related concepts, such as Skey and Antonsich's 'Everyday Nationhood', Billig's 'Banal Nationalism', Anderson's 'Imagined Communities' and Beck's 'Cosmopolitan Vision'. It applies the concept to the European Universities Initiative (EUI), seen as a tool to promote European identity, based on a common sense of belonging conveyed through everyday practice, among students and staff in European University Alliances. It is argued that, in the light of previous top-down European initiatives designed to symbolically reinforce a sense of shared European identity, the EUI seems more in phase with bottom-up 'everyday' processes of identity development. Taking the European University Alliance 'FORTHEM' as an example, core features, aspects, actions and outputs achieved so far within this alliance are categorised in the light of four dimensions of 'Everyday Europeanhood': 'Talking Europe', 'Choosing Europe', 'Performing Europe' and 'Consuming Europe'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of Moldova became an EU accession candidate in December 2023 and is currently busy laying the foundations for future membership negotiations. If the ambitious goal of entering the European Union in 2030 is maintained, much has to be done within a short space of time to ensure that the country meets all the membership criteria and achieves alignment with the EU’s acquis communautaire. The aim of the current article is to deploy a novel ‘gender lens’ through which to consider the Republic of Moldova’s evolving EU perspectives and, in so doing, capture fresh and nuanced findings that traditional, political, economic, security scholarly, and policy approaches to EU enlargement tend to discount. Findings suggest that Moldova performs significantly better on multiple gender-indicators than its country peers in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) region. However, despite palpable improvements and examples of alignment with EU gender norms and international best practice, the article ascertains notable shortcomings and disparities with relevance for Moldova's EU accession. The article adopts a mixed-method qualitative approach, intersecting content analysis of key documents, social and economic data and civil society reporting with stakeholder interviews. The added-value of the research derives from its use of a gender lens aligned with the specificity of the Republic of Moldova, which represents a novel contribution to EU enlargement studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the development of Czech security policy since 1989, providing an analytical description and introducing the major institutions and authorities concerned as well as the various actors involved in security policy. At the beginning of the article a definition of security policy is provided and its various stages and major topics since 1989 are introduced. The chapter also describes the various political measures and their implementation, including selected Czech security strategies. It then examines selected security institutions, their evolution and responses to some crisis situations. Although political parties, interest groups, private security agencies, media and political experts have long been involved in shaping Czech security policy, the focus of this chapter is on security institutions (authorities and security forces). Security policy is presented in chronological, institutional and thematic terms. The development of the Czech security environment is investigated mainly since 2000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union has sought to democratise its post-communist neighbours for the past three decades, starting with Central and Eastern Europe after 1989. Since the end of the wars in Former Yugoslavia in 2000, the EU first pursued closer integration with the Western Balkans followed by the goal of enlargement. However, despite intensive EU involvement, the fight against corruption has stagnated or deteriorated in post-communist Europe, particularly in Former Yugoslavia. The central question in the article is whether indirect EU influence has led municipal officials—who are at the front line of vital distributive decision-making for citizens at the local level—to imitate (or emulate) attitudes related to corruption and to informality in line with EU norms. The article focuses on the case of Serbia, where anti-corruption progress has been particularly slow. Using a survey of Serbian municipal officials, the article examines whether indirect EU influence via involvement in policy implementation affected attitudes towards informal payments, and through a vignette-based survey experiment, whether those involved in EU-compliant policy implementation are less accepting of local political elite corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the dissolution of the centralized economic systems, the Western Balkans have embarked on a gradual integration into the European Union. This entailed the introduction of new legislation, the assimilation of novel concepts and ideas, and the adoption of instruments and operational methods. This adaptation has permeated several sectors. While the EU’s jurisdiction does not explicitly extend to spatial planning, it has cast its shadow on this field. This paper undertakes a twofold mission. First, it traverses the cultural, institutional, and territorial spheres to unearth the tangible evidence of the Europeanisation of spatial planning in the region. Secondly, it delves into the subtle resistance mechanisms to external pressures that have also contributed to shaping spatial planning and land use. The confluence of evidence showcases that, despite being exposed to pervasive European influences, the evolution of spatial planning in the Western Balkans remains intrinsically tethered to historical paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Housing has been, and continues to be, a central concern of economic, geographical and political research, as well as of social debates. It is worth noting that the European Union (EU) does not possess exclusive or shared competence in the field of housing. Rather, its influence is the result of policies in other areas. Building on the call in the literature to examine both Europeanisation and housing studies, we present and discuss the areas of the EU's influence—economic, environmental, legal, political, social, and urban. The literature shows that these influences have resulted from different shifts in the European agenda, with different approaches (top-down, bottom-up) and mechanisms (legislative, economic and fiscal, cognitive), creating conflicting housing narratives. In conclusion, future research should focus on understanding the influences of member states as well as the intersection between housing and other policy areas. Additionally, the distribution and transfer of power in decision-making within the EU should be examined, as well as the strategic interactions between (housing) political actors from different member states and EU institutions, and the consequences of such interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the perceptions of the European Union's policy impact by revealing the Hungarian public's awareness of the European Union's domestic policy influence and its attitudes towards Europeanisation. The study is based on descriptive and regression analyses of cross-sectional survey data. With respect to general knowledge about the European Union, as well as knowledge about the competences of the European Union and the member states, we found that slightly more than a third of the respondents can be classified as well-informed. We observed indications of "wishful thinking" about Europeanisation, as there was a significant correlation between the perceived and desired levels of policy integration. Respondents were more likely to support the EU integration of those policies that are in fact Europeanised to a larger extent. Pro-government supporters and voters of right-wing identity have a lower probability of supporting EU integration of policies. Although the classic "referendum question" suggests that the public support of Hungary's EU membership is stable, our results demonstrate that there are major limitations to the willingness of Hungarian society to support further integration, and a policy favouring national sovereignty has strong roots in society. The divisions in society we found with respect to the distribution of policy competences between the European Union and Hungary lead us to conclude that the debates about the future of the European Union will likely continue to polarise Hungarian public opinion in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Central European Public Administration Review is the property of University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Public Administration and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The main goal of this paper is to contribute to an overall understanding of the phenomenon of globalisation of higher education. Given that in our country the globalisation of higher education has been approached without attempting to provide a more comprehensive definition of the phenomenon, in the first part of the paper, the basic elements and domains that provide the basis for a more complete definition of the globalisation of higher education will be listed and a difference will be made in relation to similar phenomena, such as internationalisation and Europeanisation. Apart from a more comprehensive understanding of globalisation by pointing out its epistemological foundations in the papers from the end of the 20th century, which the domestic scientific public did not pay enough attention to, the paper also provides an overview of approaches to the study of the impact of globalisation on higher education, both the initial ones, which were developed by international organisations, and the academic ones, which enabled a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of globalisation of higher education. By contributing to a more comprehensive definition of the observed phenomenon, in this paper we intend to contribute to a broader understanding of the phenomenon of globalisation relative to the current view in which globalisation is understood as a modern phenomenon and its impact on higher education is observed after a certain period in which it supposedly arises. The paper affirms the claim that globalisation is just a new name for a phenomenon that has existed in modern civilisation for much longer than the end of the 20th century, and the expansion of higher education contributed to its genesis.

The 2004 EU enlargement and related Europeanisation processes supported the development of stagnated interest group systems in many ways, including with respect to the professionalisation of mainly voluntary-based organisations in Central and Eastern Europe. In the pre-membership period and initial years after joining the EU, national interest groups from Central and Eastern Europe chiefly relied on EU-level interest groups for important information, knowledge, and know-how concerning EU policymaking, whereas 20 years of membership has today established them as equal partners and co-decision-makers. The article elaborates on the Europeanisation of interest groups in the Central and Eastern Europe region from the start of the process of accession to the EU, with three case studies in focus: Lithuania, Poland, and Slovenia. The main research question is: In which different ways has the Europeanisation process influenced interest groups in the region? To address it, the article builds on Johansson and Jacobsson's (2016) typology of the Europeanisation of interest groups. Six exploratory factors were examined in this regard: (a) contacts with EU policymakers and institutions, (b) interest in EU policymaking, (c) funding received from EU projects and programmes, (d) networking with EU umbrella organisations, (e) participation in open consultations, and (f) the relationship of the group with members. To study the effects of Europeanisation processes in selected countries, web survey data gathered from national interest groups as part of the Comparative Interest Groups Survey project were used. Our results show that interest groups from Central and Eastern Europe have become "European" in a range of ways. Regulatory and discursive Europeanisation is most typical for Polish interest groups, identity Europeanisation for Lithuanian interest groups, and financial and participatory Europeanisation for Lithuanian and Polish interest groups, while organisational Europeanisation has the strongest effect on interest groups in Slovenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial introduces a thematic issue that examines the consequences of the accession of the Central and East European countries to the EU 20 years onward. The socioeconomic transformation of these countries in the pre-accession period was considered a remarkable success, that was attributed to the EU's conditionality policy. However, in the post-accession period, when these countries gained full membership rights and began playing a more active political role, they started deviating from some EU norms and rules, against a backdrop of EU crises. This shift has been, notably, reflected in concerns about democratic backsliding and rule of law violations. Nonetheless, the contributions in this issue also underscore that these countries have internalized (both top-down and bottom-up) EU norms and rules to a much greater extent than the focus on conditionality would suggest. Moreover, since Russia invaded Ukraine, Central and East European countries have become entrepreneurs of EU policy and bolstered its transformative power. These findings indicate a need to focus not only on the fundamental shortcomings in these countries--as the attention conferred to the (lack of post-accession) conditionality suggests--but also to consider other factors, such as the quality of the EU's governance and political system, policy learning, geopolitics, and member states' domestic politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the processes and consequences of markets reaching deeper into social reproduction? How do these developments, in the context of Europeanisation underpinned by neoliberalisation and transnationalisation, compel labour mobility? To consider these questions we apply social reproduction theory and the framework of uneven and combined accumulation of capital in Europe to the analysis of the UK, Poland and Ukraine and their food production, housing construction and care provision sectors. We explore how transformations, in these three countries interconnected by labour mobilities and in these three domains key to social reproduction, not only affect the industries that supply food, housing and care, but, crucially, redraw the contours of social reproduction. Theorising social reproduction as a continuum of market, state and household provisioning, we outline its transformation within the specific constellation of Europeanisation and delineate how mobility is both propelled by and advances market-reach into food, housing and care. We argue that market-driven transnational social reproduction is constituted by contradictions stemming from the deepening subordination of reproductive labour to the law of value, progressively depriving households of the promise of prosperity - a complex process that is made visible by our feminist critique of political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) launched the European Pillar of Social Rights to improve social rights for EU citizens. However, little is known about the domestic dynamics of implementing these new rights. This article examines the implementation of the Work-Life Balance Directive in three member states with different policy traditions: Denmark, Germany and Poland. Based on an actor-centred approach, the article demonstrates that two main factors were crucial in motivating national actors to shape the implementation of these rights. First, the economic costs, including new permanent costs emerging from the provisions and the administrative costs of implementing an EU directive, shaped actors' positions in all three countries. Second, the values of gender equality - whether promoting gender-equal leave or traditional family values - constituted an underlying reason for actors to customise the EU rules differently. Both factors, used as a defence or driver for change, increase differentiated policy implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the role of institutional misfit in why member states customise European Union (EU) renewable energy (RE) policies when implementing them. Institutional misfit theory posits that member states only adjust to EU policies when the adaptation pressure remains moderate and national actors' policy preferences align. Conversely, this article tests the argument that member states manage institutional misfit by adjusting - customising - EU policies, that is, through vertical EU policy change rather than domestic change. Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis, the article compares the customisation of EU Directive 2009/28/EC in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Surprisingly, results suggest that institutional misfit is not a necessary condition for customised implementation. Instead, when high institutional fit meets high salience, member states may issue substantively more ambitious policies than the EU requires. Conversely, when high institutional fit meets low salience, member states have no impetus to customise EU rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article serves as an introduction to a Special Issue focusing on the nature, trajectories, and boundaries of contemporary European Union (EU) education governance. The Special Issue comprises four papers, which draw on original empirical research and employ different theoretical outlooks and methodologies. This introductory article situates these papers in the current scholarship on EU governance and Europeanisation. Arguing that the papers together demonstrate the significant advance of Europeanisation in the governing of European education systems since the late 1990s, we discuss the epistemic gains, complementarities and emphases of the four papers. Finally, we identify pertinent issues for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying qualitative methods, this paper examines the burgeoning of quality assurance databases, processes and networks of actors in the field of higher education in Europe. Our main argument is that there has been a move from the Bologna Process being the near singular focus for European-level coordination and harmonisation of higher education, towards the making of a much more diverse and complex quality assurance and evaluation infrastructure. This infrastructure involves a range of distinct but interdependent actors and processes and contains explicit and implicit interlinkages with the production of wider policy agendas, such as the rise of the European Education Area. The aim of this paper is to analyse the growth and complexity of Quality Assurance (QA) in higher education (HE) in Europe, as a way of understanding the multifaceted and continuously developing process of Europeanisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of Cyprus is a small EU member state, whose domestic structures replicate a durable tradition of centralisation, limiting the overall role of local government. This work employs the vertical research dimension of top-down Europeanisation to investigate the influence of European Integration vis-à-vis the promotion of gender equality at the municipal level. It adopts a local government comparative viewpoint to analyse the adoption of the European Charter for Equality of Women and Men in Local Life by the Cypriot Municipalities (2011–present). This work utilises specific analytical frameworks (Europeanisation and Historical Institutionalism) to provide a theoretically and empirically informed analysis based on empirical data resulting from three field studies (2013, 2019 and 2021) and respective electoral data. Our research results suggest that the effects of Europeanisation, in terms of promoting gender equality, have been limited due to long-lasting formal and informal institutional restrictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Good neighbourly relations and regional cooperation demand that all the bilateral relations of a country be stable and that all the disputes are to be resolved before the signing of the Accession Treaty. Considering that Albania and North Macedonia are two candidate countries which are found at the same stage of the EU Accession, and the weight that such criteria hold for these countries, it is necessary to provide an assessment of their preparation in this regard. The EU studies field provides for the use of Europeanisation literature to measure the fulfilment of the Accession criteria, one approach of which is measuring the policy adoption. For this purpose, Albania and North Macedonia were used as case studies to measure the progress of Europeanisation through the policy adaptation process as regarding Good neighbourly relations and regional cooperation during the period 2000-2019.

To what extent and how did the Covid-19-pandemic trigger the Europeanisation of public policy in the EU member states? This article addresses this question by exploring member states’ responses to the labour market implications of the pandemic. Although the EU due to its free movement principles in effect has a common labour market, labour market policies have remained in the hands of the member states. Nonetheless, we find that they responded in a surprisingly similar manner to rising unemployment caused by lockdowns. Was this policy change linked to Europeanisation processes, and if so, in what way? We find that member states’ responses were related both to economic incentives and to contingent learning playing out in largely informal settings at the EU level. Our findings shed light on how crises may function as a critical juncture that triggers policy change, and how the EU may play a key role in such change. Our study thus also adds insights to our understanding of the mechanisms that underpin Europeanisation, in particular by shedding light on the importance of informal learning processes and the influence of the European Commission also in formally less integrated policy areas.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a turning point in terms of communication and economics within the borders of the EU. Hence, the economic response to the consequences of the pandemic has been different from previous crises. Both factors influence the media’s representation of the European project, and the construction of this image is particularly relevant to generating a favourable public opinion towards the European project. This research aims to determine how the Spanish media represent the Next Generation recovery funds and to determine the main discourses around this issue. We analysed news items disseminated by a sample of six leading Spanish news media through qualitative and quantitative methods by applying content and critical discourse analysis. The selection collects data via Twitter from July 2021 to March 2022. We found that media discourse reflects a pro-European sentiment, departing from previous Eurosceptic views. Next Generation funds have positively influenced Spanish perception of the EU and shifted the narrative towards Europeanisation. The EU’s support for Spanish funds management advances European integration, but concerns about transparency and control remain. The findings show how the Spanish media present a pro-European view, placing the economic response as a window of opportunity for profound political, societal, and economic structural changes in Spain.

This editorial introduces a thematic issue that examines the consequences of the accession of the Central and East European countries to the EU 20 years onward. The socioeconomic transformation of these countries in the pre-accession period was considered a remarkable success, that was attributed to the EU’s conditionality policy. However, in the post-accession period, when these countries gained full membership rights and began playing a more active political role, they started deviating from some EU norms and rules, against a backdrop of EU crises. This shift has been, notably, reflected in concerns about democratic backsliding and rule of law violations. Nonetheless, the contributions in this issue also underscore that these countries have internalized (both top-down and bottom-up) EU norms and rules to a much greater extent than the focus on conditionality would suggest. Moreover, since Russia invaded Ukraine, Central and East European countries have become entrepreneurs of EU policy and bolstered its transformative power. These findings indicate a need to focus not only on the fundamental shortcomings in these countries—as the attention conferred to the (lack of post-accession) conditionality suggests—but also to consider other factors, such as the quality of the EU’s governance and political system, policy learning, geopolitics, and member states’ domestic politics.

The 2004 EU enlargement and related Europeanisation processes supported the development of stagnated interest group systems in many ways, including with respect to the professionalisation of mainly voluntary-based organisations in Central and Eastern Europe. In the pre-membership period and initial years after joining the EU, national interest groups from Central and Eastern Europe chiefly relied on EU-level interest groups for important information, knowledge, and know-how concerning EU policymaking, whereas 20 years of membership has today established them as equal partners and co-decision-makers. The article elaborates on the Europeanisation of interest groups in the Central and Eastern Europe region from the start of the process of accession to the EU, with three case studies in focus: Lithuania, Poland, and Slovenia. The main research question is: In which different ways has the Europeanisation process influenced interest groups in the region? To address it, the article builds on Johansson and Jacobsson’s (2016) typology of the Europeanisation of interest groups. Six exploratory factors were examined in this regard: (a) contacts with EU policymakers and institutions, (b) interest in EU policymaking, (c) funding received from EU projects and programmes, (d) networking with EU umbrella organisations, (e) participation in open consultations, and (f) the relationship of the group with members. To study the effects of Europeanisation processes in selected countries, web survey data gathered from national interest groups as part of the Comparative Interest Groups Survey project were used. Our results show that interest groups from Central and Eastern Europe have become “European” in a range of ways. Regulatory and discursive Europeanisation is most typical for Polish interest groups, identity Europeanisation for Lithuanian interest groups, and financial and participatory Europeanisation for Lithuanian and Polish interest groups, while organisational Europeanisation has the strongest effect on interest groups in Slovenia.

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As a result of the major pressure exerted by the COVID-19 pandemic and its management on students and teachers, the EU member states and institutions face the necessity to accelerate the digitalization of education. The EU interventions in this field open the debate on whether digital education will be another subject of Europeanisation as the supranational institutions are acquiring more competences, and whether a new European policy approach was generated by the pandemic. Therefore, the paper investigates whether the COVID crisis represents a major shift in the Europeanisation of digital education in the EU. We will thus try to assess this transformation by analysing the impact of the crisis on digital education, showcasing Romania and the manner in which the national government designed its public policies against the background of the EU positions, recommendations and measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]