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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]

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]

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).

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.

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

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.

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.

Copyright of Teaching Innovations / Inovacije u Nastavi is the property of University of Belgrade, Faculty of Teacher Education 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.)

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]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The end of the Cold War and the emergence of a new global security and economic environment (Defence budgets' decline, imminent threats from the Gulf War and NATO's quest for a new identity), provided a window of opportunity for establishing and designing the EU's security institution. Thus, what was initially considered farfetched after the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, entered a new phase, which included perception transformation, to be gradually incorporated into daily discourse. Hence, the 2003 "European Security Strategy", the 2010 "Internal Security Strategy", and later the 2016 "Global Strategy" reflect Member States' perception of transformation and their belief that the EU needs a Common Security and Defence Strategy approach. Given these documents that indicate determination for notable integration and institutional restructuring, this analysis delves into the impact of Europeanisation concerning the implementation of institutional reforms and the CSDP. More specifically, this analysis probes the constraints of Europeanisation concerning the EU's real operational dynamics, especially in light of the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean Sea security challenges. These challenges are examined in relation to Türkiye's revisionist public diplomacy, public policies, and the militarization of its foreign policy (including ongoing negotiations centered on migratory flows, assertions, and constructed narratives over Greek and Cypriot islands and seas). The situation has become more pronounced following the identification of gas and oil reserves in the area in 2010. This analysis has a two-fold focus: Firstly, to investigate Europeanisation impact on the operational implementation of CSDP (Common Security and Defence Policy) in time of crisis, and secondly, to evaluate the behavior of Türkiye within the Europeanisation framework, as proposed by Radaelli and Violakis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is an international initiative for the harmonisation of higher education (HE) systems in 49 countries. Literature about UK's participation in the EHEA is limited, and the role of EHEA's membership for the UK, particularly after the end of the Brexit transitional period, has not been researched. The originality of the study reported in this paper is in addressing this gap by exploring the perspectives of key UK HE actors on the strategic significance of UK's memberships in the EHEA post-2020 for the UK. The paper draws on the theoretical ideas of rational choice neo-institutionalism, differentiated Europeanisation and internationalisation, and a thematic analysis of 19 official communications of key stakeholders and six in-depth interviews with their representatives. The findings contribute to filling in a significant gap in the literature about Bologna in the UK in making a distinction between its two memberships in the EHEA and the differences and complexities of the roles they play in constructing UK's overarching agenda in HE particularly in the post-Brexit context. The article has also contributed to the literature about Bologna more widely, presenting an investigation into differentiated Europeanisation that has been taking place within one unique post-EU country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democratic conditionality has been one of the main drivers of accession Europeanisation and a foreign policy instrument of the European Union’s democracy promotion in third countries through its enlargement policy. In an era of rising autocratisation, however, the normative influence of the EU is increasingly questioned as to whether it continues to be a driver of democratisation. Focusing on one of Turkey’s Christian communities, Armenians, this paper aims at analysing the impact of EU candidacy period between 1999-2022 on the minority policies of Turkey. It employs the concepts of counter-conduct and governmentality to analyse the dynamics through which the Turkish government seeks to uproot and reverse the Europeanisation in minority rights, and how this counter-conduct works in the case of Armenian community.

This paper seeks to review the evolution of consular protection management in the European Union. The process of Europeanisation has reached its current profile through three stages of evolution and we are likely to see further institutionalisation, with several available alternatives. The historical analysis outlines the rationale for a further process of Europeanisation in the light of changes in the legislative powers of the EU, exploring the nature of legal regulatedness and aligning it with the development of fundamental rights, and presents a prognosis for the next stage of development in the light of experience to date. The research findings, based on an analysis of normative rules of various origins, regulatory and binding, preparatory documents, official statistics and reports as primary sources, and literature on specific aspects of the subject, also suggest that an effective consular protection policy will require changes in the tasks and competences in the next development stage. The existing consular enforcement apparatus in the Member States should be better integrated with the network of EU delegations, at least for some of the specified consular protection tasks. This raises further regulatory issues, but it is undeniable that the Europeanisation of consular protection administration is moving in this direction.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2022 7(2), 833-855 | Article | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. Expanding the single market with(out) the EU enlargement. - II.1 EEA contribution. - II.2 CEECs transformative experience. - III. WB-EU economic integration and (limited) access to the single market. - III.1 SAP as a (new) frame of enlargement. - III.2 Way forward perspectives. - IV. Concluding remarks. | (Abstract) The promised European future for the Western Balkans still seems to be distant and uncertain, in spite of the many geo-strategic, political, economic and security arguments in favour of completing the process of unification. On the one side, the European integration process through economic and political reforms should lead these countries to become EU members and set high expectations of what the prospects of membership should deliver in the region. On the other hand, the countries are still far from ready for membership while the EU political commitment is not accompanied by more tangible action which questions the credibility of enlargement policy. Over the recent years, there is a growing need for a renewed narrative to revive and sustain the incentives for the states of the Western Balkans to continue their European integration journey and overcome an apparent impasse over accession prospects. The main argument of this Article is whether the EU accession process with regard to the Western Balkans can be reinforced in a manner of a merit-based process that offers a credible goal by granting access to the EU single market as an interim accession goal that inspires real change, while reducing the sense that further EU enlargement is risky endeavour. In order to provide a relevant conclusion, the Article reviews the economic effects of previous rounds of enlargements and the relevant instruments employed towards the Western Balkans, to examine the plausible limitations and prospects.

This article strives to reveal the reasons hindering smooth implementation of Lithuania’s development cooperation policy. Although Lithuania is less than 8 years away from the target of official development assistance at least 0.33% of Gross National Income (GNI) per year, it is currently contributing only about one-third of this amount, which naturally raises the question “Why?”. Theoretical framework of the motivations behind development cooperation enforcement, specifically, Europeanisation theory, is chosen to support the research. Bearing in mind the scarcity of the academic body of work for this topic, the main instrument, questionnaire for the in-depth interviews with the main decision makers of Lithuania’s development cooperation was created. 17 semi-structured interviews with experts from various backgrounds provided the valuable material for this analysis and helped to provide possible answers to the matter in question.

The European Union's (EU) mission to promote its idea of European-ness across the continent led to its eastern enlargements and later the Eastern Partnership of the European Neighbourhood Policy. Along the way, this mission encountered competing norms and regional integration efforts shaped by sociocultural and historical ties connecting state, society and territory. These ties inform the barriers to Europeanisation and the backsliding from EU-managed policy reforms. They can illuminate where the EU's self-image and constructed European identity do not reflect perspectives abroad or those of EU member countries. Such inconsistencies in the EU-constructed identity that shaped related policy mechanisms prevented sustainable regional transformation and integration. Further policy integration and future EU enlargement remain strong possibilities, as does the risk of basing the next generation of policy mechanisms on a distorted image of the EU and its capacity to transform. In this article, I apply a novel critical theory perspective on the entwined processes of de- and reterritorialisation to this context, and argue that this perspective clarifies and informs the EU's aim to transform and unite Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Politologija is the property of Vilnius University 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.)

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This paper seeks to review the evolution of consular protection management in the European Union. The process of Europeanisation has reached its current profile through three stages of evolution and we are likely to see further institutionalisation, with several available alternatives. The historical analysis outlines the rationale for a further process of Europeanisation in the light of changes in the legislative powers of the EU, exploring the nature of legal regulatedness and aligning it with the development of fundamental rights, and presents a prognosis for the next stage of development in the light of experience to date. The research findings, based on an analysis of normative rules of various origins, regulatory and binding, preparatory documents, official statistics and reports as primary sources, and literature on specific aspects of the subject, also suggest that an effective consular protection policy will require changes in the tasks and competences in the next development stage. The existing consular enforcement apparatus in the Member States should be better integrated with the network of EU delegations, at least for some of the specified consular protection tasks. This raises further regulatory issues, but it is undeniable that the Europeanisation of consular protection administration is moving in this direction.

The article explores the Europeanisation of football, focusing on two dimensions of this process: its affective and regulatory dimension. Developments such as the creation of pan-European club competitions and growing cross-border movement of players mean that ‘Europe’ plays an ever more important role in football on an affective level. The same is true on a regulatory level, where EU law and policy have come to impact on various aspects of football, ranging from transfer rules, to club financing, to the sale of broadcasting rights. We argue that only by examining the interaction between these two dimensions can we truly understand what is ‘European’ about football. The article shows that there continues to be strong support in football for the cultural elements of the European Sport Model, including a commitment to local identity, sporting merit and solidarity. By contrast, its governance aspects are increasingly coming under pressure, as the recent European Super League saga illustrates. Our findings suggest that the EU can – and should – do more to improve regulatory standards in football and push for a greater representation of fans and other stakeholders that have currently no, or limited, voice in the football pyramid.

This paper deals with the sluggish Europeanisation efforts of the current political elites of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A typical explanation for the lack of progress would be the complex structure of consociational democracy of the specific Bosnian confederation. The authors, however, claim that the structural obstacles could have been bypassed given the real will of political elites of all three nations to cooperate. The authors examine the role of the structure of the peculiar political system in comparison with the influence of the agency of Bosnian elites on the integration process. The empirical analysis focuses on the situation after the general elections in 2018. The authors discuss the contrast between the official declarations of consistent support for a European future with the real political performance of the various Bosnian party elites. These elites often misuse the institutional settings of the political system to block reforms. They also prefer the politics of obstruction to cement their leading positions within their constituent nations. More than a quarter century after the Dayton Peace Treaty and adoption of the Constitution, the lack of genuine intrinsic motivation to pursue Europeanisation has remained the main reason for the reluctant rapprochement of Bosnia to the European Union.

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to capture the significatory diversity of the concepts of Europeanity and Europeanisation, through the development of a semantic map in order to visualize the different concepts that define Europeanity and Europeanisation, and their interconnections. Embedded in the field of Communication and Media Studies, but with multidisciplinary ambitions, this semantic map combines 19 different approaches, structured through one main dimension, the discursive versus the material, which allows bridging the major rift in the conceptual reflections about Europeanity and Europeanisation. Moreover, the semantic map uses two support dimensions, with the discursive dimension intersecting with the essentialist versus relationist dimension, and the material dimension intersecting with the socio-spatial versus politico-spatial dimension. In order to construct this semantic map, phases of both general and targeted literature reviews were combined with a participatory theorybuilding method, which was grounded in collaborative knowledge building and collaborative theory construction approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses the extent to which European legislation and, in particular, the latest regulatory initiatives for audiovisual media and for digital markets and services affect the regulation of public service media (PSM) in Spain. A three-fold analysis is performed using a document review methodology. Firstly, the influence of European competition policies on the origin, development and adaptation of PSM to the digital market is studied. Secondly, the transposition into Spanish law of the 2018 Audiovisual Media Services Directive (EU, 2018) is evaluated. Third and lastly, the impact of the draft European Acts referring to digital platforms on PSM in Spain and the European Union (European Commission, 2020a; 2020b) is analysed, as is that of the European Media Freedom Act (European Commission, 2022). The concept of Europeanisation (Harcourt, 2002) is taken as the basis for the assessment of such impact. The conclusions show that while the European regulatory umbrella is a necessary and influential framework, it is insufficient when it comes to understanding the regulatory and political development of PSM in Spain. The path dependence and circumstances of each country are crucial to understanding the why and how of specific regulation. There is European convergence on economic and competition policy protection issues, but not on political and cultural issues, such as the definition of PSM governance or structure, where the European Union's influence is much weaker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democratic conditionality has been one of the main drivers of accession Europeanisation and a foreign policy instrument of the European Union's democracy promotion in third countries through its enlargement policy. In an era of rising autocratisation, however, the normative influence of the EU is increasingly questioned as to whether it continues to be a driver of democratisation. Focusing on one of Turkey's Christian communities, Armenians, this paper aims at analysing the impact of EU candidacy period between 1999-2022 on the minority policies of Turkey. It employs the concepts of counter-conduct and governmentality to analyse the dynamics through which the Turkish government seeks to uproot and reverse the Europeanisation in minority rights, and how this counter-conduct works in the case of Armenian community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]