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This article investigates the determinants of individual support for independence in Montenegro. We outline five theoretically distinct groups of factors covered by the literature and evaluate their impact on individual preference for independence. Using observational data obtained from a nationally representative survey conducted in Montenegro in 2003–2004, we find support for several hypotheses, showing that identity, income, and partisanship significantly impact individual opinion about independence. We also investigate and discuss the relative effect size of different factors associated with preference for independence. Additionally, we test variables with hitherto unexplored implications for opinions on independence, including the impact of support for EU membership, as well as support for democratic principles. Our logistic regression analyses reveal that attitudes towards EU integration and minority rights are strongly associated with support for independence. By systematically analyzing existing and new hypotheses with data from an understudied case, our findings contribute to the nascent literature on individual preferences for independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accession of the 'A8 states' into the European Union initiated considerable migration into Western Europe. The impact upon local communities has seen significant attention, yet little research exists that focuses upon migrant experiences and identity specifically in sport. This study used a figurational framework to investigate the lived experiences of basketball among male Lithuanian migrants in the rural east of England. Semistructured interviews highlighted participants' motivations to migrate, their acculturation experiences and the role that basketball played during their sojourn. Participants considered basketball a significant means for the expression of national identity and as a focus for their resistance to local racializing processes. Conversely, conflict with established local basketball communities and perceptions of marginalization among migrants were common, creating divisions in local basketball competitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cornerstones of EU citizenship are the right of free movement and the right not to be discriminated against on grounds of nationality. In this article, I choose three categories and test either the overlap between EU citizenship status and practice (Eurostars) or the mismatch between the two ('perceived as Roma EU citizens' and EEA-non-EU citizens – Norwegians in this case). I use a performative citizenship approach and, based on 51 interviews with free movers, I analyse how their free movement acts extend and challenge EU citizenship. I argue that the differentiated practice of free movement creates different gears of EU citizenship and, thus, an internally differentiated membership as well as a quasi-EU citizenship outside the formal status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identity is a sense of belonging that helps people understand and categorize the world around them. Through their identity, people define their connection to the outside world. The process of creating an identity is much more complex in modern European society. Identity has always been a reaction to certain types of pressure from the environment. It is important to understand that the idea of Europe is currently going through a process of transition. As part of this transition, the conflict between national and post-national identities can be highlighted. The transition to European politics and society caused by the process of European integration poses a challenge to the traditional basis of national identity. In fact, the very value of national identity is being questioned. This challenge stems from the growing awareness that the ideal of a cohesive people, on which identity is based, has never existed. Increasingly, however, debates are focusing on the growing pluralism, diversity and multiculturalism of the idea of Europe. One of the conclusions of these discourses is that instead of focusing on unity and equality, the only sustainable form of European identity is one that recognizes and respects diversity and difference. Recognition of European identity is just a layer / concentric circle in a much more complex whole that can lead to the development of a sense of Europeanism and that enables inclusion and participation. European identity as a new form of political identity is nothing but a set of national identities of the member states of the European Union, which allows each member state, despite the acceptance of the European identity with the membership in the Union, to further preserve and nurture the elements of its national identity, elements that make each nation its own and special but also different from others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of Europeanisation initiated in Turkey following the 1999 Helsinki summit witnessed a loosening of state control over the Patriarchate of Constantinople under the government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). In parallel with the AKP's reforms geared towards EU membership, the Patriarchate's activities became more transnational in their character, especially with regards to its organisation and influence over religious affairs within the Christian world. This contribution traces change and continuity in Turkish policy towards the Patriarchate under the AKP government. Key differences between the AKP government's stance on the Patriarchate and those of its predecessors are noted, with specific reference to prospects of EU membership and the strategy that has been devised by the AKP to that end. Specifically, the contribution shows that Turkey's bid to join the EU initially presented important leverage over Turkey, allowing the Patriarchate to reassert its transnational character. However, diminished prospects of EU membership together with a gradual return of nationalist sentiment now present an important challenge for the Patriarchate in its efforts to maintain transnational character and influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is about the socially divisive consequences of the UK's 2016 referendum on membership in the European Union. Rather than redressing the country's long-standing class divisions, the referendum has exacerbated them by fuelling negative stereotypes and mutual accusations between Leave and Remain supporters. Drawing on psychoanalytic theories of subjectivity, the article argues that support for Leave and Remain is structured by circulations of affect, fantasies of the good life and psychic investments in different experiences of immigration, nationalism, and social and economic inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The enlargement of 2004 and 2007 significantly transformed the European Union in political, economic, and social terms. It also challenged the collective identities of Western Europeans as well as each of the newcomers. However, for new members, the prospect of joining a supranational political entity posed a threat to their newly established or regained sovereignty and nationhood. The integration triggered a process of redefinition of both their self-perception and the perception of Europe as a common project. The article offers a case study of how the Polish Members of the European Parliament discursively (re)construct national and European identities and how these constructions relate to each other. The analysis reveals three main visions of the European identity that are voiced by the Polish representation and corresponding visions of national identity. By focusing on the supranational level of the European Parliament and contextualising the analysed constructions with references to national debates, the study is able to nuance the existing theoretical accounts of European and national identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Bulgaria's integration into the European Union (EU) in 2007 and the factors associated with the country's geography. It mentions an etymological account of the word "Balkan" presented by Maria Todorova; two classics of Balkan literature, Dobri Voinikov's The Misunderstood Civilization and Aleko Konstantinov's Bai Ganyo; and the foundation of Bulgarian national identity and its Europeanness at the end of the 19th century.

This article seeks to explain the varied policy responses to the large wave of emigration from Central and Eastern European states during the last two decades, focusing on the cases of Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland. Differing degrees of emigrant engagement by these states are explained by the role of internal minorities as active members of the emigrant population and the overall political and demographic relevance of historical kin. This study contributes to our understanding of what shapes state policies towards different types of external populations. It also highlights the particular challenges of state-led transnational engagement in a supranational border regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to demonstrate how the myth of Troy is still relevant to modern-day European culture and identity, drawing on Gregor Feindt et al.'s concept of 'entangled memory' as a theoretical foundation. In order to support this claim, it discusses Wolfgang Petersen's movie Troy(2004), the successful exhibition Troy-Dream and Realitythat opened in Germany in 2001; the heated debate sparked by this exhibition among German scholars; and the political discussion about Turkey's unsuccessful application for membership in the European Union, in which references to Troy played a surprising role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the legitimacy of the EU’s external borders and the decision-making rules for changing them. First, while the EU should not indefinitely expand, we can identify no normative grounds for precluding in advance any liberal democratic nation-states from participation in the European project. Second, for those countries having more or less thick legal ties with the EU, or who are otherwise substantially affected by European decision-making, we argue for the institutionalisation of flexible deliberative communities. For closely associated countries, we argue that the EU has special duties in opening the door to membership. Third, we address the legitimacy of the EU’s decision-making procedures for deciding on accession candidates and creating association agreements with non-member states. Here we defend the EU’s current unanimity requirement for the former and its supermajoritarian decision rules for the latter. Finally, we suggest that nationalism is the primary obstacle to the achievement of just inclusion outcomes for non-member states. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research on European identity focuses mainly on majority populations in Western European countries without differentiating among specific population groups and generations, and, above all, disregarding ethnic minority groups living in Central and Eastern Europe. This paper addresses this gap by investigating the development of European identity among three ethnic minority groups in Lithuania: Belarusians, Poles, and Russians. Theoretically, the project is based on the instrumental approach, which argues that European identity is closely related to perceived benefits from “being European,” and on the cultural approach, which holds a common history, ancestry, and culture responsible for the development of European identity. Existing research has, above all, emphasized the importance of instrumental considerations. Analyzing qualitative interviews collected in the FP7 research project “ENRI-East,” the paper compares how young and adult members of ethnic minority groups construct European identity due to “instrumental” and “cultural” considerations. The results show that both instrumental and cultural considerations are relevant and further development of European identity depends on which age group or ethnic minority group an individual belongs to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of European integration has traditionally focused on organisational growth: the deepening and widening of the European Union (EU). By contrast, this article analyses organisational differentiation, a process in which states refuse, or are being refused, full integration but find value in establishing in-between grades of membership. It describes how the EU's system of graded membership has developed, and it explains the positioning of states in this system. The core countries of the EU set a standard of 'good governance'. The closer European countries are to this standard, the closer their membership grade is to the core. Some countries fall short of this standard and are refused further integration by the core: their membership grade increases with better governance. Other countries refuse further integration because they outperform the standards of the core countries: their membership grade decreases as governance improves. These conjectures are corroborated in a panel analysis of European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past years have been eventful for secessionist movements in Europe and in particular in Scotland and Catalonia. Supporters and opponents of secession of both stateless nations considered their prospects for future EU membership as an important part of the campaigns leading to the referendums. The article’s aim is to explore whether international factors influence domestic support for secession. In order to answer this puzzle, an on-line survey experiment (n= 2408) was carried out in Catalonia and Scotland in which respondents were confronted with different scenarios concerning the EU membership of their hypothetical new state (inclusion or exclusion). Contrary to the general perception, the prospects of EU membership had only a limited effect on support for the creation of a sovereign state. Moreover, it was found that the impact was strongly mediated by the participants’ previous degree of nationalism and their attitudes with respect to the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Democratization, economic transformation, and EU accession have shaped the Bulgarian and Romanian party systems in ways similar to that seen across the rest of eastern Europe. A quarter century after democratization, the party systems remain unstable. The article demonstrates that nationalism and ethnic identity provide stable voter salience in party systems that remain dominated by fragmentation, personalistic political parties, and a lack of issue differentiation. An analysis of the use of ethnonationalism by political elites in Bulgaria is contrasted with a briefer analysis of Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An influential contingent of Catholic clergy in Poland reacted to Poland’s entry into the European Union by developing a narrative positing the Catholic foundation and ownership of Europe and all its constituent “nations.” This narrative, which I call national-European theology, identifies the Catholic Church as the progenitor of both European and Polish existence and guarantor of their continuity of identity. In this way, it remedies some Catholics’ anxieties about both the integrity of Poland’s national sovereignty and the allegedly secularizing and liberalizing cultural influence of other EU member countries. I argue that national-European theology can be fruitfully conceived as a hereditary ownership narrative, framed by moments of spiritual foundation and subsequent inheritance from spiritual founders, and that this narrative structure characterizes both nationalism writ large and Europeanization as an analogous modern identitarian project. I suggest that taking heredity as a lens through which to understand nationalism and its attendant notions of legitimation allows us to move past debates about the “content” of nationalist claims (ethnic, religious, linguistic, etc.) and toward the mechanism by which group reproduction is culturally defined and sanctioned. To do this, I first sketch a theory of nationalism as a hereditary ownership narrative, drawing upon the Polish case, and liken it to the “Europe-building” project of the EU. Second, I present a brief historical outline of Poland’s accession to the EU and the anxieties generated thereby. Finally, I turn to the rhetoric of the Polish clergy who best represent the national-European current in contemporary Catholic political theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article talks about the crisis being faced by the European Union (EU) and discusses whether it is realistic to return to nation states with closed borders and whether the Europeans want such an outcome. Topics discussed include the Great Britain referendum on continued EU membership, the findings of a study which suggest people are supportive of the idea of a united Europe, and previous forecasts done on the spread of European identity.

In the 1975 referendum England provided the strongest support for European integration, with a much smaller margin for membership in Scotland and Northern Ireland. By 2015 the rank order of 'national' attitudes to European integration had reversed. Now, England is the UK's most eurosceptic nation and may vote 'Leave', while Scotland seems set to generate a clear margin for 'Remain'. The UK as a whole is a Brexit marginal. To understand the campaign, we need to make sense of the dynamics of public attitudes in each nation. We take an 'archaeological' approach to a limited evidence-base, to trace the development of attitudes to Europe in England since 1975. We find evidence of a link between English nationalism and euroscepticism. Whatever the result in 2016, contrasting outcomes in England and Scotland will exacerbate tensions in the UK's territorial constitution and could lead to the break-up of Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the judicial understanding of constitutional identity with the analysis of methods of nonjudicial neutralization of identity-related conflicts. It mentions that national interests underpinning the nonparticipation of certain Member States of the European Union (EU) in enhanced cooperation agreements. It mentions that empirical evidence shows that differentiated integration and flexibility with interpretation of Article 4(2) of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU).

The war in Libya of 2011 is generally portrayed as yet more evidence of the European Union (EU)'s inability to formulate a coordinated foreign policy. While the crisis took place in the EU's backyard, joint foreign policy action was hindered by member states' disagreements on whether or not to establish a no-fly zone in Libya. While this is true of political decision-makers, this paper investigates whether governmental decisions were reflected in similar divisions in national news media or whether references to European identity and criticism of European disunity transcended national media boundaries. Comparing a total of 6746 newspaper articles from Germany, France, the UK, Austria and the USA, the findings show that intergovernmental differences did not lead to similarly divided public spheres. Public debates in France, Germany and Austria constantly referred to a European foreign policy identity, though EU identity references were largely absent from UK newspapers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this article is to present a selection of primary findings culled from empirical data collected in Dublin with post-European Union enlargement Polish migrants as the cohort in study. One aspect of the project was to investigate how that group interpreted home since they have left Poland. Based on the outcomes of interviews with thirty-one informants, the narratives reveal a group of individuals who continuously contest social constraints and push the boundaries of previously held notions of migration, identity, and home. This article situates their aspirations, preferences, and practices within discourses of transnationalism, thereby connecting their migration experiences with a consciousness of feeling at home in the world. This article breaks up "home" as interpreted by the informants into three categories-centered home, sentimental home, and transportable home. The wide range of perspectives held by informants and the inability to clearly define their position with regard to the notion of "home" reinforces the hypothesis of this article that, for a transnational cohort, the meaning of home is contested. In relation to the wider international literature regarding concepts of home, this article makes a contribution to the deepening scope of migration research in Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following a poststructuralist theorising of identity in international relations, which argues that identity is relationally and discursively constructed through foreign policy, this article attempts to analyse the way in which the European Commission discursively constructs European identit(ies) in its relations with Turkey around the theme of ‘security’. The study utilises the methodological tools of critical discourse analysis in analysing the speeches and field interviews conducted with European Commission officials, in examining the way in which they construct ‘Europe’ in relation to the security implications of Turkish accession. The article’s findings challenge the argument that Europe is moving beyond the modern state to resemble a postmodern order, and problematises the designation of the Commission as a ‘cosmopolitan’ actor in EU enlargement policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper negotiates ideas, views and beliefs of Bulgarians towards the ethnic minorities of their country published in the Bulgarian press during the period of 2005–2009. Through these aspects it becomes clear that three years after Bulgaria's accession to the European Union and despite various state attempts to integrate minorities – mostly initiated and funded by the EU and various governmental and non-governmental organizations – prejudice and racism have not been overcome, the Other is still differentiated and the way to multiculturalism is very long. The research field is limited to the Turkish and the Roma minorities, which are “visible” in the sense that they are officially recognized. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since Turkey's application for membership of the European Union (EU) in 1987, the EU has itself been a structural component of Turkey's political transformation. The European impact intensified after Turkey was granted the status of an official candidate at the EU's Helsinki Summit in 1999. Since then, Turkey has issued a series of reform packages with the aim of starting accession negotiations, which began in October 2005. These reforms have initiated a democratic regime that is structurally different from its predecessors in terms of its definition of political community, national identity and the territorial structure of the state. Among many other aspects of the current political transformation such as the resolution of the Kurdish problem and administrative reform, this article concentrates on how the European impact, which I label Europeanisation, has influenced state-religion relations in Turkey. Europeanisation has three major mechanisms that influence actors, institutions, ideas and interests in varying ways: institutional compliance, changing opportunity structures, and the framing of domestic beliefs and expectations. The article concentrates on how these mechanisms operate in the creation of a new regulatory framework of religion in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars have identified stateless nationalist and regionalist parties (SNRPs) as ardent supporters of Europe. This support has been explained as a result of positive developments in supranational integration that convinced these actors that Europe could facilitate the achievement of their territorial demands. Other work, however, leads to an expectation that SNRPs that mobilise within island regions that are geographically distant from the European centre of power (Brussels) will adopt more Eurosceptic positions. This article aims to test these competing hypotheses about the positioning of SNRPs on Europe. It does so by examining the attitudes of SNRPs in two island regions in the Mediterranean: Corsica and Sardinia. The findings suggest that SNRPs in both places cannot be adequately categorised as either Europhile or Eurosceptic. The article examines the role of several context- and actor-specific factors in shaping the complex positioning of island nationalists in Corsica and Sardinia on the issue of Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although nationalists and Islamists are different groups and have different organizational structures, Islamic groups used to take nationalist stances on major political issues. However, the Islamic actors' policies of the 2000s have all but put paid to the historical harmony with nationalism. The Islamic bloc, having abandoned nationalism, emerged as an advocate of antinationalist policies. Inspired by Stathis N. Kalyvas, it is argued that the Islamic elites' strategy to avert the seculars' attacks of the late 1990s initiated a path-dependent course that in the end separated them from nationalism. Their new strategy denationalized the Islamic groups, yet its direct intention was to protect themselves against the seculars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have shown that the most important factor explaining opinions on European Union issues is attitudes towards immigrants. Two arguments are given to explain this effect. We contend that these arguments are both built on the idea that people with anti-immigrant attitudes frame other Europeans as an out-group. We then test the validity of these arguments by measuring how respondents in a voter survey frame the issue of Turkish membership. We find that framing the issue in terms of out-groups indeed mediates the effect of anti-immigrant attitudes on support for Turkish membership. This finding offers new insights into why levels of public support vary over different EU issues, because opposition is likely to increase when an issue is more easily framed in terms of out-groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the politics and history of Cyprus, focusing on its division between Turkish Cypriots in the North and Greek Cypriots in the South. It comments on the attempted coup d’état in 1974 that aimed to overthrow the government and annex Cyprus to Greece, and the subsequent invasion by Turkish forces. The author reflects on Cyprus' European Union (EU) membership and Turkey's prospects for EU membership. Other topics include international mediation, the prospect of reunification, and the influence of nationalism.

This paper addresses the issue of early preferences of national political parties in the EU regarding Turkey's accession. Two main hypotheses are proposed. First, national moderate parties contribute mainly to the de facto transformation of the accession in an 'open' process by developing volatile attitudes. Second, in the case of moderate parties, volatile attitudes and concrete political discourses on Turkey's accession are mainly determined by explanatory factors other than ideology (structural and strategic factors). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on a March 2010 convention held in Thuringia, Germany, and titled "The European Prospects of the Balkans." Specific focus was on the Balkan states' internal civil development in certain areas and their prospects for admission as members to the European Union (EU). Presentations addressed such topics as the consolidation of democracy in the Balkans, the situation in the Moldavian Republic, and linguistic nationalism.

The article examines politics and government in Croatia related to that country's candidacy for membership in the European Union. While Croatia has met many of the economic and public finance requirements for membership, it is still under pressure from the EU to cooperate in the arrest and prosecution of suspected Croatian war criminals from the wars related to the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Croatian political opinion on EU membership is seen as falling into two major camps, those who support EU membership as necessary for Croatia's economic viability and those who reject on nationalist and religious grounds. Those who support EU membership but are skeptical of some of the policies and the structure of the EU are discussed in terms of overall opinion towards the EU in Europe.

Sovereignty is at the core of the UK's chronically contentious relationship with, and within, the European Union (EU). In order for EU membership to be an expression rather than an erosion of British sovereignty governments must influence the direction of European policy and the level of UK involvement. Labour has, it is argued, established an effective accommodation between continued membership of the European Union and British parliamentary sovereignty understood as the continued efficacy of executive power. Nevertheless, this policy has lacked a wider legitimacy and in key respects Euroscepticism has been reasserted by the Labour leadership. Consequently, when viewed from the perspective of popular sovereignty, the nation and the people, the UK's relationship to the European Union remains highly contested and unresolved. It is this aspect of sovereignty that is central to the Conservative Party's continued Euroscepticism. In the political mainstream, it is argued that Eurosceptic Britishness has become politically dominant however this is complicated by the UK's multi-nationalism and the rise of pro-Europeanism in separatist and regional politics. Alongside this it is proposed that British conceptions of economic sovereignty are in flux following economic crisis, contributing to an overall uncertainty in the UK's European trajectory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One of the main conditions for post-communist countries to attain membership of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was that national laws should be brought into line with international human rights standards, with special attention to political rights for minority groups. In the case of the Baltic States, the national elites played a major role in the process leading to more liberal citizenship laws towards the Russian-speaking minority. However, was the changing of formal institutions a manifestation of a liberalization of the national elites' orientations towards this minority? The article argues that instrumental elite strategies explain why nationalist attitudes seem to prevail both before and after membership, despite less restrictive laws and internationally-orientated elites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The broad objective of this article is to explore the interaction between nationalism and Europeanisation, and the impact of this interaction on constitutionalism at the level of EU member states, using Hungary as a case study. The country reasserted its identity as a kin-state after regime change in 1990, with the relationship between ethnicity/national identity and political community repeatedly taking centre stage in political life and in the field of citizenship legislation. At the same time, the country actively pursued integration into the EU, including a constitutional amendment allowing accession. Despite the potential implications of joining a supranational political entity for the definition of political community, the two parallel processes remained largely disconnected in the political discourse and the broader debate on constitutionalism in the EU has found less resonance in domestic politics than controversy over citizenship and national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europeanization -- as the process of standardization of public policies in order to provide a common ground for the new modus operandi in politics and of the polity itself -- requires an overall reshaping of the political discourse in the acceding countries during the process of EU accession. This means the reshaping of the basic political concepts and political paradigms under way in one country. Security is one of the main concepts upon which the existence of a polity is based. The way in which security is conceived determines the political strategy, political tactics and political activities pertinent to the goal set up and formulated in a security concept. Croatia, as an acceding country, needs to refurbish its basic political values, and security certainly falls within this frame. Croatia adopted its National Security Strategy in 2002 and this security concept was an obvious product of concrete circumstances, experiences and political discourse of the time. As the author asserts, the concept of security laid down in this security strategy belongs to an obsolete frame of mind, arising from a traumatic decade of ethnic wars, nationalism and a controversial transition. Croatia has emerged from the post-conflict traumatic experience and the period of an authoritarian transition, in which the adaptation to new values was slow and turbulent. The National Security Strategy of the Republic of Croatia reflects these contradictions and controversies in its society and its international environment. This work claims that the national security concept of Croatia relied greatly on the classical approach to state security and did not reflect the latest development in the field of strategic thinking. As an example, the author points to the gap between the Croatian national security concept and its basic values and the concept of human security, as laid down in the UNDP basic documents on human development. In addition, it did not reflect the concept of cooperative security that requires from a nation to work in an international context in order to avoid transnational threats. Croatia needs the Europeanization of the security discourse and the reformulation of a new National Security Strategy, pertinent to its membership in the NATO and in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with re-imaginings of 'Europe' following the accession to the European Union (EU) of former 'Eastern European' countries. In particular it explores media representations of post-EU accession migration from Romania to the United Kingdom in the UK and Romanian newspaper press. Todorova's (1997) notion of Balkanism is deployed as a theoretical construct to facilitate the analysis of these representations as first, the continuation of long-standing and deeply embedded imaginings of the 'East' of Europe and, second, as a means of contesting these discourses. The paper explores the way in which the UK press construct Balkanist discourses about Romania and Romanian migrants, and then analyses how the Romanian press has contested such discourses. The paper argues that the idea of the 'East' remains important in constructing notions of 'Europe' within popular media geographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I build a theory of European Union (EU) expansion using Social Identity Theory. The theory proposes that the development of a national identity in relation to Europe is the most significant contributing factor to a policy to support/oppose expanding the EU to include applicant countries. According to the theory, strength of identity—whether more national or European—is the key variable in explaining the policy toward applicant countries. As a preliminary exploration of the theory, I look at why some decision-makers within EU countries support Turkey’s accession while others do not. The identities among top decision-makers within Britain, Germany, and France are used to examine the policy preferences regarding Turkey’s bid for membership into the EU during these three recent progressions: the recognition of Turkey as a candidate country in 1999, the development of a timeline for full membership in 2002, and the beginning of accession negotiations in 2005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is a comparison of the attitudes of parliamentary parties towards the European Union in terms of Poland's accession to the European Union. Therefore the parliamentary parties' attitudes after the elections in 2001 and 2005 have been analyzed and compared. Another significant aim of this paper is the identification of factors conditioning these attitudes as well as changes in them. The change from a candidate to a member of the EU forced the political parties to redefine their attitudes towards Europe since the character of the European issue itself also changed. This especially applies to those parties which strongly opposed Poland's accession to the EU. Accession was not the only factor but was definitely one of the most important. Although in the period analyzed the European issue played a secondary role in the election behaviour of the electorate, it served as a lens on more fundamental dilemmas related to the role of state sovereignty, national identity, religion or individual rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores contemporary Turkey through the lens of education. Special attention is given to the recent curriculum reform of 2005 and the new Social Studies textbooks that have been redesigned as an aspect of Turkey's seeking admission to the European Union. The Ministry of Education policy statements about the new curriculum and textbooks involve a claim that they promote critical thinking and open-mindedness, along with a student-centred approach. However, a close analysis of the new textbooks shows that they are still imbued with an exclusive and narrow definition of nationalism and citizenship, backed by the myth of origin, ethnocentrism and essentialism. The paper discusses these issues in the context of the compatibility of a State-generated national ethos with democratic citizenship and argues that a notion of cosmopolitan education would extend the borders of a narrowly defined Turkish national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Party systems of European Union (EU) candidate states follow a predictable evolution over time. Before negotiations begin, most major political parties respond to EU leverage by adopting agendas that are consistent with qualifying for membership. Consequently, the party systems - at least for a while - reflect a consensus on the direction of domestic policy-making. Candidate states where regime change in 1989 was followed by illiberal democracy or authoritarianism are the most interesting. For key parties in these states, pushing for EU accession is a marker of profound moderation in their agendas. Yet after EU accession, the parameters for party competition broaden again. The lifting of accession-related constraints is especially apparent among parties that adopt more nationalist and culturally conservative positions. However, preliminary evidence suggests that such parties have made only modest political gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pre-accession strategy, by challenging national sovereignty, erodes motivations for EU membership in the candidate countries, hence arising nationalistic reactions. Euroscepticism manifests itself in various forms depending on the way the country undergoes the transition, the domestic meaning of the accession and the country-specific patterns of euroscepticism. The Central and Eastern European countries mostly display great motivations for accession. The gap between expectations and the EU's functioning feed public euroscepticism. Mainstream party consensus however, often filters euroscepticism. Turkey distinguishes by an overall mistrust at both public and party level. The EU's reform demands and the European reluctance for Turkish accession have generated mistrust, focusing the 'EU debate' on the cost of accession. At public level, mistrust has fed the idea of an 'EU threat' around which the different spheres of the society have come together to oppose EU membership. At party level, mistrust caused parties from fully embracing the EU prospective, which the 2002 elections exemplify. The Turkish case thus illustrates how the uncertainty of the accession affects public opinion and party positioning on the EU issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often said that Finland's European Union (EU) membership in 1995 finally made it a 'purely Western' nation. This article theorises upon the membership debate by studying the geopolitical rhetoric used for and against EU membership from 1990 to 1994. It is argued that political studies of this kind should address arguments used in situations where competing actors try to persuade the public to support their own political goals and to increase their political power. In this context, national identity (i.e., competing interpretations of national history, geographical affiliation, the national future and national interests) becomes a rhetorical resource for political elites. The EU membership debate that took place in Finland reveals how important geography was in the context of this identity-political dispute and emphasises the importance of political recognition in legitimising crucial political decisions - in this case, joining the Western European integration process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how the press in four countries - three EU members (France, Britain, Greece) and Turkey - covered the run-up to the discussions surrounding Turkey's bid to become a member of the European Union in October and December 2004. Given contemporary debates about the nature of Europe and European identity, the prospect of Turkey - a large, poor, Muslim country - joining the EU was likely to generate much discussion. The data show important differences in the coverage from one country to the next, with some countries reflecting significant concerns about differences between Europe and Turkey and others much less so. Overall, many of the differences in coverage that were found in the analysis could be attributed to the ways in which the press in different countries reflected domestic political, cultural and historical considerations. Such differences, it is argued, may not be surprising given the complexity of the subject matter and need not necessarily be seen as antithetical to the construction of a European public sphere or a European identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The failure of the European constitutional treaty has not been taken seriously by the European constitutionalists. It is regarded as a kind of accident which will be repaired in due course. The article is a plea for a reopening of the debate on Europeanness. Europe cannot and should not be a ‘superstate’; nor can it be a kind of revival of the European nation state which is threatened by globalisation. Even less can it be a community of post-national deliberators as Jürgen Habermas would have it. Europe should be constructed as an entity of its own which responds to the heterarchical relational logic of fragmentation which characterises post-modernity and globalisation of which it is a part. It cannot be its counterpart. Europe does not need a ‘constitution’, and it does not need a ‘people’ either. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the present time, there are no clear outcomes in Turkey's European Union (EU) accession process. By the end of the two years following the rise of the pro-Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) to the government in 2002, Turkey's accession process entered into a stalemate. Potent political opposition to the Turkish candidacy in Europe has escalated, despite a staunch Turkish political commitment since 1999 to meet the Copenhagen Criteria for admission. In this article, we argue that Turkey's EU accession process has contributed to opening political spaces for Islamism and ethno-nationalism in the country, ironically producing societal and political forces undermining Turkish membership. We inquire first into the practical reasons obstructing Turkey's membership to the Union and second into the societal and political implications of the continuation of the bleak possibility of EU membership for Turkey. As far as the latter is considered, our focus is limited to an analysis of the politicization and institutionalization of the ethnic and Islamist conservative politics in Turkey within the process of "liberal democracy." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflicts between European Union (EU) members about enlargement result from its redistributive effects. EU members are more likely to suffer from enlargement if they profit from EU transfers and if they are relatively close to applicant countries in which unemployment is significantly higher than in member countries. Phasing in membership rights serves to compensate the relative losers of enlargement to accomplish EU widening. Using data from all previous enlargement rounds until 2004, we demonstrate that EU members are more likely to demand a discrimination of new members if distributional conflicts arise. The existence of these distributional conflicts in turn increases the odds of EU members and the accession candidates actually agreeing on a phase-in period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, economic, social and identity-related reasons of Norway underlying her two consequent rejections against the European Union membership in 1972 and 1994 will be analyzed. In the first part, Norway-Europe relations will be examined from historical and economic viewpoints; then, the findings will be compared with the referendum campaigns handled by the Norwegian public in the mentioned years. The aim of the paper is to help construct further reference points by analyzing a factual figure in "No to the European Union" conjuncture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]