Conditional Leadership investigates the European Commission's preferences and tactics in the development of regional policy in the European Union from its inception in 1975 to the most recent reform of 2006, concluding that the Commission has played a central role in designing the European Regional Development Fund and in continuing to shape a new Europe. Boyle argues that the Commission is an independent actor that has consistently utilized the tactics of agenda-setting, mediation, and mobilization of subnational and transnational actors to achieve increased control over a sizeable and focused common regional policy. Offering readers a specification of Commission tactics, a method for determining the influence of the commission, and an understanding of the conditions of Commission influence, Conditional Leadership is a brilliant achievement that will be of interest to scholars and policy-makers alike.

It is through a gradual evolution, rather than by grand design, that the somewhat fragmented economic policies of the EU now appear to be heading towards a rather more robust and coherent economic governance. EU Economic Governance and Globalization considers the following crucial question as the EU enters its final stage of institution-building; will the economic institutions of the EU push ahead to reform its rigid national economies and open them up to globalization and international competition?Focusing on telecommunications, air transportation, currency competition, taxation, eastern enlargement and transatlantic relations, the contributors to this book question whether EU standards, regulatory regimes, and policies are flexible enough to bring about a dynamic and open economy. This book will be of interest to scholars of European and regional studies and international political economy, as well as policy analysts and policymakers.

The second edition of this acclaimed and widely-used book has been thoroughly updated in light of, among others, the revised Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal, which entered into force in January 2020. It provides the first detailed understanding of these new rules and their influence on opposition and appeal proceedings. This second edition gives valuable guidance on how to: draft and prosecute patent applications to avoid problems later on in opposition and appeal properly attack or defend a patent react if the patent is amended argue in case of late filings act in oral proceedings. Dealing with all stages of proceedings before the EPO, this book provides fresh insight into how best to act at each stage to successfully complete a case in opposition and appeal, detailing how opposition divisions and boards of appeal approach the cases before them. Experienced practitioners will find that the detailed case law citation adds depth to their knowledge. The 'practical advice' sections and 'example cases' provide patent lawyers and attorneys with invaluable guidance on specific procedural and substantive questions.

Recent failures and rescues of large banks have resulted in colossal costs to society. In wake of such turmoil a new banking union must enable better supervision, pre-emptive coordinated action and taxpayer protection. While these aims are meritorious they will be difficult to achieve. This book explores the potential of a new banking union in Europe. This book brings together leading experts to analyse the challenges of banking in the European Union. While not all contributors agree, the constructive criticism provided in this book will help ensure that a new banking union will mature into a stable yet vibrant financial system that encourages the growth of economic activity and the efficient allocation of resources. This book will be of use to researchers interested in Banking, Monetary Economics and the European Union.

In a deeply iniquitous world, where the gains from trade are distributed unevenly and where trade rules often militate against progressive social values, human health, and sustainable development, NGOs are widely touted as our best hope for redressing these conditions. As a critical voice of the poor and marginalized, many are engaged in a global struggle for democratic norms and social justice. Yet the potential for NGOs to bring about meaningful change is limited. This book examines whether improvements in participatory opportunities for progressive NGOs results in substantive and normative policy change in one of the major trading powers, the European Union. Hannah advances a constructivist account of the role of NGOs in the EU's trade policymaking process. She argues that NGOs have been instrumental in providing education, raising awareness, and giving a voice to broader societal concerns about proposed trade deals, both when they take advantage of formal participatory opportunities and when they protest from the streets and in the media. However, the book also highlights how NGO inputs are mediated by the social structure of global trade governance. Epistemes-the background knowledge, ideological and normative beliefs, and shared assumptions about how the world works-determine who has a voice in global trade governance. Showing how NGOs succeed only when their advocacy conforms broadly to the dominant episteme, this book will be of value to scholars and students with an interest in NGOs and international trade negotiations. It will also be of interest to policymakers, national trade negotiators, government departments, and the trade policy community.

Europe Un-Imagined examines one of the world's first and only trans nationally produced television channels, Association relative a la television europeenne (ARTE). ARTE calls itself the "European culture channel" and was launched in 1991 with a French-German intergovernmental mandate to produce television and other media that promoted pan-European community and culture. Damien Stankiewicz's ground-breaking ethnographic study of the various contexts of media production work at ARTE (the newsroom, the editing studio, the screening room), reveals how ideas about French, German, and European culture coalesce and circulate at the channel. He argues that the reproduction of nationalism often goes unacknowledged and unremarked upon, and questions whether something like a European "imagination" can be produced. Stankiewicz describes the challenges that ARTE staff face, including rapidly changing media technologies and audiences, unreflective national stereotyping, and unwieldy bureaucratic infrastructure, which ultimately limit the channel's abilities to cultivate a transnational, "European" public. Europe Un-Imagined challenges its readers to find new ways of thinking about how people belong in the world beyond the problematic logics of national categorization.

The financial crisis posed new challenges for the administrations of Eurozone countries, including: how to respect EU obligations when the economy is under stress? How to improve the overall implementation of EU policies and domestic reforms? How to negotiate effectively with the Troika and then quickly and efficiently fulfil the requirements of the Memoranda of Understanding? This volume offers the first analysis of EU coordination by national executives in the light of the legal and political consequences of the crisis, using case studies of five severely affected Member States: Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Italy, and Portugal. It examines from an interdisciplinary perspective how they have adapted their coordination systems since the outbreak of the crisis, shedding light on the adjustments undertaken by domestic administrations. The comparison reveals that in this process Prime Ministers and Ministers of Finance were empowered in a common shift towards the centralization of EU coordination.

Originally published in 1967, though with an enduring relevance as Britain once again navigates its role outside the EU, this book is a selection of documents which illustrate how the former European Economic Community came into being. The reader is invited to make up their mind about the arguments for and against British participation in the Common Market. The author introduces his evidence with an historical interpretation of the situation and concludes with an assessment of the significance of the Community concept in the world as well as in Europe.

The European Union (EU) has emerged as a key actor in the global investment regime since the 1980s. At the same time, international investment policy and agreements, which govern international investment liberalisation, treatment and protection through investor-to-state dispute settlement, have become increasingly contentious in the European public debate. This book provides an accessible introduction to international investment policy and seeks to explain how the EU became an actor in the global investment regime. It offers a detailed analysis of the EU's participation in all major trade and investment negotiations since the 1980s and EU-internal competence debates to identify the causes behind the EU's growing role in this policy domain. Building on principal-agent and historical institutionalist models of incremental institutional change, the book shows that Commission entrepreneurship was instrumental in the emergence of the EU as a key actor in the global investment regime. It refutes business-centred liberal intergovernmental explanations, which suggest that business lobbying made the Member States accept the EU's growing role and competence in this domain. The book lends support to supranational and challenges intergovernmental thinking on European Integration. This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners of European and regional integration, EU foreign relations, EU trade and international investment law, business lobbying, and more broadly of international political economy.

The question of how political parties are, and ought to be, regulated has assumed an increased importance in recent years, both within the scholarly community and among policy-makers and politicians as the state assumes an increasingly active role in the management of, and control over, their behaviour and organisation This book concentrates on the regulation of political parties in the EU post-communist democracies, and on Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania, in particular. In analysing the various dimensions of party regulation, it builds on the main premises derived from the neo-institutionalist literature in political science, concerning the ways in which the (formal and informal) rules and procedures may influence, constrain or determine the behaviour of political actors. In doing so, it provides a comprehensive overview of the regulation of Eastern European political parties provided by leading experts in the field and casts theoretical and empirical light on the manner in which the constitutional and legal regulation of party organizations and finances have had an impact (or not) on the consolidation of party politics in post-communist Europe since 1989. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of Political Parties and Behaviour, East European and Post-Communist Politics and Comparative Politics.

This is the most ambitious and comprehensive account of the institutions of democratic delegation in West European parliamentary democracies to date. It provides an unprecedented cross-national investigation of West European political institutions from 1945 until the present day, as well as situating modern parliamentary democracy in the context of changing political parties and the growing importance of the European Union.

Africa's association with the European Union has long been hailed as a progressive model of North-South relations. European officials, in particular, have represented the Africa-EU 'partnership' as a pro-poor enterprise in which trade interests are married to development prerogatives. Applying a moral economy perspective, this book examines the tangible impact of Africa-Europe trade and development co-operation on citizens in developing countries. In so doing, it challenges liberal accounts of Europe's normative power to enable benevolent change in the Global South and illuminates how EU discourse acts to legitimise unequal trade ties that have regressive consequences for 'the poor'. Drawing upon the author's own fieldwork, it assesses the difference between norms and the actual impact of EU concessions in relation to: budget support; aid for trade; private sector development (PSD); decent work. It concludes by considering the value of a moral economy approach in the assessment of free trade structures more widely. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of Africanist IPE, European studies, and more broadly international political economy, international development, and international relations.

Modern constitutionalism as an idea and practice is facing great uncertainty in current times. Scholarly debates focus predominantly on constitutions beyond the state, while the predicament of domestic constitutionalism is much less considered. This volume contributes to a theoretically informed analysis of the key challenges and changes affecting domestic constitutionalism in Europe and beyond, departing from the idea of 'constitutional acceleration' or the increased propensity of different actors to engage in (formal) reform of the constitutional order. The volume points to a fundamental change in the function of constitutions in that constitutions themselves are increasingly subjects of political contestation rather than framing political debates. The collection of essays addresses a range of critical challenges - including societal acceleration, depoliticization, civic engagement, multi-faceted constituent power, modernization, populism and nationalism, and transnationalization. The volume includes a variety of disciplinary, and in some cases interdisciplinary, approaches, including (political) sociology, political science, constitutional law, and constitutional and legal theory, and will be of interest to researchers and students in any of these areas. Case studies focus on the EU and the wider European context, and include highly relevant but little known or ill-understood cases, such as the recent constitutional events in Iceland, Italy, or Romania, and cases of democratic reversal, such as Hungary, while also engaging with traditional but rapidly changing cases of constitutional interest, such as the UK.

The European integration project currently faces profound political, economic, legal, and societal challenges. These challenges seem increasingly to overburden the European Union as well as the cohesion among the Member States, and therefore pose a serious threat to the integration project. The EU faces a major task in coping with this situation and it is one that calls for new approaches and ideas This book addresses the major challenges confronting the EU, analyses the consequences for the integration project, and develops fresh perspectives on the EU's future prospects for coping with the most debated, current and upcoming issues, such as the rise of Euroscepticism or the contested idea of an 'ever-closer union'. Renowned experts in European Studies from the fields of political science, law, economics and sociology provide an interdisciplinary perspective on the different dimensions of the EU's crisis-laden situation and question whether the EU's existing problem-solving mechanisms and methods are sufficient to address the imminent tasks. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of EU Politics, European Politics, European Governance, and more broadly European law, history and the wider social sciences.

The European Union faces a set of inter-related crises that it struggles to contain and address. By exploring how the EU responds to crises and conflict, this volume addresses both its resilience and vulnerability. The EU faces significant challenges: European integration is increasingly politicised; democratic politics within member states are increasingly volatile; challenger parties threaten the status quo; and party systems are shifting throughout Europe. These crises test both the EU and individual states, especially those that had to exchange interdependence in the Union for dependence on the Troika. Despite the tension of hard times, this volume points to patterns of continuity and change as the single market, somewhat side-lined and forgotten in the heat of crises, retains its role as the hard core of the Union and the EU's most significant achievement. This book was originally published as a special issue of West European Politics.

Since the advent of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, a key turning point in terms of the crystallisation of opposition towards the European Union (EU), Euroscepticism has become a transnational phenomenon. The term 'Euroscepticism' has become common political language in all EU member states and, with the advent of the Eurozone, refugee and security crises have become increasingly 'embedded' within European nation states. Bringing together a collection of essays by established and up-and-coming authors in the field, this handbook paints a fuller, more holistic picture of the extent to which the Eurosceptic debate has influenced the EU and its member states. Crucially, it also focuses on what the consequences of this development are likely to be for the future direction of the European project. By adopting a broad-based, thematic approach, the volume centres on theory and conceptualisation, political parties, public opinion, non-party groups, the role of referendums - and the media - and of scepticism within the EU institutions. It also reflects on the future of Euroscepticism studies following the United Kingdom's vote to leave the EU. Containing a full range of thematic contributions from eminent scholars in the field, The Routledge Handbook of Euroscepticism is a definitive frame of reference for academics, practitioners and those with an interest in the debate about the EU, and more broadly for students of European Studies, EU and European Politics.

The notion of the European Social Model (ESM) has been one of the fastest growing in European political and academic discourse in recent years. It is conventionally used to describe the European experience of simultaneously promoting sustainable economic growth and social cohesion. However, the concept has suffered from a lack of clear definition. And where definitions have been found in the literature, they do not necessarily converge. This book presents the outcome of a project coordinated by the European Trade Union Institute in which experts from different countries and social scientific disciplines (sociology, political science and economics) were invited to reflect on both the meaning and political status of the concept of the ESM. In addition to analysing the ambiguities and multiple meanings attributed to the concept, the authors unpick the underlying assumptions and make use of a new approach - the ESM as political project - with which European countries can build consensus and share a common understanding. Offering a new analytical framework and with new empirical evidence, "Unwrapping the European Social Model" is essential reading for all those involved in European social policy research, education, policy and practice.

For four decades now, information and communication technologies have been seen as principal drivers of socio-economic change. Stimulated in recent years by the Internet, the National Information Infrastructure, and European Information Society strategies, the "Information Society" has undergone a new wave of developments. In its new form, the Information Society directly affects the everyday lives of citizens, provoking concerns about the future of work, information overload, access to continuing education, surveillance, and privacy. This volume examines a wide range of issues at stake in the European Union, from employment and the labor market, to the domestication of technologies in households, to larger implications for political processes and democracy. Extending comparisons to other industrialized countries, it demonstrates that the Information Society is far too diverse and rich to be typified in simplistic dichotomies such as information "haves" and "have nots" and that simple upbeat or pessimistic responses to the new technologies are surely false messengers for the future. The authors discern general social trends and patterns in the way that these very important technologies already affect our lives and work. But they find there is still considerable room to use the technologies as a positive force for social change or, equally, to fail to take up any positive opportunities. This book helps broaden and inform communication technology debates worldwide and will be of interest to academics, students, industrialists, policymakers, and anyone who wishes to better understand the impacts of the new Information Society in Europe and beyond.

Is Europe witnessing the death of the once mighty nation-state? If it is, then two of the most powerful factors in its post-war decline have been European integration and regionalism. Both challenge the nation state's monopoly of authority - one from above, the other from below. Although it is increasingly recognized that the two are connected. This book provides a definitive examination of the new patterns of politics and policy that link the three levels of European Union, nation state, and region. Looking at each member state in turn the authors emphasize the diversity of the European experience. European integration has differing impacts on different regions. In some it is seen as a threat, centralizing power and increasing their peripherality. To others it is an opportunity to by-pass national governments and assert their personality. The authors are sceptical of the `Europe of the Regions' scenario, in which nation states fade away in favour of the other two levels. But they do show how the Maastricht commitment to subsidiarity together with the twin forces of European integration and regional assertion are profoundly changing the politics of Europe as it moves into the twenty-first century.

Today, the European Union faces challenges that threaten not only internal cohesion but also its position in the global system. This book is about the future of the EU in the light of global power transition taking place in the twenty-first century and demonstrates how its future rests on a delicate balance between policy challenge, member states' interests, and convergence or divergence of societal values across its peoples. The book examines factors behind the decline of the EU relative to the rise of China and other powers in the global hierarchy and what policy options are available for EU leaders to implement in order to compete as a global actor. It analyses determinants of regional integration and key policy challenges the EU faces in its quest for an "ever deeper union," and identifies significant factors (i.e., power relations, economic relations, emergent social values across the EU) that can explain the likelihood of further integration or conflict between EU member states. This text will be essential reading for scholars, students, and practitioners interested in European Union politics international relations, security studies, and comparative politics.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has played a vital role in promoting the process of European integration. In recent years, however, the expansion of EU law has led it to impact ever more politically sensitive issues, and controversial ECJ judgments have elicited unprecedented levels of criticism. Can we expect the Court to sustain its role as a motor of deeper integration without Member States or other countervailing forces intervening? To answer this question, we need to revisit established explanations of the Court's power to see if they remain viable in the Court's contemporary environment. We also need to better understand the ultimate limits of the Court's power - the means through which and extent to which national governments, national courts, litigants and the Court's other interlocutors attempt to influence the Court and to limit the impact of its rulings. In this book, leading scholars of European law and politics investigate how the ECJ has continued to support deeper integration and whether the EU is experiencing an increase in countervailing forces that may diminish the Court's ability or willingness to act as a motor of integration. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy.

A Reporter's Guide to the EU addresses a pressing need for an effective, in-depth guide to reporting on this major governing body, offering practical advice on writing and reporting on the EU and a clear, concise breakdown of its complex inner-workings. Sigrid Melchior, an experienced Brussels-based journalist, gives a detailed overview of the main EU institutions and explains the procedures for passing EU law. Interviews with professionals working for the EU, from areas including lobbying, public relations, diplomacy and journalism, are featured throughout the book. Building on this, the second half of the book provides useful journalistic tools and tips on how to approach EU reporting. It identifies common mistakes in reporting on the EU and how to avoid them, as well as offering guidance on investigative reporting. Melchior also details how to work with information gathered and maintained by EU institutions, including their audiovisual archives, the Eurostat and Eurobarometer, which are invaluable resources for journalists and journalism students. With few aspects of political life that remain untouched by EU decision-making the book demystifies the EU system and its sources, enabling professional journalists and students of journalism to approach EU reporting with clarity and confidence. For additional resources related to A Reporter's Guide to the EU, please visit www.areportersguidetotheeu.com

An Historical Introduction to the European Union is a chronological political history of European integration from the 1950s to the present. It also includes a contextualising survey of wider European history since the 1600s, and places unification against a background of world politics. This clearly written introduction to the essential history, economics and politics of the European Union assumes no prior knowledge. It offers a detailed account of the Union with sections on: * how the Union works * basic principles of the Union * arguments over contested practices, including agriculture * issues of the cold war, enlargement, and the role of the United States * language * single European currency With an annotated bibliography, chronology and guide to the institutions of the European Union, An Historical Introduction to the European Union incorporates the most recent research and detailed treatment of the policies of the European Union.

Several events in the past few years have dramatically shown how the interests of European citizens are directly affected by the stability, security and prosperity of their neighbouring regions. At the same time, the European Union and its member states face many challenges and dilemmas in designing and pursuing policies that not only effectively promote these interests, but also build stronger partnerships with neighbouring countries based on the values on which the Union is founded. First the Arab revolts and then Russia's assertiveness in the eastern neighbourhood prompted reviews by the EU of its European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), in 2011 and 2015, respectively. These reviews, in turn, have renewed scholarly interest in the ENP. By deliberately focusing on the recent literature (since 2011), this book by CEPS identifies the factors that explain the (lack of) effectiveness and coherence of the ENP. This exercise has resulted in a rich overview of and deep reflection on a wide variety of ENP-related themes, such as conditionality and leverage, the interests vs values dilemma and the role of third parties. The study identifies where there is consensus among scholars and where perspectives and judgements differ. It also identifies important gaps in the literature where further research is needed. This book will be of interest to a wide audience of officials, diplomats, parliamentarians, researchers at think tanks, civil society organisations, university teachers, trainers, students and journalists who want to know more about the challenges and dilemmas arising from the ENP. The work has been carried out by a team of researchers from CEPS in Brussels, with the support of the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

Ben Soetendorp examines the extent to which individual member states - each with their own history, special interests and styles of foreign policy-making - still dominate the common foreign policy making process within the European Union. The first part of the book reviews the diverse foreign policy patterns of the individual member states towards European integration, describes the various styles of foreign policy and examines the institutional arrangements for joint foreign policy-making created by the member states at EU level. The second part looks more closely at the reality of foreign policy making in a number of case studies, focusing on the diplomatic, military and economic dimensions of European Union's foreign policy. This structure and approach enable s the reader to understand the reality of European foreign policy-making, to comprehend the relationship between the foreign policies of the member states of the EU and the foreign policy of the EU as a whole and to make a judgement as to the likely scenarios for the future. Foreign Policy in the European Union is an important and accessible addition to the textbook literature on European integration that will be essential reading for undergraduate and Masters level courses on European integration within politics, international relations, European Studies and history degrees.