RC03 - European Unification

New articles!

Aurel Lazăr & Miruna Butnaru-Troncotă (2022) Assessing a decade of Romania-Turkey strategic partnership in an era of ambivalence and ‘De-Europeanisation’, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 22:1, 165-185, DOI: 10.1080/14683857.2021.2024989

Miruna Butnaru Troncotă & Dragoș Ioniță (2022) EU’s ‘Eastern discontents’ – when ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ politicisation collide – the case of Romania in the future of Europe debate, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, DOI: 10.1080/14782804.2022.2076067

 Carlos Closa (2016). Secession from a Member State and EU Membership: the View from the Union. European Constitutional Law Review, 12, pp 240-264. doi:10.1017/S1574019616000146.

Abstract: Arguments in favour of a more explicit and clearer EU stance on secession from a member state – two different cases for secession and their implications – the inadmissibility of unilateral secession within the EU – consensual secession does not create a legal entitlement for automatic membership – the need to follow the route of Article 49 TEU – no need for a specific secession provision in EU treaties

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=10475548&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S1574019616000146

Book: "EU Procedural Law" by Koen Lenaerts, Ignace Maselis and Kathleen Gutman- Oxford University Press

http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198707349.do

The European Union is unique amongst international organisations in that it has a highly developed and coherent system of judicial protection. The rights derived from Union law can be enforced in court, as opposed to other international organisations whereby enforceability is often far less certain. At the heart of the system of judicial protection in the European Union is the core principle of upholding the rule of law. As such, the stakes are high in the sense that the system of the judicial protection in the European Union must live up to its promise in which individuals, Member States and Union institutions are all guaranteed a route by which to enforce Union law rights.

This book provides a rigorously structured analysis of the EU system of judicial protection and procedure before the Union courts. It examines the role and the competences of the Union courts and the types of actions that may be brought before them, such as the actions for infringement, annulment, and failure to act, as well as special forms of procedure, for example interim relief, appeals, and staff cases. In doing so, special attention is given to the fields of EU competition law and State aid. In addition it evaluates the relationship between the Court of Justice and the national courts through the preliminary ruling procedure and the interplay between EU law and the national procedural frameworks generally. Throughout, it takes account of significant institutional developments, including the relevant changes brought by the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty and the amendments to the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice and the General Court.

Closa, C. (2015). "Looking ahead: pathways of future constitutional evolution of the EU". Directorate General for Internal policies, Citizens´ rights and constitutional affairs. https://www.academia.edu/10242610/Looking_ahead_pathways_of_future_constitutional_evolution_of_the_EU

Abstract: The effects of the economic and fiscal crisis and the institutional instruments created to deal with it have led several actors (from governments and EU bodies to scholars) to propose different EU reforms. Several options exist to accommodate future constitutional development which, in some cases, may require Treaty revision. In this case, future constitutional evolution faces the challenge that the very stringent EU revision requirement (i.e. unanimity) poses. Other available options do not seem totally satisfactory.

"Angry Young Europeans? Croatian attitudes towards the EU in comparative perspective" by Simona Guerra

https://www.academia.edu/7811713/Angry_Young_Europeans_Croatian_attitudes_towards_the_EU_in_comparative_perspective

Abstract: ‘Is something wrong with the Croats?’ was the question addressed in a 2011 contribution to Balkanalysis in 2011 commenting upon low levels of trust towards national and EU institutions in that country. As it approached EU accession only 7% of Croats had ‘a lot of confidence’ in EU institutions, with similarly low levels of trust in political parties (5%) and the national parliament (9%). Despite the fact that support for the EU remained quite stable between 2000 and 2002, with 77-78% of Croats willing to vote in favour of EU accession, increasing levels of opposition worried the government to the extent that it launched a new information campaign in 2006, after the limited success of the first 2001 campaign.

BOOK: "The political representation of immigrant-origin citizens in local elections: an empirical analysis" (2014), by Santiago Pérez-Nievas, Daniela Vintila, Laura Morales and Marta Paradés

Madrid: Spanish Centre for Sociological Research (CIS)

http://libreria.cis.es/libros/la-representacion-politica-de-los-inmigrantes-en-elecciones-municipales/9788474766363/

Abstract: During the last two decades, Spain experienced considerable demographic changes, witnessing a sustained increase of its foreign-born population. Against this general background, this work aims to describe the patterns of political representation of immigrants within the Spanish receiving context, focusing particularly on the local level. In doing so, we use data from two original surveys conducted to multiple political parties in municipalities with high concentration of immigrant-origin residents. The first sample focuses on the nomination of immigrant candidates on the electoral lists presented by parties with representation at the national and regional level for the last three local elections, in all municipalities where one of the following groups - Romanians, Moroccans, Bulgarians and Latin Americans - represent at least 15 per cent of the population. The second sample looks exclusively at the 2011 local elections in the region of Madrid, with a survey conducted to parties in all the municipalities of the region where immigrant origin residents constitute at least 15 per cent of the population.

Our findings point towards a substantive pattern of under-representation of immigrants, as all groups show levels of representation lower than we would expect following descriptive representation criteria. However, the data also shows interesting inter-group variation, with some immigrant communities being more likely to benefit from the new opportunities of political representation than others. Finally, the study also addresses the issue of the potential impact of different factors on immigrants’ political representation, thus helping to better understand the reasons behind this variation between groups and municipalities.

¨Institutional design of democratic conditionality in regional organizations¨, by Carlos Closa

European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, Global Governance Programme, EUI Working Paper RSCAS 2013/45

https://www.academia.edu/3782400/Institutional_design_of_democratic_conditionality_in_regional_organizations

Abstract Democratic conditionality accession clauses have become increasingly common in certain international organisations. Similarly, provisions on suspension of membership because of breaches of democratic order have emerged. Why do regional organisations introduce these kin of clauses? In most cases, they developed after 1989 in a new geopolitical climate in which democratic ideals acquired normative hegemony. This does not exclude a purposive rational institutional design. On the one hand, accession clauses developed a posteriori of the creation of the organization being applied hence to new members rather to the ones creating them. These clauses have been used as an instrument for fostering clubness and imposing institutional features of applying states. On the other hand, in the case of suspension, institutional design serves to trade-off two competing principles: commitment to democratic conditionality and respect for sovereignty of member states and it does so by leaving wide discretion in implementing provisions for suspension clauses.

The parliamentary election of the Commission President: Constraints on the parliamentarization of the European Union, by Sergio Fabbrini

Working Paper, Luiss School of Government, SOG-WP9/2013 ISSN: 2282-4189

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2423364

Abstract: The proposal for parliamentary election of the Commission president, officially advanced by the European Commission and the European Parliament for the election of the latter in 2014, constitutes the most significant step towards the parliamentarization of the European Union. Connecting the election of the EP to the choice of the Commission president is considered to be an effective way to provide a definitive solution to the democratic deficit of the Union. This article discusses the arguments favoring the parliamentarization project and those against it, showing that the strategy of parliamentarization of the EU is destined to encounter powerful institutional and structural constraints. A different project could be pursued to strengthen the EP without being trapped by those constraints.

‘Beyond Intergovernmentalism: The Puzzle of European Economic Governance’, by Sergio Fabbrini

In Maria Joao Rodrigues and Eleni Xiarchogiannopoulou (eds.), The Eurozone Crisis and the Transformation of EU Governance: Internal and External Implications, Farnham: Ashgate, 2014, pp. 59-70

http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781472433107

¨The Future of Europe: Democracy, Legitimacy and Justice After the Euro Crisis¨ (forthcoming)

Edited by Serge Champeau, Carlos Closa, Daniel Innerarity and Miguel Poiares Maduro

http://www.rowmaninternational.com/books/the-future-of-europe#.VBkwXeq69Ug.facebook

A major collection of essays by a multidisciplinary panel of experts exploring the various interpretations of the European crisis and the future of the European Union.

The European Union seems to have rescued its single currency, but it has not yet put an end to the crisis. In this major new book, a group of fifteen international philosophers, economists, political scientists, sociologists, and legal experts compare the economic, political, constitutional, social, and cultural interpretations of the European crisis. They describe the challenges the EU faces in relation to legitimacy and democracy and address head-on the uncertainty over the future of Europe.The book considers different possible scenarios—from the Union's dissolution, with or without the continuation of the integration process, to its reinforcement through the building of a political union addressing the challenges of legitimacy, democracy and justice. Such a strengthened union could mark a new stage for democracy—not the democracy of ancient cities and modern states, but one convenient to the complex entities, neither national nor supra-national, of which the European Union, despite the crisis, is still the best modern example.