EU Foreign Policy Identity: A Case Study on the EU’s Engagement of the Islamic Republic of Iran. College of Europe EU Diplomacy Paper 06/2019

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is often referred to as the biggest foreign policy success of the European Union (EU). It ended twelve years of tough negotiations, stabilising one of the most volatile regions of the world. The EU’s engagement with Iran was distinct from that of the United States or even that of its member states as it focused on promoting multilateralism and diplomatic dialogue, making the EU-Iran relationship of utmost importance for both parties involved. This paper seeks to answer the research question to what extent the EU possesses a foreign policy identity that is more than the sum of that of its member states and how it expressed this identity in its engagement with Iran. Exploring EU foreign policy identity is important because it explains what type of actor the EU is in the international system and sheds light on the decision-making process of its external action. The study argues that the EU has indeed an own distinct foreign policy identity which reflects its values such as a unique commitment to diplomatic dialogue and multilateralism as the solution to international problems as well as a guarantee to upholding the rule of law in the international system. Through a qualitative content analysis of the American, British and French press as well as expert interviews with EU officials and member states’ diplomats the existence and importance of a distinct brand of EU foreign policy identity will be demonstrated

The news coverage of the 2004 European Parliamentary Election Campaign in 25 countries

This article analyzes the news coverage of the 2004 European Parliamentary\ud (EP) elections in all 25 member states of the European Union (EU). It\ud provides a unique pan-European overview of the campaign coverage based\ud on an analysis of three national newspapers and two television newscasts in\ud the two weeks leading up to the elections. On average, the elections were\ud more visible in the new 10 member states than in the 15 old EU member\ud states. The political personalities and institutional actors featured in news\ud stories about the elections were generally national political actors and not EU\ud actors. When it was evaluative, the news in the old EU-15 was generally\ud negative towards the EU, while in the new countries a mixed pattern was\ud found. The findings of the study are discussed in the light of the literature on\ud the EU’s legitimacy and communication deficit

Strategic Choices for the 2020s. Egmont Security Policy Brief No. 122 February 2020

These past few years, the European Union (EU) has taken various decisions which, when taken together, amount to a careful repositioning in international politics. Let us be bold and call it the inkling of a Grand Strategy: an idea of the Union’s shifting place in the great power relations that determine international politics. Yet that nascent Grand Strategy is not equally shared by all EU Member States or even by all EU institutions, nor has it yet been incorporated into all relevant strands of EU policy. If the implications are not fully thought through and the repositioning stops here, the EU as well as the Member States risk ending up in a permanently ambivalent position: more than a satellite of the US, but not a really independent power either. Such a half-hearted stance would alienate their allies and partners while tempting their adversaries. For now, the EU has done enough to irritate the US but not to obtain the benefits sought: to further the European interest and to play a stabilising role in great power relations. Will 2020 see the EU and the Member States muster the courage to fully implement the choices that they have already started to make

Extreme Coexceedances in New EU Member States' Stock Markets

We analyze the financial integration of the new European Union (EU) member states' stock markets using the negative (positive) coexceedance variable that counts the number of large negative (large positive) returns on a given day across the countries. We use a multinomial logit model to investigate how persistence, asset classes, and volatility are related to the coexceedance variables. We find that the effects differ (a) between negative and positive coexceedance variables (b) between old and new EU member states, and (c) before and after the EU enlargement in 2004 suggesting a closer connection of new EU stock markets to those in Western Europe.Financial market integration, Comovement, Emerging markets, EU enlargement, EU Member States, Extreme returns, New EU Member States, Stock Markets

Financing social and cohesion policy in an enlarged EU: plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose?

The development of the Open Method of Coordination, agreement on the Lisbon Agenda and EU enlargement offered the prospect of a new and substantial EU social policy agenda. This article considers EU social and cohesion policies in the context of the recent negotiation of the EU budget for 2007—13. We find the Commission's wish to redistribute EU spending in favour of these policy areas and new member states was thwarted by key political features of EU budget making: CAP spending levels which are downwardly sticky; institutional arrangements which provide for budget making as, at best, a zero-sum game; and the preferences of contributor member states in the EU-15 to contain overall spending while preserving their net budget positions. Questions are thus raised as to the ability of the EU to make any progress, from a budgetary perspective, on the social and cohesion policy agenda in an enlarged EU

Can Labour Market Institutions Explain Unemployment Rates in New EU Member States?. CEPS ENEPRI Working Papers No. 27, 1 July 2004

This study poses the question about whether labour market institutions can explain unemployment rates in the ten new European Union member states. In five out of the ten new member states, unemployment rates lie above the average in the 15 member states of the European Union (EU-15) that comprised the EU prior to May 2004. The study finds that labour market institutions in the acceding countries are less rigid than in the EU-15. Moreover, labour market institutions explain only a minor part of unemployment in the new EU member states. This does not mean that these countries have no labour market problems. Just as in the EU-15, a great deal of heterogeneity exists among the acceding countries. In some of them, labour market reforms could prove a key issue in improving employment performance. The main worry is the poor labour market performance in Poland and the Slovak Republic, where unemployment has risen to almost 20%. The main reasons for this growth are i) postponed restructuring in combination with tight monetary policy, ii) poor governance, and iii) an increasing labour force

Social Justice in the EU – Index Report 2016 Social Inclusion Monitor Europe

1. Social justice in the EU – participation opportunities have improved in the majority of EU member states, but are still a long way behind precrisis levels Social justice has improved slightly in the majority of EU member states compared with last year’s Social Justice Index (SJI 2015). It appears that, after years of decline, the majority of countries reached their lowest point between 2012 and 2014. Whether the improvement is a genuine, stable turnaround or just a slight temporary easing will only become apparent in future reports. At least the downward trend observed since 2008 in terms of equal participation opportunities has halted in the majority of member states. However, even seven years after the global economic crisis first hit, participation opportunities in the vast majority of EU states – with a few exceptions – are still noticeably worse than before the crisis. Only five of the 28 EU countries – the Czech Republic, Germany, Luxembourg, the UK, and Poland – are showing moderate improvements in terms of participation opportunities, compared with the situation before the economic and financial crisis

Are your firm’s taxes set in Warsaw ? Spatial tax competition in Europe

Tax competition within the EU is fiercer than in the rest of the OECD with tax rates falling rapidly. This paper analyzes tax responses of EU-15 countries to corporate tax changes in the EU-10 new member states as a function of their proximity to these new member states. The average corporate tax rate in the new member states has always been considerably lower than the average in the EU-15 countries. Their entry into the EU eliminated capital barriers, allowing firms to locate in one of the new EU-10 with full access to the European Market. Our results indicate that EU-15 countries geographically closer to the new member states respond stronger to corporate tax changes in these new member states. We use a theoretical and a spatial regression framework to test the hypothesis that distance to a low tax region intensifies countries’ tax reaction functions.H25; H77; H39

A Prototype Model of EU's 2007 Enlargement

EU's 2007 enlargement by Bulgaria and Romania is evaluated by applying a simple macroeconomic integration model able to encompass as many of the theoretically predicted integration effects possible. The direct integration effects of Bulgaria and Romania spill-over to EU15, including Austria and the 10 new member states of the 2004 EU enlargement. The pattern of the integration effects is qualitatively similar to those of EU?s 2004 enlargement by 10 new member states. Bulgaria and Romania gain much more from EU accession than the incumbents in the proportion of 20:1. In the medium-run up to 2020, Bulgaria and Romania can expect a sizable overall integration gain, amounting to additional ½ percentage point real GDP growth per annum. Within the incumbent EU member states Austria will gain somewhat more (+0.05%) than the average of EU15 (+0.02%) and the 10 new EU member states (+0.01%), which joined the EU in 2004.Eu, EU27, Enlargement, Macroeconomic Integration, spill over effects, Bulgaria, Romania

Distinguishing between use and abuse of EU free movement law : evaluating use of the 'Europe-route' for family reunification to overcome reverse discrimination

Equality is a fundamental principle of EU law but protection of the Member States’ competence to regulate their own nationals’ legal position, anchored in the division of competences, may cause inequality among citizens. Reverse discrimination occurs when EU citizens who reside in their own Member State and are in a purely internal situation are subject to the law of this Member State, while EU citizens who fall within the scope of EU law through the use of free movement rights benefit from more lenient EU rules. Both equality among EU Member States and the division of competences are important principles of EU constitutionalism. Proposed remedies should, therefore, fit within the constitutional system of the EU. In its case-law, the Court makes EU citizenship rights more accessible and empowers EU citizens to change the legal regime that applies to them by moving across a border. This case-law opens up a possibility to circumvent national immigration law. This Article inquires whether the use of EU law for this purpose should be considered to be abuse of law. In addition, it discusses the role of the European Convention on Human Rights in the protection of families, when EU law does not apply. The first part of the Article discusses the constitutional background in which reverse discrimination and family reunification are situated. The second part studies the concept of abuse of law in the context of EU citizenship and the question when family reunification on the basis of EU law can be classified as such, as well as the implications thereof