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

The rise and change of the competence strategy: reflections on twenty-five years of skills policies in the EU

The principal aim of this article is to provide a historical overview of 25 years of competence policy in the European Union, highlighting connections between past and current initiatives and outlining possible scenarios for the decade to come. The article presents the social investment turn in social policy as the critical political background against which the emergence of a competence strategy in European Union education policy should be analysed and understood. The competence strategy, it is argued, finds its roots in a renewed attention at the European Union level for harmonising educational outputs and labour market demands. While trying to produce a schematic history of the emergence and change of the competence strategy, the article does not seek to offer strict definitions of competence itself; instead, it conveys the nebulous and context-dependent nature of the concept

Why EU asylum standards exceed the lowest common denominator: the role of regulatory expertise in EU decision-making

While scholars traditionally expected EU policy-making in the area of asylum to produce lowest common denominator standards, recent studies on the first phase of the Common European Asylum System have observed higher asylum standards in some instances. This article aims at explaining this divergence. Drawing on concepts of regulatory expertise and ‘misfit’, it argues that the observed variation in policy output can be explained by the dominance of a few (Northern) member states which were highly successful in inserting their positions in the core EU directives. Government effectiveness and exposure to the phenomenon entailing regulatory expertise provide a powerful explanation for member states being effective policy-shapers. Characterized by low levels of government effectiveness and exposure in the asylum area, Southern European countries were, on the contrary, rather passive during the negotiations and barely left any mark on the EU directives

Bridging rhetoric and practice: new perspectives on barriers to gendered change

Contains fulltext : 167537.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)This article presents a new methodology, Gender Knowledge Contestation Analysis, and uses it to examine the processes under way when transformative gender equality policies, such as gender mainstreaming are implemented. Drawing on data gathered in the European Commission, the findings show the processes linking high-level rhetorical policy statements, strategic policies, and daily working practices. This analysis enables exploration of the mechanisms through which indifference to and nonawareness of gendered policy problems are collectively constituted and methods through which they can be challenged. Findings thus deepen our understanding of barriers to the implementation of gender mainstreaming and the steps required for its effective implementation.20 juli 201

Brexit, trade agreements, and CAP reform

Although a number of reforms have significantly changed the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) over the past two decades, a defining characteristic of the policy is its prohibitively high import tariffs on a number of key commodities as tariff cuts have not formed part of CAP reform. These high tariffs, whilst protecting EU producers, complicate the EU’s attempts to negotiate Free Trade Area (FTA) agreements around the world, and will likewise be problematic for agri-food trade with a post-Brexit UK, particularly over the politically sensitive border between EU27 and the UK on the island of Ireland. An open border could be more easily secured if the UK’s tariff barriers on CAP products matched those of EU27. This, however, implies either that the UK will have to abandon its plans to pursue ‘free-trade’ policies with other countries around the world, or that EU27 needs to complete its reform of the CAP by unilaterally reducing its tariff barriers. It seems highly unlikely that the challenges posed by Brexit would prompt the EU to unilaterally reduce its excessively high CAP tariffs

Supporting the EU’s approach to climate change:the discourse of the transnational media within the ‘Brussels Bubble’

Abstract: The Union’s global climate change policy has been widely seen as an expression of its normative power, where it is committed to act through multilateral frameworks in order to tackle the effects of changes in the climate and safeguard the future of people around the world. Internally, the EU’s approach to climate change is complemented by high levels of support from citizens. This article explores another internal source of support for the EU’s leadership in global climate change policy, namely the media. The focus here is on the transnational media’s reporting and coverage of the Copenhagen summit, which is widely considered to be one of the key points in the development of global climate change policy. The article shows that within the ‘Brussels bubble,’ the transnational media supported through its reporting the EU’s ambitious agenda in global climate change policy around the time of the Copenhagen summit

Analysis of trends in mapping and assessment of ecosystem condition in Europe

Ecosystem condition is the overall quality of an ecosystem unit, in terms of its biological, physical and chemical characteristics underpinning its capacity to generate ecosystem services. Changes in ecosystem condition affect the delivery of services and therefore human well-being. Despite increasing research in this field, the relations between biodiversity, ecosystem condition and services are still not well understood. This study examined scientific articles and reports to analyse the development of ecosystem condition mapping and assessments in Europe since the year 2000. The aim was to provide an overview of the current state of research and to highlight some challenges for ecosystem condition and ecosystem services research. The review analysed the ecosystems under study, scales, methods, indicators, and the ecosystem services assessed. Based on this review, some gaps were identified, especially in the methods used for condition assessment, the coverage of ecosystems, and the applicability of indicators in policy. It is necessary to develop integrative methods to determine ecosystems condition and its influence on the ecosystem service provision, in order to produce robust information. The results of this review can be harnessed by people who need an overview about existing ecosystem condition studies, such as scientists, land managers or decision makers