Coming full circle: Differential empowerment in the EU accession process

The EU accession process brings a profound transformation not only to candidate countries’ institutions and policies, but also to the political opportunity structure in place, creating new possibilities for previously marginalised actors. Studying the differential empowerment of NGOs throughout the Croatian accession process, this paper makes two related claims: first, differential empowerment depends crucially on domestic actors’ awareness for and ability to use new opportunities to their advantage. Second, an overreliance on EU leverage poses important temporal and substantive limits on NGO empowerment and leads to a rapid decline of their relevance in the post-accession phase. I argue that a more sustainable shift in the domestic power balance would require both the EU and domestic civil society actors to place more emphasis on fostering improved practices of civil society inclusion in domestic policymaking settings throughout the accession process

The Europeanization of UK Government: From Quiet Revolution to Explicit Step-Change?

In this paper we review - from a UK perspective - how the UK government and its policy process have adapted to European integration. Has adaptation been a quiet revolution, a step-change, or both? In exploring this puzzle we draw upon the conceptual literature of Europeanisation. We employ it to shed light on the longer-term pattern of UK adaptation as well as to put into context the domestic changes currently under way. Although commentators frequently alight upon continued non-membership of the euro as an indicator of the UK's continued incomplete adaptation to integration, we argue that there is a step-change under way in the Europeanisation of UK EU policy making, though not necessarily in its outcomes

Europeanization, Conditionality and Domestic Change: The Twinning Exercise and Administrative Reform in Romania

A key requirement of the countries of central and eastern Europe (CEECs) that wish to join the EU is that they develop the administrative capacity to implement effectively the "acquis communautaire." The 'twinning' programme is designed to assist in this process. Drawing on experiences in Romania, and linking these to debates on Europeanization, this article argues that the success of twinning to date is related to the design of the programme, institutional fluidity and politicization within central administration, the individual agency and the reform commitment of those hosting twinning projects. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2004.

Europeanisation, Euroscepticism and party systems: party-based Euroscepticism in the candidate states of Central and Eastern Europe

In this article, we assume that we can usefully examine the emergence of party‐based Euroscepticism in the party systems of the candidate states and that we can account for (some of) the differences between the states by looking at their party systems. In order to do this we begin by offering a definition of Euroscepticism that differentiates between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ variants. We map these types of Euroscepticism in parties in the candidate states of central and Eastern Europe. Looking at the nature of party systems we suggest that there is a need to rethink how we conceptualise and categorise them if we are to extend our Western models to central and Eastern Europe, and we offer some suggestions of how this might be done. Using these models of party systems in relation to the candidate states of central and Eastern Europe we examine how this relates to the incidences of party‐based Euroscepticism and reflect on the issues involved in applying West European models to East European cases