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

Three decades of policy layering and politically sustainable reform in the European Union’s Agricultural Policy

The study of policy reform has tended to focus on single-stage reforms taking place over a relatively short period. Recent research has drawn attention to gradual policy changes unfolding over extended periods. One strategy of gradual change is layering, in which new policy dimensions are introduced by adding new policy instruments or by redesigning existing ones to address new concerns. The limited research on single-stage policy reforms highlights that these may not endure in the postenactment phase when circumstances change. We argue that gradual policy layering may create sustainability dynamics that can result in lasting reform trajectories. The European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has changed substantially over the last three decades in response to emerging policy concerns by adding new layers. This succession of reforms proved durable and resilient to reversal in the lead-up to the 2013 CAP reform when institutional and political circumstances changed

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

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

European Community Responses to the ‘Problem of World Hunger’: Food Aid, Food Security, Food Strategies and All That

SUMMARY The problem of ‘world hunger’ as it is conventionally understood in fact involves a number of related problems. A weakness of the North's response is its failure to recognise interrelationships between these problems, which often fall within the portfolios of different agencies. The EEC's agricultural production and trade policies, for example, have a major impact on the Third World food situation, but are normally regarded as a constant; hence, European attempts to help alleviate the ‘world hunger problem’ tend to focus exclusively on development assistance. Within these narrow confines, there are a number of policy changes that could benefit developing countries. These include an extension to the Stabex scheme to take account of food import costs, as well as major improvement in the Community's food aid programme to establish greater coordination with other donors and between the Community's programme and other elements of the recipients' food strategies. RESUMEN Pespuestas de la Comunidad Europea al ‘problema del hambre mundial’:ayuda alimenticia, seguridad alimenticia, estrategias alimenticias, etc. El problema del ‘hambre mundial’, como se entiende convencionalmente, involucra de hecho problemas interrelacionados. Una debilidad de la respuesta del Norte deriva de no reconocer estas interrelaciones, las que, a menudo, aparecen en las carteras de diversas agencias. Por ejemplo, las políticas de producción y comercio agrícolas tienen mayor impacto en la situación alimenticia del Tercer Mundo, pero normalmente se consideran como una constante. En consecuencia, los intentos europeos para ayudar a aliviar el ‘problema del hambre mundial’ tienden a concentrarse exclusivamente en la asistencia al desarrollo. Dentro de estos estrechos límites, hay algunos cambios de política que podrían beneficiar a los países en desarrollo. Estos incluyen una extensión del programa Stabex para considerar los costos de importación de alimentos, así como un importante mejoramiento en el programa de ayuda alimenticia de la Comunidad, tanto para establecer mayor coordinación con otros donantes, como entre el programa de ésta y otros elementos de las estrategias de los receptores de alimentos. RÉSUMÉ Les réponses de la Communauté Européenne au ‘probleème de la faim dans le monde’: assistance alimentaire, sécurité alimentaire, stratégies alimentaires et tout ce qui s'en suit Le problème de la ‘faim dans le monde’ auquel on se réfère habituellement comprend en fait un nombre de problèmes apparentés. Une faiblesse de la réponse du Nord est son incapacité à reconnaître la corrélation entre ces problèmes, qui souvent font partie de portefeuilles d'organismes différents. La politique de la CEE sur le commerce et la production agricole, par exemple, a un impact majeur sur la situation alimentaire dans le Tiers?Monde, mais est normalement considérée comme une constante; de ce fait, les tentatives européennes d'aide à la réduction du ‘problème de la faim dans le monde’ tendent à se concentrer exclusivement dans une assistance au développement. Dans ces limites réduites, il y a un certain nombre de changements de ligne d'action qui pourraient profiter aux pays en voie de développement. Ils comprennent une extension du projet Stabex en vue de prendre en compte le coût de l'importation de denrées alimentaires, ainsi qu'une amélioration majeure dans le programme d'assistance alimentaire de la Communauté pour établir une coordination plus grande avec les autres donateurs et entre le programme de la Communauté et d'autres éléments des bénéficiames des stratégies alimentaires

Epistemic policy networks in the European Union’s CBRN risk mitigation policy

This paper offers insights into an innovative and currently flagship approach of the European Union (EU) to the mitigation of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) risks. Building on its long-time experience in the CBRN field, the EU has incorporated methods familiar to the students of international security governance: it is establishing regional networks of experts and expertise. CBRN Centers of Excellence, as they are officially called, aim to contribute to the security and safety culture in different parts of Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia, and South East Europe, in the broadly construed CBRN area. These regional networks represent a modern form of security cooperation, which can be conceptualized as an epistemic policy networks approach. It offers flexibility to the participating states, which have different incentives to get involved. At the same, however, the paper identifies potential limitations and challenges of epistemic policy networks in this form

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

From ‘Unilateral’ to ‘Dialogical’: Determinants of EU–Azerbaijan Negotiations

The European Union (EU) and Azerbaijan have negotiated three different agreements for a new legal basis underpinning their relationship since 2010. Whereas the EU tries to adhere to a more unilateral approach, Azerbaijan wants cooperation to take place on a more inclusive, dialogical, basis. The essay will present a model of ‘bargaining power’ to analyse how the Azerbaijani government has tried to enforce this, and to what degree it has been successful. It finds that the bargaining power model can explain some of the changing power dynamics in EU–Azerbaijan relations, and that these might speak to the broader Eurasian region too

Controlling the net: European approaches to content and access regulation

This article has been accepted for publication in the journal, Journal of Information Science [© CILIP] and the final (edited, revised and typeset) version of this paper will be published in Journal of Information Science, by SAGE Publications Ltd, All rights reserved. © CILIP. For more information please visit: http://jis.sagepub.co.uk