European Parliament elections are no longer second-order national contests – they are essential for determining the future direction of the EU

European Parliament elections are often assumed to be ‘second-order national elections’ rather than genuinely European elections. As Ingeborg Tömmel writes, the President of the European Commission has a key role to play, along with the Parliament, in shaping European integration. She argues that with the election of the next Commission President depending on the outcome of the European elections in May, it is vital that citizens make their views heard by going to the polls

EU Governance of Governance: Political Steering in a Non-Hierarchical Multilevel System

This article analyses 65 years of European governance as a process that has evolved from a simple model, based on hierarchical means of political steering, to a complex system of governance, using both hierarchical and non-hierarchical governance modes and combining them in innovative ways. The central thesis is that European governance constitutes a system of governance of governance, aimed at shaping and directing the governance of the member states. The article elaborates a conceptual framework by drawing on Kooiman's concept of three orders of governance. It identifies European governance as predominantly second order governance, focussing on the creation of appropriate procedures and institutional settings that structure governance processes. Empirically, the article provides an overview of the emergence and consolidation of a system of governance of governance in four phases. Furthermore, it analyses the creation of appropriate procedures and institutional arrangements in three selected policy areas. It thus highlights how second order governance is incrementally shaped. The article concludes that the evolving system of governance of governance reflects the multilevel structure of the EU and the need to balance permanently the contradictory policy objectives, governance modes and implementation strategies of the European and the national government levels, as well as the divergences among the member states

Be Free? The European Union's post-Arab Spring Women's Empowerment as Neoliberal Governmentality

This article analyses post-Arab Spring EU initiatives to promote women's empowerment in the Southern Mediterranean region. Inspired by Foucauldian concepts of governmentality, it investigates empowerment as a technology of biopolitics that is central to the European neoliberal model of governance. In contrast to dominant images such as normative power Europe that present the EU as a norm-guided actor promoting political liberation, the article argues that the EU deploys a concept of functional freedom meant to facilitate its vision of economic development. As a consequence, the alleged empowerment of women based on the self-optimisation of individuals and the statistical control of the female population is a form of bio-power. In this regard, empowerment works as a governmental technology of power instead of offering a measure to foster fundamental structural change in Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) societies. The EU therefore fails in presenting and promoting an alternative normative political vision distinct from the incorporation of women into the hierarchy of the existing market society

"Modes of governance in the EU"

...it is the aim of this chapter to, first, clarify the concept of governance, second, highlight basic modes of governance and their role in the EU and, third, develop an explanatory framework for the emergence of specific modes of governance in the framework of the EU-system. Two questions are central to this chapter: · First, is the EU characterized by specific modes of governance and, if so, in which respect do they differ from modes of governance practiced at national level? · Second, to which extent are European modes of governance shaped by the structure of the EU-system, its institutional setting and its procedures of decisionmaking? In order to deal with these issues and questions, this chapter is structured as follows. First, a brief outline is given on the debate on (new) modes of governance and its origins as well as its significance in EU-research. This is followed, second, by a clarification of the term governance and a distinction between four basic modes of governance, constituting ideal types. Then, third, the focus is on how, why and to what extent these types of governance play a role in the EU-system and which modifications they undergo as compared to governance at national level. Furthermore, it will be discussed in which sense European modes of governance can be termed as ‘new’. Fourth, an explanatory framework will be developed by focusing on how different modes of governance evolve in the process of European policy-making and how they are shaped and modelled by the structure of the EU-system, its institutional setting and its procedures of decision-making. Finally, conclusions will be drawn with regard to the analysis of governance and policymaking in the EU

Die Strategie der EU zur Systemtransformation in den Staaten Mittel- und Osteuropas

Beitrag zur Friedens- und Konfliktforschung im Jahrbuch der Osnabrücker Friedensgespräche 199

Griechenland und die Europäische Union: eine Partnerschaft wider Willen?

Beitrag zur Friedens- und Konfliktforschung im Jahrbuch der Osnabrücker Friedensgespräche 201

Ökonomische Integration und Regionalpolitik in der EG

Folgt man dem Bild, das die Massenmedien von der EG zeichnen, dann ergibt sich der Eindruck einer krisengeschüttelten Institution: ständige Auseinandersetzungen um Beitragszahlungen der Mitgliedsländer, unlösbare Probleme mit Butterbergen, Weinseen und Überschüssen an »mediterranen« Produkten, keine Einigung bei der Festlegung von Stahlproduktionsquoten oder Fischereirechten, und noch weniger in Grundsatzfragen, wie beispielsweise der Erarbeitung eines neuen Finanzierungssystems, der Bekämpfung der Arbeitslosigkeit oder gar der Neugestaltung der Agrarpolitik. Kein Wunder, daß die EG in der öffentlichen Meinung als eher disfunktionale, handlungsunfähige und geldverschlingende Institution erscheint, auf die man besser verzichten könne