Innovation in EU governance? Six proposals for taming open co-ordination

"Open methods of co-ordination (OMCs) have their origins in European Economic and Employment Policy. Within the framework of the Lisbon Strategy, these mechanisms have developed into a kind of panacea, since a high degree of openness has made them an easily accessible instrument of EU policymaking. Five years down the road, however, open co-ordination is still too 'open' to be a manageable policymaking tool. The hesitation of EU member states towards open co-ordination results primarily from the concept's linguistic and conceptual vagueness. Thus, the most important challenge confronting open co-ordination involves the establishment of a common understanding of the concept as such. The basic idea of open co-ordination - co-ordination rather than legislation; open to various actors, policies, and methods; transparent and open to the public - presents considerable opportunities for EU policymaking. But five years of open coordination have revealed more deficits than positive results. The key to success lies in taming open co-ordination through six measures: clearly defining the overall objective of each respective OMC, developing a methodological tool to identify promising fields of application, enhancing member states' commitment to the OMCs, making open co-ordination more democratic, respecting heterogeneity, and constitutionalising open co-ordination." (author's abstract

Innovation in EU Governance? Six Proposals for Taming Open Co-Ordination

Open methods of co-ordination (OMCs) have their origins in European Economic and Employment Policy. Within the framework of the Lisbon Strategy, these mechanisms have developed into a kind of panacea, since a high degree of openness has made them an easily accessible instrument of EU policymaking. Five years down the road, however, open co-ordination is still too \u27open\u27 to be a manageable policymaking tool. The hesitation of EU member states towards open co-ordination results primarily from the concept’s linguistic and conceptual vagueness. Thus, the most important challenge confronting open co-ordination involves the establishment of a common understanding of the concept as such

Die strategischen Antworten Europas

Europa hat zwei Gesichter. Es gab Zeiten, da waren die Europäer vom Wunder der Integration verzaubert. Nach Jahrhunderten leidvoller Erfahrung kriegerischer Gegnerschaften, nach imperialen Verwüstungen, nach nationalistischen Eruptionen hatten die Völker des Kontinents den inneren Hebel gleichsam komplett gewendet. Diese europäische Erfolgsgeschichte setzt sich heute fort. Gleichzeitig aber erscheint die Erfolgsgeschichte Europas gegenwärtig wie die Beschreibung einer entfernten Epoche. Die Rückkehr nationaler Egoismen und eine Erosion der Zustimmung prägen vielfach die Wahrnehmung der Europäischen Union. In dieser Situation ist es hilfreich, das eigentliche Kernproblem der Integration in den Blick zu nehmen: das konzeptionelle Schisma zwischen den Mitgliedstaaten. Unvereinbare Perspektiven über die Zukunft des Kontinents prallen aufeinander. Vordergründig wird um Vertragstexte gestritten, im Kern geht es jedoch um antagonistische Zukunftsfixierungen. Ohne die Verständigung über die künftige politische Ordnung des Kontinents könnte das Europa der 25 und bald mehr Staaten erodieren, möglicherweise sogar zerfallen. Solange dies nicht offen angesprochen wird, kann es keine positive Klärung der Problemlage geben. Die zentrale strategische Frage zur Zukunft der EU bleibt bis heute unbeantwortet: Wozu neue Anstrengungen unternehmen, warum neue Kräfte mobilisieren? Die Antwort auf diese Frage liegt in den neuen Konstellationen und Bedingungen der Weltpolitik: Es geht um die künftige Gestaltungskraft Europas in einer neuen globalen Ordnung. Die Zukunft Europas wird zunehmend durch Entwicklungen außerhalb des alten Kontinents entschieden. Es droht die Gefahr einer schleichenden Marginalisierung Europas. Europa muss nicht nur auf diese Entwicklungen reagieren, es hat vielmehr das Potenzial, die Regeln der neuen ökonomischen und politischen Weltordnung nach seinen Vorstellungen mitzugestalten. Die Gestaltungsfähigkeit Europas und die Zukunft des europäischen Kontinents werden sich an der Frage entscheiden, ob es den Europäern gelingt, die "europäische Antwort" so zu erneuern, dass sie zukunftsfähig wird. Die Neubegründung Europas erfordert, dass sich der Kontinent nach innen sowie nach außen behauptet und sich gegenüber seinen Bürgern erklärt und rechtfertigt

Europe's strategic responses

"Europe has two faces. On the one hand, there was a time when Europeans were enchanted by the miracle of integration. After having experienced bitter centuries of war and enmity, imperial devastation, and outbursts of nationalism, the nations of Europe had begun to move in precisely the opposite direction.Yet, although the European success story continues to this day, it also resembles the description of a distant epoch. Perceptions of the European Union are increasingly characterized by a resurgence of national egoism and declining levels of public approval. In this situation it is helpful to recall the problem at the heart of the issue of integration, which is the conceptual schism among the member states. Contradictory and irreconcilable attitudes toward the future of Europe confront each other. The arguments are ostensibly about treaty texts, though deep down it is a matter of antagonistic views of the shape of things to come. If it proves impossible to reach some kind of agreement about the future political order of the continent, the Europe of 25 and soon more member states may well go into decline, and may possibly even fall apart. This problem cannot be resolved until the issue has been openly discussed. The principal strategic question concerning the future of the EU continues to remain unanswered.Why is there a need to undertake new efforts, why is it necessary to mobilize new powers? The answer to this question is linked to the new constellations and conditions of world politics. It has to do with Europe’s ability to shape developments in a new global order. Europe’s future is increasingly being determined by developments taking place beyond its borders. There is a danger that the old continent will gradually become marginalized. Europe must not only react to these developments, it also has the potential to inject its own ideas into the formulation of the rules governing the new economic and political world order. Both Europe's ability to exert its influence and the fate of the European continent depend on whether the Europeans will be able to renew the 'European answer' in a manner that enables them to respond effectively to future challenges. Providing Europe with a new raison d’être requires the EU to assert itself both internally and externally, and to clearly communicate the reasons for further European integration to citizens." (author's abstract

Atomic cluster state build up with macroscopic heralding

We describe a measurement-based state preparation scheme for the efficient build up of cluster states in atom-cavity systems. As in a recent proposal for the generation of maximally entangled atom pairs [Metz et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 040503 (2006)], we use an electron shelving technique to avoid the necessity for the detection of single photons. Instead, the successful fusion of smaller into larger clusters is heralded by an easy-to-detect macroscopic fluorescence signal. High fidelities are achieved even in the vicinity of the bad cavity limit and are essentially independent of the concrete size of the system parameters.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures; minor changes, mainly clarification

Robust Entanglement through Macroscopic Quantum Jumps

We propose an entanglement generation scheme that requires neither the coherent evolution of a quantum system nor the detection of single photons. Instead, the desired state is heralded by a {\em macroscopic} quantum jump. Macroscopic quantum jumps manifest themselves as a random telegraph signal with long intervals of intense fluorescence (light periods) interrupted by the complete absence of photons (dark periods). Here we show that a system of two atoms trapped inside an optical cavity can be designed such that a dark period prepares the atoms in a maximally entangled ground state. Achieving fidelities above 0.9 is possible even when the single-atom cooperativity parameter C is as low as 10 and when using a photon detector with an efficiency as low as eta = 0.2.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, more detailed discussion of underlying physical effect, references update

So klingt Europa: eine Bilanz des österreichischen EU-Vorsitzes im ersten Halbjahr 2006

Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht den österreichischen EU-Vorsitz im ersten Halbjahr 2006. Nach dem europäischen Krisenjahr 2005 übernahm Österreich den Ratsvorsitz in der Europäischen Union (EU) zu einem schwierigen Zeitpunkt. Die Chancen für eine Beilegung der Verfassungskrise standen schlecht. Bei allem Realismus konnte die Präsidentschaft das Thema jedoch nicht vollständig ignorieren. Zusätzlich sah sich die Regierung Schüssel mit einem Rekordtief an Zustimmung in der eigenen Bevölkerung zur EU konfrontiert. In der Bilanz kann die österreichische Präsidentschaft durchaus Erfolge vorweisen. Hervorzuheben sind insbesondere das erneuerte Bekenntnis zur Lissabon-Strategie, der Abschluss der Verhandlungen über die jahrelang umstrittene Dienstleistungsrichtlinie, der wendige Umgang mit der plötzlichen Aktualität des Themas Energiepolitik und die Aufrechterhaltung der Beitrittsperspektive für den Westbalkan trotz vieler erweiterungskritischer Stimmen in der EU. (ICD2

Macroscopic quantum jumps and entangled state preparation

Recently we predicted a random blinking, i.e. macroscopic quantum jumps, in the fluorescence of a laser-driven atom-cavity system [Metz et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 040503 (2006)]. Here we analyse the dynamics underlying this effect in detail and show its robustness against parameter fluctuations. Whenever the fluorescence of the system stops, a macroscopic dark period occurs and the atoms are shelved in a maximally entangled ground state. The described setup can therefore be used for the controlled generation of entanglement. Finite photon detector efficiencies do not affect the success rate of the state preparation, which is triggered upon the observation of a macroscopic fluorescence signal. High fidelities can be achieved even in the vicinity of the bad cavity limit due to the inherent role of dissipation in the jump process.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, proof of the robustness of the state preparation against parameter fluctuations added, figure replace