EU Membership and Budget Allocation Conditionality

The world is shaken by many new developments. In this turbulence, the EU should provide an area of stability and security. It can only be so in case its internal cohesion is strengthened. The EU is a community based on values. Members have committed themselves to respect European values. But in case of a breach of the contract the Union has only two means to enforce respect for its values. Some have a legal character, others a financial one. The legal method is not very effective in this respect. This paper deals with the financial method. It argues that the conditionality of the budget needs to be increased; non-respect of values by Member States should entail loss of allocations. The recent proposals of the European Commission in this matter fall short of this

Competitiveness, Emu and Cohesion Experiences in the Past (2000–2013); Assessment of the Present (2014–2020) and Lessons for the Future (2020 and Beyond)

The European Union has adopted several strategies to cope with a set of inter-related problems. The best known is the Europe 2020 strategy with its focus on smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Another is fostering balanced macro growth via a strengthening of the EMU. Finally the cohesion policy has to cope with spatial unbalances. The objective of this paper is to highlight the main issues in three policy fields: competitiveness, EMU and cohesion.1 Two scenarios for post 2020 development are described, which show the need for further strengthening of EU policies and of the quality of government at all levels

Globalization, Regionalism and Labour Markets: Should We Recast the Foundations of the EU Regime in Matters of Regional (Rural and Urban) Development?

Globalization has been accused of being the source of many problems. Some claim that this would justify a fundamental change of the EU regime that takes international competitiveness of the economy as its point of departure. This would have consequences for the present set-up of the EU cohesion regime and thus also for the policy toolkits of individual regions. The article analyses the effects of globalization and regionalism on labour markets. It does so on the basis of an extensive review of the theoretical and empirical literature, covering various strands of thought. The survey shows that fears about negative effects are not justified, provided a consistent set of policies is pursued. So the review does not support claims for a change of the EU regime, neither in matters of the macro aspects nor in matters of regional development and cohesion.Globalization, Regionalism, Labour, Markets, European, Union, Systemic, Reform, Cohesion, Policy,