The Limits of the European Union’s Transformative Power: Pathologies of Europeanization and Rule of Law Reform in Central and Eastern Europe

This thesis examines the impact of the European Union (EU) on the development of the rule of law in Central and Eastern Europe. The topic is addressed through a mixed methods study which consists of a quantitative comparative analysis of three country groups from Central and Eastern Europe (1. Central Europe and the Baltics, CEB; 2. South Eastern Europe, SEE; 3. Commonwealth of Independent States, CIS) and three qualitative case studies on Poland, Romania and Moldova. The empirical analysis is based on an innovative set of indicators and revealing insights from numerous qualitative interviews. The findings of the study suggest that the impact of the EU is differential, both healthy and pathological. While EU-driven judicial reforms increase judicial capacity and align domestic legislation with European and international standards (substantive legality), they do not improve and even lead to a deterioration of judicial impartiality and formal legality, resulting in several reform pathologies, such as instable, incoherent and non-enforced laws and in more politicized and incoherent judicial systems, which undermine the development of the rule of law. These pathological effects occur mostly in weak rule of law countries from SEE (Romania) and CIS (Moldova), in contrast to more healthy effects in advanced, strong rule of law countries from CEB (Poland). The dissimilar development in the rule of law across countries is explained in relation to the conduct of reforms. Successful reformers like Poland, which consolidate the rule of law, have strong and independent horizontal accountability institutions (e.g. Constitutional Court, Ombudsman, judiciary), which mitigate or alleviate reform pathologies and ensure that reforms are conducted in an accountable, gradual and non-politicized way. Unsuccessful reformers, like Romania and Moldova, lack these independent checks on reformers and thus fail to establish the rule of law. Based on the findings from the case studies an original typology of healthy and pathological reform paths is proposed, which draws on the logic of circular and cumulative causation and emphasizes the mutual reinforcement between domestic conditions and the reform approach of transnational coalitions. The proposed typology implies that EU conditionality is not transformative, but rather reinforces existing healthy and pathological reform paths, thus cementing the existing divergence in the rule of law across post-communist countries. This thesis further makes several policy recommendations to remedy the pathological impact of donor-driven reforms

Changing the rules of the game: an analysis of EU influence on electricity and gas liberalization: with a focus on the Baltic Sea Region, and future challenges to EU energy market regulation

This study analyses the expansion of the EU into energy market regulation. It shows that the limits to EU influence and, thereby, EU energy market regulation for the internal energy market, begin where EU influence affects national interests with regard to ensuring energy security. This scientifically established insight bears an important practical implication. The further development of EU energy market regulation as a cornerstone of the internal energy market faces a particular policy challenge: It is necessary to establish a regulatory framework for the internal electricity and gas market, which acknowledges the primacy of national energy security interests. This finding is important in the light of the new and increasing energy policy challenges that some Member States face today, not least as a result of a liberalized energy market. Moreover, in the context of new systemic risks arising from ongoing energy market integration, a politically unstable (in the worst case - collapsing) EU regulatory framework can cause significant social and economic costs for individual Member States. With regard to that, the study points to the increasingly complex policy areas that are made subject to EU integration and calls for more attention to the related regulatory and political risks - also with a view to the current euro crisis. Diese Studie analysiert die Expansion der EU in die Energiemarktregulierung. Sie zeigt, dass die Grenzen des EU Einflusses und damit des EU Regulierungsrahmens für den Energiebinnenmarkt dort beginnen, wo nationale Interessen mit Blick auf die Gewährleistung der Energieversorgungssicherheit tangiert werden. Diese Erkenntnis hat eine wichtige praktische Implikation. Die weitere Ausgestaltung der EU Energiemarktregulierung und damit des Fundaments des Energiebinnenmarktes steht vor einer besonderen politischen Herausforderung: Es gilt einen stabilen gemeinschaftlichen Regulierungsrahmens für den europäischen Strom- und Gasmarkt unter dem Primat nationaler Energiesicherheitsinteressen bereitzustellen. Dies ist von Bedeutung im Lichte wachsender und neuer energiepolitischer Herausforderungen für die einzelnen Mitgliedstaaten, nicht zuletzt als Folge eines liberalisierten Energiemarktes. In Anbetracht neuer systemischer Risiken, die sich aus einem integrierten europäischen Energiemarkt ergeben, kann ein politisch instabiler (im schlimmsten Fall kollabierender) gemeinschaftlicher Regulierungsrahmen für die Mitgliedstaaten hohe soziale und ökonomische Kosten nach sich ziehen. An dieser Stelle verweist die Studie auf die immer komplexeren Integrationsgegenstände der EU und fordert, dass den damit einhergehenden Risiken, regulatorischer und politischer Art, grössere Aufmerksamkeit zu schenken ist - gerade auch mit Blick auf die aktuelle Krise der Gemeinschaftswährung