The European Agenda: Issues of globalization, equity and legitimacy series

I propose to discuss below some of the broader issues linked to the Union's main agenda. They will be grouped under three headings, namely globalization, equity and legitimacy. They are all highly political issues usually camouflaged in official documents under a technocratic cloak. The emergence of a stronger and larger EU very much depends on how these issues are tackled. They are, of course, highly political issues, despite the fact that the specific parts are mostly of an economic nature. This should be hardly surprising. Who says that high politics can be divorced from economics in our societies?--I. Introduction --II. Globalization and the European Model --III. Equity and Redistribution --IV. The Legitimacy Deficit --V. Conclusion --Bibliography --Biographical Not

Neoliberalism, Neofeudalism, and Precarity: A Response to Albena Azmanova and Jodi Dean

This is a response to the articles of Albena Azmanova and Jodi Dean included in this issue, exploring the intersections and divergences in their analyses of contemporary capitalism. I argue that the lens of neofeudalism that Jodi Dean invites us to entertain can offer a different explanation of Albena Azmanova’s diagnosis of contemporary capitalism. Notably, I propose that capitalism’s neofeudalising tendencies contribute to the rise of inequality, the decline of class politics, and the increase of monopoly power. Contrary to Jodi Dean though, I will claim that there were two crucial transformations of contemporary capitalism that spearheaded the emergence of neofeudalism: the rise to prominence of Big Tech and asset management companies after the 2008 global financial crisis

Enlargement and the Historical Origins of the European Community's Democratic Identity, 1961–1978

This article examines how and when democracy entered the discursive politics of the European Community to become one of the fundamental tenets of European political identity – and in the process influenced how decision-makers approached the question of enlargement. Building on multiple archival sources, the article traces how all three Community institutions (Commission, Council and European Parliament) legitimised the expansion and continuation of the process of European integration through the discursive construction of democracy. It focuses on the debates elicited by the attempts of southern European countries to accede to the EEC in the 1960s and 1970s

¿Por qué necesitamos un Fondo de Ajuste a la Globalización?

Fundación Helénica para Europa y Política Exterior. Documento de Discusión preparado para la Presidencia del Reino Unido. Octubre de 2005

BIM-Based Risk Identification and Assessment in Building Projects at their design Phase

The complexity and dynamics of construction sites, interwoven with the uncertain behaviour of human factors, may result in severe injuries in the workplace, illness, and may even lead to fatality. Despite the drafting of a strict legislative framework, the statistics in construction industry remain dissatisfactory and worrisome. Therefore, the demand for a thorough risk management process, based on automated safety modelling and preventive strategy, stands out in order to identify and eliminate potential hazards early in the design phase of a construction project, resolving thus safety issues in the field by extending traditional safety management practices. The underlying purpose of this study is to investigate whether and how Building Information Modelling (BIM) can be used within the health and safety framework to enhance risk identification and assessment in building projects at their design phase. To this aim, a case study is conducted via a BIM software, namely Revit, to develop an effective Building Information Model of a two-storey building in which safety measures are introduced according to State legislation and field practices at a specific construction phase. In the proposed way, the real-life complexity of the risk management process is simplified, due to the object-oriented approach of BIM, the variety of BIM libraries and the experiential recognition of unsafe conditions with 3D simulations in place of the non-judgmental and merely bureaucratic lawenforcement methods. In conclusion, BIM enhances the communication between engineers and workers, using interactive tools, and facilitates the Safety Officer duties in the direction of preventing potentials hazards from the early planning phases

Building the New Europe: Western and Eastern Roads to Social Partnership

[Excerpt] While the ways in which neoliberalism and economic integration undermine social partnership and the welfare state have been extensively studied, less attention has been given to the ways in which such economic forces may push actors together, in reinvigorated bargaining relationships, to find workable solutions to difficult problems. In his article, we examine the contemporary status of social partnership in four case study countries—Germany, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria and Poland—as well as for Europe as a whole. In the west, while Germany presents a case of established social partnership under pressure, the United Kingdom has stood over the past two decades on the opposite neoliberal side. In the east, Bulgaria is one of the more developed cases of post-communist tripartism, while Poland exemplifies a weaker tripartism that emerged at a later stage of the transformation process. In selecting more and less developed social partnership cases in both west and east, we test the argument that the rise of Thatcher/Reagan/ Friedman ‘free market economics’ is paradoxically driving a resurgence and consolidation of social partnership relations across the new (both western and eastern) Europe

Political & Quasi-Adjudicative Dispute Settlement Models in European Union Free Trade Agreements - Is the Quasi-Adjudicative Model a Trend or is it Just Another Model?

In this paper, interpretation and application dispute settlement provisions of European Union (EU) Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) signed between 1963 and 2006 are analysed. This will be through the two models of Dispute Settlement in International Law: the political and adjudicative. Political elements of dispute settlement mechanisms in Public International Law and General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT) served to establish those of the EU FTAs. Adjudicative and quasi-adjudicative elements of dispute settlement mechanisms of Public International Law and World Trade Organization (WTO) Law were used as parameters to set up those of the EU FTAs. These parameters also helped to define a new and unique hybrid model. The features of this model were found in Agreements with trade issues other than FTAs. It is possible, however, for future FTAs to incorporate them. The hybrid model is based on an adjudicative framework and includes both political and adjudicative elements. In conclusion, it was found that even though WTO Members incorporated adjudicative elements in the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU), the EU did not incorporate them bilaterally for a further five years. Furthermore, since the creation of the DSU in 1995, the EU has established more FTAs based on a political model than on a quasi-adjudicative. Consequently, the quasi-adjudicative dispute settlement model has not represented a clear trend in EU FTAs