Post-Accession Conditionality: Support Instrument for Continuous Pressure? KFG Working Paper No. 18, 2011

The establishment of a Cooperation and Verification Mechanism for monitoring Bulgaria’s and Romania’s progress in the areas of judiciary and fight against corruption not only confirms the evolutionary nature of EU conditionality, but introduces a new feature, that of post-accession conditionality. More than three years after accession, neither Bulgaria nor Romania have managed to tackle the remaining issues and the scrupulous monitoring mechanism is still maintained. What are the main features and limitations of post-accession conditionality? Why does the effectiveness of EU conditionality deteriorate after accession? The article outlines a conceptual framework for comparative study of pre-accession and post-accession conditionality. On the basis of a stage-structured conditionality model, it discusses the transformations of the main elements of conditionality before and after accession and argues that the absence of accession advancement rewards combined with toothless explicit threats for sanctioning non-compliance produce very weak negative incentive structure which undermines the effectiveness of post-accession conditionality. The study, which draws on extensive interviews with senior EU officials and examination of key EU documents, highlights the growing application of differentiated and targeted conditionality and concludes with a reflection on the future of the mechanism and its implications for the ongoing enlargement of the Union with countries of the Western Balkans and Turkey

support instrument for continuous pressure?

1\. Introduction 5 2\. Revisiting EU Conditionality in the Context of Post- Accession Conditionality 6 2.1 Stage-Structured Conditionality Model for Comparative Examination of EU Enlargement Conditionality 7 3\. Comparative Examination of Pre-Accession and Post-Accession Conditionality 12 3.1 Comparative Examination of Pre-Accession and Post-Accession Conditions 12 3.2 Comparative Examination of Pre-Accession and Post-Accession Monitoring Instruments 14 3.3 Comparative Examination of Pre-Accession and Post-Accession Incentive Structure 16 4\. Conclusion: Limitations of Post-Accession Conditionality and the Future of EU Enlargement Conditionality 21 Literature 23The establishment of a Cooperation and Verification Mechanism for monitoring Bulgaria’s and Romania’s progress in the areas of judiciary and fight against corruption not only confirms the evolutionary nature of EU conditionality, but introduces a new feature, that of post-accession conditionality. More than three years after accession, neither Bulgaria nor Romania have managed to tackle the remaining issues and the scrupulous monitoring mechanism is still maintained. What are the main features and limitations of post-accession conditionality? Why does the effectiveness of EU conditionality deteriorate after accession? The article outlines a conceptual framework for comparative study of pre-accession and post-accession conditionality. On the basis of a stage-structured conditionality model, it discusses the transformations of the main elements of conditionality before and after accession and argues that the absence of accession advancement rewards combined with toothless explicit threats for sanctioning non-compliance produce very weak negative incentive structure which undermines the effectiveness of post-accession conditionality. The study, which draws on extensive interviews with senior EU officials and examination of key EU documents, highlights the growing application of differentiated and targeted conditionality and concludes with a reflection on the future of the mechanism and its implications for the ongoing enlargement of the Union with countries of the Western Balkans and Turkey

Post-accession conditionality: support instrument for continuous pressure?

The establishment of a Cooperation and Verification Mechanism for monitoring Bulgaria’s and Romania’s progress in the areas of judiciary and fight against corruption not only confirms the evolutionary nature of EU conditionality, but introduces a new feature, that of post-accession conditionality. More than three years after accession, neither Bulgaria nor Romania have managed to tackle the remaining issues and the scrupulous monitoring mechanism is still maintained. What are the main features and limitations of post-accession conditionality? Why does the effectiveness of EU conditionality deteriorate after accession? The article outlines a conceptual framework for comparative study of pre-accession and post-accession conditionality. On the basis of a stage-structured conditionality model, it discusses the transformations of the main elements of conditionality before and after accession and argues that the absence of accession advancement rewards combined with toothless explicit threats for sanctioning non-compliance produce very weak negative incentive structure which undermines the effectiveness of post-accession conditionality. The study, which draws on extensive interviews with senior EU officials and examination of key EU documents, highlights the growing application of differentiated and targeted conditionality and concludes with a reflection on the future of the mechanism and its implications for the ongoing enlargement of the Union with countries of the Western Balkans and Turkey

On Different Tracks:Bulgaria and Romania under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism

Romania and Bulgaria both joined the EU in 2007 and became subject to an ad hoc tool, the ‘Cooperation and Verification Mechanism’ (CVM), which was created by the European Commission to evaluate the progress of the two countries. Today, however, there is a growing gap between the two states: while Commission officials have suggested the possibility of Romania graduating out of the mechanism soon, there has been very little progress recorded in Bulgaria. Eli Gateva argues that questions about how and when the CVM will end have overshadowed debates about its effectiveness, and that the recent worrying developments in Poland and Hungary show that a more comprehensive approach to the rule of law is needed

Experts react: EU Enlargement and EU progress reports 2016

What does the future hold for EU Enlargement? Our contributors reflect on this year’s European Commission reports on the progress achieved by EU candidate and potential candidate countries, framing it within the wider political and economic context of each country. (If you are interested in how this compares to last year’s reports, the 2015 expert reactions are available here). Eli Gateva on Macedonia: The Commission abandoned its diplomatic tone and delivered a damning diagnosis Esra Özyürek on Turkey: Was this the very last enlargement report for Turkey? Jasmin Mujanović on Bosnia and Herzegovina: The report reflects a disconnect between Brussels’ rhetoric and the reality in BiH Tena Prelec on Serbia: Perpetual electoral haggling is arguably real progress Krenar Gashi on Kosovo: Still far from membership, but catching up with the neighbours Petar Marković on Montenegro: Speed-wise the unchallenged champion of accession negotiations, but implementation in key areas is still lacking Andi Hoxhaj on Albania: There is a good chance of opening accession negotiations over the next yea

Between Enlargement-led Europeanisation and Balkan Exceptionalism: an appraisal of Bulgaria’s and Romania’s entry into the European Union

The accession of Bulgaria and Romania into the European Union (EU) in 2007 offers significant theoretical and empirical insights into the way in which the EU has deployed and realised its enlargement strategy/strategies over the past 15 years. Borrowing from the literature on enlargement-led Europeanisation and EU conditionality, this article discusses how the EU has sought to influence domestic reform in the two countries through a mix of threats and rewards. What emerges from Bulgaria’s and Romania’s trajectory towards EU membership is the evolutionary and contested nature of EU conditionality as well as the considerable EU discretion in the manner of its implementation. In that sense Bulgaria and Romania, as ‘outliers’ of the 2004-7 EU enlargement, offer us critical tests of the enlargement-led Europeanisation thesis. Thus, their study provides useful conceptual insights into the transformative power of the EU in Eastern Europe and highlights important policy legacies affecting the current EU enlargement strategy in the Western Balkans and Turkey.Europeanisation, European Union, conditionality, Bulgaria, Romania.

Integrating Autoimmune Risk Loci with Gene-Expression Data Identifies Specific Pathogenic Immune Cell Subsets

Although genome-wide association studies have implicated many individual loci in complex diseases, identifying the exact causal alleles and the cell types within which they act remains greatly challenging. To ultimately understand disease mechanism, researchers must carefully conceive functional studies in relevant pathogenic cell types to demonstrate the cellular impact of disease-associated genetic variants. This challenge is highlighted in autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, where any of a broad range of immunological cell types might potentially be impacted by genetic variation to cause disease. To this end, we developed a statistical approach to identify potentially pathogenic cell types in autoimmune diseases by using a gene-expression data set of 223 murine-sorted immune cells from the Immunological Genome Consortium. We found enrichment of transitional B cell genes in systemic lupus erythematosus (p = 5.9 × 10−6) and epithelial-associated stimulated dendritic cell genes in Crohn disease (p = 1.6 × 10−5). Finally, we demonstrated enrichment of CD4+ effector memory T cell genes within rheumatoid arthritis loci (p < 10−6). To further validate the role of CD4+ effector memory T cells within rheumatoid arthritis, we identified 436 loci that were not yet known to be associated with the disease but that had a statistically suggestive association in a recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis (pGWAS < 0.001). Even among these putative loci, we noted a significant enrichment for genes specifically expressed in CD4+ effector memory T cells (p = 1.25 × 10−4). These cell types are primary candidates for future functional studies to reveal the role of risk alleles in autoimmunity. Our approach has application in other phenotypes, outside of autoimmunity, where many loci have been discovered and high-quality cell-type-specific gene expression is available.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH/NIAMS Development Award (1K08AR055688))National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (U.S.)Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technolog