European Studies

The End of Humanitarian Aid to the North Caucasus

by Huseyn Aliyev

Published in the Peace Magazine, Oct-Dec. 2011 Issue

A decision to stop humanitarian aid programs in the North Caucasus has been announced by the representative of the... more A decision to stop humanitarian aid programs in the North Caucasus has been announced by the representative of the European Union in the Russian Federation, Fernando Valenzuela (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru) during his visit to Ingushetia in the troubled North Caucasus region in the south of Russia on 8th of April 2011. According to the European Union’s representative, “Situation in the region is changing and accordingly the EU is shifting its priorities in the region.” The main reason behind the end of humanitarian aid to the North Caucasus is the ‘lack of necessity’ in humanitarian assistance in the region. Instead, it has been stressed by the EU officials, efforts will be focused on attracting European companies to invest in the North Caucasus.

The Eurozone crisis – opportunity or danger for EU-China investment relations?

by Stephanie Ghislain

Draft paper for the EU-China Youth Policy Dialogue 2012

The Convention method and the transformation of EU constitutional politics

by Carlos Closa

in Erikssen, Erik O., John Erik Fossum and Agustín J. Menéndez (eds.) (2004)Developing a constitution for Europe (London: Routledge) pages

The Power of Collateral: the ECB and Bank Funding Strategies in Crisis

by Daniela Gabor

The paper engages with an important aspect of the European crisis, the European banks’ reliance on collateralized... more The paper engages with an important aspect of the European crisis, the European banks’ reliance on collateralized (repo) market funding, that has received relatively less analytical attention in the scholarship on the European financial and sovereign debt crisis. The paper is guided by three overarching questions: (a) how do theories of central banking during crisis conceptualize the importance of collateral ? (b) how can the analytical integration of geographies of collateralized bank funding contribute to the political economy of bank-based crisis interventions? (c) what are the political and institutional implications of exit strategies through the lens of collateral? The paper argues that the short-term nature of collateral management, in particular the key role that perceptions of collateral quality play in European banks’ demand for sovereign bonds, is at odds with bank-based liquidity injections (LTROs) that implicitly rely on private banks to preserve the role of sovereign bonds as marketable collateral during times of market distress. The European institutional architecture lack mechanisms to stabilize bank funding markets because of the constraints on the ECB’s ability to intervene in markets for collateral, in the Eurozone mainly sovereign bond markets, with further damaging consequences for sovereign funding conditions.

Anticipating tomorrow: the future of the European construction industry

by Chris Goodier

Future scenarios for the European construction industry

by Chris Goodier

EU after the Lisbon Treaty

by Anna Bilous

published in 'EuroAtlantica' №4 2009 (UKR), a journal of the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation (Kyiv, Ukraine)

Preliminary References - Analyzing the Determinants that Made the ECJ the Powerful Court It Is

by Lars Hornuf

Co-authored with Stefan Voigt

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is a very powerful court compared to other international courts and even national... more The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is a very powerful court compared to other international courts and even national courts of last resort. Observers almost unanimously agree that it is the preliminary references procedure that made the ECJ the powerful court it is today. In this paper, we analyze the determinants that lead national courts to use the procedure. We add to previous studies by constructing a comprehensive panel dataset (1982–2008), including more potentially relevant explanatory variables and by testing for the robustness of previous results. In addition to confirming the relevance of variables previously found significant, we identify a number of additional determinants, including the relevance of agriculture to a country, corporate tax rate, familiarity with EU law, and tenure of democracy.

Incorporating under European Law: The Societas Europaea as a Vehicle for Legal Arbitrage

by Lars Hornuf

Co-authored with Horst Eidenmueller and Andreas Engert

After a slow start, the European Company (Societas Europaea, SE) has become increasingly popular. Beside documenting... more After a slow start, the European Company (Societas Europaea, SE) has become increasingly popular. Beside documenting the growth of this new company type, we examine whether firms choose to incorporate in the SE corporate form because they engage in 'legal arbitrage' by exploiting differences in legal rules between jurisdictions. We specify a number of hypotheses on particular legal arbitrage motives. To validate our hypotheses, we use a broad telephone survey among SE users in Germany as well as a simple country-level regression model based on a unique, hand-collected dataset on SE incorporations. We find strong evidence that firms use the SE to mitigate the effect of mandatory co-determination rules. Establishing a one-tier board structure (in jurisdictions that impose a two-tier structure on their national public companies) and taking advantage of the SE's mobility for tax purposes also seem to be driving SE formations. By contrast, our analysis fails to support the suggestion that firms use the SE to shop for the most favourable national company law to fill the gaps in the SE Regulation.

Dynamics of equity market integration in Europe: evidence of changes over time and with events

by Raj Aggarwal

The solutions of Euro Zone Crisis - a Neo-Gramscian Critique

by Mihail Caradaica

International Conference  CKS - Challenges of the Knowledge Society - Bucuresti: 2012

This paper belongs to the area of critical studies of European Integration and tries to analyse the nature of the... more This paper belongs to the area of critical studies of European Integration and tries to analyse the nature of the European states’ response to euro zone crisis, during the negotiation of European Fiscal Pact. The theoretical approach is neo-gramscianism, which is focused on social forces agency in the process of integration and super-structural dimension of European Single Market. Since 1980, the interests of big capital, gathered in the European Round Table, shaped a neo-liberal dimension of the European economy, adapting it to the context of globalisation.

But this neo-liberal project was also able to capture social-democratic, trade union and centrist demands into a neo-liberal European order, called by Bastiaan van Apeldoorn “embedded” neo-liberalism. This European model has also his limits because it puts the interests of capital in front of social policies through the assurance of market efficiency by EU. My purpose here is to see if during nowadays crisis, the European elite will apply the same economic principles of the embedded neo-liberalism trying to envisage rescue plans. To achieve this, I will follow the theoretical approaches of neo-gramscian authors like Apeldoorn, Bohle or Gill and analyse the state negotiations outputs during the European Council meetings.

British pubs, decoder cards, and the future of intellectual property licensing in the European Union after Murphy.

by Anastasios Kaburakis

With Lindholm, J, and Rodenberg, R.

October 4, 2011 marked a new era in global sports media rights. On this day, the Grand Chamber of the European Court... more October 4, 2011 marked a new era in global sports media rights. On this day, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) delivered its judgment in FA Premier League et al. v. QC Leisure et al. & Murphy v. Media Protection Services Ltd (“Murphy”). Murphy decided upon the legality of a scheme whereby the holder of intellectual property rights to a sporting event licenses the right to broadcast the event on a national exclusivity basis.

Odessa et les confins de l’Europe: un éclairage historique (Odessa and the frontier of Europe: a historical perspective)

by Stella Ghervas

published in Stella Ghervas & François Rosset (eds), "Lieux d’Europe. Mythes et limites" (Places of Europe: Myths and Limits), Paris, Editions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, 2008, pp. 107-124.

Réactualisée par le récent débat sur l'adhésion de la Turquie à l'Union européenne et par la crise ukrainienne, la... more Réactualisée par le récent débat sur l'adhésion de la Turquie à l'Union européenne et par la crise ukrainienne, la question des confins de l'Europe apparaît de manière contrastée dans le cas d'une ville comme Odessa. Dès son origine, elle a été conçue comme une ville libre et ouverte tout en servant de capitale à la Nouvelle Russie. Construite à l'européenne par des architectes français, elle a vu d'emblée s'installer différentes communautés nationales, et Pouchkine a pu dire à juste titre qu'on y «respire l'Europe».

Néanmoins, Odessa reste d'un point de vue géographique «doublement périphérique» par rapport à la Russie et à l'Europe. Tout au long du XIXe siècle, on y «exile» les intellectuels exclus des capitales de l'Empire des tsars. La ville prospère, mais de Paris, Londres ou Berlin, elle paraît en marge de l'Europe urbaine et culturelle. En 1847, Balzac ne vit lui-même «de la frontière européenne à Odessa qu'un même champ de la Beauce». Le triomphe de la révolution bolchevique introduira une véritable coupure dans l'histoire de la ville et de ses relations avec l'Europe.

Par un jeu de miroirs, le cas d'une ville-carrefour comme Odessa, lieu emblématique d'une Europe multiculturelle et multinationale, dit quelque chose du sens multiple de l'Europe, témoigne de ses déchirements et de ses conflits intérieurs. Elle permet aussi de mieux cerner les contenus de la civilisation européenne et de préciser les contours du Vieux Continent.

Competitiveness and Excessive Imbalances: A Balance Sheet Approach.

by Stefan Collignon

A critique of the Excessive Imbalance Procedure, the Alert Mechanism Report, the TARGET2 debate

This note argues that some imbalances in the euro Area are actually a sign of successful economic integration and... more This note argues that some imbalances in the euro Area are actually a sign of successful economic integration and should not be repressed. The mechanisms of monetary union will hold the Euro Area together as long as the ECB assures banks of the necessary liquidity.
Imposing limits on TARGET balances between national central banks would end monetary union.
The real issue is competitiveness, which is measured by shifts in trade shares and unit labour cost levels. A new indicator for wage developments is presented, which allows assessing when labour costs are under- or overvalued.
9 concrete policy proposals are made.

A Closing Door? Defining the Limits of EU Eastern Enlargement Beyond Croatia’s Accession

by Nicholas Ross Smith

with Dr Milenko Petrovic (ongoing project)

Since the ‘mega-enlargement’ of the EU into the erstwhile Communist territories of Central Eastern Europe and the... more Since the ‘mega-enlargement’ of the EU into the erstwhile Communist territories of Central Eastern Europe and the Baltics in 2004/07, the prospect for further enlargements (of a similar scale at least) has seriously dissipated. The agreed accession of Croatia into the EU perhaps represents the closing of the enlargement door, for the foreseeable future, with the smaller states of the Western Balkans the only viable candidates (save for Iceland which will likely accede in the next couple of years). Although the success of enlargement for not only the transitioning states which joined but for older EU member states has been undeniable, the prospects for further enlargement are uncertain. Indeed, the prognostication that the EU will one day stretch to the limits of Europe in the Urals now seems doubtful. Terms such as ‘enlargement fatigue’ and ‘absorption capacity’ have become en vogue in the post-enlargement setting where older EU member states have developed negative attitudes towards future enlargements. Subsequently, this paper argues that the limits of EU eastern enlargement are set by both prevailing (subjectively defined) political attitudes founded on various grounds in the leading EU member states and by the rationally defined objective capacity of the EU’s institutions to absorb new member states. It is through the latter which this paper attempts to define the limits of EU enlargement through explicitly examining the membership prospects of the states of the Western Balkans and Eastern Neighbourhood.

Ценности как оружие защиты геополитических интересов Запада

by Hayk Khanumyan

''Вовлечение без признания'',  Нагорный Карабах, Арцах

За последнее время Запад, в частности Евросоюз и США, скорректировал свою политику по отношению к постсоветским... more За последнее время Запад, в частности Евросоюз и США, скорректировал свою политику по отношению к постсоветским непризнанным/частично признанным странам. Это, в первую очередь, обусловлено пятидневной грузино-осетинской войной августа 2008 года. В статье обсуждаются причины, ставшие основой политики ЕС ''Вовлечение без признания''.

Values to guard West's geopolitical interests

by Hayk Khanumyan

Recently Western countries, particularly the EU and US, have been adjusting their policy towards unacknowledged/partly... more Recently Western countries, particularly the EU and US, have been adjusting their policy towards unacknowledged/partly acknowledged post-Soviet states. This was principally caused by the five-day-long Georgian-Ossetian war of August 2008. This article discusses the reasons behind the EU's policy of ‘engagement without recognition’.

Europeanization of Foreign Policy

by Reuben Wong

Published in Christopher Hill and Michael Smith (eds), 'International Relations and the European Union', 2ed, Oxford: Oxford UP 2011), pp.149-170.
Original version in C. Hill and M. Smith (eds), 'International Relations and the European Union' (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005), pp.134-153.
Reviewed by Raffaella Del Sarto in International Spectator 1/2006.
http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199544806.do

Monetary Power and EMU: Macroeconomic Adjustment and Autonomy in the Eurozone

by Mattias Vermeiren

Forthcoming in the Review of International Studies

This article examines the impact of the establishment of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the introduction of the... more This article examines the impact of the establishment of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the introduction of the euro on the monetary power of its member states. Taking into consideration continuing capitalist variety among national political economies of the Eurozone, I examine the implications of EMU for the macroeconomic autonomy of different national models capitalism. Drawing on a comparative capitalism perspective, it is argued that the Eurozone’ coordinated market economies – Germany in particular – have gained much more from the introduction of the euro in terms of monetary power than the other models. This argument will be based on an analysis of two key dimensions of EMU’s macroeconomic governance regime: (1) exchange rate policymaking and (2) the management of balance-of-payments.

Preveza in 1538: The background of a very complex situation

by Emmanuelle Pujeau

From the Proceedings of the Second International Symposium
for the History and Culture of Preveza
(16-20 September 2009)

In 1538, the Christians let escape a great victory on the Turks and the possibility to vanquish definitively... more In 1538, the Christians let escape a great victory on the Turks and the possibility to vanquish definitively Barbarossa. Why this campaign was not a success despite the supposed superiority of the Christians? A synthetic reconstruction of this unfortunate operation at Preveza could provide us many useful informations revealing different mixed interests. Different sources could provide another explanation of the facts, illustrating the mentalities of the time.