The bioeconomy occupies the centre of the Green Deal, the EU’s plan to support transformative growth following the COVID-19 episode. However, parts of the EU, such as countries in Central and Eastern ...Europe (CEE) continue to lag behind in harnessing the potential held by the bioeconomy. This article argues that in CEE countries, where the primary and conventional bioeconomy sectors play a more important role, ‘early’ transition pathways such as improvements in productivity and practice- as well as commercialisation-oriented innovation (the do–use–interact model: DUI) are just as important as approaches based on (generally publicly supported) R&D, innovation adoption, and technology transfer (science–technology–innovation model: STI), typically associated with high-value bioindustrial applications. The argument is tested by conducting a survey of 352 experts in the region that gives an insight into the CEE macro-region’s assets with respect to deploying the bioeconomy’s potential and assessing the transition pathways relevant to the better performance of bioeconomy (primary, manufacturing, and other related) sectors. The results show the particular relevance of consolidating the primary and traditional sectors to support improvements in productivity based on the vertical and horizontal interaction typically associated with DUI, while the relevance of STI is mostly linked to advanced sectors, which are narrowly distributed across the region. The findings are relevant to policy given that the EU’s bioeconomy policy has thus far chiefly focused on STI support that better corresponds to the needs of countries at more advanced stages of developing the bioeconomy, but is less appropriate for the specific context and needs of CEE.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
This editorial introduces a thematic issue that examines the consequences of the accession of the Central and East European countries to the EU 20 years onward. The socioeconomic transformation of ...these countries in the pre-accession period was considered a remarkable success, that was attributed to the EU’s conditionality policy. However, in the post-accession period, when these countries gained full membership rights and began playing a more active political role, they started deviating from some EU norms and rules, against a backdrop of EU crises. This shift has been, notably, reflected in concerns about democratic backsliding and rule of law violations. Nonetheless, the contributions in this issue also underscore that these countries have internalized (both top-down and bottom-up) EU norms and rules to a much greater extent than the focus on conditionality would suggest. Moreover, since Russia invaded Ukraine, Central and East European countries have become entrepreneurs of EU policy and bolstered its transformative power. These findings indicate a need to focus not only on the fundamental shortcomings in these countries—as the attention conferred to the (lack of post-accession) conditionality suggests—but also to consider other factors, such as the quality of the EU’s governance and political system, policy learning, geopolitics, and member states’ domestic politics.
New CAP Delivery Model, Old Issues Lovec, Marko; Šumrada, Tanja; Erjavec, Emil
Inter economics,
03/2020, Volume:
55, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The proposed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the period 2021–2027 will be more flexible and, presumably, more effective. To provide for sufficient ambition and prevent a race to the bottom, ...national strategic plans will be introduced with quantitative targets covering both policy pillars. This article argues that since formal requirements and the evaluation model are weak on actual long-term impact, substantial improvements are unlikely. To test this, programming rules are experimentally evaluated on the implementation of CAP 2014–2020 in Slovenia. The experiment shows that while measures and resources broadly correspond to policy objectives, the specific relevance of measures is generally weak and has potential effects dispersed among several objectives, resulting in high costs for individual objectives at best. Without the effective inclusion of an impact assessment, the outcome will rely on the capacity and benevolence of national governance systems.
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CEKLJ, FZAB, GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
This article builds on the criticism of the international socialisation narrative which mistakenly represents compliance as socialisation and recognises agency only to the extent it fails to comply. ...It pertains to the argument that such a narrative can lead to stigmatisation which reinforces social orders characterised by specific hierarchies of power and spatial relations. The example of EU member states from Central Europe (CE) that went from ‘star pupils of norm adoption’ to ‘misbehaving children of Europe’ serves as a case study. The research of literature treating CE countries as socialisees and international organisations (OSCE, NATO and EU) as socialisers shows two things. Firstly, it demonstrates that CE countries internalised norms even before they complied with norm-based rules, which challenges views that (under)socialisation was (is) an issue with these states. Secondly, it shows that non-compliance of the CE countries did not have much to do with non-acceptance of norms as such. It was rather related to hypersensitivity towards specific norms and rules in a context of multiple crises with asymmetric effects for the CE countries. In this process, the EU and CE used (non)compliance to reinforce their identities, thus creating stigma (the EU) and the attempt to resist it or even wear it as the source of pride (CE).
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Several crises over the past decade have shown the inability of the European integration to reconcile the dysfunctionalities associated with the partial transfer of authorities to the transnational ...level and attracted criticism of the alleged pro-integration bias of the grand theories - neofunctionalism, liberal governmentalism and postfunctionalism. This article takes as a case study the Covid-19 pandemic as a moment of truth that shares many aspects with past crises. It argues that, by addressing various dimensions of the demand for and supply of the integration, the three liberal institutional theories explain the nationalist response to the health crisis (missing demand and supply) and the integrationist decision on economic recovery (sufficient demand and supply). Moreover, they do this better than the nationalist or federalist approaches that either understate the demand for (the former) or overstate the supply of the integration (the latter).
The article examines the implications held by the EU's response to the COVID-19 pandemic for the green transition as set by the European Green Deal. It distinguishes changes in: (a) the use of policy ...instruments; (b) governance principles; and (c) the prioritising of policy goals as expressed via the conceptual framework of orders of change. The article assesses the extent of these changes as well as the patterns and regional variations among EU Member States, together with the Commission's role in pushing for preferential energy policy choices and encouraging the Member States' ambitions. The analysis shows the EU Energy Union governance framework was promoting the EU's climate targets' full integration into the EU's energy transition policy instruments (first order of change) even before the European Green Deal. Still, the EU's response to the COVID-19 crisis created strong financial and policy leverage to accelerate the green transition and gave an opportunity to close the gap between less ambitious and more ambitious EU countries. Many countries traditionally reliant on EU funds seized this opportunity, demonstrating the role of changed governance principles (the second order of change). However, the crisis has had an evolutionary impact, not a revolutionary one. While coherence between the energy and climate goals remains high, the EU's energy transition is falling short in fully integrating biodiversity (which would constitute a full paradigmatic, third-order change), despite this being an essential component of the EU's green transition.
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•The EU's response to COVID-19 crisis was designed to spur the EU green transition.•The Commission plays a role in strengthening the Member States' ambitions.•Member States' energy policy choices are converging, yet remain path-dependent.•The response also gave an opportunity to close the gap between EU Member States.•Closer integration of biodiversity remains a challenge for the EU green transition.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
La tentative des institutions de l’Union européenne d’appliquer les nouvelles règles bancaires en utilisant la Slovénie comme exemple a eu des effets contre-productifs. Alors que la théorie ...post-fonctionnaliste suggère que dépasser les contraintes domestiques pourrait nécessiter le renforcement des institutions et / ou des identités supranationales, la théorie institutionnelle libérale met en garde contre les implications d’une telle action pour le déficit démocratique. Une analyse contrefactuelle du cas slovène démontre que le gouvernement slovène était – autant que cela était nécessaire – à la fois capable et désireux de surmonter les contraintes nationales à travers une coalition pro-européenne et avec un transfert d’une partie des autorités, comme le soutient la théorie institutionnelle libérale. Bien que le cas slovène soit dû à sa moindre influence, plus représentative du cas des plus petits membres que des plus grands, cela implique néanmoins le besoin d’un système d’équilibre des pouvoirs à tous les niveaux.
This article deals with the negotiations between the United States of America (USA) and the European Union (EU) on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, with a specific focus on ...agriculture and food. Drawing on the negotiations strategy/ politics of international trade negotiations approach, it conceptualises the setting in terms of preferences, institutions and geopolitics, also paying particular attention to the EU's complex role as an actor. It argues that the EU and the USA, both being used to asymmetrical power politics in the past, took advantage of institutional constraints (EU) and geopolitics (USA) to strengthen their bargaining positions. However, since they faced equally powerful players the power game led to suboptimal outcomes in terms of narrowing the opportunity for an agreement.
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