The European Union's market integration project has dramatically altered economic activity around Europe. This book presents extensive evidence on how trade has increased, jobs have been created, and ...European business has been reorganized. The changes in the economy have been accompanied by dramatic changes in how people from different societies interact. This book argues provocatively that these changes have produced a truly transnational-European-society. The book explores the nature of that society and its relationship to the creation of a European identity, popular culture, and politics. Much of the current political conflict around Europe can be attributed to who is and who is not involved in European society. Business owners, managers, professionals, white-collar workers, the educated, and the young have all benefited from European economic integration, specifically by interacting more and more with their counterparts in other societies. They tend to think of themselves as Europeans. Older, poorer, less educated, and blue-collar citizens have benefited less. They view the EU as intrusive on national sovereignty, or they fear its pro-business orientation will overwhelm the national welfare states. They have maintained national identities. There is a third group of mainly-middle class citizens who see the EU in mostly positive terms and sometimes-but not always-think of themselves as Europeans. It is this swing group that is most critical for the future of the European project. If they favor more European cooperation, politicians will oblige. But, if they prefer that policies remain wedded to the nation, European cooperation will stall. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/politicalscience/9780199580859/toc.html
Since the 1960s, the nature and the future of the European Union have been defined in legal terms. Yet, we are still in need of an explanation as to how this entanglement between law and EU ...polity-building emerged and how it was maintained over time. While most of the literature offers a disembodied account of European legal integration, Brokering Europe reveals the multifaceted roles Euro-lawyers have played in EU polity, notably beyond the litigation arena. In particular, the book points at select transnational groups of multipositioned legal entrepreneurs which have been in a situation to elevate the role of law in all sorts of EU venues. In doing so, it draws from a new set of intellectual resources (field theory) and empirical strategies only very recently mobilized for the study of the EU. Grounded on an extensive historical investigation, Brokering Europe provides a revised narrative of the 'constitutionalization of Europe'.
Political scientists have long classified systems of government as parliamentary or presidential, two-party or multiparty, and so on. But such distinctions often fail to provide useful insights. For ...example, how are we to compare the United States, a presidential bicameral regime with two weak parties, to Denmark, a parliamentary unicameral regime with many strong parties?Veto Playersadvances an important, new understanding of how governments are structured. The real distinctions between political systems, contends George Tsebelis, are to be found in the extent to which they afford political actors veto power over policy choices. Drawing richly on game theory, he develops a scheme by which governments can thus be classified. He shows why an increase in the number of "veto players," or an increase in their ideological distance from each other, increases policy stability, impeding significant departures from the status quo.
Policy stability affects a series of other key characteristics of polities, argues the author. For example, it leads to high judicial and bureaucratic independence, as well as high government instability (in parliamentary systems). The propositions derived from the theoretical framework Tsebelis develops in the first part of the book are tested in the second part with various data sets from advanced industrialized countries, as well as analysis of legislation in the European Union. Representing the first consistent and consequential theory of comparative politics,Veto Playerswill be welcomed by students and scholars as a defining text of the discipline.
From the preface to the Italian edition:
"Tsebelis has produced what is today the most original theory for the understanding of the dynamics of contemporary regimes. . . . This book promises to remain a lasting contribution to political analysis."--Gianfranco Pasquino, Professor of Political Science, University of Bologna
This paper presents an overview of the development and perspectives of biogas in and its use for electricity, heat and in transport in the European Union (EU) and its Member States. Biogas production ...has increased in the EU, encouraged by the renewable energy policies, in addition to economic, environmental and climate benefits, to reach 18 billion m3 methane (654 PJ) in 2015, representing half of the global biogas production. The EU is the world leader in biogas electricity production, with more than 10 GW installed and a number of 17,400 biogas plants, in comparison to the global biogas capacity of 15 GW in 2015. In the EU, biogas delivered 127 TJ of heat and 61 TWh of electricity in 2015; about 50% of total biogas consumption in Europe was destined to heat generation. Europe is the world's leading producer of biomethane for the use as a vehicle fuel or for injection into the natural gas grid, with 459 plants in 2015 producing 1.2 billion m3 and 340 plants feeding into the gas grid, with a capacity of 1.5 million m3. About 697 biomethane filling stations ensured the use 160 million m3 of biomethane as a transport fuel in 2015.
•An overview of the development and perspectives of biogas in and its use for electricity, heat and in transport.•Biogas upgrading to biomethane has started as an alternative to the direct use of biogas for heat and power.•Biomethane is increasingly used as vehicle fuel or for injection into the natural gas grid.
•Indicators are useful to support circular economy progress.•Circular economy has different definitions entailing challenges for indicators.•A classification framework to understand what indicators ...measure is proposed.•Most of the analysed indicators focus on the preservation of materials.•None of the analysed indicators focuses on the preservation of functions.
Circular Economy (CE) is a growing topic, especially in the European Union, that promotes the responsible and cyclical use of resources possibly contributing to sustainable development. CE is an umbrella concept incorporating different meanings. Despite the unclear concept, CE is turned into defined action plans supported by specific indicators. To understand what indicators used in CE measure specifically, we propose a classification framework to categorise indicators according to reasoning on what (CE strategies) and how (measurement scope). Despite different types, CE strategies can be grouped according to their attempt to preserve functions, products, components, materials, or embodied energy; additionally, indicators can measure the linear economy as a reference scenario. The measurement scope shows how indicators account for technological cycles with or without a Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) approach; or their effects on environmental, social, or economic dimensions.
To illustrate the classification framework, we selected quantitative micro scale indicators from literature and macro scale indicators from the European Union ‘CE monitoring framework’. The framework illustration shows that most of the indicators focus on the preservation of materials, with strategies such as recycling. However, micro scale indicators can also focus on other CE strategies considering LCT approach, while the European indicators mostly account for materials often without taking LCT into account. Furthermore, none of the available indicators can assess the preservation of functions instead of products, with strategies such as sharing platforms, schemes for product redundancy, or multifunctionality. Finally, the framework illustration suggests that a set of indicators should be used to assess CE instead of a single indicator.
One of the strategic objectives of the European Union is to increase the renewable energy consumption level, in a market which brings together technological, financing and customer engagement ...innovations. However, little is known about the impact of the financial sector on renewable energy consumption. The aim of the paper is to examine the effect of financial development on renewable energy consumption using a panel data of 28 countries in the European Union (EU) over the period 1990–2015. Our research is based on a panel fixed effects model, where renewable energy consumption is given as a function of income, energy prices, financial development, and foreign direct investments. The results of the empirical analysis show that all three different dimensions of financial development (banking sector, bond market, and capital market) have a positive effect on the share of renewable energy consumption. Additionally, our results show that capital market development does not influence renewable energy consumption in the new EU Member States. Our empirical results give valuable insights into how best to deploy capital in the renewable sector, in order to provide cost-competitive options to customers, with the final objective of expanding higher value-added services.
•The effect of financial development on renewable energy consumption is analysed.•All three different dimensions of financial development have a positive effect on the share of renewable energy consumption.•The capital market development does not influence renewable energy consumption in the new EU Member States.•Financial development can promote the implementation of green technologies.
European Identity Checkel, Jeffrey T; Katzenstein, Peter J
02/2009
eBook
Why are hopes fading for a single European identity? Economic integration has advanced faster and further than predicted, yet the European sense of 'who we are' is fragmenting. Exploiting decades of ...permissive consensus, Europe's elites designed and completed the single market, the euro, the Schengen passport-free zone, and, most recently, crafted an extraordinarily successful policy of enlargement. At the same time, these attempts to de-politicize politics, to create Europe by stealth, have produced a political backlash. This ambitious survey of identity in Europe captures the experiences of the winners and losers, optimists and pessimists, movers and stayers in a Europe where spatial and cultural borders are becoming ever more permeable. A full understanding of Europe's ambivalence, refracted through its multiple identities, lies at the intersection of competing European political projects and social processes.
Der Finanzwissenschaftliche Ausschuß hat sich in den Jahren 1992 bis 1995 mit den Finanzierungsproblemen der deutschen Einheit beschäftigt, die eng mit Finanzausgleichsvorgängen verbunden sind. Auf ...seiner Tagung 1996 in Hamburg hat er daran anknüpfend Fragen des Finanzausgleichs in Europa diskutiert, die mit fortschreitender europäischer Integration an Bedeutung gewinnen dürften. Der vorliegende Band enthält drei Beiträge zu diesem Themenkreis. In einem ersten Aufsatz behandelt Hans-Werner Sinn das Verhältnis von »Selektionsprinzip und Systemwettbewerb«. Sein Ziel ist es zu zeigen, daß die gedankliche Gleichsetzung von staatlichem und privatem Wettbewerb, die sich in der Literatur findet, nicht gerechtfertigt werden kann, da das staatliche Handeln auf Aktivitäten gerichtet ist, die ungeeignet für Wettbewerbsprozesse sind. Stefan Homburg geht auf »Ursachen und Wirkungen eines zwischenstaatlichen Finanzausgleichs« ein. Vor allem will er zeigen, wie Entscheidungen innerhalb der Europäischen Union voraussichtlich zustande kommen, wenn zunehmend das Mehrheitsprinzip angewendet wird, und welche Folgerungen sich daraus für die Gestaltung der europäischen Finanzbeziehungen ergeben. Ewald Nowotny beschreibt in seinem Beitrag die föderalen Aspekte der gegenwärtigen Finanzverfassung der EU, wobei er auf die allokativen, stabilitäts- und distributiven Wirkungen eingeht. Hieraus leitet er dann wirtschaftspolitische Schlußfolgerungen für die zukünftige Haushaltspolitik ab.
European Constitutionalism redraws the perimeters in the debate on the nature of the European constitution. Offering a fresh approach to both doctrinal and theoretical issues, this book discusses ...general characteristics of the European constitution under the headings of relationality, perspectivism and discursiveness, and contains forays to sectoral constitutionalization in the micro- and macroeconomic, social and security dimensions. European constitutionalism must be examined in its interaction with Member State constitutionalism, which plays an essential role in channelling democratic legitimacy to the EU. Written by a leading expert in the field, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars alike.
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