Antoaneta Dimitrova

THE NEW MEMBER STATES OF THE EU IN THE AFTERMATH OF ENLARGEMENT: DO NEW EUROPEAN RULES REMAIN EMPTY SHELLS?

During the enlargement negotiations with the post-communist states from Central and East Europe, the European Union required sets of rules to be established creating independent administrations, judiciary, competition regulators and other key institutions. This article argues that the fate of these institutional rules adopted in response to the EUs conditions for membership is an important, under-researched part of the post-enlargement research agenda. The key question is whether informal rules and practices will also change following the change in formal rules and lead to institutionalization, or alternatively whether the imported rules will be reversed or remain empty shells. To account for divergent patterns of institutionalization, I propose a framework focusing on the preferences of key actors bargaining over the new institutions. I identify issue-specific veto players and non-state actors linked to them as the key actors that will affect the outcome of the post-enlargement round of bargaining over the new rules.

International actors and democracy promotion in central and eastern Europe: the integration model and its limits

This article focuses on the key influence of international organizations, and specifically the European Union, in the process of democratization in central and eastern European (CEE) states. It argues that the process of accession to the EU by these post-communist states undergoing regime change, including the pressure to conform to the EUs pre-membership conditions, has led to the emergence of a unique model of democracy promotion through integration. This model appears to be more successful in fostering democracy than the efforts of other international organizations such as the Council of Europe, the OSCE, NATO or regional integration bodies in other parts of the world. To explain the EUs success the article investigates the particular combination of hard conditionality and soft measures such as twinning and of top-down and bottom-up approaches that it has employed to strengthen democratic institutions in CEE. Since membership of the EU is the lynchpin of this approach, it has good chances of success in dealing with viable candidates, but limited potential when encountering defective democracies with little chance of becoming EU members. G. Pridham, Department of Politics, University of Bristol, 10 Priory Road, Bristol BS8 1TU, UK. E-mail: g.pridham@bristol.ac.uk

Constraining external governance: interdependence with Russia and the CIS as limits to the EU's rule transfer in the Ukraine

The question of how effective the EUs external governance is cannot be answered without looking at the broader geographical and historical framework in which the Union extends its influence. We argue that interdependence between Ukraine and Russia in several key aspects shapes the context within which the EU and Russia compete to export their policies. Based on an analysis comparing the institutional rules underpinning the EUs external governance and the CIS rules as well as several sectoral analyses, we show that the effectiveness of external governance varies with patterns of interdependence. We identify sectoral differences in the extent of Ukraines interdependence with Russia: it is low and receding in trade; medium in foreign policy and high in energy.

The Dynamics of Domestic Coordination of EU Policy in the New Member States: Impossible to Lock In?

This paper examines the evolution of coordination structures for EU policy-making in the new member states from Central and Eastern Europe. The study maps the main features of the established EU coordination machineries, and traces the most important reforms of their organisational structures. It proposes an actor-centred, ‘politics of institutional choice’ approach to explain the rapid and far-reaching changes in EU coordination structures in all the new member states. By contrast, two alternative frameworks focusing on efficiency and historical-institutional arguments emphasising the impact of early institutional lock-in fail to explain the specific institutional forms adopted and the considerable degree of institutional dynamics.

Shaping Convergence with the EU in Foreign Policy and State Aid in Post-Orange Ukraine: Weak External Incentives, Powerful Veto Players

This essay analyses convergence with EU rules in Ukraine in two policy areas—foreign and security policy and state aid regulation. Comparing the two, we find different levels of convergence, somewhat higher in foreign policy (but slowing down after 2010) than in state aid law regulation. We explain this by analysing the presence and actions of oligarchs as veto players that have had an extensive influence on policy in the Ukrainian political system in recent years. In policy areas where convergence with EU rules negatively affects the interests of oligarchs and their political allies, we see only limited convergence with EU legislation and policies.

Compliance in the EU Enlargement Process: Institutional Reform and the Limits of Conditionality

Democracy, Freedom and Coercion comprehensively covers both private and public law, both applied and theoretical issues, and will therefore be of great interest to students studying law and economics.

Living in Parallel Universes? Implementing European Movable Cultural Heritage Policy in Bulgaria

This article proposes an analytical model of implementation that is used to examine the implementation of the European Unions cultural heritage policy in Bulgaria. It begins by outlining a rational choice framework conceptualizing implementation as a three‐stage game with key roles for an enforcer, domestic policy‐makers and implementing actors. This model is then applied to the case of transposition and implementation of the EU rules regarding cultural heritage in Bulgaria. Different implementation outcomes stemming from one and the same formal policy are found. To explain the variation of implementation outcomes, the theorized model is applied and it is found that, given the high levels of polarization between political decision‐makers, the implementing actors have broad discretion to apply different informal policies. The analysis of implementation also shows that under these conditions implementing players have followed their normative orientations to apply different policies as if they live in parallel universes of implementation.

European Union enlargement and integration capacity: concepts, findings, and policy implications

ABSTRACT This contribution introduces the concept of integration capacity and summarizes our research on the European Union (EU)’s integration capacity in Eastern enlargement. Integration capacity refers to the ability of the EU to prepare non-members for membership (external integration capacity) and to preserve its functioning and cohesion once they join (internal integration capacity). In general, we find strong evidence for the EU’s external capacity to prepare candidates for membership and for the EU’s internal institutional capacity to integrate new member states. By contrast, the absence of a membership perspective reduces external capacity, and sceptical publics weaken internal capacity. In addition, our results support the centrality of conditionality as a mode of integration. We conclude by highlighting the policy implications of our research for future enlargement and relations with associated states.

Speeding up or Slowing down? Lessons from the Last Enlargement on the Dynamics of Enlargement-Driven Reform

This article highlights the lessons from the European Unions (EUs) eastern enlargement relevant for Turkey. The EUs approach to candidates, developed during the last enlargement, was founded on asymmetry, objectivity and conditionality, with the latter evolving as the key policy tool. Clearly, some of the tools and rules of the previous enlargement cannot work as well with Turkey. The article examines the mechanisms underlying the success of conditionality and sketches some of the scope conditions needed for it to work in Turkeys case. Ultimately, the success of conditionality will depend on EU credibility and the preferences of domestic actors, which are more heterogeneous than in Central and Eastern European states.

Bulgaria's road to the European Union: Progress, problems and perspectives

Abstract In this article we evaluate Bulgarias progress in preparing for accession to the European Union and the countrys achievements and problems related to it. Following from the examination of the most salient aspects of the relationship between Bulgaria and the EU, we argue that perceptions of the country in the West have not caught up with the recent considerable achievements in the areas of law reform, economic transformation and democratization. In doing that, we highlight the establishment of democratic and constitutional stability, the lack of ethnic conflict, and the adoption of a comprehensive legal framework for administrative reform and enhanced border control, as well as the countrys role as a factor for regional stability in the Balkans. We further argue that, in addition to the domestic progress in the fulfillment of the Copenhagen criteria, other factors, such as geopolitics, perception and advocacy, influence Bulgarias place in the current order of accession. Finally, we discuss the interaction between domestic politics and European integration as a two level game and argue that the link between the countrys transformation and its accession to the EU helps to speed up the pace of reforms but can lead to a backlash if accession is delayed indefinitely.