Dimitris Papadimitriou

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

Abstract The accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Union 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 and Romanias 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 2004–2007 EU enlargement, offer us critical tests of the enlargement-led Europeanisation thesis. Thus, this study provides useful conceptual insights into the transformative power of the EU in Central and Eastern Europe and highlights important policy legacies affecting the current EU enlargement strategy in the Western Balkans and Turkey.

Exporting Europeanisation: Exporting Europeanisation to the Wider Europe: the Twinning Exercise and Administrative Reform in the Candidate Countries and Beyond

This article looks at the EUs efforts to assist administrative reform in Eastern Europe, with particular attention to the twinning exercise, conceptually linked to Europeanization. The article argues that much of the debate on Europeanization has focused predominantly on the way in which existing member states are being transformed as a result of their participation in EU structures. Yet the political importance attached to EU membership by the accession applicants, as well as EUs determination to ensure compliance with the acquis communautaire prior to entry, indicates that Europeanization is not only confined to existing EU member states, but can be exported outside the geographical borders of the EU. Against this background the article argues that extending the scope of the Europeanization thesis beyond existing members can not only help us understand better the process of transformation in Eastern Europe and the ongoing accession negotiations, but can also contribute towards the refinement of the terms rather blurred conceptual content.

Whose Rule, Whose Law? Contested Statehood, External Leverage and the European Union's Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo

The article discusses the projection of European Union (EU) power under conditions of contested statehood in its ‘near abroad’. Using the EUs mission in Kosovo (EULEX) as a case study, the article unpacks the various levers of external EU influence and explores the conditions under which European policy‐makers become entangled in the ‘existential discourse’ of highly polarized societies with competing statehood claims. The contestation of these claims (both domestically and internationally) produces significant challenges for EU actorness, affecting both self‐ascribed (internal to the EU) and external (amongst the EUs interlocutors) aspects of EU presence, which, in turn, shapes the EUs ability to deploy and co‐ordinate its capabilities on the ground. It is by reference to this ‘presence–capabilities’ nexus that this article seeks to conceptualize the limitations of the planning and early deployment of EULEX in Kosovo.

Continuity and change in the European Union’s approach to enlargement: Turkey and Central and Eastern Europe compared

Existing studies of European Union (EU) enlargement provide few answers to questions concerning continuity and change in the dynamics of the process. This article identifies a number of conditioning factors that have shaped the EU’s approach to eastern enlargement and traces elements of continuity and change in the EU’s handling of Turkey’s membership aspirations. The article focuses on three established factors – member state preferences, supranational activism and EU capacity – and two less prominent factors – public opinion and narrative frame.

Assessing the performance of the European Union in Central and Eastern Europe and in its neighbourhood

More than a decade after the big bang enlargement, it seems that the European Union (EU) and its Central and Eastern European member-states have mutually adapted to one another. The debates regarding the historical implications of enlargement have now reduced in tempo and much of Eastern Europe seems to be an integral part of the European integration project. After the accession of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007 (and Croatia in 2013), and in light of the EU’s internal troubles, enlargement has been sidelined from the EU agenda. The issue of the EU’s performance in the “wider Eastern Europe” remains poignant, not least because of current developments in its “neighbourhood” (such as the crisis in Ukraine or Moldova’s downturn from success story to a captured state), the uneven pattern of reform across some of the recently admitted states (such as the turmoil in Hungary and Poland or the ongoing monitoring of Bulgaria and Romania in the area of rule of law), and the evident slow pace of progress and even back-sliding in parts of the Western Balkans (e.g. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia). These cases, inter alia, illustrate that the EU’s performance in the area is neither linear nor uncontested. Thus, questions regarding EU performance reoccur frequently and very often, its “transformative power” can be called into question. What determines EU performance in Central and Eastern Europe and in its Neighbourhood? What are the conditions that influence it? This collective inquiry addresses some of these questions. Much of the EU’s own discourse puts emphasis on “performance” as a key driver of its policies and engagement with its partners (European Commission 2008, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015). In parallel, the scholarly literature generally questions the extent to which the EU addresses the most important challenges and (external and internal) pressures and whether its instruments are fit for purpose. Much of the literature has linked EU performance to EU effectiveness (a subset of the wider notion of performance), emphasising that increased effectiveness may render the EU more legitimate in the eyes of both, its member-states and its partners (Börzel and Risse 2007; Bouchard, Peterson, and Tocci 2013; Bretherton and Vogler 2013; Edwards 2013; Lavenex and Schimmelfennig 2011; Smith 2010, 2013). Externally, scholars have examined EU performance in major multilateral settings such as the United Nations, the World Bank or the International Labour Organisation (Oberthür, Jørgensen, and Shahin 2013; Oberthür and Groen 2015), during negotiations in different policy settings (Dee 2015; Romanyshyn 2015; Van Schaik 2013)

European Discourses on Managing the Greek Crisis: Denial, Distancing and the Politics of Blame

Since the beginning of the financial crisis a number of studies have dealt with the deficiencies of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) (cf. D inan, 2012; Cap or aso and Min-Hyung, 2012) and the effects of the eurozone crisis on member states’ politics (cf. George and Panizza, 2013). This chapter aims to examine an often-neglected aspect of the eurozone’s recent troubles; that is, the evolution of European discourses on the ‘rescue’ of Greece. For the purposes of this chapter, we focus our analysis predominantly on discourses by senior EU officials, rather than the wider public debate on the fate of Greece which also included the media and other more specialised epistemic communities. Our analysis is grounded on the conceptual literature of Discursive Institutionalism, using an extensive dataset of media reports from one of the largest databases on EU affairs, EurActiv,1 and other leading European newspapers.

Greece and the Negotiation of Economic and Monetary Union: Preferences, Strategies, and Institutions

This paper examines how Greek actors participated in the negotiations on Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) that led to the Maastricht Treaty in 1991. It asks: who set policy and strategy, why, how, and with what effect. The preferences, strategies, and institutional context of the actors are understood by reference to the conceptual framework of rational choice institutionalism. It highlights the role played by a select number of policy actors, seeking to compensate for the shortcomings of the state machine, but endeavoring to apply the norms and rules of the domestic institutional setting in their negotiating stance. In assessing the performance and strategy of the Greek negotiators, the paper highlights the asymmetries of the bargaining process. In particular, it examines the attempt by Greek actors to establish a coalition with its southern European partners. This limited the scope for achieving a better outcome. This paper notes, however, that the EMU agreement served different interests within Athens and that it gave an external empowerment to a domestic reform movement.

European elites and the narrative of the Greek crisis: A discursive institutionalist analysis: EUROPEAN ELITES AND THE GREEK CRISIS

This article examines elite European discourses during the Greek financial crisis from its pre‐history in September 2008 up to the arrival of the SYRIZA government in January 2015. The article employs the conceptual literature on Discursive Institutionalism (DI) and Historical Institutionalism (HI). Having coded 1,153 unique quotes drawn from a dataset of 15,354 news wires from Reuters, the authors argue that the communicative discourse of 63 senior European (and IMF) officials on the Greek crisis during that period demonstrates significant volatility. Four distinct narrative frames are identified: ‘neglect’, ‘suspicious cooperation’, ‘blame’ and ‘reluctant redemption’, punctuated by three discursive junctures in 2010, 2011 and 2012, which reflect the content of the changing communicative discourse of the Greek crisis. The articles contribution is twofold: empirically, it is the first to provide a systematic analysis of the protagonists’ communication of the Greek crisis; and theoretically, it combines DI and HI in an effort to conceptualise an important part of our understanding of ‘bail‐out politics’ throughout the Eurozone crisis.

Greek endgame: from austerity to growth or Grexit

resent; their members or the citizens? The book is an excellent addition to the literature and provides good material for students and researchers on EU Studies. Even though, the author does not write in the theoretical tone of regionalism or regionalisation, it nonetheless provides important new materials for students and scholars who are interested in understanding the underpinning interests of interest groups and business associations in EU policymaking.

Strategies for Survival

With the extent of control exercised by the new Bulgarian authorities in Western Thrace, the local Muslim population (as indeed all other ethnic groups) was forced to adapt and to learn how to survive. Most starkly, they were confronted by strategic choices: resistance, collaboration, or passivity? This chapter explores the evidence as to how the Muslim community reacted.