Esther Ademmer

Migration, Energy and Good Governance in the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood

The literature on European Union enlargement has identified misfit and membership conditionality as two factors that decisively shape the effectiveness of EU policy transfer to the Central and Eastern European accession countries. Thus, European neighbourhood countries would seem to be less likely cases of EU-induced policy change. Yet, rather than inertia or resistance, we find that European neighbourhood countries comply with some but not with other EU policies. Our essay investigates such policy-specific variation in the compliance patterns of Georgia and Armenia that give rise to differential policy change. Comparing the fight against corruption, migration and energy policy, we argue that policy-specific conditionality and preferential fit are the main factors accounting for the EUs differential policy impact in European neighbourhood countries.

Interdependence and EU-demanded policy change in a shared neighbourhood

ABSTRACT The Ukraine crisis seems to support the claim that strong socio-economic ties with Russia eventually reduce the effectiveness of the European Unions (EU) Neighbourhood Policy in the post-Soviet space. However, research on EU-demanded policy change in the region finds that EU policies at times still travel to Russia-dependent countries and policy sectors. Taking this puzzle as a starting point, the article draws on the original work on interdependence in the discipline of International Relations and identifies specific conditions under which Russia exerts either supportive or constraining effects on EU policy transfer. Presenting evidence from a comparative case study on energy policy change in Georgia and Armenia, the article argues that the distinction of different forms of interdependence and their interplay with Russias quid pro quo bargaining, as well as with political preferences of domestic incumbents, are crucial to make sense of Russias seemingly Janus-faced role in the neighbourhood.

Beyond geopolitics: exploring the impact of the EU and Russia in the “contested neighborhood”

While the geopolitical rivalry between the European Union (EU) and Russia over their common neighborhood has increasingly attracted academic and public attention, relatively little is known of its actual influence on domestic institutions and policies. This special issue aims to address this deficit by investigating the joint impact of the EU and Russia on the domestic dynamics of sectoral reform in neighboring countries (NCs) – a key declared goal of the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) and the Eastern Partnership (EaP) – in the areas of trade, natural resources, and migration and mobility. It examines the nature of the instruments deployed by the EU and Russia to change domestic reform processes and their impact on domestic actors in the post-Soviet space. This introductory article outlines the key research questions to which answers have been sought by experts in their respective fields and summarizes their key empirical findings in the context of broader conceptual debates. Overall, the contributions to this special issue find a strong disconnect between participation in the EU’s or Russia’s macro-frameworks for regional integration and domestic sectoral reforms. We show that despite the increasing external competition over the post-Soviet space, domestic actors remain the key agents to account for the pattern of change in the contested neighborhood.

With a little help from Russia? The European Union and visa liberalization with post-Soviet states

Secure and well-managed migration and mobility figure prominently in the European Union’s (EU) relations with its Eastern neighbors. In the framework of the European Neighborhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership, the EU relies extensively on policy conditionality as it ties the reward of visa-free travel to the adoption of specific policies by neighboring countries in order to better regulate and manage mobility and migration. However, in the post-Soviet space, migration flows and management are, to a great extent, still shaped by (post-) Soviet legacies and interdependences. As a result, Russian domestic and foreign policies shape the way migration and mobility are perceived and managed by neighborhood countries. In this article, we seek to investigate what effect these historically grown ties and current foreign policy actions exert on compliance with EU requirements for visa liberalization in Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova. In all three countries, we identify patterns of change over time and explain them according to the interplay of partner countries’ political preferences with EU policy conditionality and incentives by Russia.

Capitalist diversity and compliance: economic reforms in Central and Eastern Europe after EU accession

ABSTRACT This paper investigates whether different capitalist varieties in Central and Eastern Europe have different records of post-accession compliance. Drawing on an explorative cluster analysis of 25 EU member states and additional case study evidence, its results suggest that there are two broader clusters of Central and East European countries, which are associated with different Varieties of Capitalism and privilege certain explanatory factors for (non-) compliance over others: I identify a cluster comprising the Baltic States and Slovakia that leans toward a liberal market economy type. I argue that post-accession compliance processes in this cluster are dominated by market-based modes of coordination, in which government ideologies and effectiveness gain greater explanatory power. The second cluster is associated with coordinated market economies marked by a more inclusive political process that privileges the interplay of preferences of various state and non-state actors to explain compliance after EU accession.

Much ado about nothing? The (non-) politicisation of the European Union in social media debates on migration:

The widespread view that the refugee crisis has sparked unprecedented levels of European Union politicisation has rarely been backed by systematic empirical evidence. We investigate this claim using a novel dataset of several thousand user comments posted below articles of German regional media outlets on Facebook. Despite considerable European Union authority in the policy area, extensive media coverage of the crisis and the rise of a populist party in Germany, our results suggest that the politicisation of Europe remains low among social media users, especially when compared to national and subnational levels of governance. When talking about Europe, users hardly refer to European Union institutions or policies. Instead, other member states and notions of the geographic or cultural space dominate the debate.

Constraining Political Budget Cycles: Media Strength and Fiscal Institutions in the Enlarged EU: Constraining Political Budget Cycles

This article revisits institutional constraints to political budget cycles (PBCs) in the enlarged European Union (EU). Based on a panel of 25 Member States, we show that governments frequently fiscally stimulate the economy prior to elections. We argue that the occurrence of PBCs in the enlarged EU can be well explained by a peculiar interaction of two prominently discussed institutional constraints: fiscal institutions and media strength. Fiscal rules only help to limit the extent of PBCs in countries where the media is relatively weak, whereas they fail to do so in countries that host a strong press. Suggesting that this may be due to the usage of creative accounting practices in weaker media environments, we conclude that a powerful press remains key to eradicating PBCs in the EU.

Constraining Political Budget Cycles

This article revisits institutional constraints to political budget cycles (PBCs) in the enlarged European Union (EU). Based on a panel of 25 Member States, we show that governments frequently fiscally stimulate the economy prior to elections. We argue that the occurrence of PBCs in the enlarged EU can be well explained by a peculiar interaction of two prominently discussed institutional constraints: fiscal institutions and media strength. Fiscal rules only help to limit the extent of PBCs in countries where the media is relatively weak, whereas they fail to do so in countries that host a strong press. Suggesting that this may be due to the usage of creative accounting practices in weaker media environments, we conclude that a powerful press remains key to eradicating PBCs in the EU.

Constraining Political Budget Cycles : Media Strength and Fiscal Institutions in the Enlarged EU

This article revisits institutional constraints to political budget cycles (PBCs) in the enlarged European Union (EU). Based on a panel of 25 Member States, we show that governments frequently fiscally stimulate the economy prior to elections. We argue that the occurrence of PBCs in the enlarged EU can be well explained by a peculiar interaction of two prominently discussed institutional constraints: fiscal institutions and media strength. Fiscal rules only help to limit the extent of PBCs in countries where the media is relatively weak, whereas they fail to do so in countries that host a strong press. Suggesting that this may be due to the usage of creative accounting practices in weaker media environments, we conclude that a powerful press remains key to eradicating PBCs in the EU.