Jamal Shahin

Introduction: Assessing the EU’s Performance in International Institutions – Conceptual Framework and Core Findings

Abstract This article introduces the analytical framework of the collection on the performance of the EU in international institutions and summarizes its main findings. We focus on the role of the EU in the decision-making within international organizations and regimes as a major locus of global governance. We suggest unpacking the concept of EU performance into four core elements: effectiveness (goal achievement); relevance (of the EU for its priority stakeholders); efficiency (ratio between outputs accomplished and costs incurred); and financial/resource viability (the ability of the performing organization to raise the funds required). Based on the case studies of the collection, the findings presented in the second part of the article relate to the identified core elements of performance with a particular emphasis on the dimensions of ‘effectiveness’ and ‘relevance’. Most notably, the EU appears, on balance and over the past two decades, to have become much more relevant for its member states when acting within international institutions. Moreover, the findings highlight four particular factors explaining EU performance in international institutions: the legal framework conditions (including the relevant changes that the Lisbon Treaty has brought about), domestic EU politics, the status of relevant EU legislation and policies, and the international context.

The operationalisation of e-governance

This paper will address changes in understanding governance processes thanks to new ICTs. Electronic governance, or the facilitation of governance through ICT and related tools, provides a unique opportunity for reassessment of the traditional methods, processes, and outputs of the public sector. This paper addresses some of these key opportunities and the challenges that accompany them. Practically and concretely, this paper intends to provide support to policy makers by addressing the challenges of developing a strategy for implementation of change towards governance structures that recognise the need to improve participatory methods in policy making whilst also assuring that exclusion - of a digital nature or otherwise - does not render the process counter-productive. It will raise questions of representativeness, meaningfulness, the role of existing institutional elements in current governmental structures, and the question of political will for moving towards a governance that makes use of ICT-based means. First, we shall address the results and implications of the electronic government debate and outline the challenges that still remain. This will include a stock-taking exercise in the domain of e-government, which builds upon exiting literature in the field, notably the UN Global E-government Readiness Reports as well as thinking towards future research agendas for e-governance, which shall enable us, in Part 3, to move on to discuss innovations in governance, through an analysis of the concept in a liberal democratic context. The fourth part of the paper will address new tools and applications and how they can encourage change in public sector governance.

The impact of the crisis on civil society organisations in the EU: risks and opportunities

This study addresses questions concerning the state of the Civil Society and how Civil Society Organisations have been affected by the Financial Crisis. Through analysis of data gathered from various reports and other documentation, in-depth interviews with a number of individual representatives from different organisations and thought-leaders in the field, and results of a questionnaire survey, this study reveals a diversity of responses from the broad field of civil society in Europe.

A European history of the Internet

This article focuses on the European perspective of the Internets development. In the first section, a brief description of the characteristics and early impact of the Internet in the global context is outlined, describing the somewhat reluctant approach that the European Community (subsequently the EU) took towards the development of the protocols that underlie the Internet. This reluctance to support the Internet is then contrasted with the EUs current support for the Internet and its participation in the development of the next generation of Internet protocols. The concluding section introduces the relationship between the Internet and EU governance and reveals the role that the EU now plays in the Internets development. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Putting the IC into ‘Policy’: strategic analysis for optimising the role of ICT in EU policy delivery

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Foresight Services to support strategic programming within Horizon 2020

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ICANN's GAC and the Global Governance of the Internet: The Role of the EU in Bringing 'Government' Back to Internet Governance

The European Commission has played a multi-faceted role in the global governance of the Internet. In some cases it strengthened the role of the state or it encouraged the growth of global institutions; in others it promoted the role of the market to the detriment of traditional state controls, be they national or international. This had, to a large extent, a domestic and global impact: the Commission has supported the growth of a European Market for ICT and telecommunications, and thus increased the role of the Commission in governing the Internet. This paper focuses on the activities of the European Commission in its dialogue with international partners on the subject of Internet governance, and examines in particular the growth of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee. This paper illustrates the governing role of the EU outside its borders, by showing that it has pushed for a novel, yet international solution to the problem of governing the global Internet. As a case study for new forms of governance, the Internet is a worthy subject, particularly at the global level (Shahin 1999). Given that the Information Society is a matter for ‘high politics’1 the role of the European Commission in the GIS provides an under-studied case of the changing governance environment within the EU itself and particularly in the way it acts ‘on behalf’ of member states in certain areas. This case study of the role of the European Commission’s role in the global governance of the Internet shows where and how the Commission exercises its newly created mandate, and raises points for discussion concerning different forms of global governance that have been tried and tested with the birth and evolution of ICANN, and particularly the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). In order to do so, however, it elaborates upon different mechanisms of management in the field of Internet governance, and takes a look at the role of two other standards organisations: the IETF and W3C.