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22. What Prospects for the European Constitutional Treaty? - Monitoring the Ratification Debates
- Author:
- Sebastian Kurpas, Marco Incerti, and Justus Schönlau
- Publication Date:
- 01-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- Following the success of the EPIN survey on the European elections 2004 (EPIN Working Paper No. 11), the authors decided to use a similar approach for monitoring the current ratification process of the European Constitutional Treaty. Accordingly, the findings presented in this paper are based on the results of a survey conducted among national experts associated with the European Policy Institutes Network (EPIN). As such, they are inherently subjective, but nevertheless wellinformed. The report draws on survey data collected in 20 EU member states, supplemented by additional sources of information on the remaining countries where available. While the actual outcomes may prove our findings wrong in one respect or another, they do indicate interesting developments and differences in the respective member states. The added value of this EPIN survey lies in its broad comparative scope and analysis rather than its offering an in-depth assessment of each national debate. (For the latter, special country reports are envisaged at a later point in time.) The EPIN Ratification Monitor project plans to publish regular updates on the rapidly changing situation.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Government, and Treaties and Agreements
- Political Geography:
- Europe
23. Better Safe than Sorry: Applying the Precautionary Principle to Issues of International Security
- Author:
- Marc Houben
- Publication Date:
- 11-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- The strategic condition of the world is characterised by the fact that pre-emptive military action may be necessary. This condition is based on the realisation that legitimate national governments have lost their monopoly on the use of force while determined individuals and groups of individuals can lay their hands on weapons with which they can inflict huge, even irreversible damage to entire societies. Assuming that preemptive military action is here to stay and we should be determined not to let it escape democratic control. This paper seeks the procedures and checks that should be in place if pre-emptive military action is to be firmly embedded in democratic practices and institutions. To that end, it reviews the application of the precautionary principle in the environmental and food safety domains and assesses whether the procedural checks and practices used there can also have their utility in the international security domain.
- Topic:
- Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, Government, and War
24. Public Opinion and Enlargement: A Gravity Approach
- Author:
- Erik Jones and Niels van der Bijl
- Publication Date:
- 03-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- Popular support for enlargement of the European Union is a function of how close or how far removed the member states are from the candidate countries. In the absence of country fixed effects or special bilateral relationships (e.g. adjacency, historic rivalry, religious conformity), we can explain approximately 14% of the variation in attitudes across member states and with regard to specific candidate countries using factors related to trade, distance, and relative economic size and structure. Taking special bilateral relations into account we can explain approximately 30%. Once country fixed effects are incorporated, the level of explanation increases to 80%.
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- Europe
25. The Draft Constitutional Treaty's Voting Reform Dilemma
- Author:
- Richard Baldwin and Mika Widgren
- Publication Date:
- 11-2003
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- The ongoing Intergovernmental Conference (IGC 2003) must re-shape Giscard d'Estaing's draft into a Constitutional Treaty that can be signed and subsequently ratified by all 25 members of the enlarged European Union.
- Topic:
- Government and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Europe
26. Reform of Corporate Governance in the EU
- Author:
- Karel Lannoo and Arman Khachaturyan
- Publication Date:
- 10-2003
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- This Policy Brief criticis es the European Commission's proposal to mandate compliance with a local corporate governance code and to set minimum criteria for these codes. It argues that the European Commission missed an opportunity to set a European corporate governance code in the mid -1990s, and that much of the proposals are simply reactive to events and new legislation in the US. Europe should have highlighted the strength of its diversity, and emphasised that the basic elements of corporate governance are better controlled in the EU than t hey are in the US, rather than embarking on a complex harmonisation exercise.
- Topic:
- Government, Human Rights, and International Organization
- Political Geography:
- Europe
27. Decision-Making and the Constitutional Treaty: Will the IGC discard Giscard?
- Author:
- Richard Baldwin and Mika Widgren
- Publication Date:
- 08-2003
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- The EU's draft Constitutional Treaty proposes the most radical reform of EU institutions ever put forward - more radical than those in the Single European Act, the Maastricht and Nice Treaties combined. Many of the changes have been debated, but little notice has been paid to what is perhaps the most critical reform: the change in the EU's decision-making procedures.
- Topic:
- Government, Human Rights, and International Organization
- Political Geography:
- Europe
28. Where is the transatlantic divide in public opinion on climate change issues? Evidence for 1989-2002
- Author:
- Thomas L. Brewer
- Publication Date:
- 07-2003
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper is based on an analysis of the results of more than 40 public opinion surveys taken during the period from 1989 through 2002; special attention is given to surveys taken during 2000-02. The analysis concludes that approximately two-fifths of the public are seriously concerned about global warming. Another two-fifths are moderately concerned; shifts in the opinions of this moderately concerned group would likely alter the future course of government policies. The other one-fifth of the public does not consider global warming much of a problem, does not worry about it very much or not at all, and does not believe that carbon dioxide emissions are a cause of it. A substantial majority of the US public wants the government to do something about the problem of global warming, and they would like the US to participate in the Kyoto Protocol. Most respondents prefer mandatory rather than voluntary emission reductions by industry. A majority of the public supports US economic assistance to fund mitigation projects in developing countries. Gaps between the US public and US leaders are evident, with the public exhibiting more concern and more support for new policies. The level of US public concern is nearly as high as it is among European publics, where there is also opposition to current US policy.
- Topic:
- Government, Human Rights, and International Organization
- Political Geography:
- Europe
29. The Deployment of Multinational Military Formations: Taking Political Institutions into Account
- Author:
- Marc Houben and Dirk Peters
- Publication Date:
- 06-2003
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- Multinational military formations exist in many forms, shapes and colours. Their size varies; their raison d'être varies; the type of military units involved varies; and the countries involved vary. In most cases governments take into consideration the economic, militarytechnical and operational arguments for participation in a multinational formation. They participate because it will save them money for example, or it enables them to maintain a critical capability, such as F-16 fighter planes. States thus usually take care to shape the units in a way that contributions complement each in technical terms and that the whole unit pays off in economic terms. Not often, however, is the compatibility of the political systems of the participating countries taken into account when a multinational unit is formed. Our contention is that more attention should be paid to the political/institutional compatibility of participating states when creating multinational units. Some political systems are more compatible than others and this fact has consequences for the effectiveness of jointly owned multinational units.
- Topic:
- Government, Human Rights, and International Organization
- Political Geography:
- Europe
30. Caucasus Revisited
- Author:
- Michael Emerson
- Publication Date:
- 06-2003
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- Three years ago, after the Kosovo war and the launch of the Stability Pact for South East Europe, there was a spasm of interest in the idea of a stability pact for the Caucasus. However nothing came of this, since neither the region's leaders nor the international community were willing or able to do anything of substance, although a comprehensive proposal had been published by CEPS as a 'track 2' initiative. As a result, the de facto secessions of Abkhazia and Nagorno Karabakh have become more deeply entrenched, but only with the protection of Russia and Armenia, respectively, with which these entities have become increasingly integrated de facto. Since conventional diplomacy in the Caucasus under UN or OSCE auspices has failed to deliver solutions over a whole decade, we take a wider look here at the kind of solutions that may emerge for these so-called frozen conflicts of the European periphery. New developments external to the region are coming from the EU and the US: the widening of the Europeanisation process on the one hand, and the 'democratic imperialism' or Pax Americana coming out of Washington since 11 September 2001 and now the Iraq war. We explore below how these developments may affect the prospects for the Caucasus.
- Topic:
- Government, Human Rights, and International Organization
- Political Geography:
- Europe