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72. Don't complicate it even further: Macroeconomic Conditionality as a Substitute for new Structural Reform Contracts
- Author:
- Stijn Verhelst
- Publication Date:
- 05-2013
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- The idea of introducing contracts between Member States and the EU on structural reforms has its merits, it also has several disadvantages. Most notably, the contracts risk rendering European economic governance even more complex and cumbersome. It is therefore sensible to first try to integrate the structural reform contracts into one of the foreseen economic governance instruments.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, Regional Cooperation, Governance, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- Europe
73. A case for adjusting fiscal consolidation in the eurozone
- Author:
- Xavier Vanden Bosch
- Publication Date:
- 01-2013
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- Fiscal consolidation is essential to ensure the sustainability of euro zone countries' public debt. However, as a principle, consolidation should not be pursued at a pace unnecessarily undermining growth in the short term. Repeated downward revisions of growth call for the use of the flexibility foreseen in the EU fiscal framework. The Commission should adapt the deadlines for fiscal correction to prevent excessive, pro-cyclical adjustment in 2013. In turn, adequate surveillance and coordination must ensure structural adjustments constitute the core of fiscal consolidation plans.
- Topic:
- Debt, International Trade and Finance, Monetary Policy, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- Europe
74. The state of defence in europe: state of emergency?
- Author:
- Sven Biscop (ed.)
- Publication Date:
- 11-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- When a doctor calls for a thorough examination of the state of a patient's health, he hopes that everything will turn out to be alright, but it really means that he fears there is a serious problem. Likewise, when Herman Van Rompuy called for the European Council of which he is the President to examine “the state of defence in Europe”, he was asking for more than a routine check-up. In this joint Egmont Paper, the Institute for European Studies of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Egmont Institute offer their diagnosis. In the opening essay, Claudia Major and Christian Mölling cannot but conclude that “the state of defence in Europe” is nearing the state of emergency. The “bonsai armies” that they fear we will end up with are nice to look at – on the national day parade for example – but not of much use.
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, and Arms Control and Proliferation
- Political Geography:
- Europe
75. Europe and the World or Snow White and the Seven Fallacies
- Author:
- Sven Biscop
- Publication Date:
- 10-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- European foreign policy: the words do not conjure up any grand images. In the absence of any real ambition, there are neither triumphs to celebrate nor disasters to mourn. There is only gentle irrelevance to contemplate. Such is the image of Europe as an international player today in the minds of those who make and study foreign policy and strategy, in our own as well as in foreign capitals. Gentle irrelevance, for Europe proclaims to wish the world well and is generous enough with its money to prove it. And it presents no cause for fear, only for irritation, in some corners, with its inconvenient insistence on universal values. But irrelevance nonetheless, for Europe lacks the unity and sense of purpose for resolute and sustained action to uphold these values, and continues to liberally spend its money quite regardless of values or effect. Increasingly irrelevant even, for in the wake of the financial crisis Europe struggles to maintain its own social model, which undermines the legitimacy of its value-based narrative and erodes the will as well as the me ans for external action.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Foreign Policy, Democratization, Power Politics, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- Europe
76. The European Citizens'Initiative: Next Big Thing or New False Good Idea ?
- Author:
- Franklin Dehousse
- Publication Date:
- 07-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- One innovative element of the Lisbon Treaty was the creation of a European Citizens' Initiative (ECI). At the time, this was sometimes hailed as a fundamental change in the European institutional system. A few years after the entry into force of the Treaty, however, much less is heard about this “first truly transnational instrument of modern direct democracy”, this “revolution in disguise”, this “very innovative and symbolic” provision5. This could seem surprising at first sight. Since the entry into force of the Treaty, the implementation of this provision has been remarkably rapid. Meanwhile, new arguments have risen concerning the lack of democratic legitimacy of the European Union, and the lack of connection between the European institutions and the citizens.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Democratization, Regional Cooperation, Treaties and Agreements, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Europe
77. Assessing the Single Supervisory Mechanism: Passing the point of no return for Europe's Banking Union
- Author:
- Stijn Verhelst
- Publication Date:
- 06-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- Europe's financial and sovereign debt crises have become increasingly interconnected. In order to break the negative feedback loop between the two, the EU has decided to create a common supervisory framework for the banking sector: the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM). The SSM will involve a supervisory system including both the national supervisors and the European Central Bank (ECB). By endowing the ECB with supervisory authority over a major part of the European banking sector, the SSM's creation will result in a shake-up of the way in which the European financial sector is being supervised. Under the right circumstances, this could be a major step forward in addressing Europe's interconnected crises.
- Topic:
- Debt, Economics, Regional Cooperation, Monetary Policy, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- Europe
78. Money for Structural Reforms in the Eurozone:making sense of contractual Arrangements
- Author:
- Xavier Vanden Bosch
- Publication Date:
- 05-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- Both the Commission's proposal for a 'Competitiveness and Convergence Instrument' and the 'contractual arrangement' presented by President Van Rompuy share a common concept: associating EU money with national structural reforms under a binding arrangement.
- Topic:
- Economics, Markets, Regional Cooperation, Labor Issues, Monetary Policy, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- Europe
79. An Arab springboard for EU foreign policy?
- Author:
- Sven Biscop
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- The Arab Spring is a revolutionary event on the EU's doorstep, of importance comparable to the end ofthe communist regimes in Eastern Europe some two decades ago. First it has ended the Arab exception to the proposition of democracy and human rights as universal values. Second it has demonstrated to all remaining authoritarian and/or grossly corrupted regimes around the world the power of the new technologies of social networking in undermining such regimes. Third it renews the challenge for both political scientists and practitioners to work out feasible political reform strategies for bridging the transition between authoritarianism and sound democratic governance.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Islam, and Regime Change
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Arabia
80. Setting a Standard for stakeholdership. Industry Contribution to a strengthened Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention
- Author:
- Jean Pascal Zanders (Ed.)
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction, more commonly known as the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), was opened for signature on 10 April 1972. Upon entering into force on 26 March 1975, it was the first treaty ever to ban completely a whole category of weapons. Together with the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the BTWC forms one of the pillars through which the international community deals with weapons of mass destruction.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, Arms Control and Proliferation, Peace Studies, Treaties and Agreements, War, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Political Geography:
- Europe