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12. Coordination of Social Security Schemes. The Case of SADC
- Author:
- Ockert Dupper
- Publication Date:
- 05-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- This paper will explore whether and to what extent the (legal) rules of coordination that originated and developed in the EU can be transposed to SADC – a region characterized by high levels of migration, weakly developed social security systems and the absence of suitable portability arrangements. The principle of coordination of social security is primarily aimed at eliminating restrictions that national social security schemes place upon the rights of migrant workers to such social security. One of the fundamental principles of social security coordination is that of portability, which is the ability to preserve, maintain, and transfer vested social security rights or rights in the process of being vested, independent of nationality and country of residence. The best practice around the world to ensure portability of social security entitlements consists of multilateral and bilateral social security agreements. These agreements originated and developed in the EU, and EU coordination arrangements arguably still represent the most sophisticated and developed system of its kind, and one that is worth emulating. In this paper, it is argued that any future attempts at coordinating social security schemes in SADC should start with employment injury schemes, which is the only social security scheme common to all SADC member states. The paper considers some of the issues that should be taken into account in designing social security agreements in SADC along the lines of the EU model.
- Topic:
- Economics, Human Rights, Human Welfare, Migration, and Regional Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Europe
13. Those Who Knock on Europe's Door Must Repent? Bilateral Border Disputes and EU Enlargement
- Author:
- Andrew Geddes and Andrew Taylor
- Publication Date:
- 11-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- This paper explores a neglected aspect of the wider debate about EU enlargement; namely bilateral disputes between a Member State and an applicant, where the former uses, or threatens to use, its membership to block membership to resolve a dispute. As we show through analysis of three cases - Italy and Slovenia, Slovenia and Croatia, and Greece and Macedonia - the EU's transformative power does not always flow 'outwards' towards the state seeking membership. This raises interesting questions about enlargement as international bargaining between sovereign states filtered via a supranational entity formally responsible for the negotiations. Our cases suggest limits to the EU's transformative power in the context of disputes that are linked to the meaning and significance of borders. When enlargement intersects with identity politics, the result can be potentially destabilizing in ways that can lead to a decline in the EU's legitimacy. It is not surprising that the Commission prefers disputes to be resolved bilaterally or via a third-party.
- Topic:
- Regional Cooperation, Power Politics, and Territorial Disputes
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Greece, and Italy
14. The Transformation of European Migration Governance
- Author:
- Andrew Geddes
- Publication Date:
- 11-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- This paper explores the role played by the production and use of knowledge about international migration – or to be more specific the incompleteness of such knowledge – in driving new forms of EU migration governance. The focus is on the transformation of modes of governance linked to the roles played by instrumental, social and communicative logics of institutional action. The paper shows that, while the key referent for migration governance in Europe remains the state and associated state-centered logics of control, it is now evident that both the understanding of the issues and the pursuit of policy objectives are clearly shaped by the EU. A key reason for this is the role played by uncertainty related not only to the causes and effects of international migration, but also about the actual numbers of international migrants living both regularly and irregularly in EU member states. In contrast to existing approaches that see uncertainty and incomplete knowledge as causes of policy failure, this paper sees uncertainty and incomplete knowledge as creating social and political opportunities for EU action linked to the quest for more and 'better' knowledge with resultant conceptual and practical space for 'transgovernmental' relations among government units working across borders.
- Topic:
- Migration, Regional Cooperation, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Russia and Europe
15. The EU as a Multilateral Rule Exporter. The Global Transfer of European Rules via International Organizations
- Author:
- Mathieu Rousselin
- Publication Date:
- 12-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- This working paper investigates the conditions which prompt a variety of non-EU states grouped within an international organization to adopt European rules or standards rather than any alternative rule or standard available for selection. The paper reviews the main conceptual frameworks from research on the bilateral transfer of European rules and highlights similarities between these and alternative explanatory models of rule transfer, diffusion or convergence found in the broader IR literature. After identifying the main differences between bilateral and multilateral rule transfer processes, the paper proposes theoretical amendments to capture the original forms and new channels via which the EU can either impose constraint or seek consent at the multilateral level. On this basis, two hypotheses are formulated whose plausibility is subsequently probed by means of four comparative case studies dedicated to the worldwide transfer or non-transfer of European rules via international organizations.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Regional Cooperation, and Bilateral Relations
- Political Geography:
- Europe
16. No membership without stability in Northern Kosovo: Seven recommendations on how to achieve it
- Author:
- Imke Pente
- Publication Date:
- 04-2012
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- With a three-month postponement, the European Council agreed to grant Candidate Status to Serbia in early March. This right and groundbreaking decision may yet not release Serbia from settling its relationship with Kosovo and from advancing in settling Kosovo's status. Serbia implemented the agreements of the Pristina-Belgrade dialogue held under the auspices of the European External Action Service only sluggishly. The dialogue has been subject to recurrent adjournments due to growing tensions between the conflicting parties. The fatal escalation of the customs conflict between Serbia and Kosovo in July 2011 illustrated the limbo in northern Kosovo threatening to overturn. The clear results of the referendum about the recognition of the government in Pristina held in Northern Kosovo in February 2012 constitute yet another indicator for the deadlock between the Albanian and Northern Serb communities. For the sake of stability, the EU member states must not be lenient with the status settlement question before allowing Serbia membership in the European Union.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Regional Cooperation, and Fragile/Failed State
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Kosovo, Serbia, and Balkans
17. A wake-up call from enlargement fatigue: The cases of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia
- Author:
- Anne Bercio and Katrin Böttger
- Publication Date:
- 03-2012
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- Given the current criticism of EU foreign policy after the Lisbon Treaty, the EU urgently needs success in the Western Balkan’s approximation to the EU in order to reassert its own foreign policy standing. After the 2004 enlargement, the EU has been widely advocating its accession policy as its most successful foreign policy instrument. With the Western Balkan countries’ ambitions for and great expectations in a future EU membership, the confirmation of the “European perspective” at Thessaloniki 2003, should have put them on a stable and progressive path towards European Union membership.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Regional Cooperation, and Fragile/Failed State
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Serbia
18. The European Commission in the 21st Century. Core Beliefs on EU Governance
- Author:
- Liesbet Hooghe
- Publication Date:
- 04-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- What lives in the European Commission at the beginning of the 21st Century? This paper charts Commission officials' views on the governance, ideological direction, and policy scope of the European Union, employing data from a large survey conducted in Autumn 2008. First, the Commission is not a hothouse for supranationalism. True, supporters of a supranational Union with the College of Commissioners as the government of Europe and member states in the back seat are the largest minority, but they are outnumbered two-to-one by state-centric, pragmatist, and ambivalent officials. There are striking differences in distribution by nationality, gender, and department. Second, where do Commission officials stand on ideology? The answer is that the Commission is broadly representative of European societies, at least on traditional economic left/right issues, though decidedly more socio-liberal. Ideological views are not randomly distributed across services, with social DGs significantly more social-democratic than DGs handling market integration. Officials from new member states are more market-liberal than their 'western' colleagues. Finally, are Commission officials indeed bureau-maximizers? We find that, on the whole, Commission officials want more EU authority in the eleven policy areas that we asked them to evaluate, but their desire to centralize is selective and measured. It seems driven by functional imperatives – centralization where scale economies can be reaped – and by values and ideology rather than by a generalized preference for maximal Commission power. In short, the bureaucratic politics argument has been overstated.
- Topic:
- Regional Cooperation, Treaties and Agreements, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Europe
19. Decision-Making in Security and Defence Policy. Towards Supranational Intergovernmentalism?
- Author:
- Jolyon Howorth
- Publication Date:
- 03-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- For scholars and practitioners of European politics alike, the distinction between supranationalism and intergovernmentalism has always been fundamental. This distinction has underpinned the various schools of European integration theory, just as it has remained crucial for European governments keen to demonstrate that the member states remain in charge of key policy areas. Nowhere is this considered to be more central than in the area of foreign and security policy, which has consciously been set within the rigid intergovernmental framework of Pillar Two of the Maastricht Treaty and, under the Lisbon Treaty, remains subject to the unanimity rule. And yet, scholarship on the major decision-making agencies of the foreign and security policy of the EU suggests that the distinction is not only blurred but increasingly meaningless. This paper demonstrates that, in virtually every case, decisions are shaped and even taken by small groups of relatively well-socialized officials in the key committees acting in a mode which is as close to supranational as it is to intergovernmental. The political control of foreign and security policy, which is considered sacrosanct by member state governments, is only rarely exercised by politicians at the level of the European Council or Council of Ministers.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Regional Cooperation, and Treaties and Agreements
- Political Geography:
- Europe
20. Europeanization Subverted? The European Union's Promotion of Good Governance and the Fight against Corruption in the Southern Caucasus
- Author:
- Tanja A. Börzel and Yasemin Pamuk
- Publication Date:
- 04-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- In order to foster peace, stability and prosperity in its near abroad, the European Union has invoked the European Neighbourhood Policy that seeks to transform the domestic structures of the Newly Independent States in the post-Soviet space thus building a “ring of friends” that share European norms and principles of democracy, rule of the law, market economy, and good governance. Empirical evidence, however, suggests that the EU's capacity to hit across its borders and to realize its reform agenda seems limited. Moreover, most neighborhood countries appear to be stuck in transition and suffer from serious problems of both weak state capacity and defect democracy. Hence, EU efforts may also bear the danger of unintended and negative effects on the domestic structures of states, as its policies and institutions do not only empower liberal reform coalitions, to the extent that they exist in the first place, but can also bolster the power of incumbent authoritarian and corrupt elites. This paper intends to capture this “dark side of Europeanization” (Schimmelfennig 2007). It thus conceptualizes ENP as a political opportunity structure that provides opportunities and constraints to both supporters and opponents of the European Union's reform agenda. Which of the two ultimately get empowered depends not only on the EU's capacity to push for reforms but also on the pull of domestic actors.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Regional Cooperation, and Hegemony
- Political Geography:
- Europe
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