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52. From Lisbon to Deauville: Practicalities of the Lisbon Treaty Revision(s)
- Author:
- Piotr Maciej Kaczyński and Peadar ó Broin
- Publication Date:
- 10-2010
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- It has only been one year since the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force and already there is a stack of pending issues requiring primary law change in the EU. The Franco-German Deauville Declaration of 18 October 2010 is probably the most politically prominent of them all, yet it is not the first, nor will it be the last in a long, incremental process of constant treaty revision similar to the national process of amending national constitutions. All of these proposals have one feature in common: none of them is an overarching treaty change and each one is designed in such a way that amends only one element of the system. This, in theory, should avoid the need to submit the change to public referenda in the EU as part of the ratification process.
- Topic:
- Treaties and Agreements and Law
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Germany, and Lisbon
53. The Place of Religion in European Union Law and Policy: Competing Approaches and Actors inside the European Commission
- Author:
- Sergio Carrera and Joanna Parkin
- Publication Date:
- 09-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- While the EU has no explicit legal competence in the sphere of religion and the management of relations with faith communities, religious concerns have taken on increasing importance within the legal and institutional framework and policy discourses of the European Union in the last years. This paper provides an overview of how religion and issues of religious diversity are being framed and addressed in EU law and policy by undertaking a critical analysis of the ways in which EU law and policy deal with, engage and understand religion at the policy level of the European Commission. Through an examination of EU legislation and both formal and informal policy initiatives in the fields of citizenship and fundamental rights, non-discrimination, immigration and integration, social inclusion and education and culture, this paper demonstrates that there is a complex and highly heterogeneous patchwork of EU normative approaches delineating the relationship between religion and the EU. These competing framings, very much rooted in the institutional structures of the Commission services, have important implications for discretionary power and sovereignty of the EU member states and for the coherence of European Union policies.
- Topic:
- Regional Cooperation and Law
- Political Geography:
- Europe
54. Policy Matters But How? Explaining Non-Compliance Dynamics in the EU
- Author:
- Tanja A. Börzel, Tobias Hofmann, and Diana Panke
- Publication Date:
- 02-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- The European Union's infringement procedure is highly legalized. Nevertheless, as in other international institutions, non-compliance occurs on a regular basis and its transformation into compliance varies across EU infringement stages and over time. State of the art compliance literature focuses mainly on country-specific explanations, such as power, capacity, and legitimacy. In particular power-capacity models explain a good part of whether non-compliance occurs and how quickly it can be resolved. Yet, these approaches leave substantial parts of the empirical variation that we observe unexplained. This paper argues that policy and, in particular, rule-specific variables – although often neglected – are important for explaining non-compliance. Based on a quantitative analysis, we show that policy matters not only for the frequency with which EU law is violated, but also the persistence of non-compliance over time and over the different stages of the infringement procedure.
- Topic:
- Regional Cooperation and Law
- Political Geography:
- Europe
55. Parliamentary War Powers: A Survey of 25 European Parliaments
- Author:
- Sandra Dieterich, Hartwig Hummel, and Stefan Marschall
- Publication Date:
- 12-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
- Abstract:
- This paper presents a survey of parliamentary 'war powers' based on a comprehensive and detailed review of the degrees and institutional forms of parliamentary involvement in military security policy-making. As our original research project focused on the involvement of European Union (EU) states in the recent Iraq war, we present data for the then 25 member and accession states of the EU as of early 2003. This survey of parliamentary war powers covers the legislative, budgetary, control, communicationrelated and dismissal powers of the respective parliaments relating to the use of military force. Referring to this data, we distinguish five classes of democratic nation-states, ranging from those with 'very strong' to those with only 'very weak' war powers of the respective national parliament.
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, Democratization, Governance, and Law
- Political Geography:
- Iraq and Europe
56. The Role of Penal Reform in Security Sector Reform
- Author:
- Megan Bastick
- Publication Date:
- 01-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
- Abstract:
- Penal reform activities have been carried on in Europe and the United States since at least the late eighteenth century. Security sector reform (SSR), a much newer concept, is a governance-driven approach that looks to strengthen the roles of both state and non-state actors to deliver security to individuals and communities. As such, attention to the penal system is important in any comprehensive SSR process. However, much SSR programming overlooks penal elements, and lessons learnt through long experience in penal reform have not been applied to other SSR activities. There is limited discourse between the penal reform community of practice and the wider SSR community.
- Topic:
- Security, Governance, Law, and Prisons/Penal Systems
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
57. Warum betreibt der Europäische Gerichtshof Rechtsfortbildung? Die Politisierungshypothese
- Author:
- Martin Höpner
- Publication Date:
- 02-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
- Abstract:
- Scholars from law, political science and sociology agree that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) interprets European law extensively and that the Court has become an “engine of integration” that, de facto, conducts integration policy. On the basis of ten landmark ECJ decisions, this paper discusses whether the politicization hypothesis can help to explain this development. The politicization hypothesis posits that ECJ judges make their decisions based on the political interests of either the countries they come from or the parties they sympathize with. The party-based variant of the hypothesis does not seem to have any explanatory power. Similarly, the country-based variant delivers no systematic explanation that could supersede alternative explanations. However, the country-based variant fits quite well with some of the cases observed. I conclude that while situationally motivated acts of politicization may actually occur at the ECJ, which does not imply that the judicial code is being totally replaced by political considerations.
- Topic:
- International Law and Law
- Political Geography:
- Europe
58. Equality Law in an Enlarged European Union. Understanding the Article 13 Directives
- Author:
- Dimitry Kochenov
- Publication Date:
- 04-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- When you are on the subway in New York, it is difficult not to notice numerous Spanish language information posters about equality and non-discrimination, such as 'Housing discrimination on the basis of sex, race, ethnic origin… is unlawful'. They not only state the law: a telephone number in the corner informs you of where to call to make sure that if you are the victim of discrimination, help is available. Have you seen such posters in a Romani language in the Prague metro? Or in Arabic on the trains around Rotterdam?
- Topic:
- Law
- Political Geography:
- New York and Europe
59. The Judgement of the German Constitutional Court on the Lisbon Treaty
- Author:
- Michael Bothe
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- By its judgment of 30 June 2009, the German Federal Constitutional Court cleared the way for the German ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. The reasoning of the Court, however, contains fundamental holdings on the current legal character of the European Union and on constitutional limitations concerning its possible development.
- Topic:
- Regional Cooperation, Treaties and Agreements, and Law
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Germany
60. The Stockholm programme: Europe's next step to be an "area of freedom, security and justice"
- Author:
- Toby Archer
- Publication Date:
- 12-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The Stockholm Programme sets the agenda for the European Union's actions for the next five years in the area of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA). It is the next step towards the goal of making the EU into an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ). Justice and Home Affairs became the third pillar of the EU after the Maastricht Treaty came into force in 1993. Originally, it was firmly intergovernmental area of policy-making but some parts were transferred to the supranational first pillar when the treaty of Amsterdam came in to force 1999. In the same year the EU decided it need a focused plan for cooperation in this field for the next five years; and the Tampere Programme was produced. This was followed in 2004 by the Hague Programme that ends this year, and the Stockholm Programme will lay out the next five years of JHA cooperation. Producing the programme has been complicated due to both the sensitive nature of many of the issues covered and by doubt until recently over whether the Lisbon Treaty would be ratified. The ratification of Lisbon changes the power balance between the European Commission, Council and Parliament and this has ramifications for the JHA area. With the success of the EU single market and the end of border controls within the EU, to stop crime within the EU, to guarantee the rights of citizens who are moving between EU member states, and to manage people from third countries who are seeking to come into the EU, requires cooperation across the Union. The Stockholm Programme seeks to lay out what path this should take. Migration policy is an important and difficult part of the programme. How Europeanised dealing with irregular migrants and asylum seeker should be has been one of the politically difficult areas within the programme.
- Topic:
- Security, Civil Society, and Law
- Political Geography:
- Europe