No description available.

No description available.

Le « développement harmonieux », tel que l’Union européenne le définit, passe par le renforcement de sa cohésion économique, sociale et territoriale, et plus particulièrement, par la réduction des écarts en termes de développement entre ses divers pays et régions. Diverses études menées sur la « cohésion européenne » mettent en évidence une convergence économique « indiscutable » au niveau des pays européens (au moins au niveau de l’UE-15) et une convergence régionale plus problématique. En même temps, l’attribution des fonds issus des politiques de cohésion ainsi que l’évaluation des niveaux de convergence, réalisées par la Commission européenne, se basent uniquement sur des indicateurs de convergence économique. Mais si cette convergence économique semble être automatique depuis trois décennies, la convergence des dimensions sociales et environnementales peut être plus contrastée voire présenter des tendances différentes. Nous partons, dans cette thèse, d’un développement harmonieux élargi, reposant sur des concepts de développement qui cherchent à se détacher de la croissance économique et sur leurs instruments de mesure pour ré-analyser la convergence européenne de l’UE-27 au cours de ces deux dernières décennies. / Since its foundation, one of the main objectives of the European Union has been the « harmonization » of the development levels of its member states and their regions. The European « harmonious development » is based on improving economic, social and territorial cohesion. Measured by the level of economic convergence, this cohesion seems to be well established at the national level (at least for the EU-15 countries) but remains mixed at the regional levels. Furthermore, the European Commission’s cohesion policies are based on economic convergence not only as an indicator for poor regions’ eligibility for funds; but also as an evaluation tool for its European policy. Nevertheless, « harmonious development » cannot be reduced to the single economic convergence. Social and environmental convergence would show different trends of « harmonious development ». In this thesis, we consider the converging development of the EU-27 member states and regions according to other concepts of development. European convergence is then re-analyzed for the last two decades through indicators going beyond the economic growth paradigm.

This thesis researches the variation in levels of liberalisation within the European services market, focusing in detail on four selected service sectors (i.e. postal services, electricity services, healthcare services and the services covered by the Services Directive) from 2001 until 2011. In this thesis, I propose a model of European integration capable of explaining the exact levels of liberalisation in each service sector. I argue that the level of liberalisation can be explained by looking at the drivers of integration (i.e. expected economic benefits from further integration and the level of supranational activity), which determine the societal demand for further integration and the shape legislators’ preferences and constraints, and the intervening influence of adhoc politicisation (i.e. the influence of public opinion through mass mobilisation). To illustrate this, this thesis applies a two-tiered approach of analysis. First, it explains the context in which the legislation is made to understand the economic implications of the proposed legislation, the level of supranational activity preceding the tabling of the legislation and the preferences of all actors involved. Second, taking preferences as exogenously given, this thesis applies a method of process tracing to study in detail the negotiations between legislators – the amending stage of the legislation. The case studies show that the drivers are crucial to explain the general demand for integration and at the same time show how politicisation, taking various guises, influences the level of liberalisation – primarily by altering legislators’ relative power. Particularly interesting is that politicisation can affect the negotiations even in absence of politicisation actually materialising causing some legislation to be made in the ‘shadow of politicisation’. These findings confirm existing explanations of European integration and add new insights as to how we can understand the process of European integration more generally.

This research aims to investigate possible consequences of the adoption of a single monetary policy for five European housing markets. It brings together comparative housing research and research on optimum currency areas. The research addresses two issues. First, it assesses whether real house price cycles will become synchronised following the convergence in nominal interest rates. Secondly, it explores the implications of stability in nominal interest rates and low inflation in the Euro-zone for the stability of real house prices in the member-countries. The existing members of the European Union are grouped according to characteristics of the transmission mechanism by which changes in interest rates translate into changes in house prices. These elements comprise monetary policy developments (i.e. the level and volatility of interest rates), type (i.e. fixed or variable) of mortgage rates, house price movements (i.e. volatility of house price cycles) and the degree of countries’ involvement in such exchange rate arrangements as the “snake in the tunnel” and ERM. One the basis of these criteria, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and Spain are selected as case studies and time period covers 1972 (when the “snake” was established) up to and including 1999 (the year in which EMU was launched). The approach adopted in the research allows for consideration of the transmission mechanism in the context of structural changes in systems and policies that determine housing demand and supply. Therefore, the thesis investigates macro-level trends drawing on secondary sources, statistics as well as interviews with informed commentators and key actors. The analysis is conducted in the following order: first, for each case study country, the importance of monetary policy for house price changes is examined, and secondly, the possible impact of a single monetary policy on economic convergence and synchronisation of house price cycles across the countries is investigated. The research suggests that the adoption of the single monetary policy per se is unlikely to lead to significant synchronisation of real house price cycles because the relationship between changes in interest rates and changes in real house prices is likely to continue to differ across the countries. The pursuit of a single monetary policy might not ensure economic convergence between the countries either, and in this case differnces in GDP fluctuations would lead to the divergence of real house price cycles. The study also demonstrates that recent developments in the systems and policies that determine housing demand and supply might lead to an increase in house price volatility in all countries bar Germany. It concludes that countries need to manage their housing markets using non-monetary instruments regardless of whether or not they are within EMU. These measures might help reduce the likelihood of asymmetry in economic developments in EMU arising from the importance of changes in the housing markets to economic developments.

No abstract available / Political Sciences / M. A. (International Politics)

No abstract available / Political Sciences / M. A. (International Politics)