The key research questions of this dissertation are: 'How do domestic actors construct Europe.' and 'How do they utilise it in seeking to empower themselves against other actors.' The questions of construction and utilisation of Europe are some of the most topical questions in Europeanization. The first question addresses constructivist/sociological concerns. The second addresses the issue of winners and losers (differential empowerment). Both are key issues in the literature of Europeanization and yet have been little addressed in the context of post-communist EU accession countries. This dissertation aims to bridge this gap by focusing on the post-communist country of Romania, a soon to be EU member-State. The actors under investigation are civil society, which emerged in Romania for the first time ever after 1989 and the central government Executive. The study covers the period during which the EU acquis negotiations were negotiated under the Social Democratic government led by Prime Minister Adrian Nastase (2000-2004). The data was gathered through in-depth case study and process-tracing, the methods found best able to disentangle a complex causal nexus. The Europeanization literature is contradictory with regard to which domestic actors are constrained and which empowered: some scholars theorise that it empowers civil society (Diffusion); others that it empowers the Executive (Executive Empowerment); still others that it promotes co-operation between them (Network Governance). The empirical evidence so far has been inconclusive. This dissertation shows that only a small elite made of civil society entrepreneurs and government Executives constructed and utilised Europe in the pre-membership phase, to empower themselves relative to other actors, particularly opponents. The empirical data support two of the classical Europeanization theses in the literature: the Diffusion and the Executive Empowerment Theses. The Diffusion Thesis better explains civil society empowerment near the beginning and at the peak of acquis negotiations, although some evidence also favours Executive Empowerment. This latter thesis better explains the powerlessness of civil society at the close of negotiations, although some evidence for Diffusion was also found. No evidence was found supporting Network Governance. Instead evidence was found in favour of its critics, namely support for the claim that the EU (or Europe) empowers an elite in both civil society and the State.

This thesis analyses the extent to which EU private international law (PIL), namely the Brussels I and Rome I Regulations, provides a fair regime for EU-based small businesses engaging in cross-border contracts. Unlike consumers, small businesses are not afforded special protective rules under these EU Regulations, although they can be in a weak bargaining position very similar to that of ordinary consumers. Indeed, the general rules of EU PIL do not take into consideration the position of small businesses as weaker parties. By the law's failure to protect small businesses' interests, a real problem of unfairness arises. The analysis focuses on the unfair effects of jurisdiction and choice-of-law clauses in business-to-business (B2B) contracts. The thesis argues that these clauses can, inter alia, have the effect of undermining or defeating the right of access to justice of the weaker party (the small business). This thesis highlights some of the problems associated with upholding jurisdiction and choice-of-law clauses in contracts between small businesses and large corporations. Several options for addressing these problems have been suggested. However, these suggestions often clash with the principle of party autonomy, a widely recognised principle in international trade and PIL, and, as a result, are hard to implement in practice. Therefore, this thesis suggests that a minimum harmonisation in an EU directive for the protection of small businesses against unfair terms in standard-form contracts (i.e. abusive party autonomy) is necessary. Such an instrument would be imp0l1ant not only for promoting small businesses' access to justice but also for enhancing competition by increasing small businesses' confidence to participate in cross-border contracts.

No description available.

Security and defence issues have become increasingly important for the European Union. Whilst 9111 brought home the dangers of the new security threats, the Iraq war highlighted the divergences among the EU Member States concerning how to deal with them. When combined with the failings in the Balkans, the creation and development of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) is particularly significant in shaping the EU's credibility in the international arena. However for ESDP to become more active, capable and coherent, the EU's Member States will need to reach agreement concerning when, where and how the EU uses force and to develop the necessary capabilities to fulfil their goals. Whilst academic attention has often been focused on the UK and France, this thesis offers a novel approach by examining the conceptions that Germany and Poland have of ESDP and the role(s) they want to play in developing the policy. It is argued that these two countries are central to the successful development of ESDP because due to their size, they should be taking on greater roles in its advancement. Continuity and change in Germany and Poland's roles, including their strategic culture will be highlighted which will act as a basis on which to analyse divergence and convergence between the two countries. This is of particular interest considering Poland's new membership status. Finally the convergence and divergence between German and Polish conceptions of security and defence issues will be placed in the context of the continuing development of ESDP and what impact this will have on the possible evolution of a European strategic culture.

The European Neighbourhood Policy can be considered the most comprehensive articulation of a European Union policy in the southern Mediterranean. Much of the credibility of the EU as a regional actor is linked to its capacity to influence,integrate and stabilise its immediate neighbourhood. The advent of the Arab Spring has undermined these objectives and tested EU strategy in the region. This study aims to address the rationale and the implementation process of the ENP in Egypt, prior to events of January 25th 2011. It aims to question the ‘normative’ character of EU power and to assess its capacity to ‘shape’ its neighbourhood, and specifically, to induce change and reforms in Egypt. Through detailed elite interviews and extensive documentary analysis, this thesis contributes to knowledge on the ENP in Egypt by examining policy tools,processes and mechanisms, and their actual impact on the ground. Given the difficulty of analysing the ENP from one approach alone, this study has adopted an eclectic theoretical framework. Theoretical explanations of the ENP need to take into account the different and multiple dimensions of the policy, thus affecting our understanding of the EU as a regional actor. In particular, this thesis critiques ‘normative power Europe’ explanations of EU external action. According to this study, the normative power thesis finds strong supporting evidence in official documentation and public speeches by EU leaders but is far less apparent in the implementation process ‘on the ground’. In the context of Egypt, policy cycles, sectors and motivation have emerged as determining factors in the different explanations of EU international behaviour. This study has also demonstrated that although the European Neighbourhood Policy holds the tools and mechanisms to induce transformation and change in third countries, their practical application is often weak. The ENP in Egypt has been only partly successful in promoting change and reforms, with the success being selective, modest and sector oriented. The study has also highlighted the limits of Egypt as a third country, to absorb and adopt certain norms and values.

The Cyprus dispute accurately portrays the evolution of the conflict from ‘warfare to lawfare’ enriched in politics; this research has proven that the Cyprus problem has been and will continue to be one of the most judicialised disputes across the globe. Notwithstanding the ‘normalisation’ of affairs between the two ethno-religious groups on the island since the division in 1974, the Republic of Cyprus’ (RoC) European Union (EU) membership in 2004 failed to catalyse reunification and terminate the legal, political and economic isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community. So the question is; why is it that the powerful legal order of the EU continuously fails to tame the tiny troublesome island of Cyprus? This is a thesis on the interrelationship of the EU legal order and the Cyprus problem. A literal and depoliticised interpretation of EU law has been maintained throughout the EU’s dealings with Cyprus, hence, pre-accession and post-accession. The research has brought to light that this literal interpretation of EU law vis-à-vis Cyprus has in actual fact deepened the division on the island. Pessimists outnumber optimists so far as resolving this problem is concerned, and rightly so if you look back over the last forty years of failed attempts to do just that, a diplomatic combat zone scattered with the bones of numerous mediators. This thesis will discuss how the decisions of the EU institutions, its Member States and specifically of the European Court of Justice, despite conforming to the EU legal order, have managed to disregard the principle of equality on the divided island and thus prevent the promised upgrade of the status of the Turkish Cypriot community since 2004. Indeed, whether a positive or negative reading of the Union’s position towards the Cyprus problem is adopted, the case remains valid for an organisation based on the rule of law to maintain legitimacy, democracy, clarity and equality to the decisions of its institutions. Overall, the aim of this research is to establish a link between the lack of success of the Union to build a bridge over troubled waters and the right of self-determination of the Turkish Cypriot community. The only way left for the EU to help resolve the Cyprus problem is to aim to broker a deal between the two Cypriot communities which will permit the recognition of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) or at least the ‘Taiwanisation’ of Northern Cyprus. Albeit, there are many studies that address the impact of the EU on the conflict or the RoC, which represents the government that has monopolised EU accession, the argument advanced in this thesis is that despite the alleged Europeanisation of the Turkish Cypriot community, they are habitually disregarded because of the EU’s current legal framework and the Union’s lack of conflict transformation strategy vis-à-vis the island. Since the self-declared TRNC is not recognised and EU law is suspended in northern Cyprus in accordance with Protocol No 10 on Cyprus of the Act of Accession 2003, the Turkish-Cypriots represent an idiomatic partner of Brussels but the relations between the two resemble the experience of EU enlargement: the EU’s relevance to the community has been based on the prospects for EU accession (via reunification) and assistance towards preparation for potential EU integration through financial and technical aid. Undeniably, the pre-accession and postaccession strategy of Brussels in Cyprus has worsened the Cyprus problem and hindered the peace process. The time has come for the international community to formally acknowledge the existence of the TRNC.

This thesis critically appraises the concept of transparency, using the European Union as a case study. The assumption of a positive effects relationship between transparency and legitimacy, notwithstanding the limited empirical evidence, is a pervasive feature of academic and popular literature on transparency, across a variety of subject domains. It has also dominated EU institutional discourses on access to documents, where it has been mooted as a tool for addressing some of the legitimacy problems attendant upon further political integration. Using Grid-Group Cultural Theory, this thesis re-evaluates EU transparency policy through a distinctly ‘culturalist’ lens, exposing some of the hitherto unseen variables which interpose upon transparency’s putative legitimacy enhancing potential. Demonstrating that cultural biases exercise a determinative effect on different actors perceptions and expectations of transparency, it is shown how complex communicative and interpretative processes are influenced by deep-seated cultural heuristics (ways of thinking about and navigating the world around us) which can unseat transparency’s intended effects. Further, it is argued that adopting a Grid-Group approach to transparency policy development offers a means of navigating the fuzzy world of actor preferences. By using a limited typology of four fundamental worldviews, it is possible to generate predictive narrative accounts of different groups of actors’ expectations of transparency, including how they choose to frame transparency problems and what their preferred policy solutions are. Using these narrative accounts we can pursue a more theoretically sustainable account of the relationship between transparency and legitimacy. In the EU context, it is asserted that this process could be used to broker policy reform by exposing some of the unintended consequences and policy pitfalls of pursuing a linear transparency agenda, thus reinvigorating the policy stalemate that has enveloped proposals to recast the existing Regulation 1049/2001 on access to documents.

This thesis analyses UK engagement in the 1990-91 Maastricht Treaty negotiations by focusing on four specific case studies: Social Policy, Economic and Monetary Union, Common Foreign and Security Policy, and Political Union. In contrast to the other three, Political Union does not cover one specific topic, but embraces several issues such as treaty design and institutional reform. These case studies are complemented by analysis of policy co-ordination at both the UK and Community level, as well as discussion of the period prior to the commencement of the Political Union and Monetary Union Intergovernmental Conferences. The approach is that of the contemporary historian, providing a micro-level analysis, detailing the influence of individual government Ministers on differing aspects of the negotiations, and describing the reasoning behind decisions to be flexible on certain topics and inflexible on others. No attempt is made to create an identikit model of European integration. The theoretical gel is that of domestic politics and 'two-level' game playing, both demonstrating the constraints imposed on governments and negotiators at the European level. The originality of this research stems from the new sources used and the approach: covering both Monetary Union and Political Union, for example, when previous work has focused on one or other. Among other sources, information is based both on elite interviews and a questionnaire distributed to Conservative MPs and members of the government who sat in Parliament during 1990-91.

No description available.

The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), introduced as an instrument for citizens’ democratic participation in the EU, has been in existence for just over three years. It is a participatory mechanism by which a proposal supported by one million signatures may influence the Commission’s legislative initiatives. In addition to an express reference in Article 11(4) TEU, the ECI has a detailed legal framework by virtue of Regulation 211/2011. This thesis explores the ECI both as an opportunity for EU citizens to access the EU-law making process, and as part of the wider EU institutional and constitutional order. This is done via an in-depth legal analysis of the ECI’s regulatory framework vis-à-vis an examination of the empirical reality of the ECI’s operation. In this way, the findings of the thesis combine a doctrinal perspective on the legal issues arising from the ECI Regulation, with an empirical element based on primary data collected through interviews with ECI organisers, and detailed observations of the experiences with the first three years of the ECI. By focusing on specific aspects of the ECI that are connected with pertinent EU law debates, such as EU citizenship, the Commission’s competence to propose EU legislation, and the CJEU’s role in adjudicating elements of EU participatory democracy, the thesis lends a legal perspective to the academic understanding of the ECI and - more broadly - citizens’ participation in the EU. At the same time, it demonstrates what can be realistically expected from the ECI as a participatory mechanism. In this respect, it is argued that the ECI does not offer a strong potential to EU citizens to influence EU legislative output. Any future changes to the ECI’s regulatory framework should thus give EU citizens a stronger incentive to make the effort to organise and promote an ECI.