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This is a comparative study which asked the central research question of whether domestic conditions or the European Union's policy approach best explained whether the EU was able to engage with potential new member states. Three cases of post-Communist states in the EU's immediate neighbourhood were studied: Poland, Croatia and Ukraine, over the time period 1990 to 2013. The interplay between external and domestic factors was studied in terms of the policy approach employed by the EU, the receptiveness of political elites to EU influence, and the level of pro-EU civil society activity. The evidence from this study seems to suggest that the EU policy approach was successful with potential member states in Central and Eastern Europe, such as Poland, although the problem of democratic backsliding post-accession later emerged, to which the EU had no immediate policy approach. The EU's policy approach in the Western Balkans appears to have had some success, seen in the case of Croatia, but it is unclear whether this success will be replicated in the more problematic cases, such as Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. The EU's policy approach through its European Neighbourhood Policy has not been successful in the East, exemplified in the case of Ukraine. Domestic factors, and in particular the receptivity of the political elite to EU influence, appear to remain the most important in explaining whether the EU is able to engage with potential new member states. The EU's policy approach to engaging with pro-EU civil society does not appear to be successful, at least in the short to medium term. It is argued that the EU needs to develop a more flexible policy approach in order to be better able to take advantage of ‘windows of opportunity' that arise. In addition, the EU should enhance its policy approach to co-ordinate its efforts more closely with other relevant external actors.

European national party systems have reflected in different ways the major influence of the Eurozone crisis on individual countries. The focus of my project concerns this exact diversity and the main research question is formed as follows: How have European national party systems responded to the Eurozone crisis? In particular, I looked at the degree of party system fragmentation and polarisation, the degree of salience of the EU issue, and government composition in four European countries: Germany, the UK, Ireland, and Greece, during the years 2008-early 2016. Although the main causal condition of the project is the Eurozone crisis (economic conditions), several cross-case and country-specific intervening factors were examined in order to identify possible reasons behind the responses of national party systems to the crisis. Data were gathered through expert surveys and interviews with experts and political actors. The results showed the new era of the national party systems in Europe, which started in 2008 and transformed massively national politics by revealing the power of combined long-term trends and a sudden turmoil. The changes were of different degrees at the various systems depending on their structural characteristics. Old and new minor parties gained ground in all the four cases by promoting their anti-mainstream profile and by activating a pro-/anti-establishment divide. The results revealed some intriguing patterns in the party system response, among mostly diverse cases and confirmed how domestic conditions and issues had the lead over international events, even if the latter are as significant as the Eurozone crisis. The Eurozone crisis played a massive role in party system structures. Although that was the case mainly with the countries with poor economic performance during the recession years, the crisis had a significant impact on the way parties related and competed in all of the cases, as it exposed underlying transformations and simmering issues in the national party systems. This showed that we need to link short- and long-term transitions with national political structures and international events in order to understand party system change. An underlying establishment/anti-establishment cleavage, which found a channel of expression during the crisis, cut across traditional lines of competition and appeared likely to determine future developments in the national party systems. Finally, the EU issue was operationalised in different ways in each system and by each party, but in any case it needed to be highlighted through the discussions over salient domestic issues.

One of the most striking aspects of the eurozone crisis is its asymmetric impact. Detrimental economic and political consequences have resonated across Europe, but peripheral countries have been most severely affected. Individual peripheral countries have followed dramatically different paths to crisis, making it difficult to speak of the crisis as a single phenomenon. Bringing literature from Comparative Political Economy (CPE) on capitalist diversity into dialogue with scholarship on Europeanisation, this thesis develops the concept of modernisation via Europeanisation in order to explore the much overlooked ways in which the negotiation of European integration has been generative of divergence of the European periphery. To capture this asymmetry, I investigate the origins of the eurozone crisis across three cases – Greece, Portugal and Ireland. I study the active attempt by these countries to negotiate and adapt to a ‘one-size-fits-all' model of European integration. This approach sheds light on how adaptation to Europe inadvertently resulted in the generation of fragile, hybrid, models of growth in each of the three countries. These findings have significant implications for how we understand the origins of the crisis. They suggest that it has been the European periphery's attempt to ‘follow the rules' of European Integration, rather than their failure or inability to do so, that explains their current difficulties. This novel reading of the origins of the eurozone crisis directly challenges settled common-senses in existing literature. The eurozone crisis cannot be explained by narratives which stress the ‘immaturity' of the countries of the European Periphery. Neither can it be explained by more critical narratives which understand the periphery as a victim of German ‘economic domination'. Instead, the relative severity of the crisis in the periphery can be explained by the EU's obstinate promotion of a single model of convergence which has generated a variety of different European economic trajectories.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-07-11T12:42:08Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigo Fernando Alves.pdf: 920961 bytes, checksum: 6470cfbedd661b7916e60cf7b457d2db (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-11T12:42:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigo Fernando Alves.pdf: 920961 bytes, checksum: 6470cfbedd661b7916e60cf7b457d2db (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-06-29 / In recent years, the Catholic Church has addressed the theme of the parish and reflected on the need for its renewal to become "New Parish" - especially after V CELAM (Document of Aparecida), Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium by Pope Francis and of Document 100 published by the Brazilian Bishops' Conference (CNBB). This dissertation deals with the creation, formation and administration of the New Parish in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council and post-conciliar ecclesial developments in order to be a "community of communities". The conversion proposal reaches all stages of the New Parish from birth to maturity. The first chapter discusses the creation of the New Parish, comparing how parishes and dioceses were erected in Brazilian history with current proposals - such as: considering the reality and demands of the people and the region, expanding the spaces for dialogue, to focus on the improvement of the evangelizing activity as a criterion, to seek help in the human and social sciences, etc. The vision that must lead this process is that of the disciple-missionary. In addition, the implementation of the New Parish depends directly on the conversion of its subjects (parish priests, vicars, deacons, religious, laity, among others). The second chapter deals with the formation of the New Parish as a path of maturity, in order to become a "community of communities", "family of families". Formation in the perspective of the Trinity, the disposition for dialogue, mission and communion are essential guidelines that shape the identity of the New Parish today, increasingly networked. The third chapter addresses the dimension of parish administration, an aspect through which the New Parish witnesses its spirituality and the values of the Kingdom of God. The New Parish is called to be open and transparent, with effective, Christian, planned and participatory management / Nos últimos anos, a Igreja abordou o tema da paróquia e refletiu acerca da necessidade de sua renovação, para que se torne “Nova Paróquia” – especialmente a partir do V CELAM (Documento de Aparecida), da Exortação Apostólica Evangelii Gaudium do Papa Francisco e do Documento 100 publicado pela Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil (CNBB). A presente dissertação trata da criação, da formação e da administração da Nova Paróquia no espírito do Concílio Vaticano II e dos desenvolvimentos eclesiais pós-conciliares, a fim de que seja “comunidade de comunidades”. A proposta de conversão atinge todos os estágios da Nova Paróquia, desde seu nascimento até a maturidade. O primeiro capítulo disserta sobre a criação da Nova Paróquia, comparando a forma como as paróquias e dioceses foram erigidas na história do Brasil com as propostas atuais – tais como: considerar a realidade e as demandas do Povo e a região, ampliar os espaços de diálogo, pautar-se na melhoria da atividade evangelizadora como critério, buscar auxílio nas ciências humanas e sociais, etc. O olhar que deve conduzir esse processo é o do discípulo-missionário. Além disso, a efetivação da Nova Paróquia depende diretamente da conversão dos seus sujeitos (pároco, vigários, diáconos, religiosos, leigos, entre outros). O segundo capítulo trata da formação da Nova Paróquia como caminho de maturidade, a fim de que se torne “comunidade de comunidades”, “família de famílias”. A formação na perspectiva da Trindade, a disposição para o diálogo, para a missão e a comunhão são linhasmestras essenciais que moldam a identidade da Nova Paróquia na contemporaneidade, cada vez mais conectada em rede. O terceiro capítulo aborda a dimensão da administração paroquial, aspecto através do qual a Nova Paróquia testemunha sua espiritualidade e os valores do Reino de Deus. A Nova Paróquia é chamada a ser aberta e transparência, com uma gestão eficaz, cristã, planejada e participativa

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This thesis investigates the EU policy-making process concerning the external dimension of migration focusing on the EU's eastern neighbourhood. In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on integrating a comprehensive migration dimension into the broader external policies of the EU. In 2004, the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) was developed as an overarching foreign policy tool integrating the EU's existing policies towards its southern and eastern neighbourhood under a single framework with the objective of ensuring security and stability in the EU's neighbourhood. The management of cross-border movements along the EU's new eastern frontiers in particular has moved up on the EU agenda with the eastern shift of the EU borders following the 2004/2007 eastern enlargements. With the increasing integration of migration policy objectives into the EU's broader neighbourhood policy, the EU has progressively established a more streamlined form of cooperation with its immediate eastern neighbours concerning different dimensions of migration policy. The thesis examines the EU policy-making process with the aim of answering the question of how the EU policy has been shaped in the view of diverging national preferences and institutional roles and influence concerning the external dimension of migration policy. As a salient policy area central to national sovereignty and interest, the EU member states traditionally seek to control the impact of institutional constraints in the area of migration policy and support mechanisms by which they could exert national control over the policy outcomes. On the other hand, the increasing ‘communitarisation' of the policy area since the Amsterdam Treaty has enhanced the role of the EU institutions. Drawing on the new-institututionalist approaches to EU policy-making, the thesis questions a purely intergovernmental understanding of policy-making dominated by the preferences of the member states in the external dimension of EU migration policy.

This thesis seeks to develop an under-researched area of Europeanisation theory, namely the link between the ‘export' dimension of Europeanisation and the European Union's (EU) external crisis response instruments, and specifically the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). It examines the theory of Europeanisation and its relevant dimensions for this thesis, defining ‘Europeanisation' in this context as the export of European values, principles, structures, ideas and norms beyond the geographical borders of the EU. The thesis sets out to test whether ESDP operations can provide a vehicle for Europeanisation in the countries in which they are deployed. It examines the evolution of European Union security and defence policy and the evolution of the EU's operational military and civilian mission instrument, and employs case studies of operations in a specific country context in order to test whether ESDP operations can indeed be a practical mechanism with the potential to export the EU's norms and principles. The thesis employs case studies of three ESDP missions conducted in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYROM) - the military operation Concordia, and police missions Proxima and EUPAT. It explores whether these EU external instruments had a Europeanisation dimension, and whether and how in practice they contributed to Europeanisation. fYROM makes a germane case study as a new country emerging from crisis, on the EU's border, and in line for prospective future EU membership. The case studies show that the primary effect of the military operation Concordia, in contributing to the country's security and political stabilization and providing a visible and symbolic EU presence, was to provide a platform for subsequent Europeanisation. The follow-on Proxima and EUPAT civilian operations carried a more direct Europeanisation agenda and effect, playing an important role in transferring the EU's approach to addressing causes of conflict and contributing as part of the EU's wider efforts to promoting the integration of fYROM in the EU. The thesis concludes that ESDP operations can be a vehicle for exporting European values, principles and norms, and as such, a promoter of Europeanisation beyond the EU's borders. This research can contribute to deepening the area of Europeanisation theory concerned with export dimensions of the theory, and suggests there is academic value in examining the Europeanisation aspects of EU external instruments, including civilian and military operations in other case study contexts, including in countries well beyond the EU's neighbourhood. The research also highlights the value for the EU of conceptualising the ESDP mission instrument through a Europeanisation lens, in terms of maximising the transformative potential of the instrument as part of wider EU strategy to pursue normative, security and political objectives in its neighbourhood and the wider international sphere.

This thesis examines the potential impacts of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the EU and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It provides a quantitative assessment of the prospective implications for welfare, output and trade structures, resource allocation, prices and fiscal revenue. The thesis undertakes country- and sector-specific analyses using the multi-region, multi-sector computable general equilibrium (CGE) GLOBE model. The model is calibrated to the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) Database- version 7 for 2004. Different scenarios are implemented in order to simulate the alternative EU-SADC EPA scenarios in addition to their WTO-compatible alternatives. The thesis aims to contribute novel insights to the ongoing debate on the EU-SADC EPAs. It provides detailed country- and sector-specific impact projections within an internally consistent modelling framework. Furthermore, it contemplates the other WTO-compatible arrangements for SADC-EU trade in the case of not signing final EPAs. The simulation results inform answers for several research questions, as follows. Who gains and who loses from the EU-SADC EPAs? Do the agreements help SADC to effectively integrate into the world economy? What type of structural change might SADC experience under the EU-SADC EPA scenarios? How significant are potential adjustment costs for the SADC members likely to be? Are the WTO-compatible alternatives preferable for SADC members compared to the EU-SADC EPAs scenario? The simulation results suggest that a comprehensive EPA scenario is welfare-improving for many SADC members. The agreements, however, do not serve as a stumbling block towards more integration for SADC members into the world markets. Overall, SADC production structures become more concentrated in export-oriented sectors. These structural changes are accompanied by a high degree of adjustment in factor markets and substantial fiscal losses. A comprehensive EPA scenario is the best option vis-à-vis the WTO-compatible alternatives for SADC non-LDCs, whereas the results for SADC LDCs are mixed.