The study has intended to analyze the Europeanization of the institutional structure for regional policy in Bulgaria after the first programming period of the country as a full-fledged member state of the EU. Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007 as part of the so called ‘Eastern Enlargement’ that was characterized by power asymmetry and strong conditionality. The study employs two research methods – document analysis of key policy documents and legislation, as well as qualitative interviews with key respondents with involvement or experience in the field of regional policy and development in Bulgaria. The analysis is underpinned by the concept of Europeanization and historical institutionalism which complement each other in order to explain the changes and the reasons for them. The main findings show that the EU requirements are only ‘accommodated’ in the already existing institutional structure of Bulgaria and real transformation has not occurred. The established regional level still does not have a significant role in the regional policy of the country because it represents neither self-government, nor administrative unit. The research suggests directions for future reform and refinement of the current institutional system with regard to the better formulation and implementation of regional policy in the country.

The European Union expanded from its first conceptualization as an economic union hedging possible German expansion to encompass policy areas traditionally controlled by the state. One of these areas—immigration and asylum—is closely associated with ideas of state identity and citizenship, and is an area in which states have been unwilling to cede control. Two member states—Italy and Spain—have many similarities, one of which is significant issues in regard to large and undocumented migration but, despite that, took quite different policy directions vis-à-vis the EU’s proposed immigration and asylum norms. This research examines Italy and Spain using Knill and Lehmkuhl’s mechanisms of Europeanization during three policymaking timeframes in order to determine how and why these states have taken divergent paths. This thesis found that different mechanisms were used during different periods and that counterintuitive to expected findings, the weakest mechanism is dominant during the current era.

The purpose of this thesis was to determine the role of Europeanization, described as a convergence process, including the supremacy of EU law, as well as non-binding instruments, on French language policies from the adoption of the Treaty on European Union (1993) onwards, and its impact on the long-lasting relationship between language and identity in France. The study starts by investigating the development of nationalism in Europe in general and in France in particular. From a historical perspective, France is usually defined as a civic nation. Yet the French language became the most distinctive feature of national identity, with a view to bring about the cultural homogenization of all citizens, leading to the repression of regional languages. In the second half of the 20th century, the specter of globalization and Americanization influenced the development of protective language policies in France such as laws restricting foreign loanwords in French and banning the use of English in the public sphere. The most representative of these policies is the Toubon law (1994), which can also express the fear of European integration, bringing about the use of English, especially through the free movement of goods. After the signature (but no ratification) of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages from the Council of Europe in 1999, measures more in favour of regional languages were adopted in France, even if mostly symbolic. At the same time, the fight against English seemed to have subsided somewhat. In a broader framework, the vitality of a particular language always seems to be linked to cultural, political and economic power. The conclusion of the thesis shows that Europeanization was associated with globalization in the beginning of the 1990’s and that this process has gradually questioned the exclusive relationship between the French language and national identity. Yet it seems that today, the European Union is more conceived as a new arena in which France can build a positive identity for itself by being active on the international stage, and by defending multilingualism. If France seems to have gradually developed a more pluralistic view on language, mirroring the motto “United in diversity”, the European Union should still find a balance between unity and diversity and give a tangible content to the concept of multilingualism.

This paper examines if European integration has had an impact on national political parties by looking at the stances of the Swedish Green Party and the Left Party on the issue of the European Community and the European Union over time. With the development of the European Community and the European Union, national political parties face the challenge of an emerging political arena. European integration research has recently become more involved with what is called europeanization and political integration within the member states them self, this paper aims to provide further leverage to the thesis that national political actors undergo some degree of europeanization and are politically integrated in the EU, by examining manifestos of two historically eurosceptic Swedish political parties. The theoretical framework provided by neo-functional integration theory as well as europeanization is used to examine the empirical material in order to see if the political parties at the focal point of this study can be said to have undergone a change in political policy regarding the EC and EU, both in quantity and content. The analysis show that indeed both parties has undergone a change and what might be considered a europeanization, considering that the presence of the EU as a political issue seem to have risen in prominence and importance in the examined manifestos. The parties also show tendencies towards viewing the EU as an arena in which political goals can be achieved for specific issues.

This thesis examines the Europeanization process with a focus on the structure of influence and the role of agency in influencing the domestic change of the EU candidate states. In order to understand these qualities of the Europeanization process I discuss the current literature on Europeanization and critically evaluate contemporary conceptualization of the structure of influence. An assessment of the five mechanisms of Europeanization first advanced by Heather Grabbe—models, financial and technical aid, benchmarking and monitoring, advice and twinning, and gate-keeping—is then conducted in order to show that Europeanization can be discussed both conceptually and empirically. The categories reveal the important role that the structure of influence and windows of opportunity play in influencing the outcome of Europeanization. Throughout this thesis I argue that the Europeanization process is governed by a multi-leveled structure of influence that is affected by the actors’ ability to capitalize on windows of opportunity. Moreover, I conclude that the outcomes of the Europeanization process are shaped by the structure of influence and windows of opportunity available to each level of actors. / Graduate

Our thesis discusses the issue of Europeanization in light of Scottish cultural heritage policies since devolution. This sectoral public policy is not the subject of much attention, but this thesis wants to fill the gap. This thesis also raises the questions of identity in the field of cultural heritage. We tend to determine the forces that are involved in the construction of the Scottish identity post-devolution. This work is done by keeping in mind the fact that Scotland is torn between the European and the British influences. In order to operationalize our object of study, we identify six variables that are part of the EU public policies. These variables are the economic and social justifications of cultural public policies, the importance of cultural democracy, the cultural development of regions, the EU policy process and the decision-making process, the emphasis placed on the development of partnerships and the ambivalence of the notion of the EU identity. Our analysis reveals that all of these variables are present in Scottish cultural heritage policies. The omnipresence of all these variables is significant. Nevertheless, because of the limited extent of our work, we consider that it is more appropriate to assert that policy convergence is taking place in Scotland instead of concluding that Scottish cultural heritage policies are openly Europeanized. Our thesis also shows that the presence of these variables in Scottish cultural heritage policies since devolution is an efficient way for Scotland to assert its difference from the UK. Indeed, for almost all of these variables, Scotland’s position tends to differ from the UK.

The research question addressed by this study is: what is the relationship between Europeanization and the rise of extremist parties? In particular I examine the impact of Europeanization on the rise of extreme right parties in Europe from 1984 to 2006. Europeanization in this paper is defined as a process whereby the transformation of governance at the European level and European integration as a whole has caused distinctive changes in domestic politics. This process of Europeanization is one part of a structure of opportunities for extremist parties (which also include social, economic, and electoral factors). Although this study finds that Europeanization does not have a statistically significant effect it is still an important factor when examining domestic political phenomenon in Europe.

Despite deficient institutional practices, political resistance, and lagging public support for European Union (EU) membership, as well as the presence of two existential EU crises—the euro crisis and migration crisis—, the states of Southeast Europe (SEE) continue to adapt their domestic policies, procedures, legislation, norms and values to the EU’s acquis communautaire—Europeanization. The Europeanization literature explains that such processes of adaption are induced by incentives, and informed by the (limited) ability of each state to negotiate its membership requirements. However, given the degree of political and institutional weakness in SEE, in addition to the EU’s current apathetic stance towards enlargement, this dissertation questions the explanatory power of traditional, hierarchical conceptualizations of Europeanization. It in turn investigates the extent to which the EU and Southeast European candidates (SEECs) have employed new, ‘horizontal’ mechanisms of Europeanization that rely on cooperation, learning, and the co-production of outputs to overcome the technical and strategic problems facing the candidates. Very little work has acknowledged Europeanization outside of the traditional top-down-bottom-up dichotomy, and even less has attempted to specify and investigate the impact of these alternative mechanisms of Europeanization. To address this gap in the literature, this study traces incidents of civil servant cooperation (twinning) and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) involvement in Croatia and Serbia, and assesses to what degree these mechanisms have helped Croatia and Serbia comply with the acquis. It argues that while the effectiveness of these mechanisms vary due to a number of factors, they have been vital to the accession processes of Croatia and Serbia. These mechanisms have helped align domestic and EU legislation, improved institutional procedures, fostered inter-ministry cooperation, updated policy frameworks, extended state programs to rural and minority populations, and encouraged more systematic public consultation, all of which have been deemed a necessary part of membership preparations. More broadly, these findings suggest a shift in EU-candidate state relations, and demonstrate that a more diverse set of actors and mechanisms are active in Europeanization and governance processes. In candidate states, and indeed even in some member states with weak institutional capacities, tense political environments, and an uncertain public, mechanisms that rely solely on conditionality have varied in their ability to induce domestic compliance. This dissertation contends that horizontal mechanisms that rely on socialization instead of coercion, may present a worthwhile alternative. / Graduate / crouchgb@uvic.ca

Abstract   The purpose of this study is to examine if the Swedish policy of foreign affairs has been changed due to the Swedish enter as members in the European Union. The research method used for this essay has been a comparative case study between the Swedish and Norwegian declared policy of foreign affairs and it strives to answer the research question, which is if the Swedish declared policy of foreign affairs has been changed in character due to the Europeanization. The theoretical framework of this study consists of Europeanization as a comprehensive theoretical perspective. I order to answer the research question a classification schedule has been elaborated to examine the objectives of the Swedish and Norwegian declared policy of foreign affairs. The analytical method of this part has been a quantitative and qualitative approach. The conclusion of the study points out that the character of the declared policy of foreign affairs has been changed over time in both Sweden and Norway which makes it difficult to use Europeanization as key explanation to this change in character.                                                                                                                                    Keywords: Policy of foreign affairs, Objectives of foreign affairs, European Union, Europeanization   Nyckelord: Utrikespolitik, Utrikespolitiska mål, Europeiska Unionen, Europeisering

Since the 1980s, regions have taken a strong interest in EU policy-making and increasingly demanded representation in the process. This has given rise to the concept of multi-level governance (MLG) in EU policy-making, which stipulates that subnational and supranational actors will interact and thus to some extent erode the authority of central governments. However, due to the scarcity of case study research looking at concrete instances of policy-making, a number of questions remain about the extent and the effectiveness of the interaction between regional governments and European actors. In addition, the extent and origins of differences in regional activity across regions and member states remain unclear. This thesis aims to contribute to the MLG debate by developing a theoretical framework with a set of hypotheses about regional activism in EU policy-making on the basis of rational choice institutionalist assumptions. It then investigates how seven legislative regions from four member states (the UK, Germany, Belgium and Austria) represent their interests in two concrete instances of EU policy-making and tests the core hypotheses against these fourteen cases. The thesis contributes to the MLG debate in three ways. Firstly, the principal objective of the thesis is to analyse the impact of different types of domestic intergovernmental relations on the strategies of regions at the European level. It is argued that the level and nature of a region's activity on the European level depends on the opportunities for influence in the domestic European policy-making process and the constraints that domestic rules place on European level activity. Secondly, a number of factors that could account for different levels of regional activity both within and between states are analysed. Domestic conflict and the capacity of a region are found to be particularly relevant for regional mobilisation. Finally, the thesis discusses the relative importance of domestic channels compared to European channels of regional interest representation, thus addressing one of the fundamental questions in the MLG literature. It is argued that unmediated interaction between European actors and regional governments is less common than predicted by the MLG literature, but that it can be effective, especially in cases where regions devise a comprehensive strategy of interest representation.