It is often said that European Immigration Policy has been converged to civic integration policy, which requires immigrants to learn the culture, history, and language etc. of the host country. That trend of convergence is sometimes regarded as the European retreat from multiculturalism, and sometimes even as convergence to the assimilationism, and so called 'fortress Europe.' This doctoral thesis is aiming at attaining more sophisticated understanding of this phenomena, by conducting analyses both at the national level and European level. At national level, it challenges the common wisdom that civic integration basically aims at restricting migrants and tries to revalorize national citizenship, through comparative analysis of the Dutch and the German party politics at the stage of legislating key national civic integration policy. By doing so, it found that the diversity of national civic integration policy from liberal to restrictive. At the EU level, it challenges the assumption that the EU played a role in uploading national interests and promoted European convergence towards restrictive immigration policy. Through the analysis of each EU institution's attitude and their influence over national immigration policy. It tries to figure out the processes of negative Europeanization where the effects of EU laws and soft governance tools of the commission actually pre-emptively guide the national policy towards rather modest civic integration, and even prohibited national member states from adopting very restrictive policy at national level. From the combination of those findings, the thesis tries to propose new model of immigrant integration and citizenship acquisition, that is, 'phased integration model'. It interprets the convergence towards civic integration as institutionalization of immigrant integration path in each member states. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This study investigates how the European Union may have an impact on countries before and after accession to the union applying the theory of conditionality through a case study of Romania. To answer the main objective of this study, three research questions will be answered, theses are: 1) How have the process of Romania looked like before and after accession to a membership in European Union? 2) How has the development of the Political Criteria been before and after its accession to European Union? 3) How does the theory of conditionality work during and after Romania´s accession to the European Union. The study will use the methodology of a qualitative desk study with the theoretical framework of conditionality and the Copenhagen Political Criteria. The study has concluded that Romania faces similar problems with the political criteria as they did almost twenty years ago. It also concludes that the EU conditionality have had impact on Romania both before and after their accession the EU, but just to some extent.

The purpose of this paper is to study and describe Poland’s policy co-ordination system, demonstrate the decline in Polish administrative capacity over time, and attempt to find and explain institutionality- driven links between the two. For this purpose, three policy co-ordination systems were deconstructed, a mechanism for analysing that data created, and information on Poland’s administrative performance was collected. The study finds that some structural features within Poland’s hierarchical, amalgamated co-ordination system can foster incentives to suppress the improvement of its own public administration.

Through the use of political conditionality, the EU has exercised what many have chosen to call an international normative power. The fast democratisation process of the central European countries that joined the EU in 2004 has often been attributed to the force of EU’s normative power. Here, the core of the political conditionality was found in a promised future membership – acting as a reward in exchange for democratic reforms. The new European Neighbourhood Policy however, initiated briefly after the 2004 enlargement, gave rise to new prerequisites to the Unions new neighbours and this time enlargement fatigue prevailed in the EU policy. This case study examines and assesses the ability of the EU to exercise its normative power on Ukraine through the new conditions set up by the European Neighbourhood Policy, were a membership perspective neither is promised nor ruled out. The result show that the effective conditions for the conditionality are favourable and that a good progress on the areas of democracy, rule of law and human rights has been achieved. Although difficult to prove, I argue that this progress most probably is partly due to EU’s normative power on Ukraine.

The purpose of the essay is to examine the Swedish Social Democrats (SAP) and its relation to the EU. The specific area of interest is the SAP in its relation to the process of the constitutional/reform treaty. The process period researched in this essay stretches from 2000-april 2008. The research question is, How has the SAP evolved in relation to the EU during the time period 2000 till 2008 and are there signs of external EU pressure changing the party behaviour or position? This case study has the methodological approach of a qualitative text analysis. The concept of Europeanization makes it possible to construct an analytical framework which measures possible impact from the EU on domestic political parties. This impact is measured in three different areas, first if the party is adapting its internal structure to ease its engagement with the EU, secondly if the party is adapting its policy because of the EU and thirdly in the area of patterns of party competition. With the analytical framework drawn from the concept of Europeanization it is possible to point at indicators that are signs of EU-impact. The SAP seems to have both a practical adaptation and a policy adaptation but it still remains somewhat EU-sceptical in the area of patterns of party competition. The conclusion is that there are quite massive amounts of evidence of possible EU-pressure on the SAP.

L'espace baltique est souvent cité comme l’archétype d’un espace transnational construit par des réseaux. Depuis la chute du Rideau de fer, les acteurs locaux et européens ont régulièrement convoqué le passé fantasmé de la Hanse médiévale, une association de marchands créée au XIIe siècle, afin d’établir une prétendue unité de la région. Davantage que la volonté de rapprocher des territoires avant tout concurrents, l'existence d'une multitude de forums baltiques traduit surtout la difficile adaptation des acteurs locaux à de nouvelles dynamiques relevant de la mondialisation économique et de l'européanisation politique. Depuis les années 1980, marquées par une recomposition du rôle des États, les autorités municipales ont la possibilité de mener une politique internationale plus autonome et de porter leurs actions à des niveaux inédits. Encore faut-il que les municipalités concernées disposent d'une masse critique suffisante et d'une localisation avantageuse. Les réseaux de villes forment un espace intermédiaire permettant aux territoires périphériques de l'espace baltique de développer des stratégies dans et avec les niveaux géographiques. Il n'existe pas un seul modèle de recomposition interterritoriale mais une multitude de stratégies et de parcours, dont l'espace baltique, traversé de nombreuses discontinuités, peut témoigner. Au-delà d'une géopolitique classique centrée sur les relations interétatiques, l'étude des municipalités riveraines invite à considérer la diversité des modèles d'inscription dans des dynamiques mondiales et européennes qui ne constituent pas des processus linéaires et monolithiques. / The Baltic Sea area is often quoted as the archetype of a transnational space achieved through networks. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, local and European stakeholders have frequently relied on the fantasized history of the Hanseatic League, a mediaeval association of merchants created in the 12th century, in order to foster the idea of a unified region. Rather than a desire to bring together territories that are essentially rivals, the existence of numerous Baltic forums suggests the difficulty local stakeholders have in adapting to the new dynamics of economic globalization and political Europeanization. Since the 1980s, a period that was characterized by a change in the role of States, city authorities have been able to launch more autonomous international policies and extend the scope of their actions to unprecedented levels, the condition being that the cities in question have a sufficient critical mass and enjoy an attractive location. City networks make up an intermediary space allowing the territories bordering the Baltic Sea to develop strategies within and together with various geographical levels. With its many disparities, the Baltic Sea area exemplifies not one single model of rescaling, but a vast number of inter-territorial strategies and approaches. Beyond classical geopolitics based on inter-state relations, the study of the cities bordering the Baltic Sea leads to the idea that there is a great variety of ways in which they participate in both global and European dynamics that are not linear or monolithic processes.

This study is based on previous research concluding that sub-national actors now function on a complex arena where the nation state is not the sole and self-evident channel to the European Union. Based on that assumption, the thesis is intended to create understanding of the nature of the relationship between the West Sweden regional office and its Värmland commissioners in the case of regional action. The relationship between the regional office and its members was examined in a case study of open consultation around the EU’s new EU 2020 strategy. The questions posed in the thesis are answered by interviews with representatives of West Sweden and certain Värmland members of that organization. The results of the interviews were then analyzed based on a fusion perspective, which addresses various indicators for regional action. The results of the study show that the West Sweden regional office can assume a clearer role in regional influencing, but also that Region Värmland plays an important role in influencing the EU. In order for Värmland as a region to continue to be able to influence the supranational level forthcoming, its municipalities need to raise their awareness of what the EU does.

The essay studies Romania and the Roma in the country as a minority from an Europeanization perspective. The aim of the essay is to study EU´s impact on Romania in general through Europeanization and to illustrate this Europeanization by studying the situation of the Roma in particular. The paper focuses on Romania´s Europeanization process and the Roma as a minority. It looks at how these mechanisms have affected Romania´s efforts to prohibit discrimination and to promote Roma´s rights. Heather Grabbes´s Europeanization mechanism; models, money, gate –keeping, benchmarking and monitoring, advice and twinning is the framework for the essay. Besides this Claudio Radaelli´s definition is used because it is broad enough to cover different areas The conclusion is that Europeanization has affected Romania in its adaption to EU membership. Romania has been affected by a top-down Europeanization process. Regarding the Roma the conclusion is that the mechanisms have pushed Romania to focus more on the Roma. Romania has also by new anti discrimination laws tried to prohibit discrimination.

This study deals with the phenomenon of European integration and its impact on national party programs in Poland, a current member state of the European Union. The author will argue that the question of European integration has left a mark on the political party programs of two mainstream domestic parties on opposite sides of the ideological dimension, in the form of a certain degree of convergence regarding the “European issue”. Relating the result of the analysis to the theoretical structure of Europeanization and sociological institutional change, the essay will attempt to show a possible link between them. Although this trend does not seem to indicate any dramatic effects of the membership per se in the programs (the national arena seems, in most cases, be of more value for party activities) there is an indirect effect in the form of the presence of Europarties and a pronounced incentive for social and economic adaptation.

The purpose of the thesis is to study the role of the subnational civil servant and their discretions in a Multilevel Governance context, based on how it differs from the traditional role of the civil servant in Sweden. This is done by studying officials at Swedish Regional Representation Offices in Brussels through the method of semi-structured interviews. The theoretical framework is based on research about traditional activities and role of the public administration, but also in the differences of duties between politicians and officials. Furthermore, the thesis is constructed on Europeanization research and a Multilevel Governance approach, where regional actions in a multi-level system can be clarified and explored by the dimensions of Europeanization: the download-, crossload- and upload dimension. The methodological assessment tool consists of a content analysis, where the collected interview data is compared and discussed using a constructed ideal type of the Weberian role of a civil servant. The respondent's descriptions and views of their role in Brussels is the main focus of the analysis.   To summarise, the regional officials in Brussels consider their scope of discretion as broad. Furthermore, the results illustrate that is not possible to distinguish the role of the sub-national civil service in Brussels, based on the designed ideal type. It’s because of the complexity of the Multilevel Governance system. The results show a significant variation between the respondent's experiences and descriptions of their duties at the office in Brussels. The official’s which are working with a tougher line of lobbying in Brussels, experience their role as both political and apolitical, where the civil servant role enters the political sphere. By working with lobby activities that imply the duty of a politician, they describe their role between the administration and the political sphere. When the officials are working with lobby initiatives in Brussels, they are acting as the political voice of the home organization, but always with a clear lobby mandate from their politicians. / Uppsatsens syfte är att analysera den subnationella tjänstemannarollen och dess handlingsutrymme i ett flernivåsystem, utifrån hur den skiljer sig från den traditionella tjänstemannarollen. Detta görs genom att studera tjänstemän på regionala representationskontor i Bryssel, utifrån semi-strukturerade intervjuer.   Uppsatsen tar ett teoretiskt avstamp i den traditionella förvaltningsverksamheten och i skillnaden mellan politikers och tjänstemäns uppdrag- samt rollfördelningen i den offentliga förvaltningen. Vidare utgår studien från europeiseringsforskning och har en multilevel governance ansats, där ett regionalt handlande i ett flernivåsystem förklaras i europeiseringsprocessernas download-, crossload- och upload-dimensioner. Det metodologiska analysverktyget består av en innehållsanalys av det empiriska intervjumaterialet. Intervjumaterialet jämförs och diskuteras utifrån en konstruerad idealtyp av den weberianska tjänstemannarollen, där fokus är intervjupersonernas uppfattningar och beskrivningar av sin roll i Bryssel. Sammanfattningsvis går det inte att urskilja den subnationella tjänstemannarollen i Bryssel utifrån den idealtyp som konstrueras. Tjänstemännens arbete i ett flernivåsystem är alltför komplext och det finns en betydande variation i hur tjänstemännen beskriver och upplever sin tjänstemannaroll. Generellt sätt uppfattar tjänstemännen i Bryssel sitt handlingsutrymme som brett. Tjänstemän som arbetar med en hårdare linje av påverkansarbete upplever att tjänstemannarollen går in i den politiska sfären och blir både politisk samt opolitisk. Den subnationella tjänstemannarollen upplevs befinna sig mellan administrationen och politiken, då påverkansuppdraget i Bryssel liknar en politikers, men där tjänstemännen är ett politiskt språkrör med ett tydligt påverkansmandat.