Im Rahmen der fünften Erweiterungswelle der EU um zwölf neue Mitgliedsstaaten setzte die EU-Kommission erstmals auf das Instrument der Verwaltungspartnerschaften. Das sogenannte Twinning umfasst Projekte, bei denen Behördenmitarbeiter aus Verwaltungen der EU-Mitgliedsstaaten in Partnerbehörden der Beitrittsländer entsandt werden, um diese bei der Umsetzung des EU-Rechtsbestandes zu beraten. Im Gegensatz zur bisherigen Forschungsliteratur, die sich vor allem auf die Europäisierung der Beitrittsländer konzentriert, geht die Autorin dieser Forschungsarbeit davon aus, dass Twinning-Projekte auch zur Europäisierung der beteiligten deutschen Verwaltungen beitragen. Mithilfe neo-institutionalistischer Ansätze entwickelt die Autorin die These, dass Twinning-Projekte den Handlungsspielraum der involvierten Akteure innerhalb der europäischen Dimension erheblich erweitern. Inwieweit diese Akteure die von der EU-Kommission im Rahmen des PHARE-Programms zur Verfügung gestellten materiellen und immateriellen Ressourcen tatsächlich genutzt haben, wurde für vier deutsche Bundesressorts (BMWi, BMU, BMI, BMG) vergleichend untersucht. Als Ergebnis kann festgehalten werden, dass Effekte vertikaler Europäisierung stark von der Unterstützung nationaler Entscheidungsträger abhängen. Effekte horizontaler Europäisierung in den deutschen Ministerialverwaltungen werden hingegen vom Engagement der einzelnen Akteure bestimmt. Hier entstehen neue Kontakte und Netzwerke, die auf Formen neuartigen Regierens in der EU hinweisen (European Governance). / In the course of the fifth European Union enlargement of twelve new member states, the EU Commission introduced the instrument of institutional partnerships. The so-called twinning comprises projects in which civil servants from EU member state administrations are delegated to partner administrations in accession countries to support the implementation of the acquis communitaire. Contrary to the existing research literature focusing on Europeanization of accession countries, the author of this research paper argues that Twinning projects also contribute to the Europeanization of the involved German administrations. Using the tools of neo-institutionalism, the author develops the central thesis that Twinning projects enlarge the scope of action within the European dimension of all actors involved. In how far material and immaterial resources provided by the EU Commission under PHARE programme have been used by these actors has been analysed by comparing four German federal ministries (Economy, Environment, Home Affairs, Health). As a matter of fact, effects of vertical Europeanization heavily depend on the support of national key decision makers. Effects of horizontal Europeanization in German ministries arise, however, from activities of individual actors. As a result, contacts and policy networks evolve and shed light on new forms of governance within the European Union (European Governance).

Die Arbeit geht der Frage nach, ob man die Steuerverwaltung in Polen als europäische Verwaltung bezeichnen kann. Es werden drei Aspekte vertiefend untersucht: 1.Verortung der polnischen Steuerverwaltung in der OECD und ausgewählten Nicht-OECD-Ländern mittels einer Clusteranalyse auf Grundlage verschiedener Daten zum Aufbau, Aufgabenprofil und zur Performanz unter gleichzeitiger Beachtung der möglichen Abzeichnung eines europäischen Steuerverwaltungsraums; 2.Verbreitung des CAF in den Steuerverwaltungen der MOE-8, insbesondere in Polen, als vom EUPAN unterstütztes Qualitätsmanagementsystem, das geeignet erscheint, die Entstehung eines gemeinsamen europäischen Qualitätsverständnisses zu fördern; 3.Wahrnehmung der polnischen Steuerverwaltung durch deutsche Finanzbeamte erhoben mit Hilfe eines semantischen Differentials. Die Clusteranalyse ergibt keinen Hinweis auf einen einheitlichen europäischen Steuerverwaltungsraum in Abgrenzung von den übrigen einbezogenen Staaten. Polen fällt nicht als Ausreißer auf und weist Ähnlichkeiten zu anderen europäischen Ländern auf. In Steuerverwaltungen lässt sich das CAF so gut wie gar nicht finden. Polen bildet in der Hinsicht eine Ausnahme. Allerdings befindet sich die polnische Steuerverwaltung auf einem europäischen Weg, den andere Sektoren der Verwaltung (auch in MOE-8) bereits vielfach beschritten haben. Aus der Untersuchung des Images der polnischen Steuerverwaltung bei deutschen Finanzbeamten geht die Abwesenheit starker negativer Stereotype hervor. Die Einschätzungen sind sehr zurückhaltend in der Nähe des Mittelwertes zwischen den beiden Polen des semantischen Differentials. Das vorläufige Ergebnis lautet: Die Steuerverwaltung in Polen ist eine europäische Verwaltung. / This thesis discusses the question, if the Polish tax administration can be called a European administration. Three aspects are analysed: 1.Placement of the Polish tax administration among OECD and selected non-OECD countries by means of a cluster analysis based on various data concerning structure, tasks and performance with special attention to the emergence of a European administrative space of tax administrations; 2.Spread of the CAF among the tax administrations of CEE-8, especially in Poland, as quality management system supported by the EUPAN, that seems suitable to enhance the emergence of a common European unterstanding of quality; 3.Perception of the Polish tax administration by German tax collectors gathered with a semantic differential. The cluster analysis does not hint at a uniform European administrative space of tax administrations separated from the other included countries. Poland does not stand out as an outlier and shows similarities to other European countries. Hardly can the CAF be found in tax administrations. Poland is an exception. But the Polish tax administration is on a European path, which the other sectors of administration (also in CEE-8) have already followed in many cases. The absence of strong negative stereotypes among German tax collectors is a result of the analysis of the image of the Polish tax administration. The assessment is diffident near the mean value between the two poles of the semantic differential. The preliminary result is: The Polish tax administration is a European administration.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the external dimension of the European Union&rsquo / s (EU) immigration policy and its implications for transit countries through a comparative study of Turkey and Morocco. The thesis examines the development and institutionalization of the EU&rsquo / s externalization of its immigration policy within a chronological and theoretical context. Applying the theoretical debate concerning &ldquo / Europeanization beyond EU borders&rdquo / , it investigates to what extent the EU has successfully externalised its immigration policy to non-EU members, and what kind of intended and unintended impacts this has had on these countries. The thesis tries to explore both the successes and limits of the Europeanization of Turkey&rsquo / s and Morocco&rsquo / s domestic immigration policies by benchmarking progress in the harmonization of legal contexts, border management, visa policies, readmission agreements and asylum policies in each case. This study reaches similar conclusions concerning Turkey, as a candidate country within the EU&rsquo / s enlargement policy, and Morocco, as a country without membership prospect within the European Neighbourhood Policy, not only in terms of conceptualizing the EU&rsquo / s externalization of its immigration policy, but also for understanding the negative externalities it creates for transit countries which also limit further policy expansion.

European integration was for a long time perceived as an elite-driven project that received public acceptance through what was coined as the permissive consensus. With the expansion of the domain of community actions and capacities, and the turmoil in the ratification processes following changes of the treaties, an increased public contestation over European integration can be observed. European integration now covers policy areas that are more prone to political debate and polarization. The weak public support for the EU has not been matched by electoral support for Eurosceptic parties. Hence, this mismatch increases the political opportunity structures for political entrepreneurs wishing to profit from the public dissent regarding the integration process. This study focuses on the conditions under which European integration is politicized, where politicization refers more specifically to party-politicization. Political parties that oppose the EU and their electoral fortunes are used as a proxy for the politicization of European integration. It is a comparative study over time (1984-2009) and space (14 member states) which assesses the conditional power of a number of enabling and constraining institutional factors that influence the variation in number of Eurosceptic parties, success of those parties, and the success of single-issue Eurosceptic parties over time and space. The analysis demonstrates the importance of the party system features and the use of referendum over European integration for the emergence of party-based Euroscepticism. It also places special emphasis on the combination of factors and their impact on the outcome. The study relates the findings to the democratic credentials of the European Union, with special reference to the role of opposition and representation.

Sweden has since the membership of the European Union established a new Discrimination act and this thesis aim is to discuss if the EU could be a factor that influenced Sweden to that change. This is done through a discussion of how the EU is mentioned in the preparatory works. Preparatory works are used by the Swedish government in policy making before deciding on a new law and is to give a better understanding to the theoretical background and how the policy-making process deals with the effects of the EU policy at national level. To help explain how the EU could be an influential factor the theory of Europeanization and State-feminist theory are applied. These theories are also discussed further on the role norm entrepreneurs’ play and how they use the EU as an opportunity structure. Through the theory of Europeanization it is explained how the he EU directives have been implemented without any adoptational problems and with Sweden meeting the goals of the directives, national legislation has been developed further. Through the governmental bills, signs show that the EU can be a factor of influence in national legislation in Sweden. It has not, however, been stated that the changes of the acts to the current Discrimination act is done by effects of the European Union.

The objective of this thesis is to examine the nature of health care system change in the Czech Republic and Hungary after the collapse of communism. In order to do so, the thesis focuses mainly on Europeanization and New Institutionalism as competing approaches in explaining domestic changes in Central and Eastern European Countries. While doing so, first this study tries to explore whether Europeanization is one of the main determinants in the transition process of the health care systems of the Czech Republic and Hungary and discusses the EU-level policies, laws and regulations related to the health care sector. Second, the study looks through the historical legacy and path dependency theories as branches of the New Institutionalist approaches to investigate the transition of the health care systems of case countries. The review of the related literature and empirical case studies exhibit that the transformation process of the health care systems of the Czech Republic and Hungary were possibly affected by many factors and it would be misleading to attribute all consequences to only one determinant. In this respect, the main argument is that the Europeanization effect is weak compared to the New Institutionalism approach in explaining the transition process of health care systems of Hungary and the Czech Republic / however, there are strong opportunities for EU institutions to shape the future contours v of health care systems and public health programs in Hungary and the Czech Republic.

The objective of this study is to examine the impact of Europeanization of Turkish energy policies on Turkey-EU relations. In order to do so, the thesis focuses mainly on Europeanization as a concept and Europeanization of foreign policy as important features in explaining the changes in the Turkish energy policies. While doing so, first this study tries to explore the European Union energy policies and make an overview of the EU energy production and consumption situation within the energy distribution of the world. Second, the study looks through the Turkish energy policy framework and provides a portrait of Turkey as a key player between energy producer and consumer countries. Also, the relation of Turkish energy policy and EU energy policy are evaluated with respect to the questions: &ldquo / to what extent Turkish energy policies are Europeanized? And what are the possible impacts of Turkish energy policies and their Europeanization of Turkey&rsquo / s quest for the membership?&rdquo / For the first question Europeanization is discussed mainly by Radaelli&rsquo / s definition. The review of the literature and the interviews show that Turkey has contributed much to its Europeanization process regarding the energy policies, and Turkish energy policy making reveal distinctive characteristics of Europeanization. However, for the second question, studies exhibit that there is a discrepancy of ideas among scholars and it is important to counterbalance them properly.

The purpose of this dissertation is to answer &lsquo / if we can live together?&rsquo / , through establishing a historical approach towards the concepts of Europeanization, European identity and the rights of minorities. The main argument reads that within the historical understanding of Europeanization, it is theoretically impossible to speak of a common European identity that European peoples and societies could agree upon. The problem is that such impossibility cannot be explained by the mainstream political identity and Europeanization literature. In this thesis, in order to account for the late-modern European self-definition which is distinguished with its banal character that carries elements from post-modernity yet at the same time is situated on the modern necessities and inventions, &lsquo / social identity&rsquo / and &lsquo / social categorization&rsquo / conceptualizations of Henri Tajfel are addressed. The aim is to communicate between the studies of Europeanization and European identity and the Social Identity Theory that proposes an instant gathering of people through social ingrouping without developing a certain sense of common culture, identity or belongingness. Having set the theoretical ground, the practical consequences of European ingrouping are examined by employing a historical perception of the development of the idea of minorities in Europe. Minorities are the traditional others of European nation-states and they are the outgroups of any social ingrouping for that matter. There are observed two fundamental results of the current European ingrouping-outgrouping on the development of minority right regimes in Europe. On the one hand, there is still the traditional security-oriented perception of national minorities in Europe that is simultaneously exposed to Europeanization and some level of improvement / yet, on the other hand, the European ingrouping itself is causing the minoritization of certain groups, excluding them from the very agenda of Europeanization.

Europeanization has been the subject of various studies in the last decades. It has been operationalized as a historical process, as a cultural diffusion of European values, as a process of institutional adaptation of institutions and lastly as the adaptation of policies. Taking the last approach, this thesis aims to examine the nature and the extent of the impact of the European Union&rsquo / s poverty and social exclusion strategy on Turkish poverty and social exclusion regime in the EU accession process. It takes up a bottom-up research design by employing the domestic change as the dependent and the possible impact of the EU as the independent variable and questions whether and to what extent the EU accession process has an impact on the degree, nature and direction of domestic change in the field of poverty and social exclusion in Turkey in the last decade. It concludes that there has been a change in poverty and social exclusion policies in the last decade to varying degrees with respect to objectives, principles, procedures and instruments / however, the impact of the EU has been limited to policy learning.

Posocialistinių valstybių demokratizacija ir europeizacija gali būti traktuojami kaip ilgalaikiai ir daugialypiai procesai. Ypač todėl, kad fragmentuota ir subordinacinio pobūdžio valstybingumo vystymosi dinamika pokomunistinėse valstybėse sąlygojo žymiai platesnės apimties transformacijos procesus negu, kad tikėjosi klasikinės tranzitologijos atstovai. Todėl susiklosčiusi situacija verčia atidžiau pažvelgti į pokomunistinės valstybės specifiką. Tinkamu analizės objektu galima laikyti Moldovos demokratizacijos ir europeizacijos atvejį. Visų pirma, trapus Moldovos valstybės pagrindas, iš to kylantis skirtingas istorinių-kultūrinių artefaktų vertinimas, susiskaldžiusi pozicija valstybingumo sampratos ir raidos trajektorijų atžvilgiu lemia nevienalytį požiūrį ne tik į tautinę tapatybę, bet ir apskritai sunkina valstybės demokratizacijos ir europeizacijos procesus. Visų antra, Moldovai būdingos ne tik silpnos valstybingumo tradicijos, bet ir politinis ir normatyvinis ankstesnių režimų paveldas, todėl šioje valstybėje ryški demokratinių vertybių įsisąmoninimo problema, lemianti plataus masto korupciją ir sovietinio pobūdžio metodų bei praktikų gyvybingumą įvairiuose valstybės segmentuose. Būtent sovietinės sistemos palikimas – politiškai pasyvi ir abejinga visuomenė, autoritarinio valdymo siekimas, prisidengiant formaliais demokratiniais mechanizmais, silpna ir demokratinių vertybių stokojanti politinė kultūra, trikdo valstybės demokratizaciją kaip ir proeuropietiškas ambicijas... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Democratisation and Europeanisation of Post-socialist states can be regarded as long-lasting and complex processes. Mainly because of fragmented development of statehood and subordination to external states with distinct nature, post-communist states face transformations which are marked with much wider capacity than classical transitologists expected them to be. According to the emerged situation, it enforces to take more accurate glance at the very specific nature of the post-communist state. The case of Moldova democratisation and europeanization perfectly suits these analytical aspirations. First of all, very weak background of Moldovan state determines emergence of distinct opinions about particular historical-cultural artifacts, statehood and possible trajectories of further state development. Division of opinions not only fragments approach towards national identity, but also exacerbates democratisation and europeanisation processes. Secondly, Moldova lacks not only the experience with statehood, but also faces political and normative heritage of ancient regimes. Because of that there are certain problems of implementing democratic values in Moldova. It means struggle with widespread corruption, as well as with the Soviet-style methods and practices. Namely the legacy of the Soviet system, such as a politically passive and apathetic population, authoritarian political aspirations shading with the formal mechanisms of democracy, the weak and poor democratic political... [to full text]