Events 2008
Cross-Border Student Mobility and EU Legitimacy:
The Erasmus effect on European identity and EU support
Research Seminar held by Emmanuel Sigalas,
University of Reading
Date: 18.12.2008 | Time: 11:00
Location: Institute for European Integration Research, Strohgasse 45/DG, 1030 Vienna
Read more...The Erasmus exchange programme is the Commission’s flagship programme in the area of education and one of the most recognisable EU programmes overall. The presentation shows there have always been high expectations from the Erasmus to deliver something more than a pedagogical experience abroad. Broadly in line with Karl Deutsch’s theory of international integration, the Commission envisaged the overseas experience will lead to increased interaction between European students and, consequently, to European integration from below. However, contrary to the expectations of the Commission, Deutsch’s theory and scholars’ views, Erasmus does not automatically foster European identity and EU support. The empirical results are drawn from a longitudinal survey on Erasmus and sedentary students’ attitudes. I show that students from England who studied in continental Europe are likely to feel more attached to Europe and closer to other Europeans. However, continental Europeans who studied in England felt less proud to be European over time. Whilst both Erasmus samples learned more about their host country and improved their foreign language skills, the Erasmus experience failed to instil a European self-identity in either student group. Finally, I explain the particular Erasmus outcome is not due to lack of contact with other Europeans, although students’ contact with locals declined over time, but due to environmental influences that need to be studied further.
Die EU und der Vertrag von Lissabon:
Bestandsaufnahme und zukünftige Entwicklungen
Konferenz zum Vertrag von Lissabon und seine Auswirkungen in verschiedenen EU-Politikfeldern
Date: 4./5.12.2008 | Programm [pdf]
Location:
4.12.2008, 18:00: Theatersaal der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
Sonnenfelsgasse 19, 1010 Wien
5.12.2008, 9:00: Seminarraum des Zentrum Sozialwissenschaften der ÖAW
Wohllebengasse 12-14, 1040 Wien
National Role Conceptions within the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP): Changing Perspectives in an Enlarged EU? The Cases of Poland and Germany 2003-2007
Research Seminar held by Laura Chappell,
University of Birmingham
Date: 03.12.2008 | Time: 14:00
Location: Institute for European Integration Research, Strohgasse 45/DG, 1030 Vienna
Read more...Security and defence issues have become increasingly important for the European Union. Whilst 9/11 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, my 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 are highlighted which acts 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 are 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.
Internationaler Workshop zum Thema der EU-Methode der offenen Koordinierung in verschiedenen Politikfeldern
organisiert von der ehemaligen EIF-Mitarbeiterin Sandra Kröger
Date: 28./29.11.2008 | Time: 09:00 | Programm [pdf]
Location: Alte Schmiede, Schönlaterngasse 9, 1010 Wien
Problem-Solving in Cross-National Polities:
Insights from EU Steel Policy
Research Seminar held by Oliver Buntrock,
University of Bremen
Date: 18.11.2008 | Time: 11:00
Location: Institute for European Integration Research, Strohgasse 45/DG, 1030 Vienna
Read more...The solution of socially perceived problems, like global warming or economic crises, is difficult to achieve within cross-national multilevel polities such as the EU, for example. Thus, how can, within international multilevel polities, societal actors be induced to behave in a way that leads to the desired solution, in situations in which benefits are often diffuse but upfront costs are immediate for the relevant actors? First, I suggest an approach that focuses not only on the actors' behavior but emphasizes the impact of political action. Second, based on the political economy of institutions, I argue that problem-solving depends on the adequate "micro-institutions," as I term them. As this paper outlines, the investigation of the steel crises within the ECSC revealed that the steel firms acted only in the adequate problem-solving manner after adequate micro-institutions had emerged. The argument makes propositions on the conditions under which problems can be solved within multilevel polities. The argument comprises national, supranational, and societal actors on various interaction levels and suggests an explanation for why in multilevel polities some problems can be solved more easily than others. Finally, the argument offers a fresh view on the topic of multilevel governance, supplementing the policy-oriented approach, that most studies are based on, with a polity perspective.
Banking Regulation in the European Union:
Varieties in new and old EU countries
Research Seminar held by Zdenek Kudrna,
Central European University, Budapest
Date: 12.11.2008 | Time: 14:00
Location: Institute for European Integration Research, Strohgasse 45/DG, 1030 Vienna
Read more...We compare the structure of bank regulatory regimes in old and new EU member states (EU15 and EU10). We find that despite general structural convergence, there remain systematic differences. The EU10 regimes provide bank regulators with more power, but less discretion. They rely on more rigid, but simple to enforce rules for loan classification and provisioning and for capital disbursement. EU10 regimes are also more restrictive on banks’ involvement in real estate business.
These structural differences are systematic, as they are present in most EU10 countries, but absent in most EU15 countries. We conjecture that prevailing differences can be explained by legacies of banking transition. The paper provides empirical support for the claim that despite strong tendency for convergence of banking regulatory regimes, there remains policy space for EU countries to address their specific challenges.
From norm adoption to implementation:
The challenge of norm diffusion in Eastern Europe
Research Seminar held by Malte Brosig,
University of Portsmouth
Date: 07.11.2008 | Time: 15:00
Location:
Institute for European Integration Research
Strohgasse 45/DG, 1030 Vienna
Die europäische Außenpolitik gegenüber dem Nahost-Konflikt – ein theoriegeleiteter Vergleich der Politiken der drei großen EU-Mitgliedstaaten
Research Seminar held by Patrick Müller
Institut Français des Relations Internationales,
Paris
Date: 07.11.2008 | Time: 15:00
Location:
Institute for European Integration Research
Strohgasse 45/DG, 1030 Vienna
Dieser Vortrag untersucht die Beiträge der EU-Mitgliedstaaten Frankreich, Deutschland und Großbritannien zur EU-Politik gegenüber dem Nahost-Konflikt, der traditionell ein Schwerpunktthema europäischer Außenpolitik darstellt.
Den Ausgangspunkt der Untersuchung bilden zwei zentrale empirische Beobachtungen. Zum einen fällt auf, dass die Außenpolitiken der drei großen EU-Mitgliedstaaten wesentliche Unterschiede aufweisen. Frankreich strebte eine prominente politische Rolle der EU im israelisch-palästinensischen Friedensprozess an und unterstützte die Vertiefung der europäischen Mittelmeerpolitik zur Stabilisierung der Region. Deutschland und Großbritannien waren hingegen anfänglich bemüht, die Kooperation mit dem Mittelmeerraum in engen Grenzen zu halten und gerade Deutschland bevorzugte eine diplomatische Zurückhaltung der EU im Kontext der israelisch-palästinensischen Beziehungen. Gleichzeitig kam es im Verlauf des Untersuchungszeitraumes (1990-2005) zu einer stärkeren Annäherung der Politiken der großen drei EU-Mitgliedstaaten.
Gestützt auf rationalistische sowie auf sozialkonstruktivistische Ansätze aus dem Bereich der Internationalen Beziehungen (IB) bietet der Vortrag eine theoriegeleitete Erklärung für die beobachteten Unterschiede und die zunehmende Konvergenz im außenpolitischen Verhalten Frankreichs, Deutschlands und Großbritanniens an.
Does the European Union undermine corporatist policy concertation?
The impact of Europeanisation on patterns of policymaking in small European States
Research Seminar held by Alexandre Afonso,
University of Lausanne
Date: 15.09.2008 | Time: 16:00
Location:
Institute for European Integration Research
Strohgasse 45/DG, 1030 Vienna
The Seminar is open to all staff of our institute, all staff of the Social Sciences Research Centre and the "European integration section" of the Austrian Association of Political Science.
ABSTRACT
The research on which the presentation draws upon investigates the impacts of Europeanization (the impact of the EU on national politics, policies and polity) on policy concertation (the participation of representatives of unions, business and the state in decision-making processes) in the domain of labour market regulation in small European states. Twenty years ago, Peter Katzenstein argued that economic dependency in world markets fostered internal cooperation between domestic actors in small states, thereby leading to diverse forms of “democratic corporatism”. Small European states displayed specific governance features characterised by a close cooperation between labour, business and the state to set up negotiated public policies. Does Europeanisation, and particularly its institutional dimension, have the same effects, or does it rather undermine corporatism, leading to more statist or pluralist patterns of policymaking in these countries?
At the methodological level, whereas most studies on Europeanization focus exclusively on “Europeanised” policy sectors, that is, on sectors where the EU produces policies, edicts regulations and funds projects, this piece of research also analyses control cases – domains where the EU’s influence is absent (or weak) – in order to assess if changes (if any) can really be imputed to the EU. To that end, it compares decisions in the regulation of immigration from new EU member states (strongly Europeanised) with decisions on unemployment insurance (weakly Europeanised) in Austria, Ireland and Switzerland. Besides the impact of Europeanization, it also addresses the role of the type of corporatism (social/liberal) on patterns of change in the face of Europeanization.
Artistic Interventions as Cultural Politics. A Contribution to the Debate on a European Public Sphere
Date: 17/18.04.2008 | Location: WUK Währingerstraße 59, 1090 Wien
Read more...Moderation and Comments: Monika Mokre (eif), Simon Sheikh (eipcp)
The workshop was organised by EIF, the Institute for European Integration Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, together with eipcp, european institute for progressive cultural policies. Its main question was the relevance of artistic interventions for the creation of a critical European public sphere.
Starting points of the debates were basal considerations on the role of the public sphere in democracies: Political agency does not constitute of neutral state management but of contestations for power and resources. Political agency becomes public due to controversial debates on its principles and aims. Artistic institutions and individual artists can contribute to such debates and, thus, to a political public sphere.
Against this background concrete artistic practices of political intervention were discussed. Thereby, two kinds of projects were of special interest with regard to the European public sphere, (1) transnational networks and projects, and (2) projects devoted to questions of European identity and history. A prominent example for the first group of projects is the Mayday movement representing the interests of persons without sufficient social security, i.e. people in precarious living and working conditions. Other transnational projects presented during the workshop take a critical position towards EU education politics. With regard to the second type of projects, the film group “remember resistance” presents commented film programs of African directors, on the history of German colonialism, on de-colonization and on migration movements.
Debates focused on two main questions: 1. Do the presented projects, in fact, contribute to the development of public spheres or are they only perceived by people already acquainted with the questions at hand?
2. In which ways do the projects contribute to a European Public Sphere?
The workshop participants agreed that - empirically as well as normatively – the European public sphere can only be understood in the plural, i.e. as partial, partly overlapping public spheres, organised according to local or functional criteria. Thus, also very limited public spheres have to be understood as part of a European public sphere. The presented networks dealing with precarity and education are good examples for transnational public spheres contributing to a specific form of Europeanisation: Their debates of EU developments help to distribute information relevant to the EU and to develop critical positions with a European perspective.
Participants:
Anna Curcio (edufactory)
Aileen Derieg (Gender Changers)
Eva Egermann (manoa free university)
Marcelo Exposito (uninomada)
Rainer Hackauf (Linkes Erstsemestrigentutorium)
Brigitta Kuster (remember resistance)
Katja Reichard (Märkisches Viertel Berlin)
Davide Sacco (EscAtelier)
Katya Sander (UKK Kopenhagen)
Vassilis Tsianos (preclab)
Moderation and Comments: Monika Mokre (eif), Simon Sheikh (eipcp)
Die Offene Methode der Koordinierung:
Ein Autonomie schonendes Instrument der EU?
Vortrag gemeinsam veranstaltet mit dem Institut für Höhere Studien
Date: 11.03.2008 | Time: 16:00 | Einladung [pdf]
Location: Institut für Höhere Studien - Hörsaal II Stumpergasse 56, 1060 Wien
Read more...Die Offene Methode der Koordinierung (OMK) wurde im Jahr 2000 im Zuge der Lissabon Strategie eingeführt und hat die interessierte Politikwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik seitdem massiv beschäftigt. Der Hintergrund ihrer Einführung ist der eines strukturellen Dilemmas europäischer Sozialpolitik. Einerseits ist der Weg in Richtung positiver Integration aufgrund des Subsidiaritätsprinzips und hoher Konsenserfordernisse blockiert. Andererseits gibt es einen hohen Reformdruck auf die Sozialschutzsysteme der Mitgliedsstaaten, um diese international wettbewerbsfähig zu halten und die Effekte der Marktintegration zu mildern. Vor diesem Hintergrund setzt die OMK auf weiche Prozedere des Lernens, um das Subsidiaritätsprinzip nicht zu hinterfragen, aber die Möglichkeit einer Markt korrigierenden Politik nicht aus dem Auge zu verlieren. Die wesentlichen theoretischen und empirischen Fragen der OMK werden behandelt und Forschungsergebnisse, die sich auf die OMK Inklusion beziehen, vorgestellt.
Sandra Kröger studierte in Berlin, Paris und Freiburg (Diplome in Sozialwissenschaften und interdisziplinären Frankreichstudien). 2008 Promotion an der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. Jüngere Publikationen: Fischer, R., Karrass, A., Kröger, S. (Hg.), 2007, Die Europäische Kommission und die Zukunft der EU: Ideenfabrik zwischen europäischem Auftrag und nationalen Interessen. Budrich: Opladen, 2007. Kröger, S., 2007, The end of democracy as we know it? The legitimacy deficits of bureaucratic social policy governance. Journal of European Integration 29 (5), 562-582.
Vienna as a Locus of Change in Intra-EU Diplomacy?
Roundtable Discussion
Date: 07.02.2008 | Time: 13:30-16:00| Invitation [pdf]
Location: Diplomatic Academy Favoritenstrasse 15a, 1040 Vienna
