Events 2010
VIENNA LECTURE ON THE EUROPEAN UNION:
All but Membership? The EU’s Relations with its Neighbours
Public lecture by Sandra Lavenex, Universität Luzern
and Dirk Lehmkuhl, Universität St. Gallen
Date: 22.11.2010 | Time: 17:00 | Invitation [pdf]
Place:
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Sitzungssaal, 1. Stock
Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Wien: How to get there
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Until the 1990s, the process of European integration evolved within a relatively stable territory, delimited by the EU member states. Several rounds of enlargement had not hampered the slow but steady deepening of the EU´s acquis communautaire. Both widening and deepening significantly contributed to a transformation of interactions on the European continent.
In contrast to the internal perspective of European integration thatfilled libraries with academic studies and reports, the external dimension has only recently come to the center of analysis. Whereas the integration project has produced externalities early on, especially since the 1990s, the interdependence between the EU and countries outside the circle of member states has grown and the EU has engaged in an active promotion of its norms and rules beyond its borders. But the relationship between the EU and its neighbours is anything by simple and involves different arrangements such as the European Economic Area, Swiss- EU bilateralism, the stabilization and enlargement policy towards the candidate countries of the Western Balkans, or the European Neighbourhood Policy. In order to cope with the increasing variety of EU external affairs with its neighbours, we address the characteristics of different arrangements in both conceptual and empirical terms by referring to a number of case studies including air transport, competition, environment and migration policies. What is more, we ask whether or not different forms of interaction offer opportunities for organizational inclusion into the EU´s system of governance.
VIENNA LECTURE ON THE EUROPEAN UNION:
Evolutionary Dynamics of the EU System:
The European Council as a Motor of the Member States’ Fusion Process
Public lecture by Wolfgang Wessels
Universität zu Köln
Date: 08.11.2010 | Time: 17:00 | Invitation [pdf]
Place:
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Sitzungssaal, 1. Stock
Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Wien: How to get there
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This lecture explores the fundamental question how to explain the unpredictable and perhaps also unintended dynamic of the European system, which has developed from the original six member states of the European Community to an enlarged EU-27 with a state-like agenda. My answer: the institutionalized summits are the key to explain the evolution. At the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s, and in more than 110 meetings of the European Council since 1975, the heads of state and government have used the EU system to address economic and political challenges at the international and domestic level. Based on a problem solving ‘instinct’ – sometimes slowed down or modified by a ‘sovereignty reflex’ – the ‘Masters of the Treaty’, represented by their highest political executives, have ‘fused’ procures and policies in many different ways. Intergovernmental in its composition, the European Council has time and again initiated EU policies and decided on a de facto basis to strengthen the role of supranational institutions. Central aspects of the functioning of the European Council and its democratic legitimacy will be discussed in the light of this dynamic.
VIENNA LECTURE ON THE EUROPEAN UNION:
Transposition of EU Directives in New Member States:
Can Departmental Oversight Improve Performance?
Public lecture by Radoslav Zubek
Oxford University
Followed by the presentation of an innovative EIF database on research findings
regarding EU policy implementation, by Dimiter Toshkov (Leiden University)
Date: 27.10.2010 | Time: 17:00 | Invitation [pdf]
Place:
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Sitzungssaal, 1. Stock
Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Wien: How to get there
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The extent to which member states transpose EU directives in a timely fashion is often
argued to be strongly associated with the general effectiveness of national
bureaucracies. But what kind of institutional solutions ensure better performance? This
paper examines the patterns and effects of departmental oversight across 28 ministries
in Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. In mapping the strength of oversight, it
relies on around 90 structured interviews regarding the rules-in-use on transposition
planning, legal review and monitoring of deadlines. The analysis of the impact of
departmental oversight is based on an original dataset of over 300 directives with
transposition deadlines between January 2005 and December 2008.
VIENNA LECTURE ON THE EUROPEAN UNION:
Financial Services Regulation in the European Union:
"New Politics" after the Crisis?
Public lecture by Lucia Quaglia
University of Sussex, UK
Date: 21.06.2010 | Time: 17:00 | Invitation
[pdf]
Place:
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Sitzungssaal, 1. Stock
Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Wien: How to get there
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more...
This presentation will examine the ‘internal’ and ‘external’ regulatory response of
the European Union (EU) to the global financial crisis, addressing the questions of whether,
how and why the global financial crisis has changed the existing politics of financial services
regulation and resulted in the emergence of a 'new politics'. The internal dimension will
explore the politics of the new or revised financial rules adopted or proposed by the EU.
The external dimension will look at the EU action in international regulatory fora in the
wake of the global financial crisis.
VIENNA LECTURE ON THE EUROPEAN UNION:
NATO & ESDP: Institutional arrangements and political realities
Public lecture by Jolyon Howorth
Yale University
Date: 09.06.2010 | Time: 16:00 | Invitation
[pdf]
Place:
Festsaal der Diplomatischen Akademie
Favoritenstraße 15a, 1040 Wien: How to get there
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It is often said that relations between the two main security entities in Europe are
dysfunctional. Turkey has succeeded for years in blocking greater cooperation between NATO
and ESDP. But the institutional arrangements (blocked at the higher level but working well
on the ground) are only a small problem compared with the political issues. As the debate
on NATO's new strategic concept has revealed, the US and the EU have very different perceptions
of NATO's purpose. It is far easier to reach consensus on the operationalisation of ESDP
than of NATO. What is the future for these two entities in the post-Lisbon era?
VIENNA LECTURE ON THE EUROPEAN UNION:
The European Union in search of political identity and legitimacy
Public lecture by Vivien Schmidt
Boston University
Date: 08.06.2010 | Time: 17:00 | Invitation
[pdf]
Place:
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Sitzungssaal, 1. Stock
Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Wien: How to get there
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more...
The problems of identity and legitimacy in the EU are significant, but tangentially
interconnected. The problems for EU identity derive not solely from the fact that European
citizens have not developed much sense of being European because they have not been doing
a lot in the EU; it is also that national elites have not been saying much about what the
EU has been doing - except in moments of crisis. The problems for legitimacy derive not only
from the ways in which the EU works - with more emphasis on ‘output’ for the people than ‘input’ by
the people. It is also that the EU’s development challenges nationally constructed identities
at the same time that it alters the traditional workings of national democracy. And this
in turn adds to problems for citizen identification with the EU and their perceptions of
its legitimacy. So the question is: would politicizing the EU help build more identity and
legitimacy? Or would this only increase the problems?
Researchers’ Workshop:
Methods in political science and comparative legal studies
Date: 26.04.2010 | Time: 14:00 | Place: on
request
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more...
Brief introductory statements
Thomas Thiede (Institute for European Tort Law)
Nicole Alecu de Flers, Manos Sigalas, Florian Trauner (Institute for European Integration
Research)
General discussion of
a) disciplinary developments over time
b) commonalities and differences between the disciplines
Moderation:
Peter Slominski (Institute for European Integration Research)
Organized and hosted by Institute for European Integration Research, ÖAW
Kriterien der Exzellenz und Evaluierungen:
Internationale Perspektiven
Mit dieser Podiumsdiskussion setzt das Zentrum Sozialwissenschaften der ÖAW seine Reihe
zu „Exzellenz und Evaluierung“ fort und schließt an die Diskussion über „disziplinäre
Perspektiven“ vom 15. Dezember 2009 an.
Date: 19.04.2010 | Time: 10:00 | Invitation
[pdf]
Place: Sitzungssaal des ÖAW-Hauptgebäudes, 1. Stock, Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2, 1010
Wien: How
to get there
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Geplant sind Statements von hochrangigen Persönlichkeiten der internationalen Forschung
im Bereich des Zentrums Sozialwissenschaften zu folgender Fragen:
- Welche Kriterien gelten in Ihrem Land (bzw. in ihrer Einrichtung, im Fall des European
Research Council) als allgemein oder partiell anerkannter Maßstab für Exzellenz in den Sozialwissenschaften?
- In welchem Verhältnis stehen verschiedene Kriterien zueinander, etwa: verschiedene Publikationsformen
(Bücher versus Journals; print versus online; englisch deutsch; begutachtet ja/nein), Zitationen,
Drittmittelakquise, etc.?
- Gab es im Bereich wissenschaftlicher Exzellenz und Evaluierung eine Entwicklung im Zeitverlauf,
und welche Lehren können aus den verschiedenen Phasen Ihrer Meinung nach gezogen werden?
Im Anschluss an die Panelstatements ist ausreichend Time für mehrere Frage- und Diskussionsrunden
unter Beteiligung des Publikums vorgesehen. Alle Mitarbeitenden des Zentrums Sozialwissenschaften
sind besonders eingeladen sich hier einzubringen.
Podiumsteilnehmende:
• André Gingrich (European Research Council, ÖAW, Universität Wien)
• Mitglieder des Beirats des Zentrums Sozialwissenschaften der ÖAW und des Zentrums zu den
Erfahrungen in mehreren europäischen Ländern
Zielgruppe:
Alle Mitarbeitenden der Institute des Zentrums sowie ÖAW-Mitglieder
Ort / Zeit:
Sitzungssaal des ÖAW-Hauptgebäudes, 1. Stock, Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Wien
Veranstalter:
Zentrum Sozialwissenschaften der ÖAW
Organisation: Institut für europäische Integrationsforschung (EIF) der ÖAW
Widerstände bei der nationalen Umsetzung von EU Recht?
Research Seminar held by Moritz Knoll,
Universität Konstanz
Date: 25.02.2010 | Time: 11:00 | Place: on
request
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Warum kommt es bei der Implementation von EU Rechtsakten zu Problemen? Liegt dies an
dem fehlenden Willen oder an der mangelnden Fähigkeit der Mitgliedsstaaten?
Anhand einer quantitativen Analyse von Vertragsverletzungsverfahren der EU wurden diese Fragen
beantwortet. Eine Innovation dieser Studie stellt die zusätzliche Überprüfung der Hypothesen
anhand 7 verschiedener Rechtsbereiche dar. Dies ermöglicht erstmals den sektoralen Vergleich
der Wirkungszusammenhänge bei der Implementation von europäischen Rechtsakten. Die Ergebnisse
zeigen, dass große Unterschiede zwischen den einzelnen Rechtsbereichen existieren.
Es konnte auch aufgezeigt werden, dass die Ergebnisse der bisherigen quantitativen Implementationsforschung
durch den "Mamamia-Effekt" gravierend verfälscht wurden.
Podiumsdiskussion: Die Energiesicherheit der EU
TeilnehmerInnen:
Peter Slominski (Institut für europäische Integrationsforschung, ÖAW):
Die Energiesicherheit in der politikwissenschaftlichen Debatte
Roland Götz (ehem. Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Berlin):
Die Energiebeziehungen zwischen der EU und Russland
Christian Dolezal (Nabucco-Pipeline Konsortium):
Der Beitrag des Nabucco-Projekts zur Energiesicherheit Europas
Stephan Renner (Austrian Energy Agency):
Energiesicherheit und Nachhaltigkeit
Diskussionsleitung: Gerda Falkner (Direktorin EIF)
Date: 27.01.2010 | Time: 18:00 | Invitation
[pdf]
Place:
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Theatersaal
Sonnenfelsgasse 19/I, 1010 Wien: How
to get there
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Eine gesicherte Energieversorgung ist für das wirtschaftliche Wohlergehen und die
politische Stabilität Europas unabdingbar. Der überwiegende Anteil der von den
EU-Mitgliedstaaten verwendeten Energie, insbesondere Erdöl und Erdgas, muss jedoch aus
Drittstaaten importiert werden. Russland nimmt diesbezüglich eine herausragende Position
ein. Ausgehend von einer begrifflichen Klärung von Energiesicherheit widmet sich die
Veranstaltung der konfliktträchtigen Energiebeziehung zwischen der EU und Russland sowie
der Rolle des zukünftigen Gas-Pipeline-Projekts „Nabucco“
das die Abhängigkeit der EU von Russland reduzieren soll. Jenseits der klassischen Geopolitik
wird auch die oftmals übersehene Frage diskutiert, inwieweit Nachhaltigkeit (d.h. Energieeffizienz
und erneuerbare Energien) auch einen Beitrag zur europäischen Energiesicherheit liefern
kann und soll.
In Kooperation mit der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Politikwissenschaft (ÖGPW)
The Implementation of EU Law:
How much do we know, how contradictory are the findings?
Public lecture by Dimiter Toshkov,
Leiden University
Date: 18.01.2010 | Time: 17:00 | Invitation
[pdf]
Place:
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Sitzungssaal, 1. Stock
Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Wien: How
to get there
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more...
This lecture presents a literature review of all quantitative (statistical) studies of
compliance with EU law. It introduces a new online database (published at the website of
the Institute for European Integration Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences) which
presents a detailed and comprehensive overview and classification of the existing quantitative
research on transposition and implementation of EU directives in the member states. The study
discusses and compares the different conceptualizations and operationalizations of compliance
used, the list and specifications of the explanatory variables included in the models, the
hypotheses proposed, and, most importantly, the findings of the literature.
While the academic field has made progress in terms of assessing the scale and dimensions
of the transposition failures in the EU, the causal inferences that the existing literature
suggests are often weakly supported and sometimes contradictory when all studies are considered.
The literature review suggests that only causal relationships that are specific for a certain
time period, policy area, country, or type of legislation can be supported by empirical data,
which means that broad generalizations about compliance in the EU might be impossible to
uncover. The paper also suggests that decomposing the implementation process into its component
stages, incorporating more rigorously the interactions between the Commission and the member
states, and paying closer attention to the multilevel structure of the data in the statistical
models can benefit future research on compliance in the EU.
The European Union policy cycle, its member states and its regions: patterns of interaction
from the pre to the post legislative phase
Research Seminar held by Michaël Tatham,
European University Institute Florence
Date: 18.01.2010 | Time: 14:30 | Place: on
request
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There are more and more regions in the EU and these regions have more and more powers.
As a consequence, the overlap in competences between the EU and its regions has increased
hence heightening the incentive for regions to interact with the EU polity. In this presentation
I explore various patterns of interaction during the EU policy cycle. The presentation has
two unequal parts. In the first 30 minutes, I summarise the main findings of my PhD thesis
which analysed the pattern of interaction between state and sub-state (i.e. regional) interest
representation in the EU. Three types of patterns are ex ante defined: cooperation, non-interaction
and conflict. Using mixed-methods, I argue that devolution levels matter most in determining
this pattern. The greater the level of devolution, the more frequent cooperation and the
more infrequent non-interaction. Though it has a weaker effect, party politics also matters
in that party political incongruence increases the frequency of non-interaction and decreases
that of cooperation. The determinants of the least frequent outcome, conflict, are different
and have to do with sub-state absolute and relative resource richness.
In the last 10 minutes, I summarise the main elements of a project exploring the determinants
of mal-implementation of EU environmental law at the regional level. This project proposes
a large-n statistical analysis which will combine regional-level and country-level explanans
of malimplementation. Mal-implementation is here defined by non-communication, non-conformity
or bad application of EU environmental legislation. Though it is still in its infancy, I
will outline both the strong points and the weaknesses of the project as it currently stands.
