Contemporary European Politics最新文献

{"title":"The Role of EU Structural Funds in Building Capacity and Promoting Reconciliation: The Example of the Museum Sector in Derry/Londonderry","authors":"Charlotte Barcat","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70013","url":null,"abstract":"<p>EU Structural Funds have played a major part in the Northern Ireland peace process, with over £2.3 billion pounds being channelled through programmes such as the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) and, from 1995, the successive ‘PEACE’ programmes (Special Support Programmes for Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland). The impact has been particularly visible in the city of Derry/Londonderry. This paper proposes to look at the impact of ERDF and PEACE on the museum sector in the city, drawing on articles from the local press as well as interviews with key actors (project managers, current museum staff and former staff members). The first part focuses on the Tower Museum, Derry/Londonderry's civic museum inaugurated in 1992. It shows how the awarding of ERDF funding made it possible for the city to finally set up its first museum since 1945—putting an end to a long-standing anomaly, which had been identified as a priority from at least the 1970s. The new museum was explicitly given a role in favouring reconciliation, through an inclusive approach to the city's history. The second part looks at the Siege Museum, which could be called a ‘sectional’ museum, as it is run by the Apprentice Boys of Derry, the main loyalist organisation in the city. Again, we will see that the absence of a museum to represent the loyalist narrative had long been lamented, but successive plans to create one had always run into difficulties. PEACE III funding led to the museum finally being opened in 2016, again with the aim of fostering cross-community understanding. In the third and final part, we will see that the subsequent programme, PEACE IV, then built upon this foundation, providing funds for projects that combined the two ‘sectional’ museums of the city—the Siege Museum and the Museum of Free Derry. The opening of the Siege Museum opened up opportunities to combine both political traditions, in particular within a project known as the ‘Derry Model’ (officially, the Conflict Transformation and Peace Building project), which uses the two museums as a resource for reconciliation work. Overall, this paper shows how successive grants of EU funds have played a key part in helping the city build a very solid, well-rounded offer in the museum sector, allowing the realization of projects that had long been recognised as necessary, yet had been hindered by the difficulty of finding appropriate funding. This capacity-building then allowed more projects to flourish, which showcase the city's expertise in peacebuilding.</p>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"3 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70013","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144197534","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mobilising on Migration? Linkages of Migration and European Integration in Four Irish EU Referendums","authors":"Kristine Graneng","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70012","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In a Europe where contestation over migration and European integration has become increasingly connected, Ireland seems to be an outlier. Whereas European integration has been a politicised issue in Ireland, not least in the context of four consecutive referendums on EU treaties in the early 2000s, politicisation of immigration has traditionally been low in Ireland. But while previous studies suggest that this has also been the case during EU referendums, the debates on the Treaty of Nice seem to be an exception. Ireland's status as an outlier in Western Europe and the variation across referendums makes the Irish referendums an ideal case for exploring the relationship between politicisation of migration and European integration. This article examines and explains to what extent and how migration has been discursively linked to European integration in the four Irish EU referendums in the period 2001–2009. Based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of political claims in Irish newspapers, I argue that pre-existing national discourses on migration and European integration, which have been predominantly positive in Ireland, have generally hindered the mobilisation of anti-immigration sentiments against the EU. The Nice II referendum is an exception, highlighting how not even Ireland is immune to such politicisation. My analysis shows how domestic radical right actors played an important part in mobilising such linkages, but also how the responses of other actors contributed to making migration a more salient issue. The article offers novel empirical insights into the politicisation of migration in Ireland, and also advances our general understanding of the dynamics behind the politicisation of migration in relation to European integration.</p>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"3 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70012","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144085049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The EU's ‘Ever Closer Union’: Ideals and Contradictions of a Civilian Empire","authors":"Ulf Hedetoft","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70009","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Most explanations of the European Union (EU) have dealt with it as a kind of (con)federation, a multi-level construction, a peculiar blend of supranational and intergovernmental features, or a neo-functional set-up. Some regard the EU as an empire of sorts, but either this perspective is drowned out by approaches privileging a ‘normative power’ reading, or it is applied solely, respectively mainly, to the behaviour of the EU towards its ‘near abroad’. This focus on externaIities is both necessary and important, but it does not capture the full picture. This article argues that the EU <i>generically</i> is best understood as a neo-imperial construct, also in its <i>internal</i> dealings, its requirements on member states to respect its norms and values and accept the limitations of national sovereignty, which EU membership implies. This ‘normative regime’ invariably leads to disagreements and open conflicts between centre and periphery. In one case, that of the UK, these conflicts have led to the British withdrawal from the EU. In others—here represented by Central Europe—to ongoing and bitter recriminations over the rule of law and the very nature of the EU as a collaborative venture. At the centre of all this we find Germany, as the clearest beneficiary of the civilian European empire. This empire, however, is vulnerable. Not just is it internally exposed to the pressure of member states and movements that prefer a union which makes fewer inroads into national sovereignty; it is simultaneously challenged by a global context which calls for the EU to take on a more independent, less subdued and more militant role in world politics. Hence, the EU—faced with external threats of different orders (the USA, Russia, China)—is currently trying to effect a transition from a civilian empire based on peaceful, democratic ideals to a more traditional, old-school empire based on hard power. Whether it has the proper instruments to do this, if the centre is strong enough to hold, only time can tell. What is certain is that these ambitions have added new contradictions and dilemmas to the agenda of a civilian empire with visible growing pains, in which the voices of dissatisfaction and open resistance are on the rise.</p>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"3 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70009","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143909210","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Far Right Partisanship and Confidence in the United Nations and European Union Across the Nordic Countries","authors":"Michael A. Hansen,&nbsp;Anna Kronlund,&nbsp;Waltteri Immonen","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70008","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Research finds a link between far-right political partisanship and attitudes towards transnational institutions among European citizens—mainly in relation to the European Union (EU). Citizens that support far-right parties tend to view the European Union as unjustly subverting national sovereignty, which leads to a higher level of Euroskepticism when compared to supporters of most mainstream parties. In this study, our contribution is that we explore whether the negative attitudes far-right party supporters have towards the European Union extend towards the United Nations (UN). We utilize the joint Wave 5 European Values Study (EVS)/World Values Survey (WVS) Wave 7 to estimate multiple regression models predicting confidence in the EU and UN across the Nordic countries. The results confirm previous studies showing that confidence in the EU is lower among far-right partisans. In addition, the results demonstrate that although smaller in size, there are many instances where far-right partisans also have less confidence in the UN. The analysis shows that far-right partisans' lack of confidence in supranational organizations also extends to transnational institutions, which is an important area of inquiry given the UN's role in mitigating current global crises.</p>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"3 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70008","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143840559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Controlled Loss of Control: The Articulation of Resilience as ‘Empty Signifier’ in EU and NATO Policies","authors":"Alexandra M. Friede","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70006","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Resilience is frequently used in EU and NATO policies; policy interventions have been designed to make subjects and objects more resilient. This article critically examines the articulation of resilience as an ‘empty signifier’ in EU and NATO policies, drawing on poststructuralist theory to problematise what resilience is represented to be. A critical methodology to policy analysis allows to question why resilience moved up the EU's and NATO's policy agenda in times of existential crises. This article contends that resilience signifies a controlled loss of control. Seemingly paradoxically, resilience stands for an unfulfilled demand. The EU and NATO frame resilience as the antidote to internal vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities have been publicly disclosed after recent exogenous shocks: the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia's 2014 and 2022 invasions of Ukraine. The emptiness of resilience makes it a powerful discursive tool, enabling a wide range of policy interventions to materialise.</p>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70006","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143565087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Between Different National Preferences and Conflicting Policy Objectives: The Difficulties in Establishing a Common European Energy Policy","authors":"Lucas Schramm","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70001","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In view of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the global climate emergency, a strengthening of the common energy policy of the European Union (EU) seems more urgent than ever. Already in the decades before, the EU had repeatedly announced ambitious objectives to provide secure, competitive, and sustainable energy to businesses and consumers. To date, however, it often falls short of meeting such objectives. This article scrutinizes the main obstacles in the definition and realization of a common energy policy. It argues that two key factors—different national preferences and conflicting policy objectives—account for the difficulties. The article, relying on a careful assessment of primary documents like European Council conclusions and communications by the European Commission, documents the relevance of these two factors and how they have played out over the past 50 years of European energy policy.</p>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143565086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Transferring the Social Market Economy to the EC: A New German Methodenstreit","authors":"Mathieu Dubois","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70005","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The construction of the European social model (the Social Market Economy) is often approached as a gradual compromise between various political forces and currents of economic thought. This article argues that a third decisive factor also needs to be taken into greater account: diplomacy. From a historical perspective, it stresses the importance of reassessing Germany's underestimated role in the spread of liberalism within the European model. It highlights the fundamental method dispute (<i>Methodenstreit</i>) in German European policy from Rom to Maastricht that ended in the choice of a diplomatic strategy based on transferring the German economic and social model to the EC. Using unpublished government sources, it fills a gap between the study of the intellectual origins of the European economic and social model and its institutionalisation within the EU.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"2 3-4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143119848","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Football Effect: Comparing European Identity Between Fans and Non-Fans","authors":"Tobias Finger,&nbsp;Jonas Biel,&nbsp;Daniel Stockemer,&nbsp;Arne Niemann,&nbsp;Vincent Reinke,&nbsp;Jens Jungblut,&nbsp;Radosław Kossakowski,&nbsp;Ramon Llopis-Goig,&nbsp;Dobrosław Mańkowski","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70003","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The formation of European identities is a pivotal issue for the cohesion of the European community in times of multiple crises. Based on theories of identity formation through habitualisation, we posit that football fandom—a ubiquitous, emotional, strongly Europeanised activity in everyday life—holds unique potential for fostering a sense of a shared European identity. Football fandom provides habitual contact, interaction and experiences of Europe, shaping fans' European identity formations. We use new representative survey data from four European countries (Germany, Norway, Poland, and Spain) to examine the relationship between football fandom and various dimensions of European identity. The results largely support our hypotheses, demonstrating that football fans exhibit stronger attachments to Europe and the EU, greater support for European integration and a more positive assessment of EU membership than non-fans.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"2 3-4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70003","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143112849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Political long-termism and the European Union: Five research questions for the future","authors":"Benjamin Leruth","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70000","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article introduces the concept of political long-termism, defined as the conscious choice to prioritise the future consequences of today's political actions over their short-term benefits and emphasises its relevance in the realm of European Studies. It contends that the European Union (EU), in theory, possesses the potential to address creeping crises more effectively than its member states, while acknowledging the varying degrees of support for political long-termism within different EU institutions. The article advocates for additional research to explore the EU and international organisations' role in fostering political long-termism, an area that has seen limited empirical investigation. To do so, it proposes five research questions as a starting point to establish political long-termism as a subdiscipline of European Studies. As such, it aims to set the agenda by shedding light on the intertemporal aspect of EU politics.</p>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"2 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70000","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142230981","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sources of the European Union's regulatory influence on digital platform firms: Lessons from three Google antitrust cases","authors":"Hikaru Yoshizawa","doi":"10.1002/cep4.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.13","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Various studies have highlighted the considerable regulatory influence of the European Union (EU) on digital platform (DP) firms. However, the role of stakeholders in individual competition cases remains underexplored. To fill this gap, this article draws on the conceptual framework of Market Power Europe and contends that the main sources of the European Commission's influence in this field are not only the EU's market size and regulatory capacity but also relevant market information provided by stakeholders such as consumer groups, business associations, and the target firm's competitors. Market information helps the Commission alleviate the problem of information asymmetry and effectively regulate complex and fast-moving areas such as DP markets. A close analysis of three Google antitrust cases concluded between 2017 and 2019 provides initial empirical evidence supporting this conclusion. Overall, this study contributes to the literature on EU competition policy and greater understanding of the global political economy in relation to DP firms.</p>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"2 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.13","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141608020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}