Jcms-Journal of Common Market Studies最新文献

{"title":"Norm Contestation in EU Foreign Policy: The Case of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights","authors":"Diego Badell","doi":"10.1111/jcms.13622","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jcms.13622","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The EU considers gender equality fundamental to its identity, with Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) playing a crucial role. This article delves into the contested aspects of EU foreign policy concerning SRHR from 1997 to 2021. Through document analysis and 18 semi-structured interviews, it discerns three phases of contestation. Between 1997 and 2017, contestation was institutionalised within the EU, and the norm was reinforced. However, from 2017 to 2020, validity contestation arose as Hungary, Poland and the United States formed an alliance opposing SRHR, resulting in their symbolic exclusion from the EU's normative community. In 2021, within a less polarised international context (with the United States returning to consensus on SRHR), Hungary and Poland reaffirmed their commitment to the EU's SRHR consensus, highlighting the resilience of the norm.</p>","PeriodicalId":51369,"journal":{"name":"Jcms-Journal of Common Market Studies","volume":"64 3","pages":"1190-1203"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jcms.13622","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140977457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fiscal Consolidation and Support for the Common Currency","authors":"Nicola Nones,&nbsp;Melle Scholten","doi":"10.1111/jcms.70064","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jcms.70064","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The existence of a common currency and further integration within the European Monetary Union crucially depends on public legitimacy. As a response to the Global Financial Crisis and subsequent Sovereign Bond crisis, several European governments have implemented fiscal consolidation policies in an attempt to restore investors' confidence. According to its critics, though, austerity has also weakened public confidence in the European Union and its most visible economic symbol, the euro. Unfortunately, the simultaneity of recessions and fiscal consolidation makes it hard to disentangle the two effects empirically. Does austerity really decrease public support for the euro, or are they both explained by the macroeconomy? In this paper, we attempt to solve this puzzle relying on a rich dataset of fiscal adjustments that are weakly exogenous to the business cycle. The statistical analysis of a panel of 19 European countries and Eurobarometer surveys conducted therein between 2004 and 2019 suggests that fiscal consolidation in general, and expenditure-based fiscal consolidation more specifically, affected support for the Euro negatively but that this effect is modest. We also find that these effects are conditional on both individuals' self-placement on the political spectrum and their employment status.</p>","PeriodicalId":51369,"journal":{"name":"Jcms-Journal of Common Market Studies","volume":"64 3","pages":"1089-1112"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jcms.70064","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147685912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"European Green Deal and Geopoliticisation of Trade: A Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis of EU Agricultural Trade Policy","authors":"Mari Carlson","doi":"10.1111/jcms.70036","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jcms.70036","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Drawing on Laclau and Mouffe's poststructuralist discourse theory, this article critically examines the von der Leyen Commission's agricultural trade policy under the European Green Deal. It elucidates the shift from a dominant neoliberal trade logic to open strategic autonomy, positioning agricultural trade as a foreign policy instrument. The article argues that the Commission has inverted the logic of justification by prioritising environmental sustainability and strategically deploying the discursive strategy of environmental othering. Whilst economic growth remains central to internal justifications, it is strategically excluded from external discourse. Instead, external justification relies on legal framing and the portrayal of the environmental crisis as a universally acknowledged but manageable threat. The article concludes that the EU's revised approach risks accelerating global fragmentation and fostering a trend towards rising unilateralism.</p>","PeriodicalId":51369,"journal":{"name":"Jcms-Journal of Common Market Studies","volume":"64 3","pages":"1113-1134"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jcms.70036","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Politicisation and Agricultural (Post-)Exceptionalism in EU–Mercosur Association Agreement Negotiations","authors":"Emilio Del Pupo","doi":"10.1111/jcms.70028","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jcms.70028","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article examines how the politicisation of EU trade policy – defined by heightened public salience, stakeholder polarisation and contestation – reshapes agricultural lobbying strategies, with a particular focus on the EU–Mercosur Association Agreement. It argues that sustainability has become a central terrain of discursive contestation, strategically mobilised by agricultural interest groups to reinforce protectionist claims under new political and regulatory conditions. Drawing on discursive postfunctionalism, the analysis traces how EU institutions, national governments and sectoral lobbies frame sustainability as a response to politicisation. Empirically, the article draws on documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews to show how agricultural actors align with broader narratives around climate change, deforestation and food safety to legitimise opposition to liberalisation. Theoretically, it contributes to the literature on EU trade policy by refining the concepts of politicisation and post-exceptionalism and foregrounding the strategic use of sustainability rhetoric in shaping trade outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":51369,"journal":{"name":"Jcms-Journal of Common Market Studies","volume":"64 3","pages":"980-1000"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jcms.70028","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The EU's China Strategies: A Hedging Framework for Analysis","authors":"Øystein Tunsjø","doi":"10.1111/jcms.13749","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jcms.13749","url":null,"abstract":"<p>By drawing on the concept of hedging, this article develops an analytical framework that conceptualises and explains adjustments in the EU's China strategies since the end of the Cold War. It argues that the EU's China strategy shifted from co-operative to extensive hedging in the post-Cold War era and shifted from extensive to conflictive hedging in a new US–China bipolar system. Divided into four parts, the article first notes that despite a contemporary US–China bipolar system, the EU has maintained a general strategy of hedging towards China. The second part of the article defines and conceptualises hedging and provides a hedging framework for analysis based on three different types of hedging strategies. The third part explains the shift in the EU's China strategy from co-operative to extensive hedging in the post-Cold War era. The fourth part contends that the EU has adjusted from extensive to conflictive hedging in a new US–China bipolar system. The conclusion notes that the Soviet Union posed an overwhelming threat to Western Europe during the previous bipolar system, which compelled the European Economic Community towards containment and balancing. China represents much more of a risk than a threat to the EU in the new bipolar system, which allows the EU to sustain a hedging strategy and prioritise de-risking.</p>","PeriodicalId":51369,"journal":{"name":"Jcms-Journal of Common Market Studies","volume":"64 3","pages":"956-979"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Hungary's Populist Government and the Contestation of EU Foreign Policy Co-Operation at the United Nations: Dogs That Bark Do Not Bite?","authors":"Carla Monteleone,&nbsp;Patrick Müller,&nbsp;Tatiana Coutto","doi":"10.1111/jcms.13706","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jcms.13706","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article provides an analysis of Hungary's role in EU foreign policy co-operation at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in the period from its accession to the EU in 2004 till 2021, which involved the shift from mainstream parties to successive governments led by the populist radical right (PRR) Fidesz party. Shifting attention to norm contestation in EU foreign policy co-operation, it examines the extent to which Hungary's PRR government has contested or adapted to the EU's culture of co-operation in its UNGA voting behaviour. Our empirical analysis compares Hungary's voting record at the UNGA under the PRR government that gained power in 2010 to both previous mainstream governments in Hungary and mainstream governments in other EU member states. The article shows that populist contestation dynamics at the level of foreign policy behaviour are more limited than often assumed, whilst also pointing to the robustness of key procedural Common Foreign and Security Policy norms.</p>","PeriodicalId":51369,"journal":{"name":"Jcms-Journal of Common Market Studies","volume":"64 3","pages":"1204-1222"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jcms.13706","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686366","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Asymmetrical Political Ethics of the European Parliament: Responding to Undemocratically Elected Representatives from Backslid(ing) EU Member States","authors":"Attila Mráz","doi":"10.1111/jcms.70039","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jcms.70039","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper offers a novel, productive approach to political ethics in the European Parliament (EP), assuming some of its members (MEPs) are elected undemocratically in member states severely affected by democratic backsliding. It explores the normative foundations of how other MEPs should deal with undemocratically elected MEPs here and now, complementing long-term institutional reform proposals to counter backsliding. Criticising a <i>cordon sanitaire</i> approach to undemocratically elected MEPs, whilst rejecting that all MEPs have equal standing, the paper grounds a principled third way. First, it offers an account of individual representatives' (rather than EU political institutions') legitimacy and authority and shows how this account justifies asymmetrical duties vis-à-vis democratically versus undemocratically elected MEPs. Second, the paper draws action-guiding implications of this asymmetry for how democratically elected MEPs should relate to fellow MEPs. They should presumptively defer to and cooperate with other democratically elected MEPs, whereas they can and should deal with undemocratically elected ones strategically, as instrumentally necessary to discharge their own duties as representatives but also to protect the legitimacy and authority of the EP. Third, the paper argues that democratically elected MEPs should provide surrogate representation to voters of undemocratically elected MEPs but not to voters of other democratically elected MEPs.</p>","PeriodicalId":51369,"journal":{"name":"Jcms-Journal of Common Market Studies","volume":"64 3","pages":"1069-1088"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jcms.70039","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cohesion Policy and Institutional Quality Impact: Does Urban–Rural Classification Matter?","authors":"Wajid Ali,&nbsp;Cristina Brasili,&nbsp;Pinuccia P. Calia","doi":"10.1111/jcms.70050","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jcms.70050","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study examines the impact of Cohesion Policy, and institutional quality, on regional economic performance across NUTS2 regions in 27 EU member states from 2007 to 2022. Average per capita Cohesion Policy payments are much higher in less developed regions, showing the policy focus on supporting lagging areas. Furthermore, the analysis groups regions as urban, rural and intermediate at the NUTS2 level to reflect key territorial differences and better assess how Cohesion Policy impacts vary across distinct development challenges. However, very low institutional quality in these regions may limit the effectiveness of this financial support. Using a two-step system generalised method of moments approach, the analysis finds that Cohesion Policy transfers have a positive impact on regional economic performance, with notable variation across regional types. The interaction between regional typologies and funding indicates that the policy is particularly effective in less developed, rural and intermediate regions, where structural disadvantages are more pronounced. Institutional quality plays a moderating role in this relationship and emerges as a key factor in enhancing Cohesion Policy effectiveness. To increase the impact of Cohesion Policy in lagging and rural regions, financial support should be complemented with efforts to improve institutional quality.</p>","PeriodicalId":51369,"journal":{"name":"Jcms-Journal of Common Market Studies","volume":"64 3","pages":"1001-1027"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jcms.70050","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Keep on Talking! The Resilience of Multilateral Communications in EU Foreign Policy","authors":"Helene Sjursen,&nbsp;Federica Bicchi,&nbsp;Marianna Lovato","doi":"10.1111/jcms.13691","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jcms.13691","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;As argued in the introduction to this symposium, the current context of increased political uncertainty has triggered renewed interest in the importance of norms in international relations (Costa et. al. &lt;span&gt;2024&lt;/span&gt;). Most particularly, research has debated to what extent norms are resilient when faced with increasing contestation (Deitelhoff and Zimmermann, &lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;; Wiener, &lt;span&gt;2014&lt;/span&gt;; Zimmermann, &lt;span&gt;2017&lt;/span&gt;). We contribute to this debate through an analysis of EU foreign policy. Weakly institutionalised and not legally enforceable, it is primarily held together through voluntary compliance with common norms. Scholars have argued that the rising contestation of foreign policy, particularly from populist right-wing governments, would likely threaten the EU's ability to negotiate – and enforce – decisions in the area of foreign policy (Balfour and Lehne, &lt;span&gt;2024&lt;/span&gt;, p. 6).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One of the first symptoms of such a development would be the fragmentation of multilateral communications between member states and the break-up of the ‘community of information’ that exists amongst the EU-27 (de Schoutheete, &lt;span&gt;1980&lt;/span&gt;). And yet, European diplomats have remained remarkably committed to a multilateral process of communication, despite the strong incentives to move to bilateral or ‘minilateral’ (Foster and Mosser, &lt;span&gt;2024&lt;/span&gt;; Jørgensen, &lt;span&gt;2011&lt;/span&gt;) communications, made all the easier by the flexibility and ‘shareability’ of digital communications (Adler-Nissen and Drieschova, &lt;span&gt;2019&lt;/span&gt;). In this article, we ask: how this can be? How can we account for the resilience of multilateral communications between member states?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pointing to the normative quality of procedural norms as the main reason for member states' commitment to multilateralism, we fill a gap in the literature on EU foreign policy as well as in that on the resilience of norms in international relations. The literature on norms in EU foreign policy tends to concentrate on the role of substantive norms, whilst it considers procedural norms only from a functional perspective. We argue instead that &lt;i&gt;procedural&lt;/i&gt; norms in the EU have sustained multilateralism during a profound exogenous shock such as the digitalisation of communications.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Our findings are based on quantitative data on COREU traffic made available by the General Secretariat of the Council, as well as eight interviews with European correspondents based in member states' Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs). The latter group can speak authoritatively on the multilateral nature of internal EU communications as they are in charge of receiving, sorting and transmitting messages from and to other capitals and EU institutions.\u00001&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The article proceeds in two steps. First, we outline our theoretical argument. We start by distinguishing between procedural and substantive norms, highlighting that procedural norms are engrained in the backbone of any internati","PeriodicalId":51369,"journal":{"name":"Jcms-Journal of Common Market Studies","volume":"64 3","pages":"1175-1189"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jcms.13691","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686234","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Beyond the European Army Illusion: A Prudent Strategy for the Real European Zeitenwende","authors":"Benjamin Daßler,&nbsp;Moritz Weiss","doi":"10.1111/jcms.70029","DOIUrl":"10.1111/jcms.70029","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;Geopolitics has forcefully re-arrived in Europe (Broeders et al., &lt;span&gt;2023&lt;/span&gt;; Farrell and Newman, &lt;span&gt;2023&lt;/span&gt;; Haroche, &lt;span&gt;2023&lt;/span&gt;). Take the return of large-scale territorial war in Ukraine (Bargués et al., &lt;span&gt;2023&lt;/span&gt;; Flockhart and Korosteleva, &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;; Johansson-Nogués and Leso, &lt;span&gt;2024&lt;/span&gt;) or the spreading trend towards economic de-risking and eventually de-globalisation (Bandemer et al. &lt;span&gt;2025&lt;/span&gt;; Herranz-Surrallés et al. &lt;span&gt;2024&lt;/span&gt;; Kornprobst and Paul, &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;). Policy-makers thus need to say goodbye to many ‘taken-for-granted’ notions that had socialised them into their professional careers. This imperative has acquired unprecedented urgency with President Trump's return to the White House in January 2025. His ‘America First’ doctrine, his explicit hostility towards multilateral institutions and his transactional approach to alliances have fundamentally transformed the transatlantic security landscape (Schütz and Mölling, &lt;span&gt;2025&lt;/span&gt;). The remarks of J.D. Vance, Trump's vice president, at the Munich Security Conference that European allies ‘must play a bigger role in the future of this continent’ and that ‘America focuses on areas of the world that are in great danger’ signal a withdrawal of America's strategic priorities away from Europe (Lu, &lt;span&gt;2025&lt;/span&gt;). Even before Trump 2.0, the diagnosis that the European Union's (EU) defence needs to be dramatically strengthened has been entrenched at both the member state and supranational levels.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For example, French President Emanuel Macron had warned that Europe was ‘mortal’ and ‘can die’ (&lt;i&gt;Le Monde&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;span&gt;2024&lt;/span&gt;). German Chancellor Scholz had declared that ‘[w]ithout security, everything else is nothing’ and that Germany seeks ‘to turn the Bundeswehr into Europe's strongest conventional force’ in the coming years (Scholz, &lt;span&gt;2024&lt;/span&gt;). This is why ‘[g]lobal military spending surges amid war, rising tensions and insecurity’ (Tian et al., &lt;span&gt;2023&lt;/span&gt;). At the supranational level, the perceived policy problem has been an environment of ‘strategic competition and complex security threats’ (European Union External Action, &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;), and the institutional solution has been to foster strategic autonomy (Fiott, &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;; Juncos and Vanhoonacker, &lt;span&gt;2024&lt;/span&gt;) and the gradual centralisation of military power into a ‘European Defence Union’ (Blockmans and Faleg, &lt;span&gt;2015&lt;/span&gt;) and, in the long term, a ‘true European Army’ (La Baum and Herzsenshorn, &lt;span&gt;2018&lt;/span&gt;; Samuel, &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;). The widespread perception that military capabilities are once again the sine qua non for survival as well as geopolitical influence has been growing. In other words, without your own military muscles, you become a rule-taker, rather than rule-maker, in world politics.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While we agree with the diagnosis that more military capabilities will be helpful for the EU and its mem","PeriodicalId":51369,"journal":{"name":"Jcms-Journal of Common Market Studies","volume":"64 3","pages":"1272-1284"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jcms.70029","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}