Harmonisation through Neglect: The Federal Nature of European Employment Policy
This paper proposes using the methodological perspective of critical federalism, constructed by merging the theoretical framework of critical political economy with the analytical approach of co-operative federalism, to understand the harmonisation and operation of employment policy within the EU. By choosing to not actively integrate employment policy, the ad hoc approach pursued by the member - states has led to a sharing of competency between the member - states and the EU that mimics the relationship found between central and regional governments in a federal system. In the first section, this paper outlines how the emphasis on national competence has shaped the integration of national employment policies into a nascent federal system. In the second section, this paper constructs the methodological perspective of critical federalism and in the final section, this paper concludes by identifying the federal characteristics of the current operation of European employment policy. Full article available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v1i1.157
Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies; 2005: RERA V1:1 Inaugural Issue (backfile abstracts)
Centre for European Studies, Carleton University
Elites in Transition: The Case of Privatization in Veliky Novgorod, Russia
This paper is an attempt to develop a critical reflection on the social, political, and economic transformation that Russia experienced in the last couple of decades. I argue that the continuity of elites in Russia is one of the major features of its transition. This paper attempts to illuminate the continuity of elites as a general trend by using the case study of the privatization process in Veliky Novgord, Russia. This project looks at privatization as an avenue or means of resource allocation by elites during the transition. The data were obtained from 16 structured and unstructured interviews conducted in Veliky Novgorod in the summer 2004 among the representatives of the business and political elites. This paper deals with one group of the nomenklatura elite – top enterprise managers. Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v1i1.158
Convergence toward the European Social Model? Impact of EU accession on Polish social policy
In order to join the European Union (EU) Poland had to meet a wide range of conditions including adoption of acquis communautaire, significant administrative reforms and economic restructuring. This article deals with all these EU-membership commitments which directly influenced the Polish social policy, spanning such areas as free movement of persons (mainly workers), labour law, social dialogue, labour market and social inclusion policies and pensions. These changes - even if incremental and evolutionary - made the Polish welfare state more compatible with the European Social Model. Judging from the experience of Poland, the European Social Model (ESM) is far from vague and meaningless ideology. The ESM has had a significant impact on national social policies which is discernible at four general levels: values and general rules, which engender a welfare state philosophy shared by all Member States; Community-enforced social minimum standards; European-level institutional co-operative procedures; and monetary transfers in the framework of cohesion policy. The impact of the EU is visible to a varying degree – ranging from substantial in the peripheral areas such as gender equality or health and safety at work to purely theoretical in fiscal and monetary matters. The Polish welfare state has been heavily influenced by practical day-to-day administrative and institutional co-operation of Poland with the UE. Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v1i1.159
L’apport du règlement 1/2003 : décentralisation et homogénéisation du droit européen de la concurrence
pas disponible Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v1i1.160
Effective Competition and EU Competition Law
The notion of workable or effective competition is at the centre of EU competition law and policy, as it strives to achieve and maintain it. Some scholars do not mention it at all. Those who refer to it either do not explain it in any way or explicate it very shortly. In fact, the concept is too important to be ignored totally or elucidated briefly. The objective of this article is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the concept by focusing on the theory of workable or effective competition. It is argued that effective competition is the key for an in-depth study of the political economy (i.e. real policy goals, economic rationale behind individual competition rules, institutional requirements, and implications for distribution of wealth) of EU competition law and policy. Full text available at:https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v1i1.161
Introduction: Common Markets and Common Currency: EU Integration and Its Outcomes
not available Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v2i1.162
Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies; 2006: RERA V2:1 European Economic and Monetary Governance (backfile abstracts)
Risking the Stability of EMU: the Asymmetric Application of the Stability and Growth Pact
Fiscal profligacy poses a high risk to the credibility of Europe common monetary policy and its ultimate objective of price stability. Unfortunately, the aim of preventing fiscally responsible states from being penalized by those with lax budgetary policies via inflationary pressures and interest rates is jeopardized as members breach the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). Moreover, there are major institutional inconsistencies in how states are treated under the current framework as is exemplified by the November 2003 ECONFIN crisis. What is witnessed is an antagonistic relationship between the programmatic and operational dimensions of monetary governance. Does the fact that half the members who have adopted the euro have also breached its rules signal that surveillance as regulation is being displaced as a mode of governance? It calls for a re-imaged spatial-temporal explanation of governance to adequately capture the political economy of EMU. At the core of EMU management are risk and uncertainty based modes of governing. Employing a governmentality approach, I argue that the audit is one prominent style of processing and institutionalizing risk as an aggregate future of monetary activity. By altering the administration and objects of risk governance the audit is perceived as reducing the susceptibility to failure. Hence, it has a performative function that extends beyond simply measuring deficit or debt to GDP performance and acts as a social and institutional process structuring a homogenous set of fiscal practices. Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v2i1.163
Common Markets Measuring Price Integration in European Agricultural Markets
The accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden to the European Union (EU) is assessed from the perspective of market integration in key agricultural sectors. An empirical investigation is conducted using monthly data for two periods: from 1975:01-1994:12 (the pre-EU period) and 1995:01-2004:12 (post-EU period). The existence of market integration both within the countries and within the EU is tested using time-series methods. A long-run equilibrium between prices for the same good in different markets does not exclude the possibility of short-run deviations in the individual data, so part of this analysis consists of estimating an econometric model (error correction) to uncover long-run effects of price deviations. Only a subset of agricultural prices moves together after EU integration. Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v2i1.164
Politique de la concurrence et intégration des marchés intérieurs : analyse comparative entre les perspectives canadienne et européenne (U.E)
L’objet de cet article est d’analyser les objectifs de la politique de la concurrence au Canada et en Europe relativement à l’objectif d’intégration des marchés intérieur. L’auteur montre que les politiques canadienne et européenne en matière de concurrence n’ont pas les mêmes orientations quant à l’objectif d’intégration des marchés intérieurs. Tandis qu’en Europe, la législation antitrust constitue un moyen pour parvenir à l’objectif essentiel d’édification d’un marché intérieur; au Canada, les règles de la concurrence visent d’abord et avant tout à promouvoir l’efficience économique et à lutter contre le gaspillage des ressources économiques rares. Dans la première partie, l’auteur met en exergue cette différence d’orientation en insistant sur les contextes constitutionnels et historiques qui expliquent cette différence. Dans la seconde partie, l’auteur analyse la nature juridique différente des deux regroupements d’États qui constitue le fondement principal de cette différence. L’auteur démontre que la nature économique du Traité CE a facilité, dès le début, une politique européenne de la concurrence tournée vers l’érection d’un marché intérieur ouvert et concurrentiel. Alors qu’au Canada, la nature politique de la fédération n’a pas permis d’orienter la politique de concurrence vers l’intégration des marchés provinciaux. Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v2i1.165
The Effect of Membership in the European Monetary Union on Trade Between Member Countries (An Empirical Study)
The question of whether or not to adopt the euro is a very important one, not only for the 13 European Union members that do not share the same currency, but also for future EU candidates. Current literature on the effect of the euro on trade is scarce since the European Monetary Union (EMU) was officially created in 1999, and up until recently there has not been enough data to analyze this issue. This paper aims to estimate the effect of the euro on trade between member countries using the standard gravity model of trade. Using data from current 25 EU members over the period from 1997 to 2004, I show that higher trade volumes between EMU members cannot be attributed to the adoption of the euro. I find evidence that the euro adoption has had a short-run effect on bilateral trade and that this effect is eliminated over a short period of time. My findings suggest that members of the EMU trade on average from 8.8% to 47% more compared to non-members depending on the type of regression used, while members of the Free Trade Agreement trade 61.3% more. The effect of the euro on trade is eliminated as soon as I control for country-pair specific effects that include the FTA effect as well as history of trade relations between two countries. I conclude that the adoption of the euro should be seen as a final step in the European economic and monetary integration for countries that already benefit from relatively high volumes of bilateral trade. Full text availale at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v2i1.166
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