Following Serbia's acceptance as a candidate for EU membership, its agriculture and rural issues will receive major attention as agriculture is an important activity in Serbia, especially in the low-income rural areas. This raises questions such as: what will be the main challenges of EU membership for Serbia? What will EU membership imply for the structure and performance of the agri-food supply chain? How should Serbia address the adjustment process to comply with EU rules and face economic market forces best? This book explores the consequences of preparing for EU accession for Serbia's agricultural policies and its agri-food supply chain. The book presents a comprehensive description of Serbia's agricultural and food sectors, agricultural policies, trade, environmental, animal and plant health issues, and also addresses budgetary consequences of EU membership for both Serbia and the EU.
This book examines the Czech Republic’s road to EU membership in 2004 and assesses how EU accession has affected or changed the Czech Republic, including its domestic politics, institutions and policies. It contributes to academic debate about the EU and European integration, Europeanization and the role of small states in the EU.
The potential membership of Turkey to the European Union (EU) carries significant challenges for EU policymaking and integration, and this volume brings together academics from several disciplines, including international relations, economics, sociology, and public administration, to present a holistic picture of the economic dimension of the accession process. Assessing the current strengths and weaknesses of the Turkish candidacy, this study provides a historical overview of EU–Turkey economic relations, a comprehensive review of the EU–Turkey customs union agreement, as well as a discussion of the implications of membership for various sectors of the Turkish economy. This comprehensive analysis of Turkey’s bid for EU membership will interest government officials and academics alike as more candidate countries seek accession in the years ahead.
This is a new overview of Romania's relationship with the European Union since the collapse of the Ceausescu regime in 1989, and recent accession to EU membership. It presents the reader with a clear sense of the debate, with full coverage of all the key issues involved.
Malta has bucked the trend of its EU Mediterranean neighbours in many ways. This smallest of EU states barely dipped into recession during the global financial crisis and remains a stable member of the Eurozone whilst also having one of the lowest infringement rates and highest transposition of EU law records amongst the 28 member states. Providing the first comprehensive study of Malta's complex road to EU membership this book looks at the impact of membership on the country's political structures and processes and explains the principal factors that have conditioned the country's Europeanization experience. Reflecting Malta's unique and often contentious road to membership, the book explores the historical context and outlines how Maltese processes and policies have changed since membership and whether a causative link exists between these changes and Malta's membership of the EU. A wide range of primary and secondary sources facilitate the study complemented by a series of interviews with a broad range of Malta's political and social actors as well as individuals from EU institutions. This depth of analysis enables a holistic view of Malta's first decade of EU membership and helps establish the fundamental characteristics of Malta's unique Europeanization experience.
This book explores the economic and social development of the Western Balkan region, a group of six countries that are potential candidates for EU membership. It focuses on the key economic issues facing these countries, including the challenge of promoting economic growth, limiting public deficits and debt, and fostering international trade relations. Given the severe impact of the recent economic crisis on social welfare in the region, it also investigates the nature and extent of social exclusion, a factor likely to produce future political instabilities if not effectively addressed by a return to sustainable economic growth. The contributions explore these issues in light of the major influence of EU policy instruments and advice, which are currently guiding the economies along an accession trajectory to future EU membership.
The inside story of the European Fund for Strategic Investments from 2015 to 2020 told through interviews with the Managing Director, Deputy Managing Director, members of the Investment Committee and final beneficiaries across Europe. The architects of this €500 billion-plus programme, the head of the EU bank and the president of the European Commission, describe the genesis of this financial pillar of the Investment Plan for Europe. Then the people who ran one of the biggest economic stimulus programmes in history detail how they did it—and what the lessons are for policymakers responding to new crises, including the economic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The European Fund for Strategic Investments has been one of the good news stories to emerge in a decade of economic uncertainty. It has gone well beyond its highly ambitious target of €500 billion in mobilised investments. The Juncker Plan has made a strong contribution to the 14 million jobs created in the EU between 2015 and 2020. It has become a success in co-financing projects that otherwise might not have been carried through. It has also charted the path towards new ways of financing. This is not only the case in relatively conventional areas, such as infrastructure, but also in sectors like research and innovation or the contribution to climate change mitigation. This is exactly what makes EFSI so ground-breaking: responding to the needs of the market through continuous financial innovation. The principle of the European Fund for Strategic Investments is here to stay. It has paved the way for its successor, the InvestEU programme, which is to be deployed under the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework. This publication details why the programme was such a success.
Despite having made its first application for EEC membership in 1959, Turkey’s bid to join the EU remains as controversial as ever, with Turkey and EU relations arguably at an all–time low in the aftermath of the attempted coup d’état of July 2016. In this context, the essays here, while using (de)Europeanisation as a broad theoretical framework, explore the current state of Turkey’s EU accession bid from a variety of perspectives, including discourse analysis, Euroscepticism and institutionalist approaches. The essays focus not only on discursive and policy (de)Europeanisation within Turkey, but also examine both official EU and European right–wing Eurosceptic discourse on Turkish accession, as well as approaching the Turkish accession process through comparisons with the contemporary Western Balkan countries and with post–war Germany.
In today’s Europe, deep cracks are showing in the system of political cooperation that was designed to prevent the geopolitical catastrophes that ravaged the continent in the first half of the twentieth century. Europeans are haunted, once again, by the specters of nationalism, fascism, and economic protectionism. Instead of sounding the alarm, many conservatives have become cheerleaders for the demise of the European Union (EU). This compelling book represents the first systematic attempt to justify the European project from a free-market, conservative viewpoint. Although many of their criticisms are justified, Dalibor Rohac contends that Euroskeptics are playing a dangerous game. Their rejection of European integration places them in the unsavory company of nationalists, left-wing radicals, and Putin apologists. Their defense of the nation-state against Brussels, furthermore, is ahistorical. He convincingly shows that the flourishing of democracy and free markets in Europe has gone hand in hand with the integration project. Europe’s pre-EU past, in contrast, was marked by a series of geopolitical calamities. When British voters make their decision in June, they should remember that while Brexit would not be a political or economic disaster for the United Kingdom, it would not solve any of the problems that the “Leavers” associate with EU membership. Worse yet, its departure from the European Union would strengthen the centrifugal forces that are already undermining Europe's ability to solve the multitude of political, economic, and security challenges plaguing the continent today. Instead of advocating for the end of the EU, Rohac argues that conservatives must come to the rescue of the integration project by helping to reduce the EU’s democratic deficit and turning it into an engine of economic dynamism and prosperity. For the author’s video on Brexit, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFReUnO05Fo
