The Lisbon Treaty proclaims the need for a stronger, more efficient, more coherent European Union (EU) in the international arena. In the area of external relations, the post-Lisbon EU embraces the unification of the diplomatic efforts of the European Commission, the Council Secretariat and that...

This article analyses the extent to which the European Union (EU) constitutes a normative power in its relations with Moldova. ‘Normative power Europe’ is examined along three dimensions: (i) normative intent; (ii) normative process; and (iii) normative impact. Our empirical analysis focuses...

This paper addresses the puzzle of why Portugal has consistently supported the EU’s fifth enlargement. We argue that standard explanations, based on welfare maximisation, geopolitics, or rhetorical action, cannot persuasively account for this policy choice. Instead, we advance an alternative...

The special position of the rotating Council Presidency has raised a long-standing debate on the extent to which this function allows a Member State to exert additional influence on European Union decision-making, in particular in external policy. This article argues that a broader and more...

The paper makes an attempt to map the Copenhagen criterion of democracy and the rule of law, one of the main instruments governing the biggest enlargement in the Union history. The meaning of it, however, is still as vague today as it was more than ten years ago, at the time of introduction of...

Eastern enlargement is a process in which the very identity of the European Union is under construction, with its constitutive principles and values being challenged. Policy choices of the member governments participating in this process can not exclusively being explained by rational choice...

In July 1997 the Commission of the European Union presented its Agenda 2000. This document not only suggested to start accession talks with some East and Central European countries (CEEC) in early 1998 but it also provided proposals for a restructuring of EU expenditures. On this background this...

This paper explores the relationship between administrative co-ordination of EU affairs at the national level and compliance with EU law. First, we develop two hypotheses about the impact of co-ordination. We expect that the strength of the co-ordination structure (level of centralisation and...

Research on EU conditionality in equality policy in Hungary shows that while the formal EU acquis has been transposed in a fast and successful way, its enforcement and application largely lag behind. Most researchers explain this weak enforcement with factors such as state capacity problems, the...

Abstract AbstractThis paper reflects on the literature on courts and politics in Europe and the United States. US-American Political Science has dealt for over fifty years with the role of courts and judges as political actors, whereas this perspective has only recently emerged in Europe. The...