Principles of Policymaking in the European Union: An Economic Perspective

How should tasks be divided between the EU and its member states?And what institutional reforms are needed? This paper arguesthat the single market remains to be better enforced, and thismight require further centralisation of tasks. On the otherhand, EU meddling with redistribution should be scaled back;this would imply reducing EU intervention in agricultural policy,structural funds and the social charter. EU tasks should insteadbe expanded outside the first pillar, namely in foreign anddefence policies, internal security, immigration. The paperends by discussing what institutional reforms are needed toaccompany this allocation of tasks. (JEL F02, F3)     

The behaviour of relative prices in the European Union: A sectoral analysis

Using multivariate unit root test methods, this paper investigates the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) hypothesis at the sectoral level across six European countries over the last 17 years. Evidence of mean reversion towards PPP is found for the relative prices of some sectors and countries. Mean reversion in relative prices is explained by cross-country and cross-sectoral characteristics such as the distance between countries, nominal exchange rate volatility, differences in GDP per capita, non-tariff barriers, research and development, advertising, industrial concentration and tradeability of the products.     

德国视角下的欧洲社会模式

欧洲社会模式是欧洲一体化进程中一个十分重要而又颇具争议的问题。本文分析了欧盟社会政策取得的进展,福利国家面临的挑战,以及欧盟及其成员国的应对,在此基础上展望了欧洲社会模式的发展前景。     

The Economic Case for Monetary Union in the European Union

Differential requirements for seigniorage provide a weak case for retaining monetary independence. As regards adjustment to asymmetric shocks, nominal exchange rate flexibility is at best a limited blessing and at worst a limited curse. Absence of significant fiscal redistribution mechanisms among EU members is not an obstacle to monetary union. Neither is limited international labour mobility. Convergence of real economic performance is irrelevant for monetary union. A common currency is the logical implication of unrestricted capital mobility. The Maastricht criteria need not hinder monetary union provided the political will exists to adopt a flexible interpretation of the fiscal criteria.     

The constitutional future of the European Union

The formal distinction between a treaty and a constitution is much less important than the question of who is authorized to interpret and amend it. The judges of the European Court of Justice interpret the Treaty by simple majority, while unanimity of the member-states would be required to reverse these decisions. The European Union needs a Court whose judges are empanelled from, and selected by, the highest courts of the member-states. The Treaty on European Union violates three fundamental constitutional principles: (i) the principle of the separation of powers, (ii) the democratic principle, and (iii) the principle of subsidiarity.     

The nonobserved economy in the European Union

To better understand the share of the nonobserved economy (NOE) in the European Union, especially on the PIIGS, we estimate, through the multiple indicators multiple causes model, the path between 1980 and 2013. The model includes (i) the tax burden (disaggregated into direct and indirect taxes), a proxy of regulation burden, the unemployment rate and self-employment as causes of the NOE economy; (ii) the GDP and the labour force participation ratio as indicators of the NOE economy. In particular, the estimated weight of NOE as a percentage of official GDP was always higher in the PIIGS group.     

The European Union and Kaliningrad: Taking the Low Road

there is no abstract     

The sustainability of fiscal policies in the European Union

This paper examines the stationarity of the inclusive-of-interest public deficit for five European Union economies, four of them being recently selected for entry into the European Monetary Union. Unit root tests are used not only to examine structural breaks and cointegration analysis, but also to investigate for regime shifts. They support the occurrence of sustainable deficits for the Greek, Spanish, and Portuguese economies. On the contrary, Italy and Belgium may incur unsustainable deficits, implying that their selection in Phase 2 of the European Monetary Union is questionable. This paper was presented at the Forty-Fifth International Atlantic Economic Conference, Rome, Italy, March 14–21, 1998.     

Controlled Dismantlement of the Eurozone: A Strategy to Save the European Union and the Single European Market

The problems with a single currency in Europe are neither temporary nor curable. Any persistent defence of the euro will result in a long‐lasting recession and high unemployment in countries using fiscal austerity to pursue ‘internal devaluation’. It may lead to a revival of populist and nationalist movements, political collapse and disorderly eurozone break‐up. This article argues for a controlled segmentation of the eurozone via the exit of the most competitive countries and an agreement on a new European currency coordination system.     

Introduction: Postnational Politics in the European Union

During the Cold War, “buffer” or “bastion” seemed a popular metaphor to describe Turkey. After the Cold War, “bridge,” (and, to some extent, the “crossroad”) metaphor started to dominate the Turkish foreign policy D??course. This article traces the use of “bridge” metaphor in this D??course in the post-Cold War period by the Turkish foreign policy elite. It develops two arguments. First, the word bridge is a “metaphor of vision” combining Turkey's perceived geographical exceptionalism with an identity and a role at the international level. As a “metaphor of vision,” the employment of the word “bridge” highlighted Turkey's liminality and justified some of its foreign policy actions to Eurasia and then to the Middle East. Second, because the bridge metaphor was used in different context to justify different foreign policy choices, its meaning has changed, illustrating that metaphors are not static constructs. It concludes by Say?ng that the continuous use of “bridge” metaphor might reinforce Turkey's “liminality,” placing Turkey in a less classifiable category than the regular “othering” practices.     

The Geopolitics of the Eastern Border of the European Union: The Case of Romania-Moldova-Ukraine

Since the fall of the communist regimes, we have been witnessing in Europe two phenomena that dominate the geopolitical scene: on the one hand there is integration, with the advance of the borders of the European Union (EU) towards the east through its two enlargements, and on the other hand there is disintegration, as expressed by social crisis, and latent tensions and conflicts in the countries found beyond the said border. This article focuses on the geopolitical changes that came about on the eastern border of Europe (Romania-Moldova-Ukraine) and the border relations between these three countries after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the integration of Romania into the EU. This is both a multidimensional and ethno-territorial border, associated with tensions and conflict. ¹ 1. D. Newman, ‘Conflict at the Interface: The Impact of Boundaries and Borders on Contemporary Ethno-National Conflict’, in C. Flint (ed.), Geographies of War and Conflict (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2004) pp. 321–345; G. Blake, ‘State Limits in the Early 21st Century: Observations on Form and Function’, Geopolitics 5/1 (2000) pp. 1–18; S. Ratner, ‘Drawing a Better Line: Uti Possidetis and the Borders of New States’, American Journal of International Law 90/4 (1996) pp. 590–624; S. Waterman, ‘Boundaries and the Changing World Political Order’, in Clive Schofield (ed.), World Boundaries, Vol. I, Global Boundaries (London: Routledge, 1994). Using the territorial dialectic of the globalisation argument, we are able to analyse, describe and interpret from a theoretical-empirical standpoint, the two current discussions about that border: opening by means of cooperation, or closing by means of control and security.     

Sovereign credit ratings in the European Union: A model-based fiscal analysis

We present a model-based measure of sovereign credit ratings derived solely from the fiscal position of a country: a forecast of its future debt liabilities, and its potential to use fiscal policy to repay these. We use this measure to calculate credit ratings for 14 European countries over the period 1995–2012. This measure identifies a European sovereign debt crisis almost two years before the official ratings of the credit rating agencies.     

The deregulation of international trucking in the European Union: form and effect

We describe the regulatory regime under which international trucking operated in Western Europe until the mid-1980s, the deregulatory process that followed, and the effect of this deregulation. We find that deregulation had a large positive effect on the growth of international trucking. We also find that shippers shifted toward more outsourcing of their trucking needs, but this occurred to an even greater extent in local and national road transport. We conclude that other factors beside the deregulation of international trucking affected the organization of the industry at the time. Finally, despite concerns voiced by member countries, we find no evidence that deregulation disproportionately favored carriers of countries that were initially more (or less) involved in international trucking, nor that it has favored low-wage countries.