Good values
Picture books on values and social issues. (Kidible imprint)
View Rights PortalThis book discusses the meaning of the common good in a European Union thorned by nationalist tendencies and presents concrete policies to improve its achievement. It analyses the normative relevance of EU values as a shared moral standpoint that allows highly diverse member states to label a given collective choice as 'good' or 'bad'. It discusses the role of EU institutions as both guardians and enablers of EU values in a globalised world and introduces a few proposals for institutional reform at the EU level that could strengthen this role. It also presents six strategies to improve civic friendship in the EU, in the absence of which any institutional efforts to promote the common good may be undermined by the citizens' lack of willingness to share its burdens.
This volume is timely in that it explores key issues which are currently at the forefront of the EU's relations with its eastern neighbours. It considers the impact of a more assertive Russia, the significance of Turkey, the limitations of the Eastern Partnership with Belarus and Moldova, the position of a Ukraine in crisis and pulled between Russia and the EU, security and democracy in the South Caucasus. It looks at the contested nature of European identity in areas such as the Balkans. In addition it looks at ways in which the EU's interests and values can be tested in sectors such as trade and migration. The interplay between values, identity and interests and their effect on the interpretation of europeanisation between the EU and its neighbours is a core theme of the volume.
This highly original book constitutes one of the first attempts to examine the problem of distributive justice in the European Union in a systematic manner. João Labareda argues that the set of shared political institutions at EU level, including the European Parliament and the Court of Justice of the EU, generate democratic duties of redistribution among EU citizens. Furthermore, the economic structure of the EU, comprising a common market, a common currency and a free-movement area, triggers duties of reciprocity among member states. The responsibilities to fulfil these duties, Labareda argues, should be shared by the local, national and supranational levels of government. Not only should the EU act as a safety net to the national welfare systems, applying the principle of subsidiarity, but common market and Eurozone regulations should balance their efficiency targets with fair cooperation terms. The concrete policy proposals presented in this book include a threshold of basic goods for all EU citizens, an EU labour code, a minimum EU corporate tax rate and an EU fund for competitiveness. Labarada argues that his proposals match the political culture of the member states, are economically feasible, can be translated into functioning institutions and policies and are consistent with the limited degree of social solidarity in Europe. This book is a major contribution to the understanding of what a just Europe would look like and what it might take to get us there. This book is relevant to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10, Reduced inequalities
Is there a tension between the normative fundamentals and strategic objectives of European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP)? Is 'values versus security' an unavoidable choice to be made by the EU and its neighbours or, rather, a false dichotomy? The book argues that what is often considered a fundamental dilemma of EU foreign policy - a choice between the EU's values and its quest for security - misrepresents a much more complex reality in which values and security interplay to shape the EU's external positions. The book proposes an original conceptual framework for examining the complex interaction between values and security and situates the ENP in the broader conceptual debate about European Foreign Policy. In this way, it goes beyond the early scholarship on ENP, mainly inspired by the EU enlargement literature. The book examines the EU's evolving relations with its immediate neighbours in areas such as democracy promotion, Common Foreign and Security Policy, conflict management and resolution and soft security issues such as energy or immigration policy. By covering the whole range of EU external relations policies, the contributions to the volume provide a very unique opportunity to compare the complex interplay between values and security and its impacts across the wide policy spectrum of ENP. ;
This book examines how Ireland's relationship with the EU was affected by a succession of crises in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The financial crisis, the Brexit crisis and the migration crisis were not of equal significance on the island of Ireland. The financial crisis was a huge issue for the Republic but not Northern Ireland, Brexit had a major impact in both polities, the migration and populism issues were less controversial, while foreign policy challenges had a minimal impact. The book provides a summary of the main features of each of the crises to be considered, from both the EU and the Irish perspective. Ireland and the European Union is the first volume of its kind to provide a comprehensive analysis on British-Irish relations in the context of Brexit. It assesses the Withdrawal Agreement and Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, the devolution settlement and the 1998 Agreement, as well as the European dimension to Northern Ireland's peace process. The contributors explore a number of policy areas that are central to the understanding of each of the crises and the impact of each for Ireland. Chapters examine issues such as security, migration and taxation as well as protest politics, political parties, the media, public opinion and the economic impact of each of these crises on Ireland's relationship with the EU.
This book offers an original interpretation of Britain's relationship with Europe over a 25 year period: 1959-84 and advances the argument that the current problems over EU membership resulted from much earlier political machinations. This evidence based account of the seminal period analyses the applications for EEC membership, the 1975 referendum, and the role of the press. Was the British public misled over the true aims of the European project? How significant was the role of the press in changing public opinion from anti, to pro Common Market membership? Why, after over 40 years since Britain became a member of the European community, does the issue continue to deeply divide not only the political elite, but also the British public? These, and other pertinent questions are answered in this timely book on a subject that remains topical and highly controversial.
This book examines Turkey's integration with Europe within structural dynamics of globalisation from a critical political economy perspective. Critical approaches have been sidelined within European Studies. Turkish enlargement is not an exemption. The analyses are based on original data generated by 109 interviews conducted in 2010, 2017 and 2023 with five categories of actors: representatives of capital and labour, political parties, state officials, and struggles around ecology, patriarchy and migration. It argues that the pro-membership was hegemonic in the 2000s which was contested by two rival class strategies, Ha-vet and neo-mercantilism. In the 2010s, pro-membership is no longer hegemonic within rising critical tone of social forces supporting rival class strategies. Unevenness of Turkey's trajectory of integration to Europe is likely to be consolidated through market integration and management of migration through transactional approach.
EU security governance assesses the effectiveness of the EU as a security actor. The book has two distinct features. Firstly, it is the first systematic study of the different economic, political and military instruments employed by the EU in the performance of four different security functions. The book demonstrates that the EU has emerged as an important security actor, not only in the non-traditional areas of security, but increasingly as an entity with force projection capabilities. Secondly, the book represents an important step towards redressing conceptual gaps in the study of security governance, particularly as it pertains to the European Union. The book links the challenges of governing Europe's security to the changing nature of the state, the evolutionary expansion of the security agenda, and the growing obsolescence of the traditional forms and concepts of security cooperation. ;
This book provides an analysis of European Union pharmaceutical regulation from a policy-making perspective. The focus is on how the often conflicting agendas of the pharmaceutical industry, the EU member states, the European Commission, and consumer interests are reconciled within the context of regulatory outcomes having to serve public health, healthcare and industrial policy needs within the single market. Breaking with more traditional approaches which stress the economic determinants of pharmaceutical policy, different strands of public policy analysis, regulatory and European integration and policy-making theories are invoked in developing a new conceptual approach to frame the analysis. In-depth case-studies in three key policy areas: patent protection, market authorisation, and pricing and reimbursement, provide substantive support. In providing a unique perspective on how and why EU pharmaceutical policy is made, the book will be of interest to academics, students and policy-practitioners interested in EU policy-making, regulation and public policy analysis. ;
This book examines developments in EU-US political and economic relations in the 1990s. It contributes to the existing literature by combining knowledge about actors and institutions to outline the transatlantic decision-making process. It focuses not only on how states co-operate but how they effectively govern the transatlantic marketplace and the international political order through transatlantic institutions. Studying transatlantic governance enables us to understand not only how domestic, or EU level, decision-making structures affect transatlantic decisions but also how transatlantic decisions affect domestic institutions. In short, employing decision-making structures as an analytical approach helps us identify who governs and how, and who or what determines policy outcomes. This book is the result of a comprehensive research project and it includes detailed case studies on EU-US efforts to fight people-trafficking, EU-US regulatory co-operation in the form of Mutual Recognition Agreements and the transatlantic trade dispute over bananas. The book is aimed at anyone with an interest in what transatlantic relations entail outside the confines of NATO security. ;
Environmental policy has become an increasingly important area of European Union (EU) policy-making and the source of political conflict between Britain and Germany. This book explains why national conflicts have arisen and how they are resolved at EU level by focusing on the Europeanisation of air and water pollution control in particular. Wurzel argues that Anglo-German divergences are best explained in terms of ecological vulnerability, economic cost and capacity, political salience and environmental regulatory styles. Focusing on two very important and media-exploitable issues - car emissions and bathing water regulation - this book challenges the conventional wisdom that Britain has shown a clear preference for environmental quality objectives while Germany championed uniform emission limits. Acceptance of the concept of ecological modernisation plays a vital role in the adoption of more progressive environmental standards. ;
This book represents the first ever comprehensive study of the EU's foreign and security policy in Bosnia. Drawing on a wealth of fresh empirical material, it demonstrates that institutions are a key variable in explaining levels of common foreign security policy (CFSP) coherence and effectiveness over time. In doing so, it also sheds new light on the role that intergovernmental, bureaucratic and local political contestation have played in the formulation and implementation of a European foreign policy. The study concludes that the EU's involvement in Bosnia has not only had a significant impact on this Balkan country in its path from stabilisation to integration, but has also transformed the EU, its foreign and security policy and shaped the development of the EU's international identity along the way. The book will be of great interest to researchers and students of EU politics, International Relations and Bosnian politics. ;