Papers by Vasileios Margaras
Digital in education and skills, 2022
Digital in education and skills This briefing offers a pre-legislative synthesis of the positions... more Digital in education and skills This briefing offers a pre-legislative synthesis of the positions of national, regional and local governmental organisations on the European Commission's forthcoming initiative, 'digital in education and skills'. It forms part of an EPRS series offering a summary of the pre-legislative state of play and advance consultation on a range of key European Commission priorities during its 5-year term in office. It seeks to present the current state of affairs, examine how existing policy is working on the ground, and identify best practice and ideas for the future on the part of governmental organisations at all levels of the European system of multilevel governance. Summary of findings EPRS analysis of the positions of partner organisations at European Union (EU), national, regional and local levels suggests that they would like the following main considerations to be reflected in the discussion on the forthcoming European initiative on 'digital in education and skills'.
A sustainable blue planet-The international ocean governance agenda This Briefing provides a pre-... more A sustainable blue planet-The international ocean governance agenda This Briefing provides a pre-legislative synthesis of the positions of national, regional and local governmental organisations on the European Commission's recent initiative, 'Setting the course for a sustainable blue planet-Update on the international ocean governance agenda'. It forms part of an EPRS series offering a summary of the pre-legislative state-of-play and advance consultation on a range of key European Commission priorities during its five-year term in office. It seeks to present the current state of affairs, to examine how existing policy is working on the ground, and to identify best practice and ideas for the future on the part of governmental organisations at all levels of the European system of multilevel governance.
Certification of carbon removals , 2022
Certification of carbon removals This briefing provides a pre-legislative synthesis of the positi... more Certification of carbon removals This briefing provides a pre-legislative synthesis of the positions of national, regional and local governmental organisations on the European Commission's forthcoming initiative on carbon removal certification. It forms part of an EPRS series offering a summary of the pre-legislative state of-play and advance consultation on a range of key Commission priorities during its 5-year term in office. It seeks to present the current state of affairs, examine how existing policy is working on the ground, and identify best practice and ideas for the future on the part of governmental organisations at all levels of the European system of multilevel governance. Summary of findings EPRS analysis of the positions of partner organisations at European Union (EU), national, regional and local levels suggests that the following main considerations should be reflected in the discussion on the European initiative on the certification of carbon removals. Carbon removal projects in the EU regions relate chiefly to agriculture, forestry and land use. Projects involving geological reservoirs or other means of carbon storage in materials used to make sustainable circular products are less frequent and tend to be located mostly in northwestern EU regions. There is a considerable lack of knowledge on the implementation of carbon removal projects that is very much related to a lack of EU measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) methods. A commonly accepted EU carbon removals certification system could further facilitate the development of carbon removal projects.
El futuro de un sueño: Europa 2046, 2016, ISBN 978-92-823-9870-8, págs. 180-183, 2016
This document is prepared for, and addressed to, the Members and staff of the European Parliament... more This document is prepared for, and addressed to, the Members and staff of the European Parliament as background material to assist them in their parliamentary work. The content of the document, including the selection and analysis of data, is the sole responsibility of its authors and any opinions expressed herein should not be taken to represent an official position of the Parliament. Reproduction and translation for non-commercial purposes are authorised, provided the source is acknowledged and the European Parliament is given prior notice and sent a copy.
A sustainable blue planet – The inter-national ocean governance agenda, 2022
A sustainable blue planet-The international ocean governance agenda This Briefing provides a pre-... more A sustainable blue planet-The international ocean governance agenda This Briefing provides a pre-legislative synthesis of the positions of national, regional and local governmental organisations on the European Commission's recent initiative, 'Setting the course for a sustainable blue planet-Update on the international ocean governance agenda'. It forms part of an EPRS series offering a summary of the pre-legislative state-of-play and advance consultation on a range of key European Commission priorities during its five-year term in office. It seeks to present the current state of affairs, to examine how existing policy is working on the ground, and to identify best practice and ideas for the future on the part of governmental organisations at all levels of the European system of multilevel governance.
JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 2007
Schmidt's book is a valuable and well-written contribution to the analysis of the impact of Europ... more Schmidt's book is a valuable and well-written contribution to the analysis of the impact of European integration on national democracies. According to the author, democracy has become an issue for Europe and the suspension of the ratification process on the Constitutional Treaty, following the failures of the referendums in France and the Netherlands, shows that it will remain a problematic issue in the near future. The institutional reforms envisaged in the Constitutional Treaty may reduce the problem of EU democracy, but they would not solve the democratic deficit at the national level. The problem at stake refers to Europeanization, which means that national conceptions of democratic power and authority, access and influence, vote and voice remain mostly unchanged. National leaders have failed to initiate ideas and discourse that would engage national publics in the discourse about the EU-related changes to national democracy. Therefore, a key question here is 'how should national leaders proceed in such a discourse?' Firstly, they should decide what the EU is, in order to assess what their countries are becoming. Thus, the fundamental assumption of Schmidt's book is the idea of the EU conceived as a regional state. It is a regional union of nation states, where sovereignty is shared with Member States, boundaries are not fixed, identity is understood in terms of 'being' and 'doing', governance is dispersed. Schmidt argues that in such a fragmented democracy, the EU's legitimacy is in question because it is compared to the ideal of the nation state. However, if it is conceived as a regional state, the democratic deficit would not be so great. But the problem is much more significant in relation to national democracy. The author convincingly argues that this is because while the EU makes policy without politics, its Member States realize politics without policy. National citizens have little direct input into the EU policies that affect them. This results in the problems of voter disaffection and political extremism characterizing the EU Member States nowadays. To solve this problem, Member States have to come up with new national ideas and discourse in order to adjust the EU-related changes to the traditional performance of their national democracies. But firstly it is necessary to conceive how institutions affect European democracy at EU and national levels. Thus, Schmidt's book is about the nature of the EU governance system and its impact on national democracies. In Chapters 2-4, the author examines the impact of the EU upon national institutions, taking into account in turn the policy-making processes and the representative politics of the EU and the Member States. A special merit of Schmidt's work is that the author illustrates her argument with examples of four countries: Britain and France, as
EPIN Working Papers present analyses of key issues raised by the debate on the political integrat... more EPIN Working Papers present analyses of key issues raised by the debate on the political integration of Europe. The European Policy Institutes Network (EPIN) is a network of think tanks and policy institutes based throughout Europe, which focuses on current EU political and policy debates (see back cover for more information). Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed are attributable only to the author in a personal capacity and not to any institutions with which he is associated.
The study of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) has been dominated by various mainst... more The study of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) has been dominated by various mainstream theories drawn from International Relations and European Studies. These have largely neglected the role of ideas, beliefs, values and practices regarding the use of police and military instruments, in other words, the strategic culture which shapes the security and defence policies of the European Union (EU). This strategic culture of the EU has become manifest in the way ESDP officials think about the deployment of military and police resources as well as in the way they plan ESDP missions. After introducing the concept in general terms, the thesis claims that the notion of strategic culture can be applied to the EU. Various innovative models of categorisationa re provided throughout the thesis in order to describe the state of development of EU strategic culture. An analysis of the development of the strategic culture of the EU is provided since the end of the Cold War up to the y...
European Foreign Affairs Review, 2005
Political Studies Review, 2016
comprehensive introduction, he points out his ultimate goal: ‘to systematically explain shifts in... more comprehensive introduction, he points out his ultimate goal: ‘to systematically explain shifts in virtual borders by constructing a model that can have a broad explanatory application and may be general enough to explain similar cases’ (p. 27). However, the main focus is on Albania and the Albanians, whose actual and virtual, concrete and imagined mapping and territorialisation are examined in the following chapters. Kalemaj offers a concise account of the main theories of nationalism and sums up their relevance to the Albanian case in a highly useful table (pp. 42–43). Then, he defines a framework of virtual border shifts. The following chapter analyses boundary mapping and territorialisation of identity, pointing out two overlapping maps of Albanian identity. The next chapters are chronological in their approach. Firstly, tracing the process of nation-building and state formation, emphasising the significance of the Balkan War of 1912. Secondly, Kalemaj demonstrates the process of...
In the past the author has worked with British MEPs (European Parliamentary Labour Party) and has... more In the past the author has worked with British MEPs (European Parliamentary Labour Party) and has been in touch with UKREP representatives. The clash between the different countries-Greece and the UK in particular, were the first stimulus in writing this paper. The paper deals with the issue of Greek national representation at the EU level. It is argued that although Greece has been an EU member since 1981 it still has not managed to set up a cohesive network of representation. Much of the failure is inherent in the weaknesses of civil service bureaucracy at the national level. Problems emerge from the very nature of the Greek state as well as from the failure of the political elites to address new challenges in an imaginative way.
... If this is not the case then the problem of 'competing networks' should be taken in... more ... If this is not the case then the problem of 'competing networks' should be taken into account as it might pose major challenge to the development of ESDP. ii. ... One of the very fundamental communal elements of any social system is a sense of solidarity (Clark 1973). ...
European Foreign Policy Conference Paper, LSE, …, 2004
The paper studies the emergence of the strategic culture of the European Union through the develo... more The paper studies the emergence of the strategic culture of the European Union through the development of ESDP. It argues that ESDP should not only be judged in terms of missions and institutions. It should be also studied at a cognitive level. Therefore, researchers should take into account the practices and ideas of policy officials when it comes to the planning and implementation of ESDP police and military missions. The paper examines the development of these ESDP ideas and practices by conducting a study of the strategic culture of the EU. It argues that ideas, beliefs and practices that policy officials hold on the use of force really matter. However, ideas cannot be studied independently but need to be taken into account within a comprehensive framework of study which includes issues related to the question of structure and agency. The evolution of history is important. Ideas on security issues are developed by historic events which enrich the experiences of a particular coll...
European Foreign Affairs Review, Jun 1, 2005
International Journal of Iberian Studies, 2005
Jcms Journal of Common Market Studies, 2009
Preliminary remarks: The paper studies the emergence of the strategic culture of the European Uni... more Preliminary remarks: The paper studies the emergence of the strategic culture of the European Union through the development of ESDP. It argues that ESDP should not only be judged in terms of missions and institutions. It should be also studied at a cognitive level. Therefore, researchers should take into account the practices and ideas of policy officials when it comes to the planning and implementation of ESDP police and military missions. The paper examines the development of these ESDP ideas and practices by conducting a study of the strategic culture of the EU. It argues that ideas, beliefs and practices that policy officials hold on the use of force really matter. However, ideas cannot be studied independently but need to be taken into account within a comprehensive framework of study which includes issues related to the question of structure and agency. The evolution of history is important. Ideas on security issues are developed by historic events which enrich the experiences...
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Papers by Vasileios Margaras