Sociology/Politics

As Ireland set about applying to join the EEC in the 1950s the anti-British discourse on which Irish nationalism relied began to look rather specious, set against the evidence of our overwhelming economic dependence on the UK: this was an asymmetrical relationship like no other in Europe. The attainment of Irish membership of the European Communities constituted perhaps the most critical development in the life of the independent state and it helped to refashion Ireland in myriad ways across a spectrum of economic, political and social issues. President de Gaulle's veto over UK accession to the EEC effectively also ruled out Irish membership in the 1960s. But accession was finally achieved in 1973 and this essay charts the tortuous journey towards that pivotal moment and the challenges and frustrations experienced by Irish policy-makers in negotiating with the EEC 'Six'.

The EU is seeking to repeat the success of its eastern enlargement in the Western Balkans. The accession of Croatia on 1 July 2013 provides a template for other Western Balkan states to emulate as they seek to transpose and implement the EU acquis communautaire and advance their membership prospects. But the EU’s engagement with the Western Balkans is proving uneven and unsatisfactory:  the enlargement process is now on ‘life support’ and ‘flat lining’ along a trajectory of ‘frozen negotiating chapters’ and mutual mistrust toward (despite the promise made at Thessaloniki a decade ago) an increasingly uncertain destination. The main reason for this is ‘enlargement fatigue’ amongst the member states of the European Union. This article explores the underlying causes of this phenomenon and how it is impacting on the EU’s relationship with the Western Balkans. It demonstrates that there is a symbiotic link between enlargement fatigue on the EU side of the relationship and the deficit of implementation on the candidate state side. The extended economic crisis which has so damaged EU solidarity has also had a knock-on impact on enlargement: the previously successful ‘external incentives model’ has run aground on the rocks of growing mistrust and pervasive uncertainty about the endpoint of the process.

This article constitutes a response to David Chandler and his conception of the European Union’s role in the western Balkans as a contemporary form of empire-building which he
argues has deeply compromised the process of democratic institution-building in a still fragile region. It analyses his view that the EU enlargement process is entirely asymmetric in design and process and contends that there is ample room for candidate states both to contest EU demands and shape their own paths toward membership. This is entirely consistent with the evidence from the EU’s previous enlargement, its most ambitious to date, which saw ten states from Central and Eastern Europe become members in 2004 and 2007. The EU enlargement regime is thus a tried and tested one and constitutes the most successful instrument in the EU’s external relations toolkit. But it is now facing a challenge in the western Balkans that is manifestly more difficult than anything encountered in previous accession contexts. In particular, the
problem of first order democratisation, extending to the practice of state-building, remains cogent and, in the fallout from the Kosovan declaration of independence all the more important in regional terms.

This article analyses the significance of the 12 June 2008 Lisbon Treaty referendum in the Republic of Ireland. This was the third such referendum on Europe held in Ireland since the millennium, and the second referendum in three to result in a rejection of an EU Treaty ...

The EU is seeking to repeat the success of its eastern enlargement in the Western Balkans.The accession of Croatia on 1 July 2013 provides a template for other Western Balkan states to emulate as they seek to transpose and implement the EU acquis communautaire and advance their membership prospects. But the EU’s engagement with the Western Balkans is proving uneven and unsatisfactory: the enlargement process is now on ‘life support’ and ‘flat lining’ along a trajectory of ‘frozen negotiating chapters’ and mutual mistrust toward (despite the promise made at Thessaloniki a decade ago) an increasingly uncertain destination.The main reason for this is ‘enlargement fatigue’ amongst the Member States of the European Union.This article explores the underlying causes of this phenomenon and how it is impacting on the EU’s relationship with the Western Balkans. It demonstrates that there is a symbiotic link between enlargement fatigue on the EU side of the relationship and the deficit of impl...

Ireland's relationship with the European Union (EU) has, since 2008, been tested by an enduring and complex series of economic and political crises. The contributions to this special issue examine these EU-linked crises through a variety of Irish perspectives, including the impact on public opinion, environmental policy, migration policy, foreign policy and the state's positioning on Brexit. In the introduction to this special issue, we review how the Irish-EU nexus was challenged by and responded to the financial crisis and Brexit. This sets the scene for a deep examination of how other crises have been experienced in Ireland; how collectively these developments have challenged Irish-EU relations; and what this means for patterns of Europeanisation and de-Europeanisation across different policy sectors and political settings. In this context, we highlight an evolving political and economic landscape of both continuity and change in Ireland where the relative influence of the EU, in the shadow of crisis, is determined by discrete political circumstances and policy specific dynamics.

Given the problems created by the failed Irish referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon for the European Union, it is a bittersweet irony that Ireland has been one of the member states hardest hit by the turmoil in global markets. The country’s fiscal position has severely degraded and the Government has been forced to introduce austerity measures not seen for a quarter of a century. Now, in advance of the European Council’s December summit, expectations are growing that the Irish Prime Minister (or Taoiseach) Brian Cowen will provide a clear roadmap for an Irish solution to the EU’s constitutional dilemma and enable the EU to resolve the impasse created by the Irish electorate’s rejection of the Treaty in June.

With the successful launch of the single currency the European Union (EU) is now focused intensely on the second great project of the post-Maastricht agenda enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). After a decade of lofty rhetoric and continued prevarication, the EU committed itself, at the Helsinki summit in December 1999, to a full and inclusive enlargement round. Given the sheer scale of the challenge this represents it should hardly be a surprise that this enlargement has inspired a steady stream of academic publications. But the vast majority of those publications have been empirical. This has meant that analysis of the enlargement process has, as Schmitter has suggested, been taking place in a “theoretical vacuum”. This paper represents an effort to redress the balance in favour of theoretical endeavour. The paper begins by assessing the relative merits of IR theories applied to the enlargement process. Insights from Neorealism, Neoliberal Institutionalism and Neofunct...

After December’s European Council, there is renewed optimism that the second referendum promised by the Irish government for this autumn will see the Lisbon treaty carried. But in reality, it’s far from being in the bag. The economic crisis is already making the ruling Fianna Fáil party deeply unpopular and there is no guarantee that the electorate won’t punish Taoiseach (prime minister) Brian Cowen with a second No vote.

These concerns remain acute, even in the aftermath of the decision by the Czech Constitutional Court on Nov 26 that the Lisbon Treaty is compatible with the Czech constitution and can be ratified in the normal way by the Czech Parliament. But the current constellation of Czech political forces is finely balanced between pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty forces. So the inter-linkage between the ratification crises in Ireland and the Czech Republic is now explicit and threatens to spill over into the wider EU arena in 2009.

IRISH voters go to the polls again on Friday to decide whether to adopt the EU's Lisbon Treaty. The mood in European capitals is nervous; on two of the past three occasions the Irish have been asked to vote on an EU Treaty, they have rejected it.

Am 20.Januar geben die Serben ihre Stimme in der ersten Runde einer Präsidentschaftswahl ab, die auf mehrere Jahrzehnte hin die Zukunft des Landes bestimmen könnte. Während die neue Regierung des Kosovo zu einer einseitigen Unabhängigkeitserklärung tendiert, stehen die Serben vor einer bitteren Wahl: Sie können das Kosovo behalten und effektiv die Bindungen zur EU durchtrennen oder die schmerzhafte Tatsache der kosovarischen Unabhängigkeit hinnehmen und sich einer Zukunft innerhalb der EU zuwenden. Serbiens liberaler, proeuropäischer Präsident Boris Tadic ist nach wie vor Favorit der Wahl, doch weisen Meinungsumfragen darauf hin, dass sein Abstand zu Tomislav Nikolic von der ultranationalistischen Serbischen Radikalen Partei unter die Sicherheitsgrenze geschrumpft ist.