Thomas Christiansen

Christine Reh

This important new text outlines the evolution and main themes of constitutional debate in the EU; the role of key institutions, notably the Intergovernmental Conferences and the European Court of Justice and the impact of the Convention method and of the constitutional text emerging from it.

Constitutionalizing the European Union

This book analyses the influence of Francoist policy on agricultural output in the 1939-55 period. The focus is on the wheat, olive and wine sectors and special attention is given to small-scale farmers. Agrarian policy for wheat and olive oil included pricefixing, production quotas and rationing of consumption. Producers and consumers circumvented intervention by creating a black market. When earnings from the black market are included, value of output per unit of land remained close to pre-war levels. It is then concluded that the decrease in wheat output was caused by lack of draught animals and fertilisers rather than state intervention. Intervention in the wheat sector was therefore desirable from a social viewpoint but the system could have been improved significantly. Average olive oil output only fell below the pre-war level immediately after the war. Consequently, state intervention was unnecessary after 1942-43 and could have been abolished long before it was finally done in 1952. In the wine sector, policy aimed at increasing farm prices rather than decreasing consumer prices. Table wine consumption declined after the war but this was counteracted by higher demand for high-alcohol white wine for the production of brandy and industrial alcohol. Consequently, the analysis shows that similar kinds of intervention led to quite different result in terms of production, as demonstrated in the cases of wheat and olives. On the other hand, different types of intervention led to similar results in production for olives and vines.

The Post Civil-war Agrarian Crisis in Spain

The Reason why

Katrin Auel

The role of national parliaments in EU matters has become an important subject in the debate over the democratic legitimacy of European Union decision-making. Strengthening parliamentary scrutiny and participation rights at both the domestic and the European level is often seen as an effective measure to address the perceived ‘democratic deficit’ of the EU – the reason for affording them a prominent place in the newly introduced ‘Provisions on Democratic Principles’ of the Union (in particular Article 12 TEU). Whether this aim can be met, however, depends crucially on the degree to which, and the manner in which, national parliaments actually make use of their institutional rights. This volume therefore aims at providing a comprehensive overview of the activities of national parliaments in the post-Lisbon Treaty era. This includes the ‘classic’ scrutiny of EU legislation, but also parliamentary involvement in EU foreign policy, the use of new parliamentary participation rights of the Lisbon Treaty (Early Warning System), their role regarding the EU’s response to the Eurozone crisis, and the, so far under-researched, role of parliamentary administrators in scrutiny processes. This book was originally published as a special issue of West European Politics.

After Lisbon: National Parliaments in the European Union

Emil J. Kirchner

Han Dorussen

This book explores EU-China security cooperation across a range of key issues.

From Convergence to Cooperation?

Security Relations between China and the European Union

Roberta Haar

Sabina Lange

Sophie Vanhoonacker

This volume addresses how and in what capacity the European Union and its member states are able to respond to fundamental shifts occurring in global politics and remain relevant for the future. The changing nature of the international system is subject to considerable contestation among scholars, with many claiming that the fundamentals of the post-war international system are being rewritten. This volume brings together prominent scholars in the field of European security to address a range of pertinent issues related to Europe’s role in the context of evolving global challenges. The first section focuses on whether the EU is an actor with a strategic nature and the means to act on a global security strategy. The second section considers the institutional dynamics and the approaches at the EU’s disposal to fulfil its possible intended global roles. The third section addresses Europe’s most important strategic relationship—the partnership it has with the United States. This section considers the recalibration of the transatlantic relationship in light of the changing international system and the reorientation of U.S. foreign policy. This book will be of much interest to students of European Union policy, European Security policy, European Foreign policy and International Relations in general.

Between Institutional Dynamics and Global Challenges

The Making of European Security Policy

Emil Kirchner

See Seng Tan

This wide-ranging book analyses EU-Asia security relations in a systematic, substantive and comparative manner. The contributions assess similarities and differences between the EU and its Asian partners with respect to levels of threat perception, policy response and security cooperation in the context of historical, institutional and external factors – such as the influence of the United States. The book presents original empirical research organised in four parts: a number of contributions providing discussions of the global context in which EU-Asia security relations develop; a series of chapters covering the range of dimensions of EU-Asian security, including both traditional and non-military aspects of security; chapters addressing the specific issues touching on bilateral relations between the EU and its partners in the Asia-Pacific region; and a final part presenting the overall findings across the various contributions together with the future outlook for EU-Asia security relations.

The European Union’s Security Relations with Asian Partners

Diane Fromage

This volume addresses an important aspect of Brexit that has been ever-present in public debates, but has so far not received corresponding attention by academic scholars, namely the role of parliaments and citizens in this process. To address this gap, this book brings together an international group of authors who provide a comprehensive and multidisciplinary treatment of this subject. Specifically, the contributors, scholars from the UK and across Europe, provide diverse accounts of the role of regional, national and European parliaments and citizens from the perspectives of Law, Political Science and European Studies. The book is structured in three parts focused on developments, respectively, in the UK, in the parliaments of the EU27, and at the EU level. Beyond providing a comprehensive examination of the scrutiny of Brexit, the book utilises the insights gained from this experience for a study of executive-legislative relations in the European Union more generally, examining the balance, or lack thereof, between governments and parliaments. In this way, the book also speaks to some of the long-lasting, indeed perennial questions about the effects of constitutional provisions and political practice in the context of European democracy.

The Role of Parliaments in the UK and the European Union

Brexit and Democracy

Simona Piattoni

How are the deals and decisions of the EU made - in the meeting rooms and at the conference tables, or by informal networks in the back corridors of power?

Thomas Christiansen

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