In recent years, the European Commission has attached increasing importance to the use of financial engineering instruments rather than traditional grant-based financing for the microcredit sector, considering these to be the most efficient option available. This book presents a study of capacity building and structural funds in public managing authorities for the microcredit sector. It present…
"Increasing inequalities, social exclusion and poverty within the EU (although at a different scale between States) prove that the effectiveness of social rights falls behind their formal entitlements and their judicial enforceability. Beyond the classical way followed by legal studies in dealing with the issue, the focus would shift to experimental ways better able to cope with the current mul…
Why do governments still negotiate with trade unions and employers in the design of labour market and welfare reforms despite the steady decline of trade union membership almost everywhere in Europe? Social Concertation in Times of Austerity investigates the political underpinnings of social concertation in this new context with a focus on the regulation of labour mobility and unemployment prot…
The Right-Wing Critique of Europe analyses the opposition to the European Union from a variety of right-wing organisations in Western, Central and Eastern Europe. In recent years, opposition to the processes of globalisation and the programme of closer European integration, understood as a threat to the sovereignty of individual member states, has led to an intensification of Eurosceptic sentim…
This book explores the growing tension between multilingualism and monolingualism in the European Union in the wake of Brexit, underpinned by the interplay between the rise of English as a lingua franca and the effacement of translations in EU institutions, bodies and agencies. English and Translation in the European Union draws on an interdisciplinary approach, highlighting insights from appli…
This open access book centres on the advisory roles of political scientists in Europe. Based on a cross-national survey, the book offers a comparative analysis of the viewpoints and activities of university-based political scientists on external engagement. Political scientists in Europe appear more extrovert as academics than sometimes thought. In their professional functioning they engage in …
"Comparing economic development in a regional context both in the South of the United States and in the European Union today raises many fascinating questions. How much money in the form of tax credits and subsidies should communities and states invest to attract foreign investors in the U.S.? Should individual states and communities in the U.S. commit public funds in the form of tax money and …
The global fi nancial and economic crisis has been hitting the European Union severely since 2008. Although the economic crisis began in advanced economies and then spread all over the globe, its impact and implications are far from being equally distributed geographically. This is particularly visible within the European Union. While some countries, mainly in the North,…
How and under what conditions does the European Union (EU) shape processes of institution building in other regional organizations? Interorganizational Diffusion in International Relations: Regional Institutions and the Role of the European Union develops and tests a theory of interorganizational diffusion in international relations that explains how successful pioneer organizations shape insti…
This open access book provides an in-depth look into the background of rule of law problems and the open defiance of EU law in East Central European countries. Current illiberal trends and anti-EU politics have the potential to undermine mutual trust between member states and fundamentally change the EU. It is therefore crucial to understand their domestic causes, context conditions, specific p…
This open access book centres on the advisory roles of political scientists in Europe. Based on a cross-national survey, the book offers a comparative analysis of the viewpoints and activities of university-based political scientists on external engagement. Political scientists in Europe appear more extrovert as academics than sometimes thought. In their professional functioning they engage in …
By adopting a rights-based approach, this open access book sheds light on the different legal and policy instruments that have been adopted to implement circular migration policies in the EU and their consequences for the rights of migrant workers. It contributes to the understanding of the meaning of this concept in general, in the EU, as well as more specifically with regard to its Eastern ne…
This open access book provides an exhaustive picture of the role that annulment conflicts play in the EU multilevel system. Based on a rich dataset of annulment actions since the 1960s and a number of in-depth case studies, it explores the political dimension of annulment litigation, which has become an increasingly relevant judicial tool in the struggle over policy content and decision-making …
In the context of Turkey's accession to the EU, the issue of potential migration from Turkey and its impact upon European labor markets became one of the concerns of the EU, considering Turkey's growing population and young labor force. In 2011, half a century after the bi-lateral agreement between Turkey and Germany on labor recruitment in 1961, migration plays a key role in relations of Turke…
This monograph, based on newly declassified sources from Western and Russian archives as well as on communist texts about international law and neutrality, is the first English-language account of Soviet policy towards neutral yet capitalist Austria during the Cold War. In order to make neutrality a model for the West, the Kremlin presented the unique Soviet-Austrian relationship as "a good exa…
Book description This book provides the first in-depth empirical study of the European Parliament's powers of scrutiny of the executive in the European Union (EU) political system, focusing on the politically salient field of the Economic and Monetary Union. The expansion of executive decision-making during the euro crisis was accompanied by an empowerment of the European Parliament through le…