To Örebro University

This chapter focuses on the EU’s future enlargement plans. In a time of war and instability, the enlargement plans have gained new momentum, and the chapter addresses the question of how the EU can (and should) manage the risks and opportunities associated with a new wave of enlargement. It first presents various incentives for an EU enlargement: economic, geopolitical and normative. It then examines the formal and informal procedures of the enlargement process, which has become increasingly lengthy and evaluative. Against this background, it provides an overview of the current enlargement processes in two distinct regions: the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership, followed by a discussion of the EU’s capacity to enlarge and various proposals for institutional reforms to manage a new enlargement. The chapter concludes with a comparison of the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership in terms of the challenges and opportunities of enlargement. It also examines the broader dilemmas that the EU is facing in this process. It concludes that the EU should first prioritise internal unity on the core issue of whether it wants to enlarge, and then show endurance and patience throughout the process.

This text focuses the cooperation between Europarties and domestic political parties in Ukraine and the aim is to assess the main opportunities and challenges for the Europarties to play a role in Ukraine’s democratic development and its EU-membership aspirations. It first examines the political landscape in Ukraine and the challenges for the Europarties in finding partners in a context of unstable and ‘non-ideological’ political parties. It then considers the incentives for transnational party cooperation among both Europarties and the Ukrainian parties, which are of both instrumental and ideational character. Then it presents an analysis of the historical evolution of the transnational party cooperation. It concludes that the Europarties have so far not had any significant effects on the characteristics of Ukraine’s party system. This can be explained by the competition among Europarties, which has led to a softening of membership criteria. But the Europarties have found an important role in supporting Ukraine’s EU-integration process. With their long experience and wide network among high-level contacts within the EU, the Europarties can help Ukraine in making the necessary reforms and act as an ambassador for Ukraine’s EU-membership aspirations.

Denna bok lyfter frågan om hur vilka planer som finns i Ryssland för tiden efter Putin som president. Huvudargumentet är att de strategier för att bygga politisk legitimitet nästan helt har fokuserats på Putin som Rysslands räddare och beskyddare. Därmed har också möjliga efterträdare svårt att bygga upp en egen plattform. Den nya konstitutionen som möjliggör för Putin att sitta kvar fram till 2036 visar att man inte har någon lösning på detta dilemma. Kvar finns en åldrande president och ett politiskt system som i övrigt hyser lågt förtroende hos befolkningen.

This book raises the question of Russia’s plans for the time after Putin as Russia’s president. The main argument is that the strategies for political legitimacy in Russia has focused almost entirely on Putin himself as the saviour and protector of the Russian nation. Consequently, any potential successor has a difficult task in building up his/her own platform. The new constitution, which makes it possible for Putin to continue as president until 2036 demonstrates that this dilemma has yet no solution. What remains is an aging president and a political system with a very low level of popular trust.

Has Swedish policy changed in terms of organisation (form) and content (substance) as a result of an increasingly consolidated membership? Based on the assumption that Swedish policy is part of multilevel governance at a local, regional, national and European level, the focus is on the interaction between Swedish national policy and the EU. In this book Swedish policy refers to the following policy areas: economic, agricultural, environmental, social, education, gender equality, asylum and migration, crime prevention, foreign and security, neighbourhood and development and aid. Every policy area has been scrutinised over time, from the moment of entry into the EU until today. The book addresses students at various levels, as well as politicians, civil servants and journalists with regard to how Sweden and Europe in general, and Swedish policy and the EU in particular, are interwoven in one political system.

This paper analyses the European Parliament in the light of agenda Europe 2020 with a specific focus on the transnational party groups. It starts with clarifying the legal and institutional framework for Europe 2020 and to what degree the European Parliament is involved in the agenda-setting stage, actual creation, decision process and implementation process. Thus, what have been the openings and possibilities for political entrepreneurship of the party groups and of individual members of Parliament? Secondly, it identifies the main issues around Europe 2020 which have been up for debate in the European Parliament. The main interest here lies in whether the conflicts concerns transnational ideological issues (like economic issues between Left and Right or between growth and sustainability) or domestic interests. Thirdly, it identifies examples of political entrepreneurship strategies among the party groups and their individual members. It is important to remember that the European party families are present in each EU-institution. Consequently, there is room for informal influence may on fellow party sympathisers in other key EU institutions like the Commission or the Council.

This paper analyses the (possible) ideological influence of Europarties on their member parties in Central and Eastern Europe. The specific focus of the study is the Christian democratic European People’s Party (EPP) and the main theoretical point of departure is the theoretical framework for Europarty cooperation, developed by Poguntke and von dem Berge. The analysis is based on elections manifesto data from 1990 to 2015. The aim is to provide an overview on possible trends of convergence (or divergence) between the Western and Eastern EPP-affiliated parties and to evaluatethe extent of influence that the EPP has exerted on Christian democratic and conservative parties in Central and Eastern Europe. The analysis is based on a mean-value comparison of the West European member parties and the affiliated parties from post-communist countries when it comes to Left-Right positions and issue specific positions. Furthermore the analysis is complemented with in-depth analysis of specific cases. Finally the relevance of party size is evaluated in relation to ideological convergence and Europarty influence.