Ecsa Newsletter

With the introduction of a single currency in 1999 and the negotiations for the fifth enlargement in 2000, the European Union is at a major crossroads in its history. While the adoption of EMU and the entrance of new member states hold the promise of creating an 'ever close union', they must take place in a rather turbulent environment. Exogenous shocks such as the Asian financial crisis, the Russian upheaval, and new Balkan problems threaten to derail advances in monetary affairs and common foreign and security policy. Endogenous resistance to further European policy reform in areas such as the budget, CAP, and structural funds has strengthened, as suggested by the meagre advances in the Amsterdam Treaty. Indeed, domestic developments, including changes in the political composition of leading governments and growing unemployment, pose further challenges to EU reforms. With contributions from leading scholars, the book examines the European Union in a theoretically informed, empirically-grounded manner. The book begins by exploring the evolving nature of the European polity and its capacity for change. The second section on monetary union examines the conditions under which EMU will challenge integration, the viability of the European Central Bank, as well as the ability of European citizens to adjust to the single currency. The third section investigates why member states agreed to the Eastern enlargement and what internal and external challenges face the Union as a result. The fourth section highlights the institutional upheavals underway in the major European institutions, as well as Europeans support of and identify with the European polity. The final section of the book highlights the extent to which the European Union is able to govern in key policy areas–trade, environment, common foreign and security policy, and development–given the state of the European Union today. This is the fifth volume in the biannual series State of the European Union produced under the auspices of the American European Community Studies Association (ECSA)

Eighteen articles discuss the leading EU issues and institutional reforms at the end of this century, such as enlargement, security, and monetary union, as well as relations with the US, Russia, and the new World Trade Organization. Although the contents are not exclusively determined by that agenda, the volume was prepared and edited on the eve of and during the early months of the 1996 IGC, which highlighted the struggle between those who seek a more integrated and even a federal Europe and those proposing a looser confederation. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The drive for harmonisation of environmental criminal standards at both the international and European level emerges from the increasing recognition of the scale and seriousness of environmental crime, the need to strengthen mechanisms of police and judicial interstate cooperation to combat cross-border crime, and the objective to ensure fair competition in a global economy and an integrated EU common market. The harmonisation of environmental criminal law requires a competent institutional framework able to convey the need for criminalisation of environmental harm while not overriding national aspirations to sovereignty in criminal matters. The book Environmental Criminal Liability and Enforcement in European and International Law assesses legal, theoretical and practical questions of harmonisation of national environmental criminal law and the mechanisms for cooperation by sovereign states under European and International Law, with a particular emphasis on legislative developments in the European Union, the Council of Europe and other international institutions, assessing the case for an extension of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over international environmental crimes.

Within the context of regional integration, comparative regionalism, organizational change, and regional security literatures, this book investigates three cases wherein regional economic organizations were confronted with conventional security threats: the 1978-91 Association of Southeast Asian Nations-Vietnam Standoff, the 1990 Economic Community of West Africa-Liberian Civil War Challenge, and the 1990-91 European Communities-Balkans Crisis. While the literature suggests multiple possible explanations for regional economic organizations’ response to these security challenges, including systemic and power-related factors, organizational factors and functional needs, and cognitive and social factors, the author argues that the decision to transform a regional economic organization into a conventional security actor is most influenced by decision makers’ perceptions of threat and functional necessity.

European integration is at a turning point with implications for all member states and their citizens. The Amsterdam treaty marks a shift towards constitutional issues. Integration has involved a continually evolving process of constitution making. A group of leading scholars argue that the shift towards constitutional issues is rooted not only in the issues on the European level, but also in shifting models of political and economic organisation in the member states. Paradoxically, however, this push towards integration is accompanied by a number of institutional changes and political decisions, which challenge the picture of on-going integration, and indicate a shift towards a new pluralism in the Euro-polity. The contributors address questions such as; what are the likely effects of the Amsterdam treaty changes in comparison with Maastricht?; how will these changes effect the complex balance among the governing institutions of the EU?; and what will be the implications for the lingering quest for democracy?