This book provides a comprehensive account of the extent to which policies and institutions of the European Union (EU) spread across different contexts. Are the EU’s attempts to transfer its policies and institutions to accession and neighbourhood countries sustainable and effective? To what degree do other regions of the world emulate the EU’s institutional features, what are the mechanisms of, and conditions for, their diffusion? Chapters deal with Europeanization in the new EU member states, particularly in Romania and Bulgaria, in current accession candidates, i.e. the Western Balkans and Turkey, as well the Eastern (Southern Caucasus) and Southern Neighbourhood (Israel and the Maghreb). In addition, authors investigate the diffusion of EU policies and institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The authors place Europeanization studies in the wider context of research on transnational diffusion, and examine the relevant mechanisms and processes, including incentives and capacity-building, socialization and learning as well as functional and normative emulation. Finally, the book discusses what conditions lead to the successful diffusion of European institutions and policies, such as domestic incentives, degrees of (limited) statehood, regime type, and power (a)symmetries. This book was originally published as a special issue of West European Politics.

The continuous expansion of the European Union has transformed its very own self-conception. While Eastern enlargement was widely celebrated as the ‘reuniting of Europe’, the sheer number of applicants, their low economic development and the need for new states to transform in accordance with EU values required considerable adjustments to the EU’s self-image. By examining the European Council’s contentious approval of the Mediterranean and Central and Eastern European countries in the 1970s and 1990s, this book investigates why the European Union enlarges. Based on new and hitherto not analysed data, it introduces the concept of ‘anomie’ to the discourse and, in doing so, makes a timely contribution to the literature of constitutional politics and enlargement of the European Union. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of the European Union, area studies (European studies, central and east European studies, Mediterranean studies) and more broadly comparative politics and constitutional politics.

The European recovery has been disrupted since the onset of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Co-ordinated and timely policy action helped avoid a severe downturn, but the near-term outlook is clouded by uncertainty and downside risks. Monetary and fiscal policy need to become sufficiently restrictive to reduce underlying inflationary pressures durably.

What impact do issues of culture, religion and identity have on Turkey's chances of joining the EU? Are religious and cultural factors per se the primary obstacle to Turkish accession, or is it their interaction with other factors that is prolonging and complicating Turkey's progress towards EU membership? Mirela Bogdani here analyses the complex range of issues that are influencing the process of Turkey's accession to the EU, assesses the positions of different European actors towards Turkey's pursuit of EU membership and identifies the reasons for the European opposition. She also analyses the issues of political Islam, multiculturalism and the compatibility of Islam with democracy. This book will be an important resource for anyone interested in EU politics, EU enlargement policy, EU-Turkey relations, the relationship between religion and politics, political Islam, multiculturalism and supranational integration.

Since its formation the European Union has expanded beyond all expectations, and this expansion seems set to continue as more countries seek accession and the scope of EU law expands, touching more and more aspects of its citizens' lives. The EU has never been stronger and yet it now appears to be reaching a crisis point, beset on all sides by conflict and challenges to its legitimacy. Nationalist sentiment is on the rise and the Eurozone crisis has had a deep and lasting impact. EU law, always controversial, continues to perplex, not least because it remains difficult to analyse. What is the EU? An international organization, or a federation? Should its legal concepts be measured against national standards, or another norm? The Oxford Handbook of European Union Law illuminates the richness and complexity of the debates surrounding the law and policies of the EU. Comprising eight sections, it examines how we are to conceptualize EU law; the architecture of EU law; making and administering EU law; the economic constitution and the citizen; regulation of the market place; economic, monetary, and fiscal union; the Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice; and what lies beyond the regulatory state. Each chapter summarizes, analyses, and reflects on the state of play in a given area, and suggests how it is likely to develop in the foreseeable future. Written by an international team of leading commentators, this Oxford Handbook creates a vivid and provocative tapestry of the key issues shaping the laws of the European Union.

Turkish accession to the European Union is an important but controversial item on the agenda of the European Union. By focusing on the various domestic sources that drive Turkish politics, this comprehensive study of both classic and new topics supported by fresh, new insights fills a void in the current literature on Turkey-EU relations. This volume is a comprehensive, state of the art study of domestic politics and policies and their role in Turkey’s EU accession. Contributions are obtained from established scholars, acknowledged for their expertise in their respective fields. The content is structured along issues, dynamics, actors and policies that drive Turkish politics and it provides an integrated assessment of the dynamics in Turkey-EU relations to general readers, students and specialists in EU Enlargement and Turkish politics alike. Original contributions to ‘classic’ topics such as the customs union, human rights, military, civil society, public and elite opinion, political parties and the Kurdish issue are made by assessing the domestic sources of recent developments during the negotiations period. In addition, ‘new’ topics are included that previously have not been covered or analyzed in volumes on Turkish-EU relations such as the Alevi issue, European Turks, corruption in Turkey, and Turkish parliamentary elite opinion on Turkey and the EU. This book was published as a special issue of South European Society and Politics.

Turkey's EU accession talks, which began in 2005, were intended to strengthen Turkey's democracy and the EU's ability to embrace difference. Instead, we have seen repeated questioning of Turkey's 'Europeanness' and mutual exploitation of the other's weaknesses. Offering a unique analysis of conversations in and about Turkey and the EU, Lucia Najšlová adopts an interdisciplinary ethnographic lens, taking the reader through misunderstandings in the diplomatic framework and into everyday interactions between various protagonists of the relationship. Questions of belonging and recognition underpin the analysis and connect various research sites, including the 2016 refugee deal and the status of Turkish Cypriots. Najšlová delves into the temporal dimensions of this dynamic, such as questions surrounding Turkish modernity and nation-building, and asks whether there is such a thing as good timing for democracy and what would happen if the diplomatic framework of Turkey-EU relations started moving faster.

Is Turkey on the way to meet the economic Copenhagen criteria? The enlargement process that the European Union faced the last decade stirred the debate again about the role Turkey has to play and whether or not Turkey should be part of the European Union. While the enlargement with the Central and East European countries of the former Soviet Union was a logical process, given the strong trade relationships and the political and historical context of these countries, the potential enlargement with Turkey is much more complex and controversial. The main innovation of the present study is that it unravels the complexity of the Turkish case by approaching the problem from different angles in a comprehensive way. In particular, by tuning in on the historic, political and economic processes, new insights are obtained about the feasibility of Turkish accession to the EU. By combining lessons from the existing literature, the use of new data and the analysis of the political economic processes, a new perspective on the enlargement question – with the key Copenhagen criteria used as a corner stone - is offered.