The instrumental use of European union conditionality: Regionalization in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

East European Politics and Societies

Volumn 19, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 291-316

  Brusis, Martin ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Conditionality; Czech Republic; European Union; Europeanization; Regionalization; Slovakia

Indexed keywords

EID: 20844432934     PISSN: 08883254     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0888325404272063     Document Type: Article

References (82)

1. For recent overviews, cf. Michael Keating and James Hughes, eds., The Regional Challenge in Central and Eastern Europe: Territorial Restructuring and European Integration (Brussels: Peter Lang, 2003);
2. Judy Batt and Karen Wolczuk, eds., Region, State and Identity in Central and Eastern Europe (London: Frank Cass, 2002);
3. and Gerard Marcou, ed., Regionalization for Development and Accession to the European Union: A Comparative Perspective (Budapest, Hungary: Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative, 2002).
4. J. Barry Jones and Michael Keating, The European Union and the Regions (Oxford/New York: Clarendon/Oxford University Press, 1995);
5. Mark Smyrl, "Does European Community Regional Policy Empower the Regions?" Governance 10:3(1997): 287-309;
6. and Charly Jeffery, ed., The Regional Dimension of the European Union: Towards a Third Level in Europe? (London: Frank Cass, 1997).
7. Jĩrí Pehe, "Consolidating Free Government in the New EU," Journal of Democracy 15:1(2004): 40.
8. Heather Grabbe, "How Does Europeanization Affect CEE Governance? Conditionally, Diffusion and Diversity, "Journal of European Public Policy 8:6(2001): 1013-31, at 1014-15;
9. and Milada Anna Vachudová, "The Leverage of International Institutions on Democratizing States: Eastern Europe and the European Union," European University Institute Working Paper (Florence, Italy: European University Institute, 2001), 5.
10. James Hughes, Gwendolyn Sasse, and Claire Gordon, "EU Enlargement, Europeanisation and the Dynamics of Regionalisation in the CEECs," in Keating and Hughes, The Regional Challenge in Central and Eastern Europe, 69-88, 70.
11. Anna Grzymata-Busse and Abby Innes, "Great Expectations: The EU and Domestic Political Competition in East-Central Europe," East European Politics and Societies 17:1(2003): 64-73, at 72.
12. Martin Brusis, "Between EU Requirements, National Traditions and Competitive Politics: Re-Creating Regions in the Accession Countries of Central and Eastern Europe," Governance 15:4(2002): 531-59;
13. Michal Illner, "Multilevel Government in Three East-Central European Candidate Countries and Its Reforms after 1989," European University Institute Working Paper (Florence, Italy: European University Institute, 2002), 30;
14. Simon Hix and Klaus H. Goetz, "Introduction: European Integration and National Political Systems," West European Politics 23:4(2000): 1-26, at 20;
15. and Jennifer A. Yoder, "Decentralisation and Regionalisation after Communism: Administrative and Territorial Reform in Poland and the Czech Republic," Europe Asia Studies 55:2(2003): 263-86.
16. Karen E. Smith, "Western Actors and the Promotion of Democracy," in Jan Zielonka and Alex Pravda, eds., Democratic Consolidation in Eastern Europe: International and Transnational Factors (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 31-57, at 37.
17. Frank Schimmelfennig, "Introduction: The Impact of International Organizations on the Central and Eastern European States - Conceptual and Theoretical Issues," in Ron Linden, ed., Norms and Nannies. The Impact of International Organizations on the Central and Eastern European States (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002).
18. Cf. the succinct analysis of this constellation by Andrew Moravcsik and Milada Anna Vachudová, "National Interests, State Power, and EU Enlargement," East European Politics and Societies 17:1(2003): 42-57.
19. Vachudovà, "Leverage," 5.
20. Grzymata-Busse and Innes, "Great Expectations."
21. Frank Schimmelfennig and Ulrich Sedelmeier, "Introduction: Conceptualizing the Europeanization of Central and Eastern Europe," in Frank Schimmelfennig and Ulrich Sedelmeier, eds., The Europeanization of Central and Eastern Europe (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004).
22. This argument draws on Claudio Radaelli's critique of a top-down perspective of Europeanization. Claudio Radaelli, "The Europeanization of Public Policy," in Kevin Featherstone and Claudio Radaelli, eds., The Politics of Europeanization (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 27-56, at 50-51.
23. Vachudová, "Leverage," 5.
24. Wade Jacoby, "Ordering from the Menu: How Central and East European States Cope with EU Demands for Institutional Reform" (Paper presented at the ECPR Joint Session Workshop, "Enlargement and European Governance," Turin, Italy, March 2002).
25. Geoffrey Pridham, "EU Enlargement and Consolidating Democracy in Post-Communist States - Formality and Reality, "Journal of Common Market Studies 40:3(2002): 953-73, at 958.
26. Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier, for example, note the difference between democratic and acquis conditionality but discuss different EU impacts as a function of case selection (unstable vs. stable democracies vs. autocracies) while downsizing all other differences with abstract catchall variables such as "credibility of conditionality" and "domestic adoption costs." Frank Schimmelfennig and Ulrich Sedelmeier, "Conclusions: The Impact of the EU on the Accession Countries," in Frank Schimmelfennig and Ulrich Sedelmeier, eds., The Europeanization of Central and Eastern Europe (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004).
27. Radaelli, "The Europeanization of Public Policy";
28. and Christoph Knill and Dirk Lehmkuhl, "The National Impact of European Union Regulatory Policy: Three Europeanization Mechanisms," European Journal of Political Research 41:2(2002): 255-80.
29. For a critique of such an approach to Europeanization, cf. Adrienne Héritier and Christoph Knill, "Differential Responses to European Policies: A Comparison," in Adrienne Héritier, Dieter Kerwer, Christoph Knill, Dirk Lehmkuhl, Michael Teutsch, and Anne-Cécile Douillet, eds., Differential Europe: The European Union Impact on National Policymaking (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), 257-96, at 288-90.
30. Frank Schimmelfennig, Stefan Engert, and Heiko Knobel, "Costs, Commitments, and Compliance: The Impact of EU Democratic Conditionality on Latvia, Slovakia, and Turkey," Journal of Common Market Studies 41:3(2003): 495-517.
31. Radaelli, "The Europeanization of Public Policy," 51.
32. The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), the EU's classification system for its regions, was codified for the first time in Regulation no. 1059/2003 of 26 May 2003 (Official Journal of the European Union, 21 June 2003, L 154/1-L 154/41).
33. Wade Jacoby and Pawel Č ernoch, "The EU's Pivotal Role in the Creation of Czech Regional Policy," in Ron Linden, ed., Norms and Nannies: The Impact of International Organizations on the Central and Eastern European States (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002).
34. Jacques Fournier, "Administrative Reform in the Commission Opinions concerning the Accession of the Central and Eastern European Countries to the European Union," in OECD-SIGMA, ed., Preparing Public Administration for the European Administrative Space (Paris: OECD-Support for the Improvement in Governance and Management [SIGMA], 1998), 110-18.
35. Commission opinion on the Czech Republic's application for membership of the European Union. COM (1997) of 15 July 1997, 88.
36. Regular report on Slovakia's progress towards accession. SEC (2001) 1754 of 13 November 2001, 24, 92.
37. European Commission, First Progress Report on Social and Economic Cohesion. COM (2002) 46 of 30 January 2002, http://europa.eu.int/comm/regional_policy/sources/docoffic/official/reports/pdf/ interim1/com_2002_046_en_acte.pdf, 21.
38. Speech made at a conference on "Europe of the Regions," published in Věrejná Správa 25/ 2000 of 8 December 2000, 17.
39. Speech published in Veřejná Správa 12/2001 of 8 June 2001, 19.
40. Dan Marek and Michael J. Baun, "The EU as a Regional Actor: The Case of the Czech Republic," Journal of Common Market Studies 40:5(2002): 895-919, at 910.
41. Such a misunderstanding was also noted by the Commission in an internal document on the "Preparations for the Structural Funds in the Candidate Countries. Twinners Seminar. Synthesis Paper," Brussels 2001;
42. cf. also Hughes, Sasse, and Gordon, "EU Enlargement, Europeanisation. "
43. Michael Keating, "Regionalization in Central and Eastern Europe: The Diffusion of a Western Model," in Keating and Hughes, The Regional Challenge in Central and Eastern Europe, 51-68, at 55.
44. Michal Illner, "Territorial Decentralization: An Obstacle to Democratic Reform in Central and Eastern Europe?" in Jonathan D. Kimball, ed., The Transfer of Power: Decentralization in Central and Eastern Europe (Budapest, Hungary: Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative, 1998), 7-42.
45. Ministerstvo Vnitra Č R: Návrh koncepce reformy vežejné správy, in Veřejná Správa 19/99 of 6 May 1999, příloha, 3.
46. Illner, "Territorial Decentralization";
47. Frantisek Šamalík, "Samospráva a státní správa: součinnost nebo konkurence?" Právník 133:2(1994): 103-13.
48. The respective provisions reflected a demand of the Federal Assembly, whose support was required to dissolve the Czechoslovak Federation. The Civic Democratic Party of Václav Klaus was opposed to these provisions but accepted them in the course of the bargaining over the dissolution of Czechoslovakia.
49. Olga Vidláková, "První desetiletí reformy veŗejné správy v Č eské republice," Správni právo 34:1(2001): 2-12, at 5.
50. Petr Pithart, "Perspektiva Evropy regionu a regiony v Č eské republice," in Jiří Kunc, ed., Demokracie a ústavnost (Praha, Czech Republic: Vydavatelství Univerzity Karlovy, 1996), 69-78; and
51. Šamalík, "Samospráva a státní správa."
52. Martin Brusis and Viktor Nižnaňtský, "Die slowakische Verwaltungsreform unter minderheitenpolitischem Aspekt," Südosteuropa 46:3-4(1997): 197-212.
53. Zdenka Vajdová, "Historie schválení ústavního zákona o vytvorení vyšších územních samosprávnych celku," in Zdenka Vajdová, ed., Volby do zastupitelstva Ústeckého kraje - 2000 (Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic: Univerzita J. E. Purkyne v. Ústí nad Labem, 2001), 8-17, at 10-11.
54. Statement by Václav Grulich, parliamentary debate on the public administration reform concept, 19 May 1999, http://www.psp.cz/docs/.
55. Yoder, "Decentralisation and Regionalisation after Communism." 277.
56. Vidláková, "První desetiletí reformy,", 8-9.
57. Abby Innes, Czechoslovakia: The Short Goodbye (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001), 220-31;
58. and Mitchell Orenstein, Out of the Red: Building Capitalism and Democracy in Postcommunist Europe (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001), 88-95.
59. Návrh koncepce reformy veřejné správy, in Veřejná Správa 19/99, 6 May 1999;
60. and Parliamentary Resolution no. 268 of 19 May 1999, http://www.psp.cz/docs/.
61. Karen Henderson, "Slovakia and the Democratic Criteria for EU Accession," in Karen Henderson, ed., Back to Europe: Central and Eastern Europe and the European Union (London: University College London Press, 1999), 221-40;
62. and Vachudová, "Leverage."
63. Grigorij Mesežnikov, "Č innost politickych strán a reforma verejnej správy," in Grigorij Mesežnikov and Viktor Nižnaňský, eds., Reforma Verejnej Správy na Slovensku 1998-2002, Súvislosti, aktéri, vol'by (Bratislava, Slovakia: Institut pre verejné otázky, 2002), 121-46, at 123-27.
64. The majoritarian electoral system was enforced against the Magyar Coalition Party (SMK), whose concerns were accommodated by increasing the number of electoral districts.
65. Viktor Nižnaňský and Jaroslav Kling, "Vežejná Správa," in Miroslav Kollár and Grigorij Mesežnikov, eds., Slovensko 2001. Súhrnná správa o stave spoločnosti (Bratislava, Slovakia: Institut pre verejné otázky, 2002), 199-222.
66. Grigorij Mesežnikov, "Vnútropoliticky vyvoj a systém politickych strán," in Kollár and Mesežnikov, Slovensko 2001, 21-112, at 52.
67. Pridham, "EU Enlargement and Consolidating Democracy," 965.
68. Government Office of the Slovak Republic, "Concept for Decentralisation and Modernisation of Public Administration," (Bratislava, Slovakia: Úrad vlády, 2000), 4.
69. Interview with Miloš Zeman, Veřejná Správa 1/99 of 30 December 1998.
70. Interview with Miloš Zeman, Veřejná Správa 35/99 of 26 August 1999.
71. This meaning is specified in a protocol (no. 30) on "the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality," annexed to the Treaty establishing the European Community in 1997.
72. This insight is owed to Olga Vidláková, public administration expert and former advisor to the deputy minister of interior responsible for public administration reform, interview, 26 April 2002.
73. I b i d.
74. Civic Democratic Party (ODS) deputy Jan Zahradil speaking in the parliamentary debate of 19 March 1999, http://www.psp.cz/docs/ (accessed 12 October 2004).
75. Miloš Zeman, Veř;ejná Správa 1/99 of 30 December 1998.
76. Ministerstvo Vnitra Č R: Návrh koncepce reformy veřejná správy, in Veřejná Správa 19/99 of 6 May 1999, pžíloha, 3-6.
77. Veřejná Správa 1/99 of 8 January 1999, 1.
78. Veřejná Správa 11/99 of 21 May 1999, 1-2.
79. Interview with a Ministry of Local Development official, in Veřejná Správa 1/99 of 30 December 1998.
80. Government Office of the Slovak Republic, "Concept for Decentralisation and Modernisation of Public Administration" (Bratislava, Slovakia: Úrad vlády, 2000), 24.
81. Abby Innes also describes the reform as an "instrumental top-down state engineering by party government"; cf. Abby Innes, "The Changing Power of the State in Eastern Europe" (Paper presented at the ECPR, Joint Session of Workshops, Turin, Italy, March 2002).
82. Tomás Kostelecky, "Vzestup nebo pád politického regionalismu? Zmeny na politické mape v letech 1992 az 1998 - srovnání Č eské a Slovenské republiky" (Praha, Czech Republic: Sociologický Ústav AV Č R, 2001).