EU Performance in Central and Eastern Europe

Conference venue: Leeds, United Kingdom
Period: Sept. 2-4, 2013
Deadline for submitting panels: January 9, 2013

The panel " Eu Performance in Central and Eastern Europe" aims to attract papers that will correspond and address the questions relevant to the internal and external dimensions of performance that will be discussed during the following two sessions:

Session 1: Internal Performance
Internal performance refers to the internal operations of an actor. This level of analysis focuses closely on internal EU mechanisms and policies and understands performance in terms ofefficiency. In the context of the financial and economic crisis, scholars need to evaluate in detail theimpact of European policies within its geographical boundaries. The puzzle that this session will address is whether (or not) the EU has managed to deal with the deep transitional problems that CEE countries are facing through the use of its internal policy mechanisms. These challenges yet remain. Have EU’s policy instruments associated with the internal market, cohesion policy, common agricultural policy, thematic programmes etc. managed to address issues such as administratively weak states, corruption or low levels of economic development in the CEE countries from the 2004 and 2007 enlargement waves? The panel session welcomes papers that address this puzzle and critically evaluate the impact of EU policies in CEE member-states.
 
Session 2: External Performance
External performance then looks at the external operation of an actor and analyses the EU’s ability to achieve specific outcomes outside its borders. It evaluates the EU’s outputs and understands performance in terms ofeffectiveness. After the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, the radical change of government from communist to liberal in Moldova and the appearance of civil society in Belarus, it seemed that the EU was in a very good position to engage successfully with its Eastern neighbours. Especially since the EU’s objective for the ENP countries is to consolidate social, economic and cultural processes that underpin political reform and enforce the conditions that foster and support democracy. The latest developments in Eastern Europe, however, cast doubt on the EU’s performance. Human rights violations in the authoritarian regime of Belarus, unconstitutional reforms and recently rigged elections in the Ukraine and the unsolved conflict of Transnistria in Moldova are just a few of the critical issues in relation to democratic standards that contest EU’s performance in terms of effectiveness. Hence, this unit invites papers that evaluate EU performance outside its borders (addressinginter alia, the EU’s effectiveness in achieving pre-set objectives, its effectiveness in acting collectively and coordinating actions correspondingly in neighbouring countries etc., as well as papers that seek to account for the EU's inability to achieve its objectives).

The contributions for the panel can have a qualitative, quantitative research design or a mixed method approach.
They may also be issue-based, country-specific or entail a cross-country analysis in the study of the new MS on the one hand, and the EU’s Eastern neighbours on the other.
Papers that embracean innovative conceptual approach and/or bring genuine empirical evidence areparticularly welcomed.
The call for papers is open to both established researchers/academics, early career as well as postgraduate researchers.

Interested contributors should :
-submit an abstract of approx. 250 words including the name of (co-)author(s), the title of the paper, keywords;

-submit full contact details: full name, university/institution, postal address, email address.

Submissions via email are open until Wednesday, January 9th to the panel organisers according to session  1 and 2 as mentioned below:

Mr Neculai-Cristian Surubaru, Postgraduate Researcher, Loughborough University, email: n.surubaru@lboro.ac.uk (Session 1);
Ms Dorina Baltag, Marie Curie earlystage researcher, Loughborough University, email: d.baltag@lboro.ac.uk (Session 2).

Ms Dorina Baltag
Marie Curie Early Stage researcher
Dep. of Politics, History and International Relations
School of Social, Political and Geographical Sciences
Loughborough University

tel.: 0044.01509.222973
e-mail: d.baltag@lboro.ac.uk