A cosmopolitan analysis of the contradictions in EU regional and enlargement policies as drivers of Europeanization

Abstract

Although much has been written on the process of Europeanization, there is a lack of research on its nuances and implications. The academic literature to date focuses on debating the contradictions inherent within the politics of Europeanization without attempting to conceptualize what those contradictions mean in actual practice. This paper draws upon the work of Beck and Grande to analyze the myriad of contradictions shaping all levels of European space. To do so, this paper examines concrete instances of cosmopolitan practice that actually promote the maintenance of the nation-state reality currently characterizing the European Union. These examples show that, at the intersection of the subnational/supranational and supranational/national levels, contradictions are instrumentalized, creating bottom-up and top-down flows of power and influence between all European scales. The evidence presented in this paper indicates that these flows are unintended side-effects that drive Europeanization processes in a way that allows for the simultaneous promotion and regulation of European diversity. This implies that carefully managed and instrumentalized contradictions are powerful engines of Europeanization that actively transform European governance.

Decentralisation and European identity

“…1 When measuring well-defined concepts, the use of objective data, if it exists, is preferable, because specific subjective measures provide, at best, a noisy approximation of the facts; but when measuring broadly defined concepts, such as in this study, the use of objective data may not always be preferable insofar as the objective data overlooks implicit components to the variable of interest (Jahedi and Mendez, 2014 resources from the EU (Kuus, 2004). Eastern Europeans must constantly renegotiate their power relations providing the superiority of their 'being European' in relation to their competitors to Westerners (Sellar and McEwen, 2011). Moreover, there are great differences between 'Western' and 'Eastern' institutions.…”

“…According to Delanty (2006), nation-states outside the relatively small part of the world within the EU are losing power. The bottom-up and top-down flows of power are unintended side-effects that drive Europeanisation processes in a way that allows for the simultaneous promotion and regulation of European diversity and therefore the promotion of different local identities within the European context (Sellar and McEwen, 2011). Europeanisation does not just take place, but also originates within member-states (Clark and Jones, 2008;.…”

“…Moreover, there are great differences between 'Western' and 'Eastern' institutions. The European Commission plays a key role in distributing to privilege collaborative projects between 'Western' and 'Eastern' institutions (Sellar and McEwen, 2011). These funding projects are key ways in which the 'West' teaches the 'East' how to become fully European (Kuus, 2004).…”

“…The whole process of Europeanisation, which refers to a hypothesized trend towards national institutions and nationally based fields of activity or perspectives being supplanted by institutions or fields at the European level (European Commission, 2012), emerges a sphere of supranational governance which can be seen as cosmopolitan in nature (Delanty and Rumford, 2005). This cosmopolitan approach (Beck and Grande, 2007;Rumford, 2008;Sellar and McEwen, 2011) tend to show that the European actions, policies and norms have a powerful effect on local bureaucracies that in turn produce new identities including an integrated national/European one. The EU embeds supranational dimensions into national politics, and vice versa (Kuus, 2011a(Kuus, , 2011b.…”

Towards dialogic post-socialism: Relational geographies of Europe and the notion of community in urban activism in Bratislava

“…Yet, some striking differences across Europe persevere while new differences have emerged. Economic disparities within the EU have featured prominently in policy and media debates (Hörschelmann and van Hoven, 2003;Marksoo et al, 2010;Pittau et al, 2010;), but a rise and reinforcement of contradictions in social and cultural identities and politics has also taken place (Sellar and McEwen, 2011;Moisio et al, 2013). The 'culture of survival' (Bridger and Pine, 1998), declared as a defining but temporary feature of the earlier stages of post-socialist transitions, is nowadays recognised by the poor in the East as a permanent facet of the post-socialist condition, attached to neoliberal reforms and macroeconomic policies, many of which have been inspired and pushed to the fore by Western institutions (Bohle, 2006;Stenning et al, 2010).…”