EUI Times - Spring 2014 by European University Institute

T I MES

Spring 2014

times.eui.eu

The 2014 European Parliamentary Elections Seceding in the Union After the Arab Spring

PROFILES OPINIONS EVENTS

ntroduction Welcome to the Spring 2014 issue of EUI Times. In this issue’s Feature section we take a look at the upcoming European Parliament elections, what they mean for Europe, and the EUI’s new voter advice application euandi. Our second feature explores the issues around secession and the effect the European Union is having on local debates in areas such as Scotland and Catalonia. Finally, we look back on the events of the Arab Spring and ask what is the situation on the ground, and where do we go from here? The EUI Times’ Profiles feature Jennifer Welsh, Professor in International Relations who discusses her career and current work with the UN and her upcoming project 'The Individualisation of War'. We also speak with Besir Ceka, Max Weber Fellow with the Department of Political and Social Science about what Europeans mean by democracy, and finally to Clément Malgouyres, a third year researcher in economics who is studying how global trade affects local politics. Our Opinion section has contributions from Professor Loïc Azoulai on what it legally means to be a European. Andrea Calderaro gives us his take on the latest internet restrictions imposed in Turkey, and Markus Gastinger suggests students might hold sway in the European Parliament elections, with Erasmus as their motivation. We have a special report on the Innovation and Creativity in Textiles conference recently held at the EUI and highlight some of our upcoming events. Lastly we turn our attention to recent EUI Publications, interviewing Professor Stephan Van Damme about his new book A toutes voiles vers la vérité : une autre histoire de la philosophie au temps des Lumières. As ever your thoughts and comments are welcome and can be sent to times@eui.eu I hope you enjoy this issue. Stephan Albrechtskirchinger Director, Communications Service

T I MES Spring 2014

 Features

4 THE 2014 EUROPEAN 7 SECEDING IN THE 10 AFTER THE ARAB PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

EUI political scientists give their views on this May’s elections

 Profiles

13 Faculty

A RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT

UNION

What does secession mean in today's world?

 Profiles

14 Fellow

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY DEMOCRACY?

Jennifer Welsh

 Opinions

IS A EUROPEAN? Loïc Azoulai

16 WHAT

 Events

EVENT: CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION: THE TALE OF TEXTILES Mark Briggs

19 SPECIAL

EUI TIMES Spring 2014

Director: Stephan Albrechtskirchinger Editor: Jackie Gordon Writing: Mark Briggs Web: Francesco Martino, Raul Pessoa, Federico Gaggero Online: times.eui.eu Email: times@eui.eu

SPRING

A look at the influences on the outcomes of the Arab Spring, one year on

SPACE, MONEY AND POLITICS

Besir Ceka

 Opinions

AND PERSPECTIVES OF INTERNET FREEDOMS IN TURKEY Andrea Calderaro

17 THREATS

 Profiles

15 Researcher

Clément Malgouyres

 Opinions

(POTENTIAL) SWAY OVER THE 2014 EP ELECTIONS Markus Gastinger

18 STUDENT’S

23 Publications

European University Institute Badia Fiesolana - Via dei Roccettini, 9 50014 San Domenico di Fiesole (FI) - Italy +39 055 4685266 www.eui.eu twitter: @europeanuni Published in May 2014 by the European University Institute © European University Institute, 2014

The EUI Times is an online magazine. Printed copies of the Spring 2014 issue were exceptionally produced for distribution at the STATE OF THE UNION 2014 conference.

on the cover and inset: eui rowers, the de gasperischuman cup, florence

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THE 2014 EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

At the end of May the population of the European Union will go to the polls and elect 751 MEPs to the European Parliament, to represent 500 million citizens in 28 member states. This will be the first election since the accession of Croatia, the first election since the Eurozone crisis swept the continent, and the first election under the auspices of the Lisbon Treaty giving the electorate a direct say in the presidency of the European Commission.

Why these elections are crucial When people go to the polls to cast their vote everyone understands they are voting for a MEP, giving the populace a direct say in what they want the future of Europe to look like. However, the question of what people want from the European Union remains an open ended one with the electorate still adjusting to the concept of supra-national democracy. “The EU isn’t a nation state but people tend to think in terms of scaling up to the European level, projecting onto the European level our national systems,” says Brigid Laffan, Director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the EUI. “Democratic institutions, processes and procedures are likely to be thinner at European level than they are at national level for reasons of scale, and because the national container still matters in politics.”

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

Such an undefined identity can play into a perception of shadowy technocrats playing politics far away from the problems that affect the continent.

I think we need much “ stronger accountability structures for what is done collectively at European level.

”

“There needs to be more political choice at European level,” says Laffan. “I think we need much stronger accountability structures for what is done collectively at European level. More transparency over the way decisions are taken, how deliberative they are, how inclusive they are, who has voice, all that matters.” Encased in the Lisbon Treaty is the requirement for the President of the European Commission, currently José Manuel Barroso, to be endorsed by a parliamentary vote, increasing the level of democratic accountability between top power brokers in Brussels and the electorate. Although not specifically catered for in the Treaty the political groups in the European Parliament have (almost) all put forward their candidate ahead of the elections. The candidates will take part in a debate at the EUI’s State of the Union conference on 9 May, which will be broadcast live on RAI News 24. The idea is the group that wins the election will have their candidate chosen as Commission President.

“Who wins is a big question because there isn’t a government being formed. So it is more difficult to argue if it’s narrow,” says Laffan. “If it’s clear and one of the big parties wins by a substantial majority then the winner is clear, but if you end up with five or six seats between the main parties then you don’t have a winner; at least in my view.” Without a majority, and having already stated their preferred candidate for the post of president there could follow a long session of horse trading before we know who gets the post of President and the other jobs in his cabinet – Presidency of the European Council and High Representative for Foreign Affairs. Following the Eurozone crisis there is likely to be a significant Eurosceptic vote come the elections. What this means for the parliament will ultimately depend on the percentage of that vote. Polls suggest anywhere between 20-30 percent, with that vote split between the far left – who focus more the economics of the EU, and the far right – who care more about immigration policies. That might be what the polls say, but the great unknown of this election is the turn out. Changes in the Lisbon Treaty are aimed to give more power to the directly-elected component of the EU – the parliament. However if turn out is low that may render the change a mere technicality. “If these elections just hold the turn out or there is a decline in my view that is bad for the parliament because it makes it harder for the parliament to claim they are the voice of the people,” says Laffan.

Why vote? It is not just these elections where turn out is falling. Across much of the developed world fewer and fewer people are going to the polls each election day. “Voting is low cost, low benefit. Low cost – you walk to the polls and cast your vote. Low benefit – if you live in democratic country where you get your vote and you don’t have to fight for it, often you don’t quite know what you are voting for,” says Laffan. A distrust of politicians and politics plays a part in declining participation. As does apathy and a feeling that with 500 million people in the European Union, how much effect can one vote actually have? “It’s a well-known paradox that if you know your one extra vote doesn’t change anything why would you vote, it’s a rational stance,” says Alexander Trechsel, Head of the Department of Political and Social Science and a Director at the European Union Democracy Observatory. Motivations to actually go to the polls range from a sense of civic duty, to a desire to articulate their satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and the knowledge that occasionally, an extremely small number of votes can actually make the difference. “Elections remain the single most important event in democratic life,” says Trechsel. “But they only work if people vote.”

Elections “ remain the single

Brigid Laffan

Alexander H. Trechsel

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

most important event in democratic life but they only work if people vote

”

euandi Ahead of the European elections the EUDO team has developed euandi, an online tool to help voters identify the party that most closely matches their views. The team analysed 250 political parties across the whole of the European Union extracting information from manifestos and liaising with the parties themselves to code their positions. The tool asks users to respond to 28 statements on a range of issues and matches their answers to political parties both in their local political vicinity, and across Europe. The tool is available for every member state of the EU, in the 24 official languages of the Union. As well as statements that apply to the European elections generally there are two country specific questions for each user.

What is unique about euandi is that as well as matching their views with political parties users can match with each other using social media. “Previously you could match yourself to a party but what nobody had ever tried is to allow users to find out where they stand politically vis a vis all the other users. We use the same algorithms for matching people to parties to match people to people and find out where their political alter egos live in Europe.” By matching and connecting people with similar political views users can create a de facto political party. Unlike other VAAs that expire after the election euandi will allow researchers at the EUI to track any new communities created allowing them to test some long standing theories about mobilisation in the context of digitisation and the internet. “Interest in politics has remained high, they are just not necessarily interested in electoral politics and parties and the way they work. This satisfies the curiosity, people are feeling lost, they don’t find themselves as easily anymore in the political landscape,” says Trechsel.

“If you want to capture this campaign you also need to be attentive to differences from one national context to another,” says Trechsel. “For this you need experts and this is the unique thing about the EUI, here we have the world’s best pool of European social “Here we give them a tool in their hands that they scientists working in the same place.” can use for free and at their leisure that can help them Trechsel headed a similar project in 2009, and since find out more about themselves.” then voter advice applications (VAAs) have become increasingly widely used in domestic elections. In the euandi last German Bundestag elections VAAs were used by www.eui.eu/Projects/EUDO/EUandI 12 million people, which represents around a quarter www.euandi.eu of the electorate. “We did it in 2009 and learnt a lot from the scientific information that came out of it,” says Trechsel. “What drives me as a professor in SPS is I want to learn something about the link between information and political attitudes, voting behaviour, the internet and campaign mechanisms that are not initiated by parties and top down behaviour.”

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SECEDING IN THE UNION

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This year referenda will be held in Scotland and Catalonia on the regions’ independence. Despite an increasingly globalised world secession debates remain active in the Basque country, Flanders, Veneto and other regions across the European Union. What do secession and independence mean in today’s world, what drives regions in a globalised world to put up additional borders? What do these regions want when they talk of secession, and what are the potential pitfalls of becoming an independent nation? “In the most basic constitutional form secession means that what we understand as the territory of a polity is changing,” says Regina Grafe, professor of Early Modern History of Europe. For Grafe, the issue of secession is merely part of the ongoing process that has seen the political map of Europe re-drawn by each generation. “If you think about it from an historical perspective states have changed shape, have changed borders and political systems […] It’s nothing new; anyone surprised about territorial changes would do well to have a historical map of Europe to hand.” Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, East and West Germany, have all passed into history in the last 25 years creating new borders and countries in the process while German and Italian unification only occurred in the nineteenth century. It is an ongoing process, and one that shows little sign of abating.

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Scotland and Spain The two highest profile secession movements currently in progress are both seeking a democratic route to independence. Three years ago the Scottish National Party (SNP) won a majority in the devolved Scottish Parliament and included a referendum for independence in their manifesto. The vote will take place on 18 September, although currently the polls show the majority of voters intend to vote against independence. Catalonia is also planning its own referendum for 9 November; however unlike the Scottish vote it does not have the legal backing of the state from which they wish to secede. The Edinburgh Agreement consented to the terms of the referendum in Scotland but a recent vote in the Spanish parliament ruled the Catalan vote unconstitutional on the basis that changing the borders of the country required a nationwide vote. According to Grafe the current debate in Spain stems largely from the transition to democracy following the death of General Francisco Franco in 1975. In a bid to rebuild a stable democratic state, the exact status of the regions was left deliberately ambiguous. Instead each region negotiated directly with the centre for the powers they wanted for their own province. “The result was what is known as ‘café para todos’, every provincial politician in every autonomia had an obvious interest in asking for more and more areas of public administration to be turned over.”

“This led to a deeply dysfunctional political model. Spain has no federal structure constitutionally, but has devolved more power to the level of the autonomias than the federal FRG devolves to its Länder.” With the regions negotiating directly with Madrid and not with each other to find collective solutions political discourse has become increasingly antagonistic. Local politicians can easily lay the region’s problems at the door of Madrid, claiming if only they were given more autonomy or more support, things would be different. A similar debate can be heard in Scotland. The independence argument suggests that since the Second World War, Scotland has too often been governed by a party in Westminster that didn’t have a majority north of the border. Invariably these governments were led by the Conservative Party and seen as representing the wealthy elite of southern England. Currently although the Conservatives have 303 MPs in parliament there is only one elected from Scotland. The SNP claims independence would allow them to create a Scandinavian style social democracy. “It is not clear, in which way the project of an independent Catalonia would create a new state with a different social, political or economic project. Politicians’ promises concentrate on the fact that it will not belong to Spain,” says Grafe. “The Scots seem to have a clearer idea of how that new state would be different.”

Secession and the EU “That is in part a consequence of the economic crisis. In Spain and Catalonia - as elsewhere in Europe – nationalist [and sub-nationalist] sentiment became one of the ways in which politicians respond to the crisis,” says Grafe. There is a double edged irony to these growing sub state nationalisms. The Conservative Party in the UK is determined to repatriate powers from the EU, while at the same time fighting against the same desire in the Scots. Both the Catalans and the Scots wish to remain in the EU should they achieve independence. “Substate nationalists have long looked towards the EU as a guarantor of minority rights,” says Grafe. “But their nationalist ideology is at odds with the European project insofar as the latter is meant to reduce the role of the nation state.” “There are a number of other member states who are having secession problems,” explains Stefano Bartolini, Peter Mair Chair in Comparative Politics at the EUI. “Do they want to legitimate the principle that under the umbrella of Europe you can split?” President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso has previously told the BBC it would be “extremely difficult, if not impossible, for Scotland to join.” However, Alex Salmond, leader of the SNP has claimed that if Scotland were not allowed into the EU it would amount to the “removal of 5 million EU citizens against their will because they have taken part in a legal, democratic vote on how they should be governed.” The free movement of people and goods around the EU as well as the single currency means many

Regina Grafe

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

Stefano Bartolini

“

In a sense the EU has taken away the high political significance of the state and in that sense it could be considered as fostering increasing claims to autonomy

”

of the traditional threats of secession have been removed. While certain border effects do remain, they have been reduced in potency. “The strengthening of the European framework reduced the cost of secession,” says Bartolini. “In a sense the EU has taken away the high political significance of the state and in that sense it could be considered as fostering increasing claims to autonomy.” The union has over the course of its history actively sought to remove economic and mobility boundaries, inadvertently threatening the remaining political ones.

The end of the nation state? “The best way to think about secession movements is to think about the way that states are formed. We tend to start from a status quo… anything that changes that order is abnormal, is secession, and is breaking the natural order of things,” suggests Grafe.

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According to Grafe we have come to regard the nation state as the accepted form of governance, with the current collaboration of borders seen as the natural order. “The crucial point is that all debates about a rewriting of borders at the moment have reverted to a discourse that reifies the nation as the only legitimate form of political organisation.” Global issues such as global warming, the economy, and migration increasingly draw the attention of elected officials. This has left a vacuum of representation increasing the desire for more regional representation to focus on local issues. “As voters feel increasingly anxious about a more globalised world many come to believe that smaller ‘historical’ polities would represent them better,” suggests Grafe. “From the historian’s perspective, however, that just obscures the real issues. The nation state was never more than one form of political organisation. Its reification has been and continues to be overwhelmingly the source of political conflicts, not the solution,” concludes Grafe. “There isn’t any reason to assume that a change of borders will solve any of the issues.”

AFTER THE ARAB SPRING

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Three years ago fruit seller Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in the middle of a Tunisian street. His actions unleashed a wave of protests against state injustice which toppled President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, before spreading across the Middle East.

Essentially left to their own devices Tunisians were forced to negotiate amongst themselves. The result, according to Roy, is the most democratic constitution in the Middle East, which safeguards freedoms of consciousness and women’s rights.

The events became known as the Arab Spring and forced a host of undemocratic leaders from office across the region, greeted by jubilant crowds from Tripoli to Tahir Square and beamed around the globe by the world’s media.

In Egypt, after initial early progress the situation has regressed. After the ousting of Hosni Mubarak and initial elections, the elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was removed by the army with popular support after being accused of a power grab. It now appears the armed forces are trying to reassert control by putting their own candidate forward for the presidency.

Now the dictators and the news crews have gone, the hard work of rebuilding countries after years of monopolised power has been met with a mixture of success and shortcomings. Some countries have forged a new path towards democratic rule, while for others the future remains less than clear.

The good the bad and the ugly Perhaps the most successful revolution took hold in the country where it all began. “I think Tunisia exemplifies what could happen if there were no external interferences in the Middle East,” says Olivier Roy, Chair in Mediterranean Studies at the EUI. “Tunisia is a very interesting case, there is no geopolitical stake; there is no oil, no big army no big neighbour and little interference from the former colonial power and the west.”

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

“In the end we have a new dictatorship in Egypt. But we are not back to square one,” says Roy. “The society has profoundly changed, the political structure has changed. I expect another round in Egypt.” Whereas in Tunisia and Egypt the essential day to day infrastructure of the state remained, in Libya, with the fall of Gaddafi, the state fell into dysfunction. “Libya is an interesting case in the Arab Spring because it was the only one where foreign intervention was decisive,” says Nehal Bhuta, Professor of Public International Law. While such action undoubtedly quickened the downfall of Gaddafi such interventions bring their own challenges. “The problem in Libya is the political process has been sped up by foreign military intervention,” explains Roy. “Here we have the rule that any time you have foreign military intervention things go bad because you have no internal domestic political process.”

Olivier Roy

There is a democratic process underway in Tripoli, but militias across the country are staking claims to power, territory and oil ignoring the ballot box for the barrel of a Kalashnikov. Currently the militias are relatively balanced in terms of resources, which may have stopped the descent into civil war: no side has the power to overwhelm the others. “Right now there is an equilibrium of forces that means you have a constant low level of conflict, but not a massive conflict. This means it could go along like this for quite some time,” says Bhuta. The country that has suffered most from the Arab spring is Syria. An armed struggle against an obstinate regime has become not just a civil war, but a proxy war between vested interests from throughout the Middle East and beyond. “No one expected there to be a civil war in Syria,” says Nida Alahmad, a research associate at the Department of History and Civilization. “Now, most people expect it to continue.”

Nehal Bhuta

Nida Alahmad

The monarchy of Morocco announced democratic reforms before protests picked up momentum in the country. Elections have been held but ultimately power still rest with the royal family. “The situation is not solved in Morocco,” says Roy. “Tension might grow, but I don’t think in a violent way. You have a specific historical tempo with Morocco (the only Arab Nation not ruled by the Ottomans). The society is changing and modernising and democratic demand will come back sooner or later.” Despite the turmoil erupting in what would have appeared the most unlikely places, the territory long considered the most unstable in the region appears unaffected by the events. “The Palestinian leaders missed every opportunity,” states Roy. “The worst thing for Israel would have been an Arab Spring in the West Bank, but it didn’t happen.” Once the strategic issue of the region it has now moved to the periphery, as others move centre stage. “What remains of the Arab Nationalists who consider the Palestinian struggle the Arabian people’s struggle have no impact on public opinion.”

Beyond the Arab Ramifications and Geo-politics Spring Despite appearing to sweep across the region, many countries including Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Palestine avoided the upheaval wrought on their neighbours by popular uprising. However, they have not remained unaffected by developments across the region.

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

“The geo-politics is a mess,” says Alahmad. “Saudi Arabia and Qatar still have a lot of influence and recently they have been in open conflict with each other on geo-political issues. The gulf states remain very influential.”

Going forward

“There is evidence the Qatari government is intervening heavily in Libyan affairs by funding particular groups and individuals,” says Bhuta. “There is a great “It is all yet to be seen, it remains unclear. You would deal of foreign intervention in Libyan politics.” hope the big winner would be the people, but we still Although not experiencing an Arab Spring at home, don’t know,” says Alahmad. “There is a generation of Saudi Arabia has been involved in events abroad, backSyrian refugees who will never have been to school ing factions and groups which serve their interests. and are scared by the war and their experience in the Saudi Arabia is a Sunni-led state and has found itself camps.” in constant conflict with a Shia axis “trying to maintain a Shia corridor from Tehran to Beirut,” according “It is anyone’s guess right now,” says Bhuta. “Libya, I to Roy. However they have been unable to unite the think, will continue to stumble on in this way.” Sunni groups across the region, actively undermining “People are free from an authoritarian state and that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt as well as democratic has created the space for all sorts of political, artistic forces. “De facto they align with secularists even if it is and other kinds of expression. The problem is when that happens where the basis of civil order is very supposed to be worse to be a secularist than a Shia.” weak; those kinds of achievements tend to be a bit evanescent.”

In the long term I “ think we are witnessing a reshuffling of the balance of power in the Middle East. The big question is will this reshuffling have an impact on the borders

”

“The Saudi policy is a catastrophe, not only because of the effect it has on the region, but because it undermines their own camp.” Perhaps the most influential Shia state is Iran. After gaining diplomatic victories over its own nuclear programme and its role in the removal of chemical weapons from Syria, Iran is keen to re-enter the wider diplomatic scene. “In the long term I think we are witnessing a reshuffling of the balance of power in the Middle East. The big question is will this reshuffling have an impact on the borders,” says Roy.

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

Without any recent experience of democratic representation people are still finding their space. “The positive side of this is there are more voices, there is more expression of hopes, fears and opinions,” says Alahmad. “You have everything and its opposite, it remains a very transformative moment.”

P rofiles

Faculty A responsibility to protect

quite a new idea,” explains Welsh, whose work explores the articulation of the concept and the controversies surrounding it. “There is a simple idea behind it; that there is a responsibility to protect populations from these extreme situations and large scale loss of life.” The issue is when, and how. Jennifer Welsh is Professor in International Relations in the Department of Political and Social Sciences. She joined the EUI in January from the University of Oxford and currently serves the UN Secretary General as Special Advisor on the ‘Responsibility to Protect’. The issue of intervention by the international community on humanitarian grounds has been a hotly debated topic since the end of the Second World War. The debate intensified after the genocides in Rwanda and Srebrenica, and continues to vex the international community, as events in Syria and Sri Lanka attest. “The idea that not just the state, but the international community has a responsibility to protect is

Existing international law says nations have the primary responsibility to protect their citizens. However, increasingly a consensus is growing that there is a role for the international community to play in both helping maintain that protection, but also to act when states fail in this protection. “The response can be diplomatic, political, and humanitarian. There is a basket of coercive measures, not all are military,” says Welsh. The principle has been used to positive effect in Libya and in Kenya after election violence in 2007, and in South Sudan and the Central African Republic. While at the EUI, Welsh will be directing a new ERC funded project ‘The Individualisation of War’.

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

“War has become much less an activity that takes place between sovereign states and much more something that individual actors are at the centre of.” The project will look at the role of civilian protection in war, and the contradiction of going to war to protect civilians. The second strand will explore the issue of who counts as a combatant in modern warfare. The final thread will explore individual accountability for acts of war, how they are operationalised and interact with conflict resolution and peace negotiations. A former Jean Monnet Fellow at the EUI, Welsh felt this was the right time to return and make use of the expertise available at the Institute. “For me it was a real opportunity to come to a place that is more focused, discipline wise. And there is an opportunity to do some inter-disciplinary things.” “There is an interest in the idea of Europe and the world at the EUI. Particularly with respect to responsibility to protect and some of the civilian protection work I do, the EU is an important actor.”

P rofiles

Fellow What do you mean by democracy?

sions of democracy such as social justice, direct democracy and liberal democracy and to measure the level of importance people attributed to them. “I have been looking at all the countries that are available in the survey, which is 22 of them. Exploring how Europeans understand democracy, and what aspects they find most important.” Besir Ceka is a Max Weber Fellow affiliated with the Department of Political and Social Science. His research focuses on the dual issues of trust and understanding of democracy in a European context. “What do people mean when they say democracy, what are the components of democracy?” asks Ceka. “Much of the research in the past has focused on satisfaction; we did not have good enough survey tools to go deeper and to understand how Europeans view democracy.” The recent European Social Survey attempted to address this. EUI Professor (and Ceka’s mentor) Hanspeter Kriesi was heavily involved in designing a set of questions to identify different dimen-

Ceka’s findings challenge the received wisdom which suggests those with higher educational attainment and a more global outlook would lean towards more idealistic and high-demand understandings of democracy. What Ceka found in the course of his research was in fact, the opposite: “In a very rationalist way people understand, or at least believe, more demanding notions of democracy might disrupt their social standing. “ Those who have benefited from the status quo are more likely to support democracy in its current guise. If the national system had high levels of direct democracy for example, they back direct democracy. If it did not, then direct democracy is seen as less desirable.

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

“The meaning and importance that citizens attach to the different dimensions of democracy is socially-structured in a predictable way with rational, self-interested and inward-looking considerations of citizens playing a big role,” summarises Ceka. Overall, if people are satisfied with how the system is working they are less likely to demand radical improvements: “What I found is that if people trust political institutions, if they think the institutions are doing their job properly, they are less likely to demand more from the democracy and less likely to identify a number of extra dimensions as extremely important for democracy.” Next September Ceka will take up an assistant professorship at Davidson College, North Carolina, and is already looking fondly back at his year here: “I’ve been keeping busy between teaching at James Madison University in Florence, my own research and playing calcetto with other Max Weber Fellows. It has really been a great time. The EUI has been a terrific place for me.”

P rofiles

Researcher Space, money and politics

“If you happen to be working in a sector that overlaps with a strong specialisation of a country to which you are opening up, your lifetime income is likely to be heavily impacted.” What is true for individuals also counts for companies, industries, cities, and with industries often clustered in particular regions. Clément Malgouyres is a third year researcher in the Department of Economics. His work looks at how global trade affects local economies, and how that in turn changes the political dimension of the area. Globalisation has become an increasingly dominant force. But who are the winners and losers, and what effect does that have on local regions? According to Malgouyres when an area opens up to trade the gains are equally distributed throughout the society: “You have the opportunity to buy cheaper consumer products and roughly your gains as a consumer will be pretty similar.” What is not shared equally, however, is the risk.

Today, such competition usually takes the form of tradable goods from low wage countries such as China. Companies and jobs follow the path of increasing returns. People, however, in the parlance of economics are “imperfectly mobile across space”. If you live in an area and lose your job you are likely to look for another job in the same place rather than move. This has ramifications for those who were not in direct competition with new imports; a local decrease in demand, and increased competition for jobs from those who are now redundant pushes wages down and feeds into local decline. “I wanted to try and quantify those effects and look at the direct and indirect effects of import competition. In particular I’m

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

looking at if people in affected cities radicalise. Do they vote more for radical parties?” Using French data, Malgouyres is currently looking for empirical evidence for a shift towards far right voting. Initial findings suggest the effect is more prominent in European Elections, and has been growing in magnitude over the period of study 1995-2012. However in presidential elections, the effect is not as positively correlated: “I am worried it captures more sociological effects. People with working class backgrounds vote more for the far right and have been doing so increasingly. It is not isolated to those in overlapping sectors.” Malgouyres’ Masters thesis looked at how access to the labour market varied from place to place, and whether financial assistance is best aimed at individuals or regions. If there is one thing to take away from his work it is that in economics “space matters.”

WHAT IS A EUROPEAN?

pinions

The vast majority of people living in Europe perceive themselves as members of a national community. Most of them are well aware of having a common market, sharing a free movement area, living in relatively standardized societies, being subject to common legal norms and supranational institutions, sharing certain beliefs and commitments as well as risks and fears. That does not however mean that they would describe themselves as members of a ‘European community’ in the genuine sense of this expression. Both the organisation of European elections and the ‘Constitutional moment’ of 2003-2004 proved ineffective in making a leap towards

the establishment of a natural political community. There is no such thing as ‘one people of Europe’. There seems to be no such thing as a sociological or political European subject. If one wants to make sense of this expression whilst avoiding the pitfalls of ideological projections, one may well turn to the law. Law is not a mere reflection of the social and the political context. It advances and invents through cases. At times, the consideration of concrete cases provides elements that open up new perspectives which may exceed the overarching conceptions to which social and political elites remain attached and upon which the legal system has been built. This exploration has led so far to two main results. For the most part, the Europeanisation of the individual has a valuable but rather limited significance: it turns nationals of the Member States into members of another national community. As a Frenchman I am European by becoming a quasiItalian as regards the main aspects of my social life (i.e. living in Florence). This is achieved through various kinds of legal mechanisms

(conferral of rights, assignments of roles, regulation of family relationships, demarcation from nonEuropeans). In rare cases, however, EU law goes beyond this and constitutes the subject into a genuine European which is supposed to live in material and moral conditions which refer to Europe as a whole. Ironically this figure has been forged by the European Court of Justice in a famous case involving a Colombian national residing illegally in Belgium. If there is a European individual, it exists in the consciousness of some judges. This audacious move has potentially revolutionary effects. However, there is also some evidence that the main institutional players (the national governments, the administrative and judicial authorities, the economic milieus) are not willing to support and relay this move. These issues will be taken up in a conference on The Category of the Person in EU Law taking place at the EUI on 10 and 11 November 2014 which will involve lawyers as well as sociologists, political theorists and philosophers.

Loïc Azoulai holds the chair of European Law at the European University Institute. He is codirector of the Academy of European Law and of the Centre for Judicial Cooperation both hosted at the European University Institute.

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

pinions

THREATS AND PERSPECTIVES OF INTERNET FREEDOMS IN TURKEY

(ISPs) to store data of online user activities for up to two years.

On 20 March, the Turkish government shut down first Twitter, and then, seven days later, YouTube. Services have been now restored, but the increasing restrictions imposed by the Turkish government on the internet illustrate an increasing distance between Turkey and the EU concerning the governance of internet freedoms. The shutting down of these two widely used services is one of the first applications of the disputed law on internet restriction enacted in February 2014. This law allows Turkish Telecommunication Authority to shut down online services within 4 hours without requesting the intervention of a court ruling. In addition, the law forces internet services providers

These threats to freedom of expression are not however, new in Turkey. Reporters without Borders ranks Turkey 154th out of 180 countries for freedom of expression. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) reports that Turkey is the country with the highest number of jailed journalist in the world, higher than countries like Iran and China. The Turkish government has already implemented hidden internet filtering for social and political reasons, by importing and using digital surveillance technology like FinnSpy and Remote Control System, software traditionally used by authoritarian regimes. The new internet law and the recent ban of Twitter and YouTube indicates an escalation of censorship in the country. With this, the government enhances its restrictions by publically enforcing its control over the infrastructure of the Internet. Given that internet in Turkey is offered almost solely by the formerly state controlled Türk Telekom’s TTNET, the government can exercise this control easily.

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF), a key international forum launched by the United Nations in 2006 for facilitating multi-stakeholder debate on internet governance, will be hosted by Turkey this September. It is not the first time that the IGF is hosted in countries with bad records in terms of internet freedoms, but this year it comes at a very delicate moment for Turkey. Although even Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul openly opposed the increased restrictions of the Internet, the Turkish government's agenda concerning internet freedoms cannot be underestimated. Given the recent electoral boost for the Prime Minister Erdogan, it seems likely that these developments will continue in the future. If so, Turkey seems to have picked a path that looks set to diverge from a European understanding of internet governance and the protection of free speech online.

Andrea Calderaro, from the EUI’s Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom, works on internet and International Affairs, with a particular focus on internet governance, cybersecurity, and the role of EU in the global internet policy debate.

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

pinions

STUDENT’S (POTENTIAL) SWAY OVER THE 2014 EP ELECTIONS

This episode teaches us two things: one, Erasmus has the potential to mobilize people. Two, the European Parliament matters. Having started as an annex to the EU with little practical relevance it has expanded considerably in role and function. In budgetary procedures, it is on an equal footing with the Council since the Lisbon Treaty. The composition of the EP, therefore, has a direct impact on The popular exchange programme how much money is allocated to Erasmus provides students with which Union programmes. crucial funds to finance a study The project “Help Erasmus” mergperiod abroad. es these two basic insights in an When in December 2012 squab- attempt to reach out to students bles over the EU budget led to Er- and increase their impact on the asmus funds running dry, thou- May elections. We will publish a sands of exchange students were table allowing students to identify stranded in a foreign country candidates that are particularly without their grant. The reaction supportive of the Erasmus prothat this provoked was stunning. gramme. The list already includes Thousands of students rushed around 90 candidates in the May to platforms like Facebook and elections and is open to members Twitter to pledge their support of all political groups. to the programme. Within days In total, 400 million people will the crisis was averted, a combe eligible to vote in the elections. promise between the European But probably only 200 million of Parliament and the Council was them will do so. There are around found, and the flow of funds to 20 million students in the EU. students all across Europe was Therefore every tenth vote could unblocked. be cast by a student. It does not

take a lot of imagination to realize the impact that they could have on the election outcome when voting together. While funds for Erasmus have steadily increased, the number of students that are interested in studying abroad has also expanded. Clearly not everyone who wants to go abroad gets a chance to do so. The signs so far are encouraging that students understand what is at stake. Several European student associations (ESN, ESU, EMSA, AEGEE) already support the project. However, in the end its success will depend on the resolve of individual students to go vote in the EP elections. They could show that they not only support the programme on Twitter and Facebook when it is on the brink of collapse. But realize that in a democracy the more meaningful mechanism to shape the world around them is through elections.

Markus Gastinger is a researcher in the Department of Political and Social Sciences. His work focuses on Delegation and Agency in EU External Relations.

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

SPECIAL EVENT CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION: THE TALE OF TEXTILES

vents

How do we safeguard innovation and creativity at a time of tight economic budgets and increasing competition from outside the continent? A major European conference took place at the EUI on March 2425 discussing these issues in the context of the textile industry.

flow of muscles and blood. Such materials are also less likely to be rejected by the body than other materials.

Textiles adaptability is also making them increasingly useful in architecture, freeing the designer from the limitations of a particular substance and allowing The textile industry encompasses everything from them to design a structure and then create the matethe production of cheap socks to the glamour of the rial that best suits the purpose. Pitti catwalk. Increasingly it is finding a new future in Innovation is one thing, but without cold hard ecoarchitecture and medical science while the future of nomics it might not be enough. fashion appears destined to resolve around wearable The textile industry was not immune from the finantechnology, everything from information carrying cial crisis. However it saw a big recovery in 2010, and dyes, to lights and electrics. since then the market has been stable, but with low Most of the added value from a garment comes from level growth. While the industry does not represent a the surface; the design, the brand and the packag- significant part of the European economy it is hugely ing, areas in which Europe is a global leader. Author significant in specific countries; including Italy. Bradley Quinn highlighted the modern approaches “In textiles, if Italy smiles, Europe smiles,” said Francto textiles design and the ways the industry is inesco Marchi of the European Textile and Clothing creasingly embracing technical innovation to drive Confederation. the creative process. While in tough economic times there is a temptation “Up until now we haven’t been able to wash and move towards protectionism, Professor Bernard Hoekman, freely using wearable technology. This is changing,” Programme Director at the EUI’s Global Governance said Quinn. As the integration of technology into our Programme, says for long term growth, the opposite clothes becomes a viable reality the use of LED genis required: “Instead of focusing on protecting a firm erated motifs and interactive designs are becoming or an industry against imports, we need to lower imincreasingly important. As the tech giants battle it ports tariffs and address things such as competitiveout over new smart watches the incorporation of the ness.” internet opens up new possibilities for our clothes to To foster competitiveness individuals and companies interact with their environments, and their owners. need to benefit from their ideas, keeping them in There is a growing collaboration between textiles and business and encouraging others into the field. “Durscience, with the advances shared by both fields. New ing the renaissance Venice benefited greatly from fabrics used in medical science have the flexibility granting patents to encourage artists and craftsmen to allow them to react more naturally to the ebb and

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

to come to the city,” said Professor Luca Mola, Professor of Early Modern History at the EUI. During the 1500s taking the plans for silk spinning machines out of Bologna was punishable by death as the town sought to maintain its competitive advantage. More modern initiatives from the European Union are seeking stronger legal protections for intellectual property rights, while new technologies such as Micro Trace can be used to ensure each item carries a unique tag making it impossible to counterfeit.

try to embrace skills from the outside and to “stimulate innovation by putting people together in a room who otherwise would never have met.” The European Union is investing in the textile industry through the framework of its Horizon 2020 programme, which through funding in the key areas of ‘Excellent Science’, ‘Industrial Leadership’ and ‘Societal Changes’ aids investment in new and socially responsible technologies. The initiative involves every stage of the industry from the materials used, to the method of production, to what happens at the end of an item’s life.

However those in the creative sector of the industry can play their part in helping themselves and their industry. Companies themselves are also adapting to new ecoLinda Loppa is Director of Polimoda, Florence’s nomic realities. Innovations such as clustering have leading fashion school. She called on the industry to been used in Serbia to allow companies to purchase “build bridges” recognising the expertise it has, and raw materials in bulk for a cheaper price. The same bring people in from outside to compensate for those tactic is allowing small and medium enterprise comit doesn’t. The creative textile industry is in a “tran- panies to gain access to international markets and sitional moment” she said, brought about by a com- boost collective R&D. bination of the economic climate, and the growth of internet services and its effect on the high street. “We need new ways of creating, new ways of writing and new research. We need to use our cities and spaces better because this is where we have the energy.”

The ideas and solutions showcased at the conference need not be isolated to the textile industry; the guiding principles are applicable to every sector. Summed up by the EUI’s Secretary General, Pasquale Ferrara: “Innovation and creativity is essential for not just this “We shouldn’t be ashamed that we like luxury, but sector, but for the whole economy.” we should understand what it means to the different people of the world,” said Loppa. There needs to be debate and to embrace new ways to put “ideas on a platform” creating a dialogue and helping to generate new ideas. This idea was backed up by Wendy Malem of the London School of Fashion who called on the indus-

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

vents

12-13 MAY 2014

Central and Eastern European Judges under the EU Influence: The Transformative Power of Europe Revisited on the 10th Anniversary of Enlargement

The Conference brings together national judges, international judges and academics to discuss, inter alia: What has been the “transformative power” of EU law on the reasoning and ideologies of Central European countries’ judiciary? What has been the impact of EU membership on their institutions? How can we explain the radical change of approach of some initially “Euro-friendly” Constitutional Courts that in recent times have questioned the constitutionality of EU acts and even a judgement of the ECJ? What are the cultural and political reasons of the backsliding on rule of law and constitutional guarantees in some of the Central and Eastern European countries following the accession?

Sala Europa, 9:00 Villa Schifanoia Register with bart.provoost@eui.eu

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

20 MAY 2014

Lecture: James Hathaway on the EU's Dublin Regulation

In recent years, states have adopted a variety of policies – ranging from unilateral rules on “direct flight” and “safe third countries” to formal multilateral arrangements such as the EU's Dublin Regulation – that purport to designate a refugee's first country of arrival as solely responsible to assess her protection needs. But is the underlying assumption of these regimes that a refugee may be forced to seek protection in some country other than that to which she has travelled actually lawful? James C. Hathaway, the James E. and Sarah A. Degan Professor of Law and Director of the Program in Refugee and Asylum Law at the University of Michigan since 1998, is a leading authority on international refugee law whose work is regularly cited by the most senior courts of the common law world. Sala Europa, 16:30 - 18:30 Villa Schifanoia Register with angelika.lanfranchi@eui.eu

vents

29-30 MAY 2014

Ten Years of the New Europe: Conference on the Occasion of the 10th Anniversary of Eastern Enlargement

A joint conference organised by the Department of Social and Political Sciences and the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, the conference aims to understand and assess the impact of the European Union on the new Member States. Conversely, it will also examine the influence the new member states have had on the EU as a whole, on its policies, governance and institutions. The conference will also consider enlargement's impact on continental geopolitics as well as the economic integration and enlargement of the single market. Teatro, 9:00 Badia Fiesolana Register with mariana.spratley@eui.eu

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

13 JUNE 2014

Virt첫, Justice, Force. On Machiavelli and some of his readers

Carlo Ginzburg, Franklin D. Murphy Professor of Italian Renaissance Studies, will deliver a lecture organised by the Department of History and Civilization. Sala Europa, 11:00 Villa Schifanoia Register with roberta.saccon@eui.eu

Max Weber Lecture: Roger Myerson 18 JUNE 2014

University of Chicago economist Roger Myerson will speak on how moral-hazard agency theory and the economics of information can provide a better understanding of macroeconomic instability. Refectory, 17:00 Badia Fiesolana Register with sarah.simonsen@eui.eu

ublications

A toutes voiles vers la vérité : une autre histoire de la philosophie au temps des Lumières Stéphan Van Damme Paris : Le Seuil, 2014, L'Univers historique

A culture of thought EUI History Professor Stéphan Van Damme has published the third volume of his trilogy re-addressing the cultural history of philosophy. The book focuses on the Enlightenment, a period often regarded as one of revolutionary thought. However, at the time those involved associated themselves strongly with the ancient and medieval traditions of philosophy. “The project aims to undertake a historian’s history of philosophy, not just as knowledge, but as a practice, passion and cultural object.” “My idea was not to adopt whiggish definitions which in the past stuck to the modern or contemporary definition of philosophy or a philosopher. The idea was to go back to the former definitions, how they saw themselves.” Like the symposiums during the time of Plato, during the Enlightenment philosophy appeared in public spaces. Salons, theatres, and novels all became centres of learning and debate. Through such mediums philosophy became associated with the emer-

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

gence of the public sphere, and the idea of the philosopher as the writer and public intellectual began to emerge with the likes of Samuel Johnson, Voltaire and Thomas Paine. The discipline was moving away from one secluded in monasteries and universities, guarded by monks and hidden in expensive Latin manuscripts. It was returning to something people engaged with in their daily lives as pastime or hobby. The book explores the new philosophical regime in a historical context, before attempting to re-establish the importance of place in philosophy (“philosophy is not knowledge from nowhere”), finally discussing the politicisation of the discipline. “This book is an attempt to put the history of philosophy in context.” Van Damme sees this book as part of a wider project along similar lines. “What I do here at the EUI is a kind of methodological discussion, addressing early modern definitions of science and knowledge and re-contextualising them. “Could be the founding fathers of the scientific revolutions, institutions, but also disciplines like philosophy. My next project might be to re-address definitions of nature. I have a clear project to deconstruct and reconstruct.” Van Damme’s first two books in the series looked at Descartes and as the idea of Paris as a philosophical capital.

ublications

Mobilizing for democracy: Comparing 1989 and 2011 Donatella della Porta Oxford University Press, 2014 While the most recent waves of protests for democracy in North Africa are often illustrated with images of mass protest, research on social movements and democratization rarely interact. Instead, this volume examines episodes of democratization through the lens of social movement studies. The author singles out different paths to democratization by looking at how the masses interact with the elites, and protest with bargaining: eventful democratization, participated pacts and troubled democratization. The main focus is on eventful democratization, that is cases in which authoritarian regimes break down following-often short but intense-waves of protest. Recognizing the particular power of some transformative events, the analysis locates them within the broader mobilization processes, including the multitude of less visible, but still important protests that surround them. Cognitive, affective and relational mechanisms are singled out as transforming the contexts in which dissidents act. In all three paths, mobilization of resources, framing processes and appropriation of opportunities will develop in action, in different combinations. The comparison of different cases within two waves of protests for democracy, in Central Eastern Europe in 1989 and in the Middle East and North Africa in 2011, allows the author to theorize about causal mechanisms and conditions as they emerge in mobilizations for democracy.

Fundamental rights in Europe: Challenges and transformations in comparative perspective Federico Fabbrini Oxford University Press The European architecture for the protection of fundamental rights combines the legal regimes of the states, the European Union, and the European Convention on Human Rights. This book analyses the constitutional implications of this multilevel architecture and the dynamics that spring from the interaction between different human rights standards in Europe. Through a comparison with the United States' federal system, this volume advances an analytical model that explains the dynamics at play in the European multilevel human rights architecture. It identifies two recurrent challenges in the interplay between different state and transnational human rights standards: a challenge of ineffectiveness, and a challenge of inconsistency, and considers recent transformations taking place in the European human rights regime. The author tests his model with four case studies: the right to due process for suspected terrorists, the right to vote for non-citizens, the right to strike and the right to abortion. The book then concludes by reassessing the main theories on the protection of fundamental rights in Europe and making the case for a 'neo-federal' theory which is able to frame the dilemmas of identity, equality and supremacy behind the European multilevel architecture for the protection of human rights.

Donatella della Porta is Professor of Sociology in the Federico Fabbrini, a recent alumnus from the EUI's Department of Law, is Assistant Professor of European & ComparaDepartment of Political and Social Sciences. tive Constitutional Law at Tilburg University. This volume is based on his 2012 thesis in the Department of Law.

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

SELECTED EUI BOOKS cadmus.eui.eu

Bailleux, Julie. Penser l’Europe par le droit : l’invention du droit communautaire en France (Editions Dalloz, 2014)

Azoulai, Loic (ed.) The question of competence in the European Union (Oxford Universitary Press, 2014)

De Burca, Grainne; Kilpatrick, Claire; Scott, Joanne. Critical legal perspectives on global governance : liber amicorum David M. Trubek. (Hart Publishing, 2013)

ublications

Calligaro, Oriane. Negotiating Europe: EU promotion of Europeanness since the 1950s (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)

Gallo, Daniele; Paladini, Luca; Pustorino, Pietro. Same-sex couples before national, supranational and international jurisdiction (Springer, 2014)

Gambetta, Diego. La pègre déchiffrée : signes et stratégies de la communication criminelle (Editions Markus Haller, 2014)

Komesar, Neil; Poiares Pessoa Maduro, et al (eds). Understanding global governance : institutional choice and the dynamics of participation (EUI, 2014)

Koussens, David; Roy, Olivier. Quand la burqa passe à l’Ouest : enjeux éthiques, politiques et juridiques (Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2014)

ROBERT SCHUMAN CENTRE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES

Garzia, Diego. Personalization of politics and electoral change. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)

UNDERSTANDING GLOBAL GOVERNANCE: INSTITUTIONAL CHOICE AND THE DYNAMICS OF PARTICIPATION

NEIL KOMESAR, MIGUEL POIARES MADURO, WENDY WAGNER, GREGORY SHAFFER AND ANTONINA BAKARDJIEVA-ENGELBREKT

Romero, Federico; Mourlon-Druol, Emmanuel (eds) International summitry and global governance : the rise of the G7 and the European Council, 1974-1991 (Routledge, 2014)

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

Spernbauer, Martina. EU peacebuilding in Kosovo and Afghanistan: legality and accountability (Martinus Nijhoff, 2014)

Sutter, Matthias. Die Entdeckung der Geduld : Ausdauer schlägt Talent (Ecowin, 2014)

ublications

cadmus.eui.eu

ARTICLES

BOOKS

Click on the research communities pictured here for search results on indicated collections. A full list of the EUI's research communities and collections can be found here.

The EUI research repository contains the academic publications of EUI members, including books, articles, working papers, book chapters, theses, and research reports.

BOOKS

MAX WEBER PROGRAMME FOR POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES WORKING PAPERS

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

RESEARCH REPORTS

FIND OUT WHO TO VOTE FOR IN THE 2014 EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS euandi, a new Voting Advice Application (VAA) helps citizens make informed choices in their 2014 European Parliament (EP) vote.

discover your party create your community

www.euandi.eu

Available in 24 languages, euandi invites users to react to 28 policy statements covering a wide range of contemporary policy issues and political values in European politics, as well as two policy statements specific to the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s national political context. Developed by the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, euandi provides voters with a clear view of the European electoral campaign and their individual positions within it.

The tool helps people identify which political parties represent their views, and it provides an innovative platform for community building, where people from all over Europe can connect with each other based on their political views. With the 2014 European Parliamentary elections now on the horizon, the European University Institute invites media representatives to feature euandi as a free-ofcharge service to their audiences. Please contact the euandi team for more detailed information and consult the euandi website at: www.eui.eu/Projects/EUDO/EUandI

EUI TIMES | Spring 2014

QM-AJ-14-002-EN-N

ISSN: 1977-799X