CIPS

The present paper will challenge the argument that EU industrial and technological policies (ITP) have been and will be an important contribution to enhance EU competitiveness.
After defining the concepts involved (competitiveness, ITP), we will show how economic theories sustain EU search for growth through integration and investments in technology, education, and R&D. Economic arguments will prove the scarce or negative impact of traditional ITP tools on competitiveness. These findings supported the EU drive to reduce subsidies and state aid, and to
control M&A. By means of subsequent White Papers and Strategies we will analyze the EU’s understanding of ITP and how it has mixed different approaches (horizontal, vertical and sectoral).
We will finally present the current perspectives on ITP at EU level, as outlined in the 2010 Monti Report and Europe2020 strategy, both based on the fundamental assumption that the Single Market is EU’s first and best industrial policy. We will conclude by highlighting how EU reflection on ITP, although economically sound, was not followed by consequent actions. Therefore it did not fully achieve its goals, not being able to contribute to bridge the competitiveness gap.

La Politique Européenne de Voisinage (PEV) et la politique de préadhésion se caractérisent par une neutralité réciproque. La fonction de la PEV en tant que substitut et alternative à l’adhésion dépends donc des perspectives potentielles d’adhésion de chaque pays cible. Pour les voisins européens de l’UE, la PEV pourrait constituer, à certaines conditions, une passerelle vers la préadhésion.

Nuclear proliferation, from North Korea to Iran, seems today on the rise. Nevertheless, there was a moment in time, in the early 1990s, when active efforts resulted in the actual reduction of the number of nuclear weapons states. Counterproliferation was the case for three successor states of the Soviet Union (Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine) and for South Africa. This paper aims at understanding the factors allowing these events of counterproliferation according to the security model, the domestic politics model, and the norms model, intended as complementary explanatory frameworks. Findings show that the South African case and the post-Soviet cases seem to be motivated by different sets of factors. For South Africa, domestic politics concerns were pivotal, complemented by an improving security situation. For the post-Soviet countries, while their security situation was not improving, nuclear weapons seemed unable to help militarily and extremely costly in terms of both maintenance and foregone opportunities for international trade and cooperation. Finally, the main factor explaining counterproliferation seemed related, for newborn states, to the need to distance themselves from Moscow in order to ensure the sustainability of independence.

Review CATERINA CARTA, Vesalius College, Brussels, Belgium TANEL KERIKMÄE, Tallinn Law School, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia Cover design BARBARA KUROPIEJSKA-PRZYBYSZEWSKA Cover illustration General Illustration of the Hemicycle Of the EP: © European Union 2010 Paul-Henri SPAAK Building and Brussels' Empty Hemicycle: © Association des Architectes du CIC: Vanden Bossche sprl, CRV s.A., CDG sprl, Studiegroep D. Bontinck Layout OFI

Review CATERINA CARTA, Vesalius College, Brussels, Belgium TANEL KERIKMÄE, Tallinn Law School, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia Cover design BARBARA KUROPIEJSKA-PRZYBYSZEWSKA Cover illustration General Illustration of the Hemicycle Of the EP: © European Union 2010 Paul-Henri SPAAK Building and Brussels' Empty Hemicycle: © Association des Architectes du CIC: Vanden Bossche sprl, CRV s.A., CDG sprl, Studiegroep D. Bontinck Layout OFI

The research on the impact of the European Union on its candidate countries has been traditionally framed within the concept of Europeanisation. But the term, notwithstanding two decades of usage, still lacks clarity in its attributes and its referent. Moreover, the statehood of candidate countries has emerged as a prerequisite for its effectiveness, providing no answer for cases of limited statehood and limited Europeanisation. The concept of member-state building, which refers to the EU's purpose of building functional member states while integrating them, may help reframe the academic discussion on the impact of the EU on candidate countries, particularly in limited statehood contexts, by complementing it with insights from the literature on state building. Deriving from an understanding of sovereignty as responsibility, member-state building highlights the paradoxes of simultaneous state building and European integration, given their competing logics of sovereignty concentration and sovereignty diffusion. To solve the dilemma, nevertheless, member-state building has one further resource. By exploiting the lack of a single blueprint and the possibility of different solutions for institutions to be compatible with EU requirements, member-state building can also foster domestic ownership and legitimacy, thus evading the trap of imposed international state building. 1

The path of the Western Balkan countries towards accession to the European Union, together with the presence of legacies of the conflicts of the 1990s, has an impact on the ongoing reconciliation process among these countries. Common foreign policy goals, together with the presence of a large stock of memories of the conflicts, lead to public apologies marked by ambiguities, allowing political actors to reap the benefits of reconciliation while keeping at bay the risk of a domestic backlash. The historical analysis of the different occasions for political apologies among Western Balkan states in the last decade supports such a framework. After the first exploratory approach, several apologies surfaced in the 2003-2007 period but remained partial and ambiguous, with mixed results. A renewed cycle of apologies, in 2010, saw a more comprehensive approach to atonement put in place by the various political actors, with higher perceived sincerity but also a stronger domestic backlash.

Buonasera a tutti. Come si è detto, stasera vorrei parlarvi delle relazioni tra Ucraina e Unione europea, in particolare in relazione agli avvenimenti che hanno portato nelle scorse settimane agli scontri di piazza e alla caduta del governo. Il mio obiettivo è di darvi un quadro delle relazioni tra Ue e Ucraina, di come si potrebbero sviluppare, e di quali fattori intervengono. Non so quanti di voi sono stati presenti ieri alla guest lecture di Simone Bellezza, che è qua con noi stasera, e che ha saputo mettere in chiaro tutta una serie di punti relativi alla situazione interna in Ucraina, dalle origini e caratteristiche del nazionalismo ucraino alla supposta divisione etnolinguistica del paese, che è molto più presente nei media italiani che non nella realtà quotidiana in Ucraina. Proprio per non sovrappormi in particolare alle tematiche di Simone, ho scelto un angolo diverso, quello che parte dall'Unione europea per inquadrare le relazioni con l'Ucraina. In ogni caso, al termine della sessione, avremo tempo eventualmente per tornare su diversi elementi.