Business, Government, and EU Accession is a detailed study of how EU accession impacts the relationship between business and government in the acceding country. Iankova identifies three major mechanisms by which the EU has affected business-government interactions: first, the legal conditionalities and harmonization efforts for EU entry; second, the pre-accession and anticipated postaccession financial assistance with its specific priorities and requirements; and third, the capacity building and learning that arises from efforts to adapt to the EU conditionalities of membership. Through addressing the question of EU influence on in-country institutional relationships, Iankova is able to highlight patterns of Europeanization that develop in those relationships a result of the adaptational pressures of EU accession, and to trace the effectiveness of these adaptive relationship in facilitating the preparedness of an EU-acceding country for EU entry Using Bulgaria as a case study, she examines the mechanisms of these interactions and interrogates the effectiveness of existing models in facilitating national goals of EU accession, revealing difficulties with and resistances to applying an EU-designed model of institutional change in postcommunist regions.

After years of near ‘disrepute’ in official circles, Industrial Policy has made something of a comeback over the last few years and is now very much back on the agenda at national and EU levels, driven by concerns over globalisation, deindustrialisation, unemployment and perceived poor growth in the EU. Simultaneously, the European Commission’s Fourth Report on Economic and Social Cohesion has kicked off the debate over challenges to cohesion, the shape of EU Cohesion policy beyond 2013, and how resources should be managed. This debate will find added momentum with the imminent ‘mid-term’ review being launched by the Commission. Discussions over the success or not of the Lisbon Agenda, on-going debates over cluster policies, and recent developments in policy evaluation have also contributed to a burgeoning academic literature over the last eighteen months. This edited volume is especially pertinent given such developments and pulls together a diverse range of contributions from leading authorities in the field to add to these debates and to illustrate connections between them. This book was published as a special issue of Policy Studies.

Keeping the door wide Open : Turkey and EU accession, seventh report of session 2007-08, Vol. 2: Oral and written Evidence

This is a unique collection of papers which brings together those who work in and with EU business associations at the very highest level with many of the leading academic authors on associations over the past two decades. It examines the factors that influence the effectiveness of EU business associations, and the prospects for associations and their members to influence these. It is designed to appeal both to analysts of debates about interest groups, collective action and European integration, and to those who work in and with EU business associations.

What has been the impact of the EU on UK central government? This book explores the ‘Europeanisation’ of the work of civil servants and ministers and how they engage with the EU. Drawing on fresh empirical evidence, the volume offers the first comprehensive analysis of the spreading impact of European integration across government. The study is placed in the context of political divisions over the EU but outlines the often neglected way in which the EU has transformed the business of government. It charts the process from the Macmillan government’s 1961 application to join the European Communities through to the end of Blair’s premiership. The book examines the character and timing of responses across government, covering the core government departments and also those more recently affected, such as the Ministry of Defence. The authors argue that central government has organized itself efficiently to deal with the demands of EU membership despite the often controversial party political divisions over Europe. However, in placing their findings in comparative context they conclude that the effectiveness of UK governments in the EU has been less striking.

Is Turkey on the way to meet the economic Copenhagen criteria? The enlargement process that the European Union faced the last decade stirred the debate again about the role Turkey has to play and whether or not Turkey should be part of the European Union. While the enlargement with the Central and East European countries of the former Soviet Union was a logical process, given the strong trade relationships and the political and historical context of these countries, the potential enlargement with Turkey is much more complex and controversial. The main innovation of the present study is that it unravels the complexity of the Turkish case by approaching the problem from different angles in a comprehensive way. In particular, by tuning in on the historic, political and economic processes, new insights are obtained about the feasibility of Turkish accession to the EU. By combining lessons from the existing literature, the use of new data and the analysis of the political economic processes, a new perspective on the enlargement question – with the key Copenhagen criteria used as a corner stone - is offered.

An original analysis of the integration of Greece into the European Union, assessing the impact of EU membership on different sectors of the Greek economy. It examines the relationship from 1961, through its freezing as a result of the authoritarian Greek regime in 1967 and the negotiation of full membership in 1981. The book focusses on interest politics and shows how Greek sectoral corporatism has been transformed, largely as a result of EU membership. It draws on new institutionalist approaches to politics and political economy and neofunctionalist theories of EU integration.