Newsletter Nr. 1 / 2010
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Kolleg- Forscher Gruppe Newsletter 01 /10 Kolleg-Forschergruppe Ihnestr. 26 14195 Berlin www.transformeurope.eu [email protected] +49 – 30 83 85 70 31 Editorial Staff: Sasan Abdi Farina Ahäuser (fa.) Toshiya Izumo Astrid Timme Headlines New colleagues at the KFG We are pleased to announce that Prof. Vivien Schmidt and Prof. Jolyon Howorth have joined the Kolleg-Forschergruppe in January 2010. Page. 3 Call for Applications The Research College (Kolleg-Forschergruppe) advertises up to 6 post-doctoral fellows starting October 2010. Page. 3 International Conference About 40 researchers from Europe and beyond accepted the invitation to a two-day conference by the KFG taking place at the Representation of the European Commission in Berlin in December 2009. Page. 4 Panel Report To what extent has the European Union served as a model for other regional organiza- tions? Summary of the KFG conference panel ‘ The EU as a model of regional integration’ . Page. 6 Turkey Controversy What is happening to Turkey’s EU reform process? The state of candidacy reviewed by two KFG fellows. Page. 7 Research Experience The research environment at the Kolleg-Forschergruppe: Experiences by Prof. Juan Díez Medrano. Page. 11 The Transformative Power of Europe | www.transformeurope.eu Editorial Dear friends and colleagues of the Kolleg-Forschergruppe, Welcome, once again, to our Kolleg-Forschergruppe ‘The Transformative Power of Europe’! This is our third newsletter informing you about what is going on Prof. Tanja A. Börzel & Prof. Thomas Risse at the KFG. Here are some highlights of what has happened since last fall: On Sept. 1, 2009, the second group of post-doctoral fellows arrived at the KFG. As usual, this is a very lively group of scholars who debates critical issues of EU studies during our weekly seminar and beyond. The KFG has insti- tuted two working groups, one dealing with the European public spheres and the other one with comparative regionalism. Some of our new fellows are contributing to this newsletter. In the meantime, we have issued the third call for applications for our post-doctoral program which is also included in this newsletter. We are looking forward to applications from around the world. At the end of September, a high level delegation of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), which funds the KFG, paid a visit to our group. We had a very intensive discussion about the way in which the Research Col- lege works. The delegation was particularly impressed by our post-doctoral program. In early December, the KFG organized its first international conference which took place at the representation of the EU Commission in Berlin at Pariser Platz, close to the Brandenburg Gate. We had issued a ‘call for papers’ to the conference for which we received over hundred applications. More than hundred participants discussed the transformative power of Europe for two days. You find a report in this newsletter. In addition, there have been several workshops at the KFG dealing with ‘discursive and visual strategies of transnational diffusion’, ‘discursive institutionalism’ and other themes. These workshops are usually organized by our very active group of post-doctoral fellows teaming up with one of our visiting scholars. This year, we are happy to welcome Vivien Schmidt and Jolyon Howorth, who have joined our group in January and will stay through July. Last not least, we would like to mention that the European Commission has awarded a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence to our team led by Tanja A. Börzel. You will hear more from us in the coming years. See also our new website of the Berlin Center for European Studies (http://www.fu-europeanstudies.eu/), which is to provide a gateway for research activities and cooperation on European Integration and the European Union in the capital region of Berlin-Brandenburg. As you can see, the Kolleg-Forschergruppe has become a very lively center of activities in EU studies. We hope that you enjoy this newsletter. Best regards Tanja A. Börzel Thomas Risse Research Directors 2 The Transformative Power of Europe | www.transformeurope.eu Jolyon Howorth is Jean Monnet Professor of New colleagues European Politics ad personam at the University of Bath (UK). He has been a Visiting Professor of Polit- ical Science at Yale since 2002. Professor Howorth has published extensively in the field of European at the KFG politics and history, especially security and defense We are pleased to announce that Prof. Vivien policy and transatlantic relations - fourteen books Schmidt and Prof. Jolyon Howorth have joined the and two hundred journal articles and chapters in Kolleg-Forschergruppe in January 2010. books. Jolyon Howorth is going to work on Europe’s External Relations and its global impact. Vivien A. Schmidt (BA Bryn Mawr College, MA, PhD University of Chicago) is Jean Monnet Pro- Both Vivien Schmidt and Jolyon Howorth will fessor of European Integration, Professor of Inter- stay at the Kolleg-Forschergruppe until June 2010. national Relations, and Director of the Center for International Relations at Boston University as well as Visiting Professor at Sciences Po, Paris. Professor Schmidt has written widely in the areas of European political economy, institutions and democracy, and political theory. She is the author or editor of nine books and has published over one hundred academic articles and chapters in books. During her KFG-visit Vivien Schmidt is working on discursive institution- Prof. Vivien A. Schmidt Prof. Jolyon Howorth alism, legitimacy and European Integration. Call for Applications: 6 Postdoctoral fellowships (starting October 2010) Fellowships: 6 postdoctoral fellowships The following materials should be submitted: Date/duration: 10 months fellowships starting • CV and list of publications October 2010 • Proposal for a post-doctoral project Deadline for Applications: 1 April 2010 • Transcripts of degrees and other relevant material (Successful candidates will be informed by end • Two letters of reference April 2010) Please send your application to the following The Research College (Kolleg-Forschergruppe) address: advertises up to 6 post-doctoral fellows. We Freie Universität Berlin particularly encourage applications on projects Otto-Suhr-Institute for Political Science located in the field of comparative regionalism. Research College ‘Transformative Power of Europe’ The fellows should have their PhD in hand by Prof. Dr. Tanja A. Börzel and Prof. Dr. Thomas Risse Ihnestr. 26 the fall of 2010. The duration of the fellowship D-14195 Berlin is 10 months (October 1, 2010–July 31, 2011) with Germany the possibility to reapply. The stipend amounts to € 30.000 annually (including travelling Or via email to: [email protected] expenses). For further information please consider the relevant FAQ section or contact us at [email protected] 3 The Transformative Power of Europe | www.transformeurope.eu International Conference Transformative Power of Europe? The European Union and the Diffusion of Ideas states and those that aspire to become one, as well as broader diffusion mechanisms – from Europe’s immediate backyard to far-away regions like the Asia-Pacific and Latin America. If EU conditionality has the potential to substan- tially change new EU members and candidates is still debated – a discussion, which has been at the focus of one of the first panels. Ulrich Sedelmeier, senior lecturer at the London School of Economics and Political Science, finds that the new member KFG Conference December 2009 states, which joined in 2004, comply extraordinarily well with EU law, contrary to many of the long- In its many years of existence, the European Union standing EU members. According to Sedelmeier, (EU) has evolved various ways of diffusing ideas this could be due to the fact that the new members within its borders. Today, not even skeptics would deny that the European integration project does substantially affect its member states. Things, howe- ver, seem to be different when one looks at Europe’s transformative power in other parts of the globe. In many corners of the world, the ‘European model’ is not a source of inspiration, but one of contestation. How far then does the EU’s transformative power reach? Can Europe diffuse its ideas to states which do not, and will never, have an accession perspec- tive? Can it have an impact on regions, which are KFG Conference December 2009 neither willing nor capable of adapting to Europe? Can Europeanization travel? The question, how Europe’s transformative power have been subjected to an extensive pre-accession hits beyond its borders, has been at the center of process – a process, which might have socialised a two-day international conference organized by them to conceive of good compliance as appropriate the Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG) in December behaviour. Eli Gateva (University of Manchester), 2009. Twenty scholars, selected out of more than however, contradicts this view. She observes a ‘gro- one hundred applicants, were invited to present wing sense of frustration in Brussels’ with the slow their papers in the Representation of the European pace of reforms in some of the new members and Commission in Berlin. Divided into seven panels, asks: Why does the effectiveness of EU conditio- the scholars discussed some of the major themes of nality deteriorate after accession? Her answer is the KFG: the diffusion of ideas in new EU member a rational-choice argument: Once a state joined, 4 The Transformative Power of Europe | www.transformeurope.eu the EU is stripped of its most attractive reward, membership – a loss, which cannot be compensated for with weak and not very credible sanctions for non-compliance. Even though conditionality might have been suc- cessful in transforming the new European mem- bers, it clearly hits its limits, when it comes to the current accession states: the Western Balkans and Turkey. Analyzing the Europeanization process in Turkey, Jörg Baudner (Bilgi University Istanbul), Digdem Soyaltin (Central European University) and Gözde Yilmaz (KFG) agree that Europeanization has met considerable resistance in Turkish dome- KFG Conference December 2009 stic politics.