CIAO DATE: 07/01

Journal of International Relations and Development

 

Vol. 4, No 1 (March 2001)

 

Articles

• The Council and Enlargement: A Challenge or an Opportunity?
  by Fiona Hayes-Renshaw

The article reviews and outlines the challenges the Council of the European Union has been and still is facing today, especially as regards the efficiency and transparency of decision-making. A special emphasis is put on organisational challenge, e.g. the question of how to effectively deal with the multiplicity of languages, meet demands as regards transparency, and to ensure maintaining efficiency in decision-making, especially in the view of the forthcoming major rounds of enlargement.

• The Candidate-States and the IGC
  by Michael J. Baun and Dan Marek
  

The 2000 Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) and Nice Treaty have significant implications for the candidate-states for European Union (EU) membership. Of most importance for these countries, the Nice summit brought the IGC to a successful conclusion, thereby clearing the way for enlargement to proceed. The institutional changes agreed to at Nice will also affect future position and interests of the candidate-countries as member-states. A less effective EU, because of the minimalist extension of qualified-majority voting and raised threshold for qualified majority decisions, when combined with the new provisions for enhanced co-operation could work against the new member-states as frustrated and more federalist members seek to press ahead with further integration. The Nice agreement, including decisions on the size and composition of the Commission and the distribution of Council votes and seats in the European Parliament, will also affect popular perceptions of the EU in the candidate-states, and thus the level of popular support for accession in these countries.

• Estimating the Vote Distribution in the Council of the European Union
  by Madeleine O. Hosli and Reinoud F. Wolffenbuttel

Vote allocations in the Council of the European Union (EU) are a crucial issue, especially in view of the increased use of qualified majority votes (QMV) and forthcoming significant rounds of EU enlargement. This article studies the distribution of votes in the Council from the first enlargement of the European Community (EC) in 1973 through to the present. The article theoretically deduces a formula that explains vote allocation on the basis of population size. The relationship between population and weighted votes is expressed by an exponential function. The article also illustrates to what extent the new formula agreed on at the Nice EU Summit deviates from the earlier one, by estimating changes in the relevant parameters.

• A Cause of Conflict? The Implications of Decision-making Changes for the EU's Eastwards Enlargement
  by Heather Field
  

Changes in voting weights and arrangements in the Council of the European Union (EU) were made by the Nice summit, overcoming one of the hurdles facing the EU's prospective eastwards enlargement. The article examines those changes and why the issue of voting weights and arrangements has been a contentious one in the context of the prospective eastwards enlargement of the EU, as well as some other major considerations facing enlargement. It comments on the applicability and interconnectedness of two independent explanatory theories of integration in the context of the prospective eastwards enlargement. The first is "rational choice" based theory with its emphasis on national and material interests, and the second emphasis is on the importance of ideas and norms and the social construction of reality. It is argued that the contentious nature of decision-making arrangements and related changes is demonstrated by the failure of the member-states to agree on the incorporation of changes necessary to allow eastwards enlargement to be achieved in time for their inclusion in the Amsterdam Treaty. It relates ideas, norms and more material interests to the major issues facing the prospective eastwards enlargement of the EU. These include the movement of labour and of the Romany population, the unrestricted sale of land, agricultural support, and gender and class equality.