Martin Potucek: Difficult Enlargement: The New Member States in the European Union

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Martin Potucek Difficult Enlargement The New
Member States in the European Union

• July 21, 2005
• Presentation by Hannah Heist
• Hannah. heist_at_uni-konstanz.de

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Critical evaluation of

• Public Administration, Regional
• Policy, and the Committee of the
• Regions - Interaction of Regional,
• National and European Influences in
• the Pre-accession Czech Republic
• By Tomá Kostelecký,
• NISPACEE Occasional Paper, 15,1, Winter 2005

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• Goal of artical
• analyze interaction of supranational, national
  and regional influences in pre-accession
  Czech-Republic

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Questions

• Regionalization
• ? Democratization of public sphere
• Czech Republics change during accession period
• Role of EU, i. e. Committee of the Regions (CoR)?

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Methodology

• Indepth interviews with representatives involved
  in the regionalization process
• Document analysis

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Structure of paper

• 1. Background information
• Historical Overview
• Actors involved in regional decision-making
  political partiesnational government and state
  bureaucracy elected local representationsEU-Comm
  ission, CoR, media, business sector, NGOs
• Regional development plans

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Structure of paper

• 2. Democratic assessment information
• Participation
• Communication
• Accountability of institutions
• Openness

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Historical Overview

• After collapse of communism, no regional policy
  prior to 1997, but increasing competences for the
  municipalities, 3 tier state administration
• 1997 law establishing 14 regions (kraj)
• 2000 first elcetion of regional representatives
• Kraje too small to serve as NUTS-II ? 8 NUTS-II
  made up of 1-3 kraje
• No role of CoR in the process

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Political parties

• Centralist vs. regionalist attitude
• Democratization vs. management efficiency
  considerations
• Civic Democratic Party (ODS) as national
  government centralist, but many regional
  politicians
• Social Democrats (CSSD) no regional success, but
  pro-dezentralization
• Christian Democratic Union (KDU-CSL) junior
  coalition partner until 1997, pushed for craton
  of Ministry of Regional Development

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National government/state bureaucracy

• Key institution of regional policy
• No coordination of regional branches and
  activities of ministries
• Monopoly for financing larger projects

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Local representations

• Municipalities were weak partners of
  decision-making on regional level due to lack of
  ressources
• Union of Towns and Communities
• Regional Councils and Regional Boards of kraje
  get more and more responsibility
• Association of Regions to coordinate their
  policies
• Increasing international cooperation

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Other actors

• EU-Commission formal and informal
  conditionality through Copenhagen criteria and
  rules governing the access to money from
  Structural Funds Ambiguous signalsProblem with
  dual administration system

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Regional development plans

• Overprogramming 1998-2002
• Double documentation
• Wish lists vs. implementation tools
• Dangers of formal and bureaucratic approach
• Limitation to infrastruction projects

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Democratic assessment

• Participation through regional elections
  restrictive,low turnout
• People dont know regional offices
• Expert mentalit
• No more accountability
• Secrecy instead of oppenness

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Conclusion

• Regionalization in CZ was mostly result of
  domestic actors efforts (Social Democratic
  government, regional politicians)
• Increasing importance of regional governments
  increasing responsibilities and budgets
• Unclear effect on democratization regional
  government has potential, but doesnt necessarily
  use it
• CoR has had limited impact (channel of
  information, meeting place)
• EU-Commission was more influential through
  Structural Funds (conditionality)

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Personal opinion

• Highly informative overview over the process of
  regionalization in CZ, the relevant actors and
  evaluation of the practical use
• Complementary to the literature on
  conditionality/Europeanization
• Need for further evaluation of the dual system
  kraje/NUTS

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Bibliography

• Literature on regionalism and CEEC
• Kostelecký, T., 2005. Public Administration,
  Regional Policy, and the Committee of theRegions
  - Interaction of Regional, National and European
  Influences in the Pre-accession Czech Republic.
  NISPAcee Occassional Working Papers in Public
  Administration and Public Policy, 4,1, 14-24
• Theoretical backround and application of
  europeanization/regionalization to CEEC
• Brusis, Martin 2002. Between EU Requirements,
  Competitive Politics, and National Traditions
  Re-creating Regions in the Accession Countries of
  Central and Eastern Europe. Governance, 15, 4,
  531-559
• Ferrry, M. and McMaster, I., 2005. Implementing
  Structural Funds in Polish and Czech Regions
  Convergence, Variation, Empowerment? Regional and
  Federal Studies, 15,1, 19-39

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Bibliography

• Hughes, J./Sasse, G./Gordon, C., 2004.
  Conditionality and Compliance in the EUs
  Eastward Enlargement Regional Policy and the
  Reform of Sub-national Government. Journal of
  Common Market Studies, 42, 3, 523-51
• Keating, M. and Hughes, J. (eds.), 2003. The
  Regional Challenge in Central and Eastern
  EuropeTerritorial Restructuring and European
  Integration. Brussels Peter Lang
• Paraskevopoulos, C. J. and Leonardi, R., 2004.
  Introduction Adaptational Pressures and Social
  Learning in European Regional Policy Cohesion
  (Greece, Ireland and Portugal) vs. CEE (Hungary,
  Poland). Countries. Regional and Federal Studies,
  14, 3, 315354
• Sturm, R. and Dieringer, Jürgen, 2004.
  Theoretische Perspektiven der Europäisierung von
  Regionen im Ost-West-Vergleich, in Europäisches
  Zentrum für Föderalismus-Forschung Tübingen
  (ed..) Jahrbuch des Föderalismus 2004.
  Föderalismus, Subsidiarität und Regionen in
  Europa, Baden-Baden, Nomos, 21-35