FCRP - European Union

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Make the World Order Great Again” – The Fight over the Liberal Order as an Instance of the Transatlantic Divide
(European Institute of Romania, 2019) Bârgăoanu, Alina
The purposes of this article are a) to offer some highlights on the various concepts conflated under the term “world order” (post WWII world order, liberal order, global order), thus underlining its context-specific character; b) to place the discussion in the current context of the Transatlantic Divide and c) to examine EU’s embrace of the current narrative of a universalistic, unhistorical liberal order and the consequences of such embrace for the amplification of the Transatlantic Divide and of the internal East-West one. The choice to focus on the challenges to the world order from within the Transatlantic world and from its most prominent members is motivated by the fact that, to our understanding, this development is age-defining. The fact that China would challenge the world order that was established by its main competitor – US – in order to serve its own interests is less spectacular than the fact that the dismantling of the US-led world order appears to be led by US itself or the fact the biggest fights over the current order and its aftermath take place within the Transatlantic world itself.
The East-West Divide in the European Union: A Development Divide Reframed as a Political One
(Springer, 2019) Bârgăoanu, Alina; Buturoiu, Raluca; Durach, Flavia
This chapter focuses on the return of the East-West divide in the European Union, a divide neither new nor superficial. Dating centuries back in history, the divide is fuelled by persistent differences in the level of development of the Old (Western) Member States, and the New (CEE) Member States. Given the major geopolitical shifts shaking the current world order (i.e., the transatlantic deficit), overcoming the East-West divide is crucial for the EU’s future. This chapter will underline the morphology of the East-West “development divide” by focusing on its socio-economic determinants. It seeks to show that CEE membership to the EU has left largely untouched development indicators such as the urban-rural ratio, level of capitalisation and savings, entrepreneurship and innovation, integration in global/European production, technology, R&D chains, minimum wages, social expenditures, poverty, deprivation, income inequality, unemployment, and mortality. The authors consider that a sober, critical evidence-based acknowledgement of the European Union’s failure to make significant contributions to closing this development divide is worth our attention, and that the temptation to “reframe” this development gap in political, cultural, or even civilizational terms has the potential to create the greatest vulnerability for the EU and the international liberal order in the next years. This chapter has been prepared with financial support granted in the project “State of the Nation. Designing an innovative instrument for evidence-based policy-making” (SIPOCA 11, MySMIS 118305), which is co-financed by the European Social Fund through the Operational Programme Administrative Capacity 2014–2020.
The Rise of Euroscepticism in Times of Crisis. Evidence from the 2008–2013 Eurobarometers
(College of Communication and Public Relations, NUPSPA, 2014) Bârgăoanu, Alina; Radu, Loredana; Negrea-Busuioc, Elena
The financial and economic turmoil within the European Union has significantly impacted upon the way in which the European citizens assess the advantages of EU membership and the future of the integration process. Intensely preoccupied with the economic problems, the EU leadership has lost sight of the constant decrease of public support and the increasing lack of citizens’ confidence in the Union. This paper seeks to show the dynamics of public opinion between 2008 and 2013 with a special focus on the rise of Euroscepticism, using secondary data analysis of standard Eurobarometers. Our longitudinal analysis reveals the dynamics of EU-related attitudes and perceptions before, during, and after most of events that are usually labeled under the rather generic term “crisis”.
What kind of Union? The future of the European Union as seen by the candidates to the European Commission Presidency in 2014 EP Elections
(Department of International Relations and European Integration of the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (NUPSPA), 2014) Bârgăoanu, Alina; Negrea-Busuioc, Elena
There is no doubt that the European Union is at a crossroads. The recently (arguably) ended economic and financial crisis has left serious marks on the deep structure of the Union, which seems feebler than ever in its history. What is currently contested by politicians and people alike is the very raison d‟être of the European project: do we need a Union anymore? Should the European Union be abandoned or should it be revived and consolidated? These are serious and timely questions that require urgent attention. The 2014 EP elections offered a platform spread across Europe where issues such as the future of the EU could have been addressed. In this paper, we analyze the three debates between the candidates to the Presidency of the European Commission. We particularly focus on the scenarios for Europe proposed by three of the five main participants and examine their proposals against the arguments on the future of the European project made by established scholars and experts (i.e. federation, supranational democracy, Europe of nation states, an association of sovereign states, fiscal union, banking union, etc.)

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