New threats – different response: EU and NATO and Somali piracy

When the European Union (EU) launched its first military naval mission, EU NAVFOR Somalia, Atalanta, the states who are members of both the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) made a political choice: to prioritize the EU over NATO in their multilateral military efforts to fight piracy and its consequences. Thereby, Atalanta challenges the conventional assumption that EU security cooperation will remain limited. It also challenges the widely held belief that the European states will chose to act through NATO if dealing multilaterally with international security issues. How can we explain this decision? This analysis suggests that it can be explained in two phases where different mechanisms were at work. In the first phase, which can be accounted for from a neo-realist perspective, France, who held the Presidency, used particular favorable geopolitical conditions to put an autonomous EU operation on the agenda. However, agreement on the EU option cannot be explained as a result of strategic bargaining. Instead, in a second phase and in line with an alternative hypothesis building on the theory of communicative action, the EU member states came to support the French suggestion due to legitimacy considerations regarding the legal framework of the two operations.     

Between conflict management and role conflict: the EU in the Libyan crisis

This paper assesses the role of the European Union in the Libyan crisis (2011) and critically considers the implications for its evolution as an international security actor. Employing role theory, the paper reviews the historical development of the Union's security actorness and sheds specific light on the balance between self-conception and external expectations in the case of the Libyan crisis. Its central argument is that, despite external expectations and European narratives of a ‘comprehensive power role’, the Libyan crisis showed that the Union still acts in line with its traditional role as a civilian power. The inability to go beyond civilian power stemmed from internal dissonance on a potential hard power role and a corresponding lack of material capabilities. The growing gap between expectations about comprehensive actorness on the one hand and performance on the other is likely to damage the Union's future credibility as an international security actor.     

Fighting terrorism in Africa by proxy: the USA and the European Union in Somalia and Mali

The French intervention in Mali in early 2013 emphasizes that the decision-makers in Paris, Brussels, and Washington considered the establishment of the radical Islamist regime in Northern Mali a threat to their security interests. The widespread instability including the rise of radical Islamist groups in Somalia was perceived as a threat to western interests. It is the core argument of the paper if western powers decide to provide security in Africa, they will be inclined to use proxy instead of deploying own troops. Security provision by proxy in African means that African troops are doing the actual fighting and peacekeeping on the ground while western powers basically pay the costs, the logistics, and the training of local African troops. The paper concludes that the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in Somalia and The African-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA) in Mali are proxies for the USA and the European Union.     

Default entitlements in personal data in the proposed Regulation: Informational self-determination off the table … and back on again?

This paper aims to assess the proposed General Data Protection Regulation through the framework of default entitlements in personal data. The notion of default entitlements comes from economic analysis of law and provides new insights into the implications of the data protection reform. While, under the principle of informational self-determination the default entitlements should lie with the individual, the Commission is shown to assign a great deal of default rights to others, including the Information Industry. This article cautions against the possibility of reducing the European system of data protection rooted in the values of individual autonomy and informational self-determination to a mere set of administrative rules channelling the flow of personal data, yet without a clear direction.     

The EU approach to net neutrality: Network operators and over-the-top players,friends or foes?

This paper will mainly focus on the EU approach to net neutrality, notably the adequacy of existing and future EU rules to tackle the issue and the ongoing policy debate. It will also consider whether the market has effectively worked around the regulatory lacunae by looking into the relationships between the telecoms industry, as a regulated sector, and the over-the-top (OTT) players. In this regard, it will explore to what extent there is a real battle between telcos and OTTs or if both parties are already finding their own ways to overcome their (apparent) disputes.     

粤港澳大湾区跨区域基础设施协调制度的构建与完善--基于港珠澳大桥和欧盟TEN-T项目的比较

跨区域基础设施项目的建设、运营和管理是区域治理的重要内容之一,往往面临集体行动困境。因此,需要建立区域治理的协调制度来协调多元治理主体、项目建设和不同利益群体这三个层面来克服集体行动困境,共同提供跨区域的公共产品和服务。欧盟和粤港澳大湾区在各自的跨区域基础设施项目中建立起了各具特色的区域协调制度。未来粤港澳大湾区跨区域基础设施的治理可以借鉴欧盟的经验,在法治化的框架下实施区域协调;完善中央层面、区域层面和地方层面的多元治理主体间的权能分配制度;区域协调机构应着重提升"跨区域"的公共利益;扩大区域治理的协调范围,创新公众参与机制。     

我国民法典视野下的数字内容瑕疵担保责任——基于欧盟背景下德国法的比较法考察

数字内容交易目前在全球数字化背景下蓬勃发展,其中,有关数字内容的瑕疵担保责任问题备受关注;立法上欧盟在新出台的《有关提供数字内容和服务的合同交易指令》中有三个条款对此作了专门规定,同时,德国也将此规定完全予以转化适用。基于现有欧盟背景下德国法有关数字内容瑕疵担保责任的比较分析,可知其不但能准确认定数字内容交易中的瑕疵形态与有效提供救济,而且有助于消费者保护。根据我国现有一般物之瑕疵担保规定并结合我国民法典编纂以及域外法经验,在解释论上,通过相关类案的比较分析,我国就此有借鉴适用的必要性;在立法论上,今后在我国《民法典》的解释与适用过程中,可先在《民法典(合同编)》司法解释中原则性地规定有关数字内容瑕疵担保责任,再另行制定具有针对性的单行法,从而有助于数字时代的我国消费者保护与数字经济发展。     

The High Representative and directoires in European foreign policy: the case of the nuclear negotiations with Iran

ABSTRACT

The negotiations with Iran about its nuclear programme have seen the most protracted involvement of the High Representatives of the European Union in a high-profile policy case. This article traces the evolution of the High Representatives’ participation in the negotiations, from the first contacts with the E3 (Germany, France and the United Kingdom) in 2003 to the adoption of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2015. It focuses on the institutional role the High Representatives played in relation with the directoires leading the talks with Iran – first the E3 and, since 2006, E3/EU. In this context, it examines the personal and organisational factors that affected the influence each of the three High Representatives (Javier Solana, Catherine Ashton and Federica Mogherini) had in regard to the directoires. The analysis distinguishes specifically between the phases before and after the 2009 Lisbon Treaty. The article shows how similar personal qualities of the three High Representatives in terms of problem-solving and trust-building gave them political capital that enabled them to adopt a fairly constant role as bridge-builders within the directoires and between the directoires and other actors. The reforms of the Lisbon Treaty had only a minor impact.     

Analysis of Factors of Overpricing in Public Procurement: A Study for Low-performing EU Countries

ABSTRACT

The paper deals with the issue of overpricing of public procurement in low-performing EU countries. It examines a uniquely large sample of public procurement in 11 Central and Eastern European countries. Hierarchical regression is used to analyze the factors that influence public contract. Our results indicate that institutional factors have a greater impact on overpricing than individual decisions by the contracting authority. Our analysis for low-performing EU countries provides interesting results and also draws attention to behavior that is not typical of the better established and more advanced EU countries. Our results are particularly important for public policy in each country, as they show the direction of regulatory action in the field of public procurement. The results introduce a debate on the appropriateness of “one size fits all” regulations within the EU.     

China and Africa: economic growth and a non-transformative political elite

Prevailing narratives in the discourse on China-Africa engagement are that China is developing Africa. This paper departs from those narratives because they disregard the agency of Africa's political elite. Basing its argument on the nature of the African political elite, the paper analyses their role in determining the impact of China's economic and trade engagement on economic development in their respective countries. To do that, it first discusses the nature and identity of African political elites, and examines how they control their states and scarce resources. Having done that, the paper then analyses their role in determining the nature and extent of development emanating from their countries’ economic engagement with China. It then concludes that it is not how much foreign states invest in African countries that determines Africa's rise, but rather political elites who influence the direction of their states’ development.