The Directions of Chinese Diplomacy in the Pandemic Context

China's diplomacy has been marked by drastic changes since 2020, following the emergence of the virus known as SARS-CoV-2. The rapid spread of this virus both within China and beyond its borders, and subsequently globally, has led to a situation of crisis that has never been seen before in China, a situation that the Chinese leadership has had to mobilize and act upon, both internally, as most provinces in China have been affected, and externally, where the situation has taken on a greater scale than in the country that first reported the first coronavirus case. China is stepping in and assuming its role as a major power, taking swift action and implementing a series of drastic measures aimed at isolating the virus and combating the pandemic. China's global involvement, particularly in the countries most affected by the coronavirus crisis, has been viewed diplomatically not only with gratitude, as in the case of Italy, but also with suspicion and criticism of its political involvement in the humanitarian aid process. The present article proposes an analysis of both the Western and Chinese perspectives on China's handling of the SARS-CoV-2 crisis and at the same time traces the direction of diplomatic relations between China and the major world powers, i.e. political alliances once the pandemic is over.

Economic ideas, party politics, or material interests? Explaining Germany's support for the EU corona recovery plan

Why did the German government champion a debt-financed and grants-based EU corona recovery plan, despite the country's traditional aversion towards greater fiscal risk-sharing in Europe? To elucidate this question, this article critically assesses different explanatory factors cited in the academic literature and public debate to determine a country's response to pressing challenges. Tracing Germany's approach to the corona pandemic within the EU context, it finds that national material interests rather than (new) economic ideas or party politics were decisive. The timing, scope, as well as the limits of the German-inspired recovery plan for the fight against the corona crisis suggests at least as much continuity as change in Germany's position on EU fiscal policy. Yet, the findings also highlight Germany's enduring, and in fact reinforced, commitment to European integration and its preparedness to provide stability in moments of deep crisis for the EU. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

De Iure and De Facto: The Two Sides of the European Council after Lisbon

This work contributes an innovative vision of the European Council presented in two different but interrelated parts. The first, a de iure analysis of the essential primary law provisions that compose the European Council's competence framework according to the most recent version of the Treaty of Lisbon. The second, a de facto analysis focusing on the breaches to said competence framework by European lea-ders during the five UE crises: financial crisis, migratory crisis, Brexit, COVID and the war in Ukraine. Some of these crises show that the European Council has gone beyond its competence framework and breached EU law, making the rest of the ins-titutions into necessary collaborators. The main conclusions are three. First, the Eu-ropean Council, after the Treaty of Lisbon, has become the main constitutional and constituted << power >> in the EU, holding key competences and becoming the essential institution in moving the integration process forward. Second, after studying the afo-rementioned crises, there is evidence that the European Council has consciously gone beyond the EU law framework, not basing their actions in existing legal frames, but in a clear will to avoid political or legal controls when it considers that a crisis calls for it. The third conclusion allows us to conclude that the rest of institutions, including the CJUE, have tried to justify these actions.

The Role of Nato and the Eu in Response to Civilian Crises

Contemporary crises are characterised by heterogeneity, endemicity, continuity and complexity. They impact the possibility of national and international crisis management mechanisms functioning, which are themselves also in crisis and must be adapted to the new circumstances. The analysis presented in article is focused on a comparison of NATO's Civil Emergency Planning and the EU's Civil Protection Mechanism. The motivation for forming each was not only functional, but political as well. The factor de-motivating states' integration into this field is their fear of losing part of their sovereignty. Countries' cooperation through both mechanisms enables the coordinated, synergetic and successful use of available capabilities in a crisis. While the scope of NATO's and the EU's response to huge crises around the world is impressive, certain shortcomings are revealed when considering individual cases, especially NATO's limited response to the migrant crisis in Europe and the EU's hesitant response to the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

European Single Market: Evolution and Modern Challenges

This paper draws on the methods of analysis and synthesis to study the regulatory framework governing the modern operating mechanism of the EU single market. Statistical analysis made it possible to reflect the market dynamics with reference to the pre- and post-COVID crisis periods. Consolidation was applied to merge data on the trade of goods and services – the key elements of the EU Member States' trade indicators. Finally, the method of comparative analysis was employed to compare the single market environment of the EU with markets of other countries. The functioning of the single market depends on shared responsibility between the EU's centralized management and the many policies of its Member States. There are barriers within the single market system that limit the free movement of goods, services, people and capital and lead to an imbalance. These are sanitary and phytosanitary standards, tariff measures, and technical and quantitative barriers. © 2022 University Association for Contemporary European Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Firms? sustainability, financial performance, and regulatory dynamics: Evidence from European firms

This study examines the association between firms' ESG reputational risk and financial per-formance under the EU regulatory policy changes and the COVID-19 period. Analyzing a panel of 1,816 European listed firms during the period 2007-2021, we document evidence that firms with lower ESG reputational risk have reduced information asymmetry, are less financial constrained and perform better. To establish causality, we design a quasi-natural experiment focusing on the 2014/95/EU directive of non-financial disclosing and the COVID-19 exogenous shock. Our findings are robust to several estimation techniques that address endogeneity, self-selection, and model sensitivity. Crown Copyright (c) 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

The Hegemonic Politics of 'Strategic Autonomy' and 'Resilience': COVID-19 and the Dislocation of EU Trade Policy.

The outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020 led to substantial upheaval in the EU's trade policy. Over the course of a year, EU Trade Policy as a field witnessed the launch of hitherto unthinkable ideas; the proliferation of a range of new buzzwords such as resilience, autonomy, and reshoring; and ultimately the arrival of a new consensus in the Trade Policy Review of February 2021. This article uses a discourse-theoretical approach (PDT) to retrace the political process that unfolded throughout this year, from the start of the COVID-19 crisis, to a fundamental dislocation of EU trade politics, and ultimately to the consolidation of a partial, temporary, and frail new hegemony within the policy field. Our goal is to explain the trajectory and the dynamics of this process by studying the discourses, the framings, and the political strategies that comprised the hegemonic struggle underlying it.

Does Technical and Democratic Governance Have the Potential to Enhance Health Spending Allocations?

Nowadays, the medical systems of the EU Member States have a need for more efficient public policies and strategies to integrate the new societal challenges, the fragile economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and sustain the development of health systems. This research explores the relationship between public governance and health expenditures allocation, under the theory of welfare economics and the concern for economic development. The research approaches both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The first refers to bibliometric analysis and review of the existing literature, followed by data mapping process to rank the EU countries based on the variables employed. The quantitative approach also includes advanced empirical analyses (principal component analysis - PCA and regression analysis) performed over the period 2007-2020. Two indices were created through PCA, technical governance and democratic governance, gathering the effects from different world governance indicators. The main results reveal that both governance indices have a direct influence on health expenditures per capita, while GDP growth, applied as a control variable, negatively influences health expenditures. Our results emphasise a need to redesign the public governance of health systems in terms of health spending allocations and increase investments in healthcare to support economic growth in the long run. © 2022 Sorana Vătavu et al., published by Sciendo.

Keep it complex! Prodi's curse and the EU fiscal governance regime complex

The EU fiscal framework has gradually morphed into a regional regime complex through various reforms of the preventive and corrective arms of the Stability and Growth Pact. A regime complex encourages actors to arbitrage between partially overlapping, parallel and nested rules. By drawing on this central insight, this article demonstrates that regime complexity enables member states to respect the letter but not the spirit of the fiscal rules to lower the cost of compliance. It further shows empirically how regime complexity weakens technocratic enforcement capacity when authority is dispersed across multiple levels of governance by focusing on the example of the general escape clauses during the coronavirus pandemic.

Russian gas in Europe: pipeline and hubs price convergence analysis

The analysis in this paper was performed before the disastrous and unsolicited invasion of Russia to Ukraine. The paper aims to identify if the biggest Russian gas exporter Gazprom used market power to decouple its gas prices from European gas hub benchmarks. The empirical analysis is based on pairwise price convergence between the Russian pipeline and European gas hubs. The main finding shows that Gazprom takes advantage of its market position. The proposed model does not support the company's claims of pipeline price tightness to liquid European gas hubs, and rather proves fluctuating and unstable price convergence between pipelines and hubs from 2016 to March 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, a robust and trendy-stable price convergence is observed between the Russian pipeline gas and Brent benchmark. Methodologically, the paper contributes with a modified convergence model compliant with gas market fundamentals and suggests a time-expanding concept missed in previous studies. Ongoing political and European gas market developments of 2022 (during the paper review) support the conclusions. © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Providing cross border healthcare

Introduction: The Cross-Border Healthcare Directive is applicable in all European Union (EU) Member States. Medical prescriptions are an important resource for the provision of health care and efficient pharmaceutical care for the patient. EU countries are gradually replacing existing paper medical prescriptions with electronic prescriptions (e-Prescriptions). The EU aims to have a cross-border electronic healthcare system that will enable EU citizens to obtain e-Prescriptions anywhere in Europe. Method(s): Medical prescription templates and national rules for prescription medication were collected from selected EU countries between June and December 2020. The most common prescription forms were obtained mainly by contacting National Contact Points for cross-border healthcare and members of the Pharmaceutical Group of the EU. It was not possible to identify patients, prescribers, or places of issue. Result(s): Every country has its own rules for prescription medication and at least two types of prescriptions - paper prescription and e-Prescription. National prescription forms in EU countries differ formally and visually. The common differences are the various content of the form, the validity of the prescription and the number of available forms. Conclusion(s): Even though the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic sped up the process of introducing electronic prescriptions significantly, it is still a requirement to either have a paper medical prescription or a paper copy of the electronic prescription to collect medicine from a pharmacy in the majority of the EU countries.

Coordination and Control in European Council Centred Governance. The Netherlands and the Covid Recovery Fund

This paper provides a reconstruction and game‐theoretical characterization of the coming about of the €750 billion Covid Recovery Fund (RRF). It does this from the perspective of one prominent member state, the Netherlands, who was arguably the most prominent opponent to the idea. The case of the Netherlands is revealing for the ability of individual Member States to oversee and control EU decision‐making in this new system of European Council centred governance. We provide an embedded process tracing analysis of the decision‐making from the first Summit on the Multiannual Financial Framework of 20/21 February, up until the ‘historic' deal on the MFF and RRF of 21 July. Where most media accounts and scholarly evaluations focus on the proceedings at the highest political level and particularly the role of German Chancellor Merkel, we highlight the early, technical‐level developments and proceedings, that laid out the tracks for the final deal.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the European Union: politics, policies and institutions

The COVID-19 pandemic posed unprecedented challenges to the European Union (EU) and its member states. In the EU, health policy competence has been and remains largely with member states. However, faced with a major external crisis, which more or less affected all member states at the same time, the EU developed a framework within which the member states (and their subnational units) could respond together to the crisis. This introductory article to the Special Issue ‘The COVID-19 Pandemic and the European Union,' briefly examines how EU institutions, policies and politics were affected by the crisis. Contrary to earlier crises, the EU responded speedily and effectively this time around. The EU has become increasingly important in crisis management, in part due to the nature of transboundary crises. The EU proved itself to be a good crisis manager on some dimensions, but certainly not on all. The crisis created momentum for collective action and for fast decision-making, even though the legitimacy of some these actions has been subject to limited public scrutiny. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Effects of COVID-19 on civil society voices in European energy and climate policy

Civil society plays an important role in European energy and climate policymaking. This paper poses the questions of how organized civil society handled the opportunities and challenges presented by the lockdown to its access to the climate and energy policymaking within the European Commission (EC)? How has the balance between organized civil society groups and businesses in Europe been affected by pandemic-related travel restrictions? Moreover, what role has the EC played in creating such opportunities and affecting the legitimacy of democratic policymaking? This research sheds light on the changing role of the EC in democratic governance and policy formation in the European Union (EU) by examining the relationship between funding received by CSOs active in the policy areas of environment and climate, the number of meetings attended, and the importance of coalitions and networks. This research revealed a possible relationship between level of participation in policymaking and the operational support received from the EC. Despite the resources invested, opportunities for interest representation in the energy and climate policy areas disproportionately favor businesses and organizations with long-term relationships with and proximity to Brussels. Increased number of virtual meetings only marginally increased share of participation of NGOs in these meetings. Thus, a physical presence in Brussels and resource investment remain important factors in access to the EU policymaking. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd

How Institutions Moderated the Pandemic's Economic Impact in EU Member States

We investigate how institutional quality affected the economic downturn in EU countries during the COVID‐19 pandemic (2020–21). Using quarterly panel data, we show that countries with a higher quality of governance and a higher score of economic freedom suffered markedly less. Importantly, institutions mattered more when the pandemic shock was larger. Thus, the pandemic highlights the asymmetric impact of seemingly symmetric exogenous shock on EU economies and raises important issues about the necessary reforms for short‐run resilience and long‐run convergence.

Brexit, COVID-19 and climate change: mapping the impact of the ‘triple challenge' on health and well-being in wales

Brexit, COVID-19 and climate change pose challenges of national and global importance. They continue to have impacts across the economy, society, health, and the environment, all of which are determinants of health and well-being. Between 2018 and 2021, Public Health Wales undertook three Health Impact Assessments (HIA) in relation to the impact of the challenges in Wales. Based on these, work has been carried out to map the synergies across the ‘Triple Challenge'. This paper highlights the commonalities in the impact of the three challenges for Wales, discusses the process carried out, learns from it and proposes actions that can be taken to mitigate harm. Results indicate the three components of the Triple Challenge must not be viewed as separate silos as they have cumulative multi-faceted impacts. This affects some population groups more negatively than others and present a ‘Triple Challenge' to nation states in the UK and Europe. A HIA approach can enable a range of stakeholders to critically view similar challenges not just as single issues but as a holistic whole to mobilise action.

The EU Vaccines Strategy: A Missed Opportunity for EU Public Health?

The response to the COVID-19 crisis implied an unprecedented involvement of the European Union (EU) executive in public health matters. In June 2020, the Member States agreed upon a joint EU Vaccines Strategy, whereby the European Commission was enabled to negotiate, support and allocate vaccine doses on their behalf. Entailing political and redistributive choices, the Commission's centralised procurement presents some innovative patterns when compared to traditional EU executive action. This paper will focus on the institutionalisation of such patterns within the legal framework of the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA). Did EU administrative law offer appropriate tools for this process? Or did the EU merely formalise the procedural and organisational schemes set up during the crisis? Answers to these questions will contribute to a fuller understanding of the administrative dimension of the new European Health Union and shed light on some recent evolutions of the EU administrative system. © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the EU: From a sustainable energy transition to a green transition?

The article examines the implications held by the EU's response to the COVID-19 pandemic for the green transition as set by the European Green Deal. It distinguishes changes in: (a) the use of policy instruments;(b) governance principles;and (c) the prioritising of policy goals as expressed via the conceptual framework of orders of change. The article assesses the extent of these changes as well as the patterns and regional variations among EU Member States, together with the Commission's role in pushing for preferential energy policy choices and encouraging the Member States' ambitions. The analysis shows the EU Energy Union governance framework was promoting the EU's climate targets' full integration into the EU's energy transition policy instruments (first order of change) even before the European Green Deal. Still, the EU's response to the COVID-19 crisis created strong financial and policy leverage to accelerate the green transition and gave an opportunity to close the gap between less ambitious and more ambitious EU countries. Many countries traditionally reliant on EU funds seized this opportunity, demonstrating the role of changed governance principles (the second order of change). However, the crisis has had an evolutionary impact, not a revolutionary one. While coherence between the energy and climate goals remains high, the EU's energy transition is falling short in fully integrating biodiversity (which would constitute a full paradigmatic, third-order change), despite this being an essential component of the EU's green transition.

Is european attachment sufficiently strong to support an EU fiscal capacity: Evidence from a conjoint experiment

Based on a conjoint survey experiment with 10,000 respondents from France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Spain at the end of March/beginning of April 2020, we explore how individual characteristics shape support among Eurozone citizens for a European Union (EU) budgetary assistance instrument to combat adverse temporary or permanent economic shocks hitting EU Member States. We consider particularly the role of socioeconomic factors, such as income and education, covid fears and European attachment. Remarkably, how covid worries and European attachment affect the support for specific designs of the assistance instrument is not affected by other factors, in particular not by socioeconomic factors. These latter factors play an important role affecting support, independent of European attachment. Programs with European Commission monitoring (and recommendations) and cross-country redistribution, possibly even mandatory towards poor countries, can count on stronger support from those with higher European attachment. Those with strong covid fears are generally more in favour of EU budgetary assistance, mandatory spending of assistance on healthcare and redistribution to poor countries. Programs with Commission monitoring (and recommendations) receive extra support from high-income and highly-educated individuals. Also, the latter group specifically favors potential or mandatory cross-border redistribution. The independent role of individual European attachment suggests that instruments other than socioeconomic policies, e.g. better information provision about its use, may help raise support for an EU assistance instrument. © 2023 The Author(s)

Comparative Analysis of Turkey's Covid-19 Management Through the European Union 2020 and 2021 Turkey Reports

The European Commission, each year, prepares reports that screen the progress made by the candidate countries of the European Union (EU). EU Turkey reports are considered to have a positive influence on Turkey's COVID-19 pandemic process management. Therefore, this study aims to find out whether the EU Turkey reports have an impact on Turkey's COVID-19 pandemic administration. Through analysing the EU Turkey reports published in 2020 and 2021, this study also tries to establish an association between Turkey's COVID-19 pandemic management and the reports published in previous years. In this context, the thematic distribution of the content of Covid-19 in the EU 2020 and 2021 Turkey reports in the light of the progress related to epidemics and infectious diseases in Turkey and within the framework of this distribution, answers to the questions of how Turkey's Covid-19 management is were sought. The main finding of the study is that Turkey has improved its capacity to fight epidemics and is thus prepared for the Covid-19 pandemic process, with the influence of the guidance in previous reports.Alternate :Avrupa Komisyonu, her yıl Avrupa Birliği (AB) aday ülkelerin üyeliğe hazırlık sürecinde kaydettiği ilerlemeyi gösteren raporlar hazırlamaktadır. Türkiye raporlarının Türkiye'nin Covid-19 pandemi sürecini yönetmede olumlu bir etkisi olduğu düşünülmektedir. Bu nedenle AB Türkiye raporlarının Türkiye'nin Covid-19 pandemi süreci yönetiminde bir etkisinin bulunup bulunmadığı araştırmanın problemini oluşturmaktadır. Çalışmada 2020 ve 2021 yıllarında yayınlanan AB Türkiye raporlarında, Türkiye'nin Covid-19 pandemi yönetiminin geçmiş raporlarla ilişkisinin kurulması amaçlanmaktadır. Bu çerçevede Türkiye'deki salgın ve bulaşıcı hastalıklara ilişkin ilerlemeler ışığında AB 2020 ve 2021 Türkiye raporlarında Covid-19 içeriğinin tematik dağılımı ve bu dağılım çerçevesinde Türkiye'nin Covid-19 yönetimi nasıldır sorularına cevap aranmıştır. Çalışmanın temel bulgusu, geçmiş raporlarda yer alan yönlendirmelerin de etkisiyle Türkiye'nin salgın hastalıklarla mücadele kapasitesini geliştirdiği ve bu sayede Covid-19 pandemi sürecine hazırlıklı olduğudur.