Prelims

Half Title Page

The European Union in the Twenty-First Century

Title Page

The European Union in the Twenty-First Century: Major Political, Economic and Security Policy Trends

Edited by

Altuğ Günar

Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University, Turkey

And

DİDEM SAYGIN

Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2023

Editorial matter and selection © 2023 Altuğ Günar and Didem Saygın.

Individual chapters © 2023 The authors.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80382-538-0 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80382-537-3 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80382-539-7 (Epub)

List of Figures and Tables

About the Contributors

Omca Altın has graduated from the Department of International Relations and European Union at İzmir University of Economics. She has completed her master's and doctorate studies at the Department of European Union at İstanbul University. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, at Kastamonu University. Her research focuses on the European Union, EU–Turkey Relations, Europe and Regional Efforts, EU History, EU Law, and EU Foreign Policy.

İlhan Aras is an Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations at Nevşehir Hacı Bektas Veli University, Turkey. He completed his PhD at İstanbul University in 2014. His research interests are European studies and China. The titles of his books are the European Union and China; Europe, the Mediterranean and the Arab Spring.

Çağatay Başarır is an Associate Professor of Finance in Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University, at the faculty of Application Sciences on International Trade and Logistics Department. He received his undergraduate degree (BA) in Business Administration from the Ege University in 2003. He earned his MA in 2006 and his PhD is in Business Administration earned in 2016 from Balıkesir University. He has carried out studies on financial markets, stock exchange markets, commodity markets, and precious metals in the field of time series analyses, multicriteria decision analysis, and performance measurement.

Yasemin Başarır obtained her master's thesis titled “Effects of foreign direct investment on economic growth: Turkish experience” in 2013 and completed her doctoral thesis titled, “Determination of efficient market hypothesis in exchange market in terms of behavioral finance” in 2021. Her field of study is behavioral economics, herd behavior, technology, economic growth and innovation, sustainable growth.

Kamber Güler is a former postdoctoral researcher at Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies (SFM) at the University of Neuchâtel, and mostly deals with migration in the context of European politics. He holds a master's and a PhD in European Union Politics and International Relations from Marmara University. He is also a Swedish Institute alumnus, having carried out PhD research at the Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity, and Society (REMESO) at Linköping University.

Altuğ Günar is an Associate Professor in the International Relations Department at Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University. He has many academic works, including articles, book chapters, books, and book editorials in the field of the European Union. His main research areas are European Union studies, International Relations and Economics, and Schumpeterian Economics. Dr Günar is currently a lecturer in the Department of International Relations.

Didem Öztürk Günar, who obtained a master's degree by defending his thesis titled “The Effects of Changes in the Global Economy on the Customs Union Process” in the Department of European Union Economics at Marmara University European Union Institute in 2016, is currently continuing her doctoral studies at the Department of European Union at İstanbul University. Although European Union, European Union Economics, and Economics are her main fields of study, she has studied in the field of European Union Economics.

İnci Aksu Kargın holds an MA and a PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from Indiana University Bloomington. İnci is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Public Administration in Uşak University, Turkey. Her research interests include forced migration studies, migration theories, diaspora studies, and Middle Eastern politics. İnci has published journal articles and book chapters on Syrian refugees in Turkey, conducted several fieldworks on Syrian refugees in Turkey in the provinces bordering Syria, and participated in prestigious conferences such as the Migration Conference (TMC) to present her studies.

Yasemin Özerkek received her BA in Economics from Marmara University. She completed her MA in Economics at Central Michigan University (CMU) and her PhD in Economics at Marmara University. Her research interests are economic development and labor economics.

Özgür Öztürk is a research assistant at Aksaray University. He is studying for his PhD in International Relations at Ankara University. His research interests are international relations theories, security studies, and American foreign policy. His book reviews were recently published in Uluslararası İliskiler and Insight Turkey.

Hakan Samur is currently a Professor at Batman University, Turkey. He received his PhD from the University of Manchester, UK. His research interests include EU politics, EU–Turkey affairs, and EU–Poland affairs. His articles have appeared in Politics & Policy, Insight Turkey, CEU Political Science Journal, Turkish Studies, and the Journal of International Relations.

Mesut Savrul is working at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Biga Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. He completed his doctorate in İstanbul University, Department of Economics. His areas of expertise are international economy, economic growth, economic integration, and regional development.

Didem Saygın is an Assistant Professor and member of the Department of Public Administration, Biga Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University. She completed her PhD in European Union at İstanbul University. From 2012 to 2013, she was a PhD researcher at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London. She has several studies in the field of the European Parliament, The European Union–Turkey Relations, Regional Development Agencies in the European Union, European Union Law, and Decision-making.

Fatma Didin Sönmez received her BSc in Economics and Management from the University of London and İstanbul Bilgi University. She received MA and PhD in Economics from Marmara University. Her academic fields of interest include economic growth, economic development, and labor economics.

İrfan Kaya Ülger graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of International Relations, in 1989. He completed his master's degree in 1995 at Ankara University, Institute of Social Sciences, Department of International Relations, with his thesis titled “The Fragmentation of Yugoslavia.” In 2002, Ülger completed his doctorate in the Department of International Economic Relations of the European Union, affiliated with the Institute of Social Sciences of Ankara University. His doctoral thesis is titled “Formation of the Common Foreign and Security Policy in the European Union.” In 1996, he started his academic life as a research assistant at Gazi University, Department of International Relations. He became Assistant Professor in 2003, Associate Professor in 2008, and Full Professor in 2017. Ülger teaches “Turkey–EU Relations,” “EU Law,” “Central Asian States and Societies,” “Religion and Society,” and “European Integration” at the undergraduate level.

Mehlika Özlem Ultan graduated from the Department of International Relations, Faculty of Political Sciences, at İstanbul University in 2007. She was awarded an MA at Social Sciences Institute, International Quality Management, in 2009, and awarded a PhD in İstanbul University, from the Department of the European Union in 2015. In 2010 she began her academic life as a research assistant at Kocaeli University. She is still working as an Associate Professor at Kocaeli University, the Economic and Administrative Sciences Faculty, European Union Politics and International Relations Department. Her primary research interests are situated in the European Union politics, the EU integration, and the EU law.

Ayşe Gülce Uygun completed her International Relations undergraduate studies at Dokuz Eylül University in 2006 and pursued her postgraduate studies in France between 2007 and 2016 as a scholarship holder from the Turkish Ministry of National Education. She received her master's degree in International Relations from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University in 2008. She received her PhD in Political Science from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University in 2016 with a thesis titled “Turkey and the Mediterranean: Social Construction of Identity”. She conducted research and engaged in academic activities at various universities, including European Studies department at Maastricht University in the Netherlands and the University of Catania in Italy. Her main areas of interest are Mediterranean studies, European studies, migration studies and Turkish foreign policy. She has been working as an Assistant Professor of International Relations at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University since 2017.

Rüya Ataklı Yavuz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey. She received her PhD from Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University Graduate Education Institute, Department of Economics, in 2016. Her main research areas are international economics, economic development, economic history, and economic policy.

Tuğçe Yıldız is a research assistant in the Department of International Relations at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey. She received her PhD at Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, Turkey, in 2021 with a dissertation about the EU democracy promotion policies in Ukraine and Georgia under the impact of Russia. Her research interests are EU foreign and security policy in general and the EU policies in the neighborhood with a special focus on democracy promotion policies. Her recent work is the chapter titled “EU democracy promotion towards Central Asia and illiberal regional powers” in the book EU Good Governance Promotion in the Age of Democratic Decline, which will be released by Palgrave Macmillan in September 2022.

Alper Yurttaş after completing his master's degree in 2009 he started to work as an expert at İstanbul Technical University (ITU) in 2011, after a period of experience in the private sector. In 2017, he worked as a visiting researcher at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Free University of Brussels. In 2019, he completed his PhD at İstanbul University, Institute of Social Sciences, Department of European Union. Alper Yurttaş, who still works as an office manager at ITU Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, also works as a guest lecturer at İTÜ Humanities and Social Sciences Department. Yurttaş is coordinator of Jean Monnet Module entitled “IntegEUtor”. His research interest includes Turkey–European Union relations, public diplomacy, and political communication.

Samet Zenginoğlu completed his bachelor's degree in International Relations at Kocaeli University, his master's degree in the Department of International Relations at Akdeniz University, and his doctorate in the European Union Studies program at Süleyman Demirel University. Samet Zenginoğlu is still working at Adıyaman University. His main research areas of the European Union constitute the Turkey–European Union Relations and European history.

Preface

The European Union today faces the greatest threat since World War II. During the writing process of this book, Putin's Russia has attacked Ukraine and undermined European peace. In the wake of events that unfolded following the discussions over Ukraine's membership in the North Atlantic Alliance, Putin immediately declared war on Ukraine in a revisionist foreign policy move. At this point, the European Union has never been more in need of being a union than it was after World War II and at the end of the Cold War.

The European Union faces crises from time to time. Crises or administrative problems confronting the Union are transformed into legislation through consensual solutions that strengthen the Union and deepen integration. The presence and characteristics of these crises have differentiated in the 2000s, and the crises/challenges have begun to confront the European Union as an existential threat to integration.

The existential debate that arose after France and the Netherlands rejected the Constitutional Treaty in 2005 has put the future of the European Union up for discussion. The founding nations have done significant damage to the integration process, and the notion of political union, which has been dormant for ages, has disappointed continental Europe once more.

The main difficulties and challenges that the European Union has recently experienced are discussed in this book, to which academics working on the European Union in Turkey have contributed. Following the passage of the Constitutional Treaty, the debates about the future of Europe have become more heated. In the context of the recently conducted Conference on the Future of Europe, İrfan Kaya Ülger examines and assesses the discussions on the future of Europe. The entire globe paid great attention to David Cameron's address on June 24, 2016. The speech was given following the resignation of Cameron, who had called for a referendum on whether the United Kingdom should stay in the European Union. The debates on Brexit, i.e., the United Kingdom's referendum on leaving the European Union, and the future direction of the European Union were covered by Hakan Samur. In 2019, a disease that started in China quickly spread over the world and turned into a struggle for survival for all people. The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally altered the way we see the world, the natural world, and ourselves. The states and other entities at the heart of the international system have been severely impacted by this transformation, both politically and economically. The European Union struggled for its existence during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the images that emerged in the member states were expressed as the despair of the European Union. In the framework of the European Union, the analyses of the political and economic effects of COVID-19 and the fight for the survival of the European Union in the face of the crisis were analyzed by Didem Saygın.

Digitalization is another factor that has made the pandemic a part of our life. Digital systems and capabilities have redefined our perception of time and space in pandemic conditions. New employment options have been made available to people, such as working from home, and a new phase of digital change has started. Mesut Savrul examines how the European Union's single market is becoming more digital and evaluates the Digital Single Market Rules and Digital Single Market Strategy. Manufacturing is regarded as the catalyst for economic growth, development, and prosperity in the European Union, which is regarded as an economic giant but whose economic integration is up for dispute in the wake of the financial crisis and COVID-19. In their research in the EU member states, Yasemin Özerkek and Fatma Didin have examined this topic. The study finds that there is a trend toward technology-intensive manufacturing with medium and high skill levels among the member countries of the European Union, pointing to a change in the manufacturing sector in the European Union. Regarding the notable social and political effects of the past 10 years, migration is one of the concerns that stand out the most. This is true within the European Union. In terms of results, Europe has struggled mightily with managing migration over the past 10 years. Mehlika Özlem Ultan examines the EU's mechanism for handling both domestic and external migration in her study on migration in the EU. Another significant issue facing the European Union is antiimmigration, which is connected to the migration issue. Immigration and related issues were one of the key points of contention for Brexit supporters. Kamber Güler investigates how antiimmigration political parties portray immigration as a threat in the European Union through a critical discourse analysis. He comes to the conclusion in his analysis that political parties utilize antiimmigration as a cultural, economic, and security threat. Ayşe Gülce Uygun discusses the relationships, cooperation, and externalization of these relationships with Frontex, the European Union's migration control system, and non-EU nations. In managing immigration, the European Union also follows democratic ideals and guidelines. The risks and criticisms of externalizing Frontex are evaluated in the study. After Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in 2008, other connected financial systems also collapsed as a result. Rüya Ataklı Yavuz analyzes the European Union debt crisis and discusses financial developments and recent actions in the European Union economy. Altuğ Günar outlines how the European Union's economy will be sustainable and energy-efficient in his work on the green transformation in the EU, as well as how the EU will transition to a carbon-neutral economy by 2050. Yasemin and Cagatay Cagrir discuss developments in green fiscal policy and the issue of green financing in the European Union.

The final section of the study discusses the European Union's external relations. Samet Zenginoğlu discusses security ties in transatlantic cooperation with a focus on the historical security aspect of United States–European Union relations. Özgür Öztürk undertakes a highly analytical analysis when he discusses how US security has been reshaped by the European security policy. Tuğçe Yıldız discusses the ties between the European Union and Russia and examines the events that led to the Ukrainian War. While Omca Altın discusses Ukraine–European Union relations in the context of the EU Neighborhood Policy, İlhan Aras evaluates China's stance in the European Union crises. Alper Yurttaş addresses the relationship between the European Union and Turkey after 2005; İnci Aksu Kargın, on the other hand, provides an in-depth analysis of the motivations behind the refugee deal between Turkey and the European Union. Finally, Didem Öztürk Günar assesses the post-Brexit relationship between the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific States, and discusses the current situation from the perspective of the parties.

It's also critical to remember that this book's chapters went through a rigorous internal and external double-blind review procedure. To assist our readers, we would like to thank all the authors and researchers who are authorities in their fields for their dedication and perseverance. We also like to express our gratitude to our book's external reviewers for their insight and assistance. We would also like to express our sincere appreciation to those individuals who have been an inspiration and support for our authors throughout the creation of this work. Additionally, we appreciate Emerald Publishing. Without their support throughout the challenging pandemic, we would not have been able to conduct this study.

Yours Respectfully

Altuğ Günar

Didem Saygın