Drivers and difficulties in the economic relationship between Australia and the European Union: from conflict to cooperation

ABSTRACT

Economic relations between Australia and the European Union (EU) have always been strong, but they have not always been easy. They have been difficult for Australia because it associated the EU with the loss of the UK preferential export market on its entry into the then European Economic Community. And because Australia associated the EU with the original Common Agricultural Policy, which combined subsidies for agricultural production and high agricultural tariffs to make Australian agricultural exports not competitive. They have been difficult for the EU also. Australia developed a biosecurity system to protect its agricultural sector: quarantine requirements and food safety standards made the importation of EU plant and animal products too costly. Yet Australia and the EU need each other. The EU, which is Australia’s largest services trade and investment partner, supplies the business services that drive a knowledge economy and provides the credit to finance economic development. Correspondingly, the EU needs Australia both as a commercial base in Asia and as a reliable energy supplier. This article analyses the drivers and difficulties in the economic relationship between Australia and the EU as they start negotiations for a free trade agreement.     

The role of exogenous and endogenous factors in the growth of regions in Central and Eastern Europe: the metropolitan/non-metropolitan divide in the pre- and post-crisis era

ABSTRACT

The aim of the paper is to analyse regional growth factors in Central and Eastern European Countries in the pre- and post-crisis era. The comparison is focused on core (metropolitan) and non-core (non-metropolitan) regions. The study found that the development processes of the analysed groups of regions were in many respects similar. Achieving a high level of development in the context of post-socialist transformation was possible mainly owing to exogenous factors such as the influx of foreign direct investment (FDI) and multimodal transport accessibility. In the case of endogenous factors, the number of small- and medium-sized enterprises per capita was of cardinal importance for a high level of development, but it was no guarantee of fast growth dynamics in non-core regions. The main differences between the core and non-core regions included the role of human capital and migrations as metropolitan regions represented growth poles which trained qualified specialists and served as destinations for migrants from non-core regions. However, the share of people with tertiary education played an important role in the development process of non-core regions. The crisis strengthened the role of exogenous growth factors, that is, the role of FDI inflow as well as the role of EU funds.     

The Unbearable Instability of Structural Funds' Distribution

In order to promote “cohesion, competitiveness and cooperation” across Europe, the EU has established a common regional policy to support underdeveloped territories. This EU regional policy required to set up a very complex mechanism to implement such a huge effort to coordinate many interventions across highly differentiated territories. However, those territories are provided with very different institutional settings, and then the mechanism to coordinate all of them becomes particularly complex. The aim of this paper is to discuss the EU multi-level governance for structural funds (SFs), revising the origin, rationale and evolution of this policy in order to identify the limits of the institutional mechanism for the implementation of this policy. These limits will show their effects on the unstable distribution of SFs across the EU regions on a long-term perspective. Results show that the intervention of the EU is neither constant nor stable across regions, independently from their development paths. This instability should provide further arguments on the discussion about the SF policy and governance in order to take into considerations also institutional limits of the EU.     

Freedom of Establishment Versus Retail Planning: The European Case

Studies on retail planning in European Union (EU) Member States tend to be nationally oriented and, at best, compare national retail planning systems. They also appear to be based on an implicit assumption that retail planning should not be designed to fit the Single European Market (SEM). This paper analyses a series of judgments by the European Court of Justice and activities undertaken by the European Commission and concludes that this assumption is misguided and incorrect. The bottom line is that retail planning can interfere with freedom of establishment—one of the fundamental EU freedoms laid down in the Treaty of Rome—by limiting the realization of new shopping outlets and by redirecting retail to preselected locations. Such restrictions may be allowable if the Member State in question is able to demonstrate that they are non-discriminatory, appropriate and proportional on the basis of the interpretations of these fundamental principles in European Law. There is a European Retail Action Plan which aims to organize national retail planning systems in such a way that they are compatible with the principles of the SEM.     

Reform of the structural funds after 1999

In efforts to promote cohesion in the EU, the structural funds are an important instrument. The current mandate for the funds comes to an end in 1999, and it mill have to be renegotiated shortly against a backdrop of the start of EMU and probable enlargement of the EU. This paper reviews the principles governing the structural funds and looks at the problems they face in practice. It then considers possible reforms to meet the obligations on, and expectations of, the EU in the years to come, and what these would imply for different regions as well as the potential new member states.     

Mirages and miracles of European small and medium enterprise development

A small‐scale industry ‘renaissance’ has characterized recent academic literature on industrialization and development policies. This comes as a reaction to the manifest difficulties facing mass production economies and to the sometimes spectacular performance of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly in Europe. The causes of the above success, together with the accompanying theorizations — such as the flexible specialization approach — are manifold and contradictory. Furthermore, theories on the present and future of SMEs vary as regards both optimism and policy implications — supra‐national, national or regional. Recent EU policies towards SMEs present an amalgam of instruments which, albeit often economically effective, constitute chiefly a political gesture.     

Unwritten Factors Affecting Structural Funds: The Influence of Regional Political Behaviours on the Implementation of EU Cohesion Policy

While EU regional policy has the ambitious objective of supporting lagging regions and promoting inter-regional convergence, its impact is dependent on the ability of regional policymakers to secure and use EU funding to meet the region's needs. This paper aims to show under which conditions politics has a defining influence on the distribution, allocation and utilization of structural funds (SF), specifically in Objective 1 regions. The empirical analysis focuses on the 2000–2006 programming cycle in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. The results show that regions politically aligned with national governing coalitions tend to perform better in terms of received SF support and enjoy more flexibility in implementing SF. However, the influence of regional political behaviours on economic performances is very limited. The findings confirm the importance of politics in influencing SF implementation, but its limited influence on economic outcomes.     

Geographies of relational coordination in venture capital firms

ABSTRACT

Venture capital (VC) firms are crucial actors in entrepreneurial ecosystems. Through the development towards a digital economy, they have gained further relevance, which caused the VC industry to diversify in terms of business models. This article offers a new heuristic to study the VC industry by developing a classification of VC firms. By drawing on a framework of different dimensions of relational distance in investment relations, different types of relational coordination are identified by comparing VC firms in Germany. The types of VC business models are found to produce relational geographies of investing as they relate with their portfolio startups in different ways. A relational perspective on VC thus provides the opportunity to step beyond pure territorial approaches on VC.     

The Politics of Spatial Policy and Governance in Post-1990 Hungary: The Interplay Between European and National Discourses of Space

There is now a wealth of literature discussing how regional development and spatial planning practices in Central Eastern Europe have been shaped through the alignment with EU policy frameworks. However, scholars have tended to study governance dynamics in terms of adaptation and learning, paying thus little attention to how spatial policy change is inherently interlinked with the political contestation of nation-state spaces. This paper proposes to address this lack by combining insights from political economic work on state spatial restructuring and discourse theory. From this perspective, the institutionalization of spatial policies is examined as a political process in which particular understandings of space become seen legitimate and stabilized depending on how well they fit existing discourses. The paper demonstrates the added value of this approach through a case study of spatial policy change in post-1990 Hungary, and argues that the approach is more generally applicable to examine shifts in spatial policies and to address concerns with the increase in uneven development at different scales.     

Tourism Lobbying in Bavaria: Between Ignorance,Parochialism and Opportunism

Abstract

The subject of lobbying in the context of destinations is still a largely unstudied research field both in relation to specific destinations and from the perspective of planning. This is all the more remarkable when we consider that—despite its ambivalent public perception—successful lobbying is a crucial success factor in the positioning of destinations on a highly globalized tourism market with its rapidly changing supply and demand structures. In this article, we analyze the current lobbying structures in Bavaria, one of the leading European destinations. Bavarian tourism finds itself in an exceedingly complex situation today caught between diminishing competitiveness, especially considering the persistent investment backlog, and exceedingly ambitious tourism policies. Using semi-structured interviews we investigated how key policy-makers and representatives of the tourism business currently appraise tourism lobbying in Bavaria. From their assessments, we derive recommendations that should help to optimize lobbying structures and processes.     

From ‘la petite Europe vaticane’ to the Club Med: the French Socialist Party and the challenges of European integration

Abstract

Studies of the relationship of political parties to the European Community/Union (EC/EU) increasingly use the perspective of ‘Europeanisation’ to measure such relationships. There is also a case, however, for looking at Europe from the perhaps narrower but no less necessary point of view of intra-party dynamics: in particular, what kinds of challenge does ‘Europe’ represent to party managers and how do they deal with it? By analysing the relationship of the Socialist Party to the EC/EU at three key moments in the history of European integration, the author identifies some common tropisms which continue to operate even as the effects of ‘Europeanisation’ increase.     

Planning Cultures and Histories: Influences on the Evolution of Planning Systems and Spatial Development Patterns

Abstract

This special issue addresses the influences of planning cultures and histories on the evolution of planning systems and spatial development. As well as providing an international comparative perspective on these issues, the collection of articles also engages in a search for new conceptual frameworks and alternative points of view to better understand and explain these differences. The articles focus on three main aspects: the change in planning systems and its impact on spatial development patterns; the interrelationship between planning cultures and histories from a path-dependency perspective; and the variations in physical development patterns resulting from different planning cultures and histories. Papers from different parts of the European continent present evidence at different scales to illustrate these aspects. In all cases, the specific combinations of political, ideological, social, economic and technological factors are important in determining urban and regional planning trajectories as well as spatial development patterns.     

Nupela Masta? Local and Expatriate Labour in a Chinese-Run Nickel Mine in Papua New Guinea 1

Abstract

Studies of mining projects in Papua New Guinea, since the development of the Panguna copper mine in Bougainville during the 1960s, have contributed to our understanding of the politics of interactions between resource companies, host governments and landowners. The Ramu Nickel mine, situated in northern Papua New Guinea, is China’s largest investment in the Pacific to date at US$1.4 billion. The project is managed by a state-owned enterprise, China Metallurgical Corporation, and financed by China ExIm Bank. This venture presents an opportunity to understand Chinese resource investment in a comparative perspective. While many issues, such as conflict over land, internal migration, and the limited involvement of the Papua New Guinean state, are constant, one aspect specific to Chinese resource investment is the use (or non-use) of host country labour, and the high proportion of Chinese labour employed at the mine sites. This practice differs from the relatively limited, short-term use of expatriate labour common to Western mining projects in developing countries. The attitudes and experiences of local and Chinese workers and managers will be examined to determine what is new in this approach to resource extraction.     

The business case for a free trade agreement between the European Union and Australia

ABSTRACT

The free trade agreement (FTA) between Australia and the European Union holds the promise of strengthened political collaboration and increasing economic integration. Both Australia and the European Union note increasing bilateral trade and investment. Oftentimes, data does not take current trends in global-value-chain participation for intermediary goods and services movements into account. Behind this sit the cross-border strategies and activities of business entities, whether multinationals or large, small or medium-sized enterprises. This article provides an in-depth investigation of the premise stemming from an FTA for Australian business. What advantages can politics hope to support through a business perspective? What is the global-value-chain part of the story, and what are the business challenges ahead? How can economic policy help shape this FTA to foster a productive bilateral business environment in a geopolitical and geoeconomic context in which regionalisation has taken on new momentum? Specific focus is given to the analysis of the higher education sector and to agriculture. These are two of the leading sectors in this FTA debate. Generating business value means setting negotiation agendas to target tariff and non-tariff barriers to counterbalance ambiguity in the conditions that shape the global business environment.     

’African Churches Willing to Pay Their Own Bills’: The Role of Money in the Formation of Ethiopian-type Churches with Particular Reference to the Mzimba Secession

ABSTRACT

Matters related to money were fundamental to the causes of the formation of Ethiopian-type churches. These included inter alia the raising of funds abroad and the subsequent need to control such funds by white ministers, delay or refusal of ordination due to cost factors and differentials in stipends, lack of or poor allowances, lack of trust in the use of funds, poor emoluments and accommodation. This was in contradiction to emerging mission policy as propounded by Henry Venn in his Three-Self formula, particularly with regard to the principle of self-support following Pauline methods. At the heart of such issues was the need for missionaries to control what they had created, and maintain and perpetuate a sense of dependency. The Mzimba Secession offers substantial evidence to support the suggestion that finance was a central concern in fostering inferiority and subjection in the mission field leading to the formation of a new church movement.     

Finance,Home Building,and Urban Residential Structuring

Abstract: The aim of this article is to improve our understanding of finance in home building by introducing an actor perspective in structure‐oriented theories of capital circulation. David Harvey's three‐circuit theory, with fixity‐motion processes and (de‐/re)‐territorialisation, is taken as the starting point. The analysis is based on a case study of Norwegian home‐building finance, outlining the emerging structure of housing and finance under the Norwegian version of neoliberalism; comprising deregulation and re‐regulation phases. The article delineates today's home‐building finance, and identifies large banks, small banks, large investment funds and small investment funds as structural actors operating within actual fixity and motion processes, causing a distinct territorialisation of urban landscapes, as exemplified by gentrification.     

Middle power strategic choices and horizontal security cooperation: the 2009 Australia-South Korea security cooperation agreement

ABSTRACT

This article examines why Asia-Pacific middle powers cooperate with each other on security issues. The article challenges the assumption that middle powers are primarily influenced by great-power structural factors in their security relations with each other. It argues that the dominant structural explanations of security cooperation between secondary states—balancing against the rise of China, responding to burden-sharing pressure from the United States, or hedging during a period of great power transition—have not been sufficiently tested. Using the 2009 Australia-South Korea security cooperation agreement as a representative example of middle power security cooperation, it finds that inter-personal leadership preferences played a key intervening role in filtering existing structural incentives into actual policy cooperation. It shows how congruence in leadership preferences shapes when and with whom middle powers are likely to cooperate on security issues. The article opens up the research agenda on middle powers by examining how they approach security relations in bilateral and horizontal contexts with each other.     

The effectiveness of UN and EU sanctions: lessons for the twenty‐first century

A fractious UN Security Council has contributed to the decline in effectiveness of a number of UN sanctions adopted in recent years. Yet they remain a tool of the Council, for example with regard to Libya in 2011. The challenge is to understand how UN, country (US) and regional sanctions (EU, AU, Arab League) can be meaningful in such a climate. The four books reviewed make various suggestions, from clarity of mandate to better evaluating impact. Mikael Eriksson's Targeting peace seeks to evaluate the complexity of the sanctions policy process. He argues that effectiveness comes partly from understanding politics (episodes of sanctions), but also from institutional reform—‘black box’ processes, as he calls them. Sanctions are more successful as part of a wider package. Clara Portela in European Union sanctions and foreign policy examines the use of sanctions as a political tool, including the suspension of development aid and the withdrawal of trade privileges. She shows how the EU plays an important role in signalling and constraining when UN sanctions are weak. For example, informal measures like the 2003 EU decision to invite only dissidents to national day receptions in Havanna resulted in the release of detainees that it had aimed for. The high rate of success of development aid cut‐off stands in sharp contrast with EU Common Foreign and Security Policy sanctions. The unintended consequence of good intentions is also highlighted by both Portela and Eriksson—Zimbabwe in particular but also Côte d'Ivoire and Iran pose similar challenges. The imposition of EU or UN sanctions is easier than reaching consensus to lift them, although events in Burma (Myanmar) in 2012 have resulted in smooth suspensions of most US and EU sanctions. All four books show that targeted sanctions cannot be seen as stand‐alone measures, nor assessed in isolation. Sanctions are multi‐faceted and require detailed assessment of political context, episode and institutional process.     

The Regional Impact of EU Eastern Enlargement: A View from Germany

Based on a relational concept of regional analysis this contribution emphasizes that European Union (EU) Eastern enlargement will primarily lead to a restructuring or intensification of interregional economic relations. However, it rejects the widespread view that at first the border regions at the present EU Eastern boundary would be affected by Eastern enlargement. This view relies on the problematic assumption that the regions' transnational relations are subject to a logic of geographical nearness. The most important nodes of transnational economic relations in an enlarged EU are not the border regions, but certain regional development centres in the interior of the European economic space. Thus the regional impact of EU Eastern enlargement should be differentiated with regard to different types of regions: Particular advantages come towards the structurally strong regions in the interior of the present EU as well as the accession countries, whereas the structurally weak regions at the present EU Eastern boundary can gain advantages from Eastern enlargement only to the extent that they manage to overcome their endogenous blockades concerning cross-border economic cooperation and a positive attitude of the regions' population towards European integration.     

Culture for competitiveness: valuing diversity in EU-Europe and the ‘creative city’ of Berlin

The European Union (EU) has in recent years propagated an approach to ‘culture’ that pulls together support for the creative and cultural industries with diversity-sensitive immigration and integration strategies, drawing on popular policy visions of the ‘creative’ and ‘intercultural’ city. This approach emphasizes the role that the diversity of culture, as personal resource, can play in enhancing economic competitiveness. The article examines its logic and possible effects through an analysis of EU documents and policy in Berlin. Berlin intersects with the EU’s agenda, using EU structural funds and participating in the European program ‘Intercultural Cities’. It is shown that the attempt to use ‘culture for competitiveness’ equates support-worthy ‘diversity’ with forms of culture that conform to (neo)liberal values and priorities. The attempt to shape a cosmopolitan place attractive for investment and the high-skilled feeds into gentrification processes that create ‘diverse’ neighborhoods where ‘difference’ has no place.