The most recent enlargement of the European Union, which incorporated post-communist countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), placed relatively little emphasis on the equal opportunities of men and women. However, acceding countries were required to implement Chapter 13 (‘Employment...

Transposition research provides an excellent opportunity to bring new data to bear on two of the most dominant theoretical approaches to European Union studies: rational choice institutionalism and sociological institutionalism. Yet the goal of comparable testing is hampered by the...

In this paper we examine the transposition of European Union (EU) legislation in the twelve 'new' member states during the post-accession stage. To this end, we scrutinize the number of formal notice letters received by the new member states in the period from 2004 to 2007. Our analysis shows...

This paper addresses the puzzle of why Portugal has consistently supported the EU’s fifth enlargement. We argue that standard explanations, based on welfare maximisation, geopolitics, or rhetorical action, cannot persuasively account for this policy choice. Instead, we advance an alternative...

The increased salience in the 1990s of immigration politics in the European Union has been accompanied by a rise of the scholarly attention for this topic. What most studies leave aside, however, is the question of how European integration impacts on national immigration policies. This paper...

The aim of this paper is not only to assess whether the European Employment Strategy (EES) has had an impact on national labour market reforms, but to also evaluate the effects of partisan politics on the EES and vice versa. After establishing three causal mechanisms through which the EES may...