The European Union in the Twenty-First Century

This study aims to reveal the impact of the “Conference on the Future of Europe” (which was officially launched on May 9, 2021 and lasted for one year) on the European Union (EU) integration. The ultimate goal of the integration movement in Western Europe was defined in the founding agreements as political integration through the strengthening of economic cooperation among member states. It is a fact that very important steps have been taken toward this goal until today. The first of the two main trends that dominate European integration is deepening, which refers to diversifying the areas of cooperation, and the second is enlargement, which means increasing the number of member states by the participation of new ones. Theoretically, there are almost a dozen scenarios for the future of the EU. However, taking into account the EU's internal problems and developments in the current international political system, the strongest scenario emerges as intertwined flexible integration. Indeed, developments in today's world call for a revision of the EU's geopolitical perspective. In addition to the internal factors shaping the future of the EU, the roles of the United States, which is its strategic partner, and China, which has risen to become its largest trading partner, are also important in the international political system. Likewise, there is no doubt that the developments in the Maghreb and Mashriq countries as well as Russia and Turkey will affect European integration.

One of the most significant impacts of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (EU) would be the complication, and even the stalemate, of the supranational unification process of the EU, which was the founding idea of the Union. In this chapter, the adverse circumstances that will take place in the supranational unification process will be addressed over two significant issues. The first of the issues is the losses that the Union will experience. The Union, which had realized partnership in many areas to achieve the supranational unification and which, at least, has held out hope for other areas, would experience significant losses concerning motivation, time, capacity, and power of influence, and it would be difficult for the Union to reconstitute itself. In addition to these losses, the consolidation of the right-wing populism filled with Eurosceptic and nationalist reactions in the member states following Brexit will further weaken the aspiration for supranational unification. Ultimately, the visibility of the relations in an intergovernmental context, instead of a supranational one, will become the dominant element, and the EU's journey toward long-term founding purpose will receive a major blow.

International crises are events that develop suddenly in different areas around the world. These crises have different effects on countries. The European Union (EU), a supranational organization, was established in 1951 with the Paris Agreement and remains a gradually evolving structure to this day. In this process, the EU has a growing structure with both enlargement and deepening movements. As it advances its deepening, it also completes its institutional development within its own structure. In the almost 71 years of its existence, the EU has also been confronted with various global crises, which it has survived during this long period. These crises can sometimes be in security, sometimes in the area of economics, and sometimes in the form of a global epidemic such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic was first identified in China in December 2019 and quickly spread around the world. This pandemic, which is transmitted through human contact and respiration, quickly spread around the world and became a deadly virus. This situation caused panic in the world and forced countries to take various measures and methods to protect themselves from epidemics. Countries that made a serious test were faced with a deadly epidemic after a long time. At this point, the attitude of the EU, which has 27 member countries, is the main subject of this study. The study mainly aims to present the attitude of the EU toward different types of crises by briefly mentioning the global crises that the EU faced. Then, the strategies created by the EU, which faced a global epidemic for the first time, are examined.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the increasing need for digital solutions to maintain economic and social activities remotely. Times of physical distancing made it clear that besides keeping trade running, they are crucial for education, health, work, etc. During the pandemic, e-commerce has played a growing role in global economic activity as part of the wider digital economy. As social distancing and movement restrictions become normal, businesses and consumers have become increasingly digital and provide and buy more goods and services online.

The noteworthy development in this process is that much earlier than the pandemic, in 2015, the European Commission started developing a Digital Single Market strategy which is aiming at bringing distinctive digital markets together across the Union. The Digital Single Market is a modern version of the European Union (EU) Common Market established in 1957, which allowed the free movement of goods, services, capital, and people all around the region. The fact that such an application was started long before the pandemic provided some vital advantages to the countries involved in the strategy during the pandemic process.

This study is investigating how the EU Digital Market and the policy implementations connected to it helped digital transformation of the countries of the EU. Digital Economy and Society Index, and E-Commerce and internet access data of Single Market countries are investigated within the scope of the study. The data covering 2011–2021 period is collected from the Eurostat database. When we studied the data, although it is possible to talk about a benefit for the EU in general, less developed countries of the region benefited more from the process.

European countries, which have many common policies and goals, are also having some disparities in their economic performance due to the existence of underlying country-specific reasons. The manufacturing sector is the key sector that promotes growth and increases the well-being of society. Thus, it is important to understand how these countries differ in engaging in industrial activities. Focusing on the manufacturing sectors of these economies, we aim to see the disparities between European Union (EU) countries in terms of their composition of manufacturing trade and the countries they are trading with. This chapter outlines some key stylized facts regarding trade over the past two decades by investigating the manufacturing data for EU countries.

The protection of the borders of the states, the entry of foreigners through the borders under certain conditions, helps to ensure internal security. Member states of the European Union (EU) are trying to protect the freedom and welfare area they have created within their borders by preventing the entry of migrants. The EU countries, which are generally insufficient in determining common policies, tend toward policies that vary from country to country on migration. However, it is seen that many policies and practices have come into force for the security of the Union's borders. In this study, it will be tried to examine how the borders of the Union are protected and controlled against the migrants coming to the Union countries.

The chapter analyses the anti-immigration political parties in the European Union (EU) as a challenge for the EU values such as human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law, and human rights. As the main constituents of the political groups in the European Parliament, the single elected body of the EU, the parties in the member states require a special scrutiny. In this context, the study aims at understanding and exposing how anti-immigration political parties in the EU discursively construct immigration as a threat. Taking into consideration their salient rise in the 2019 European election, it focuses on the discourses of the relevant parties delivered during the debates of the first half of the ninth (2019–2024) parliamentary term by using critical discourse analysis as its theoretical and methodological framework. The main argument of the study is that these political parties securitize immigration within three main discourse topics: immigration as a security threat, as an economic threat, and as a cultural threat.

This chapter studies the cooperation of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, with non-European Union (EU) countries, within the framework of externalization of EU's migration policies. Although the externalization of migration management has long been on the agenda of the EU, the increasing irregular migratory challenges, especially in the wake of the so-called refugee crisis of 2015, caused intensification of the preexisting extraterritorial border security measures. Founded in 2004 and expanded over time, as one of the specialized agencies of the EU, Frontex cooperates with non-EU countries alongside the Member States to address security threats related to irregular migration. While aiming at securing the EU's external borders, Frontex's cooperation with mostly nondemocratic third countries also raise some concerns on the conformity with EU's principles and norms. The chapter, thus, focuses on the empowerment of the agency's mandate leading increased cooperation with non-EU countries; elaborates on its aim, role, and tools while outsourcing the external border protection measures; as well as discusses risks and criticism raising from the externalization of migration management.

The 2008 financial crisis emerged in the United States. However, the crisis spread across other countries very rapidly. The European Union countries were also affected by the crisis. The uncertainties and the decreases in balance sheet assets observed in European countries complicated the discharge of debts of countries, which have more fragile structures, and turned the financial crisis into a debt crisis in the year 2010. The European debt crisis caused a significant pressure on the Eurozone, put the financial sector under stress, and expanded the gaps in capital budgets. In order to restructure after the crisis and to eliminate the effects of the crisis, many measures were taken, and various mechanisms were developed. As a result of the measures are taken and the policies implemented, recovery was seen in financial and economic indicators as of the year 2012, but the COVID-19 pandemic emerging in the year 2019 brought a new shock wave. As a result, it became necessary to review the economic and financial measures taken before, to add new ones to the current mechanisms, and determine and monitor the vulnerability of the system. For this purpose, in January 2021, European Commission declared that a new strategy was set. In the present study, the measures taken and the mechanisms developed after the 2008 crisis were summarized and the advancements in financial and economic variables were examined by making use of the statistical data. Moreover, also information about the new strategy set after the year 2021 was provided. It is projected that, in the long run, the consistent and uniform implementation of measures taken and ensuring the efficient functioning of mechanisms developed would strengthen the economic and financial structures of European economies, support the integration, and increase the competitive power.

The awareness of the environment, climate, and nature that emerged worldwide in the 1970s has paralleled the actions taken in the European Union (EU) under the United Nations. In the EU, the environmental title was given a legal basis for the first time with the entry into force of the Single European Act, and action on the environment and climate change became the main priorities of the EU in all areas with the amendments in the founding treaties. This study examines environmental and climate policy in the EU and the process known as the green transition in the EU. The study consists of three sections. The first section discusses the environment and the development of climate change awareness in the world and the EU, while the second section underlines the EU's environmental and climate change approaches and policies. The third and final section highlights the development and green transition strategy adopted by the EU in 2019 and the “Green Deal” strategy paper. The study concludes that the “Green Deal” is at the heart of the so-called green transition process in the EU, that the goals sought by the Deal are very ambitious, that it is almost impossible to achieve the corresponding goals without an effective/coercive political mechanism, and that the EU is planning a green transition rather than a green transformation.

The concept of sustainability started to be discussed in the twentieth century and lately has become an international concept for the social, economic, and environmental strategies and international agreements. In the path of sustainable development, green economics gained importance in international platforms. Sustainable finance includes environmental, social, and economic principles into decision-making processes, economic development, and investment strategies of the economic actors. The importance and volume of the use of green finance tools have risen in the last decades.

The European Union (EU) is one of the most notable examples of economic cooperation and integration in international politics. However, it is difficult to argue that a similar stance prevails in politics and security. Although the EU made various advances and took institutional steps, particularly in the fields of defense and security during the Cold War, it acted on North Atlantic Treaty Organization's axis/with North Atlantic Treaty Organization throughout this period. During the post-Cold War period, the EU made concerted efforts to develop more independent defense and security policies. A similar determination, however, was not seen in terms of the reflections of these activities in practice. The diversity of the EU's issues, on the one hand, and the periodic divergence of interests between Atlanticist and Europeanist countries, on the other hand, posed barriers to acting on a single platform. At the same time, the United Kingdom's exit from the EU has resulted in the establishment of new defense and security balances. Nonetheless, the EU's efforts to develop an autonomous security policy persist. Among these initiatives is Permanent Structured Cooperation, which has recently been noted. Although debates on the effects of North Atlantic Treaty Organization's existence in the twenty-first century in their own context reflect a separate dimension, it does not appear plausible to foresee that the EU will have a wholly separate security perspective from North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the near future. Taking into account the relevant general framework, this study discusses the historical backdrop of the EU's security and defense strategy, new developments in the post-Cold War period, and projections for the future of transatlantic relations.

This chapter aims to analyze whether European security shapes future American grand strategy or not. For restrainers, the present American grand strategy has to be revisited due to the fact that there is no balance of power logic for further American presence in Europe. Moreover, China is a great power to be balanced in Asia. The chapter problematizes the assumptions provided by restrainers. It will argue that the United States has been acting in Europe as the pacifier, and it has a deep-seated interest in European peace. European security has been built upon the American preponderance of power, and a potential imbalance of power is a threat to the United States. While Russia is a revisionist power in Europe intended to change the status quo in Europe, China is a great power in Asia. However, the United States has both sufficient material power and allies to balance Russia and China simultaneously, and pivoting to Asia requires no American pullback in Europe.

Russia's attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, marked a very historic turning point in European security architecture. With enlarged Western aid in the immediate aftermath of the invasion, Ukraine could have overcome somehow the crisis, yet many of its cities and infrastructure were largely destroyed and one-quarter of its citizens are now refugees and displaced. What is even more serious is that it remains unclear if and how a diplomatic solution could emerge between the parties. Russia's war against Ukraine is not an overnight event, it is a part of the story of the gradual escalation of Russian aggression on Ukraine since the beginning of the 2000s. Indeed, it is not just the result of the ideological or geopolitical competition between the West/European Union (EU) and Russia regarding their mutually exclusive or even antagonistic integration policies in the shared neighborhood. It is a more dynamic process including the agency of Ukraine with all aspects of its domestic politics and societal features, ideology, the role of energy, business links as well as the impact of regional and global dimensions. This chapter aims to overview the interlinked relationship between the EU, Ukraine, and Russia in a triadic manner within key aspects including ideology, geopolitics, energy, and integration projects and by specifically focusing on the underlying factors that have triggered the emergence of the Russia–Ukraine war of 2022 and further implications for the EU politics.

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the European Union (EU) expanded, and its borders, and therefore its neighbors, changed. Hence, the EU needed a new policy to ensure its borders' security and improve relations with its neighbors. The idea of establishing a European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) thus emerged. One of the closest neighbors of the EU, Ukraine has always been in a priority position in the ENP, as it is a very important state for establishing a safe neighborhood. In this context, this article examines the EU's Ukraine strategy within the framework of ENP as a foreign policy instrument and its impact on Ukraine and EU–Ukraine relations by evaluating ENP's success based on the Euromaidan and Crimean crises.

As a rising power, China has become increasingly interested in many problems in its region and on a global scale. China's investments in Europe and its strong economic relations with European economies have greatly increased its interest in Europe. In this context, in this study, China's approach to two case studies that have had a very serious impact on Europe in the recent period is discussed. These two events, which have both political and economic effects on the European Union and European countries, are Brexit and COVID-19. In this study, how China approaches these two events and what policies it implements will be shown. China's post-Brexit relations with the United Kingdom and comments on Brexit will be also shown. In the other case study, China's aids to European countries in the COVID-19 process and the image it wants to establish with these aids will be discussed. China's approach to these two events will be shared through the discourses of Chinese officials, especially Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and from the literature. As a result, it will be mentioned that China supports countries that need and cooperate with European countries based on economic relations in major crises.

Turkey's European Union (EU) candidacy process, unlike other candidate countries, is a unique case in terms of the length of the process and the tensions experienced in the process. With the start of membership negotiations in 2005 and the increase in Turkey's obligations in the process, disruptions began to emerge and the anticipated progress could not be achieved. In this period, the EU's view of Turkey began to transform. It emerged as a reflection of this view with the privileged partnership proposals put forward in the mid-2000s. This study discusses how Turkey–EU relations have been shaped since 2005 when Turkey started membership negotiations and how the EU positions Turkey in light of current developments. In this context, the Strategic Compass document, which is aimed to shape the next 10 years of the EU, has been examined and focused on how Turkey is handled in the document. In the study, it has been revealed that the EU does not consider Turkey as a candidate country, but with a functionalist approach, depending on certain preconditions, as a partner with which it can make progress in areas of common interest.

In our global world, international cooperation has vital importance when addressing humanitarian disasters. Today, as the majority of refugees live in the Southern countries proximate to their homelands, neighboring countries are predominantly the ones that carry the bulk of the refugee burden. Under certain circumstances, states engage in international cooperation in managing refugee crises; to this end, this study analyzes the motivations behind the signing of the 2016 European Union (EU)–Turkey refugee deal and its outcomes for both parties. Past research has shown that the 2015 refugee crisis in Europe demonstrated that the initiatives that the EU countries embarked upon to pursue a monolithic policy against this mass flow fell short and, therefore, enhanced Turkey's leverage with Europe, which provided Turkey with the ability to gain concessions in bilateral talks. However, this study claims that the EU member countries were in a more advantageous position compared to Turkey as a consequence of signing the refugee deal, and it is better to characterize the deal between the parties as burden-shifting rather than burden-sharing. In addition, although the inflow of approximately one million refugees to European shores panicked the European states and coerced most of them to return to their own national migration policies, this study shows that no concrete concessions were provided to Turkey to manage this massive flow. The provisions of the Deal were not the extraordinary payoffs that EU member countries offered Turkey to fight against the irregular migration, but the extension of EU's traditional migration policy.

Relations between the European Union (EU) and African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) states date back to the 1960s. Brexit has also affected relations between the European Union and African-Caribbean and Pacific states. While the impact of Brexit on the EU is evident, the United Kingdom's exit from the EU has begun the process of renegotiation with African-Caribbean and Pacific states. The main objective of the study is to highlight the relationship between the ACP states, the United Kingdom, and the EU for the pre- and post-Brexit period. First, the historical process between the EU and the African-Caribbean and Pacific states was mentioned, and then an attempt was made to examine the consequences of Brexit for the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the related countries.