Andreas Maurer | University of Innsbruck (original) (raw)

Papers by Andreas Maurer

Springer eBooks, Oct 24, 2022

Handbuch Europäische Union, 2020

Das Europaische Parlament ist das einzige direkt demokratisch legitimierte Organ der EU. Im Verla... more Das Europaische Parlament ist das einzige direkt demokratisch legitimierte Organ der EU. Im Verlauf des Integrationsprozesses hat es sich schrittweise von einem Forum der politischen Auseinandersetzung zu einem wirkmachtigen Akteur im interinstitutionellen Gefuge entwickelt. Seine Gestaltungskompetenzen im Bereich der Kontrolle der mit Exekutivfunktionen ausgestatteten Organe der EU, der Autorisierung rechtsverbindlicher Gesetzgebungsakte und der Fortentwicklung der politischen Systemgrundlagen sind beachtlich. Aufgrund der Strukturmerkmale des europaischen Mehrebenensystems stost das Parlament allerdings auch auf erhebliche Kommunikations- und Reprasentationsdefizite. Daruber hinaus ist das Parlament bislang nicht in der Lage, machtpolitische Asymmetrien gegenuber dem Rat, dem Europaischen Rat und der Kommission im Rahmen der geltenden Vertragsgrundlagen zu beheben.

Handbuch Europäische Union, 2019

The Future of Europe, 2018

Germany’s European policy is conditioned by three challenges. First, the negotiations on the next... more Germany’s European policy is conditioned by three challenges. First, the negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) contextualise Berlin’s considerations on how to tackle a post-Brexit budget with growing demands for more European spending. Given that Germany will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2020, the government must combine its priorities with its role to broker the end-game. Second, the European Parliament elections in May 2019 display the uncomfortable context of any “big reform” debate on the EU. Brexit forces countries to compensate for London’s share of contributions to the EU’s resources. Combine Brexit with the uncertainty surrounding the future alliances of the Italian 5Star Movement and Macron’s “en marche” and you realise the major dynamics in the various political groups. In any event, Berlin’s ability of yesteryear to project its grand coalition into a similar alliance within the EU-Parliament is more than uncertain when the Parliament is likely to mutate into an imponderable, if not erratic, actor that risks blocking major reform initiatives. Against this backdrop, ideas to escape this unknown future by combining differentiated integration with the means of intergovernmental procedures and institutions may flourish. Macron’s related proposals for a eurozone budget, a European Finance Minister, and the safeguarding of such core’s decisions by national parliaments represent a traditional French strategy to bypass supranational actors such as the Commission, the Court of Justice, and the Parliament and to decide within the core by unanimity. While Merkel might continue to support ideas for such a differentiated, intergovernmental Europe, the SPD and others are likely to block attempts that risk structural segregation and a de facto dismantling of the EU’s supranational strength. Third, the bullying Trump administration’s trade-war policy displays Germany’s economic weakness. Export giants are vulnerable to protectionist action by third countries. If Trump follows up on his repeated threats to slap tariffs on imports, the EU will realise that Germany is the weakest link in protecting the EU’s economy on a global scale.

Handbuch Europäische Union, 2018

Hexagon Series on Human and Environmental Security and Peace

European Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) integration can be characterized with reference to a numb... more European Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) integration can be characterized with reference to a number of interrelated phenomena, none of which is peculiar to the EU but all of which are defined by its unusual structure and policy-making framework. ‘Securitization’ describes the way in which security concerns have been privileged in policy-making, often to the detriment of competing social, economic and foreign policy goals. ‘Europeanization’ describes the progressive treatment of JHA issues at a European level. ‘Externalization’ is the process of the blurring of distinctions between policy areas which might formerly have been classified as almost exclusively ‘internal’ or ’external’ to the state. A fourth trend concerns the way in which democracy and human rights have been both subverted and promoted in efforts to safeguard the EU’s security.

Polit Vierteljahresschr, 2006

Wegbereiter der Verfassungsentwicklung, 2010

Europaische Zeitschrift Fur Wirtschatsrecht Euzw, 2006

Handbuch zum Europäischen Parlament, 2015

This paper investigates the Council of Ministers and the Convention's/IGC's dossier on th... more This paper investigates the Council of Ministers and the Convention's/IGC's dossier on the Council's system. Acknowledging that supranational influence is contingent upon both the context and actual strategies employed by supranational actors in an IGC, I focus on an issue where the member states strategic positions are under review. I argue that the Nice IGC's outcome is the product of a trend of member states who already during the Maastricht reforms started to base their preferences on a non-agreed type measure. Budding on the findings about the Nice IGC, the paper moves on to discuss different readings of the Council system and to analyze their empirical validity. I then systematically look at the ongoing debate about the Council's reform. Focusing on the Franco-German contribution of January 2003, I sketch two extreme variants for the future development of the Council, its presidency, its separation into a legislative and an executive/governing Count and its...

The German administrative mechanisms which connect government, administrations and governmental a... more The German administrative mechanisms which connect government, administrations and governmental agencies with Brussels have a low reputation: the conventional wisdom among academics (Sasse 1975, Regelsberger and Wessels 1984; Bulmer and Paterson 1988; Bulmer, Jefferey,, and Paterson 1998; Janning and Meyer 1998) identifies a low degree of competitiveness. Compared to their French (Lequesne 1996) and British (Armstrong and Bulmer 1996) counterparts the performance of the German interagency process suffers from horizontal and vertical fragmentation, old-fashioned and cumbersome procedures and institutional pluralism if not “cannibalism,” “negative co-ordination”(Scharpf 1997) and Politikverflechtung-“political interwovenness” or “interconnectedness” (Scharpf 1985). Those features highlight a lack of forceful strategies, late preference building and position taking and-as a result-to minority positions in the Council of Ministers. To get an impression for the complexity we should look ...