Lessons from managing conflict situations in the EU accession negotiaton : the Case of abolishing duty-free shops in Slovenia

Fink-Hafner, Danica (author), Lajh, Damjan (author)

The paper draws some lessons from Slovenian experiences in managing conflict situations in the EU accession negotiations. It focuses on national veto points that could also be instrumentialised by organised interests as part of the national implementation of the supranationally agreed policy in the circumstances of full EU membership. For a full understanding of such conflicts and their outcomes it is important to combine otherwise often exclusively used theoretical approaches to EU integration processes. The outcome of negotiations on a specific conflictive policy issue in the framework of European Agreement negotiations between the EU and Slovenia is explained by a combination of intergovernmentalist, institutionalist, pluralist and actor-based approaches. The case study on closing Sloveniaćs duty-free shops down pitches the investigation at two-levels: EU and national.Despite Sloveniaćs unequal position as a candidate-country in bilateral negotiations with Italy and Austria, as well as in negotiations withthe EU, the Slovenian national institutional arrangements and the employing of national institutional veto-points by Slovenian economic interestgroups (in concert with some political actors) made possible: a) a re-defining of the national interest; and b) a three-year postponement of the abolition of duty-free shops. Since all the described national institutional veto points continue to exist in the circumstances of full membership, the research findings remain relevant for understanding future problems in the implementation of common European policies that require national legislation in Slovenia.

• Language: Unknown
• Work type: Not categorized
• Typology: 2.13 - Treatise, Preliminary Study, Study
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Place of publishing: Dublin
• Publisher: Dublin European Institute
• Year: 2005
• Number of pages: 25 str.
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-33164
• UDC: 32
• COBISS.SI-ID: 23973725
• Publication date in RUL: 10.07.2015