Research projects

The following is a presentation of the main fields of research activieties related to CESUH. The research programme consists of four interrelated components, constituting a meaningful and integrated whole essential to an understanding of the EU as a political union. Component I includes the citizen dimension, while components II and III concentrate on the process and phases of actual decision-making and implementation of decisions in the EU. Component IV covers the external relations of the EU.

Component I: Citizens and The European Union

The research component covers questions related to the citizen dimension of the EU. European elections, public opinion concerning European integration and the wider concept of European identity are the key research topics in this component. The studies concluded this far have focused on European elections - their character from the perspective of Finnish parties and voters, the professional profile of the Finnish members of the EP and the national identity of Finland in European integration. In 2001, extremist political movements in Europe form one of the main research subjects in this component.

Component II: European Union institutions and decision-making structures

This project is primarily concerned with research on the EU institutions and decision-making structures. The main focus is on the various aspects of parliamentary democracy in the Union. Topics under examination are: the organisational and ideological adaptation of national parties to European integration, the role of national legislatures in the EU policy process, committee and party group interaction in the European Parliament, and voting behaviour in the Council of Ministers.

The Finnish Presidency of the EU in 1999 formed one research subject in the second component. In the form of a larger study, the Presidency was analysed from the perspective of institutions and decision-making.

EU enlargement is one of the main research topics of the second component as of 2001. CESUH participates in a large research project, Organising for EU Enlargement, focusing on the adaptation to the enlargement of the political structures of both the present and new EU Members. The project is financed by the European Commission.

Component III: Decision-making networks and policy implementation in the European Union

This component is associated with the interplay between various official and inofficial actors within the European Union decision-making structures and networks. The research on networks is essential for understanding the interests and resources of these actors in EU policy-making as well as their influence and their mutual interdependence on one another. In Component II the object is to examine the institutional framework of European Union decision-making, while the objective of the network analysis in Component III is to discover the real and actual locations of influence and power.

Decision-making networks are investigated at the national level as well. The network analysis enables one: to detect the principal actors in each policy sector; to discover what kind of coalition is created in various decision-making arenas and how these coalitions seek to advance their interests at different stages of decision-making; to determine the status of the formal institutions in the European Union decision-making processes and, finally, to distinguish how media and publicity affect the outcome of decisions.

In addition to this, the objective of the research in component III is to examine implementation of the European Union legislation, that is, both the translation of EU directives into national legislation and the realisation of political objectives by means of various interventions, such as the EU Structural Funds programmes.

Component IV: External Relations of the EU

The fourth research component covers the external relations of the EU from the perspective of institutions as well as policy substance. The role of the EU as an international actor and the development of a Common Foreign and Security Policy, including the new dimension of European Security and Defence Policy, form the key areas of research.

In 2001 a workshop on transatlantic relations has been established at CESUH. Its purpose is to create an academic network on transatlanticism to serve as a framework for later separate research projects. The workshop covers the full range of transatlantic relations from economic to political and security policy relations.