Research

Current research activities tenure track European Cooperation and Integration

The following research projects are in progress or about to start:

• The writing of a volume on the development of the postwar debate on European integration within the Dutch national parliament and political parties. To what extent could the Netherlands be considered a traditionally Eurofederalist country and in how far has this changed in the past two decades under the influence of the end of the Cold War, EU enlargement, the introduction of the euro, 9/11, the rise of the Fortuyn movement, etc.? What are the causes of the rejection of the European Constitution in 2005, seen from a post-1945 historical perspective? What is the position and weight of both parliament and political parties in the European debate and to what extent do they tend to follow the lead of the government? This project, scheduled for the period 2008-2010, is financed by the Montesquieu Institute and carried out in joint cooperation with the Centre for Parliamentary History (CPG) in Nijmegen and the Documentation Centre for Dutch Political Parties (DNPP) in Groningen (Harryvan, Van der Harst).

• The realization of a digitalized archive of key sources and documents concerning the Dutch government’s policy towards European integration. Under the guidance of the Institute for Dutch History (ING) and with the financial help of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both in The Hague, a group of young researchers and senior advisers will screen the Dutch government archives (since 1945) with the aim of selecting the most important documents to be published for digital use by researchers, policy-makers, etc. Within this project a printed book version will be compiled, comprising the most relevant archival material on the postwar policies of the Dutch government towards the European Community/Union. The project will be effectuated in the period 2009-2016 (Harryvan and Van der Harst).

• A successor to the volume ‘Voor Nederland en Europa’ (2001), a series of edited interviews with European policy-makers in the Netherlands in the period 1970-1992 (Harryvan and Van der Harst).

• An article on the writing of a political biography (based on the experiences with the Kohnstamm biography), to be published in a volume on the state of biographical research compiled by the University of Arhus in Denmark; deadline first draft: 1 October 2008 (Van der Harst).

• Written contributions to a Festschrift (edited by Prof. Fernando Guirao of the University of Barcelona/Pompeu Fabra) to honour the extensive and important research of the British economic historian Prof. Alan Milward, to be handed in by mid June 2009 (Harryvan and Van der Harst).

• Research on europeanisation of the EU candidate states during the accession process in the years 1993-2004. The main focus is on transplantation of the EU regulatory models into the legal systems of Central Eastern European aspirant countries. The theoretical framework for the analysis is built up by combining theories of European Integration, International Relations, Comparative Politics, Legal Sociology and Legal Theory.The main research question is: to which extent have European legal concepts influenced the creation and development of control and oversight arrangements in the Central Eastern European countries; and what legal, institutional and societal conditions have determined reception of these legal transplants? This research project is scheduled to be accomplished in December 2008 with a publication following in the year 2009 as a separate book (Kviatek).
• PhD research on the development of the European Commission’s position in the enlargement process of the European Community/European Union. To what extent has this position changed over time when comparing the early enlargement rounds (of the 1960s and 70s) with the more recent ones (Smids).