The central question addressed by the papers collected in this book is whether trade unions from the post-socialist states have successfully represented their interests at the EU level. At issue is not only their purely formal integration into umbrella organizations and EU bodies; of much greater concern is their actual participation in political decision-making processes and the resulting impact at the national and sub-national level. The book therefore examines the integration and Europeanisation of a vital part of those societies which joined the EU in 2004. The empirical focus is on case studies from the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.The book is based on the research project ‘Already arrived in Brussels? Interest representation of trade unions from the new EU member states at the EU level’, which was – with financial support from the Otto Brenner Foundation – carried out under the guidance of the Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen.

State and Society in Post-Socialist Economies focuses on the reform economies of post-socialist Europe. It looks at how various projects of communism that emerged in have been and are still being dismantled and recomposed by alternative visions, institutions and practices of capitalist market economies and democratic polities.

This book examines the integration of major trade unions from the six biggest countries of EU's Eastern enlargement into EU governance structures. Based on extensive empirical research, including more than 150 in-depth interviews, statistical data collection, document research, and eight detailed case studies, the contributions describe the activities and perceptions of the trade unions under investigation and the different levels of engagement, including European umbrella organizations, interregional cooperation, and European Works Councils. The book thus contributes to political science research on interest representation and Europeanization as well as sociological research on labor relations.

What does political representation in the European Union look like? This volume argues that the transformation of representation in the EU is characterized by diversification processes, albeit with an uncertain ability to re-configure the link between representation and democracy.

Over the past two decades, civil society has played a pivotal role in Europe, from the demise of Communist rule to the reunification of Europe, followed by the expansion of the single market to the reconstitution of democracy in the enlarged European Union. European civil society has emerged as a social space between EU governance and the citizens of the member states, populated by non-state agents claiming to represent, speak for or participate on behalf of the most varied social constituencies in EU decision making. This book consolidates European civil society research by re-viewing its conceptual, normative and empirical-analytical foundations. With contributors from political science to sociology to law, it captures the evolving practices of European civil society that stretch across the national (local), the European and the global realm. Developing an analytical framework that highlights the interplay between civil society building and polity building from above as well as from below, within the legal and institutional framework of the EU, they examine whether and how civil society can contribute to making democracy work in normative democratic theoretical perspectives. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of civil society, European politics, political science and sociology.

Climate and Energy Politics in Poland: Debating Carbon Dioxide and Shale Gas presents a new, object-oriented perspective on the challenge faced by Poland, the largest post-socialist EU member state from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), to produce knowledge about its energy system in the context of climate change. Drawing on data from five different research projects and two hundred interviews, Lis reflects on how EU accession forced Poland to mobilize their resources and produce expertise on carbon dioxide and shale gas, in order to actively participate in the debates around EU climate change ambitions and goals. A significant lack of capacity and expert institutions made it difficult for Poland to quickly assess the impacts of EU legislation or to propose new solutions for itself, and it is precisely this struggle for knowledge production that will be examined during the course of the book. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy and resource politics, climate change, EU environmental policy and CEE studies more broadly.