Search results

For many Europeans, the Arab World is looked at, at best, as an oil well and a huge market, and, at worst, as a turbulent and dangerous environment. Thus, access to oil, market penetration, and security interests have largely driven European policies towards this region. Under different denominations and umbrellas, European policies in the past 65 years pursued the same objectives: energy, market, security. This has been the case of the Mediterranean Global policy (1972-1992), the Euro-Arab Dialogue (1974-1989), the Renewed Mediterranean Policy (1990-1996), the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (1995-2008), the European Neighborhood Policy (2004-2012) and finally the Union for the Mediterranean (2008-2012). Sometimes, two or three overlapping policies were conducted at the same time. ; N/A

This article analyzes the clusters of similarities among EU member states before and during the recent financial and debt crisis, using variables from banking, taxation, government debt and deficit, and the Current Account of the Balance of Payment; our study follows the method of Multi-Sample Case of Cluster Analysis between and within groups of EU countries. Our findings show that the current economic crisis the EU is faced with is twofaceted and has arisen from the financial and banking sectors and from government debt. In this sense, problems have resulted from the credit policies of the national banking sectors and from national fiscal and budgetary controls. These two crisis facets are correlated and a new problem emerges concerning the fiscal similarities of European Monetary Union (EMU) countries and the necessity for a fiscal union or for common fiscal policies between them. The aim of this article is to help us understand that the current EU crisis is due to the lack of homogeneity in fiscal and financial polishes across the Union. ; peer-reviewed

This article is intended to provide a comparative analysis of women's participation in the labour market in different European contexts with special reference to five small European States. The paper shows that in the small Member States the participation rate of women is increasing faster than that of the larger Member States, that in the small Member States the participation rate of women is increasing faster than that of the male participation rate and that a higher education level is related to a higher participation rate of women in the small Member States. The paper also discusses some implications derived from the main conclusions. ; non peer-reviewed

Intro -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1 Purpose of the Book -- 1.2 State of Research -- 1.3 The Representative Puzzle -- 1.4 Outline of the Book -- References -- 2 Theoretical Framework -- 2.1 The 'Standard Account' of Parliamentary Representation and EU Politics -- 2.2 National Parliamentary Representation in the EU: The Concept of This Study -- 2.3 Whom and How to Represent in EU Politics? -- 2.4 Summarizing the Theoretical Approach -- References -- 3 Data and Methodology -- 3.1 Selection of Countries, Topics, Parliamentary Debates and Interview Partners -- 3.1.1 Comparison Across Countries and Topics -- 3.1.2 Parliamentary Debates and Interview Partners -- 3.2 Data Collection: Representative Claims Analysis and Qualitative Interviews -- 3.2.1 Representative Claims Analysis -- 3.2.2 Qualitative Interviews -- 3.3 Data Evaluation: Regression Analyses and Typology of MPs -- 3.4 Dependent Variables and Data Structure -- References -- 4 Focus and Style of Representation in EU Politics -- 4.1 The Purpose of This Chapter -- 4.2 Focus of Representation: Whom to Represent in EU Politics? -- 4.3 Style of Representation: How to Represent in EU Politics? -- 4.4 Focus and Style of Representation: Whom and How to Represent in EU Politics? -- 4.5 Conclusions -- References -- 5 Explaining MPs' Representative Behavior in EU Politics -- 5.1 The Purpose of This Chapter -- 5.2 Institutional and Party Strategic Factors -- 5.2.1 Left-Right and EU Party Positions -- 5.2.2 Governing Responsibility and European Experience -- 5.2.3 Topic and Position in Claims-Making -- 5.2.4 Committee Membership and Governing Responsibility -- 5.2.5 Catch-All Parties vs. Single-Issue Parties -- 5.3 Operationalization -- 5.3.1 Dependent Variables -- 5.3.2 Independent Variables -- Regression of Focus of Representation.

What is the federal philosophy underlying the law-making function in the European Union? Which federal model best characterizes the European Union? This book analyses and demonstrates how the European legal order evolved from a dual federalism towards a cooperative federalist philosophy

The book presents a theoretically informed typology of modes of governance which is tested in a careful selection of comparative country and policy studies. At the core is the question whether the European Union is destined to a network type of governance and whether and how this type of governance will be translated into the member states. The individual chapters subject the governing patterns at European and national level to empirical scrutiny. Drawing on recent research findings in different issue areas - including monetary union, social affairs, environment, genetic engineering and mar.

The present paper studies the EU consumer sentiment - heating oil stock prices relationship given the recent changes in the EU economy with the assistance of threshold cointegration. According to our findings, the existence of linearity against threshold cointegration is rejected for all the variables with the exception that of skewness, while the estimation of the threshold vector error correction model does not confirm the short-term dynamics in most cases. Having in mind that oil prices can affect economic activity in real and financial terms and is perceived as news by the consumers, the conclusion reached is in line with the existing literature, according to which consumer confidence is strongly affected by the news dissemination and by the signals of economic growth. The major practical implication of the study is the policy makers' acquisition with tools to create economic condition that improve consumer confidence and promotes economic growth ; peer-reviewed