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This book analyses in detail the electoral manifestos and programmes presented by twenty-two parties during the European Parliamentary elections in 2009. The research indicates that radical right-wing parties usually have Europhobic impulses, however, radical left-wing parties are, in theory, favourable to European integration, but dispute the direction currently imposed by the EU authorities.

This book provides a balanced and up-to-date overview of the multidimensional change taking place in the Arctic regions. Against this background, the role of the European Union regarding Arctic developments is considered, including the ongoing process of formulating an umbrella EU Arctic policy. In particular, the themes of climate change, maritime transport, fisheries, offshore oil and gas extraction, mining, land use and sociocultural change are discussed. The book comprises primarily an updated and expanded version of the report 'Strategic Assessment of Development of the Arctic: An assessment conducted for the European Union', produced for the European Commission. The report was to a great extent based on the interaction with Arctic stakeholders

Adjudicatory jurisdiction -- Foreign sovereign immunity and related abstention doctrines -- Parallel litigation -- Service of process abroad -- Taking of evidence abroad -- Recognition and enforcement of foreign country judgments and arbitral awards -- Choice of forum.

AS 1992 APPROACHES, THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC AUTHORITIES OF THE FRANC ZONE STATES ARE BECOMING INCREASINGLY CONCERNED ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS OF EUROPEAN ECONOMIC INTEGRATION. IN PARTICULAR, THE LIKELIHOOD OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A EUROPEAN MONETARY UNION HAS SPARKED A WAVE OF CONCERN. BUT THE ESTABLISHMENT OF EMU WOULD NOT REQUIRE THE RULES OF THE FRANC ZONE TO BE MODIFIED, EVEN IF IT WOULD IN SOME RESPECTS CHANGE ITS ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS. THE EMU WOULD MAKE POSSIBLE, AND DESIRABLE, MONETARY COOPERATION BETWEEN THE AFRICAN SIGNATORIES OF THE LOME CONVENTION AND THE EC AS A WHOLE, WHICH WOULD REINFORCE THE FRANCO-AFRICAN MONETARY COOPERATION NOW IN EXISTENCE.

Defence date: 21 October 2016 ; Examining Board: Professor Hanspeter Kriesi, European University Institute (Supervisor); Professor Pedro C. Magalhães, University of Lisbon; Professor Mariano Torcal, Pompeu Fabra University; Professor Alexander H. Trechsel, European University Institute ; This thesis is a collection of four empirical studies that analyze Europeans' democratic aspirations and evaluations and their behavioral implications. It is well established that most citizens support democracy in the abstract but that a substantial proportion of them are not fully satisfied with the way democracy works. However, we know significantly less about the specific type of democracy citizens aspire to, about the extent to which they evaluate that their democracies meet these democratic aspirations, and about how these aspirations and evaluations relate to their political behavior. Drawing on an innovative dataset that provides a detailed account of individuals' democratic aspirations and evaluations I first assess the availability and structuration of these attitudes towards democracy in the belief systems of Europeans. Next, I analyze how democratic aspirations and evaluations and the imbalance between the two relate to political participation and party choice decisions. The empirical analyses reveal that: (i) these attitudes towards democracy are widely available and coherently structured in the belief systems of most individuals; (ii) that democratic aspirations and evaluations, and the imbalance between the two, are significantly related to the likelihood of turning out to vote and demonstrating, but that, at the same time, their impact is contingent on a series of individual- and macro-level factors; (iii) that the imbalance between democratic aspirations and evaluations that individuals perceive for specific elements democracy is significantly related to their likelihood of defecting from mainstream parties and voting for different types of challenger parties. In the conclusion to this dissertation I discuss the potential implications of these findings for the quality and stability of democracies, and how these findings qualify some aspects of the prevailing optimistic outlook about the behavior of those who are critical or dissatisfied with the functioning of their democracies.

Evolving of trade specialization is usually a longlasting process resulting from deep structural changes of an economy. In some cases external stimuli such as broader market that resulted from trade liberalization could contribute to a rapid changing of a country's trade pattern. Although trade specialization in its broader sense includes both supply (export) and demand (import) specialization, export patterns of countries and their changes are given most focus in international trade research.The paper investigates export specialization of South East European countries (SEECs) in their trade with the European Union (EU) before and after starting trade liberalization introduced by the Stabilization and Association Agreements (SAA). Comparing 2003 and 2014, the paper aims to verify whether the export pattern of six SEECs (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) has moved toward the EU demand as in the case of advanced transition countries that joined the EU in 2004. Following empirical trade literature, the research employs several different indicators: indicator of export composition and revealed comparative advantage (Balassa RCA index), indicator of dynamics of trade specialization (Michaely index, the Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient), indicator of export diversification (Herfindahl-Hirschman index of sectoral export concentration), and export quality indicator (export product classification by technology level). As the reference for calculating the indices and plotting the Lorenz curve, EU27 total imports were used. The research results indicate a slight despecialization in most analysed countries. Their export structure, although significantly changed, remains highly concentrated and dominated by primary products, resource based products, and low-technology intensive products. Despite positive trends in terms of slight movement of export structure toward the EU demand, especially in cases of Croatia and Serbia, large inconsistency with the needs of the EU market still exists, indicating that SEECs have a long way to catch up with the EU.

This monograph offers a uniquely comprehensive and in-depth legal account of official secrets in the European Union. It critically analyses their implications for oversight and fundamental rights. Based on forty interviews with practitioners and other stakeholders, it offers an understanding of the practices of official secrets and provides a critical and much-needed perspective on how parliamentary, judicial and administrative oversight institutions deal with access to classified material and the dilemma of oversight to concurrently ensure secrecy necessary for EU security policies and openness needed for democratic processes and fundamental rights. The book discerns shifts in institutional practice of oversight at the European Parliament and the Court of Justice of the European Union that disproportionately favour secrecy and the protection of classified documents while creating serious limitations to open democratic deliberations and access to justice, and delivers new insights on the EU's development as a security actor as well as its autonomy from Member States, showing how rules on official secrets were a means for the EU to gain more autonomy in external security cooperation.