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The Treaty of Lisbon, in line with the failed Constitutional Treaty and in the sequence of several initiatives which had taken place, came to provide for the mechanism of permanent structured cooperation. The goal of this mechanism is to enable the arising of a vanguard of Member States, eventually ready to form the embryo of a future European Union's exclusive defence system. Although permanent structured cooperation represents a step towards the application of the "community method" to security and defence of the European Union, it doesn't still fit in that pattern. Only future can tell, if permanent structured cooperation is likely to provide the European Union with a security and defence policy based on the "community method".

Today, Europe is living a new decisive time as it has been in its past after World War II, in search of unity in diversity in the name of a peace project to safeguard future. If, on the one hand, Europe expresses aspirations for profound changes in its external environment, in the domestic context, it ends up colliding with aspects linked to sovereignty and human rights; on the other hand, in European foreign policy, the model reveals the search to legitimize its action. Precisely, the objective and the motivation of this study seek, through the qualitative methodology in Political Science, to analyse and understand the current context of the European Union in the international system. In fact, it is identified that this new hierarchy of powers, in the reaffirmation of the Westphalian system, where economic power comes, is bound to consolidate the democratic development between the old and new times of international relations in the destiny of Europe. From the results obtained during the analysis, in order to face again the unpredictability of the world scenario, it is a reality that Europe must promote the re-encounter of an alternative role, in other words, to assume its initial project of European edification in the name of equality of circumstances and rights of its affirmation in the global arena.

It is common today, even in the European media, to treat the current crisis of the European Union almost exclusively as an economic crisis. The present article pretends to show that such a focus is not only wrong but is indeed dangerous for the future development of the European Union as a whole. The article will argue that the present economic crisis simply aggravated – and a lot – a crisis of legitimacy through which the European Union has been passing for some time. Showing that the anti-European tendencies which are spreading throughout the countries of the continent threaten the very future of the European project, the article will make suggestion on reforms for the future development of the EU, alerting to the necessity to finally elaborate once again a coherent argument for the continuation of the European integration process which puts the European population at the heart of the political process instead of just austerity.

O autor parte do reconhecimento da existência da atual crise – à semelhança da crise no pós-guerra – para elaborar sobre o significativo percurso no âmbito da cooperação judiciária penal na União Europeia, que acompanhou, por sua vez, a evolução da integração política. A União Europeia encontra-se hoje numa etapa crucial no que respeita à construção de uma jurisdição penal plena, caminho esse parametrizado pelo Tratado de Lisboa, nomeadamente quanto à criação de uma Procuradoria Europeia. Esta poderá vir a desenhar-se como um órgão "federal", com uma atuação concentrada e uniforme para todo o território da União Europeia, como espaço natural da sua jurisdição territorial. ; The author firstly recognizes the existence of the current crisis – similar to the crisis in post-war Europe – to elaborate on the significant path that criminal judicial cooperation in the European Union undertook, sustained by the evolution of political integration. Today the European Union is at a crucial stage in regards to the construction of a full criminal jurisdiction, particularly regarding the creation of a European Public Prosecutor's Office, as parameterized by the Lisbon Treaty. This is likely to emerge as a "federal" agency, with a concentrated and uniform action throughout the territory of the European Union, as the natural area of its territorial jurisdiction.

Networks of nongovernmental organizations dedicated to socio-environmental issues have emerged in recent decades. The involvement of these networks in the international sphere has enabled new approaches to international cooperation. This article introduces the concept of international cooperation and the Global Alliance for Recycling and Sustainable Development (GARSD), a socio-environmental network created by a coalition of NGOs dedicated to promoting recycling of municipal solid waste. This article is the result of a doctoral study conducted using documentary analysis, participant observation and other qualitative data collection methods. The study conclusively finds that it is neessary to analyze the work of these non-state actors within the context of international cooperation between nation states and the possibility of (re)creating political-territorial arrangements, such as networks comprising a variety of actors especially geared towards socio-environmental issues. ; Durante as últimas décadas, surgiram redes de organizações não governamentais que se dedicam aos temas socioambientais. O envolvimento dessas redes com a esfera internacional ocasiona novas abordagens para a cooperação internacional. Apresentar o conceito de cooperação internacional e a rede socioambiental Global Alliance for Recycling and Sustainable Development - GARSD é o objetivo deste artigo. A GARSD, é resultado da coalização de organizações não governamentais dedicadas à promoção da reciclagem de resíduos sólidos urbanos. O artigo é o resultado de pesquisa realizada em processo de doutoramento, que utilizou por procedimentos metodológicos a análise documental, pesquisa participante e a coleta de dados de abordagem qualitativa. Conclusivamente, torna-se inerente analisar as atuações destes atores não estatais diante das relações de cooperação internacional estabelecidas entre Estados Nacionais na possibilidade para a (re)criação de arranjos político-territoriais como a construção de redes entre os diversos atores, especialmente, nos temas socioambientais.