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During the past centuries many great philosophers and statesmen dreamt about the possible constitutional scope of exceeding Europe's political division and fulfilling the unified/united Europe. Most conceptions outlined the practical realization at a supranational level, although in the last decades there has been a greater emphasis on the sub-national (regional, micro-regional) level or else the "multi-level" Europe. Considering its scientific importance there has been less mention of the importance of the local, regional networks, however, their functionality –in the form of sister town connections –has been experienced by many towns in Hungary. In my thesis I intended to shed light on the fact that the sistertown connections –if being able to overstep the mayors and the local authorities' protocol meetings -and it can be the pledge of their viability, take a prominent part in framing the "bottom up" Europe. The personal, civil relationships, the common interests and the solutions to collective problems may all lead to a continuity in the increasingly "multigeared" European integration. In order to present the subject matter I selected the analysis of sister town connections related to the county town, Zalaegerszeg. My research questions were as follows: to what extent the sister town connection of Zalaegerszeg has changed in terms of geographical and content orientation, what elements of networking, independent from any political orientation, have been used, how the intensity fluctuation of the connections can be explained. The conclusion of my research is that the citizens, the civil organisations and the local authority of Zalaegerszeg, whose number of sister towns –fourteen –is greater than the Hungarian average, build their sister town connections in a conscious way, meanwhile integrating them functionally and successfully at a local level into the network of international connections.

Δεν παρατίθεται περίληψη στα ελληνικά. ; Kostas E. Lambrinos, Nobles and Cittadini in the Community of Venetian Sitia. Social Fermentations and Rearrangements (late sixteenth-seventeenth century) This study highlights the community of upper social class in Sitia, a small town in eastern Crete, in the late period of the Venetian dominion. Using new evidence from the State Archives of Venice, the article examines unknown aspects of the topic, such as the social identity of the community council (the so-called consiglio della comunità), the political functions and the evolution of this body, its internal social rearrangements and its particularities by comparison with the community dynamics in the other Cretan towns. The archival data indicate that this socio-political organ played a central role in local public life, but had a secondary position within the Venetian political system. Regarding its social composition, the community originally consisted of nobles-feudatories, according to the model of strict social organization in the island under Venetian rule. However, multiple factors of crucial importance, such as the small number of nobles in Sitia, the inadequate fortification of the town and the increasing financial needs of this region, had a catalytic effect on the local social fabric and, consequently, on the structure of the community: in the early seventeenth century it lost its aristocratic profile and acquired characteristics, which differentiate it from the other community entities of Crete. This decisive evolution occurred with the social advancement of the cittadini. Τhis intermediate social group acquired, with the consent of the Venetian authorities, the right to participate in the community in order to meet government targets in this politically sensitive area of the island. Hereinafter the cittadini had an increasingly strong presence in the community processes, gained more social power and enjoyed privileges previously monopolized by the aristocracy.

The present case study points to the arguments of those lawsuits that lasted for years, which resulted multilingual town nameplates on the city limits of Cluj-Napoca, after decades of omissions. In addition to describing the related rules of both domestic and international law, the study not only explores the legal arguments developed on the basis of them but also points out the controversial points of the regulation and the omissions of the Cluj-Napoca municipality. It also presents the activities of civic initiatives and organizations that, in addition to legal conditions and mere statistics, demonstrate a real societal need for multicultural cooperation and peaceful coexistence.

Subject of the volume are the finds uncovered during the excavations of the ÖAI in the residential area "Phournoi" of the ancient town of Lousoi in Northwest Arkadia. A short introduction to the architecture of the houses is followed by the presentation of the pottery and small finds in their chronological and functional context. This study results in important information concerning daily life, domestic culture and the economic background of the region mainly in the Hellenistic period. - Vorgelegt werden die Funde aus den Grabungen des ÖAI in zwei Häusern im Wohnviertel "Phournoi" der antiken Stadt Lousoi in Nordwestarkadien. Nach einer kurzen Bresprechung der Architektur wird das Fundmaterial in seinen chronologischen und funktionalen Zusammenhang gestellt. Daraus ergeben sich wichtige Aussagen zum täglichen Leben der Bewohner, zur Wohnkultur und zu den wirtschaftlichen Grundlagen der Region vor allem im Hellenismus.