Suchergebnisse

The European Union in the Twenty-First Century: Major Political, Economic and Security Policy Trends unpacks some of the most prominent issues faced by the EU over the last two decades and considers how they may shape its future, as well as the future of international politics.

Purpose: The main focus is on the export and import of agricultural products in the EU in the years 2002-2017 outside the EU (extra-EU). Design/Methodology/Approach: This paper investigates the impact of EU (European Union) enlargement on food trade using descriptive statistics. First, EU-28 exports, imports, and trade balance of agricultural products outside the EU (extra-EU) are presented for 2002-2017. Findings: The trade balance between EU countries for food, beverages, and tobacco are also presented. Accession has led to the elimination of trade tariffs and accelerated improvements in trade. The most exported products by EU countries were alcoholic beverages (spirits and liquors, wine, and vermouth), bakery products, and wheat. Most of the export of agri-food products is directed to other EU countries, Russia, China, and various countries in South America, Africa, and Asia. Imports to EU countries comprised mostly of vegetables and fruits, coffee, tea, cocoa, and various fish products. Practical implications: The results will fill in the gap concerning the food trade of agricultural products in the EU. Originality/Value: The new information about extra EU trade of agricultural products and a GARCH (Generalized Autoregressive Conditionally Heteroscedastic) model was presented. ; peer-reviewed

Defence date: 20 October 2017 ; Examining Board: Prof. François Foret, Université Libre Bruxelles; Prof. Jan-Werner Mueller, Princeton University; Prof. Olivier Roy, European University Institute (supervisor); Prof. Joseph Weiler, European University Institute/New York University ; The objective of this dissertation is to shed further light on the nature of European integration by examining the relationship between religion and politics throughout the whole process. The thesis aims at answering the following research question: which forms of secularism have underpinned the process of European integration. Secularism is understood in the thesis as a public settlement between politics and religion (i.e. we can speak of secularism, if religious and political sphere are conceptually distinct). A historical perspective allows the author to identify and examine the following junctures with respect to the relationship between religion and politics in the process: the Christian-democratic foundation of European Communities, the question of Turkish accession, the search for the "Soul of Europe" during Jacques Delors' presidency at the European Commission, the debate on the Treaty establishing Constitution for Europe, and last but not least: the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty with its art. 17 obliging European institutions to maintain dialogue with religious organisations. Dissertation's findings indicate that three forms of secularism, rooted in the European intellectual and political history, might be identified in the discourse and practice of European integration: 1) Christian-democratic secularism – Christianity transformed by personalist thought is regarded as a cultural and symbolic basis of European integration; 2) Laicist secularism - religion seen as a challenge to the democratic political order; 3) Agnostic secularism – understood as an attempt to depoliticize religion, to delegate it to other bodies, e.g. Member States or international organizations. The author argues that the last concept, liberal in its nature, has been most successful throughout the whole process.

"Amidst the Eurozone crisis, the European Union (EU) is stepping up its dialogue and engagement with and within Southeast Asia. The EU's contemporary approach towards Asia emphasises the importance of open economies and common challenges of the 21st Century. So-called non-traditional security issues have been portrayed increasingly as an avenue to share experiences and enhance cooperation between the EU and Southeast Asia. This contemporary conceptual re-orientation demands a closer look at the EU as an actor in Southeast Asia. This book is the first contemporary monograph-length discussion of the EU as a politico-security actor in Southeast Asia post-Cold War. Drawing upon the historical and institutional context and a broad range of empirical case studies, it illustrates that so-called non-traditional security crises are providing an increasingly important frame to enhance the EU as a politico-security influence in the region. It considers the non-traditional security crises of the late 1990s and early 2000s as triggers for enhanced regional and inter-regional cooperation. In doing so, the book construes new insights into our understanding of the EU as a global actor and its normative influence in regions far away from Europe"--

The Convention on the Future of Europe served to galvanize debate about the nature and future developmental trajectory of the European Union. More specifically, it engendered discussion over the degree to which the process resembled that which had occurred in Philadelphia some two hundred years earlier, and, more broadly, over the extent to which the European Union does, or should, resemble the United States. Partly as a consequence of such debates, comparative federalism is now an; important topic, with scholarly work comparing the US and EU proliferating rapidly. The present volume seeks to build on and contribute to this growing literature, by developing a systematic comparison of the institutions, policies and developmental patterns of the European Union and the United; States.

[eng] Deepening in the European Union (EU) integration process has enhanced the question of economic disparities at a regional level. The convergence process observed until the late seventies was exhausted onwards in coincidence with important changes in the economic activity. The paper showshow these factors would have provoked a regional differenciated response that,despite being important, would have not strengthened the decrease in regional inequalities. We use an alternative and (in our opinion) richer approach to the traditional convergence analysis, where the evolution of the whole regional distribution is what matters and not that of a representative economy. Moreover, when analysing inequalities among regional economies, the geographical space acquire an outstanding role. Hence, we apply spatial association tests and relate them to the convergence analysis ; [spa] El avance en el proceso de integración ha aumentado el interés por la evolución de las disparidades económicas entre las regiones de la Unión Europea. El proceso de convergencia observado hasta finales de los setenta parece haberse agotado, coincidiendo con importantes cambios en el desarrollo de la actividad económica. El trabajo muestra como estos factores habrían provocado una respuesta regional diferenciada que, pese a ser importante, no habría contribuido a la disminución de las disparidades. En el trabajo se utiliza una aproximación alternativa a la empleada en el tradicional análisis de convergencia, donde lo que se considera es la evolución de la totalidad de la distribución y no unicamente aquélla de una economía representativa. Adicionalmente, cuando se estudian las disparidades entre economías regionales, el espacio adquiere un papel destacado. Por ello se aplican contrastes de asociación espacial y se relacionan con el análisis de convergencia

Award date: 30 November 2015 ; Supervisor: Professor Claire Kilpatrick, European University Institute ; This thesis is an analysis of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the European Committee of Social Rights arising from austerity measures in the European sovereign debt crisis. The thesis considers the protection afforded to socio-economic interests under the two systems, and how this protection has been tested by the challenges arising from the economic crisis. The first chapter is an analysis of the social Euro-crisis cases. Brought under Article 1 of Protocol 1 to the ECHR the measures enacted to reduce government spending were an alleged violation of the right to property. Almost all of the social Euro-crisis cases were held to be inadmissible by the Court, which cited the gravity of the economic crisis in the respondent states and the executive's margin of appreciation in matters of social and economic policy. The second chapter places the social Euro-crisis cases in context temporally and thematically, in considering two previous lines of case law developed by Strasbourg: financial and economic stability, and emergency and exceptional circumstances. The ECtHR decisions focus on the severity of the crisis, determining that the margin of appreciation is broader in such circumstances. The ECtHR section concludes that it does not appear that the European sovereign debt crisis has seen Strasbourg develop any definitive crisis approach to ensure that Convention rights are protected in times of economic instability. The third chapter examines the case law generated by the European Committee of Social Rights during the same period. This section serves to act as a counterpart to the ECtHR section. The Committee emphasised that times of crisis require socio-economic rights to be protected, and finds many of the challenged austerity measures incompatible with the European Social Charter.

Defence date: 13 January 2006 ; Examining Board: Prof. Bruno De Witte, Doktorvater, Europäisches Hochschulinstitut Florenz ; Prof. Dr. Stefan Griller, Wirtschaftuniversität Wien ; Prof. Dr. Joseph Marko, Leopold-Franzens-Universität Graz ; Prof. Jacques Ziller, Europäisches Hochschulinstitut Florenz ; First made available online on 19 December 2018

Over the past 20 years the number of standards and certification programs for agricultural production has grown rapidly. Producers who want to export are confronted not only by a plethora of import regulations, but also within import countries by different niche markets for which specific requirements have to be fulfilled. While the adoption of voluntary standards may grant export opportunities to farmers, they can also be considered barriers to entry for those who cannot apply them either because they are too onerous or because of the lack of knowledge about their requirements. In fact, some producers and exporters increasingly regard private standards as non-tariff barriers to trade. New and more stringent standards are being developed year after year, and there is an urgent need to determine today, and in the future, the extent to which these govern world trade. This report gives an overview of standards and certification programs relevant for fruit and vegetable producers and exporters in developing countries with a focus on the markets of the United States and the European Union. In addition, it gives an overview of current analytical work on standards and trade, reviews major assistance programs related to standards and provides recommendations for further research.--Publisher's description