Suchergebnisse

Does the fact that the majority of Turkey's population is Muslim form a hindrance to its EU membership? According to a recent policy advice by the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR), the answer is an adamant 'no'. Why is this issue of Turkish Islam relevant? After all, Turkey should not be judged by standards other than the Copenhagen criteria. The answer is that the public debate outside 'Brussels' will not be limited to these official criteria. Many people in Europe are worried about Turkey's 'Islam factor'. They believe that Muslims are (potentially violent) fundamentalists who want to establish a theocracy. By explicitly examining the role of Turkish Islam and Muslims in Turkey, the WRR wants to contribute to a well-informed European public debate on Turkey's accession.

European integration continues to deepen despite major crises and attempts to take back sovereignty. A growing number of member states are reacting to a more constraining EU by negotiating opt-outs. This book provides the first in-depth account of how opt-outs work in practice. It examines the most controversial cases of differentiated integration: the British and Danish opt-outs from Economic and Monetary Union and European policies on borders, asylum, migration, internal security and justice. Drawing on over one hundred interviews with national representatives and EU officials, the author demonstrates how representatives manage the stigma of opting out, allowing them to influence even politically sensitive areas covered by their opt-outs. Developing a practice approach to European integration, the book shows how everyday negotiations transform national interests into European ideals. It is usually assumed that states opt out to preserve sovereignty, but Adler-Nissen argues that national opt-outs may actually reinforce the integration process

Preface -- 1. Understanding Flexible Integration in the European Union -- 2. Theorizing Flexibility--The Return of Functionalism? -- 3. "Closer Cooperation"--Flexibility from Amsterdam to Nice -- 4. Problems of Flexibility -- 5. Making Flexibility Work.

In view of the contemporary challenges and threats, European Union's efforts in the area of civil and military capacity building are extremely important. As an international organization having a high impact on third countries, the European Union plays a key role in conflict prevention and crisis response. In external governance EU has two sectoral policies at its disposal: the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP). The CFSP is responsible for resolving conflicts and fostering international understanding using diplomacy and giving respect for international rules. The CSDP is responsible for carrying out civilian and military missions as well as for diffusing rules, which affect, in various respects, the improvement of security management in third countries through their incorporation. By adopting today's global approach, both military and civilian, to crisis management and continuing to strengthen its capacity for action and analytical tools, the European Union is becoming a major security vector at international level, and its Common Security and Defense Policy expeditionary missions are the tangible proof.

This article analyzes the process of the expansion & integration of the EU from the perspective of a transformation to a competitive state formation. The recent construction of the EU is based on institutional arrangements that aim to combine different politics of scale with a general improvement of economic competitiveness & administrative efficiency. Recent theoretical advancement in state theory are applied in order to emphasize innovative aspects of European integration. After a concise overview about the history of the EU territoriality & a discussion whether there is a spatial logic observable within the integration process, the article outlines a political geography of the EU competition state & respective politics of scale. Finally the question of the future shape of the EU is re-addressed in light of strategic decisions to introduce a defensive or offensive flexibility. Adapted from the source document.

Though it's many miles away from tiny Denmark, Greenland is administered as an autonomous country within the Danish Realm. It's a relationship that at first glance appears unusual, and, as Ulrik Pram Gad shows, that relationship is quietly predicated on a general assumption that Greenland is on a path toward eventual independence. In both nations, he shows, discussion of Greenland invokes the idea of the "community of the realm" while recognizing Greenland's continuing reliance on aid as it moves toward independence. As climate change is beginning to open up new areas of Greenland to potentially profitable resource extraction, Greenland is increasingly imagining that sources other than Denmark can provide the assistance needed. Throw in the EU, which facilitates "sovereignty games" played to allow Greenland a surprising measure of independent agency, and the complexity of the overall situation becomes quite clear. Gad explores the issue through four lenses: discourse analysis to determine the core concepts of Danish and Greenlandic identity; a reading of political debates as identity politics; interviews with key actors; and analysis of legal texts as a frozen outcome of various sovereignty games. The book concludes with a series of scenarios for the slow motion decolonization of Greenland

This volume investigates the role of social media in European politics in changing the focus, frames and actors of public discourse around the EU decision-making process. Throughout the collection, the contributors test the hypothesis that the internet and social media are promoting a structural transformation of European public spheres which goes well beyond previously known processes of mediatisation of EU politics. This transformation addresses more fundamental challenges in terms of changing power relations, through processes of active citizen empowerment and exertion of digitally networked counter-power by civil society, news media, and political actors, as well as rising contestation of representative legitimacy of the EU institutions. Social Media and European Politics offers a comprehensive approach to the analysis of political agency and social media in European Union politics, by bringing together scholarly works from the fields of public sphere theory, digital media, political networks, journalism studies, euroscepticism, political activism and social movements, political parties and election campaigning, public opinion and audience studies.

"The European Central Bank" published on by Oxford University Press.

The article focuses on the aftermath of the 2000 parliamentary elections, looking at some of the key developments that have impacted Croatia's path toward the EU. The first section provides a brief overview of certain problems from the Tudjman years, while the second section looks at the initial promise of change under the Racan administration. The third section demonstrates the problematic relationship between Croatia and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), showing how it set the Racan cabinet off course. In the fourth section, the initial improvements made under the Sanader government are highlighted, along with the continued impasse over the ICTY. The fifth section investigates the public perceptions of the EU, particularly in the aftermath of Croatia's failure to start negotiations in March 2005. While the sixth section discusses the October 2005 European Council decision to launch accession talks with Croatia, the seventh and final section offers prospects for the future. Adapted from the source document.