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Laffan illuminates the European Union (EU)'s governance by describing its budget-making process & politics. The primary functions of budgets are listed along with the EU's budget amounts, 1973-1998. There is a brief review of the budget of the EU's predecessor, the European Coal & Steel Community, 1952-1969, budgetary crises & conflicts, 1970-1986, & the institutionalization of the budget, 1987-1999. Data on budget creation & management are enriched by information on macronegotiations, the annual budget cycle, 1990's expansion, auditing, the discharge procedure, & means of addressing fraud. Future budgetary planning & conflicts are revealed by details of Agenda 2000, proposal formatting, & negotiations within the EU's councils. Ways in which the budgeting process embodies EU's goals of integration & representation are explored. The need for stabilization, accountability, & flexibility is addressed. 4 Tables, 1 Figure, 2 References. M. C. Leary

Delegation in the European Union (EU) involves a series of principal-agent problems, and the various chains of delegation involve voters, parties, parliaments, governments, the European Commission and the European Parliament. While the literature has focused on how government parties attempt to monitor EU affairs through committees in national parliaments and through Council committees at the EU level, much less is known about the strategies opposition parties use to reduce informational deficits regarding European issues. This article argues that the European Parliament (EP) offers opposition parties an arena to pursue executive oversight through the use of written parliamentary questions. Using a novel dataset on parliamentary questions in the EP, this article examines why Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) ask questions of specific Commissioners. It transpires that MEPs from national opposition parties are more likely to ask questions of Commissioners. Questions provide these parties with inexpensive access to executive scrutiny. This finding has implications for the study of parliamentary delegation and party politics inside federal legislatures such as the EP. Adapted from the source document.

Intro -- Introduction -- Sebastien Peyrouse -- Increasing the effectiveness of EU education assistance in Uzbekistan. Revising the EU strategy in light of the new regime -- Tadeusz Bodio -- The origin and main trends of the evolution of the European Union's Policy in Central Asia* -- Beata Przybylska-Maszner -- The European Union's Strategy for Central Asia - between political tactics, cooperation and competition -- Radosław Fiedler -- European Union democracy and rule of law and civil society promotion in Central Asia and its constraints -- Filip Kaczmarek -- The approach of the European Parliament to Central Asia* -- Bakytbek Kainazarov -- EU engagement in promotion of democracy in post-Soviet Central Asia: the case study of the Kyrgyz Republic - prospects and challenges* -- Robert Kmieciak -- European decentralization experiences and the prospects for local government development in Kazakhstan* -- Marek Rewizorski -- Beyond Hydro-Politics Amongst Nations. The European Union, International Institutions and Challenges for Transboundary Water Management in Central Asia -- Selected Bibliography -- Project questionnaire -- Contributors

"Why have referendums on European integration proliferated since the 1970s? How are referendums accommodated within member states' constitutional orders and with what impact on the European integration process? What is the likely institutional impact of referendums on the future of the European integration process? Drawing on an interdisciplinary approach, these are just some of the fundamental questions addressed in this book. The central thesis is that the EU is faced with a 'direct democratic dilemma', which is compounded by the EU's rigid constitutional structure and a growing politicisation of the referendum device on matters related to European integration. Referendums and the European Union discusses how this dilemma has emerged to impact on the course of integration and how it can be addressed"--

We, human beings and human societies, become what we think we are. If we have conflicting ideas of what we are, we become a puzzle to ourselves and to others. If we have no clear idea of what we are, we become what circumstances make us. Conceptual dissonance and conceptual drift have been characteristics of the life-story of the three societies (called European Communities) which are now contained in a society called the European Union. A member of a select but ominous class of international social systems which also includes the Holy Roman Empire and the League of Nations, the European Union is a paradoxical social form, namely, anunimagined community.