Suchergebnisse

Evolving of trade specialization is usually a longlasting process resulting from deep structural changes of an economy. In some cases external stimuli such as broader market that resulted from trade liberalization could contribute to a rapid changing of a country's trade pattern. Although trade specialization in its broader sense includes both supply (export) and demand (import) specialization, export patterns of countries and their changes are given most focus in international trade research.The paper investigates export specialization of South East European countries (SEECs) in their trade with the European Union (EU) before and after starting trade liberalization introduced by the Stabilization and Association Agreements (SAA). Comparing 2003 and 2014, the paper aims to verify whether the export pattern of six SEECs (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) has moved toward the EU demand as in the case of advanced transition countries that joined the EU in 2004. Following empirical trade literature, the research employs several different indicators: indicator of export composition and revealed comparative advantage (Balassa RCA index), indicator of dynamics of trade specialization (Michaely index, the Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient), indicator of export diversification (Herfindahl-Hirschman index of sectoral export concentration), and export quality indicator (export product classification by technology level). As the reference for calculating the indices and plotting the Lorenz curve, EU27 total imports were used. The research results indicate a slight despecialization in most analysed countries. Their export structure, although significantly changed, remains highly concentrated and dominated by primary products, resource based products, and low-technology intensive products. Despite positive trends in terms of slight movement of export structure toward the EU demand, especially in cases of Croatia and Serbia, large inconsistency with the needs of the EU market still exists, indicating that SEECs have a long way to catch up with the EU.

The relations between Morocco and the European Union rotate, especially from the Moroccan side, around one single desire: The creation of a Free Trade Zone (FTZ). From the first EU-Morocco Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement (1996) until the new Agreement on Agriculture (2010), through the granting of Advanced Status to Morocco (2008), most agricultural and industrial products enjoyed certain privileges, financial advantages and finally their practical liberalisation on the EU market. This research will focus on the analytical study of the Institutional Framework to develop relations between the EU and Morocco on agriculture. In this sense, we will analyze: Firstly, the legal framework that legally and politically regulates these relations, i.e. the Treaty on European Union (1992) and the European Neighbourhood Policy (2004); secondly, the agreements that have had the greatest impact on agricultural development in Morocco.

"Sport is often seen as an indicator of the civic maturity of a community, an aspect of the rights of citizens to health, education and social integration. This book examines the relationships between participation in sport and physical activity, and welfare policies across Europe. It argues that the success of campaigns for the promotion of sport depend on the existence of dedicated welfare policies promoted by the European states and explores variations in cultural models and structures of governance across Europe. Addressing the function of supranational institutions such as the EU as well as voluntary networks, the book illuminates key issues in European societies such as migration, financial austerity and Brexit as they relate to sport policy. This is important reading for scholars and students in the fields of European sport and physical activity, sociology, political science and organisational analysis, as well as operators and managers of the sport systems involved in advanced training programmes"--

In this book, an international team of specialists reflects, more than a dozen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, on the implications of that momentous conjuncture for the study of party politics in Europe. In particular, the authors and editors seek to address two inter-connected questions: To what extent is there evidence of convergence in patterns of party politics across Eastern and Western Europe? And how far has the theory of parties and party systems coped with the emergence of democratic politics in Eastern Europe? In a wideranging and stimulating set of essays, these issues are confronted in respect of themes such as the impact of institutional contexts like electoral systems and presidentialism, the evolving nature of cleavage structures, party organizational developments, and intra-party factionalism. This book will make a significant addition to any course reading list on comparative and party politics

The widespread incursion of the Internet into the daily lives of consumers, together with the COVID-19 pandemic, has contributed to a significant increase in the consumption of online content in the last few years. Opportunities for listening to music, reading e-books or watching favorite movies and series through the global network, the entertainment through online games and streaming leisure sports events are increasingly preferred in an epidemic situation and social distancing. In this regard, the problem of illegal downloading of digital content comes to the fore. The aim of this paper is to present the specifics and harms of the use of pirated online content, and based on a brief overview of this consumption within the European Union, the ways to limit it are outlined. The analysis uses data published in studies by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) for the period 2017 - 2020.

In this paper, the introduction of direct-democratic decision-making in all EU decisions is considered when it is feasible without prohibitively increasing decision-making costs. We start with the contractarian argument that each constitution is a contract joining the citizens of a state and requires as such the explicit agreement of (a majority of) citizens. Thus, the future European Constitution as well as future changes of it should be decided by the European citizens. After a discussion of the pros and cons of direct democracy, the ability of direct democracy to help creating a European demos is discussed. Consequently, we propose a mandatory (required and binding) referendum on total and partial revisions of the European Constitution. In addition, we propose a constitutional initiative, a statutory and a general initiative as well as a fiscal referendum for financially important projects.

There is growing attention to problems of European Union (EU) legitimacy and, in particular, the lack of affective links between the political elites engaged in integration and public opinion. Political parties are in an influential position for helping to solve this problem. With the EU's largest ever enlargement in May 2004, it is important to establish whether these problems are likely to be magnified or not. Although there was a strong vote in favour of EU membership in the referenda of 2003 in post-Communist countries, this constituted more formal than substantial legitimacy for the EU. Taking the case of Latvia, it is already clear that some difficulties evident in the older member states are being repeated, notably with respect to mass opinion and European integration, as illustrated by the referendum of 2003 and European elections of 2004. On the one hand, there is a political elite now versed in EU affairs but, on the other, public opinion remains largely ignorant of what membership entails. In addition, Latvia also reveals a serious public mistrust towards the political elite, which is common in post-Communist countries, and this inhibits parties there from developing an intermediary role over European affairs. It therefore remains to be seen whether positive developments in the future linking benefits from EU membership and the achievement of democratic consolidation move Latvia towards a solution of these problems.

Following many years of political competition in Serbia between reformists and nationalists, critical presidential and parliamentary elections were held in 2008 during the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo by Albanians in the shadow of the European Union (EU) agenda. 2008 elections reshaped party politics in favour of pro-Europeanism. This article analyses the change in party positions towards EU membership with the help of "process analysis" by referring to the independent variables of compliance, identification, and internalization, modelled by Herbert Kelman. The study focuses on following political parties that have shaped Serbian politics for a long time: The Democratic Party of Serbia (Demokratska Stranka Srbije - DSS), the Democratic Party (Demokratska Stranka - DS), the Serbian Progressive Party (Srpska Napredna Stranka-SNS), and the Socialist Party of Serbia (Socijalisticka Partija Srbije - SPS). Contrary to arguments, which suggest that party positions have changed due to EU conditionality with the help of internalisation variable; this article argues that for SNS and SPS "compliance", for DSS and DS "identification" variable offers a more comprehensive causal explanation.

"Seit einiger Zeit gewinnen in der Europäischen Union neue Formen politischer Regelung ('Governance') an Bedeutung, die nicht mehr auf verbindlicher Regulierung sondern auf freiwilligen Leistungsstandards beruhen. Dieser Aufsatz geht der Frage nach, ob diese neuen Formen politischen Entscheidens sich im Rahmen der EU bewähren können. Gegenwärtig ist eine kritische Bewertung schwierig, wenn diese sich hauptsächlich entweder auf a) die bisher bescheidene empirische Datenbasis, oder b) die programmatischen Verkündungen der politischen Akteure stützt. Als Alternative schlagen wir vor, c) die neuen Formen des Regierens im Lichte der Theorien über europäisches Regieren zu betrachten. Die bisher gängigen Ansätze tragen zwar schon etwas zu einem verbesserten Verständnis bei, aber erst die Theorie des demokratischen Experimentalismus erlaubt es, die Probleme und Lösungspotentiale der neuen Regelungsformen umfassend zu analysieren. Dieser theoretische Ansatz zeigt, dass eine Koordination durch freiwillige Leistungsstandards, erstens, effektivere Regeln und mehr politische Partizipation ermöglicht, zweitens, die Domäne dieser Form der Regulierung nicht auf solche Policies beschränkt sein muss, die als 'neue Regelungsform' etikettiert werden, und drittens, dass eines der Hauptprobleme die Koexistenz zwischen den neuen freiwilligen und die den alten formal rechtlichen Regelungsmodi ist." (Autorenreferat)