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The concept of sovereignty, according to which the state should not be under the authority of another country and that it exercises his power exclusively within a specific territory, is now challenged by the process of European integration. Undoubtedly, the European Union remains one of the most controversial projects in the modern world. In fact, the revolution that has suffered the European Union, since its establishment up to membership of 28 countries, which exert a shared competence in more than 30 different fields of the political, economic and social of the Member States, has bring important developments which do not allow us to see the concept of sovereignty of the member states of the EU in the same way as we would see that there is not European integration. Abolition of internal borders, the existence of a supranational legal system, the concept of European citizenship are indicators that the sovereignty of member states is already transformed or simply they have affected the exercise of state sovereignty in a different way from that classical? The aim of this study is to analyze the nature and extent to which the EU has transformed the notion of national sovereignty. Reference to the provisions of the founding treaties of the EU will be key in addressing this issue, where greater attention will be focused on the powers of European institutions and to their influence on national policies of states parties.

[Highlights] For political reasons, European Union member states' opinions on joining banking union range from outright refusal to active consideration. The main stance is to wait and see how the banking union develops. The wait-and-see positions are often motivated by the consideration that joining banking union might imply joining the euro. However, in the long term, banking union's ultimate rationale is linked to cross-border banking in the single market, which goes beyond the single currency. This Policy Contribution documents the banking linkages between the nine 'outs' and 19 'ins' of the banking union. We find that some of the major banks based in Sweden and Denmark have substantial banking claims across the Nordic and Baltic regions. We also find large banking claims from banks based in the banking union on central and eastern Europe. The United Kingdom has a special position, with London as both a global and European financial centre. We find that the out countries could profit from joining banking union, because it would provide a stable arrangement for managing financial stability. Banking union allows for an integrated approach towards supervision (avoiding ring fencing of activities and therefore a higher cost of funding) and resolution (avoiding coordination failure). On the other hand, countries can preserve sovereignty over their banking systems outside the banking union.

European Union countries offer a unique experience of financial regulatory and supervisory integration, complementing various other European integration efforts following the second world war. Financial regulatory and supervisory integration was a very slow process before 2008, despite significant cross-border integration especially of wholesale financial markets.However, the policy framework proved inadequate in the context of the major financial crisis in the EU starting in 2007, and especially in the euro area after 2010. That crisis triggered major changes to European financial regulation and to the financial supervisory architecture, most prominently with the creation of three new European supervisory authorities in 2011 and the gradual establishment of European banking union starting in 2012. The banking union is a major structural institutional change for the EU, arguably the most significant since the introduction of the euro. Even in its current highly incomplete form, and with no prospects for rapid completion, the banking union has improved financial supervision in the euro area and increased the euro area's resilience. Asian financial integration lags well behind Europe, and there is no comparable political and legal integration. Nevertheless, Asia can draw useful lessons from European experiences in multiple areas that include the harmonisation of the micro-prudential framework, proper macro-prudential structures, and participation in global financial authorities.

The scientific investigation goal of this paper is to analyze the convergence of social protection indexes within the EU-15 member states. More specifically, we employ a panel data analysis, testing certain hypotheses of welfare convergence upon the 15 EU Member States, for the years 1990 to 2009, by considering three specific factors. GDP growth rate is used first as a proxy for the financial capacity of the system, while unemployment provides, next, a broader picture of the demand for social security benefits. Finally, the dependency ratio is used as a proxy of the countries' socio-demographic characteristics. Moreover, certain other exogenous factors reflecting economic integration are considered also. Panel data estimations confirm the existence of conditional β-convergence of social expenditure in EU-15 countries, with unemployment, dependency ratio and GDP growth having a significant impact upon the growth of social protection expenditure. With respect to specific external factors, the existing evidence is less clear. ; peer-reviewed

1. Introduction -- 2. The Europeanization of foreign policy -- 3. Foreign policy and state identity : towards comparative discourse analysis -- 4. The Europeanization of Finnish foreign and security policy discourse : from neutrality to alignment identity -- 5. The Europeanization of British foreign and security policy discourse : re-articulating the great-power identity -- 6. Comparing the reproduction of state identities in Finland and Britain -- 7. Conclusion.

Ein EU-Beitritt der Türkei würde "vitale europäische und deutsche Interessen begraben", das "große Projekt der politischen Einigung Europas würde mutwillig zerstört". Ungeachtet von Argumenten, die einen solchen Beitritt gut heißen, führt der Verfasser für diese These folgende Argumente an: (1) Die Türkei ist ein nicht-europäischer, kleinasiatischer Staat, dessen Aufnahme die Tür für weitere Beitrittswünsche öffnen würde. (2) Bereits nach der letzten Beitrittsrunde ist die EU extrem belastet. (3) Ökonomisch wäre die Türkei auf lange Zeit ein "Fass ohne Boden". (4) Die Armut Anatoliens würde das Migrationsproblem verstärken. (5) Die Türkei wird von einer islamistischen Protestpartei regiert. (6) Die Außengrenzen der EU wären nach einem Beitritt sehr viel problematischer. (7) Die Bevölkerungen Deutschlands und Frankreichs lehnen einen Beitritt ab. (8) Ein Beitritt der Türkei würde das Demokratiedefizit der EU vergrößern. (9) Die Euroskepsis würde weiter um sich greifen. (ICE)

The relevance of this paper becomes clearer when trying to answer the question: what is the policy of the EU in order to promote democratic processes in Belarus, and is it effective or not. The paper examines the contribution of Lithuania in this process, as one of the most concerned countries for stability in the region and the democratization of Belarus. The results of this work lead to conclusions that the European Union countries do not have a deeper consensus and common understanding on the policy and perspectives of the European Neighbourhood Policy and Eastern Partnership. The study found that Lithuanian policy towards Belarus is incoherent and is changing together with the policy makers. Lithuania acts in solidaration with the interests of the EU in policy towards Belarus, but it also reserves space for its own exclusive national interests.

The relevance of this paper becomes clearer when trying to answer the question: what is the policy of the EU in order to promote democratic processes in Belarus, and is it effective or not. The paper examines the contribution of Lithuania in this process, as one of the most concerned countries for stability in the region and the democratization of Belarus. The results of this work lead to conclusions that the European Union countries do not have a deeper consensus and common understanding on the policy and perspectives of the European Neighbourhood Policy and Eastern Partnership. The study found that Lithuanian policy towards Belarus is incoherent and is changing together with the policy makers. Lithuania acts in solidaration with the interests of the EU in policy towards Belarus, but it also reserves space for its own exclusive national interests.

The relevance of this paper becomes clearer when trying to answer the question: what is the policy of the EU in order to promote democratic processes in Belarus, and is it effective or not. The paper examines the contribution of Lithuania in this process, as one of the most concerned countries for stability in the region and the democratization of Belarus. The results of this work lead to conclusions that the European Union countries do not have a deeper consensus and common understanding on the policy and perspectives of the European Neighbourhood Policy and Eastern Partnership. The study found that Lithuanian policy towards Belarus is incoherent and is changing together with the policy makers. Lithuania acts in solidaration with the interests of the EU in policy towards Belarus, but it also reserves space for its own exclusive national interests.

Why does European integration proceed? This article tests among three theories of representation. (1) The "permissive consensus" theory argues that political elites have been able to pursue their own policy interests because of public disinterest. (2) Stimson's (1991) "policy mood" theory argues that public disinterest is a sign that political elites are hewing close enough to public preferences. (3) The "cue-taking" theory argues that a disinterested public's preferences will be correlated with political elite policy positions not because elites are responding to public preferences, but because political elites shape weakly held preferences through their policy positions. A two-stage least squares regression model is used to test among the theories. The results provide support for the policy mood theory. 3 Tables, 42 References. Adapted from the source document.