Suchergebnisse

As an emerging federal system, the European Union (EU) divides decision-making powers between multiple levels of government. Yet little is known about how EU citizens attribute responsibility to the EU. In particular, do people hold the EU, rather than national governments, responsible for different policy outcomes, some of which are primarily decided at the EU level? This article investigates the extent to which institutional differences and individual biases influence citizens' attribution of responsibility in the EU. We rely on unique survey data collected in all 27 EU member states to explore how citizens attribute responsibility across five different policy areas. Using a multilevel model of responsibility judgments, our findings show that while citizens' evaluations correspond to the institutional context, group-serving biases, related to support for the EU, have a more important role in shaping attributions of responsibility in the EU.

This article considers some salient theoretical contributions which bear upon our understanding of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) of the European Union (EU). It outlines the fundamental dilemma highlighted in game theory known as 'the tragedy of the commons' and goes on to examine whether the CFP can be construed as a 'policy fiasco'. The article considers how the fisheries of the EU could be more effectively managed and underlines the urgent need for international collective action. With the mismatch between the CFP and the scale of the problem it is intended to address firmly in sight, the article concludes with an evaluation and some policy suggestions.

Janusz Józef Węc: A Review and Assessment of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. - S. [7]-34

The purpose of this article is to present and discuss the data for Portugal of the IntUne survey on elite attitudes towards European integration. Despite some differences between the Portuguese and the European results of the survey, we find that the concept of 'compound citizenship' (M. Cotta, 'A "compound" model of citizenship? European citizenship in the eyes of national elites', Lisbon IntUne General Assembly, 27–30 November 2008) may be applied to the perceptions of Portuguese elites regarding the European Union, and the postulated combination of an indirect European citizenship with a direct one is also verifiable in Portugal. We hypothesise that this European 'compound citizenship' is not conflictive with national citizenship, possessing instead elements for strengthening the linkage between them.

Krise der Europäischen Union Mehrere Ursachen führen zur Krise der Europäischen Union (EU). In der wissenschaftlichen Diskussion wird auch von der Poly-Krise der EU gesprochen. Die Krisen umfassen folgende Themen: Euro-Krise, Flüchtlingskrise, EU-kritische Parteien und Populisten, Brexit, Inhaltliche Spaltung der EU (Europäische Union der verschiedenen Geschwindigkeiten, Kerneuropa), Separatismus in der EU und Abspaltungen von Nationalstaaten als eigenständige Nationen und mögliche weitere Austritte von Mitgliedstaaten bis hin zur Auflösung der EU. Bedeutung: Die multiplen Krisen der Europäischen Union haben sich zu einer Situation verdichtet, in der der Status Quo der europäischen Integration und sogar der Fortbestand der EU zunehmend hinterfragt werden. Mit der gemeinsamen Währung Euro im Euroraum und den offenen Grenzen im Schengenraum sind zwei Kernprojekte gefährdet, die wie keine anderen für das Zusammenwachsen der EU stehen. Die Krise der Eurozone hatte sich im Jahr 2015 so weit zugespitzt, dass erstmalig der Austritt eines Mitgliedstaats aus der Eurozone drohte (Grexit) – und gerade noch abgewendet werden konnte. Dies ändert nichts an der Tatsache, dass der gemeinsame Währungsraum ein halbfertiges Integrationsprojekt ist, über dessen grundlegende Weiterentwicklung die Euro-Staaten tief gespalten sind. Der massive Zustrom von Flüchtlingen in die EU im Jahr 2015 hat die Defizite des Schengenraums und der gemeinsamen Asylpolitik offengelegt. Im Juni 2016 stimmte das britische Volk mehrheitlich für den Austritt aus der EU (Brexit). Rechtspopulisten und Nationalisten fordern den Austritt ihrer Nationalstaaten aus der EU in Deutschland (Dexit), Dänemark (Danexit), Finnland (Fixit), Frankreich (Frexit), den Niederlanden (Nexit), Polen (Polexit), Portugal (Pexit), Schweden (Swexit), Spanien (Spexit), Tschechien (Czexit) und Österreich (Öxit) (EU-kritische Parteien und Populisten). Hinsichtlich der Schuldenkrise und Währungskrise steht wiederholt das Ausscheiden der betroffenen Euro-Länder Griechenland (Grexit) ...

AbstractThis paper challenges the assumption that the European Union's (EU) unique multi-level governance system leads to distinct policy advisory structures. It focuses on the expert groups that advise the European Commission and examines how they are used in the policy process. Theoretically the relationship between the European Commission and its expert groups is conceptualised as determined by resource dependencies: the EU Commission uses expert groups to acquire expertise, political support and consensus. The assumption that the EU Commission uses its expert groups for multiple purposes beyond the technocratic acquisition of advice is confirmed by a quantitative analysis of their development over time and a qualitative analysis of their use in legislative drafting. These findings reflect those from studies undertaken at other levels of government, which indicates that the role of expert groups in the EU policy process is not a phenomenon sui generis.

The overarching purpose of this doctoral thesis is to determine if the system of legal mechanisms in European Community law governing what procedural rules national courts shall apply to Community rights can be reformed to better balance involved interests. European Community law is often applied and enforced by ordinary national courts that, as a general rule, supplement substantive Community rules with national procedural rules. While the Community rights that individuals can rely upon before national courts are the same in all Member States, the procedural rules that national courts apply to those Community rights can and often does differ between the Member States. While this order is often acceptable, Community law contains a number of exceptions from the general rule that it is the Member States that decide what procedural rules national courts shall apply to Community rights. Such exceptions are primarily motivated by the need to ensure the effectiveness of Community. In order to determine what interests should be taken into account when deciding what procedural rules national courts shall apply to Community rights and how a more balanced system could be constructed, the European legal system is herein compared to that of the United States. American State courts apply Federal law much like national European courts apply European Community law and, also similar to Community law, a system of legal mechanism governing what procedural rules State courts shall apply to Federal rights has developed. While U.S. law and European Community law are in this respect similar, the two are not identical. A comparison between the two reveals that the European approach improperly overlooks several interests that are central in the American approach. Most importantly, the European approach emphasizes and promotes the effectiveness of union law at the expense of upholding a proper division of power between union and states. American law also provides European Community law with practical advices regarding how a better balanced approach can be constructed and points to solutions that should be avoided.

This report aims at outlining the European Union's legal & policy framework of migration governance. Therefore, it presents relevant statistical data as well as legislation and introduces to the socio-economic, political and cultural context. Further, the EU competences and frameworks as well as the legal status of foreigners are presented. In its sixth section the report presents the changes in policy and governance of migration caused by the "refugee crisis". The EU attributes competence on asylum based on a body of regulations and jurisprudence of various origin, which are not directly binding on the EU but are binding on the MS and, therefore, indirectly also relevant for the European institutions. The obligation to comply with the constraints already arising from international law derives expressly from article 78 of the TFEU, under which the EU must develop a "common European asylum system" in accordance with the Geneva Convention (1951 convention and 1967 protocol), the principle of non-refoulement and other relevant treaties. EU law has, therefore, been grafted onto a body of internal and international rules, jurisprudence and practice, becoming a leading player of the right to asylum both on the continent of Europe and the international arena. The common European asylum system has the merit of having put together the various protections arising from international law on international protection through what we can term as "codification". At the same time, it also represents a "progressive development", both for the codification of the interpretations of how the Geneva Convention should evolve and the express inclusion in the European system of those cases other than the right of asylum which have not yet been independently and fully regulated at international level nor, often, at national level.

The Azores archipelago is considered to be an ultraperipheral region of European Union, because some of the characteristics of their development, and some specific politics were applied in these regions. A specific European development program, Azores Rural Development Plan – PRORURAL – for 2007 to 2013, is supported by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and is ongoing at this moment in Azores Archipelago. The objective of this paper is to characterize the type of agriculture curried out in the Azores Region. It starts by a small introduction of the Azores according to the Statistical National Institute (INE) and its brunch SREA – Statistics of Azorean Region - and finally by the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) Then it characterizes the agricultural farms and finally, it shows some relevant researches about Azorean farms, namely; (1) a classification of the Azorean farms and the type of objectives that can influence the decisionmaking of the Azoreans' farmers (2) the efficiency of dairy farms and (3) the analysis of the impact in the incomes' farmers. In the Azores, agriculture is based on dairy cattle productions and the remainder agricultural productions are residual. The Azores' islands produce mainly cow's milk (in 2010 it represented 30% of Portuguese milk production), but also beef. And there products comes from quite different production systems ranging from extensive to intensive grazing systems. The average agricultural area per farm is small (8.5 hectares) and the efficiency of the dairy farms is relatively low due in part to equipment amortization and is highly dependent of subsidies and - farms will not be economically sustainable if the subsidies were eliminated.