Suchergebnisse

As a result of the parliamentary elections of October 2016, a political party with a clear anti-NATO and anti- EU political platform made it to the parliament. The Alliance of Patriots was not able to win any majoritarian districts but still managed to receive enough votes to pass the 5% threshold in the country-wide proportional vote. This contribution looks at foreign policy discourses in post-election Georgia and argues that a possible explanation for the rise of such populist parties can be found in the ambiguous messages coming from the West. To be more precise, as the EU's Eastern Partnership does not offer a membership perspective, it becomes harder for the political elite to sell the pro-European foreign policy agenda to the Georgian public. The issue of the two breakaway territories still remains unresolved, Russia maintains a military presence there, while for the foreseeable future NATO and the EU membership is off the table for Georgia. Hence, in such circumstances, unless substantial progress in relations with the Euro-Atlantic institutions is made, the message of the Alliance of Patriots - that pro-Western foreign policy endangers Georgia, leaving it to face the Kremlin alone - could gain more support.

The historical political relations that identified a cooperating and solidary European Union, a European Union willing to help generate political changes towards a Central America that was living through moments of crisis due to the armed internal conflicts and structural problems, are turned at present to complex relations where the big financial and economic interests of big transnational capital is the priority. It is within this frame that the negotiation process for an Association Agreement between two regions absolutely asymmetric in terms of growth, development and commercial capacity is developing. This study examines the relations of dependency between the European Union and Central America within the frame of the Association Agreement currently under negotiation. In particular, this work makes a political, critical and chronological analysis of the relations between Central America and the European Union, from the past to the current process of negotiation of the Association Agreement; a process that it is about to conclude in the middle of 2010. It implements a hypothetic deductive method and a documented analysis combined with qualitative research methods. The study suggests that the conditions of dependency that have characterized the relations between both regions will deepen and that the signing of the Association Agreement will validate the postulates of the Dependency theory within the discipline of International Relations theory. Although this analysis is not intended to generate new ideas or approaches to Dependency theory, it will certainly open avenues for future works in regards to the impact that such Agreements represent for Central America and their relations with the developed world. Asiasanat:Central America, European Union, Free Trade, Association Agreement, Dependency Theory, Cooperation, Political Dialogue, Commerce

Aiming to track the implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union, there the mutual trade exchange of agro-industrial products was analysed, first of all the trade with seed corn, which fell in line with the most important agro-industrial products of Serbia in trade with the European Union. In order to track the relative changes in trade exchange value, an eleven-year-lasting period was analysed by using the comparative advantage model in international trade, while the absolute data values were shown through a prism of constant prices. There were used the official data of the European Union, as well as the official data of the Republic Statistical Office.

The accession strategy based on the conditionality principle has turned out to be the European Union (EU)'s most successful external governance tool. It provides the civilian power EU with the means to Europeanize the continent, that is, to project her identity beyond the borders, making acceding countries similar to herself. Yet, the South-East European (SEE) enlargement currently suffers from defections, fake compliance, and blockades. The case of Serbia is particularly interesting, since Serbia holds the key to providing peace and stability to the entire region. The research question therefore reads: To what extent has the EU's conditionality strategy been effective in the Serbian case? The theoretical argument is based on identity theory. In this perspective, the EU's (problematic) behaviour vis-à-vis Serbia stems from her uneasiness to come to terms with the 'near other' of the Western Balkans. Conversely, Serbia still struggles to find her place in Europe. In order to highlight this identity mismatch, the negotiations on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) will be examined in detail. It will be demonstrated how the Kosovo question and the war criminals' affair overshadow Serbia's accession. The hypothesis is that the EU's conditionality strategy is overstrained since the EU pursues too many different goals and the EU's inconsistent rhetoric resonates badly in the Serbian discourse. As a consequence, the conditionality principle has degenerated to a policy of farce.

Georgia has signed the Association Agreement with the EU in 2014. Beside the benefits, which are provided to the country of Georgia from the EU in the frame of the agreement, Georgia also took responsibility to fulfill several tasks, including the responsibility to approximate the agenda of Georgia's public policy to the standards of the EU governance.The signing of the Association Agreement had strongly influenced the area of labour relations in Georgia and created the necessity to introduce several new regulations and even to create and strengthen various institutions, one of such institutions is the labour inspection, the main function of this institute is to provide the safety of workers at their workplace.We try to inquire the build-up process of labour inspection in the context of the Association Agreement with the EU, the aim of the work is to describe the formation process of the workers' right advocating institute, which institute is eligible to fundamentally influence the labour relations standards in Georgia

The European Union (EU) represents a certain partnership and alliance between states and countries. It is not governed as the United States of America, nor intergoverned as the United Nations. Member States of the EU are sovereign countries united to become privileged and globally successful. Every enlargement of the Union is significant, but the fifth enlargement has been recognised, so far, as the most significant, showing the unification of Eastern and Western Europe. However, the most significant enlargement is yet to come with the Western Balkan countries becoming Member States of the EU (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia), considering the political and economic situation of the region. The European Commission has proposed the Stabilization and Association Process (SAP) for South East Europe, as the most significant frame for the EU to ensure relations with the Western Balkan countries and to direct its overall enlargement policy to this part of Europe. Associations of the Western Balkans are usually negative, referring to weak economic development, wars and political instability, which have led to the pre-accession strategy for the EU membership known as the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA). The aim of this paper is to present the progress of the Western Balkan countries towards the EU membership, their current state, and the problems they face on that path and to explain the SAP and the SAA.

Intro -- Grain Subsidies in Ukraine: The Role of WTO Law and the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Identification of the Research Subject -- Subject of the Study -- The Course of Examination -- 1 Economic Aspects of State Support Measures (Subsidies) with Specific Consideration of Agriculture -- 1.1 Nature and Impact of Subsidies -- 1.2 Specificity of Agricultural Sector -- 1.2.1 Features of Agricultural Markets -- 1.2.2 Components of Agricultural Policies -- 1.2.3 Development Aspects of Agricultural Policies -- 1.2.4 Effects of Agricultural Support -- 1.2.5 Justification of Agricultural Subsidies in Light of the Concept of Multifunctionality -- Conclusion of Chapter 1 -- 2 Introduction to Agricultural Policies in Ukraine -- 2.1 Process of Agricultural Transition in Ukraine -- 2.1.1 The Nature of Agricultural Transition -- 2.1.2 Agricultural Transition in Eastern Europe: Common Trends and Specific Features in Ukraine -- 2.2 Legal Framework of Agricultural Policies in Ukraine -- 2.2.1 Lex generalis and Lex specialis of Grain Trade Regulation -- 2.2.2 Organisation Forms of Agricultural Production in Ukraine -- 2.3 Objective Handicaps for Agricultural Growth -- 2.3.1 Grain Production Costs -- 2.3.2 Farm-gate Prices -- 2.3.3 Sustainability Concerns -- Conclusion on Chapter 2 -- 3 External Factors with Influence on Ukrainian Grain Policies -- Scope of the Chapter -- 3.1 Implementation of Agricultural Disciplines within World Trade Law -- 3.1.1 Emerging Power of the WTO -- 3.1.2 Particularities of Multilateral Regulation on Agricultural Trade -- 3.1.3 A Short Overview of the AoA Disciplines -- 3.1.4 Agricultural Policies in the Framework of the Doha Reform Process -- 3.2 Agricultural Commitments within Regional Trade Agreements.