Suchergebnisse

This wide-ranging theme takes Braudel's concept of the "Mediterranean" as its starting point. Braudel's vision of an enclosed sea as a geographical opportunity for economic integration between nations with different religions, languages and ethnicities and political bodies still functions as a model for studies on a wide range of contexts. The goal of the 50th Study Week was to go beyond the study of individual systems in isolation, and to combine instead different analysis of open and enclosed seas or coastal areas in order to understand the integration role played by maritime connections in Europe. Since in pre-industrial civilizations water transport was easier than land transport, the time has come to bring attention to the way these relationship networks operated both on a European level and with Asian and North African trade partners. This volume starts from the great research traditions which have, however, rarely been integrated on a larger and continental scale, and analyses them on either a regional or thematic basis. Immanuel Wallerstein has developed Braudel's concept by conceptualising its intercultural and transnational dimensions and its role in the system of labour. He called it a "world system", not because it involves the whole world, but because it is larger than any legally defined political unit. And it is a "world economy" because the base link between the different parts of the system has an economic nature. The various regional research aspects and traditions have been linked together in a coherent approach which aims at evaluating: - What geographical, nautical, technical, economic, legal, social and cultural elements influenced the emergence of the various regional networks, and how these worked; - The nature and role of seaports as nodal points of sea routes and of their hinterland through rivers, canals and roads; - The commercial and personal ties between merchants and shipowners in various ports; - How regional networks connected with each other and how, over time, they ended up integrating into larger units; - How private networks, initially between merchant and seafarer organizations, ended up dealing with local authorities and, after their growth, with states and empires in order to protect their interests.

In the European Union, negotiations on the financial perspectives and the determination of the Union's own resources focus mainly on the amount of the individual states' contributions, and much less on the Union's fiscal competence. This weakens the Union's ability to conduct ambitious long-term policies, potentially mortgaging its very raison d'être. Recent developments related to the COVID-19 crisis (and beyond) seem to open a window for future changes. The European tax is an issue that provokes a wide debate at both the European and national levels, and not only of a political nature, between sovereignists and federalists, but also on the technical-legal-constitutional modalities that such a change would imply. For this reason, it is useful to present a structured analysis first of the financial instruments assigned to the EU, then of a reform of own resources and, finally, of the possibility of envisaging the birth of a European tax, albeit with an awareness of the limits of such a reform with regard to the current constitutional set-up of the European Union. Consequently, it will also be necessary to ask what kind of tax would be appropriate for this purpose.

Attempts to adapt the idea of sovereignty in order to understand the phenomenon of European integration inevitably lead to two opposing theoretical representations: on the one hand, to configure European integration as a process derived from and legitimised by state sovereignty; on the other hand, on the contrary, to consider the European Union as the locus of sovereign legitimation and that this radiates out over the member states. These reconstructions are inadequate: on the one hand, they employ a notion of sovereignty that does not fit the plural organisations of state, and, in particular, the idea of federalism, and, on the other hand, they were unable to valorise the original features of the EU system, its functioning and relations with the member states. The aim is to investigate the prerequisites and limits of the Union's tax power and, to this end, the question of the (preferable) qualification of the Union will be addressed first; then, that of the contents and boundaries of the Union's tax competences in order to verify the ownership of a power to introduce own taxes, having regard to the regulatory function of the Union and the instrumental function for the establishment and functioning of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).