Suchergebnisse

This study seeks to make a contribution to a limited research on the systemic level of the national coordination of European affairs, which involves both domestic institutions and a permanent representation at the EU and national embassies in the EU member states and other countries. We explore the issue through a case study which concentrates on 1) several middle-sized EU member states and 2) coordination in the field of foreign and security policy. The study argues that the coordination at the systemic level has a rather a centralized character. The elements of decentralization, which can be also identified at the systemic level, are primarily related to information-gathering as well as representation at negotiations. Permanent representations are considerably more involved in coordination than national embassies, however. Adapted from the source document.

Within the context of the ongoing scholarly debate on post-accession compliance in the Central and Eastern European new member states, this paper examines the implementation of EU environmental policy in the Czech Republic since 2004, focusing on the transposition and application of six EU directives. It argues that, while the Czech Republic has had some difficulty complying with EU environmental law since becoming a member state, overall its performance in this area does not conform to pessimistic scenarios, but instead presents a more complex and differentiated picture. It also discusses the main factors inhibiting and supporting the implementation of EU environmental policy in the Czech Republic, showing that these tend to vary according to the specific issue or directive concerned. Adapted from the source document.

Religion in contemporary Europe has been forced out of politics but religious themes repeatedly return in European politics. The article deals with the question of how the Catholic faith, as a symbol of identification, and the political and social issues conditioned by Catholic faith influence current European policy. Sociological research has indicated a link between identification with the Church and social attitudes, and the influence of religious identification on the approach toward European integration. The key theme of the article is the analysis of religious topics at the political level and the consequences of the struggle of the cross, as well as the resulting influence on political or judicial power in European countries. Using specific examples, it is shown that some of the manifestations of the Catholic faith represent an identification symbol and that religious themes have remained strong. Adapted from the source document.

The article analyses the changes in norm enforcement in the EU that were triggered by the Eurozone crisis. It attempts to demonstrate that the Eurozone crisis contributed to a 'transplantation' of conditionality instruments (which traditionally exist within the EU's external relations) into the internal operations of the European Union. In particular, the article identifies which new internal rule-enforcement mechanisms of the EU share common structural features with the external EU conditionality (e.g. a vague legal framework; the use of the expertise of non-EU actors; an excess of competencies conferred to the EU; the institutional weakening of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Court of Justice; the format of the sanctions). The article comes to the conclusion that the formation of the EU's internal conditionality occurred mainly within the instruments aimed at the crisis management of public finances of the Eurozone states (the EFSF, the EFSM, and the ESM), but it also concludes that there was an expansion of the new EU conditionality into other areas of the European integration, such as the Schengen cooperation and cohesion policy. Adapted from the source document.

The process of European integration should be seen as the harmony of economic unification which is determined by a dynamic development with closed forms of intensive and deepening co-operation. Both processes, i.e. integration and co-operation, have been compared in the second part of the paper. The existence of a legal regime of its own is an important aspect of the economic integration. Therefore the necessity of national legal systems harmonisation, whose aim is to achieve the same legal regime for the common economic area, seems to be an inevitable process. As one from the driving forces of this process has become the need for balancing economic and social dimensions, the present-day EU policy responds to demanding challenges and it pays respect to the dignity of human being, while setting of the fundamental standard of social dimension is supposed in national legal order of the EU member states. The social policy of the EU has been therefore paid a close attention by the author. However the most challenging and prestigious act of the European integration has become the formation of a common European financial area, which is perceived in not only a European, but also in a world-wide context as well. It seems to be a process that is supposed to influence the development of international financial relations. This process bear certain level of risks, but it is really a unique opportunity for the creation of a single financial area for Europeans. (SOI : MO: S. 306)