Suchergebnisse

Croatia's EU accession has been covered in Croatian dailies as one of the pivotal foreign-policy events of the past several years judging by the number of the pertinent texts in the periods covered by this analysis (the positive avis & the postponement of the negotiations): in the four studied months in 2004 & 2005, a total of 1,523 texts in the three analyzed dailies ( Vecernji list, Jutarnji list, Vjesnik) were identified. Regardless of the differences in the profile of these dailies, there are no significant differences in reporting, which shows that the process of Croatia's EU accession is not only a popular topic but also utilized by the media & politics. The content analysis of the three Croatian dailies confirms that the European Union is presented within a political framework, while a whole array of other related topics has been neglected in the coverage. References. Adapted from the source document.

Europe is a contingent product of its institutions rather than a political project. Although the announced goal was simplification & rationalization of its institutional system, the opposite occurred: the system has become even more complex. The author looks into the process dynamics & implementation results of the Lisbon Treaty (effective 1 December 2009), showing that the traditional European compromise leads to outcomes that none of the actors really wanted, & that no one is satisfied with. The European Union is an arena of institutional coercions & games, the rules of which are occasionally readjusted. This occasional readjustment accounts for the survival of the system, which is a priori unstable, for each unsatisfied partner thinks & hopes that redefinition might provide him with an opportunity to gain a better position. The process is especially visible in negotiations regarding the Lisbon Treaty, above all in the institutional innovation which is the function of the new president (of the European Council). The conclusive interpretation of the Lisbon Treaty will depend on the outcome of the bureaucratic struggle right until 2011, & prior to a new definition of the rules, undoubtedly no later than 2014. The new EU system testifies primarily to the fundamental trait of European integration, which strongly favoured from the outset a repeated rethinking of its form (its institutions) in the light of considerations regarding its goals (its policies). Adapted from the source document.

Although the European Union is not a representative democracy, at least in some elements its political system is increasingly imitating the national liberal model of governance. So far, in the development of the European political system & in the draft EU Constitution the dual nature of the ED (federal & intergovernmental) seems to have remained in place. This is also shown in the persisting national elements in party-related institutions & processes within the EU political system that puts "its" liberal democratic characteristics in question. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

Whilst completing the largest enlargement round in its history, European Union faced the need to define both its identity & nature & limits of its future borders. In the aftermath of the failed constitutional referenda & suspension of the ratification process, the pace of future enlargement will inevitably slow down. This has already been the case with the East European countries during the 1990s, whose membership perspective was overclouded by Union's internal issues. Expansion of the EU will undoubtedly continue, but its present absorption capacity has reached endpoint. The chance for the institutional reform, through which future enlargement would keep momentum, has been discarded together with the rejection of Constitutional Treaty. The main issue of todays EU's relations with immediate neighbourhood is the way to ensure democratic consolidation & Europeanisation of these states in absence of the full membership perspective. Upon that European Neighbourhood Policy was envisaged, through which EU offers "everything, but institutions.". References. Adapted from the source document.

In this paper the author analyses the possibility of 'creating' a European political people and forming a European political identity and a European political community. In the first, theoretical part of the paper, the author defines two concepts of people -- demos and ethnos -- and describes problems in identity building on purely political grounds of people as demos. By examining the references on a European political people in the EU legal foundations, the author illustrates dual premises of legitimacy for the Union and the Union's identity referents which are generally of a universalist nature. In the second, empirical part of the paper, the author presents how the European identity is formed, in line with classic distinction between 'civic' and 'ethnic' identity. Since the Eurobarometer survey showed a low level of European identification of EU member states' citizens, the author presents concepts which aim to overcome the low level of European affiliation. In the final part of the paper the question which is examined is whether the existence of a European political people is necessary for the future of the European integration. To this end, the author uses various theoretical approaches to the 'creation' of a European political people: economic/market approach, communitarian/statist approach, 'constitutional patriotism' of Habermas, Weiler's 'multiple demoi' and pluralism/particularism. Adapted from the source document.

This paper discusses the dilemmas regarding the nature of the European Union in contemporary political science and in the field of European Studies as a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field. The first part focuses on the evolution of the European Union from the original European Coal and Steel Community, via the European Economic Community, to its growth into a political union. The Maastricht Treaty, which lay the foundations of the European Union as a political union of its member states, instigated a debate on the actual nature of this supranational union as political construct. Consequently, the author analyses the various characteristics of the European Union, which is manifest in various forms, and asserts that it has some "state-like features" and some "organisation-like features", which are characteristic of international organizations. In the approach to the European Union as a supra-state community, some essential traits of both federation and confederation are simultaneously manifest, corresponding to two tendencies in the development of the European Union as a super-state. Moreover, there is the conception of the European Union as an empire. Finally, this paper specifies the tasks of present-day political science and the need to find a new heuristic instrument, which, according to the author, can be found in the conception of the political system that was introduced in political science (comparative politics) by Gabriel Almond and David Easton. Such an approach, which is nowadays further developed by Jean-Pierre Quermonne, Wolfgang Wessels and Simon Hix, is additionally strengthened by the fact that various models of democratic practice are being incorporated in the European Union in opposition to the basic, legitimacy-related democratic deficit, models which confirm the possible conclusion regarding a European Union as a complex community with many faces. Adapted from the source document.