Suchergebnisse

The largest ethnic minority of the European Union is constituted by the approximately 10-12 million Roma population. Geographically they are primarily located in the South Eastern European EU Member States, and the solution of the Roma question constitutes a number one problem in the home affairs of these countries. Most of the countries are already members–or candidate members –of the European Union but their joining to the Western market economies is not lacking problems. As a consequence of the current financial and economic crisis, the EU has become even more "two-speed". In this crisis situation the situation of the Roma population living here has become particularly hopeless. The rapid increase in the number of the Roma population in South Eastern Europe living among the conditions of the demographic boom, as well as their geographical expansion intensify the sensitivity of the mainstream society regarding the questions of the transforming coexistence. The shift in the ratio within the population sharpened and magnified the differences between the dissimilar lifestyle and the philosophy of life respecting the two major social groups which led to sharpening tensions. Of course, the deeply desperate Roma population makes more and more attempts in order to be able to migrate from the South Eastern European countries to the richer regions of Western Europe and North America in the hope of an easier life. They, however, face more and more obstacles. The social and economic integration of the Roma population in Hungary is mainly hindered by the low level of education, the high level of unemployment, criminality and the existing prejudices experienced in the mainstream society.

The aim of the study is to present the position and possibilities of Vojvodina in the European territorial cooperation with special focus on the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. Firstly, I examine the external relations of Vojvodina. I analyse the institutionalisation and the future of the DKMT Euroregion and the Banat-Triplex Confinium EGTC from the aspect Vojvodina, because these cooperations are significant component of the European integration process. The European territorial cohesion includes all the cross-border, transnational and interregional cooperations and democratic local and regional structures, forming under the identity of the EU Danube Strategy. This macro-regional strategy covers parts of 8 EU countries and 6 non EU countries (include Serbia) and faces numerous specific challenges: big socioeconomic disparities, underdeveloped potential of the Danube waterway, a unique environment threatened by pollution –to name just a few. Accordingly, there is a need for a stronger than usual cooperation dimension and for an integrated cooperative response across borders. Finally, I summarise how the Danube Strategy can achieve greater effect and reveal how macro-regional cooperation can help tackle local problems in Vojvodina, providing alternative solutions to problems stemming from legal and institutional differences of the border regions.

The legal relationship between civil servants and the state, is not governed by the theory of sovereignty, which is relevant in the outer relationships between the state and its citizens, though it has some, limited effect on the inner relationships between the civil servant and the state organ, as well. The inner relationship falls into the category of "dependent work" and therefore civil servants must enjoy the employment rights generally applicable to employees with some alterations. Among such rights, two are investigated more closely in the paper: protection against unjust dismissal and collective rights of workers (right to organise, right to bargain collectively, and right to strike). In 2010 the Hungarian state modified its regulations on civil servants and introduced dismissal without notice referring to the argument that the parties of the legal relationship must be treated equally and because the civil servant can resign from its position without notice, the same right should be enjoyed by the state, as well. The Hungarian Constitutional Court and European Court of Justice nullified this law because of violating the right to work, the right to human dignity, and the right to hold public positions. The regulations on collective rights of civil servants have been systematically violated by the Hungarian legislator since 1992, when the first regulation on civil servants passed. Until 2011 the right to organise has been enjoyed without disturbance by civil servants but since than the state has organise the Bar of Hungarian Civil Servants into which all civil servants are obliged to enter. Because the Bar has rights which are usually considered to be union rights, therefore the Bar is a competitor of the civil servants' unions; consequently the regulations on the Bar violate the right to organise. The right to bargain collectively has never been enjoyed by unions of civil servants since 1992, despite such right is generally applied in developed countries app. since 1960-1970s and is also accepted by the international conventions on social and economic rights. The right to strike is also restricted by the Agreement on Right to Strike in Civil Service (1994) which prohibits the rights to strike far beyond the limits established by the Fundamental Law and the Act on Right to Strike (Act No. VII of 1989). Alternative methods of collective dispute settlement (mediation, arbitration) are also neglected by the Hungarian legal regime.