Suchergebnisse

The Lisbon Treaty has brought significant changes into the architecture of the European Union. The most important novelty, however, is the establishment of a full unity of the Union structure achieved by creating new and strengthening the existing elements. The new elements of this unity are the disappearance of the European Community, the 'independence' of the European Atomic Energy Community, constituting the European Union as a single entity and the introduction of EU values. At the same time, the Lisbon Treaty has strengthened the existing elements of the common institutional mechanisms, rules on amending the founding treaties and EU membership. However, constituting the Union as a single entity which has replaced and succeeded the European Communities has not abolished the EU elements of diversity. In the areas that differed, even before the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, from the community pillar, there remain significant differences in the nature and the scope of competences of the Union institutions. This mainly regards the common foreign and security policy, which now includes the defense policy, where the existing model of inter-state cooperation has been only slightly interfered with. In contrast, in the field of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, which has become part of a larger Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, the inter-state model of cooperation has been abandoned in some of its most important elements. However, the implementation of some of the important elements of the supranational model has been postponed.

Turkey first applied for EU membership in 1987 and started negotiations for full membership in October 2005 after lengthy and challenging negotiations between EU member states. This master's thesis attempts to examine the relationship between the negotiations for EU membership that are going on between Turkey and the EU Commission and the public discussion on the subject. The research material consists of selected posts on the Financial Times discussion forum and the Acquis communautaire and Copenhagen criteria. By comparing the research material this thesis attempts to investigate if the public deliberation and official negotiations focus on the same issues and requirements for membership. The theoretical background for this analysis is deliberative democracy, according to which public debate should be a prerequisite for agenda setting and decision making. The findings of the thesis reveal that the public discussion does touch on the acquis communautaire and Copenhagen criteria to some degree, but the public is also concerned with non-acquis issues such as the culture and history. A unique feature of the accession negotiations is also the amount of commentary from heads of state regarding the negotiations, which was also noted in the research material. In the light of deliberative democratic theory it can be noted that the public may take part in the discussion over Turkey's membership, but it has little or no chances of setting the agenda for the negotiations.

Već više od dve godine traje velika pan-evropska debata o Budućnosti evropske socijal-demokratije (2009-2011) kao pokušaj odgovora na izazove globalne krize, ali i na duboku i dugotrajnu krizu same socijal-demokratije. Dok su tokom 2000. godine socijal-demokrati bila na vlasti u većini evropskih zemalja (11 od 15 članica EU ), danas vladaju u samo nekoliko perifernih zemalja Evrope (4 od 27 članica EU u 2011). Iako u nekoliko velikih zemalja još uvek privlače 20-30% birača, odnosno poseduju koalicioni kapacitet i za osvajanje vlasti, ipak je marginalizacija ključni trend. U traganju za vlastitim identitetom, novom paradigmom, pan-evropska debata problematizuje ključne teme i izazove naše civilizacije, kao što su globalizacija, logika kapitalizma i njegove moguće reforme, smisao i značaj Evropske Unije. Ova debata ponovo vraća u javni diskurs i niz ključnih koncepata na kojima se gradi zamisao o 'dobrom društvu', kao što su društvene vrednosti, kultura, značaj srednje klase i ekološka i socijalna održivost. ; We are in the third year of the pan-european debate on the future of European Social Democracy (ESD). It is a response to the challenges of the global economic crisis, but also a response to the deep internal crisis within the ESD. While the social democrats were in power in the majority of European countries in the year 2000 (11 of 15 EU members), they are rulling parties in only few peripheral countries in 2011 (4 of 27 EU countries). Althouth they are still able to attact 20-30% of voters, and with toghether with their partners are even able to form goverments in some countries, their margananalization is a major trend. This is not only because of electoral defeats, but it is due to membership decline, shaken ties with trade unions, lack of an alternative program in a situation when neoliberalism is shaken and political actors have searching for new formulae. In a search of their own identity, new paradigm and attractive program, pan-european debate critically analyze key issues and challenges of our civilization, such as globalization, nature of capitalism and its possible reforms, meaning and importance of the EU , the role of government regarding markets. This debate has brouth back into public discourse many important concepts that constitute the idea of 'good society,' such as social values (equailty, solidarity, social justice), buth also importance of culture, middle class, and social and environmental sustainability.

This work, prepared and published during the author's stay at the RSCAS, EUI, is a "compilation thesis" (in Finnish "artikkeliväitöskirja"), Department of Political Sciences, University of Helsinki, and contains the major part of the author's PhD thesis (forthcoming print monograph, 2012). ; The future is uncertain, and the financial system of the European Union has to take into account this uncertainty. This book looks at the different means it has at its disposal to do so, and analyses how these means have evolved since the creation of the general budget of the European Communities in 1968. The analysis is extended to a broader study of the development of the European Union through several case studies: negotiations on the Financial Regulation of 25 June 2002,on its first modifi cation, adopted on 13 December 2006, and on the Interinstitutional Agreement (IIA) of 17 May 2006 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and sound fi nancial management and on the Multiannual Financial Framework for 2007-2013. The question of the uncertainty of the future is addressed using the so-called "Theory of Budgetary Flexibility". This theory, developed originally to analyse national budgetary systems, establishes an essential distinction between External Flexibility and Internal Flexibility, on the one hand, and Annual Flexibility and Multiannual Flexibility on the other hand. It is particularly useful here as it enables us to examine under a common framework processes that are often considered separate (and treated in the literature as such), and to draw conclusions at systems' level. The book is divided into three Parts: - Part One (Chapters 1 to 3), which forms the theoretical part of this book, includes an analysis of the specificities and of the functioning of the budgetary and financial systems of the European Union, while presenting an "état des lieux" of studies carried out in these fields; - Part Two (Chapters 4 to 13) deals with changes that have been made to various forms of flexibility since 1968. Special attention is paid not only to the consequences these changes have had for the various actors involved – namely the European Parliament, the Council, the Commission and Member States – but also for the financial system of the European Union as a whole; - Part Three (Chapters 14 to 18) addresses the question of how the changes examined in Part Two affect the general development of the European Union.

The article is based on a critical review of existing literature in the field of political participation and representation of women in democratic institutions and procedures in contemporary society. Then, on the basis of relevant statistical indicators, it provides a state-of-the-art review of the participation of women in executive, legislative and judicial government in the European Union countries. The paper especially highlights the obstacles women face in the candidature for political office and when entering the political arena. It takes into account only the political factors, such as the type and structure of the electoral system, the number of parties in the parliament and their ideological differences, the number of candidates at polling stations, and the candidates' nominations for political offices, which have a crucial influence on the possibility for women to enter the political arena. Gender equality policy in the European Union in recent years has achieved significant success in the direction of larger and more equitable representation of women in all spheres of public life. However, women still do not participate in a sufficient number of institutions of governance and decision-making in economics and politics. The mere numerical, descriptive presence of women in political institutions is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the increase of their political power.

After the failure of the European constitutional process, the question of creating the European identity has become in the center of attention of the academic public again. According to the scientific literature about Europe it is mostly discussed as the set of institutional solutions, but not as the collective cultural space, the dominant paradigm discussing the European identity is the one that sees it as entirely political, indeed. The goal of this work is to show that insisting on creating of purely political European identity has its basic neither in theory nor in practice. In order to document the claim, in this work the author critically investigates different theoretical approaches studying the European identity and analyzing the results of available empirical researches tries to determine a role of cultural, civil and instrumental components in its creation.

Rad pokušava objasniti objektivnu razliku između državnog saveza i saveza država kao oblika federativnog odnosno konfederativnog uređenja odnosa među članicama, odnosno distingvirati između sintagmi statusa države i državnog statusa te uputiti na nužnost razlikovanja ustavnog kontinuiteta koji postoji u uslovima kad država ne mijenja status države i ustavnog diskontinuiteta kad dolazi do preobražaja državnog statusa određenog državnog subjekta. Na primjerima istorijskih i savremenih oblika unija, kroz istorijsku se dinamiku postojanja unija pokazuje da nijedna unija nije mogla niti može pretendovati da apsorbuje osnovne atribute članice/a, država, koje ječine. Ključna pitanja koja se obrađuju sa gledišta savremenog konstitucionalizma u odnosu na teorijski pojam unije su pitanja ustavnog diskontinuiteta do koga dolazi izlaskom članica unije iz njenog sastava, kao i posljedično tome međunarodnog priznanja i osamostaljenja članica unije. ; The paper attempts to explain the objective difference between a state union and a union of states as the respective forms of federative and confederative systems of government. It tries to distinguish between the expressions status of a country and state status and to point out the necessity of distinguishing between constitutional continuity that exists when a country does not change its status and constitutional discontinuity when the state status of a country is changed. The historical and contemporary examples of unions show that no union could have aspired or can aspire to absorb the basic features of its member state(s). The key issues, dealt with from the aspect of contemporary constitutionalism and theoretical idea of a union, are the issues of constitutional discontinuity that occurs when member state(s) decide to leave the unio n, form independent state(s) and demand international recognition

Corruption is a complex social, political and economic phenomenon, affecting the society on the whole. It undermines democratic institutions, decelerates the economic development, and contributes to the destabilization of the society. All spheres of the society may be affected by corruption, and numerous studies have showed that the defense and security sector is among the sectors which are the most susceptible to corruption. Fight against corruption is a true necessity of any democratic society and it is, at the same time, a prerequisite of reform changes, and building of transparent and accountable institutions. That is why the fight against corruption and the integrity building in the defense sector have found their place within NATO and partner countries. For these reasons, NATO partnership program has been developed, aiming to find optimal models of building the integrity and defense institutions, with reducing the corruption to minimum, and of maintaining or increasing the efficiency and the effectiveness of collective security.