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.

Since the end of the 1980s, the intensifying of the politicization process has been one of the important characteristics of the EU integration process. The politicization in the EU is understood as the way of contesting and decision-making on public issues, the way that is opposite to the elitist and technocratic mode of decision-making, typical for the first decades of EU integration. Thus, the politicization, and also the politicization in the EU, is grasped as complementary to the public character of modern politics, especially with democracy. The European union is conceptualized as an extremely compound and non-centralized political system of a non-state type with the elements of consensus democracy and with a deeply segmented society as its basis, divided by national and many transnational lines. Within that society, as well as within its political institutions, the politicization process has been developing which has been influencing the functioning of the system considerably. We explore the experiences of politicization in other compound, consensus democracies in Europe – Belgium and Switzerland – and by comparing the specific cases of politicization, we are searching for the possible specific characteristics of politicization in the EU that stem from its described nature. Also, we are analyzing the possible impact of such politicization on the future of integration and politics in the EU. Although not always contributing to deepening of integration, the politicization in the EU, under specific circumstances, could have a democratizing effect. It serves as the opportunity for stimulating the debates on important issues and articulating the will of the citizens while the adequate forms of participation in the political process are still missing in the EU. In addition, we discuss the potential impact of the politicization of European issues on the gradual creation of the European public sphere or the Europeanisation of the national public spheres, as well as on the Europeanisation of society and emergence of the European political identity among the EU citizens. ; Jedna od značajnijih karakteristika u razvoju evropske integracije od kraja 1980- ih godina jeste intenziviranje procesa politizacije. Politizacija u Evropskoj uniji se razume kao način raspravljanja i odlučivanja o javnim pitanjima suprotan elitističkom i tehnokratskom načinu donošenja odluka, uobičajenom naročito za prve decenije razvoja evropske integracije. Stoga se politizacija, pa i politizacija u Evropskoj uniji, shvata kao komplementarna sa javnim karakterom moderne politike, posebno sa demokratijom. Evropska unija je konceptualizovana kao izrazito složen i necentralizovan politički sistem nedržavnog tipa sa elementima konsensualne demokratije koji za osnovu ima duboko segmentirano društvo, ispresecano osim nacionalnim i mnogim transnacionalnim podelama. Unutar tog društva, kao i unutar političkih institucija, odvija se proces politizacije koja ima značajnog uticaja na funkcionisanje sistema. Rad nastoji da izuči iskustva politizacije drugih složenih, konsensualnih demokratija u Evropi – Belgije i Švajcarske – te poređenjem pojedinih slučajeva politizacije traga za posebnim karakteristikama politizacije u EU koje proističu iz njene opisane prirode, kao i o mogućem uticaju takve politizacije na budućnost integracije i politike u EU. Iako neće uvek doprineti produbljivanju integracije, politizacija u EU pod određenim uslovima može imati demokratizujući uticaj jer predstavlja način da se oživi rasprava o važnim pitanjima i artikuliše volja građana u nedostatku adekvatnih oblika učešća u političkom procesu EU. Dodatno, razmatra se potencijalni uticaj koji politizacija evropskih pitanja može da ima na postepeno kreiranje evropske javne sfere ili evropeizaciju nacionalnih javnih sfera, kao i na evropeizaciju društva i kreiranje evropskog političkog identiteta među građanima Unije.

Mass migration, as it appears in the 21st century, is one of the greatest challenges of our globalized world. The unanswered questions of European Union (EU) immigration policy that emerged over the past few decades have become more pressing than ever. One of these urgent questions is: how can we provide for a developing European economy in an era of demographic decline in a way that it is based on the opportunities opened up by legally regulated forms of migration. A second question is: how can the EU ensure the safety of the newly arriving people in need and, at the same time, keep away illegal migrants and eliminate criminal activities related to migration. The European Union is destined to spread the principles of peace and unconditional respect for human rights not only within its own borders, but also on a global scale, when engaging in international affairs. In addition to observing human rights, however, the EU must also take into account all security considerations that are pertinent in guaranteeing the free movement of its citizens within the Member States.

The aim of this study is to give a detailed overview about the immigration into the European Union between 2015 and 2019. The paper also outlines some of the risks of immigration and the recent developments of the Schengen Information System and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex). The first part of the paper describes the immigration that the European Union has dealt with between 2015 and 2019, underlining the refugee flow in 2015-2016. This part includes statistics on the number of asylum applications and illegal border-crossings. The data is provided by the European Commission (Eurostat) and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency. The second part of the paper gives an overview of the European Agenda on Migration, examines the four pillars to manage migration better, including reducing the incentives for irregular migration, border management, common asylum policy and a new policy on legal migration. The third part describes the developments of the Schengen Information System and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency such as new technologies and strengthening border management, expansion of databases, joint operation outside the European Union and return operations. These developments will be essential for a better immigration management and they will make the defense of the European Union more effective, transparent and coordinated in the future.

The paper analyzes military capabilities of the European Union, as an important element of the credibility of the EU Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP). It discusses the development of these capabilities, and main problems that go along with the operationalization of these capabilities, as well as the prospects of their further development. Is the intergovernmental approach to the area of the EU security and defense policy a barrier to the development of EU military capabilities? What is the extent of the harmonization between 'military' competences of the EU and national specificities? The paper aims to provide answers to these questions. The first section analyzes the institutionalization of the EU security and defense policy, which includes both the establishment of special political and military structures responsible for the decision-making process within the framework of this policy, and the adoption of specific goals for the development of EU military capabilities. The second section analyzes the main difficulties met in the operationalization of EU military capabilities, concerning the efficiency of decision-making procedures, lack of strategic capabilities, the discord of national reforms regarding the modernization of the armed forces, and duplication of national programs covering the military equipment. The third section discusses the prospects of the development of EU military capabilities in the light of EU member states' military budget cuts. It concludes that the gradual evolution of the EU security and defense policy can be seen as an incentive for coordinating the efforts of the member states in the development of EU military capabilities.

The aim of this article is to discuss the main benefits of and problems with the creation of the EU single market and to indicate the main activities to eliminate the still existing barriers. The EU single market is the greatest success of European integration. It enables afree movement of people, goods, services and capital; for consumers, this means agreater choice in goods and services as well as lower prices. The EU single market also poses an opportunity for employees and businesses as administrative burdens involved in trans-border activity are decreased. However, in reality, there are a number of barriers hindering the smooth functioning of the single market. For the futurę of the EU single market, it is key to remove these barriers; therefore, it is with this purpose above all that the EU initiatives and activities for the market growth are undertaken. In addition, there are appearing new challenges connected with globalization, technological progress, the growing importance of services, the increase in unemployment in certain countries, and climate and the environment protection.

When in 2007, after the rejection of the Constitution for Europe in France and the Netherlands, European politicians defined their mandate to work on the Reform Treaty, they explicitly promised that 'the constitutional concept is . abandoned' and that 'the Treaty of European Union and Treaty on Functioning of the Union will not have a constitutional character.' In its Maastricht and Lisbon decisions, the German Federal Constitutional Court concluded that the European Union did not have a constitution since it did not have demos. The main purpose of this article is to prove the opposite. Accepting Weiler's argumentation that the EU is a political messianic venture par excellence, the author claims that, in addition to pursuing messianic goals, Europe's political elite has for a long time been streaming to root Political Messianism into democracy and position the EU in the global world. The main vehicle to transform the Community/Union from an international to a constitutional legal order has been constitutionalism. Starting from the French revolutionary Declaration, which declared civil rights and in Article 16 proclaimed 'a society in which the observance of the law is not assured, nor the separation of powers defined, has no constitution at all,' the author has showed that the Union has an antirevolutionary, uncodified and evolutive constitution, whose elements are to be found in the Lisbon Treaty and its related documents, the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice, and to some extent in the constitutional orders of the Member States. The European constitution does not mirror a national constitution in the sense that it is attributable to the people, nor it is a revolutionary product aimed at limiting the government in the name of individual freedom. It is a rule of law-oriented type of constitution, born in the process of constitutionalization and aimed at submitting public power to law on the Union level. From the perspective of modern constitutionalism, the quality of this constitution is a matter of concern, since it has managed to connect the rule of law with the protection of human rights, but has failed to do the same with regard to democracy. Despite some efforts to entrench the democratic principle in the Lisbon Treaty, the present crisis in the Union is to a great extent the result of this failure. The fact that democratic defects at the Union level appear less visible when pitted against the state of affairs in national constitutional systems cannot mitigate this failure. Yet, assuming that the EU will survive the present crisis and having in mind that the Union is 'work in progress', the issue which still remains open is whether the future efforts to eliminate the defects of the European Constitution should be tied to traditional ways of thinking about democratic accountability within nation states, or one should stop thinking in terms of a Westphalian nation-state, and accept that transnational systems can provide a cure for democratic failings in ways that differ from traditional postulates of democracy.

The aim of this paper is to establish and clarify the relationship between corruption level and development among European Union countries. Out of the estimated model in this paper one can conclude that the level of corruption can explain capital abundance differences among European Union countries. Also, explanatory power of corruption is higher in explaining economic development than in explaining capital abundance, meaning stronger relationship between corruption level and economic development than between corruption level and capital abundance. There is no doubt that reducing corruption would be beneficial for all countries. Since corruption is a wrongdoing, the rule of law enforcement is of utmost importance. However, root causes of corruption, namely the institutional and social environment: recruiting civil servants on a merit basis, salaries in public sector competitive to the ones in private sector, the role of international institutions in the fight against corruption, and some other corruption characteristics are very important to analyze in order to find effective ways to fight corruption. Further research should go into this direction.

One of the basic and strategic goals of post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina is a full membership in the European Union. During 1992-1995, Bosnia and Herzegovina has passed through one of the most difficult periods in its' history. The war has completely devastated the economical structure and the aftermaths were visible in the following years. As a new paradigm, the European Union appears. The European Union has helped the Western Balkans countries to overcome national tensions and offered them a new perspective; new regional and european integrations should be a new, historical chance for them. In the light of this, the focus of this paper is the impact of trade liberalization between the European Union and Bosnia and Herzegovina on the export from Bosnia and Herzegovina to European Union. The above mentioned impact has been observed in the period of eleven years. The total export amount of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2015 was 4,6 billion euros, while the amount of the import was 8,1 billion euros, which makes nearly 60% in favor of import. Traditionally, Bosnia and Herzegovina's most important foreign trade partner is the European Union where Bosnia and Herzegovina has a deficit in foreign trade. The portion of export to EU during 2015 was 71,79% while the portion of import was 60,85%. The coverage of import over export was 66,89%. In the period of 2005-2015, most of the products have been placed to markets in Croatia, Germany, Italy, and Serbia, which is not the EU member. The process of trade liberalization in 2015 has resulted in surplus of trade with certain EU countries; Austria, Luxembourg and Estonia while the decrease in trade has been recorded with Germany, Slovenia and Czech Republic. Regarding the export, Bosnia and Herzegovina mailny places products which have labour-intensive character. In the econometrics analysis, extented gravitational models of trade have been placed. Besides the abovementioned, the following econometrical techinques have been used: panel data models (PD), fixed effecs models (RE) and panel corrected standard errors (PCSE). In addition, Hausman test has been applied. According to the analysis that has been carried out, the following has been concluded; InGDPi, InGDPj and InDISTij variables are statistically important on the level of 5% in the period of gradual liberalization. The SSP1 an EK variables are not siginificant.In the other moder, in the period of complete liberalization InGDPi, InGDPj and SSP2 variables have a significant impact on a dependent variable on a level of 5%. InDISTij and EK variables have a significant impact on a level od 5% as well. The above mentioned result confirm the research hypothesis; trade liberalization has a significant impact on the export of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the EU. The basic limit of this research can be a relatively short observation period, caused by the fact that the data of merchandise trade between Bosnia and Herzegovina and EU countries until 2005 are not accessible.