Suchergebnisse

The article addresses the reforms of border security, migration and asylum policies in times of recent crises in the European Union. The author turns to the analysis of the refugee crisis and closing borders during pandemic in the framework of the «failing forward» approach, which combines the ideas of both liberal intergovernmentalism and neofunctionalism. Describing the process of reforming the Schengen Border Code and the Dublin Regulation, the article demonstrates how the Commission's ambitious initiatives to promote communitarian method of governance were reduced in the Council to a minimum common denominator. These decisions contributed to the temporary settlement of migration and border security problems, which were aggravated by crisis. They promoted the process of European integration to a certain extent, but did not guarantee from future events of force majeure. The cases of refugee crisis and pandemic allow to prove the author's argument that a new Schengen reform was required to legitimize restrictions of citizens' trips. Concentrating on the analysis of this new reform, the author comes to conclusion that the EU's choice of an intergovernmental way of Schengen governance does not ensure success in case of a new crisis. Thereby the logic of "failing forward" will be reproduced with a high probability.

The article addresses the EU legal and practical actions in the new field of combating organized crime-trafficking in cultural goods. The author argues that this area of crime has a long history, but today the scale of criminal networks' activities has reached unprecedented level, which makes it possible to consider crimes in the field of art as an «emerging» type of crime. Turning to history, the author gives examples of high-profile cases uncovered by law enforcement agencies of European countries since the 1960s, and draws attention to the changing methods of criminal activity with the use of social networks and new digital technologies. The article analyzes international and European legislation against trafficking in cultural goods, as well as practical cooperation of law enforcement agencies to detect and prosecute smugglers and fraudsters operating in art markets. In conclusion, the author notes the low efficiency of both the legal system and international cooperation, citing as one of the reasons the insufficient concern of politicians about the scale of the new threat.

The article focuses on the proposals for the European Parliament's reform against the background of a corruption scandal called «Qatargate» due to bribes by MEPs and attempts to influence EU policy towards Qatar during preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The author traces the EP's initiative, from the resolution adopted in December 2022, which laid down outlines of the future reform to the EP President's plan on specific points of reform, which was presented in January 2022. The more radical proposals of the EP political groups that were not included in the final version are particularly noted. The author points to the dissatisfaction of MEPs with the term «Qatargate», which is explained by the EU leadership's concern to spoil relations with the state, on which the EU energy security largely depends today. The second part of the article addresses the upcoming law on foreign agents within the framework of the EU legislative package for the democracy protection. The author notes that the law, called EuroFARA, is supposed to be an analogue of the US law on foreign agents (FARA), despite the fact that the corresponding Russian law, which was also developed on the FARA basis, is severely criticised in the European Union.

The article addresses a new birth of the European Political Community (EPC) concept, which was proposed by the President of France in May 2022, and its implementation. The author traces evolution of the idea since the birth of the European Communities and F. Mitterand's «European Confederation» and notes the modern interest for the possibilities of creating an organization with a greater political and geographical scope than the European Union. The article examines the proposals of E. Macron, and that of Ch. Michel, the President of the European Council, who took up the initiative, on the EPC participants, the new Community's goals and objectives, its institutional architecture and the difference from the EU neighborhood policy. Particular attention is paid to the problem of possible duplication by the EPC of the other organizations' functions – the Council of Europe, OSCE, NATO. The author dwells on the inaugural meeting of the EPC participants – the summit in Prague on October 6, 2022. It is noted that at the summit, some practical actions were taken in the direction of future «project lines» in the field of energy, mobility, protection of critical infrastructures and repelling cyber attacks, as well as bilateral meetings were held. However, the absence of a joint declaration as the main result of the meeting indicates the vulnerability of the new organization to the disagreements of its members.

The article addresses the discussions in the European Union that broke out after closing of the Conference on the future of Europe. The author consistently analyzes the positions of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, while identifying differences between both EU institutions and Member States. The stumbling block is the prospects for the EU institutional reform, which can be carried out both by changing the Treaty on the European Union and without convening the Convention, but only by applying the «passerelle» clause, which provides an opportunity to move from unanimity to voting by qualified majority in the Council on a number of important issues. The author emphasizes that an additional motivation for the European Parliament to call for cancelling of unanimity was the threat of blocking sanctions against Russia by certain countries. The second part of the article examines the development of European Political Community (EPC), the idea, which was put forward by French President Macron at the end of the Conference. The author argues that the plans to create the EPC as a «light legal structure with decisionmaking powers» are directly related to implementation of institutional reform, namely, unanimity cancelling. Thus, scientific and political discussions are conducted around fundamental directions – the ratio of deepening and expanding European integration.

The article is timed to closing of the Conference on the Future Europe, which united the proposals of EU institutions and Member States, and most importantly, ensured direct participation of the EU citizens in discussion of the EU's priority tasks in the medium term. The author compares the positions of the European Parliament, the Commission and the Council on the eve and during the Conference. The analysis of the final report on the results of the Conference allows to conclude that the EU citizens wish to deepen integration, in particular, when they propose the institutional reform, which would strengthen the supranational element of governance in the EU. On the other hand, the author observes no desire to spill back integration even from the Member States, although finds among them opponents of the institutional reform. The article explains the complex organizational structure of the Conference by the initial differences in the EU institutions' views on the principles of its work, which reflects the existing inter-institutional tension. The author identifies the main stumbling block of the discussions – the EU Treaty change, which is needed to implement the institutional reform proposed by the participants: the European Parliament insists on the amendments, while the Council express no enthusiasm about this

The article analyses the prerequisites for a new migration crisis that may break out in the European Union due to an unprecedented influx of migrants. The author notes that the EU has been preparing for emergencies of this kind and has succeeded in a number of initiatives. The Council took a quick decision to activate the 2001 «Temporary Protection Directive», the Commission established a «solidarity platform» to exchange information about arriving people from Ukraine, the EU Agencies used their new powers to take more active actions to accept «temporarily protected» and provide them with the necessary means for living, medical care, access to education. However, the author points out that the main challenges for the EU and the Member States are still ahead. The principals of the new arrivals' distribution among Member States have not been set. The «solidarity mechanism», which the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have opposed more actively than the others, has not been agreed within the framework of the Pact of Migration and Asylum. The beginning of migrants' summer travel season from Africa and the Middle East may aggravate the situation. The author believes that although it is too early to talk about a new migration crisis, the lack of resources and infrastructure to accept a new migration wave does not contribute to strengthening the solidarity of the Member states and can entail negative consequences.

This article presents an analysis of the EU's policy priorities over the next six months in the three areas. On the basis of the French Presidency Programme, the speeches of President Macron and his ministers, the author aims to identify peculiarities of the French approach to European issues and areas of convergence between national and supranational interests in the run-up to the presidential elections in the country. The focus is on Schengen reform, the promotion of the Pact on Migration and Asylum, «EU strategic autonomy» and the adoption of the «EU Strategic Compass», France's foreign policy priorities, in particular, relations with Africa, the Western Balkans and Russia. The French Presidency's plans for a «new model for growth», including fiscal and trade policy reform, are also explored. The author turns to the controversial proposal to include protectionist «mirror clauses» on environmental standards in EU trade agreements with third countries in order to protect the interests of European farmers. In the section «A humane Europe» the author highlights Macron's intention to promote the use of the French language in EU institutions. The author concludes that the coincidence of the presidential campaign and the Presidency of the Council offers Macron opportunities, but also brings risks.

The article presents the EU Commission's legislative initiative to amend the current Regulation of 2016, which defines powers and functions of the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol). The author cites the arguments used by the EU Commission in its decision to expand the functions and powers of the agency: the successful acquisition of new technologies by criminal gangs, the challenges of digital threats for law enforcement and judicial agencies of Member States, which find it difficult at the national level to properly process big data for the investigation of cross-border crimes. The article analyses the main thematic blocks of the new Regulation: enabling Europol to cooperate in the fight against criminal offenses with private parties; empowering the agency to carry out preliminary processing of big and complex databases; strengthening the role of Europol in the field of research and innovation; enabling Europol to enter alerts into the Schengen Information System, etc. The author believes that the expansion of Europol's operational powers brings it one step closer to the «European FB», i.e., an organization of a supranational nature. At the same time, the author cites the arguments of the reform's opponents, including the political groups of the European Parliament and human rights organisations, which can be divided into two groups: a) under the pretext of ensuring security, the Commission legalises the current practice of Europol, which has gone beyond its current mandate, b) the new functions of the agency for processing a big data pose a threat to the citizens' rights.

The article analyses the prospects of a new migration crisis in the European Union. Referring the statistics of displaced persons within Afghanistan and the neighboring countries, the author predicts potential threat of an emergency migration influx to Europe. The factors are proposed that can cause a significant outflow of population from the country, but at the same time obstacles preventing a large number of Afghan asylum seekers from reaching the borders of the European Union: external pressure on the Taliban government to maintain control over emigration, remoteness from Europe and the excessive cost of travel, EU measures to strengthen the external border. The author concludes that there is a small probability of new large-scale migration crisis in the short term but does not exclude it in the long term if the plans of the European Union and the international community to assign responsibility for Afghan refugees to neighboring countries are not implemented. In the meantime, the author notes, the plans of the European Union are criticized by both MEPs and human rights.

In the article, the author refers to the EU Commission's proposals on promoting legal migration channels to Europe as one of the objectives of the Migration and Asylum Pact. It is emphasized that the Coronavirus pandemic has revealed a shortage of qualified specialists in key areas of the EU economy, both at present and in the future. Two approaches of the Commission are analyzed – the revision of the legal framework for labor migration and the development of new tools for cooperation with the countries of migrants' origin – «Talent Partnerships» and «Talent Pool». Particular attention is paid to the interinstitutional negotiations on the Blue Card Directive and the resulting compromise. The author recalls that the «Talent Partnerships» initiative was previously implemented in the EU in the form of «pilot projects», but had only a pinpoint impact on the emigration from the partner countries. The reasons for the expected failure of the «Talent Partnerships» are given – reluctance of the most Member States to conclude bilateral agreements with the countries of migrants' origin and lack of the partner countries' enthusiasm to support the «brain