Suchergebnisse

The aim of this paper is to examine whether the documents prepared by the European Commission (EC) under the leadership of Ursula von der Leyen are based on a coherent vision of the international role to be played by the EU in the digital area. It attempts to achieve this goal by referring to two concepts popular in the analysis of the international role of the EU: as a normative and regulatory power. The question posed is, To what extent does the European Commission want the EU to play the role of a normative or regulatory power on the international stage in the field of digital policy? To answer it, the author focuses on an analysis of von der Leyen's speeches and selected EC documents. Following Mayring, the author has used a method involving the qualitative content analysis of speeches and policy documents. The author tries to find signs that the EC wants the Union to play a role as a normative or regulatory power in the digital sphere. The study shows that the titular institution refers to these concepts in its documents. The Commission also assumes that the Union can play both roles simultaneously, thus strengthening its ability to influence third parties in the digital sphere. However, whether it does so intentionally or because it lacks a concrete vision of the EU's international role in the digital area remains unresolved.

General Consulate of the Republic of Poland established in Odessa in 2003 is the third Polish diplomatic mission in the Black Sea region of present – day Ukraine. The second Polish consulate, representing the reviving Polish statehood, functioned at the Black Sea between January 1919 and the beginning of February 1920, with almost a 5-month-long break, during the first Bolshevik occupation of Odessa. Zenon Belina Brzozowki was the consul in office during the period of January, 4, 1919 to March, 3, 1919 and then again since the end of August, (between April and August he stayed in Istanbul), in October and November, 1919 he was replaced by Stanisław Srokowski, a diplomat in the rank of I class consul, i.e. the present general consul. The consulate changed its location few times, and in different months the number of its employees varied from a few people to over a dozen. The consulat functioned in Odessa until March, 3, 1920 when it was evacuated along with a large group of Polish citizens because of the inevitability of the Bolshevik takeover of the city. Consulate staff and archives reached Warsaw in March 1920. Not many archival materials regarding the functioning of Polish consulat in the Black Sea region were saved.

In the era of globalization, unifi cation and the disappearance of borders, paradoxically, increasingly important is their determination, stressing the diversity, regionalization eff orts to achieve autonomy. Th is is evident in the ongoing scientific discussion at the junction of many areas where there is the issue of the border is quite clearly marked. Th ese considerations place them in the context of politics, and therefore power, but located locally. This authority, its scope, instruments are determined by the nature of the border, which is analyzed in relation to the center. Th us, they are seen as places where all processes are either specific or autonomous in relation to those occurring in the centers, or (as they are parts of a greater whole) underlying causes of phenomena are searched beyond their borders1. In literature, the frontier is treated not as the periphery, located far away from the border territories, but diff erent in many ways, integral components of an organization, equipped with a certain degree of independence regarding the implementation of their own needs.

The author undertakes to discuss the problem of rivalry strategies of political parties in elections to the Citizens' Assembly of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. The broadness and multidimensional character of the subject area requires moving beyond the limits of political science and entering other related domains, like broadly-conceived historical sciences, also reaching for a number of establishments within legal-historical domains. Firmly grounded historical, legal, polity-related and political aspects of the unification of Germany in the context of German federalism, encouraged and obligated the author, to attempt to bring the above problem up to date. I think that thanks to a broader analysis of elections to the Hamburg Citizens' Assembly over the last 50 years, the real state of the problem area can acquire a fuller context, with an emphasis on the foundations of local government functioning. To prepare this paper I made use of Polish and German sources published by Polish, American and German researchers. Polish and German literature off ered a valuable source to become acquainted with the history and the foreseeable future of Hamburg's local government, in particular – the assumptions behind territorial and functional reforms, the evolution of which we have been able to follow in the Federal Republic of Germany since the 1970s. The main source of the presented conclusions and facts are data obtained from Statistisches Amt Für Hamburg und Schlezwig-Holstein (the Statistical Office in Hamburg). Among the Polish reference sources the most useful proved to be the book edited by Konstanty Adam Wojtaszczyk and Marta Jarosińska, under the title Kraje Związkowe Republiki Federalnej Niemiec (The Federal States of the Federal Republic of Germany).

Recognition that societies will not be able to build a future as long as they do not face the 'demons of the past' has become a kind of universal truth over the last decades of the 20th Century (Gibney et al., 2008, p. 1). This view, though challenging and ambiguous, is reflected in the globally present attempts to improve or rebuild relations within and between different communities at the domestic and international level. The question concerning, on the one hand, the essence and most essential elements and, on the other hand, the instruments and the limitations of rebuilding relations, as well as the political implications of those processes have become the broad area of interest and the discourse leading to significantly different ideas and solutions. The article aims at presenting different approaches referring to dealing with the conflicted and traumatized past both at the domestic and international level. Some selected instruments and methods which enable movement from a divided past towards a common future are discussed namely the strategy of engagement with the past versus the strategy of avoidance of the past. The special attention is paid to the notion of reconciliation understood as a process of rebuilding of relations through the multi-dimensional transformation of former adversaries after the period of violence and repression.

In the very beginning of this particular paper, an author is trying to determine and describe who Millennials actually are. Then, the basis of Millennials definition is analysing corporation's activity over the past years regarding this age group. The main goal of the thesis is to bring their specific futures out and describe what corporations on Polish job market are doing to encourage them to work in their offices. Especially in Poland within the last years, it is observed that big multinational companies are paying special attention to Millennials and trying to hire them before competitors will do so. As a part of this paper, an author will describe corporate politics and practices on Thomson Reuters and BNY Mellon examples. Within this work, an author is also discussing key features and differences between this generation and Millennials parent's generation. Additionally, there is a reference to corporate social responsibility concept and work-life balance issues.

The idea of European federation keeps recurring in politicians' and intellectuals' discourses on the future of the European Union. The logic of global rivalry of "large territories" favors this in particular, as it somehow forces Europe's states to enter into a tighter integration if they want to realize their politics. The biggest challenge which the Union faces is the problem of leadership, understood both in the context of internal policy and relationally towards the surrounding. The problem, however, is the diversity of the member states and the unrelenting tension between particular concern about a national interest and European universalism. European federation sensu stricto, just because of this diversity has still been a utopian project. The future of the European Union most probably lies in a new intermediate model, as unique as the European Commonwealths used to be in the 1950s.

It is not surprising that subsidiarity is very often discussed with autonomy and federation (equally multidimensional concepts, similarly discussed in science). It is clearly evident taking into account, for example, results of analysis of the key words (tags) in scientific publications. The European Union has significantly contributed in popularizing of the concept so it is no surprise that strongly linked with EU's problems has become a central point of the discussion of its organizational structure and internal relationships between forming elements. It is difficult to imagine analysis of the conditions for implementing of subsidiarity in Germany without prior presentation of the state political system's solutions. Studying the structure and functioning of public administration enables to identify the place and role of the local government, to measure degree of independence of the local authority as a central point of discussion in relation to the subsidiarity.

The principle of subsidiarity not only has formed many of provisions in the act on Public Benefit and Volunteer Work (particularly those related to social consultations and transferring of public tasks), but is also a directive forming the cooperative habits between the public and non-public sectors. This is a matter of great importance taking into account that the subsidiarity in Poland is not effectively implemented as it could be because of limited autonomy of the self–government and frequently occurring interference of the State. Unfortunately it results in limiting of ability to decide on the type and methods of performing tasks. In addition, financial resources usually are not sufficient. It would be desirable to maintain and develop this course because about 61% of the polish society finds the third sector more effective than the public one. More and more often (43%) the contribution of the non-governmental organisations on solution of local problems is perceived, although still near the half of respondents (48%) doubt that they would have an important impact on the solution of important social problems. There are also real concerns about corruption, other law abuses, or giving priority to private interest instead of communal one

Silesia has always been a challenge for scientists as well as politicians, most importantly however – its people. Not many analysts and practitioners succeeded in coping with this challenge. Strategic character of this land made its inhabitants hostages to geopolitical interests of states representing diff erent cultures, languages and religions. Remaining at the front line of (what Samuel Huntington would call) civilizations, Silesia was expossed to this long-lasting process which resulted in specifi c type of identity, which the author dares call hybrid identity. It also resulted in a number of paradoxes, like for example unique model of modernization based on industrial infrastructure development accompanied by adequate work culture and civilizational patterns from one side, and from the other side closing Silesian communities in tribalism and traditionalism.

Services sum up to 70 % of EU's GDP, and just 20 % of cross-border trade of the European Union – partly due to the unjusti! ed regulatory and administrative burdens implied on different levels of member states administration. The existence of those barriers has stimulated the works on the directive freeing the service sector and implementing a number of rules that may potentially become milestones of integration, compared only to such "history making" moments as Single European Act or Maastricht Treaty."The freedom to provide service outside the country of establishment' principle, previously known as the 'country of origin' rule, carries this revolutionary impetus. It will allow a service provider be settled in one EU member state and deliver a service (personally or by delegated employees) in another one with all the legal consequences, especially: some aspects of taxation and social security contributions. Unsurprisingly, it has become one of the most controversial legal acts debated in the last decades Europe-wide. This principle may, to a large extend, undermine the foundations of welfare state, especially in the Western part of continental Europe, as it may force the regulated capitalism oriented countries (like Scandinavian ones) to verify their social policies accordingly to competition pressure coming from lower social standards member states. This may, as it is speculated in this paper, fuel the harmonising of social policies on Community level. Free movement of services was introduced fifty years ago, however it has been usually interpreted from the consumers' perspective: free access to the service by service consumer relocation or trans-border trading. Service provider relocation was tolerated only when accompanied with establishment in the consumer's country. The Service Directive, following the logic of previous European Court of Justice verdicts, introduces – on the secondary law level – the freedom to be established in another country than the country where the service is provided. This practical challenge is examined theoretically on the grounds of neofuncionalist rationale, as the discussed directive, by its supporters called: the greatest improvement of the internal market since its creation, can act as an empirical proof of neofunctionalism theory applicability. Implementing this approach, especially the revitalised spillover mechanism, is an efficient theoretical vehicle showing satisfactory exploratory power, as well as allowing speculations about the future development on the edge of politics and economy within European integration process. It also highlights the behaviour of supranational actors creating 'stress among the states' to progress the integration into the desirable direction (cultivated spillover). The deliberations in this paper are rooted in exempli! cations of so far practices infringing the free movement of services rule, as well as enriched with some argumentation for and against this form of directive (transformative decisions and legitimacy / democracy de! cit). The arguments used are deeply rooted in ! nal version text of the directive accompanied by interpretation of major principles. In the conclusive part author summarises that theoretical legacy of neofunctionalism – in the case of the Service Directive – seems to be adequate and the deductive argumentation based on it positively veri! es the potential of the theory.