Suchergebnisse

The text is focused on the analysis of the position of the transitional regimes affiliated to the accession of ten new member states, which is to take place in May 2004, & its impact on the flexibility within the European Union. The text covers the historical development of the phenomenon of transitional measures, overview of the transitional measures negotiated in the current wave of enlargement & specifics of the Czech Republic in the whole process. In the historical perspective, the current transitional periods are to be compared primarily with the transitional regimes in the EU enlargements in the I980s, in particular with the accession of Spain & Portugal. Typical elements of present transitional periods are the application of the transitional periods in the very essential areas of the European integration, such as agriculture, free movement of workers & free movement of capital. Free movement of goods, in contrast, is influenced in a rather limited way. The transitional periods are internally diversified, both into internal temporal blocks followed by review of the suitability of their continuation & their application only in relation to several old member states. Specific transitional regime is the three-year-long period of enhanced regulatory powers of the European Commission in the area of internal market, & Commission's sanction powers against new member states so as to prevent the non-application of acquis in the area of the internal market & judicial cooperation. Those "horizontal" transitional periods will have -- albeit temporarily -- significant impact on the growth of the flexibility in the European Union. References. Adapted from the source document.

This paper seeks to find out to what extent the process of EU accession has influenced legal regulations concerning the creation & functioning of social & political actors. Through the analysis of various statutes & changes made to them, the paper tries to determine the role the EU plays in amending assembly legislation. The actors under scrutiny include political parties, professional organizations, labor unions, & civil society organizations. The paper concludes that the most influenced field of actors was the area of chambers of professionals which was obliged to conform to requirements for the free movement of people & services in the European Union in order to comply with European law. The Czech Republic was quite leisurely in their harmonization of statutes, with the majority of them passed just before accession to the EU. An interesting part of the problem concerns the question of political party membership, which is still reserved only for Czech citizens. However, European citizenship, with its voting rights to the European Parliament & local magistrates, is arguably going to push slowly for change even in this domain. Adapted from the source document.

This article analyzes the origin & development of the Movement for Autonomous Democracy -- Association for Moravia & Silesia (HSD-SMS) in the early stages of the formation of the Czech political system. The article covers the period of Boleslav Barta's chairmanship. Barta founded & defined HSD-SMS as a non-partisan political movement of all democratic Moravians & Silesians. HSD-SMS achieved surprising success in the first free parliamentary elections held in June 1990 (10% of the total vote for the Czech National Council). However, the following events revealed the inability of HSD-SMS to become a stable part of the Czech political system. The movement had to cope with internal problems & its own unsuccessful parliamentary policy. HSD-SMS did not manage to push through any of their policy goals in the area of territorial & administrative reorganization of the state. The sudden death of the leader Boleslav Barta accelerated the movement's decline. In addition, HSD-SMS lacked the attributes of modern political parties. References. Adapted from the source document.

Economic growth in China is impressive, but underlying weaknesses may erode in time its potential unless measures are taken to further liberalise the economy & reduce the costs of growth. While the contribution of the private sector to growth is becoming dominant, the interference of the party/state with the economy is still an impediment to a better allocation of capital. That is needed to eliminate waste & free resources for both private use & social needs, in particular those of the rural areas whose incomes do not keep up with the pace of growth. On the basis of official data, China has been able to contain state debt & reduce the general public deficit, but the macroeconomic picture suffers from lack of transparency. Recurrent needs of bank consolidation in the near past, the persistence of a large state-dominated banking sector & a more than opaque capital market together with a long established practice of easy credit to state enterprises as well as fiscal engineering on the part of the provincial governments raise the problem of how solid are the financial foundations for growth & how long will the contingent liabilities of the public sector remain tolerable. Excessive capacity built in several sectors could badly suffer from a possible slow down in the world economy. China needs to contain the costs of growth, improve equity & efficiency of public spending, limit growing income disparities & last, but not least, enhance the role & autonomy of the Central Bank in support of stabilisation. More clarity is also needed on the exchange rate regime policy & possible move to managed floating from gradual capital movements' liberalisation. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.