This paper examines the role and importance of the territorial dimension of EU Cohesion Policy, during its five programming phases (1989‑2020), by relating this implementation process with several territorial elements, and by assessing their constant changes, namely in three main components and related elements: (i) the 'policy strategy' designed to include an integrated territorial perspective; (ii) the 'policy impacts' in territorial development and territorial cohesion, together with the use of territorial impact assessment procedures; and (iii) the focus on one or several 'territorial scales', specifically through the support to multilevel‑governance, territorial cooperation, and place‑based strategies. Paradoxically, despite the continuous attempts to detach EU Cohesion Policy from its initial goals of promoting a more cohesive Europe into a more neoliberalist paradigm type of 'investment Policy', our analysis showed that the territorial dimension is still very much anchored with this Policy, and even gaining importance in several territorial related elements, such as the support to territorial cooperation and governance processes, and the use of territorial impact assessment procedures.
This article aims to analyze two fields of the Brazilian cultural policy developed since 2000, during the governments of Luis Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff. The first analysis focus on the Nacional System of Culture and its goal of generating stability to the national cultural policy through the linking of the federal entities. In this context, the text addresses aspects related to the challenges involved in the multilevel governance in Brazil considering, on the one hand, the tradition of the country in developing systemic policies, and by the other hand, the problems faced to promote a democratic, decentralized and cooperative cultural management. The second analysis seeks the role of the country, represented by the Ministries of Culture and of Foreign Affairs, in processes of cultural cooperation and multilateral negotiation in the Ibero-American space. Thus, the article approaches the unprecedented international dimension that culture has achieved to the Brazilian's policy of foreign affairs, becoming an important diplomatic tool.
After the Lisbon Summit of 2009, the whole matter of fundamental rights in the European Union has taken a new connotation. Local economic interests and social protests – in opposition to the "neoliberal agenda" of EU institutions – have played an important role in stopping the enforcement of the "Constitutional Treaty" and boosted an anti-Euro mobilization. In the meanwhile, the European bodies and transnational corporations have continued to settle a new and alternative basis for the integration. A radical shift can be observed, from the research of synthetic set of principles – as those established on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights – to a deeply technical and detailed normative production. The regulation on safety and healthy workplaces is one of the best point of view to study this change. Far from calling into question the unbalanced positions between the parties in contemporary labour relationships, the European strategy for workers' protection move through procedural issues and voluntary obedience to the soft law instruments. In the past, the legal doctrine described the creation of a multilevel architecture of institutions, sometimes implemented in a top-down approach. Along with this, recently, it was implemented the establishment of common organizational standards associated to a specific system of corporate governance to pursue a better integration between business and fundamental rights. ; Após o Summit de Lisboa de 2009, toda a questão dos direitos fundamentais na União Europeia tomou uma nova conotação. Os interesses econômicos locais e os protestos sociais – em oposição a "agenda neoliberal" promovida pelas instituições europeias – têm desempenhado um papel importante em parar a execução do "Tratado Constitucional" e impulsionaram uma mobilização anti-Euro. No enquanto isso, os organismos europeus e as empresas transnacionais instalaram uma base nova e alternativa para a integração. Uma mudança radical pode ser observada, a partir da pesquisa de um conjunto (ainda) sintético de princípios – como os estabelecidos na Carta dos Direitos Fundamentais da União Europeia – para uma produção normativa profundamente técnica e detalhada. A regulação da segurança no lugar de trabalho é um dos melhores pontos de observação para estudar a transformação mencionada. Longe de pôr em causa as posições desequilibradas entre as partes nas relações de trabalho contemporâneas, a estratégia europeia para a proteção da saúde dos trabalhadores prefere as questões procedimentais e a adesão voluntária aos instrumentos de soft law. No passado, a doutrina jurídica descrevia a criação de uma arquitetura multi-nível de instituições, as vezes implementada por meio de uma abordagem de cima para baixo (top-down approach). Junto com isso, recentemente, teve a implementação de padrões organizacionais comuns para a criação de um sistema específico de governança corporativa, finalizado a buscar uma melhor integração entre os negócios e os direitos fundamentais.
