Suchergebnisse

The South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) was launched in 1996, however, its functioning is an ongoing research phenomenon. This regional cooperation format includes all 13 states of South-East Europe. It was established as a forum of political dialogue and consultation, where regional issues could be addressed at the highest level. One of the objectives of the SEECP was security cooperation. The aim of this article is to analyse the role of the SEECP in maintaining security in the region of the Western Balkans. This article argues that since 1996, the SEECP has been evolving and is becoming an important format of regional cooperation in South East Europe, however, it plays a limited role in maintaining the military security of the post-conflict states of the Western Balkans. From the point of view of the members of the SEECP, military security and peace could be obtained through the integration of the participants of the SEECP, in particular those located in the Western Balkans, with the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The article also shows that establishing the SEECP did not eliminate tensions and riots based on ethnicity in some states of the Western Balkans and so, the SEECP still has a lot to do in the matters of reconciliation and good-neighbourliness. The article is based on primary and secondary source analysis, case study method comparative analysis, and the historical method.

Contemporary labor market policy involves not only the public sector as labour offices, but also private employment agencies run by commercial entities and non-governmental organizations. Employment agencies have different objectives, structures and forms of management. They take a large extent of activation services addressed to people in a specific situation on the labor market, including disabled persons. Article aims to introduce the capacity of national employment agencies for disabled people, which are run by non-governmental organizations. Article draws attention to theoretical concepts of cooperation between public and private employment services at local and regional. The chapter also shows selected results of research conducted on the basis of an analysis of secondary sources and individual questionnaire telephone interviews. Summary contains practical recommendations and possible directions for further research.

This publication was created as part of the Human Capital "PIP: The Future of professional Education - local partnership to increase the adaptability of vocational teachers" program at the request of the Regional Labour Office in Bialystok, in the framework of Measure 8.1 Development of employees and enterprises in the region, sub-measure 8.1.3 Strengthening the partnership for local adaptation, co-financed by the European Union under the European Social Fund. The aim of the project is to develop the end of June 2015 collaboration solutions of local institutions and companies for the modernization of enterprises and vocational schools in the Podlaskie region in terms of forms of work organization, forms of performing work, work-life balance and adaptability of professional teachers threatened with unemployment.

The article describes the international cooperation of local governments, which are a form of decentralization of democratic states. This cooperation developed massively after the Second World War. Today more than 200,000 local and regional communities participate in it, cooperating not only by direct contacts, but also through various types of organizations and networks. This is a new and growing phenomenon in the international environment. On selected examples of Polish local governments, it is shown how strong are the positive ties between members of territorial communities from different countries, built by this cooperation. Their strength and nature are shown by presenting the activities of selected Polish local governments during the extreme crisis, i.e. the war in Ukraine. Thus, it was presented how Polish local governments help the attacked Ukrainians and Ukraine.

Human rights, the rule of law and democracy are the basic issues on which the axiological system of the Council of Europe is based. All activities of the Council of Europe are subordinated to this axiology and influence the proposed shape of public policies in the states that are members of the organization. The study concerns a specific policy, namely the strategy for youth, and is the result of research aimed at answering the question of what influence recommendations of the Council of Europe have on the development of young Poles' participation in public and social life at the local and regional level. During the research, the method of institutional and legal analysis was of key importance, by means of which legal acts of the Council of Europe and Poland (both legally binding and "soft law") were analyzed, in particular those relating to youth policy.

Interest groups constitute a specific civil society voice in democratic politics. They operate in a situation of constant friction between two main strategic goals: keeping the organization alive and exerting political influence. This article explores both topics, examining factors conditioning the group's tendency to cooperate with others as well as the degree to which such cooperation facilitates access to policy-making apparatus, exploring the post-communist environment of four selected Central Eastern Europe (CEE) countries and three policy areas: energy, healthcare and higher education policy. The authors aim to apply and examine the interest groups' cooperation patterns from the EU level to the CEE regional level. The article finds strong support for somewhat weak cooperation between interest groups in the region. However, even such moderate cooperation clearly affects the possibility of access to both the ruling parties and the parliaments. In particular, the cooperation of groups in the field of joint statements may turn out to be a form of remedy for the weaknesses of interest groups in the region.