Search results

Northern Europe is doing well, despite the crisis. Sweden has logged particularly brilliant results in terms of growth and balancing its budget. The recovery in Finland and Denmark is slower, but forecasts are still optimistic. Norway continues to rely on its vast oil resources to overcome its difficulties. Under these conditions, wouldn't the Nordic countries be well advised to join forces in order to make themselves heard internationally and to protect their common interests? The question is being addressed by the Nordic Council-the main forum for regional cooperation. In November 2010, its publication of a book, calling for the formation of a Nordic Federal State, started the debate. Supporters and opponents of this "realistic utopia" are girding their loins for battle. In the final analysis, however, this beautiful idea may well be smashed by the rise of a nationalistic and xenophobic current in all of these countries, which tends to favor circling the wagons instead of defending common values. Adapted from the source document.

Since 1976, there have been twenty-five recorded epidemics of the Ebola virus. The 2014 outbreak is the most serious. Despite rapidly reaching an international level, Western states underestimated its effects. They were very slow to react and left non-governmental organizations to deal with the crisis alone for far too long. It was not until September that they finally recognized the need to mobilize significant means to tackle this exceptional epidemic. Adapted from the source document.

The permanent structured cooperation set out in the EU treaty is the subject of much speculation. This instrument of the Common Security and Defence Policy is currently unexploited; the author believes that it could be put into force in a progressive and pragmatic way, taking account of the specificities of member states. He sketches out some specific ways of doing this.

Es werden die wirtschaftlichen Probleme, die Abhängigkeiten und Lösungsmöglichkeiten aufgezeigt. Auch die institutionellen Schwierigkeiten des Rates und ähnlicher arabischer multinationaler Organisationen werden untersucht. (DÜI-Seu)

Kritische Beleuchtung von Zielen, Organisation, Aktivitäten und Perspektiven der 'Communaute Economique des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest' (CEDEAO). (DÜI-Ker)

Since the Single European Act came into force, European cross-frontier cooperation agreements in Europe have been multiplying. This paper examines the current state of cross-border co-operation in the Pyrenees & enumerates the factors favoring it. This study shows that the most efficient & dynamic cross-border institutions are principally located on the Western, Atlantic end of the Pyrenees. The reasons for this lie on one hand in the adoption of a stable juridical statute & the financial means of these structures, & on the other hand in the compatibility of the actors' interests & their commitment to establishing a common political issue despite the international border. Adapted from the source document.

The recent conflict between the EU & the US on the former's veto to the General Electric/Honeywell merger has often been overstated. Neither the procedural nor the doctrinal differences between the two largely self-governed agencies that decide on such affairs seems to be a recurrent source of conflict. As a rule, cooperation is fairly smooth for two main reasons: their decisions do not have a direct impact on economic policy & they do not require a cumbersome legislative process whereby international norms would have to be written into national laws. This does not imply that a fully self-governed body of international norms & rules may be derived from such regulatory activity. Both at the national & international level, it relies on the political legitimacy as well as the authority of states. The main constraints on cooperation are twofold: a strong degree of de facto agreement on the issue at stake & a constant defense of the regulator's political independence. 12 References. Adapted from the source document.