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The present article aims to advance a reflexion on the construction of the European Union citizenship/identity and identify the main challenges behind the consolidation of the citizenship bond and the difficulties in making EU citizens becoming more involved in the integration process and in bringing European institutions closer to normal citizens.

This paper discusses the concept of security as a manysided, multifunctional and multilevel regulation topology which requires its several actors to view legal assets from a polygonal perspective worthy of legal protection from local to global and from global to local space. The concept of security as a supranational legal asset requires criminal legislation which defines the principles of criminal policy and the intervention of criminal Law, barriers to security trends and to the attempt to enhance the principle of presumed hazard as a basis for criminal intervention. We contend that the obstacle to "human self-objectification" in the global polygon is a (new) world legal order as humanity's future balance.

Seit den Römischen Verträgen propagiert die Politik der Europäischen Kommission ein Europa der verschiedenen Kulturen. Repräsentativ dafür ist der offizielle Slogan 'Vereint in der Vielfalt' und die Erklärung des Jahres 2008 zum Jahr des interkulturellen Dialogs. Dem entgegen wirken jedoch die wachsende Uniformisierung der Produktion und vor allem der Konsumgewohnheiten; die kulturelle Vielfalt wird zunehmend durch die Überwindung der Nationalstaaten in Frage gestellt. L'Europe et ses cultures : l'en-deçà ou l'au-delà d'un fédéralisme supranational? Depuis le traité de Rome, la construction d'une Europe des différentes cultures semble devoir inspirer la politique de la Commission européenne. Le slogan officiel « unie dans la différence » et la proclamation de 2008 comme l'année du dialogue interculturel sont l'expression de cette intention. Cependant, deux facteurs semblent interférer avec cet objectif. Le premier est une logique d'uniformisation, notamment des modes de production et surtout de consommation. Le deuxième est la dynamique de dépassement des nationalismes qui tendent à refouler la différence culturelle comme phénomène. ; Von Europa und seinen Kulturen: Zu viel oder zu wenig des supranationalen Föderalismus? , discussion, ICI Berlin, 2 December 2008

Der Forschungsbericht gibt Vorträge und Diskussionen eines am 3. Dezember 2004 vom Deutschen Forschungsinstitut für öffentliche Verwaltung Speyer anlässlich der Emeritierung von Dieter Duwendag als Universitätsprofessor an der Deutschen Hochschule für Verwaltungswissenschaften Speyer veranstalteten Symposiums wieder. Im Eingangsvortrag behandelt Richard Senti (Zürich) "Die WTO in den Fallstricken des Rechts, der Wirtschaft und der Politik" und schildert die namentlich aus der Rechtsautonomie der Mitgliedstaaten und dem Handelsprotektionismus resultierenden Schwierigkeiten der Welthandelsorganisation, ihre Ziele zu erreichen. Auf Basis des empirischen Befunds zu Stand und Wachstumswirkungen der Kapitalbilanzliberalisierung stellt Michael Frenkel (Koblenz) die Frage "Finanz- und Währungskrisen: Ist die Liberalisierung der Finanzmärkte zu weit gegangen?" und bejaht sie für diejenigen Länder, die sich unzureichend auf die Liberalisierung vorbereitet haben. "Ausländische Direktinvestitionen und Arbeitsplatzverlagerungen: Den Handlungsbedarf richtig erkennen und umsetzen" gibt Wolfgang Franz (Mannheim) als Devise aus und mahnt eine Steigerung der Attraktivität des Wirtschaftsstandorts Deutschland an, um den Nettoeffekt der Arbeitsplatzverlagerungen zu verbessern. Unter dem Titel "Eine andere Welt ist möglich! - Positionen der Globalisierungskritiker" stellt Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker (MdB) Entwicklungslinien und Beurteilungen des Phänomens Globalisierung dar und fordert im Zuge einer "neuen Aufklärung" die Rückkehr zu einem starken, ordnungsgebenden Staat als "unsichtbare Hand", um der gegenwärtigen Marktdominanz wirksam zu begegnen. Den Vorträgen schließen sich mit "Global Governance - Politische Gestaltung der Globalisierung" betitelte Thesen von Dieter Duwendag zur Podiumsdiskussion an, welche mit Statements von Carl Böhret (Speyer) sowie Wolfgang Franz, Michael Frenkel und Richard Senti eröffnet wird und in eine Plenumsdiskussion mündet. Der Forschungsbericht fügt den Schlussworten von Rudolf Fisch (Speyer) und Dieter Duwendag als Memorandum die am 13.5.2002 von Bundespräsident Johannes Rau im Museum für Kommunikation gehaltene "Berliner Rede" an, welche den Titel "Chance, nicht Schicksal - Die Globalisierung politisch gestalten" trägt.

We study fiscal spending by supranational unions, where participation is voluntary and countries bargain over contributions to and the allocation of a central budget. We explore the link between the allocation and nations' contributions that occurs since bargaining power is endogenous, and generically causes inefficiency. Interestingly, redistribution arises endogenously, despite nations being purely self-interested. However, there exists a trade-off between increasing equality and decreasing efficiency, which becomes more severe as the centralized budget increases. We also analyze partial ex-ante commitment through alternative decision-making institutions: Both majority rule and exogenous tax rules can improve efficiency.

With the rise of supranational legislative bodies, the use of supranational adjudicatory bodies has also increased. These adjudicatory bodies have even been allowed to review the domestic law decisions offederal administrative agencies, and their decisions are insulated from any review by Article III courts. These developments have been met by intense opposition. This Article addresses the question whether, as claimed by several writers, the emerging supranational adjudicatory order impermissibly contravenes the "essential attributes of the judicial power established by Article III." Examining two case studies, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Supreme Court's recent decisions regarding Article 36 of the Vienna Convention, Professor Monaghan concludes that (generally at least) supranational judicial review does not run afoul of Article III. He draws upon the historical practice of allowing binational panels (BNPs) to adjudicate claims by Americans against foreign sovereigns that stretches back to the earliest days of the Founding, beginning with the Jay Treaty. Indeed, in the period following the Civil War, BNPs even "reviewed" decisions of the United States Supreme Court. With respect to the constitutionality of supranational tribunals expounding treaty obligations, Professor Monaghan argues that these tribunals are fully competent to determine these obligations, and, at least in the trade area, fit well within the "public rights" doctrine, which has played an important role in the rise of the administrative state. Professor Monaghan concludes that based on historical practice and current doctrine, Article III, standing alone, poses no substantial barrier to supranational judicial review.

The article confirms the hypothesis that a multiplicity of parties of the European and national levels forms the party system of the European Union (EU). The authors describe the main characteristics of Europarties and political groups comprised of them as key actors in the European Parliament's (EP) political and legislative processes. The authors adopt the institutional approach and make use of the tools of the comparative, structural, and functional analyses. Special attention is paid to the 'two-tier' structure the connection between national and supranational institutions as a key feature of the European Union's party system. The study is based on the European Parliament framework laws, election results, Europarties' political programmes, as well as on the comparison of the composition of the Europarties and the EU bodies. The analysis provides a new perspective on the major processes and contradictions in the functioning of the European Parliament and demonstrates that the transformation of the EU from an intergovernmental association to a (con)federation has not been completed yet.

We use a novel approach to address the question of whether a union of sovereign countries can efficiently raise and allocate a budget, even when members are purely self-interested and participation is voluntary. The main innovation of our model is to explore the link between budget contributions and allocation that arises when countries bargain over union outcomes. This link stems from the distribution of bargaining power being endogenously determined. Generically, it follows that unstructured bargaining gives an inefficient result. We find, however, that efficiency is achieved with fully homogenous countries, and when countries have similar incomes and the union budget is small. Moreover, some redistribution arises endogenously, even though nations are purely self-interested and not forced to participate in the union. A larger union budget, however, entails a trade-off between equality and efficiency. We also analyze alternative institutions and find that majority rule can improve efficiency if nations who prefer projects with high public good spillovers are endogenously selected to the majority coalition. Exogenous tax rules, such as the linear tax rule in the EU, which is designed to increase efficiency on the contribution margin, can also improve overall efficiency despite decreasing the efficiency of the allocation of funds.

We use a novel approach to address the question of whether a union of sovereign countries can efficiently raise and allocate a budget, even when members are purely self-interested and participation is voluntary. The main innovation of our model is to explore the link between budget contributions and allocation that arises when countries bargain over union outcomes. This link stems from the distribution of bargaining power being endogenously determined. Generically, it follows that unstructured bargaining gives an inefficient result. We find, however, that efficiency is achieved with fully homogenous countries, and when countries have similar incomes and the union budget is small. Moreover, some redistribution arises endogenously, even though nations are purely self-interested and not forced to participate in the union. A larger union budget, however, entails a tradeoff between equality and efficiency. We also analyze alternative institutions and find that majority rule can improve efficiency if nations who prefer projects with high public good spillovers are endogenously selected to the majority coalition. Exogenous tax rules, such as the linear tax rule in the EU, which is designed to increase efficiency on the contribution margin, can also improve overall efficiency despite decreasing the efficiency of the allocation of funds. ; Wir nutzen einen neuen Ansatz um der Frage nachzugehen, ob eine Union aus souveränen Staaten effizient ein Budget erheben und verteilen kann, auch wenn alle Mitgliedstaaten ausschließlich ihren Eigennutzen maximieren und die Mitgliedschaft freiwillig ist. Die Hauptneuerung unseres Modells ist die Erforschung des Zusammenhanges zwischen Beiträgen zum gemeinsamen Budget einerseits und dessen Allokation andererseits, der aus dem Verhandlungsprozess resultiert. Dieser Zusammenhang entsteht, da die Verteilung relativer Verhandlungsmacht endogen ist. Das bewirkt, dass ein unstrukturierter Verhandlungsprozess fast immer zu ineffizienten Resultaten führt. Ausnahmen ergeben sich wenn alle Staaten homogen sind, sowie wenn die nationalen Einkommen ähnlich und das gemeinsame Unionsbudget vergleichsweise gering sind. Darüber hinaus zeigen wir, dass ein gewisses Maß an Umverteilung entsteht, obwohl alle Staaten ausschließlich eigennützig handeln und freiwillig teilnehmen. Mit einem wachsenden Budget ergibt sich allerdings ein Konflikt zwischen Gleichheit und Effizienz. Desweiteren analysieren wir alternative Institutionen und zeigen dass ein Mehrheitsprinzip effizienzsteigernd sein kann, sofern die Staaten welche Projekte mit dem höchsten Gemeinnutzen bevorzugen eine Mehrheitskoalition bilden. Exogen bestimmte Beitragssätze, wie etwa die proportionale Steuerregel in der EU, welche zur Steigerung der Effizienz auf der Abgabeseite eingeführt wurde, können ebenfalls insgesamt vorteilhaft sein, obwohl gleichzeitig die Effizienz der resultierenden Mittelverteilung sinkt.

This paper focuses on how supranational collaboration in agricultural research in Sub-Saharan Africa has evolved over the past 10 years. It focuses primarily on the various institutional developments, but also presents some quantitative data on investments in the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, the subregional organizations, and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. Institutional reforms introduced in recent years (such as a programmatic approach at the SRO level, multi-donor trust funds, competitive grant mechanisms, and centers of excellence) are reviewed and assessed, and suggestions are made for further improvements. The principal conclusion is that the overall institutional architecture for supranational collaboration in agricultural research is now in place, and that for the coming years the focus should be more on mastering and further fine tuning the various internal decisionmaking and implementation processes. Despite all efforts to increase African ownership of the supranational agricultural research agenda, high donor dependency remains a factor that limits such ownership. The only way to change this is by introducing an African funding base for supranational agricultural research. Unfortunately very little progress has been made on this front to date. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; GRP31; Theme 10; Subtheme 10.2; ASTI ; EPTD

In the past thirty years, a number of states have joined together to create trade alliances designed to compete more effectively in a global economy. These supranational organizations (such as the European Union and the International Labour Organisation) expand into the realm of 'family policy' when they make policies or pass legal judgments on such matters as the rights of migrant workers and their families, pay equity between part-time and full-time workers, and parental benefits. This paper discusses the impact of these policies and decisions on women workers, explores their underlying assumptions about women and family, and questions whether these supranational policies affect national autonomy in the area of family policy. The paper concludes that national politics remain a strong force influencing state responses to globalization and pressures from supranational organizations to harmonize social policy.

Unemployment in Europe is excessively high on average, and is divergent across countries and population groups within countries. On the one hand, over the past decades, national governments have implemented incomplete institutional reforms to amend dysfunctional labor markets. On the other hand, EU supranational policies—those that transcend national boundaries and governments—have offered only limited financial support for active labor market policies, instead of promoting structural reforms aimed at improving the functioning of European labor markets. Better coordination and a wider scope of EU supranational policies is needed to fight unemployment more effectively.

In einer Währungsunion besteht für die Mitgliedsländer keine Möglichkeit mehr, durch eine vorübergehende Störung verursachte binnenwirtschaftliche Ungleichgewichte mittels Anpassung des nominalen Wechselkurses zu korrigieren. Wenn die supranationale Geldpolitik unionsweiten, die nationale Fiskalpolitik jedoch in erster Linie einzelstaatlichen Zielen verpflichtet ist, stellt sich die Frage nach den stabilisierungspolitischen und wohlfahrtstheoretischen Konsequenzen eines aus dieser Konstellation möglicherweise erwachsenden Zielkonfliktes zwischen den politischen Akteuren.

Many studies investigated cultural differences in values, most notably by Hofstede and Schwarz. Relatively few have focused on virtues, a related and important concept in contemporary social science. The present paper examines the similarities and differences between nations, or blocks of - culturally related - nations on the perceived importance of virtues. Adults (N = 2.809 students) from 14 countries were asked to freely mention which virtues they found important to practice in daily life, and next to rate a list of 15 virtues, which reflect the most frequently mentioned categories in The Netherlands, as found in a previous study. The 14 nations included the United States, Mexico, nine European and three Asian nations. For the free-listed virtues, we compared the top-ten lists of most frequently mentioned virtues across the nations. We used a correspondence analysis on the frequency table to assess the relationships between the virtues and nations. For the 15 virtues ratings, a MANOVA, and follow-up ANOVA's were used to examine effects of nation, age, gender and religion. We found strong evidence for relationships between nations and blocks of culturally related nations and the importance attached to various virtues. There appear to be some country specific virtues, such as generosity in France, but also some relatively universal virtues, most notably honesty, respect, and kindness.

Integration of migrants is an intrinsic part of the modern life of almost all European states pursuing an active migration policy. This article sets out to identify socioeconomic and demographic conditions for the formation of a national migrant integration policy in the framework of implementing European directives. The study contributes to a better understanding of the mechanisms of efficient integration policy development. The article presents an overview of the major forms of social integration of migrants. The author analyses the existing sociological theories and concepts, as well as the practice of implementing supranational policies of integrating third country nationals in the European Union and its major aspects and mechanisms. On the basis of statistical data and with the help of correlation analysis, the author identifies the key factors affecting a country's approach to the integration of immigrants. These factors were used in conducting a cluster analysis, which made it possible to identify four groups of countries. The study showed that, despite the large-scale and positive EU policy, due to differences in the socioeconomic and demographic development European states adopt different approaches to the implementation of migration policy in the field of integration. The author stresses that in the countries characterised by a tolerant approach to immigrants, the crime rate is much higher than in the states with a selective or poorly developed policy towards migrant integration.