Herman van Rompuy. An Analysis of the First Presidential Mandate
June 1, 2012 Author: Devis Ailoae
The Lisbon Treaty which came into force in December 2009 offered juridical personality to the European Union. An equally important thing brought by the new Treaty is the position of President of the European Council. He chairs the meetings of the chiefs of state or government of the member states. The institution has the role of creating the necessary impulses for the development of the European construction. The present approach has as goal the analysis of Herman van Rompuy’s first mandate at the Presidency of the European Council.
The main theme we will focus on is the stability of the euro area, implicitly the economic recovery of the European Union. From this point of view, we are interested in the actions of the European Council’s President for the harmonization of the member states’ opinions and the way in which he managed or failed to be a voice heard by the leaders of the member states.
Shaping the European Milieu: Germany and the European Neighborhood Policy
June 1, 2012 Author: Andreea Crina Horea
The article proposes an analysis of the ENP, of its goals and commitments, of its instruments and effects through the “eyes” of one of the EU’ s main founder states:Germany, rising the one important question: What is and what shall Germany’s part in the ENP be? My answer will be a summary of the analysis of four aspects of the German implication in the ENP: what are its interests in the ENP, considering the political change from Schroeder and his commitment to Russia (“Petersburg Dialogue), restraining Germany’s interests towards the East to Angela Merkel and the New Ostpolitik, promoting a new German view, independent of Russia’s will; furthermore, how does Germany see the ENP, proposing a comparison of the different approaches of the problem: the Christian-democratic one (Merkel) or the social-democratic one (Steinmeier).
Experimentalist Governance in the European Union: Towards a New Architecture. By Charles F. Sabel and Jonathan Zeitlin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010
December 1, 2011 Author: Alexander A. Caviedes
Experimentalist governance in the European Union has occupied
academics for over 15 years, yet the subject still suffers from the twin perceptions
that it is infrequently utilised and that unenforceable ‘soft law’ measures have
limited efficacy. The co-editors of this volume have been at the centre of efforts
to document and understand this development for nearly this entire period,
and therefore are well poised to assess the state of experimentalist governance
in the EU. Sabel has focused on experimental regionalism and democratic
deliberation measures, while Zeitlin established a forum for research on the
open method of coordination during his time at the University of Wisconsin.
Police intelligence – the road towards a European Model
December 1, 2011 Author: Robert D. Marin
In a time of difficult economic and financial conditions, the sophistication and globalisation of the organised crime, equally affecting the communities in the Member States and throughout the European Union, require, more than ever, the creation of a European space of security and justice. This is to be achieved through the consolidation of the cross-border police cooperation based on the development of proven models of national policing and the integration of already established EU framework and instruments within the area of justice and home affairs. All this have been reinforced, over the last decade, by a “golden thread” represented by a strengthened exchange of police information in the EU. This paper seeks to analyse the current state of play at the EU level in terms of adopting, developing and implementing a European Police Intelligence Model as a part of Internal Security Strategy of the European Union.
Regional cooperation and ‘frozen conflicts’ in the EU’s Eastern Neighborhood and the Black Sea Region
December 1, 2011 Author:Ioana Strat
The aim of this paper is to establish a causal relationship between the threat of ‘frozen conflicts’ in the former Soviet space and the evolution of regional cooperation by analyzing the bilateral and multilateral policies designed by the European Union in order to address security and democratic governance in the Eastern neighborhood. At first, we discuss the prospects for the development of multilateral cooperation between the EU and six Eastern countries by means of the Eastern Partnership policy. Then, we analyze how regional cooperation in the Black Sea Region has evolved under different cooperation frameworks, focusing on the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization, the GUAM Organisation and the Black Sea Synergy. This section aims at establishing the main factors which advance or impede the progress of regional cooperation in the Black Sea Region. In the end, we discuss the proposal regarding a potential ‘EU Black Sea Strategy’ as a more coherent and more effective contribution by the EU to the build-up of regional integration and enhanced security in the post-Soviet space and the extended Black Sea Region.
The price of helping and equal opportunities in the European Union
December 1, 2011 Author:Ana-Maria Godeanu
This paper studies the price of helping in the European Union by looking at different types of compensation and the job design applied inside an organization. Given that previous literature has mainly examined each determinant separately, I aim at developing a complex perspective that considers their effect simultaneously. Drawing from agency theory, social exchange theory and the theory of cooperation, I predict that piece rates and individual productivity payments decrease cooperation while compensation based on common goals and empowerment leads to more helping behavior. Also, equal opportunities and cooperation in different European countries are analyzed. Using a cross-sectional dataset of European employees, results yield support for the majority of the hypotheses confirming that managers should know how to increase the benefits or decrease the costs of helping by either giving employees autonomy to be able to assist others or by introducing and combining different compensation techniques.
The civic solution to the Estonian identity crisis
December 1, 2011 Author: Paul Pryce
As disputes over historical memory in Estonian society lead to manifestations of violence both online and offline, there is an express need to examine how identity politics are framed in contemporary Estonia. By examining ideational constructs that have emerged in Estonian discourses, a number of proposals for an inclusive Estonian identity, based in civic nationalism, will be shared. These ideational constructs include the “Nordicization” of Estonia, social democracy, constitutional patriotism, and the multi-layered society that is forming around the multi-layered polity of the European Union. Each of these constructs is examined critically, with the author prescribing constitutional patriotism as the construct with the greatest potential to reduce tensions between the ethnic Estonian majority and the ethnic Russian minority.
Book review: Anne Mette Kjaer, Guvernanţa(Governance), CA Publishing, Cluj-Napoca, 2010. Reviewed by Sergiu Mişcoiu
June 16, 2011 Author: Sergiu Mişcoiu
Out of the numerous books and articles about this tricky concept of ‘governance’, Anne-Mette Kjær’s Governance: has the remarkable merit to be clear and useful. Constructed more like a handbook than like a PhD thesis, this book is a cohesive and readable collection of theoretical debates and empirical applications of the concept of ‘governance’ in a variety of fields, from national administration to international relations.
Book review: Simona Piattoni, The Theory of Multi-level governance: Conceptual, Empirical, and Normative Challenges, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010. Reviewed by Oana-Andreea Ion
June 15, 2011 Author: Oana-Andreea Ion
The book to be reviewed here – The Theory of Multi-level Governance. Conceptual, Empirical, and Normative Challenges – subscribes to the same endeavour of analyzing the EU governance, this time in its multi-level form. The subject of the book is largely debated within the EU studies, especially in the last decade, as many scholars continued Gary Marks’ initial work and brought valuable contributions to this field through studies oriented either towards some general characteristics of the multi-level governance (MLG) or to its specific manifestations within the EU system[i]. The importance of Simona Piattoni’s work lies in her effort to systematise these different meanings and approaches of MLG through a three-dimensional based study (theoretical, empirical and normative), whose red thread is the aim to argue in favour of a theory of multi-level governance.
Prospects on the citizenship of the European Union
June 1, 2011 Author: Ştefana Ignea
bstract: It has been two decades since Citizenship of the European Union was enforced by the Maastricht Treaty, in 1992. Throughout these years, it has evolved from an economic perspective to a more complex form, which stands as a guarantee for political, economic and social rights. The European Union has improved through the enforcement of a EU citizenship and has grown to a more democratic and modern “political object” or “form”, but it still faces great challenges concerning this aspect. An important part of the Justice and Home Affairs area is still controlled by the member states, including the granting and withdrawl of EU citizenship. The general guidelines and the directives submitted by the EU are still weakly implemented within the member states and this is one of the reasons why the EU citizens face difficulties when excercising their rights on a supranational level.Recent Eurobarometres have shown that less than half of the EU citizens are familiar with their status and rights within the EU. This problem, being a two-way road, is why both institutions and citizens are to blame for it.First step: aknowledging there Is a problem. Next step: solving it. Citizenship of the European Union needs to be rebranded and get a better support for its understanding and implementation. This paper is about the chalenges, both old and new, the EU citizenship has faced since its enforcement and, mainly, since the last enlargement wave in 2007.
Keywords: citizenship of the European Union, European rights, participation, awareness, Eurobarometer