La Gouvernance multi niveau, la Démocratie et le Séparatisme en Espagne
December 29, 2009 Author: Barbara LOYER
Abstract: Spain was a point of reference for the Eastern countries after the fall of the iron curtain. Aiming to avoid anothercivil war, the system implemented there is one of the most decentralized in Europe. In part, citizens believe that theautonomy experienced by the elected officials of their autonomous community derives from historical rights which do notemanate from the 1978 Constitution but from previous times. The Constitution is not seen by them as the source of Spanishdemocracy. It is the case in Catalonia, in Galicia and in the Basque country where nationalist parties defend the idea thattheir “peoples” are different from the Spanish people. This conviction is fuelling the actions by ETA against democracy in thename of the democratic rights of the Basque people. Transborder policies are important elements of the political strategiesof the Catalan and Basque nationalists. In Navarre, autonomy is rooted in a very ancient history but doesn’t build upon therepresentation of Navarre’s people being different from the Spanish people. The majority of the Spanish citizens, though,believe that the 1978 constitution represents a guarantee of democracy without having recourse to historical rights.
Keywords: Spain, Europe, E.T.A., democracy, nationalism
Christian Minorities between Ottoman Empire and Republic of Turkey
December 28, 2009 Author:Giordano ALTAROZZI
Abstract The paper aims to analyze the history of the Levantine community living into the Ottoman Empire and its development during centuries, by the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople until the foundation of the Republic of Turkey by Mustapha Kendal. In this ambit, very important is the transition between XIXth and XXth centuries, when the Levantine community increases (so called Golden Age) before the WWI’s beginning. During the Great War, minorities in the Ottoman Empire decrease and this trend keep on after the Turkish Republic’s foundation. The new laic State operates a minorities’discrimination founded on ethnic and national items, but on religious too, because in the Turkish point of view, people maybe Turks just if they are Muslims: who is not Muslim, can’t be Turk. The paper is based on bibliography regarding the Ottoman and Turkish history and culture, as well as on an analysis of the documents collected in several Catholic archives in Istanbul.
Keywords: Ethnic Relations-Levant-Minorities-Ottoman Empire-Turkey.
La Diaspora Kurde en Europe.Étude de cas: les Kurdes de la Roumanie
December 27, 2009 Author:Adriana TĂMĂŞAN
Abstract: The article is a historical and sociological study aiming to outline the shaping of the Kurdish diaspora in Europe throughout the 20th century. Considering the situation of a community recently created, the one of the Kurds in Romania,and based upon field research, the present study is investigating the causes of the Kurdish immigration in Romania, the time periods of maximum flow, the placement areas, the level of adaptation to the Romanian society, the level of conservation oftheir original identity and the relations with the authorities and the Romanian society. Our research has revealed the double orientation of the Kurds in Romania – one towards the country of origin and the other towards the host country – a feature which determines their perception in a wider context – that of the Kurdish diaspora symbolizing a social organization equally linked to the country of origin and to the host country. This perspective is providing the opportunity for a deeper outlook upon the social reality of the Kurds’ existence
Ombres dès Empire“ ou heritages historiques sur les communautés nationales en Europe Orientale. Le cas de la Bosnie-Herzégovine
December 20, 2009 Author: Antonello F. BIAGINI & Andrea CARTENY
Abstract: The fall of Constantinople (1453), symbol of the inevitable expansion of the Ottoman power, was followed by the conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Ottoman Empire in 1463. Nonetheless, the Ottoman Empire has revealed its power in the military field and also in political and institutional matters. The debut of the process of Islamisation is undoubtedly the main feature of Bosnia’s modern history which fuelled the creation of several myths and legends, along with a vigorous historiographic debate. With the system of the millet effective up until 1878, the non-Muslim communitiespreserved their confessional identity: under the Habsburg administration the Muslim community equally searched for areasof expression. After the Great War and the union with other Slavic peoples to the South, moving past the Ustasha period,Tito’s socialism provided Bosnia with the dimension of a state inhabited by Croatians, Serbs and Muslims. The after-Titoperiod, the Yugoslav wars and the Dayton agreements have revived the debate on the national question and its ethno-confessional components in Bosnia.
Keywords: Bosnian, millet, minorities, Ottoman, Yugoslav
Les Kurdes, la Turquie et L’Union Européenne: les Implications du Dialogue Multi-Niveau pour la Gouvernance du Moyen Orient
December 20, 2009 Author:Valentina-Tania SECHEŞAN
Abstract: On its way to the European Union, Turkey is facing many problems mainly the problem of the Kurdish minority. Theannual conferences organized by the EU Turkey Civic Commission are searching for a peaceful long-term solution to thisproblem. If any found, it could impact on the governance of the Middle East due to the stakeholders taking part in the multi-level dialogue.
Keywords: Turkey’s accession to the EU, the governance of the Middle East, the Kurdish problem, multi-level dialogue,ethnic minorities.
The Romanian Political System under the Influence of the European Union
December 15, 2009 Author:Florin ABRAHAM
Abstract: The author emphasized to analyze the relations between Romania’s European integration and transformations of political system. The main concluding observation is that European integration produces a national consensus around this objective. The effects of the integration modernization mechanisms’ variable geometry over Romania can be easily acknowledged: modernization was achieved faster and more profoundly in areas where a bureaucratic monitoring mechanism existed, where a form of communitarian acquis was present, and much slower in the space of “national sovereignty”. The party system did not witness a qualitatively radical transformation as a result of the European Union influences. After Romania’s accession to the European Union, “Brussels” quickly lost its influencing capacity over the Romanian political space.
Keywords: European Union, modernization, political parties, political system, Romania
Europeanization and Domestic Change.Territorial Adaptation in Eastern Europe:The Romanian Experience
December 14, 2009 Author: Irina Pop
Abstract: In the context of the contemporary dynamics of the European integration process, Europeanization asserts itself not only as an intriguing object of scientific inquiry, but also as a relevant issue for both member states of the European Union and candidate countries. Associated with the idea of change induced by the “European” influence, the Europeanization process affects, to a various extent, both institutions and policy fields. Based on the Europeanizationresearch framework, this paper will discuss the impact of European integration on territorial adaptation- at the regionallevel- in Eastern Europe, in connection to a case study- the Romanian one. As it is the case of other East European countries,the specificity of the Romanian regional system that emerged at the end of the ’90s is primarily explained with reference to the efforts of “adjusting to Europe”, in light of the accession to the European Union. Based upon a cost- benefit decision, i.e.fulfilling the requirements in order to ensure access to European financial resources, the current regional system in Romaniais formed of “statistical” regions having little perspectives of becoming the reference point of a further territorial-administrative reorganization.
Keywords: Eastern Europe, Europeanization, Regional policy, Regional actors, Romania
Regional and Cohesion Policy as a Facilitator of Europeanization: the case of Romania
December 10, 2009 Author:Alina BÂRGĂOANU & Roxana Maria DASCĂLU
AbstractThe paper seeks to analyze the complexity of the process of Europeanization by presenting the most famousapproaches in the literature, its typologies and mechanisms, as well as its effects. This theoretical framework is furtherapplied to the case of Regional and Cohesion Policy. The paper’s hypothesis consists in the following logic: theimplementation of the Regional and Cohesion Policy by member states’ administration is subject to mechanisms ofEuropeanization which trigger specific effects. In order to test this hypothesis, mechanisms of Europeanization are analyzedfor the case of EU Regional and Cohesion Policy implementation. The next step consists of observing which of the effects ofEuropeanization presented in the theoretical framework are encountered in Romania, due to the EU requirements ofimplementing the Regional and Cohesion Policy. The conclusion shows that the Regional and Cohesion Policy definitely issubject to mechanisms of Europeanization, that the requirements for its implementation trigger change in the memberstates’ administrations (and even larger social groups) and, in Romania’s case, it has specific effects.
Keywords: effects of Europeanization, Europeanization, mechanisms of Europeanization, Regional and Cohesion structural instruments
Legitimacy, Institutions and the Communication Strategy in the European Union
December 1, 2009 Author: Dorin I. DOLGHI
Abstract: In the past years there are an increasing number of attitudes and events that suggest a chronic need for a better communication between European Union and its citizens. One of the main issues concerns the perception, among citizens, of a lack of legitimacy and transparency of EU and its institutions. In order to identify and analyze some of the causes, we suggest that an important variable that should be considered is the communication strategy of the EU. In this article we explore some interpretations of legitimacy that can be associated to the perception of EU’s institutions among the European citizens and the main points expressed by the European Commission with regard on the Communication Strategy.
Decision-making in the European UnionThe role of the European Commission
June 1, 2009 Author: Iordan Gheorghe Bărbulescu
The EU decision-making process is the key which offers answers to issues related to the nature of the EU organization, participation of the supranational actors and the role of the state and/or professional organization and interests groups in adopting normative acts or other decisions of major importance for the European Union. The paperexplicitly presents the responsibilities exercised by the European Commission, Council of the European Union and thepermanent representatives of the EU member states within the decision-making process. Their responsibilities are analyzedusing a double perspective: Treaty provisions and participation in advancing proposals and the correlation with the memberstates and interest groups interests. The European Commission-Council dialogue is analyzed in the light of the role of the ECof elaborating normative act projects. The role of the European Commission which plays the role of the EU executive ishighlighted by examining the competences attributed through EU treaties.
Keywords: COREPER, Council, decision making, European Commission, European Union