A Dangerous Nexus? History, Ideology and the Structure of the Contemporary Chetnik Movement

Author(s): Nejra Veljan,Maida Ćehajić / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2020

During the Yugoslav era (1945–1992), the Serb ethno-nationalist Chetnik movement and its motivating ideology were unambiguously condemned in public discourse. This followed the defeat of foreign occupiers, including Italian fascists and German Nazis, who had been aided by collaborationists within Ustasha (Croat ethno-nationalist and fascist) and Chetnik ranks. Thus, in the period after World War Two, public accusations of Chetnik membership were levelled pejoratively in Yugoslavia, and it was clear: to be a Chetnik was to be a traitor. Many former members of Chetnik detachments tried to conceal or minimize their participation in the movement, but some continued fostering Chetnik ideals in the privacy of their homes, even as a shared Partisan/Yugoslav identity was publicly nourished.

A Montánuniótól az Európai Unióig

Author(s): László J. Nagy / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 08/2020

The will for peace led intellectuals and then politicians to lay the foundations of the community of European states and to eradicate in this way the possibilities of war within the European continent. After WWII the German question and the Cold War atmosphere resulted in the creation of the socalled Montanunion (European Coal and Steel Community) that based the production of coal and steel on a French-German cooperation. After its success, in 1957, the European Economic Community was created, with the aim of realizing a more and more tight union between Europe’s nations. The plan was widely discussed beginning with the 1970s. First, the bases of European identity were discussed. Beginning with the 1980s, in the EEC, already consisting of 12 states, plans referring to the creation of a political union were discussed at a very concrete level. This process resulted after much compromise on every side in the European Union’s Treaty in 1993, largely due to the political changes in Eastern Europe.

A szovjet múlt és a bizonytalan jövő között. Az ukrajnai lengyel kisebbség

Author(s): Gábor Lagzi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2016

An analysis of the European Enlargement Policy through years: the case of Western Balkans

Author(s): Albana Rexha / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2019

No matter its peculiarities, enlargement policy through its conditionality policy instrument is viewed as the most successful EU foreign policy. It is argued that enlargement has strengthened and stabilized democracy in Europe. This review article discusses the enlargement policy towards the Western Balkans since the 2003 Thessaloniki Summit and the Union’s efforts and mechanisms to maintain enlargement at the forefront. These mechanisms include forums and summits of discussion between EU and Western Balkan key actors, various strategies on enlargement, and financial dedications to fostering reform implementation like IPA. The 2003 Summit is considered a critical point in regards to refocusing attention and efforts to enlargement and reaffirming a European future for the Balkan region; therefore, it is important to consider all alternations from that point in time. Thus, the aim is to look at enlargement policy through years and provide an insightful view to the enlargement credibility that allows us to critically review it. To achieve the set goal, this article employees the content analysis methodology. The results show that although the Commission has shown its commitment to enlargement from time to time, the enlargement policy has been at stake at different times from 2003. The raise of the populism right wing parties in Europe, the growth of eurospectis and spread of terrorism are few of the contributing factors to the enlargement fatigue.

Anti-EU disinformation in the Italian and Romanian social-media

Author(s): Susana Dragomir / Language(s): English / Issue: LIX, 2/2020

Romania and Italy have a long common history, from the Roman Empire to the European Union. They both shared a period of totalitarianism, Italy shorter than Romania and they have both been theaters of regime propaganda. Nowadays the development of social-media and the expansion of internet have led to the propagation of information at the speed of light. Citizens are bombarded with information on all possible channels, leading to the reemergence of an old communicational problem. It’s called disinformation. In a shifting geopolitical context, when information is used as a weapon, disinformation can be a threat to the membership to the common political structure, the European Union, for both countries, Romania and Italy. This paper aims at presenting a comparative analysis of the use of anti-EU false narratives in disinformation campaigns by foreign actors, on Romanian and Italian social-media platform, Facebook. The data was gathered using debunked cases by national authorities and the European External Action Service.

ASPECTS OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PUBLIC POLICIES TOWARDS MUSLIMS IN GREECE, AND THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT

Author(s): Konstantinos Gogos / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2016

In the past few years there have been considerable and positive developments in important issues for the Muslim communities in Greece. The paper focuses on a number of initiatives and policies that have been taken by the Greek state in the last years, aiming at the improvement of Muslim education structures and the strengthening of the religious identity of the Muslim minority of Thrace; it also focuses on recent decisions and initiatives aiming at the improvement of the religious structures of Muslim immigrants in the metropolitan area of Athens. The paper shows the reasons behind these developments, namely the role of the European Union financial and symbolic resources, the changes in the priorities and the mentality of Greek governments since 1990 and especially in the very recent years.

AVRUPA BÜTÜNLEŞMESİ’NDE FEDERALİZM – KONFEDERALİZM REKABETİ

Author(s): Caner Sancaktar / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 50/2021

The process of economic integration initiated among Western European states in the 1950s turned into the European Union after 1990. Two different integration theories and policies have been in competition during the process of European integration which has been going on since the 1950s. In this article, competition between “federal integration” and “confederal integration” theories and policies, which have deeply influenced the European integration process, are examined and explained.

Az egyesült Európa – történelmi gyökerek

-

Author(s): Csilla Dömők / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 2/2017

As all the victorious political concept, the concept of united Europe is diffuse. As a notion, it lacks strict definition, since its content is inexhaustible. Interpretations can be numerous and it offers different opinions which are not compatible with each other. The concept of Europe is against the status-quo of the nation-state, against dissipation, separation, against national egotism and antagonism, against the pursuit of autarky and hegemony. The elimination of these problems are desirable on the other side of the nation-state horizon. This is how the concept of the united Europe connects to the concept of global citizenship. Cosmopolitan features can also be traced in this process. It is not by mistake that Shiller’s Ode to Joy („Ode an die Freude”), which is about making all the people brothers and sisters, is the official hymn of Europe, setting to music by Beethoven.

Az európai polisz

Author(s): György Schöpflin / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 08/2020

Europe today is a polis, a political community with its own idiosyncrasies, habits, thought patterns, identity or identities and, as with all identity collectives, a mythic narrative of the past and a vision of its future. At the same time, the Europan Union with all its institutions, the member states, the elites, the civil society ecosystem that surrounds the EU, represents the totality of interaction between these various bodies. This European polis is incomplete, in as much as its constituent members have powers and legal rights in which the polis has no capacities. Europe is structured by asymmetries of power, frequently allowing the stronger to coerce the weaker. Formally all member states enjoy parity of esteem; in reality, this is not so and the large states regularly seek to impose their ideas on the smaller ones. In sum, the European polis is marked by the same contradictions that are inherent in Europe’s diversity. The task for Europe, from the current perspective, is to establish the necessary equilibrium and not to lose sight of it.

Az európai társadalom újjászervezéséről (Részlet)

Author(s): Claude Henri de Saint-Simon,Augustin Thierry / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 08/2020

Az Európai Unió esete a kisebbségekkel. A Balladur-tervtől a kisebbségvédelmi csomagig

Author(s): Béla Markó / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 08/2020

European national minorities – among them, the Hungarians from Romania – turned towards the European Union with great expectations after the regime change, hoping that their situation would become normalized and enhanced. It soon became obvious that the Western interest in this regard was contradictory – often helpful, but other times uncomprehending or suspicious. Undoubtedly, there was an intention to pacify ethnic relations, but no clear solutions were offered – not only in response to the claims for autonomy, but also to demands for language rights or education in general. Respecting and protecting minority rights proved to be an issue that has been and is being interpreted differently by Western leaders to this day. Democracy is clearly important for minorities as well, but it is not enough to protect their identity. This issue resulted in the so-called Balladur Plan – the minorities expected a lot from it, but it turned out to be a disappointment after all. Nevertheless, this plan was the last major EU decision that tried to address regional specificities as a real issue. Besides this plan, the article also analyzes in detail the Memorandum submitted to the Council of Europe by the RMDSZ in 1993, which took into account, among other things, the minority problems specific for Romania.

Az Európai Unió szerepének értékelése az ukrajnai konfliktusban

Author(s): Zoltan Galik / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2016

Az európai uniós csatlakozások utáni változások Bihar régióban

Author(s): László Bulcsu / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 01/2017

Antal Lovas Kiss: The Impacts of the European Union accesion to the situation and economic, social structure of several settlements of the Region of Bihar

Az euroszkepticizmus és ami mögötte van

Author(s): Béla Tomka / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2020

Malte Zabel: Euroskeptizismus. Ursprünge und Ausdrucksformen im Verlauf des europäischen Integrationsprozesses. Nomos, Baden-Baden, 2017. 407 oldal

Az örökbéke-tervezet rövid foglalata (Részlet)

Author(s): Abbe de Saint-Pierre / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 08/2020

BENEFICIARIES OF THE SECOND ORDER ELECTION MODEL: RADICAL RIGHT PARTIES IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Author(s): Luiza Maria Filimon / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

After the latest European electoral cycle, right wing parties on the far side of the political spectrum along with right-wing euro-sceptics and conservative anti-federalists won 112 seats. The presence of the radical right in the European Parliament (EP), has often been attributed to the second order election model theorised by Reif and Schmitt (1980). In European elections, turnout is traditionally lower compared to “first” order national elections, parties in government tend to lose vote-shares while smaller parties benefit from the European system of proportional representation. This article analyses the relationship between radical parties and the EP by examining the French and Danish results in the 2014 elections. Though both constitute the third political force in their countries at that time, Front National and Dansk Folkeparti’s electoral support is representative of a second order election. The former party benefited from a classic sanction vote while the second one owes its breakthrough to a particular Danish voting behaviour, somewhat singular in the European Union. The article offers an in-depth overview of the literature on both the radical right, the Second Order Election model as well as radical right parties’ dynamic at the European Parliament level.

BOOK REVIEW. 2014. NATO-EU: A Smarter Collaboration

Author(s): Monica Oproiu / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

review of: ------------------ Gabriela Horoşanu. 2014. NATO-EU: A Smarter Collaboration, Bucharest, Tritonic Publishing House, 194 pages, ISBN: 978-606-8571-41-6.

BOOK REVIEW. 2014. Suveranitatea statelor si integrarea europeana a Balcanilor: cazul Serbiei

Author(s): Oana Cristina Popa / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

review of: --------------------- Dan D. Lazea. 2014. Suveranitatea statelor si integrarea europeana a Balcanilor: cazul Serbiei (The Sovereignty of States and the European Integration of the Balkans: The case of Serbia), Timișoara, Western University Publishing House, 257 pages, ISBN: 978-973-125-440-1

CHANGING FROM WITHIN? THE INTRA-ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS OF EU ENLARGEMENT

Author(s): Velibor Jakovlevski / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

This paper opens up the black box of enlargement, focusing on how the intra-organizational relationships among the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, and the European Parliament affect the process of enlargement. Formally speaking, enlargement is an intergovernmental process, suggesting that member states are firmly in control of its outcomes. However, the EU’s supranational actors, specifically the European Parliament and European Commission also attempt to influence enlargement at various stages. I posit that the process of enlargement to the Western Balkans has evolved, influenced by changing constraints which are operating on the aforementioned actors. The added value of this work is in disaggregating the enlargement process based on its institutionalized relationships in both a vertical and horizontal dimension. It provides a supply-side argument for how enlargement policy has evolved from within the EU, rather than simply as a function of external factors.

Context, strategies and negotiation methods in the European Union Enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe

Author(s): Mihai Alexandrescu / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2013

After almost a decade since the enlargement of the European Union to Central and Eastern Europe, history can be read with the clarity that time offers. The context, strategies and negotiation methods of 1997-2004 can be analysed more carefully now, because the consequences of those negotiations are felt even today. Covering under the mask of enlargement, we notice the fear of the westerners towards the new Member States which brought in a different history and risked disturbing a system that has been painfully set up since the 1950s. But at the same time, we notice the desire for moral revenge of the candidate countries towards the old EU members. In this study, I analyse the merit of Günter Verheugen, the technocrat who found the right language and strategy to reconcile these two perspectives and who adapted to the present interests of the two parties.