Around the Bloc: Nadia Savchenko Guilty of Murder
Russian court verdict means the Ukrainian pilot could face 23 years in prison – or be swapped for captive Russian soldiers.
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Russian court verdict means the Ukrainian pilot could face 23 years in prison – or be swapped for captive Russian soldiers.
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Closure of Balkan borders has trapped nearly 50,000 refugees and migrants in increasingly squalid Greek camps.
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The development of computer sciences and telecommunication together with legislation changes caused the globalization of capital markets and the increase of their role in the economy. To measure the level of the development of capital markets it is necessary to take into account several aspects that lead to providing multidimensional analysis. Therefore multivariate statistical methodology can be used for such a purpose. The aim of the paper is a comparison of the development of the capital markets, represented by the stock exchanges affiliated with the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE). The development of selected equity markets is evaluated applying taxonomic measures calculated on the basis of FESE data concerning nineteen European stock exchanges in the years 2002-2011. Variables used for the synthetic indicators construction describe both the characteristics of the capital markets and the financial efficiency of the stock exchanges.
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The EU and others are already doubting the legitimacy of Macedonia's upcoming parliamentary elections – even before they’ve been run.
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The trains, a rare sign of cooperation between former enemies, allow migrants to skip prolonged waits at border crossings.
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Two dozen people feared dead after smuggler boat sinks off Greek coast today.
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Brussels takes legal action against Croatia for not registering migrants, Hungary in cross-hairs over asylum laws.
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Arrest of Frenchman with a small arsenal has ramped up concerns about Donbas weapons being smuggled westward.
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New EU member states losing hundreds, even thousands, of workers to countries with higher wages struggle to combat the toll.
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In contrast to modern federations, the federalization of the EU has taken place without a constitutional answer to the question of the system’s democratic legitimacy. The process of compound polity building under the shadow of the dilemma of the Union’s finalité politique can be described as “hidden federalism”. The major consequence of this process has been a gradual migration of decision-making from an intergovernmental toward a supra-governmental power-holder. On the one hand, due to an excessive Europeanization of governing tasks, national democratic institutions have lost the political autonomy necessary for shaping the relation between state and society, politics and the market, and individual and collective autonomy within member states. On the other hand, reforming the EU by creating democratically suspicious control mechanisms within its members’ budget policies has not substituted the absence of the EU’s governance autonomy to regulate politically sensitive fields such as fiscal, employment and social policies. With the escalation of the Eurozone crisis it has become evident that neither member states nor the EU have a sufficient level of autonomy to make policy choices related to the most sensitive issues of distributive justice. The implementation of the Fiscal Compact will decisively affect economic and social life in Europe; yet it is hardly possible to discern who should take credit or the blame for the nontransparent penalty mechanism embedded in this contract and aimed at regaining the Eurozone’s stability. In this new historical context, institutions of constitutional democracy, being present on the national and to an extent on the European level, have been deprived of their original purpose. Instead of making power visible and accountable, they have actually enlarged the scope of an unaccountable power by maintaining the illusion that citizens can still determine their collective destiny through the political process.
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The population of Lithuania fell faster than that of any other EU country last year.
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We analyze the correlation between the European integration and incorporating Germany into the process of European cooperation. We point out that the European integration after WWII was determined by the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community in the year 1951. This Community made it possible to control the steel industry of the Member States (among them Germany) within the framework of the common market. It was aimed at stable and harmonized devel-opment, as well as at preventing an uncontrolled growth of military-industrial complex, increasing the production for the army and decreasing the probability of the outbreak of the next war. Then - after the deepening of cooperation (taking her new areas) – the European Communities (EC) were created. They are still institutional foundations of the EU. One of the main reasons of the EC creation was the willingness to ensure lasting peace in Europe and to create „security community” through a.o. incorporation of Germany into the group of cooperating states. In this paper, we analyze the security system components created (e.g.) by the EC/EU, as well as the origin and changes of their characteristics. We compare the process of German unification (and more general: of defining the German unity, and broader: unity of the German speaking territory) after WWI and WWII. The analysis of similarities and differences leads us to the present stage of the European integration, when the unification of two German states was accomplished for the price of German acceptance of deepening of the integration and the creation of the European monetary union. We analyze various consequences of unification of Germany and the creation of the euro zone. In our opinion, they go far beyond the economic or political ones, and are connected with the EU Eastern enlargement.
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The participation of Poland in the Union’s military missions was dictated by a conviction about the need of a common, solidary cooperation in solving problems on a local, as well as international level, especially in the situation, when local issues could transform into a problem of a wider, so regional or global nature. Ensuring a state’s safety and strengthening of the position of Poland on the international arena, as constant purposes of our national policy, required joining in any international initiatives that were supposed to serve as a realization of strategic national aims. Due to the fact that different processes and phenomena happening in surroundings, regions and in the world influenced by the Polish safety, Poland had to actively participate in these actions. The active membership of Poland in foreign missions had been creating conditions that favor economical development and a progress of civilization. The participation in missions lead under the aegis of the European Union was also a realization of allied commitments and they were the one to constitute the credibility of Poland. The participation of Poland in the Common Security and Defence Policy can be divided into two periods. The first once embraces a time, when Poland was not a member of the European Union and, to be honest, its participation in a decisive process under the CSDP had more of a personal nature of engagement into lead missions. Therefore, Poland activated its military forces in military operations, as well as civilian ones, of which there were more. A second period is the time after 2004, when Poland had become a member of the European Union. In this case, we had a formal right to participate or make decisions ands not to participate in certain initiatives of the European Union. In operations that had national forces involved, it is possible to notice happening there processes of the Europeanization. Generally, they were based on taking over soft regulation aspects elaborated on a Union’s level and implementing them in actions of Polish organizations. Even though under the CSDP decisions were made and are made in an intergovernmental way, in situations when Poland participated in operations lead by the European Union, it has always adjusted to the dictate of Brussels. It resulted from an operational, organizational and logistic subordination of the Polish Military Contingent. To sum up, it can be assumed that even in a policy considered as a field with many flaws, there still are ongoing processes of Europeanization based on taking over elements of soft laws and in some cases – hard regulations as well. In this context, Polish armed forces received some “best practices”, learnt to act in completely different conditions and fields that made their adjustments and taking over good practices have some kind of a socialization nature.
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The Serbian government steps up its efforts to secure its borders with Bulgaria and Macedonia against migrants and smugglers.
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The article ‘Some aspects of migration of the Roma after the enlargement of the European Union’ deals with the problems arising in connection with the migration of the Roma in the EU after its enlargement in 2004 and 2007 by so-called ‘Eastern European countries’, which were quite numerous and are still inhabited by the Roma minority. The article focuses on an attempt to improve the living conditions of the Roma through EU legislation, including Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment regardless of racial or ethnic origin, Council Directive No. 2000/78/WE of 27 November 2007 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation and - in particular - adopted by the European Parliament, „Resolution on the social situation of the Roma and their improved access to the labor market of the EU” in March 2009. The study is an attempt to confront the above-mentioned legal acts with the actual/real possibility of their implementation. The author draws attention to a number of problems in this area (lifestyle, internal diversity of Roma communities, the level of education, access to the labor market, the role of women), mainly due to the difference of the Roma minority culture and the difficulties associated with the integration in the societies of EU member states.
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The double exclusion and discrimination of Roma women concerns of all European Roma communities. The reasons for this lie in the issues of ethnic and gender equ¬ality issues. Discrimination and exclusion manifests itself in all areas of life. The situation of Roma women is worse than Roma men as well as women worse than mainstream European society. Roma Framework Strategy of the European Union insufficiently focused on their specific situation. Specifically refer to the other documents, but they are not binding, although delimit the future direction of the EU changes. The approach of the EU institutions presents to the Roma women in selected legislative documents allows to create an overall picture of this for which assistance from the EU, they can count on. Its scope covers many important aspects of Romani women. But this is not enough to help to fully remedy their exclusion and discrimination. As a complement to the problems perceived by the EU institutions should also take into account the fact that each external evaluation of cultural policies is always fraught with error transferring your own values. In addition, a major problem is the discrimination faced by Roma women from mainstream society and institutions. Therefore, a significant change and improvement in their situation depends on many factors. Undoubtedly very important are those that are associated with the cultural determinants of the Roma minority. However, do not underestimate the effort which must make the EU’s institutional system and society of Europe to reduce their level of exclusion and discrimination.
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Article contains review of the women service in police formations in the Republic of Slovenia. It shows the organizational structure of the Slovenian police, the history of women employment in this formation and current statistics of women police service. Important part of the article states about European Service of Policewomen, because Slovenian police takes part in this initiative. Main aim of this article is to present women service in police formations, including the reasons for choosing this path of their career. No less important is social perception of the way how activities and requests taken by this highly female-dominated police. Author also shows how cooperation between male and woman police officers can influence the effectiveness of police operations.
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The paper refers to the ongoing discussion on the shape, forms, and methods of public administration activity. It deals with issues related to the place held by the right to good administration in the law system of the EU. The author has presented its creation process, which is inseparably connected with an evolution, which the member-states have undergone in their approach to the fundamental rights. The paper has shown the material and personal right to good administration based on the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the European Code of Good Administrative Behaviour. The summary has stressed the procedural character of the right, covering direct relations between an administrative agency and an individual.
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The article presents various opinions and assessments of Polish society regarding membership in the European Union and its consequences. 2014 marks 10 years since countries from Central-Eastern Europe became a part of the European Union. It is a good opportunity for an afterthought on the role and place of the post-communist countries in today’s world order. The author of the article suggests that perspectives of post-colonial theories or the system-world dependence theory can be a useful tool to help understand the state of affairs in the region. It is also indicated by the research studies which demonstrate that the respondents notice a gap between Poland and the standards of Western European countries in all aspects of their lives. It does not only refer to the social sphere, but also to assess the institutional order or civic self-awareness. In spite of dif culties and crises in such countries as Greece or Portugal within the European Union, Polish society – as shown by the results of the author’s research studies – perceives further European integration to be a solution to its own problems.
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The author of this publication has considered the question of presence so called gender in the law of European Union and its chances and risks which could be the consequences of gender’s ideology. Firstly, author has made the analysis of equivocal notion of gender and has indicated the difference between gender studies, which is the academic discipline, which the subject are the means of demonstration of genders in different cultures and societies and gender mainstreaming which is the political strategy extracting the part of achievements above discipline. Subsequently there have been mentioned numerous regulations and documents of EU law, which regulate the gender equality. Finally, the author has evaluated, if gender pose a threat or a chance for society. Consequently this elaboration is the voice getting into a discussion to the point of gender and its potential consequences.
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