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Parlament je jezgro reprezentativne demokratije. U optimalnom slučaju on zastupa volju naroda. Uloga stranaka je da povezuju individualne interese birača i zastupaju ih u interesu zajedničkog dobra. Međutim, ne samo u Bosni i Hercegovini, diljem svijeta gubi se povjerenje u demokratiju. Kod mnogih građana javlja se utisak da parlament donosi odluke, usvaja zakone i potiče trendove koji ne odgovaraju zajedničkom dobru. Kada zastupnici ne postupaju u skladu s voljom građana, kredibilitet politike pada, izlaznost birača se smanjuje, a legitimnost parlamenta postaje upitna. Uslijed krize reprezentativne demokratije, u brojnim zemljama – pa tako naprimjer i u Njemačkoj – sve su glasniji pozivi za neposrednim demokratskim procesima. Populistički zahtijevajući da se moć da u ruke građana, kroz plebiscite, odluke naroda i referendum, očekuje se da se odluke donose što je moguće dalje od parlamenta.
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Over the past year, war in Georgia, the Ukrainian gas crisis and the burning of the Moldovan parliament have all dominated the front pages of European newspapers. But behind the headlines the story is just as bleak: politics in the “neighbourhood” is a toxic mixture of authoritarianism and stalled democracy, ongoing secessionist tensions continue to stoke fears of violent conflict, and the economic crisis is wreaking havoc throughout the region. The implications for the EU are profound. Renewed hostilities or economic collapse could see an influx of immigrants into eastern Member States. Several banks in western Member States are exposed to the imploding economies in the east. But beyond these immediate dangers, there is an emerging contest between the EU and Russia over the political rules that are to govern the neighbourhood. Since the 2004 Orange revolution in Ukraine, Russia has been working tirelessly to draw the countries of the region into its sphere of influence while the EU has continued to pursue a technocratic strategy best described as “enlargement-lite” – offering the neighbourhood states the prospect of eventual political and economic alignment with the EU while dampening down any hopes of actual accession.
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In the next two decades, the persistent weakness of some states and regions may well prove a greater strategic challenge to the international community than the emergence of new powers like China. Having been in charge of UN peacekeeping for eight years, I believe we are not prepared to meet this challenge. We have been used to balancing power with power, but we are ill-equipped to deal with weakness: fragile states may require military deployments of peacekeepers, but strengthening them or managing their collapse requires much more complex strategies, drawing heavily on civilian capacities. One would expect the European Union, supposedly the civilian power par excellence, to be at the forefront of this effort, and certainly well ahead of the US, which has often been criticised for a Pentagon-dominated approach. Yet the Americans are fast learning the lessons of their difficulties in Iraq and Afghanistan, and energetically building their civilian capacities. The Europeans, despite having set themselves ambitious “civilian headline goals” in 2004, are at risk of being left behind. This report is severe on the performance of the EU as a “civilian power”. Tough love, perhaps. But the good news is that no group of countries in the world has more civilian capacity potential than the EU, and that opinion polls conducted across more than 50 countries find more support for a rise in the EU’s global influence than for any other major power. This is an extraordinary vote of confidence. Can Europe live up to it?
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The Albanian Institute for International Studies (AIIS) brings to the reader the 2012 edition of the yearly survey study ‘The European Perspective of Albania’, an authoritative and established publication, part of the European program which is one of the key programs of the AIIS regular activity. After nine years of carefully collecting, reporting, analyzing and interpreting the perceptions and expectations of the Albanian public related to EU and integration, AIIS has now a valuable experience and has built a solid reputation both with domestic as well as with international institutions referring valuable data and providing practical recommendations in relation to furthering the citizens involvement in the integration process.
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The Albanian Institute for International Studies (AIIS) has been measuring the pulse of public opinion in Albania regarding European integration since 2003. Through its yearly edition of the national public opinion poll “The European perspective of Albania: Perceptions and Realities” that identifies and interprets the perceptions, evaluations and thoughts of Albanian citizens (selected to make up a fairly representative sample), AIIS has been of assistance with its recommendations stemming from the study to a variety of relevant actors in both Tirana and Brussels. European institutions, their representatives in Albania, Albanian and regional media and actors in government, academia and civil society alike have benefitted from this knowledge and this insight provided every year fitted with comparisons and alerts on emerging trends.
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This report offers a panorama of people’s perceptions in Albania opposite the realities of the European integration process. It does so by gauging these perceptions in several dimensions of the process and tries to understand it from the perspectives of ordinary citizens, who are essential towards achieving the long time goal and aspiration of Albania. These perspectives are faced with the realities of the EU integration process and the challenges and difficulties the country is facing in the path of integration. The results and conclusions are directed to all the political and nonpolitical actors in the Albanian society, with the aim to reflect upon people’s perceptions and expectations as well as what can be further improved.
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Ahead of the European Council summit on the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, the European Commission has prepared a white paper on the possible paths of EU development. The vague content of the document, though, reflects the uncertainty amongst the Member States, although the first reactions of Western European politicians favour the multi-speed Europe scenario. For Poland, especially as long as it remains outside the euro area, it will be important that EU discussions be inclusive and non-discriminatory.
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Slovakia’s presidency of the Council of the European Union will be dominated by the debate on EU reform in light of Brexit. The government in Bratislava will try to link current community policy to its national interests and improvement of Slovakia’s image in Europe. Therefore, the Slovak position on possible institutional reform or energy policy may differ from the Polish stance. If the Visegrad Group has the ambition to use the Slovak presidency to strengthen its role in Europe, it will be necessary to develop a uniform approach to the key issues of the EU.
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Brexit can have negative consequences for EU citizens living in the United Kingdom as well as for Britons living in other EU Member States. The scale and nature of its impact will depend on the model of future relations between the UK and the EU as well as on how quickly the latter agrees to it. Paradoxically, if Brexit reduces economic migration to the UK, it will mostly hurt the British economy and its labour market. For Poland, given its own demographic trends, the prospect of a return to the country of a number of workers is very positive.
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In a referendum in the Kingdom of the Netherlands on 6 April, 61% of voters were against ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. Their decision may delay Ukraine’s integration with the EU and will strengthen those political forces in Ukraine that oppose the country’s modernisation and cooperation with international financial institutions. Russia will use the results of the referendum to discredit the Eastern European countries’ rapprochement to the EU.
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The EU pursues a number of advisory programmes in neighbouring countries with the aim to help their government administrations implement mutually agreed reforms. The experience of the Eastern Partnership countries shows these programmes face many limits. Although it is difficult for the EU to modernise public administration in this region, its advisory services might be improved by introducing more flexible procedures, multiannual training, and more logistical support.
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Prezentowane opracowanie poświęcone jest ocenie polskiego i niemieckiego dyskursu ekonomicznego na temat strefy euro i jej przyszłości. Próba usystematyzowania zasadniczych kwestii dotyczących strefy euro i jej przyszłości na elipsie wyznaczonej przez płynne ekstrema: od „przeszłych, pewnych i dobrze rozpoznanych kwestii” do „przyszłych, raczej słabiej zdefiniowanych kategorii”, pozwoliła na wstępną ostrożną ocenę dyskursu polskiego w tym zakresie. W tej części zawarto syntezę najistotniejszych zagadnień pojawiających się w ekonomicznej dyskusji. Starano się odpowiedzieć na pytanie, czy można w Polsce zaobserwować pewne stanowisko wobec proponowanych w UE inicjatyw i podejmowanych działań. W odniesieniu do RFN przedstawiono dominujące wątki niemieckiego dyskursu o kryzysie i przyszłości strefy euro, wskazując na aktywną rolę RFN w procesie kształtowania przyszłej architektury UE i promowania koncepcji integracji warunkowej. Zaprezentowane wnioski są próbą uchwycenia najczęściej pojawiających się w RFN i Polsce wątków dyskusji dotyczących (po)kryzysowej przyszłości strefy euro i UE. Opracowanie powstało w ramach polsko-niemieckiego projektu badawczego „Polacy i Niemcy wobec przyszłości Unii Europejskiej” realizowanego przez Instytut Zachodni w Poznaniu i Fundację Konrada Adenauera w latach 2012-2013.
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In recent years, and more specifically, since the outbreak of the Eurozone crisis in 2010, the model of integration has changed. The rising political power of the strongest Member States and the political segmentation of the European Union into separate circles of integration have become the new reality. These processes have been accompanied by a range of related changes, such as the growing politicisation of the European Commission, increasing institutionalisation of the euro area and petrification of the geographical and political division into central and peripheral states in the EU. At this point, it is difficult to predict whether these changes will prove temporary or permanent, and what will be their systemic consequences (or, in other words, how will they impact Europe’s political system). It is similarly difficult to judge how the changes will influence specific EU policies. An attempt to answer these difficult but compelling questions is the objective of our book.Tomasz Grzegorz GrosseProfessor of Political Science and Head of Department of European Union Policies at the University of Warsaw; author of In Search of Geo-economics in Europe and coeditor of The Aspects of a CrisisThe authors of this volume offer a comprehensive analysis of conditions and results of EU policies in the context of European integration. The ambitious scope of the project required the knowledge of economics, history, political science, international relations, law and even sociology. The authors fulfill their promise to the readers: the volume contains a comprehensive and detailed elucidation of the influence of the crisis on the integration practice, and on the contemporary conditions of EU integration, including both its structure and functioning. Zbigniew Czachórauthor of The Crisis and Disrupted Dynamics of the European UnionThe volume edited by Tomasz G. Grosse promises to be a very valuable contribution to Polish European studies. It belongs to the broader field of critical reflections on European integration and as such, it opens new possibilities of constructive debate about the present and the future of the European Union. Janusz Ruszkowskicoauthor of Euro: Common Currency of the United EuropeThe Authors:Paweł J. Borkowski, Jacek Czaputowicz, Tomasz Grzegorz Grosse, Krzysztof M. Księżopolski, Justyna Miecznikowska, Jadwiga Nadolska, Artur Nowak-Far, Kamila Pronińska, Małgorzata Smutek, Krzysztof Szewior, Jolanta Szymańska, Joanna Ziółkowska.
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With its “credible enlargement perspective for and enhanced EU enlargement with the Western Balkans”, the EU plans to launch several new flagship initiatives for the six aspiring countries. The key initiative envisaged is “to strengthen rule of law” through more detailed assessment of the rule of law and reform implementation by including case-based peer reviews, trial monitoring of serious corruption cases and organised crime, developing indicators for reform implementation and deploying advisory missions. // The EU has begun some planning but detailed action plans are yet to come. New programmes and initiatives should be new in content and form. In the case of Kosovo, things are more complex; the clarity of the new plan and drawing the line between the past and future is key for any success of the upcoming initiatives. With EULEX still on the ground, after 10 years of deployment, plagued by low trust and an image of failure, the rule of law has little improved in Kosovo. The EU should carefully consider the conditions upon which new initiatives are established. // Equally, local authorities need to be fully in the driving seat. Reluctant to do so until now, the government has recently initiated a Functional Review of the Rule of Law Sector and Justice 2020. Their agendas have not progressed much in the absence of political will, and undefined roles and agendas remain between the local authorities and EU. Any new initiatives should be launched based on certain principles that ensure they have full local ownership, are driven by local demand, are based on in-depth evaluation and verification, build upon broad consultations and inclusion, have a clearly defined role and scope, have realistic expectations and contribute to streamlining the reform agendas.
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In this contribution, we propose that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) introduce ‘rule of law infringement procedures’, having both a fast-track and a freezing component, as part of a wider ‘EU rule of law toolbox’. We show rule of law infringement procedures’ great potential in tackling rule of law backsliding in the Member States, provided that the following rules are applied. First, the European Commission should identify the rule of law problem explicitly. Second, it should not waste time and postpone its legal actions, while a Member State openly violates the rule of law. Third, the CJEU should automatically prioritise and accelerate infringement cases with a rule of law element to avoid more harm being done by those in power. Fourth, interim measures should be used to put an immediate halt to rule of law violations that can culminate in grave and irreversible harm. Fifth, EU institutions should establish a periodic rule of law review. It should help them to determine if there is a systemic threat to the rule of law in a given Member State, and provide additional legitimacy to the European Commission for initiating rule of law infringement actions and to the CJEU for ruling on such matters.
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GERMAN EDITION PUBLISHED IN 1988 BY CAMPUS-VERLAG. From the author's prologue: For a long time I was »anti-European«. At the end of the war, as anti-fascism developed into movements promoting European federalism, I wrote an article that appeared in Les lettres francaises in 1946. It bore the categorical title: "There is no more Europe." I had belonged to the Resistance and was now a communist. For me, for us, Europe was a lying word ... I had fought against what Hitler called »the new Europe«. I considered old Europe to be the nucleus of imperialism and oppression rather than the cradle of democracy and freedom. ... Later, Europe had been divided by the Cold War and the Stalinist Ice Age. But what haunted me in the years 1948-1951 and distracted me from my split regarding Europe was the development under Stalin, which destroyed all my hopes. It expressed itself in renewed political purges and inquisition processes in Budapest, Sofia and Prague. During that time, I lived through the tragedy of those who can neither remain true to nor give up their faith. I noticed the increasingly blatant contradictions between the idea of communism and its reality.
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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 1987 BY GALIMARD, PARIS. From the author's plologue: For a long time I was »anti-European«. At the end of the war, as anti-fascism developed into movements promoting European federalism, I wrote an article that appeared in Les lettres francaises in 1946. It bore the categorical title: "There is no more Europe." I had belonged to the Resistance and was now a communist. For me, for us, Europe was a lying word ... I had fought against what Hitler called »the new Europe«. I considered old Europe to be the nucleus of imperialism and oppression rather than the cradle of democracy and freedom. ... Later, Europe had been divided by the Cold War and the Stalinist Ice Age. But what haunted me in the years 1948-1951 and distracted me from my split regarding Europe was the development under Stalin, which destroyed all my hopes. It expressed itself in renewed political purges and inquisition processes in Budapest, Sofia and Prague. During that time, I lived through the tragedy of those who can neither remain true to nor give up their faith. I noticed the increasingly blatant contradictions between the idea of communism and its reality.
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The European integration aspirations of the country cannot be seen outside the current development context. Th e report examines the main obstacles and opportunities, placing them in a wider context of the political, economic and social transformations the country is going through. Like any social process, European integration cannot have a linear trajectory and is not a one-way street. Th e process must be seen as a multidimensional one. It does not bring benefits and advantages alone. In addition to the efforts of politicians or technocrats, it requires eff orts from the entire society - shifts in mindsets and attitudes by every Moldovan, and obviously an unparalleled communication within and cohesion of the society. I believe this should be the recipe for success. As such, the report does not only provide solutions and relevant policy recommendations for decision makers, but also is meant to offer a venue for discussions., I am certain it will generate fascinating and constructive debates at both national and local levels on the complexity of European integration and inclusive and sustainable human development. (Nicola Harrington-Buhay)
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The implementation of PAUEM represented, with certainty, an effort to modernize the Republic of Moldova. Whatever the level of estimation of the degree of implementation of PAUEM, it is a positive one, even if it is, at the same time, insufficient. In such circumstances, it is the honor of the exponents of the Moldovan political class, who signed the Declaration on the political partnership for achieving the objectives of European integration, to continue reforming and modernizing society in order to reach EU standards. The discrepancy between the level of modernization achieved by the Republic of Moldova and the minimum standards of the EU requires that the Moldovan political forces redo their agendas, emphasizing not so much doctrinal subtleties, but the urgent need to overcome handicaps. From this point of view, the primary imperative of the democratic political struggle should be reduced to the competition to optimize the speed and costs of overcoming them, another goal worthy of the citizens' attention being simply missing.
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