A REVIEW OF THE FIRST NINE YEARS OF POLAND’S MEMBERSHIP IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Author(s): Hakan Samur / Language(s): English Issue: 6/2013

The aim of European Union membership has topped Poland’s agenda since the 1990s based on both historical and real reasons. The accession to the EU which occurred in May 2004 has had many positive and negative economic, political and social impacts on Poland within the last nine years. The first period of the country’s membership has been shaped by the pressure of the global economic crisis and also includes the important years in which initial experience was gathered. These years will determine the future trajectory of development for the country. Besides general economic, regional, and political impacts, in this article we will try to explain the impacts of EU membership on Poland in terms of its more specific facets such as migration and public opinion of the EU.

“The Language of Europe Is Translation”

Author(s): Tibor Frank / Language(s): English Issue: 05/2016

Unia Europejska wobec Światowego Szczytu Humanitarnego

Author(s): Filip Kaczmarek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 10/2016

The first World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) was held in Istanbul on 23-24 May 2016. WHS was convened by the Secretary General of the United Nations, and organized by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The European Union is considered to be one of the key actors of humanitarian aid on a global scale. EU humanitarian action actually have a global dimension. In the sphere of humanitarian aid there is also a large coherence of the activities of the Union and its Member States. The summit was a showcase for the leading role of the EU in humanitarian aid. What was the position and expectations of the EU and its institutions to the summit? As the EU prepared for this event? What was the impact of the EU?In order to answer these questions, the author analyzes the preparations for the Summit of the EU institutions, the participation of representatives of the EU and assessments made in the EU.Expectations of the EU to the WHS were large and have not been realized, yet the Summit was officially recognized as successful.

Conflicting Narratives?

Author(s): Jean F. Crombois / Language(s): English Issue: 49/2017

Since its inception, the EU’s Eastern Partnership has given rise to two seemingly conflicting narratives. The first one, the normative power narrative emphasizes the use of norms expansion as the main objectives of the European Union vis‑à‑visits Eastern Partners. The second narrative, i.e. the geopolitical one, emphasizesthe need for the EU to develop a geopolitical orientation in its relations with its Eastern neighbours based on interests rather than values. This paper will look at these two narratives, how they originated and how they developed in the EU discourses related to the making of EU foreign policy and more particularly as far as the EU’s Eastern Partnership is concerned.

The regional policy of the European union and its results in Portugal: Convergence and divergence in practice

Author(s): Eszter Czuriga / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2009

Portugal is often mentioned as one of the models of old cohesion countries. However, the development of the country was not continuous and did not bring along the catching up of all the regions. How far does the European Union’s structural support influence the development process of Portugal and how can the effects of structural support be measured in terms of the development of the country? What results and impact did the European Union’s structural policy have in Portugal in the last quarter-century? What are the lessons learnt and what could be done to make the implementation of the Funds more effective in the future? To what extent was the convergence of growth levels achieved between the Portuguese regions and the national average concerning structural support? The author tries to answer these questions amongst others, while dealing with the evaluation of the results of Structural Funds in Portugal and the convergence of the Portuguese regions.

European Union — Reforms — Hungarian interests. What kind of European Union would we like?

Author(s): Tibor Palánkai / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2009

The lecture deals with broad topics. First, it addresses some questions related to the current state of the EU integration regarding institutions and common policies. Second, it discusses the continued importance, the main results and hindering factors related to the Lisbon Programme, with a special emphasis on the educational system in Europe and Hungary. Third, the lecture deals with some possibilities in changing the EU’s rather limited external relation models to more flexible instruments.

Some of the present and future challenges of EU Regional Policy

Author(s): Attila Marján / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2008

Regional Policy is one of the most comprehensive European policies. It reaches out to and serves as a facilitator for several other policy areas. As the EU is just ahead of its comprehensive budget review exercise, one should pose the question: why a Regional Policy at EU level? What are the main strengths and weaknesses of the EU’s Regional Policy, how should its efficiency be reinforced? Looking ahead one can see a few important challenges that the Union will have to face. Globalisation, and the management of global imbalances and global crisis are obvious candidates for the list. The relocation of economic activity to Asia or to Eastern Europe has been an issue for some time now, an issue that creates societal unease in Western Europe. This article tries to find out how can and should the EU Regional Policy act under these circumstances.

EU and EMU Accession - Whether and How the Decisions Differ?

Author(s): Hajna Lőrincné Istvánffy / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2002

The author presents the criretia of and prospects for the EU candidate countries joining the European Monetary Union. Enlargement taken as a decided question, she considers EMU accession the “second gate” for candidates. The status of Denmark and the UK are seen as exceptions, the way of which new members may not follow - thus their sooner or later joining the EMU is an obligatory task. The candidates have to meet the convergence criteria, regarding which stress is put on the difference of nominal and real convergence. So, during the at least two years preparing period between EU and EMU accession, strictly supervised “convergence programmes” would be conducted. Financial and economic liberalisation criteria of accession are also expressed. The author presents the main points of the past three stages of introducing EMU, according to which the question for new members of when to join the EMU can be more precisely answered. She focuses on the balance of interests of members and candidates, the trap of early accession, the case of asymmetric, country-specific shocks and also on the problem of giving up national exchange-rate policies. She concludes for new members that the consideration of the ability of fulfilling the above criteria is indispensable for determining a realistic plan of joining the EMU.

BUDUĆNOST EUROINTEGRACIJA

Author(s): Kenan Ademović,Edin Ramić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 19/2018

The rating in the official document entitled White Paper on the future of Europe - Considerations and scenarios for EU-27 to 2025, represents a strong support for the European project, but more is not unconditional. In fact, more than two thirds of Europeans see the EU as a stable place in a world full of economic hardship. More than 80% of countries supporting four key European freedoms, and 70% of citizens from the territory of the euro zone supported the single currency. However, it reduces the trust ofcitizens in the EU and in the governments of individual Member States. Today in the EU according Holding thirds of citizens, and ten years ago believed half of European citizens. What is an ongoing problem is overcoming the difference between promises and their fulfillment, partly because it is not easy to grasp the concept of the European Union in which they meet the European level and Member State level. Not sufficiently explained when is there for that charge, but the positive role of the EU in our daily lives can not see if the story is not told at the local level. Local communities are not always aware of the fact that the nearby farms, traffic networks or higher education institution, partly funded by the European Union. There is a mismatch between expectations and what the EU can do. A good example of youth unemployment: despite numerous meetings at the highest level and mostly useful measures of assistance by the European Union, the power and resources are still in the hands of national, regional and local authorities. So the funds available at European level in the field of social protection account for only 0, 3% of the amount which the Member States total spend. When considering issues concerning the future of the European Union and the sources of its legitimacy, there are two opposing views. On one side are those who gathered around the Coalition functionalists and federalists, on the other hand advocates of intergovernmental cooperation. In the first case should be answered all odds in a way to form a strong joint force and action to improve the situation. The EU institutions should be given greater powers and that its legitimacy gained from the more direct participation of European citizens in their choiceand work. However, for this scenario would be necessary to re-start the process leading to the adoption of a constitutional nature of the document at the European level. In this connection, in Europe in the past two decades among lawyers guided discussion on whether to use the constitutional terminology to describe the legal order of the Union and its contract.

The European Citizens’ Initiative: New Participatory Democracy Tool to Reduce the Political Disaffection of the EU or a Simple Unsuccessful

Author(s): María Peñarrubia Bañón / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2016

The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) is the first transnational instrument of citizen-participation and agenda-setting worldwide and it has been created with the aim to bring citizens to the decision-making process in Europe. Its potential for creating a European public sphere and alleviating the democratic deficit has been emphasized either in EU political level and in Academia level. Thus, it is a participatory democracy mechanism and currently it could be one of the main instruments to increase the legitimacy of the EU. The ECI main goal is to enable citizens to influence the political agenda of the Union inviting the Commission to submit legislative proposals and to create a proper European public sphere. It is, therefore, an attempt to reduce the citizens’ disaffection. Such high expectations reflect normative criteria which form a difficult basis for empirical measurement. This paper analyses the ECI and whether it is a proper tool of participatory democracy. The paper especially answers the question about whether the ECI is the propitious participatory democracy tool aimed at reducing or eliminating the citizens’ disaffection with the main political institutions that is suffering the EU, besides the proposal of enhancement mechanisms. Thus, an in depth legal amendment of the ECI regulation would constitute a measure to be taken to strengthen EU’s and European integration’s legitimacy. This paper provides an overview of the theoretical expectations towards the ECI.

Overcoming the Crisis of EU Enlargement

Author(s): Marko Kmezić / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2014

The thematic focus of the first issue of Contemporary Southeastern Europe scrutinizes the state of the European Union’s (EU) enlargement process after Croatia’s accession to the EU.

The Europeanisation of candidate countries: the case for a shift to the concept of EU member-state building

Author(s): Davide Denti / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2014

The research on the impact of the European Union on its candidate countries has been traditionally framed within the concept of Europeanisation. But the term, notwithstanding two decades of usage, still lacks clarity in its attributes and its referent. Moreover, the statehood of candidate countries has emerged as a prerequisite for its effectiveness, providing no answer for cases of limited statehood and limited Europeanisation. The concept of member-state building, which refers to the EU’s purpose of building functional member states while integrating them, may help reframe the academic discussion on the impact of the EU on candidate countries, particularly in limited statehood contexts, by complementing it with insights from the literature on state building. Deriving from an understanding of sovereignty as responsibility, member-state building highlights the paradoxes of simultaneous state building and European integration, given their competing logics of sovereignty concentration and sovereignty diffusion. To solve the dilemma, nevertheless, member-state building has one further resource. By exploiting the lack of a single blueprint and the possibility of different solutions for institutions to be compatible with EU requirements, member-state building can also foster domestic ownership and legitimacy, thus evading the trap of imposed international state building.

The New Environment of EU Enlargement: The Impact of Economic Crisis on the Western Balkans and their EU Accession Prospects

Author(s): Ritsa Panagiotou / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2014

This paper will explore the impact of the economic crisis on the Western Balkan countries, and how the new, unfavourable international environment is affecting their EU accession prospects. The analysis will be presented in three sections: the first part will examine the effect of the “first wave” of the global economic crisis on the economies of the region, specifically the impact on the region’s macroeconomic indicators, foreign direct investment flows, financial sectors, etc. Part two will analyse the repercussions of the “second wave” of the crisis, namely the Greek sovereign debt crisis, which rapidly spilled over into the entire eurozone. Part three will build on the issues examined in parts one and two and will discuss the repercussions of both waves of the crisis on the region’s enlargement process and prospects. The paper will also propose that although the E.U.’s role in Southeast Europe remains crucial (not least as a provider of economic assistance) its hitherto undisputable symbolic role as an “anchor” of stability and as a goal to be aspired to may be losing its appeal for some of these countries.

Spójność Unii Europejskiej w dobie zmian

Author(s): Jan Barcz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2018

The article refers to the actual debate on the model of differentiated integration. According to the author, it should be assumed that further internal differentiation of the European Union (EU) has become a structural and essential element of the development of European integration. At the same time, it should be stressed that the fundamental core of EU reform revolves around the Eurozone. Membership of the Eurozone has a direct influence on the position of a state in the EU. The other important point of reference is the principle of democratic rule of law which is the basis for co-operation within the EU and its effectiveness. From this point of view, the author analyses the attitude of the present Polish government towards the EU: infringements of the rule of law and the negative attitude towards membership of the Eurozone will gradually weaken Poland’s international position and affect the quality of EU membership.

Rola Niemiec w Unii Europejskiej w kontekście budowy unii energetycznej

Author(s): Anna Kucharska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2018

The energy union is a relatively new concept, which indicates on the practical implementation of energy security in the European Union. Energy union meets a general agreement on its necessity, but discrepancies between countries arise while trying to create a more detailed defi nition of this concept. National interests of individual countries appear when the objectives of the energy union are to be defined. The influence of the European Union on the energy policy of the member states is signifi cant, but also the impact of individual members on the Union itself has to be emphasized. The largest and most powerful member states, such as Germany, have a particular role in the EU and the ability to influence it. From this perspective, it is worth to analyze the role of Germany in the European Union taking into account their attitude to the energy union as well as to follow in this approach the evolution of this concept. It is important to note that the Energy Union, which refers in a broader perspective to such a crucial issue as the shape of energy supplies to the European Union, is one of the key elements affecting regional international relations.

Ramy prawne UE na rzecz umacniania praworządności. Uwagi na tle wniosku Komisji Europejskiej z 20 grudnia 2017 r.

Author(s): Agnieszka Grzelak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2018

The reasoned proposal submitted on 20 December 2017 to the Council by the European Commission on the rule of law in Poland is the first to launch a procedure for the protection of European Union’s (EU) values. It was preceded by two-year activities of the European Commission aimed at establishing a dialogue between the Polish government and the EU regarding the basic problems, such as judicial independence and independent constitutional control. The purpose of the article is to present the EU’s legal framework whose goal is to strengthen the rule of law. Measures taken by the European Commission must be analysed from the perspective of the treaty framework and international legal obligations of the EU member states. The current political discourse often has a legal background. The study is based on the analysis of legal documents.

Zanim powstało UKIE Z Ewą Ośniecką-Tamecką rozmawia Paweł Kowal - wywiad

Author(s): Paweł Kowal / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2018

The Politics of EU Enlargement Revisited - What conditions matter in the case of the EU's South-Eastern enlargement?

Author(s): Dorian Jano / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2014

There are considerable variations in the pace and speed of EU's South Eastern enlargement. Bulgaria and Romania joined European Union (EU)in 2007, Croatia became the 28 th member-state only in July 2013 while the rest of the South-East European (SEE) countries are facing uncertainty about the time they will join the Union. The article revisits the previous debate on EU enlargement politics with the aim to uncover necessary and sufficient conditions that matter in the case of EU enlargement in South East Europe. Our qualitative comparative analysis shows that having a liberal democracy as well as pro-enlargement EU member-states are both necessary conditions, if joined with the applicant's achievement of the condition of a functional market economy and effective

Parteneriatul estic: începutul refluxului procesului de extindere a Uniunii Europene?

Author(s): Gheorghe Ciascai / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 14/2016

The aim of this paper is to highlight the geopolitical limits and the strategic weakness of the European Union in his approach concerning the enlargement policy and the Neighborhood Policy after the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine. For this reason, the research will examine the evolution of the Eastern Partnership since February 2014 after the annexation of Crimea by Russian Federation and the start of war in eastern regions of Ukraine until present. Also, the paper will examine the impact of the dynamics of the Eastern Partnership for the Eastern European Partners, especially for Republic of Moldova.

The European Investigation Order - an instrument of cooperation for a stronger European Union

Author(s): Alina Ioana Szabó / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2019

The paper starts with an introduction of previous European instruments concerning cooperation in criminal matters, moving towards the presentation of European Investigation Order as regulated by the 2014/41/EU Directive. It then analysis the implementation of this instrument in Romania by Law 302/2004 on international judicial cooperation in criminal matters using a comparative method with reference to Austria, Latvia and Sweden. The paper gives some examples from Romanian jurisprudence involving European Investigation Orders. In the end, after presenting some of the disadvantages that may arise from executing an European Investigation Order, such as the costs that may burden the executing state, the paper ends in an optimistic tone concluding that the EIO seems to be a very useful tool for practitioners as it sets time limits and permits direct transmission of requests being faster and easier to execute.