Around the bloc: Viktor Orban: ‘All Terrorists Are Basically Migrants’
Hungary’s premier says immigration and terrorism link ‘obvious,’ calls for greater EU border controls, vetting of migrants.
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Hungary’s premier says immigration and terrorism link ‘obvious,’ calls for greater EU border controls, vetting of migrants.
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Until recently, anyone over 18 could buy deactivated guns in Slovakia, no license required.
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Mit diesen erhabenen Worten beschreibt der Entwurf des Vertrages über eine Verfassung für Europa in seiner Präambel die wesentlichen Grundlagen, das Fundament der Gemeinschaft der Staaten und Völker, die sich in der Europäischen Union zusammenfinden, um ihre gemeinsame Zukunft auch gemeinsam zu gestalten. Mit ihnen verleiht der Entwurf den Zielen und Wertvorstellungen Ausdruck, die dem fortschreitenden Prozess der europäischen Integration und der Bildung einer politischen Union einen inneren Sinn und damit nachhaltige Stabilität verleihen sollen.
More...Solidaritätsdiskurse vor der EU-Erweiterung
Glaubt irgendjemand noch an die Solidarität zwischen den »zwei Europas«? Eines ist sicher: Auch Leute, die meinen, das Konzept europäischer Solidarität sei zweideutig und werde überstrapaziert, reden gerne über sie. Ich fürchte, auch ich gehöre zu dieser Gruppe. Meine einzige Entschuldigung ist, dass ich Solidarität nicht predige, sondern nur den Solidaritätspredigten anderer zuhöre. Acht ehemals kommunistische Länder werden in Kürze der Europäischen Union beitreten und damit Teil dessen werden, was sie so lange als »den Westen« glorifiziert oder dämonisiert haben. Und wie bei den früheren EU-Erweiterungen ist auch dieses Mal der Solidaritätsdiskurs ein wesentlicher Bestandteil des dabei inszenierten Übergangsrituals. Eigentlich müsste man dieses Ritual mit kühlem Kopf einer unparteiischen Analyse unterziehen. Aber als osteuropäischer Bürger kann ich nicht versprechen, diesem Erfordernis voll gerecht zu werden.
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Macedonian parties agree to a deal that could finally end a bitter dispute between conservatives and social democrats.
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Employment restructuring processes are one of the most severe social effects arising from changes taking place today in the countries of the European Union resulting from the economic crisis that has unfolded since 2008. It would seem that in view of economic difficulties companies will focus on improving financial performance, abandoning the application of a policy of social responsibility (Corporate Social Responsibility – CSR). One of the examples of CSR measures taken by companies during the crisis is outplacement. The aim of this article is to describe the essence of outplacement by a review of the literature on employment restructuring and business social responsibility, including in particular the issue of tools employed by enterprises to mitigate adverse effects of dismissal of employees. The characterization of outplacement has been presented within the context of legal regulations and initiatives of the European Union and Poland, and also of practical CSR solutions applied by companies as part of outplacement programmes.
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New cabinet, again led by former hardline nationalist Vucic, marks a breakthrough for gay rights in the Balkans.
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The aim of the article is to overview notification, i.e. a procedure provided in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU that requires the EU member states to inform the European Commission about certain measures. The author introduces the legal basis and discusses procedure applied in four types of notification: notifying state aid, notifying adoption of harmonisation measures, notifying technical regulations and notifying draft legislative provision in the field of competence of the European Central Bank.
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One of the current ambitions of the European Union (EU) policy is to promote inclusive growth in all Member States (MS). After the crisis, over the last few years the EU and its MS have made a series of important decisions that put stronger emphasis on social aspects. The aim of the research was to discuss effectiveness of the current European policy in the field of poverty and social exclusion on a basis of statistics concerning mentioned phenomena. The discussion is signif-icant, because it takes places five years after the Europe 2020 strategy introduction. One of the priorities of the strategy is inclusive growth.The paper explains the most important issues concerning inequalities, poverty and social inclusion as well as their impact on an economy, describes the attitude toward social protection common in the EU and presents the chosen aspects the of Europe 2020 strategy concerning the fight against social exclusion. Then the paper juxtaposes those issues with statistical data, what lets question the efficiency of the EU policy. Some other probable reasons of unsatisfactory results are also discussed. On a basis of EU documents there are also presented some recommendations for the MS. There are focused mainly on labour market and education.
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The EU is focused on the pursuit of the objectives of economic, social and territorial cohesion. They are closely linked with sustainable growth, which is impossible without the development in these areas. The EU Roma strategy is strongly linked to the Europe 2020 strategy, aimed at cohesion objectives. The practical realization of pro-Roma strategy assumptions is entrusted to the Member States. In this regard, it comes to concretization of EU framework principles in accordance with their developmental orientation. However, taking into account the final stage of implementation of the EU, being the practical implementation of measures addressed to Roma, there is a problem with different systems of values. Objectives of the European Union are based primarily on the development and pursuit of growth. Roma culture-shaped by the need for survival – is associated with a value system which is based on the duration, permanence and strong intra-community ties. Assessing with this point of view pro-growth orientation of Roma policy, we should adopt other criteria than those resulting from the Europe 2020 strategy. However, even the Human Development Index is not possible to assess fully appropriate to the system of Roma culture. Therefore the most appropriate are the EU's pro-growth policy orientation evaluation criteria. The basis for this assessment are the assumptions set out in the EU Framework and the annual European Commission communication summarizing the progress made by Member States. On this basis, it can be stated that the EU Roma policy is focused on economic growth and social development.
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In the face of the global crisis, the EU has taken steps to strengthen supervision and improve coordination of national economic policies by introducing a supervisory mechanism under the name of the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP). Its aim is to give an early warning of emerging economic disorders including the residential real estate market. This market has been included due to the awareness that the uneven development of this market may lead to disturbances in economy. Very dynamic changes in residential real estate prices and the accompanying strong level of lending are associated with the risk of a violent and dangerous in consequences correction. This paper has a research character. Nevertheless, it makes it possible to assess – by indicating economies in which the real estate market exhibits, or may start to exhibit signals of disturbed balance – the existing method of monitoring the real estate market in the MIP.
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This paper attempts to identify the differentiated approaches of the Czechs and Slovaks in relation to monetary integration (the EMU) in Europe. It includes analysis of the key strategic documents programming the countries’ position in and towards the Eurozone, the presentation of selected economic parameters, as well as public opinion surveys on the issue, which divides not only Prague and Bratislava but the whole Central European region. As a result it shows the diversified picture of the two member states’ approaches towards the Eurozone. Comparing the Czech and Slovak cases enables to observe two individual trajectories that launched in 1993. If not the Czech-Slovak divorce, both of the economies would be outside or inside of the Euro-club.
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This text presents the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights by Polish courts since the entry into force of the Charter in December2009. As the Charter is an element of the ‘external’ constitution for the Republicof Poland, similar to the European Convention on Human Rights, the practiceof the Polish Constitutional Tribunal is of particular importance in this analysis.Hence the referral to the Charter by common and administrative courts is ratherbriefly described and the main focus of the text is on the broader analysis of the way of and reasons for using the Charter by the Constitutional Tribunal. While the Charter is not treated as a model for the hierarchical analysis of norms in cases of constitutional complaints, it can however be offered as such a model in cases of abstract control and legal questions filed by the Courts. The use of the Charter might be further clarified by an answer of the Court of Justice of the European Union to the first request for preliminary ruling made by the Polish Constitutional Tribunal in case C-390/15 RPO.
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The EU has been the prime institutional force behind internal reforms and regional co-operation in the Western Balkans since 1999. EU efforts have been to a large extent successful, forcing upon the local elites political choices that otherwise they would have found convenient to reject. Normalizing Serb-Kosovo relations since the latter’s declaration of independence in February 2008, or more accurately pushing forward a dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina has been among the greatest EU diplomatic successes in the Western Balkans since 2011. This paper analyses the changes that have taken in Belgrade’s policy vis-à-vis Kosovo, since February 2008 and the progress in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue from March 2011 until February 2015, under EU’ influence and pressure.
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Udalosti v Kyjeve, na Kryme, v Donbase a prepad cien ropy v roku 2014 spôsobili globálne problémy, ktorých následky si možno len domýšľať. Finančný kolaps Ukrajiny sa zdá byť nevyhnutný. Pár mesiacov po bombastickej zimnej olympiáde v S oči (ktorá stála toľko čo všetky zimné olympiády dokopy) sme svedkami rovnako bombastického spľasnutia „uhľovodíkovej“ bubliny, ktorá má potenciál stiahnuť nielen Rusko, ale aj Venezuelu, Nigériu či ťažobné sektory vo vyspelých krajinách. Problémy Európy s jej percentami HDP hore-dolu okolo národných deficitov sa aspoň načas zdali byť detskou hrou.
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Vyšehradská štvorka zastávala v roku 2014 obzvlášť významné postavenie v zahraničnej a európskej politike Slovenska. Kríza na Ukrajine podnietila predstaviteľov krajín V4 na mnohé aktivity nad rámec tradične plánovaných stretnutí a samitov. Hoci na úrovni V4 sa prijímali vyhlásenia deklarujúce spoločný postup, dizonancie vo vyjadreniach niektorých politických predstaviteľov jednotlivých krajín vyvolávali určité otázniky nad perspektívou spolupráce vo formáte V4 v ďalšom období. Viacerí politickí analytici či publicisti vo všetkých štyroch krajinách i mimo nich na základe týchto dizonancií začali hovoriť o existenciálnej kríze vyšehradskej skupiny – vo svetle deklarácií a stanovísk prijatých na politickej úrovni, ako aj ďalších dokumentov, na ktorých bazíruje tento text, však nebol tento trend badateľný. Do popredia tak opäť vystúpila otázka posilňovania vnútornej súdržnosti V4, aj vo vzťahu k rozširovaniu spolupráce o stále ďalšie krajiny vo formáte V4+.
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Looking at Central and Eastern Europe, Romania is a particularly interesting example. It aspires to be an economic tiger, as one the fastest growing economies in the European Union. The country has great growth potential and is attractive for foreign investors. However, Romania also has one of the biggest informal economies in the EU, accounting for 28 per cent of that country’s total economy in 2013.
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