Integration of new countries in the European Union
Essay - 6 pages - European union
The story of Europe is still being written. The entrance of new countries, ten in 2004, two others in 2007, and the current question of opening Europe to Turkey, shows that the European Union is continuously evolving. From 1947 to 1989, the liberalist doctrine has been adopted by the Western part...
Democratizing Europe: On the quest for a common public space
Essay - 4 pages - European union
We all remember the rebuff of the constitution from France and the Nederland in spring 2005 and the further comments on the event. Many bet on an end of Europe. This refusal called into question Europe that was upset that stopped for a while. Of course, although this reject was not a good point...
Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and energy security, is there a role for Europe?
Essay - 13 pages - European union
After a risk in the supply of energy from Russia again this winter, strong voices claimed the necessity of a European common foreign energy security policy. However, once the crisis resolved, and the cold weather wore off, the idea was left aside, at least by the Media. The EU energy policy is a...
Does the Constitutional Treaty provide an answer to the difficulties of EU governance ?
Essay - 12 pages - European union
Before studying the outcome of the EU government, we must analyze the concrete difficulties faced by it. A few of the main aspects of the difficulties in EU governance may be realized from the Commission's White Paper (2001) and the 2004 report. According to the Commission, the main problems...
The Lisbon treaty
Essay - 3 pages - European union
The 27 European leaders reached a deal on the new “Reform Treaty” during a two-day summit at Lisbon on October 18th and 19th 2007, ending more than two years of political crisis after the French and Dutch referenda. This agreement comes after a long and complex process of elaboration...
How does the European Commission foster the integration of the energy market?
Essay - 5 pages - European union
The European Union (UE) proves to be an efficient exporting actor for the goods and services market. However, its capital account remains negative in the energy market. UE's growing dependency on gas and electricity suppliers is becoming an economic and strategic weakness for the business...
The European union's development policy toward Africa
Essay - 4 pages - European union
On December 8th and 9th 2007 the summit of African and European leaders has hold in Lisbon. It is the second ever Summit between heads of states and governments from EU and Africa after the Cairo Summit in 2000. The 52 countries of the African Union, the 27 European member states, and the...
Karen E. Smith "European Union Foreign Policy in a Changing World"
Book review - 4 pages - European union
European Union Foreign Policy in a Changing World provides a clear introduction to the complexities of the contemporary European Union foreign policy, and offers a comprehensive and a distinctive perspective on the nature of the European Union's international identity. Karen E.Smith is a...
A critical analysis of the EU legal framework dealing with illegal immigration - published: 27/12/2007
Essay - 5 pages - European union
Arousing the passions and the divisions, the migration is apprehended by some Europeans as a danger for the national identity and is approved by the others as a source of cultural diversity. Many forms of illegal immigration are observed. The migrants can enter a member states by land, air or...
The new method of ' Open Co-ordination ': A useful innovation for EU governance ?
Essay - 11 pages - European union
Asking the question whether the new open-method of co-ordination (OMC) is a useful innovation for EU governance, equals to asking whether today, new modes of EU governance are needed or not. If we take into account the definition of the governance from the Commission, and that we stick to the...
CFSP (Common Foreign and Security Policy) and Non Proliferation
Essay - 12 pages - European union
Since the end of the Cold War, the nature and origins of threats on Europe have changed. This evolution of repartition of powers in the world led some countries to develop their defence and military capabilities, whether it concerns missiles, biological or chemical weapons, or the ultimate...
The impact of the Euro-med Partnership on EU-Mediterranean countries relations
Essay - 10 pages - European union
In November 2005, the 10th anniversary of the Barcelona Process was celebrated. It was the opportunity to take stock of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP). Indeed it was often said that the Partnership was a failure or at least disappointing. The most striking feature of this statement is...
Gender equality and employment in the European Union
Dissertation - 29 pages - European union
Gender equality is among the fundamental principles and the common values of the European Union. In the 2nd Article of the Treaty of the European Community, it is even mentioned as a “task” to perform for the Community, and again in Article 3(2) TEC. But two questions already appear:...
"Children Need Working Parents" strategy
Essay - 10 pages - European union
Childcare is a basic need of the 21st century family', said PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen (PES, Press release 2006). The NGO 'Children Need Working Parents', aims at creating a right to parents to public childcare provision for children between 4 months and 6 years old, with an...
Governance in the European Union: Policies
Essay - 8 pages - European union
The Common Fisheries Policy is one of the oldest policies entirely delegated to the European Community since it is part of the Common agricultural policy. Indeed, in the Treaty of Rome, agricultural products are defined as “the products of the soil, of stock-farming and of fisheries”...
European Court of Justice - motor for European integration?
Essay - 2 pages - European union
In 1996, British Prime Minister John Major has bitterly noted that European Court of Justice (ECJ) should “have its wings clipped”, as already back in 1996 some member states, eager to protect their sovereignty, feared the growing influence of the court. Yet, 10 years later, the...
The foundations and the evolution of the notion of European citizenship
Essay - 3 pages - European union
According to the European Commission, “citizenship of the Union is both a source of legitimation of the process of European integration, by reinforcing the participation of citizens, and a fundamental factor in the creation among citizens of a sense of belonging to the European Union and of...
Nationalism and Regionalism in the era of the making of a common European identity
Essay - 4 pages - European union
The year 2000 will be and have already been pivotal for the European Union. Ten new countries became full members of the Union and Turkey is on his way to the membership. But the 2005 failure to make all the countries sign the project of European constitution asks legitimate questions about the...
The European Union
Tutorials/exercises - 11 pages - European union
The European Union, which formed under this name in 1992, currently consists of 25 nations and covers much of Western Europe. The European Union is an enormous organization that was initially created to maintain peace and security between European states through various political and economic...
The democratic deficit of the EU and the European political integration from a French perspective
Essay - 14 pages - European union
The European construction has always evolved through crisis and this is probably due to its ambitious project and nature. However, it worked successfully until today because it has been occurring through a “step by step process”, to quote the Schuman Declaration. This neo-functionalist...
To what extent has Europe benefited from a "peace dividend" through the European Union and its budget?
Essay - 4 pages - European union
The notion of “peace dividend” was forged in the 1980s to convey an idea that had already been analysed before: the link between security/peace, and economic growth. Without going into further details, one may wonder if this economic theory can be applied to the European Union, which...
Do we have the right balance between responsibility for budget implementation and political accountability for the Union budget's use?
Essay - 5 pages - European union
The evolution of the budgetary procedure, with the new financial regulation of 2002, has increased the responsibility of the different actors and clarified the different management methods, increasing the transparency of the whole procedure. Those changes allow us to wonder if there is, today, a...
The democratic deficit and the role of the EU Parliament
Essay - 3 pages - European union
Since the beginning of the 90's and the end of the “permissive consensus”, the democratic deficit of the European Union has increasingly become high on the agenda of scholars and decision-makers. Defined as “the growing dissonance between the essential requirements of modern...
Europeanization of politics and society: Domestic change and the question of a European Social Model
Essay - 6 pages - European union
Europeanization is an elusive concept because of the variety of meanings it refers to. Scholars such as Featherstone (2003, 6-12) often distinguish several usages according to various outcomes of European change, for instance the emergence of new forms of governance or the process of national...
Alternatives to fiscal competition in European Monetary Union (EMU): what stabilization mechanisms for the Eurozone?
Essay - 11 pages - European union
The picture presented about the European integration is that of a hybrid creation. In the words of Wolfgang Wessels (1997), ?it is a messy and ambiguous division of labour between national and EU levels.' The Economic and Monetary Union which is the most accomplished framework of European...
"The national influence on the European integration"
Essay - 7 pages - European union
EU is regulated by a supranational institutional system, which still takes into account the national sensitiveness. Nevertheless, there is not a traditional strong supranational authority. Indeed, there is neither army nor police, and the decision making process is mainly based on consensus; and...
European harmonization in the Contract Law Area
Essay - 6 pages - European union
The last decade witnessed the European Union taking tentative steps towards the likely abolition of each member state contract law, and its substitution with a single European Contract Law Code. Indeed, the European Union usually solves inconsistencies in contract law by legislating them in a...
How successful are the attempts to create a citizenship of the European Union?
Essay - 5 pages - European union
Although the formal concept of European citizenship appeared for the first time in the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992, the idea thereof goes back to the early years of the European construction. The Treaty founding the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951 instituted a “basis for a broader...
The future of multilingualism in European institutions
Essay - 7 pages - European union
The progressive enlargement of the European Union brings about many questions, among which linguistic diversity deserves to be explored. In light of the changes brought about by globalization and the resulting emergence of a so-called “global” language, the relevance of cultural...
Higher education in Europe as an institution
Essay - 4 pages - European union
Aristote was asking what the purpose of education was. He gave the following answer: education has to produce learned men, education has to be done in virtue and finally, education has to satisfy the material needs of society. Centuries after this Aristote's definition, there is no doubt that...
