European Union Politics

Launched six years ago, in April 2012, the European Citizens Initiative (ECI) was designed as an important instrument in order to bridge the gap between European citizens and the European Union. The two key objectives of the ECI were 1) to create a tool of direct democracy and doing so, to strengthen the EU's democratic legitimacy and 2) to promote a transnational dialogue for deliberation, "facilitating pan-European debates". There seems to be a consensus among the scientific community stating that the ECI failed to fulfill its role as an instrument of direct democracy. However, less research is to be found on the ECI's deliberative power. In the context of the debates about the feasibility of a European public sphere, the proposed paper argues that the ECI's deliberative role is precisely the one likely to develop European-wide public debates, and, therefore, to develop a European public sphere. To what extent does the ECI contribute to the development of a European public sphere? After stating the concept of European public sphere, the paper examines the role of the ECI in the development of such a sphere. Based on the analysis of the ECI Stop Vivisection, as well as on relying on an interview with André Ménache (ECI organizer), the paper emphasizes the ECI's potential in the development of a European public sphere. It illustrates the importance of the unfolding of strong horizontal relations between European citizens throughout the different stages of the ECI. The paper then draws on to the limits of the ECI in playing such a role, evidencing the issue of the limited commitment of the European Commission towards the successful ECIs. It concludes on some recommendations to strengthen the ECI's impact on the development of a European public sphere.

With the PiS expected to prevail in Sunday's parliamentary elections, this book chapter discusses the substantial post-WWII efforts to transform a multicultural Poland into an ethnically homogeneous state, and then the post-1989 reactions to EU pressures to open borders for the free movement of people, goods, capital, and services.

The purpose of this article is to make sense of the resurgence of religion on the political agenda of a secularizing Europe. The focus is placed on the European Union (EU). The religious factor is considered alternatively as an influence on political attitudes and behaviours; as an ideological and party component; and as a controversial policy stake. We analyse the effects of the religious factor in past European elections as an element framing the perception of European integration and voting. We then document the crisis affecting the Christian-Democratic family incarnated by the European People’s Party (EPP) and competing narratives about religion to claim leadership in the redefinition of the core ideology and the boundaries of this political family. Two cases studies are developed: The ‘Hungarian crisis’ and identity politics promoted by Viktor Orbán: the Spitzenkandidaten process to select the EPP candidate running for the presidency of the Commission. We finally study the treatment of religion as a policy issue within the EP and as a potential bone of contention in the incoming term.

Until the 1980s, many European social democratic parties had reservations about the project of European integration. But what exactly is the status of this kind of Euroscepticism within the broader ideology of social democracy? Does honouring social democratic core commitments require one to reject European integration and membership of the EU? This article investigates this question, using debates around Europe in the social democratic parties of Great Britain, Sweden and Denmark as primary cases. Employing Freeden's morphological approach to political ideology, the article argues that there is no necessary connection between social democracy's core commitments and opposition to European integration. Examining social democratic Euroscepticism still usefully unveils the indeterminacy of the concept of sovereignty in social democratic thinking, as well as how particular national imaginaries shaped centre-left opposition to European unity.

When in summer of 2007 the Open Society Archive in Buda­pest reviewed its collec­tion, they have iden­ti­fied 100 000 volumes published before 1989 and inherited from the Library of Radio Free Europe that nobody read in the past twenty years. The archive announced a public free dona­tion, but still after that 20 000 unread books remained in their collec­tion. Then art came to their rescue and they decided to make plastic book cubes from them. The cubes were donated to insti­tu­tions in order to serve as tables, chairs or just piece of art remin­ding the viewers of the falli­bi­lity of know­ledge produced in the state-controlled academia of Eastern Europe. Will the books produced now in the academia in Hungary and in other coun­tries with illi­beral regimes end up soon in plastic cubes as objects of art? This paper argues that it is very likely.

Il presente contributo offre una panoramica delle principali misure adottate dall’Unione europea nel periodo 2014-2019 quale risposta all’intensificarsi della pressione migratoria sulle proprie frontiere esterne. Procedendo in ordine cronologico vengono analizzati, anno per anno, i maggiori avvenimenti legati alla politica migratoria europea e i conseguenti interventi posti in essere dall’Unione quale tentativo di fornire una risposta efficace ai flussi migratori. In particolare, a partire dall’insediamento della nuova Commissione a guida Juncker nel 2014, l’Unione europea ha dovuto confrontarsi con una crescente pressione migratoria, la quale ha raggiunto il proprio apice nel 2015, quando oltre un milione di migranti ha raggiunto il territorio europeo. Da allora, misure in risposta alla crisi migratoria sono state adottate sia a livello interno, in particolare in un’ottica di solidarietà e sostegno verso gli Stati membri geograficamente più esposti ai flussi, sia a livello esterno, ricercando la cooperazione dei Paesi terzi ritenuti strategici da un punto di vista delle rotte migratorie verso il territorio europeo. Il presente contributo prende in esame misure adottate dall’Unione europea in entrambi i contesti, quali, ad esempio, il cosiddetto “approccio hotspot”, il sistema di ricollocazione di richiedenti asilo istituito in favore di Italia e Grecia, ovvero, ancora, la cosiddetta Dichiarazione UE-Turchia e la riforma di Frontex e l’istituzione della nuova Agenzia europea di frontiera e guardia costiera. Nel ripercorrere i principali passaggi della gestione della crisi migratoria da parte dell’Unione europea, vengono prese in considerazione anche alcune significative sentenze della Corte di Giustizia, come, in particolare, quelle pronunciate nel 2017 in materia di visti umanitari e di sistema di ricollocazione dei richiedenti asilo ed obblighi di solidarietà in ambito migratorio. Il contributo, infine, rivolge la propria attenzione agli orientamenti da ultimo espressi nel 2019 dalla Commissione europea, al termine del proprio mandato e in vista delle elezioni del Parlamento europeo nel maggio dello stesso anno. In conclusione, da un lato si propone un bilancio complessivo delle politiche migratorie finora poste in essere e, dall’altro, si volge lo sguardo alle possibili principali linee d’azione di quelle che dovranno impostarsi per il futuro.

Insieme a numerosi esperti indagheremo cosa significhi essere europei da un punto di vista culturale, al di là dell'aspetto politico. Per capire cosa significhi, dobbiamo ricordare cos'è stata «Europa», com'è cresciuta e quali sono i supposti limiti che nella sua storia ha superato. Addentrandoci nel profondo e ricco quadro culturale europeo cercheremo di creare dei momenti di riflessione e confronto che possano dare un fondamento alla nostra più autentica identità europea.

CALENDARIO INTERVENTI:
- 25 OTTOBRE 2019: DIONIGI, Ivano (Alma Mater Studiorum-Università di Bologna) "Europa: una cultura straniera"
- 28 NOVEMBRE 2019 RUGGIERO, Fabio (Facoltà Teologi-ca dell'Emilia-Romagna) "La morte di Roma, la nascita di Europa"
- 12 DICEMBRE 2019 ANGELINI, Annarita (Alma Mater Studiorum-Università di Bologna) "Migrazioni intellettuali e lingue franche nel Mediterraneo"
- 22 GENNAIO 2020 NEGRUZZO, Simona (Alma Mater Studiorum-Università di Bologna) "Umanesimo europeo"

Draga Viorel, dupa cum bine sti, eu incerc sa inteleg Europa din zilele noastre, mai ales cea a UE. Statele europene s-au format incet, incet prin razboaie si revolutii in ceeace au fost pana la al doilea razboi mondial. Apoi a aparut un psihopat neamt care a transformat un popor intreg in niste fanatici rasisti. Bine, acum multi germani vor spune ca nu toti au fost fanatici si rasisti, ci doar cei intre 14 si 83 de ani! Eu, netinand cont de vreo religie, cred ca starea Romaniei, de sluga umila in Europa s-a aprofundat dupa cel deal II-lea Razboi Mondial si acest razboi a fost provocat de Hitler si Germania! Nu inteleg ce comenteaza unii si altii intalnirea dintre Churchil si Stalin! Churchil a fost singurul politicia european la acea vreme care a rezistat presiunii Germaniei si ne-a salvat in fond pe toti de a fi acum slugi si "rasa inferioara"! La ora actuala, Germania doreste din nou sa "schimbe" Europa fiind promotorul principal in islamizarea Europei si nemtii sunt acum extrem de duiosi si invers indoctrinati, "doar multiculturalismul e bun", "islamul este bine venit" sa inlocuie religia crestina traditionala, care acum este total castrata si neimportanta in viata europeanului lipsit de cunostiinte istorice si, in general, tembelizat de o viata buna duas in ultimii 50 de ani. Ce te astepti de la tinerii, cei intre 20 si 40 de ani europeni? Facebook, Instagram si acceptarea nediscriminatorie a oricarei tampenii expusa de mass-media socialista din Europe si USA si Canada. Lumea aici isi bate capul cu Trump si Putin? Ce idioti! Che Guevara! Invazia barbarilor / presedintele Ligii Arabe Ahmed Aboul Gheit explica de ce refugiatii mahomedani afro-asiatici aleg Europa / UE. Vin cu milioanele, sunt primiti cu bratele deschise si li se ofera cazare, masa, ingrijire medicala si bani de buzunar … fara limita de timp ! Si pentru asta, multi dintre ei, se revanseaza: ataca, violeaza, jefuiesc si ucid. Nu sunt pedepsiti, sau, de cele mai multe ori, pedepsele sunt simbolice. Intra in inchisoare pentru cativa ani doar in cazuri de crime deosebit de grave. Sunt considerati un fel de cetateni extra-legali, ale caror drepturi sunt superioare cetatenilor autohtoni-pentru asta chiar se considera superiori autohtonilor, pe care ii trateaza cu dispret. Din cauza de toleranta, diversitate, anti-rasism si anti-fascism! Valori europene ! Dupa expirarea pedepselor nu sunt expulzati pentru ca in tarile de origine drepturile fundamentale le-ar fi puse in pericol! Toate astea s-au aflat pe doua continente, asa ca robinetul nu mai poate fi inchis. Dar nici nu se doreste asa ceva ! Pentru ca reprezinta viitorul Europei ! De cand a inceput invazia imigrationala, multi dintre

This paper aims to analyze and understand the contemporary Italian approach to urban development and regeneration, which is structured around the category of decaying periphery.
Inspired by the works of Michel Foucault, Henry Lefebvre, and Lois Waquant, the analysis of the discourses on urban regeneration takes into account the Urban Agenda of the EU, the urban policies promoted by the Italian government, and the ways in which the Municipality of Brescia (Northern Italy) is applying them in three specific neighborhoods of this city. Then, the analysis takes into account the ways in which the residents of this area (re)produce, negotiate, and contest the discourses on urban (im)properness; these processes produce specific effects on the conceptualizations, perceptions, and experiences of these spaces in the every-day life urban interactions.

This paper suggests that the Italian approach of regeneration, and its local application in the decaying periphery of Brescia, sustain institutional forms of territorial stigmatization, framing the historical transition from the industrial to the post-industrial socioeconomic system through class, gender, and racially polarized urban representations and narratives.

Threats from Africa undermine the security of Europe. The European Union and NATO have 22 member countries in common, namely most of EU member states. The fundamental role of the Atlantic Alliance is to safeguard the freedom and security of its member countries by political and military means.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, non-state actors and hybrid threats emerged as the major challenges to international security. NATO is evolving in response to new strategic reality, and terrorism and weak states are among the most pressing challenges the Alliance faces. NATO is playing an increasingly important role in crisis management and peacekeeping.

Since the African Union was established in 2001 as the successor to the Organization of African Unity, it faces difficulties in achieving the African ownership in peace and security. The chronic lack of funding and of appropriate military resources, makes the African Union depending on external aid – NATO provides military support, while the EU provides money. NATO cooperates with the AU since 2005, and all NATO-AU activities are coordinated with the EU.

The NATO-EU partnership is complementar and mutual, and is based on common values and strategic interests, and should be strengthened to secure the European southern border, and to guarantee security in the Mediterranean region. Therefore, stronger and permanent NATO-EU partnership in Africa would be desirable. This brief paper investigates the ties between these three organizations, and suggests some recommendations to improve the 'trilateral' relationship to ensure security to their member states.

It used to be commonplace-I cannot attest that this remains the case-that sociology students were taught the 1928 Thomas theorem, 'If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences'. This statement needs updating and correction, to remove the sexism and to attribute the theorem justly to both authors.

This report examines Islamophobia in Greece in 2018 taking all local, national and international developments into account. The main outcome of this year’s report is that Islamophobia continues to exist in different realms across Greece. Even if Islamophobia remains manifested mainly on the discursive level as anti-Muslim hate
speech, physical violence towards Muslims and sacred places of Islam continued at a lesser extent. In this respect, attacks targeting some immigrants and refugees as well as their NGOs based in central Athens took place in 2018. Moreover, the exterior of a mosque located in Western Thrace was defamed with anti-Turkish slogans while Golden Dawn continued protesting against the mosque of Athens. Furthermore,
a demonstration was organised by theologians, Orthodox Church figures and some religious groups in Syntagma Square against the new religious school textbooks which included more information about religions other than Orthodox Christianity,
including Islam. Meanwhile, a few national and international initiatives were also launched in Athens seeking to fight racism, discrimination, and Islamophobia at different levels of Greek society. Based on the report’s existing findings, Islamophobia is primarily manifested in Greek politics, printed and electronic media, and among some Orthodox Church
figures, while it is relatively limited in the education and justice system. Also, the Greek law does not seem to be powerful enough in fighting anti-Muslim hatred inside Greek society in a way that the vast majority of perpetrator(s) of Islamophobic attacks remain unidentified in general. That is to say, even some politicians and clerics
of the Greek Church who keep repeating their Islamophobic discourses overtly in their written or oral statements are never penalised for their hate-motivated behaviour. With the exception of a few state and NGO initiatives, almost no progress has been achieved in effectively fighting Islamophobia across Greece. For the purpose of addressing this vacuum, an official observatory mechanism, which needs to fully
cooperate with Muslims, should be formed urgently and start monitoring any type of Islamophobic behaviour and incidents occurring in different parts of the country. Also, a series of training seminars particularly for civil servants and journalists could be organised so as to develop their knowledge about Muslims and Islam in Greece.

Climate change is a central topic of concern for EU international diplomacy and is the site of increased politicization globally. Concomitantly, a parallel process of parliamentarization of the EU has unfolded. Whilst the European Parliament (EP) has enjoyed significant powers in internal policy-making on climate change, since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009 the EP has gained the right to veto the EU's ratification of international (climate change) agreements. This development raises questions about our understanding of the EP as an actor in international climate diplomacy that this article addresses through the following research question: What impact have the increased powers of the EP had on its involvement in UN climate diplomacy? We analyze the EP's evolving role in international climate diplomacy through an evaluation of its policy preferences prior to international climate conferences (COPs) and its activities during those meetings. We find evidence that the EP's preferences have become more moderate over time, and that it is also more active at COPs and increasingly engaged with a range of more important actors. However, we find little evidence that the EP's involvement in international negotiations is significantly different when it holds a veto power, which we attribute to a willingness to depoliticize internal EU climate negotiations to secure policy gains at the international level.

The articles in this monograph are written in the following language All of them contain summaries in both languages and have been grouped into three sections. The first section deals with the challenges of the euro area and overcoming the current crisis. The reader will find the results of research on the institutionalisation of the euro area, as well as economic protectionism and the labour market in the member states of the euro area. The first part of the book is also devoted to the analysis of the euro area in the light of the assumptions of the theory of an optimal currency area, its subject is also a series of considerations on mechanisms and actions aimed at exiting the crisis and ensuring the stability of the area - among others, the issues of the uniform monetary policy of the European Central Bank in the context of heterogeneity of the member states, uniform supervision over banks are discussed. and regulatory discipline in the euro area.
The second section is entitled "Competitiveness of the European Union and its Member States" and contains twelve studies on various pervasive aspects of the development and competitiveness of the European Union. These include studies on macroeconomic imbalances, the banking and financial sector, convergence of income levels in member countries, as well as international exchange and EU competitiveness in a global context. Some articles deal with the issue of Poland's competitiveness in the EU, among others in terms of export and absorption of EU funds.
The last part of the book titled "Poland's export and absorption of EU funds" is devoted to the issue of Poland's competitiveness in the EU, among others in terms of export and absorption of EU funds. The last part of the book "Perspectives and challenges of European integration" concentrates texts whose authors pose and attempt to answer important questions about the future of the European Union, in many dimensions of its functioning, including non-economic ones. The authors consider demographic problems, social and cultural diversity, the issue of consumption, economic freedom and economic education. Also in this section, the reader will find another portion of knowledge about the financial crisis and regulations in the EU and the euro area in relation to the crisis.
************
Artykuły zamieszczone w tym opracowaniu monograficznym zostały napisane w języku polskim bądź angielskim, przy czym wszystkie zawierają streszczenia w obu językach i zostały pogrupowane w trzy sekcje. Pierwsza z nich podejmuje problematykę wyzwań strefy euro oraz przezwyciężania obecnego kryzysu. Czytelnik odnajdzie w niej wyniki badań na temat instytucjonalizacji strefy euro, a także protekcjonizmu gospodarczego i rynku pracy w krajach członkowskich strefy. Pierwsza część książki poświęcona jest również analizom strefy euro w świetle założeń teorii optymalnego obszaru walutowego, jej przedmiotem jest także szereg rozważań na temat mechanizmów i działań służących wychodzeniu z kryzysu i zapewnieniu stabilności strefy – m.in. podejmowane są zagadnienia jednolitej polityki pieniężnej Europejskiego Banku Centralnego w kontekście heterogeniczności krajów członkowskich, jednolitego nadzoru nad bankami oraz dyscypliny regulacyjnej w strefie euro.
Druga sekcja została zatytułowana „konkurencyjność Unii Europejskiej i krajów członkowskich”i znajduje się w niej dwanaście opracowań poświęconych różnorodnym, przenikającym się aspektom rozwoju i konkurencyjności Unii Europejskiej. Są wśród nich badania dotyczące nierównowag makroekonomicznych, sektora bankowego i finansowego, konwergencji poziomu dochodu w krajach członkowskich, a także wymiany międzynarodowej i konkurencyjności UE w kontekście globalnym. Część artykułów podejmuje problematykę konkurencyjności Polski w UE, m.in. w aspekcie eksportu oraz absorpcji funduszy UE.
Ostatnia część książki pt. „Perspektywy i wyzwania integracji europejskiej” skupia teksty, których autorzy stawiają i podejmują próbę odpowiedzi na ważne pytania o przyszłość Unii Europejskiej, w wielu wymiarach jej funkcjonowania, także pozaekonomicznych. Autorzy rozważają problemy demograficzne, różnorodności społecznej i kulturowej, zagadnienie konsumpcji, kwestie wolności gospodarczej oraz edukacji ekonomicznej. Również i w tej sekcji Czytelnik znajdzie kolejną porcję wiedzy z zakresu kryzysu finansowego oraz regulacji w UE i strefie euro w związku z kryzysem.

In the academic debate on the relative powers and influence of the EU institutions, it has become common to suggest – especially in the case of advocates of the 'new intergovernmentalism' – that the European Commission is in decline. In this article we show that while in some limited respects this is indeed the case, the Commission's overall position in the EU system is not one of having become a weaker institutional actor. The extent of the losses of its powers and influence tends to be exaggerated, while in some aspects its powers and influence have actually been strengthened. We show this by focusing on three of the Commission's core functions – agenda-setter, legislative actor and executive – all of which are widely portrayed as being in decline. We incorporate into our analysis both the formal and informal resources available to the Commission in exercising the functions.

In recent years, 'EU actorness', one of the more enduring concepts in EU studies, has received renewed scholarly attention. Attempts have been made to make it less static, less descriptive, and more capable of explaining the EU's influence over international outcomes. We applaud such efforts but argue that synthetic fixes to the existing approach fall short. A new way of capturing the EU's external behaviour is necessary, one that takes into account not only the EU's own characteristics but also those of the context in which it is acting, the kinds of political, economic and social transactions it undertakes, and the feedback processes engendered. We build a holistic model for understanding and predicting changes in the EU's 'actor capacity', in the generalising spirit of the original actorness approach but with a new set of dynamic and integrated components that emphasize a previously missing variable: EU performance.

Although never conceived as a tool of direct democracy, the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) raised hopes that it would involve citizens more directly in EU decision making. Previous research has suggested that one contribution of the ECI is its effect on fostering public deliberation on EU issues, raising questions about the ECI’s potential as a tool for social movements to generate communicative power in relation to EU issues. This article draws on agonistic and deliberative perspectives to argue that communicative power generation can be seen as a process where ECI organizers use social media to advance specific understandings of their concerns and channel those understandings into mainstream mass media. The article analyses this by investigating how frames constructed on the Stop TTIP campaign’s Facebook page have resonated in twelve online news sites in four European countries in the wake of the Greenpeace leaks.