The European Union and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Essay - 8 pages - European union
With the recent election of Mahmud Abbas as chairman of the Palestinian Authority and Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw Israeli troops and settlers from the Gaza strip, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians appears to be at a crossroads, after years of severe strain on the so-called...
The completion of the wto free trade agenda will produce both winners and losers in the eu: to what extend do you agree? - published: 15/01/2009
Essay - 5 pages - European union
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international body, the purpose of which is to promote free trade by persuading countries to abolish import tariffs and other barriers. It has little by little become closely associated with globalisation. The WTO is the only international institution...
Tallberg, J. (2003) 'The agenda-shaping powers of the EU Council Presidency'
Essay - 4 pages - European union
The Presidency of the European Union Council is an attribution that is not often analysed in the literature on EU decision-making. To put it briefly, the member state holding the Presidency of the Council for six months is in fact chairing the meetings of the European Council, meeting at least...
A history of the UE: Robert Schuman
Essay - 4 pages - European union
On May 9th, 1950, Robert Schuman, a French statesman and visionary European, gave a speech soon to be known as “the Schuman Declaration”. This event determined Europe's future and is considered as the birth of actual functional European integration; a “Europe Day” is even...
The European union's development policy toward Africa
Essay - 5 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...
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...
Polonsky M. J., Brito P. Q., Pinto J. and Higgs-Kleyn N. (2001). Consumer Ethics in the European Union: A comparison of northern and southern views
Essay - 3 pages - European union
Our article for seminar three is called Consumer Ethics in the European Union: a Comparison of Northern and Southern Views. It discusses the issue of a single European market and the cultural problems that occur in this growing “integrated” market. The authors have divided the European...
European integration theories
Essay - 4 pages - European union
There is an increasingly accepted agreement that the EU and the process of European integration are just too complex to be captured by a single theoretical approach. Hix holds to this point: “We do not have a general theory of American or German politics so why should there be a general...
Gender equality and employment in the European Union
Essay - 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:...
Nationalism and Regionalism in the era of the making of a common European identity
Essay - 5 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...
Governance in the European Union: Policies
Essay - 9 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”...
The 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...
European Court of Justice - motor for European integration?
Essay - 3 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 Democratic Deficit in the EU
Essay - 7 pages - European union
For years, the European construction appeared to be legitimate through a 'permissive consensus' since no significant opposition to the integration process was to be noticed. Nevertheless, a major debate underlined a 'democratic deficit' in the 1980s, denouncing that the European...
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...
How successful are the attempts to create a citizenship of the European Union?
Essay - 4 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...
Europeanization of politics and society: Domestic change and the question of a European Social Model
Essay - 5 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...
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...
EU decision-making
Essay - 3 pages - European union
France is administratively divided in “communes”, the smallest territorial division of the country, usually corresponding to a city or a village. The number of communes in France, including overseas territories, is 36 782. This high number leads to huge disparities in terms of...
What does the European Union's so-called 'democratic deficit' stem from, and how could it be tackled?
Essay - 6 pages - European union
One of the most important discussions in the modern-day European Union concerns the democratic deficit. The Maastricht treaty, which was signed on February 1992 by different European states, claims that the goal the EU is to create ‘an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, in which...
Politics of the European Union
Thesis - 12 pages - European union
Since its foundation in the late 1950's, the European Union has seen its membership growing from 6 to 27 countries in 2007, with the accession of Bulgaria and Romania. The process might not stop at this point, as other countries such as West Balkans, Turkey, and eastern countries (former parts of...
Has European integration contributed to save or to undermine the nation state?
Thesis - 4 pages - European union
In 1882 Ernest Renan declared: “a Nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things, which, in truth, are really one, constitute this soul, this spiritual principle. One is in the past, the other in the present. One is the possession in common of a rich legacy of memories, the other is the...
Have we reached the limits of the EU enlargement?
Thesis - 8 pages - European union
In the light of the massive 2004 European Union (EU) enlargement and the current one of Bulgaria and Romania, the question of whether the EU is reaching the limits of its enlargement shows all its relevance. In fact, since the moment the European integration process was launched, it has welcomed...
The European Union's Policy in African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries: Towards an Effective Democratisation?
Essay - 7 pages - European union
“Since 1992, the European Community has included in all its agreements with third countries a clause defining respect for human rights and democracy as ‘essential elements' in the EU's relationship. This clause is unique in bilateral agreements. This approach has been further...
The Committee of the Regions
Thesis - 3 pages - European union
The construction of the European Union is, and has always been done by states. Since the Maastricht treaty however, sub national authorities have an official advisory body from which they can influence the making of the European policy: the Committee of the regions. This committee is made of 317...
Can any theory fully explain the process of European integration? If not, why not?
Essay - 13 pages - European union
European integration is a process which began with the birth of the European Coal and Steel Community the 18th of April 1952. This process was at first essentially economical, but the necessary structures needed for an economic integration led also to a political integration. This process has...
The European Commission
Thesis - 6 pages - European union
If Jacques Delors, one of the most famous President of the European Commission (between 1985 and 1995), called the European Union as a UPO or Unidentified Political Object, it can be explained by the special characteristics of its architecture. The European Commission (EC) is undoubtedly one of...
Regulations: Direct applicability and Direct effect
Essay - 8 pages - European union
Article 249 of the European Community Treaty provides that Regulations shall be directly applicable in all Member States. Does this mean that they are also necessarily directly effective? As notices Josephine Steiner , this question is of paramount concern to EC lawyers. If a provision of EEC law...
Why has the European Court of Justice been so central to the process of integration?
Thesis - 10 pages - European union
“Law is often still treated as if it were a separate field, clearly distinct from the economic or political spheres” . As the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has never been given a lot of media coverage, most of the time, its role in the integration process is either disregarded or...
