Constititional Judiciary in Central Europe and the Europe Agreement: Decision 30/1998 (VI.25) AB of the Hungarian Constitutional Court

1999 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 913-920 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan Tatham
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Association Agreement ◽  
Central European ◽  
Associate State ◽  
Ec Law ◽  
Europe Agreement ◽  
Legal Harmonisation ◽  
The Eu

Against a background of increasingly intense legal harmonisation and with the prospects of Central European accession to the EU drawing ever closer, a recent decision of the Hungarian Constitutional Court, Dec.30/1998 (VI.25) AB1 has highlighted the constitutional implications of applying EC law in the domestic system of an associate state. The judgment itself concerned the constitutionality of the competition provisions of the EC-Hungary Europe Agreement (“EA”) together with Decision 2/96 of the Association Council on the relevant Implementing Rules (“IR”). While the Hungarian court is not the first of its type in an associate state to deal with the effect internally of an Association Agreement,2 nevertheless its decision offers certain insights into the judicial response to the integration process in Central Europe.

Las funciones del interregionalismo en la relación UE-CAN

Oikos ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (29) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Olga María Cerqueira Torres
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Present Article ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Association Agreement ◽  
Political Rationality ◽  
Article Analysis ◽  
Andean Community ◽  
The Eu

RESUMENEn el presente artículo el análisis se ha centrado en determinar cuáles de las funciones del interregionalismo, sistematizadas en los trabajos de Jürgen Rüland, han sido desarrolladas en la relación Unión Europea-Comunidad Andina de Naciones, ya que ello ha permitido evidenciar si el estado del proceso de integración de la CAN ha condicionado la racionalidad política del comportamiento de la Unión Europea hacia la región andina (civil power o soft imperialism); esto posibilitará establecer la viabilidad de la firma del Acuerdo de Asociación Unión Europea-Comunidad Andina de Naciones.Palabras clave: Unión Europea, Comunidad Andina, interregionalismo, funciones, acuerdo de asociación. Interregionalism functions in the EU-ANDEAN community relationsABSTRACTIn the present article analysis has focused on which functions of interregionalism, systematized by Jürgen Rüland, have been developed in the European Union-Andean Community birregional relation, that allowed demonstrate if the state of the integration process in the Andean Community has conditioned the political rationality of the European Union towards the Andean region (civil power or soft imperialism); with all these elements will be possible to establish the viability of the Association Agreement signature between the European Union and the Andean Community.Keywords: European Union, Andean Community, interregionalism, functions, association agreement.

Migrants help keep Central European populists in power

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Migration Policy ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Medium Term ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Central European ◽  
Eu Integration ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Eu

Subject Populists' exploitation of the refugee crisis in Central Europe. Significance Support for populist parties has risen after last year's refugee crisis across the EU, but nowhere have they been as successful as in Central Europe (CE). Peddling migrant fears has secured the re-election of Robert Fico's Smer (Slovakia) and the revival of Viktor Orban's Fidesz (Hungary) from a post-election popularity slump. On the back of the migration tide, populists are transforming CE's political trajectory. Impacts A united CE front will gain prominence at the EU, stoking tensions with Berlin on migration policy and the future of EU integration. The strengthened legitimacy of illiberal positions on migration will foster the emergence of imitators elsewhere in Europe. The chance of an EU-level, long-term solution to the refugee crisis will remain slim in the medium term.

Integration Processes in the Visegrad Group Countries: the Concept of Central Europe

2014 ◽  
pp. 18-27
Author(s):  
M. Simon
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
Sociopolitical Development ◽  
Internal Environment ◽  
Central European ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Visegrad Group ◽  
The Eu

This article tries to examine the ways of Central European discourse construction and its transformation after the Visegrad Group members accession to the EU; to find the external and internal environment for this group; to analyze the impact of the concept of Central Europe on intensity of the V4 members interaction; to discover the features of their foreign policy and mechanisms of regional cooperation; to correlate the processes of sociopolitical development in this countries with pan-European deepening and widening integration vectors.

scholarly journals Legal and politological aspects of competition in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a paradigm of the European integration process

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (14) ◽  
pp. 55-68
Author(s):  
Kanita Imamović-Čizmić ◽  
Samir Sabljica
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Market Competition ◽  
Regulatory Body ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Association Agreement ◽  
Legal Standards ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Eu

As a country in transition and development, committed to the path towards membership in the European Union, Bosnia and Herzegovina encounters many challenges and obstacles in terms of fulfilling the tasks set before it. Quite complicated governmental and legal arrangement determines the pace of achieving the tasks that are prerequisites for the European Union membership status. By signing the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina assumed the obligation to gradually harmonise the national legislation with the EU legislation in the most important areas related to the internal market. In this context, one of highly important ones is the area of competition law. This paper analyses the quality of solutions provided by the normative and institutional framework of the market competition protection in Bosnia and Herzegovina by using the normative, historical, comparative, and content analysis methods. Basic features of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the EU are presented through a chronological summary of the integration process of BiH into the EU. The primary hypothesis of the paper is that recent legal solutions in the area of competition do not follow the current legal standards of the competition regulations in the EU. Analytical overview of annual reports on the operation of the Council of Competition as regulatory body in Bosnia and Herzegovina shows that competition is a typical example of the ‘crawling’ integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the EU. It is quite obvious that the lack of political will of the ruling structures slows the integration processes down. This area requires an efficient enforcement of competition regulations whose implementation enables the companies to act in line with the law. Without adequate and prompt amending of the Law on Competition and related by-laws there can be no positive evaluation of the European Commission concerning the progress of Bosnia and Herzegovina.   

scholarly journals DYNAMICS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ASSOCIATION AGREEMENT BETWEEN UKRAINE AND THE EU: PROSPECTS AND NEW CHALLENGES

2020 ◽  
pp. 17-27
Author(s):  
I. Berezovska
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Integration Policy ◽  
Association Agreement ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Main Challenge ◽  
The Eu

The entry into force of the Association Agreement with the European Union was a fateful event for the contemporary history of Ukraine. Currently, both components of the association: political one, which consists in spreading European values to Ukraine, and economic one, which involves Ukraine's integration into the EU internal market in exchange for legislation approximation, are without exaggeration fundamental factors for further development of Ukraine. The results of the previous years of the Association Agreement implementation testify to both significant achievements and a number of problems in Ukraine's fulfillment of its association with the EU “homework”. The article is devoted to the analysis of dynamics and the recent trends in the process of the Agreement implementation. As a result of the political changes that took place in Ukraine in 2019, including the election of a new president, parliament and government, European integration work on the implementation of the Association Agreement began in the new conditions. The improvement of the national institutional mechanism designed to ensure better coordination of work on the implementation of the Agreement between the competent authorities is among the positive trends in the process of its implementation. The fundamental legal principles and basic directions of work on Agreement updating are analyzed. It is proved that the prospect of updating has become an effective impetus to improve implementation processes. By initiating such an update, in order to strengthen its position in the negotiations with the EU, the Ukrainian side is forced to objectively assess the effectiveness of the Agreement implementation in certain areas and to intensify the completion of processes that are significantly behind. A new challenge in the process of implementing the Association Agreement was the emergence of the pandemic factor in 2020. The introduction of national quarantine and the incidence rate have significantly shifted priorities and affected European integration processes, both within Ukraine and at the EU level. At the same time, it was stressed that the situation to ensure the Rule of law, in particular, the fight against corruption is the main challenge not only to obligations fulfillment under the agreement, but also to the entire European integration policy of Ukraine. It is noted that the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to repeal a significant part of anti-corruption legislation threatens the further integration of Ukraine with the EU. It was stressed that the future of not only Ukraine but also the region as a whole depends on whether the Association Agreement with the European Union will continue to serve as a transformational force capable of overcoming the weakness of the Rule of law within the country.

Differentiated European Integration of Ukraine in Comparative Perspective

2021 ◽  
pp. 088832542110051
Author(s):  
Alexander Duleba
Keyword(s):  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Customs Union ◽  
Association Agreement ◽  
Central European ◽  
Common Space ◽  
Eu Integration ◽  
Differentiated Integration ◽  
External Governance ◽  
The Eu

This article offers a comparative analysis of Ukraine’s Association Agreement against the backdrop of other agreements of the EU with third countries that facilitate their partial integration into the EU’s common space of four freedoms, albeit without institutional membership (EEA Agreement of Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein; EU–Swiss Bilaterals, and Turkey’s Customs Union). In addition, this analysis includes the Stabilisation and Association Agreements of the Western Balkan countries and the former Europe Agreements of the Central European countries. The research draws on concepts of differentiated integration and external governance of the EU. The analysis is built along two dimensions: identification of the regulatory boundary (policy-taking: scope of transposition of the EU acquis, legal quality of transposition, and the type of supervision mechanism) and organizational boundary (policy-shaping: inclusion in the EU institutions). The analysis concludes that Ukraine’s Association Agreement compared with other EU integration agreements with third countries includes the largest structural asymmetry, that is, a biggest gap between the largest volume of acquis, which Ukraine has to incorporate into its national legislation on one hand, and the lowest level of institutional involvement of Ukraine in policy-shaping within the EU on the other.

scholarly journals Harmonization of the protection against misleading commercial practices: ongoing divergences in Central European countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radka MacGregor Pelikánová
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Consumer Welfare ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Central European ◽  
Unfair Commercial Practices Directive ◽  
Legal Frameworks ◽  
The Eu

Research background: Modern European integration focuses on competition in the internal single market, embracing both competitiveness and consumer protection, and it aims at full harmonization in this arena. The hallmark, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive from 2005, aims to overcome diverse social, political, legal and economic traditions. Is the implied protection against misleading practices an opportunity or a threat for Central European Regions? Purpose of the article: The primary purpose is to comparatively describe and critically assess the transposed legal frameworks. The secondary purpose is to study and evaluate their coherence in the light of the case law and their impact in Central Europe, in particular whether it represents an opportunity or a threat for the smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, i.e. boosting competitiveness and innovation along with consumer welfare. Methods: The cross-disciplinary and multi-jurisdictional nature of this paper, and its dual purposes, implies the use of Meta-Analysis, of various interpretation techniques suitable for legal texts and judicial decisions, of the critical comparison and of a holistic assessment of approaches and impacts. Legislation and case law are explored and the yielded knowledge and data are confronted with a field search and case studies. The dominating qualitative research and data are complemented by the quantitative research and data. Findings & Value added: For over one decade, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive has required full harmonization of the protection against, among other items, misleading commercial practices, by legislatures and judges in the EU. The exploration pursuant to the two purposes suggests that this ambitious legislative and case law project entails a number of transposition approaches with varying levels of coherence, importance and impacts on the competitiveness and innovation of business and consumer welfare in Central Europe. Therefore, full harmonization should be either readjusted or relaxed.

scholarly journals THE ACCESSION PROCESS AND IPA FUNDS IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA – AN OPPORTUNITY FOR RESTRUCTURING PUBLIC SPENDING AND CONVERGENCE TOWARDS THE EU

2017 ◽  
pp. 238-267
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Structural Reforms ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Policy Objective ◽  
Association Agreement ◽  
Central European ◽  
Membership Application ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
Accession Process ◽  
The Eu

The opportunity for submission of B&H's application for EU membership was opened with the entering into force of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, and was carried out in February 2016. The membership application must contain European affiliation of the applicant country, inclusion in the European Union as a policy objective of the applicant country, as well as readiness for assuming all objectives and commitments ensuing from membership in the EU. B&H is at the very bottom compared to Central European countries, and is below 30% of European Union average in view of level of development. That points to the necessity of implementation of structural reforms in order to mobilize the private sector, which must be the main generator of growth and increase in employment, and which will gradually bring B&H closer to the EU average. 165,8 billion euros are intended for B&H from IPA II programme for the period 2014-2017, whereas the amount of available funds for the period 2018-2020 will be defined subsequently. It has been decided that 13,7 million years will be allocated annually for socioeconomic and regional development in 2016 and 2017. In 2014, 4 million euros were allocated for undertakings regarding employment, active social policy, education, research and development, promotion of gender equality and human resources development, and 11 million annually in the following years, including 2017. Reforms financed from IPA should provide citizens with better opportunities and allow for development of standards equal to those of EU citizens.

scholarly journals Aspergillus species as mycotoxin producers in agricultural products in central Europe

2013 ◽  
pp. 13-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandor Kocube ◽  
Janos Varga ◽  
Djendji Sigeti ◽  
Nikolet Baranji ◽  
Katalin Suri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Fusarium Species ◽  
Aflatoxin Contamination ◽  
Agricultural Products ◽  
Aspergillus Species ◽  
Penicillium Species ◽  
Central European ◽  
Black Aspergilli ◽  
Coffee Beans ◽  
The Eu

Aspergillus species are able to produce a range of mycotoxins, includ?ing e.g. aflatoxins, ochratoxins, fumonisins and patulin. Aflatoxins are mainly produced by members of Aspergillus section Flavi, and they contaminate various agricultural products in several parts of the world. Several recent reports have indicated that aflatoxin-producing fungi and consequently aflatoxin contamination occur in agricultural commodities in a number of European countries which have not been faced with this problem before. Indeed, recent surveys have clarified that concentrations of aflatoxins in maize products and milk has been exceeding the EU limit in several regions of Central Europe including Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Northern Italy and Romania. However, aflatoxin contamination and aflatoxin-producing Aspergillus species have not been identified yet in maize in Hungary. We examined the presence of potential aflatoxin-producing Aspergilli in maize samples collected in southern parts of Hungary. Several A. flavus isolates were identified, and pre?liminary results indicated that some of the isolates were able to produce aflatoxins. Con?tamination of other agricultural products with aflatoxins can also pose problems in Central Europe due to global warming. Ochratoxin contamination of grapes and grape-derived products is usually caused by black Aspergilli, especially by A. carbonarius and A. niger, although these species have been rare in Central European vineyards due to climatic fac?tors. Ochratoxin contamination of other agricultural products including spices and cereals was also observed in the region. Besides, ochratoxin producing Aspergilli are frequently isolated from imported products including coffee beans, dried fruits and spices, and ochra?toxin contamination of these samples was also observed. Fumonisins are produced mainly by Fusarium species, and by the recently identified producers Aspergillus niger and A. awamori. We examined fumonisin producing abilities of A. niger / A. awamori isolates col?lected from the variety of substrates including raisins, figs, dates, maize and onions. The isolates, which came from dried vine fruits, produced several fumonisin isomers also pre?sent in the raisin samples, indicating that fumonisin contamination of these products was probably caused by black Aspergilli. Besides, strains collected from figs, dates and onions were also able to produce fumonisins, and preliminary data indicated that figs and onions were also contaminated with low but significant amount of fumonisins. Potential fumonisin producing A. awamori isolates were also identified on maize samples. Further studies on the examination of the occurrence of fumonisins and their potential producers in other agricultural products are in progress. Regarding patulin, contamination of apple based products is a serious problem in the region, mainly caused by Penicillium species. Although patulin producing Aspergilli have also been identified in cereals, patulin contamination of cereals and cereal based products is usually low in Central Europe.

scholarly journals Problems of Ukraine’s integration into the European Union

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (146) ◽  
pp. 469-486
Author(s):  
Viktoriia STOIKA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Association Agreement ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
External Threats ◽  
The Eu

European integration and the identification of obstacles to full membership in the European Union. Design/methodology/approach: The methodological and theoretical basis of the article is the fundamental provisions of economic theory, the works of scientists and economists in the field of international economic relations and integration. Findings: The article explores the problems of Ukraine’s integration into the EU. The study analyzed the attitude of Ukrainians towards European integration, identified the main arguments for and against accession to the EU countries, as well as the main internal and external threats of the integration process. It has been determined that in recent years the proportion of the population that has supported Ukraine’s accession to the EU has significantly increased. From the integration into the EU, Ukrainians primarily expect to expand the space of their own capabilities and the country's internal development in accordance with modern world trends. It is concluded that the population considers a high level of corruption in the country, problems in the Donbass and the inefficiency of public administration as the main obstacles to this process. Most residents of Ukraine consider it necessary to implement European reforms, but the consequence of their implementation has identified significant problems in terms of their real social effect. It is determined that Ukraine in some macroeconomic indicators lags significantly behind the EU countries, continues to lose its position in the global ranking of countries in terms of economic competitiveness, and remains one of the poorest countries in Europe. A significant problem for the development of Ukraine is the labor migration of the population and, in particular, the increase in the number of illegal migrants - Ukrainians in Europe. The main achievements in the implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU are analyzed and the main threats to the further European integration are identified. It is concluded that Ukraine needs to develop its own “action plan” for the possibility of realizing national interests, taking into account the interests of the parties involved in the integration process. Originality/value: The mood of Ukrainian society, the current position of the state, the main obstacles and priorities that Ukraine faces on the way to the EU have been analysed in detail.

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