160°

Author(s):  
Peter Thomson

If you missed the fences and the swath of open land in the woods that mark the border, you can’t help but notice that you’ve finally left Russia because the human presence beyond the windows of the train is no longer disheveled. Finland shares a long history of tension with its huge and powerful neighbor to the east, but I wonder if having to share such a long border with Russia galls the Finns most of all because everything in their country is so orderly, while everything in Russia is such a mess. The immediate difference crossing between these two countries may well be more stark than between any two others on the planet. We are out of Russia and into suddenly more familiar and comforting territory, and James and I are suddenly giddy and joking about everything— about how the damn Finns have a ridiculous word like Hei for hello instead of the far simpler Russian Zdravstvuite, about how the Finns must long for a life without lawn mowers, a social contract, and more than one color of paint, about how surprised we are that the Finns and the European Union allow Russian trains to use their filthy open toilets within their territory but have perhaps granted a special temporary exemption to trains originating in SDCs—shit-dumping countries. . . . Russia recedes beyond the Gulf of Finland, beyond the lovely decompression chamber of Helsinki, beyond the soothingly smooth and comfortable trains and beds of Western Europe and all its polite people who almost always seem to speak English, and with every passing hour and kilometer we are at once more relaxed and more glad to be rid of the place and more and more sorry that we are not still there. Russia grabs hold of you tight, and if it often feels as if it’s choking the life out of you and making you want to flee, its suffocating embrace is also powerfully seductive. If it often seems to be going to extraordinary lengths to make itself infuriating and impenetrable—almost challenging you just to give up on it and turn your attention elsewhere—it also makes it impossible for you to turn away, and ultimately makes the whole exhausting and exhilarating encounter worth it.

2004 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 481-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
PIOTR SZTOMPKA

On 1 May 2004, Europe changed. This date marks both a beginning and an end. The enlargement of the European Union signals the beginning of a new phase in the history of Western Europe, and, for the new members from Eastern Europe, the end of a long period of exclusion and separation. Commentaries on this epochal event usually focus on ‘hard’ institutional factors such as political rearrangements, legal coordination and economic readjustments, etc. I will focus more on the ‘soft’ cultural and human factors; what I consider to be the intangibles and imponderables of a new, emerging Europe. I am convinced that culture really matters in social life.


2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (140) ◽  
pp. 379-392
Author(s):  
Helmut Dietrich

Poland accepted the alien and asylum policy of the European Union. But what does it mean, in the face of the fact that most of the refugees don´t want to sojourn a lot of time in Poland, but want to join their families or friends in Western Europe? How the transfer of policies does work, if the local conditions are quite different than in Germany or France? The answer seems to be the dramatization of the refugee situation in Poland, especially the adoption of emergency measures towards refugees of Chechnya.


Author(s):  
R. Khasbulatov

The author examines Russia’s economic position in the world in the XXI century, China’s economic and political infl uence on other countries, and analyzes the economy of the European Union, classifi es the experience of Western Europe as the most successful, while taking into account miscalculations and mistakes.


2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devrimi Kaya ◽  
Robert J. Kirsch ◽  
Klaus Henselmann

This paper analyzes the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as intermediaries in encouraging the European Union (EU) to adopt International Accounting Standards (IAS). Our analysis begins with the 1973 founding of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC), and ends with 2002 when the binding EU regulation was approved. We document the many pathways of interaction between European supranational, governmental bodies and the IASC/IASB, as well as important regional NGOs, such as the Union Européenne des Experts Comptables, Économiques et Financiers (UEC), the Groupe d'Etudes des Experts Comptables de la Communauté Économique Européenne (Groupe d'Etudes), and their successor, the Fédération des Experts Comptables Européens (FEE). This study investigates, through personal interviews of key individuals involved in making the history of the organizations studied, and an extensive set of primary sources, how NGOs filled key roles in the process of harmonization of international accounting standards.


2004 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-320
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Hetzer

AbstractThe imminent entry of ten countries into the European Union is one of the greatest success stories in the contemporary history of the continent. Following the devastation of the Second World War and the political and economic paralysis during the ‘Cold War’ period the future holds promise of development opportunities of historical significance for twenty-five Member States. It must not be overlooked, however, that, due to the still prevalent differences in living standards, in income ratios and in administrative structures, the process of economic approximation is also not without risks. Among these is the tendency towards corruption. The expansion of the European Union can only succeed economically and politically if the dangers associated with corruption are minimized by far-sighted legislation and consistent implementation measures throughout Europe. This is true not only with respect to the new Member States.


2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 701-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Nielsen

Writing the history of a continent is generally a tricky business. If the continent is not even a real continent, but rather ‘a western peninsula of Asia’ (Alexander von Humboldt) without a clear definition of where the continent becomes peninsula, things do not get any easier. Despite these problems there is no dearth of trying. In fact, writing European histories seems to become more fashionable by the year — ironically just as the political and institutional expansion of Europe is losing steam. While the European Union is catching its breath, the historians are catching up. With the first wave of post-Euro and post-big-bang-Enlargement literature written, it is time for the reviewer to survey the landscape — and to provide some guideposts for future exploration.


2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 228-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Jones

This article makes a contribution to discussion on the neo-liberal reshaping of education in Western Europe. It argues for a greater attentiveness on the part of education researchers to collective social actors such as trade unions and social movements. Making use of concepts from Gramsci and from Poulantzas, it suggests that such actors had a formative role in the making of post-war education systems, and that reducing their influence is now an important objective of governments across the European Union. Focusing on educational conflict in England, France and Italy, it explores the extent to which traditions associated with post-war reform continue to possess political vitality.


2000 ◽  
Vol 48 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 235-256
Author(s):  
Dennis Smith

Dennis Smith argues that the development of the European polity that has become the European Union has been shaped by social processes similar in many respects to those analysed by Norbert Elias in The Court Society and The Civilizing Process. However, these processes have occurred at the supra-state level whereas Elias described them as they occurred at the level of the developing national state, especially during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. During the 1940s and 1950s the United States played a key role in pacifying the European nations and imposing a framework of rules for the conduct of their economic and diplomatic affairs. States in western Europe were increasingly locked into tight bonds of interdependence. This movement towards integration was complemented by the disembedding of regions and large businesses from their close ties to the national state; they became ‘Europeanised’. Brussels became Europe's Versailles, a place where the courtier's skills were employed by the lobbyist. It is suggested that just as France represented, in Elias's eyes, a vanguard society within Europe in respect of the civilising process at the level of the national society, the European Union may play such a role globally in respect of developments at the supra-state level.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (01) ◽  
pp. 65-83
Author(s):  
Laode Muhamad Fathun

This paper describes the phenomenon Brexit or Britain Exit on the future of EU regionalism and its impact on Indonesia. This paper will explain in detail the reason for the emergence of a number of policies Brexit. Brexit event caused much speculation related to Brexit in the European Union. The policy is considered full controversial, some experts say that Brexit in the European Union (EU) showed the independence of Britain as an independent state. Other hand, that Britain is the "ancestor" of the Europeans was struck with the release of the policy, meaning European history can not be separated from the history of Britain. In fact the above reasons that Britain came out associated with independence as an independent state related to EU policies that are too large, as a result of the policy model is very holistic policy while Britain desire is wholistic policy, especially in the economic, political, social and cultural. In addition, the geopolitical location of the EU headquarters in Brussels who also became the dominant actor in a union policy that demands as EU countries have been involved in the formulation of development policy, including controversial is related to the ration immigrants. Other reason is the prestige associated with the currency. Although long since Britain does not fully adopt the EU rules but there is the possibility in the EU currency union can only occur with the assumption that the creation of functional perfect integration.


Author(s):  
Valentyna Vasylieva ◽  
Anatolii Kostruba

The article is devoted to adaptation of the national corporate law to the law of European Union`s corporations. Special attention has been given to define the legal nature of the corporation. It is concluded that there is no established understanding of the above concepts in national legal science. The main approaches to the corporate legal nature in particular European systems of justice - in FRG, France, England - are considered in depth. Significant differences between the legislation of Ukraine and legislation of the European Union countries based on the history of their development and peculiarities of specific national systems of justice are detected. The regulation of corporate relations in the European Union at supranational level is considered. It is concluded that the European Union supranational law is its corporate law. The priority areas for unification of European corporate law at the supranational level are analyzed. The main instruments to adjust the activities of corporations in EU law are identified to be the Directives aimed at harmonizing and unifying national legislation of EU Member States.


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