scholarly journals Deportations, the Spreading of Dissent and the Development of Democracy

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-102
Author(s):  
Francesca Falk

Instead of preventing protest, deportations on political grounds could – under certain circumstances – help to spread dissent. Accordingly, the spaces deportees were sent became fertile ground for new coalitions. Analysing such spaces furthers our understanding of how resistance may be contained, dispersed and re-constituted. The main part of this article focuses on deportations to the Pontine Islands of Ponza and Ventotene under Italian Fascism. Under such conditions, new political ideas were elaborated. The genesis of the Ventotene Manifesto will be considered as a starting point for a genealogy that opens up alternative trajectories of development for another European Union and, indeed, for today’s understanding of democracy. If, today, Europe closes its borders, it destroys the idea behind such a vision of unification. Therefore, it is urgently necessary not only to recall the genesis of this manifesto, but also the authors’ experience of being refugees.

Author(s):  
Alma-Pierre Bonnet

The decision by the United Kingdom to leave the European Union came as a shock to many. A key player during the referendum campaign was the Vote Leave organisation which managed to convince people that they would be better off outside the European project. Their success was made all the easier as Euroscepticism had been running deep in the country for decades. It is on this fertile ground that Vote Leavers drew to persuade people of the necessity to leave. Using critical metaphor analysis, this paper examines the way Vote Leavers won the argument by developing three political myths, which, once combined, conjured up the notion of British grandeur. Drawing on Jonathan Charteris-Black’s seminal works on the relation between metaphors and the creation of political myths in political rhetoric, this paper posits that the Brexit debate was not won solely on political ground and that the manipulative power of metaphors may have also been a key element. This might explain the current political deadlock, as political solutions might not provide the answers to the questions raised during the campaign.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-111
Author(s):  
Patryk Bukowski

According to the title, the subject of this article is the activity of Frontex (European Border and Coast Guard Agency) on the Western Balkan route during the migrant crisis, the escalation of which took place in mid-2015. The main part of the text has been divided into four parts. In the first part of the article, the author briefly described the genesis of Frontex and its current activity in the normative perspective. In the second part, the author characterised the determinants of the migrant crisis, focusing on the challenges for the European Union which the crisis generated. In the third part, the author described the course of the Western Balkan route and analysed statistical data on the population migrating that route. In the fourth and last part, the author analysed Frontex’s activity on the Western Balkan route, describing the determinants of the actions taken.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 721-751
Author(s):  
Paz Andrés Sáenz De Santa María

Abstract This article examines the European Union’s (EU) treaty practice from the perspective of the international law of treaties, focusing on its most significant examples. The starting point is the EU’s attitude towards the codification of treaty law involving states and international organizations. The article discusses certain terminological specificities and a few remarkable aspects, such as the frequent use of provisional application mechanisms as opposed to much less use of reservations, the contributions regarding treaty interpretation, the wide variety of clauses and the difficulties in determining the legal nature of certain texts. The study underlines that treaty law is a useful instrument for the Union and is further enriched with creative contributions; the outcome is a fruitful relationship.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Bouzarovski ◽  
Sergio Tirado Herrero

Energy poverty can be understood as the inability of a household to secure a socially and materially necessitated level of energy services in the home. While the condition is widespread across Europe, its spatial and social distribution is highly uneven. In this paper, the existence of a geographical energy poverty divide in the European Union (EU) provides a starting point for conceptualizing and exploring the relationship between energy transitions – commonly described as wide-ranging processes of socio-technical change – and existing patterns of regional economic inequality. We have undertaken a comprehensive analysis of spatial and temporal trends in the national-scale patterns of energy poverty, as well as gas and electricity prices. The results of our work indicate that the classic economic development distinction between the core and periphery also holds true in the case of energy poverty, as the incidence of this phenomenon is significantly higher in Southern and Eastern European EU Member States. The paper thus aims to provide the building blocks for a novel theoretical integration of questions of path-dependency, uneven development and material deprivation in existing interpretations of energy transitions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 2111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dumitriu ◽  
Militaru ◽  
Deselnicu ◽  
Niculescu ◽  
Popescu

On their way towards assuring growth and long-term sustainability, many modern small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) from the European Union have set building a stronger brand as one of their primary goals. To achieve this, an integrated framework for managing the continuous enhancement of their brand equity level by adopting digital marketing tools and techniques (DMTTs), has increasingly become a necessity for most of the modern SMEs. However, even if such an approach provides plenty of benefits, such as better audience targeting and reduction of traditional marketing expenses, implementing these complex processes in their business models poses a series of challenges like choosing the best selection of DMTTs. For this reason, a conceptual model is proposed in the first part of the paper, with the aim to highlight a framework that will help underline the links between DMTTs and other key elements that can provide an increase in brand equity of SMEs, thus contributing to growth and enhancing the sustainability level. Following the proposed model, research aimed at two main directions has been conducted in the second part. The first direction was to analyze the degree in which modern SMEs from the European Union located in Romania dedicate themselves toward embracing sustainability goals and principles. The second one represents an analysis using also the SPSS software solution on the most used selections of DMTTs mentioned in the presented conceptual model. The results obtained provide a starting point for those modern SMEs that choose to follow the path of sustainability by creating and enhancing their brand equity through DMTTs.


2020 ◽  
pp. 002367722096858
Author(s):  
Ismene A Dontas ◽  
Kenneth Applebee ◽  
Martje Fentener van Vlissingen ◽  
Viola Galligioni ◽  
Katerina Marinou ◽  
...  

Article 23(2) of the European Union Directive 2010/63/EU, which regulates welfare provisions for animals used for scientific purposes, requires that staff involved in the care and use of animals for scientific purposes be adequately educated and trained before they undertake any such work. However, the nature and extent of such training is not stipulated in the Directive. To facilitate Member States in fulfilling their education and training obligations, the European Commission developed a common Education and Training Framework, which was endorsed by the Member States Competent Authorities. An Education & Training Platform for Laboratory Animal Science (ETPLAS) Working Group was recently established to develop further guidance to the Learning Outcomes in the Framework, with the objective to clarify the levels of knowledge and understanding required by trainees, and to provide the criteria by which these Learning Outcomes should be assessed. Using the Framework document as a starting point, assessment criteria for the Learning Outcomes of the modules required for Function A persons (carrying out procedures on animals) for rats, mice and zebrafish were created with sufficient detail to enable trainees, providers and assessors to appreciate the level of knowledge, understanding and skills required to pass each module. Adoption and utilization of this document by training providers and accrediting or approving bodies will harmonize introductory education and training for those involved in the care and use of animals for scientific purposes within the European Union, promote mutual recognition of training within and between Member States and therefore free movement of personnel.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARKUS PATBERG

Abstract:There is a growing sense that if the EU is to avoid disintegration, it needs a constitutional renewal. However, a reform negotiated between executives will hardly revitalise the European project. In light of this, commentators have suggested that the EU needs a democratic refounding on popular initiative. But that is easier said than done. Shaping the EU has been an elite enterprise for decades and it is hard to imagine how things could be otherwise. In this article, I map four public narratives of constituent power in the EU to sketch out potential alternatives. Political actors increasingly call into question the conventional role of the states as the ‘masters of the treaties’ and construct alternative stories as to who should be in charge of EU constitutional politics, how the respective subject came to find itself in that position, and how it should invoke its founding authority in the future. These public narratives represent a promising starting point for a normative theory that outlines a viable and justifiable path for transforming the EU in a bottom-up mode.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 503-516
Author(s):  
Marcin Mielnik

In this work, the study of the title issue will be continued and the focus will be on the boundaries of transparency of public action in the sphere of enacting and implementing the law. As a result of the actions taken, the author intends to find answers to questions relat-ed to the policy of informing citizens and possibilities of finding information on the func-tioning of the state. The research was carried out by conducting a source query and source analysis. The author in the main part of the work defined the bodies responsible for creat-ing the law. Then, he introduced individual governmental dailies, such as Dziennik Praw or daily newspapers issued in individual districts of the country (departments). The starting point was to discuss the policy of disseminating the content of the law also in the uncon-stitutional period before the first copies of the government press were issued. Next, the author discussed the results of research on specific issues such as the content of journals, with particular emphasis on the main topics, such as the justification for the implementation of the Napoleon Code and its analysis in terms of practicality. Finally, niche topics like hounds and tips are presented.


Author(s):  
Jean-Christophe Bureau ◽  
Luca Salvatici

Abstract This paper provides a summary measure of the possible new commitments in the area of agricultural market access undertaken by the European Union and the United States, using the Trade Restrictiveness Index (TRI) as the tariff aggregator. We take the 2001 bound tariffs as the starting point and attempt to assess how much liberalization in agriculture could be achieved in the European Union and the United States as a result of the present negotiations. We compute the index for 20 agricultural commodity aggregates under the actual commitments assuming a specific functional form for import demand. We compare the present levels of the TRI with three hypothetical cases: a repetition of the same set of tariff cuts commitments of the Uruguay Round according to a EU proposal prior to the 2003 WTO ministerial meeting, a uniform 36% reduction of each tariff, an harmonization ( "Swiss" ) formula based on the initial US proposal.


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