scholarly journals Shifts in EU Cohesion Policy and Processes of Peripheralization: A View from Central Eastern Europe

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
László Faragó ◽  
Krisztina Varró
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Economic Perspective ◽  
Cohesion Policy ◽  
Central Eastern Europe ◽  
Steering Mechanism ◽  
Central Eastern ◽  
Political Economic

The increasing dominance of neoliberalism as the key steering mechanism of the European Union (EU) since the early 1990s has implied the competitiveness-oriented reshaping of cohesion policy. The aim of this paper is to initiate a debate from a critical political economic perspective on the implications of this shift for Central Eastern European (CEE) member states. To this end, the paper discusses the formation of EU centre-periphery relations from a CEE point of view and formulates some preliminary suggestions as to how cohesion policy would need to be rethought in order to ensure the better integration of lagging CEE regions.

State-led violence in Ukraine’s 2004 elections and orange revolution

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taras Kuzio
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Ethnic Conflict ◽  
External Support ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Central Eastern Europe ◽  
Orange Revolution ◽  
Central Eastern ◽  
Second Wave

The Ukrainian opposition faced one of the greatest degrees of state-backed violence in the second wave of democratization of post-communist states with only Serbia experiencing similar cases of assassinations and repression of the youth Otpor NGO. In the 2004 Ukrainian elections the opposition maintained a strategy of non-violence over the longest protest period of 17 days but was prepared to use force if it had been attacked. The regime attempted to suppress the Orange Revolution using security forces. Covert and overt Russian external support was extensive and in the case of Ukraine and Georgia the European Union (EU) did not intervene with a membership offer that had the effect of emboldening the opposition in Central-Eastern Europe. This article surveys five state-backed violent strategies used in Ukraine’s 2004 elections: inciting regional and inter-ethnic conflict, assassinations, violence against the opposition, counter-revolution and use of the security forces. The article does not cover external Russian-backed violence in the 2004 elections unique to Ukraine that the author has covered elsewhere.

Toward European Integration in Public Administration and Public Services

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 134
Author(s):  
Gentiana Kraja
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Public Administrator ◽  
Theoretical Synthesis ◽  
State Governance ◽  
Political Economic

The main purpose of this paper is to identify the problems associated with public administration, public services and the role public administrator when this process is guided by the principles of the European Union. Integration into the European Union, a long-awaited process and promoted in Albania, will have consequences in the political, economic, social live, and in the governance of this country. Public administration as an important link of the state governance and insight to citizens will certainly be affected by the integration process. The main purpose of this paper is to reflect and analyze how Public Administration works, and what is the heritage regarding Administration procedures and how to place first at the prospect of integration into the European Union. In this paper also aims to give a concise picture associated with public administrator performance and his role in providing public services. The goals of the research will be carried out between theoretical synthesis of the literature, legislation and reports. Main finding of this paper is the theoretical and practical approach about public services and public administration seen also form the European point of view.

Gender regimes and gender equality measures in Central Eastern European Countries post-accession: the case of Hungary and Poland

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Velluti
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Family Policies ◽  
Central Eastern Europe ◽  
Gender Regimes ◽  
Central Eastern ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Eastern European Countries

The paper is set to examine the state of gender equality in Central Eastern European Countries (CEECs) since accession to the European Union (EU) following the two enlargements in 2004 and 2007, which saw 10 CEECs join the EU. In this context, the paper addresses some implications of transformation, which challenge gender regimes across CEECs. The paper looks at the nature of the policies adopted to ensure gender equality in Central Eastern Europe (CEE) and, in particular, using Hungary's and Poland's family policies as a case study, it evaluates whether EU gender equality measures have had an impact on gender equality and justice in CEE and, more generally, whether they have led to new gender equality paradigms.

Continuity and change in Russia’s policy toward Central and Eastern Europe

2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yury E. Fedorov
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Central Eastern Europe ◽  
Strategic Factor ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Central Eastern ◽  
Sphere Of Influence ◽  
Security Guarantees ◽  
Former Ussr

The accession of the CEE states to NATO and the European Union has put an end to the geopolitical ambiguity and implicit insecurity in the region between Russia and the socalled ‘Old Europe’. Instead of being an area of great powers’ rivalry, elements of ‘buffer belts’ lacking meaningful strategic options, objects of raw Nazi-Soviet deals, or zones under Russian occupation and domination, the three Baltic States and the Visegrad group countries became full-fledged members of the European Union and were given NATO’s security guarantees. By the middle of the 2000s, one would conclude that traditional geopolitics had ended in this region. However, the changes in the strategic situation in CEE have not changed the deep rooted moving forces and long-term strategic goals of the Russian policy toward the region.Moscow seeks to have the position, as its official rhetoric says, of an ‘influential centre of a multipolar world’ that would be nearly equal to the USA, China, or the EU. With this in view Moscow seeks for the establishment of its domination over the new independent states of the former USSR and for the formation of a sphere of influence for itself in Central Eastern Europe. If it achieves these goals, then Europe may return once again to traditional geopolitics fraught with great power rivalries and permanent instabilities radiating far beyond CEE borders. Yet a few questions remain. Has Russia come to the conclusion that attempting to restore its privileged position of influence in Central-Eastern Europe is wrong? Has Russia enough power to threaten the CEE countries? How credible are NATO’s security guarantees? How may Russian behavior in CEE affect a wider European geopolitical context? These questions are appropriate in the light of Russia’s ‘resurgence’ as a revanchist power and because Russia is, and most probably will remain in the next five to ten years, a weighty economic and strategic factor in areas along the Western borders of the former USSR.

Keeping up with Schengen: Migration and Policy in the European Union

1995 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 939-963 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Convey ◽  
Marek Kupiszewski
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Migration Policy ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Member States ◽  
Research Issues ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Eastern European Countries

There is an inescapable relationship between the existence of migration movements and the resulting policies which are adopted by the authorities of the area concerned towards encouraging these movements, or more commonly towards attempting to control or to reduce them. This in turn means that the migration researcher must not only look at the effects of policy and changes in policy, important though this is, but must also attempt to understand the changing political factors which fuel the formation of policy. This paper aims to bring together some of the wide variety of policy issues and responses which may be observed in Europe at the present time and in the recent past, and in particular to make an assessment of the approaches being taken by the European Union member states as a whole, and also by the so-called Schengen group of member states. This article also attempts to look at the perceptions of these policies and their effects from the point of view of both the “western” and the “eastern” European countries, as migration policy issues are rarely onesided. In conclusion, it considers some of the research issues and problems which are raised by geographers and others working in this area, difficulties which might be implied by our possibly flippant title, “Keeping Up with Schengen.”

scholarly journals A comparative analysis of EU coherence policy’s influence on the innovation and competitiveness of Central-Eastern European states in the years 2004–2014

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (321) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrzej Łączak
Keyword(s):  
Eastern European ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Lisbon Strategy ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Central Eastern Europe ◽  
Innovative System ◽  
Central Eastern ◽  
The Eu

At the turn of the new millennium, building an economy based on knowledge became the EU’s main priority. Innovation, which was to be the key to the competitiveness of the EU economy, became an essential issue in the Lisbon Strategy. The determination to build an innovative system embracing local conditions was stronger during the first years of the present century. The states of Central-Eastern Europe, which had just undergone system transformations and were facing huge social and economic problems, were heading for integration with high hopes, believing that their presence on the uniform European market, especially the possibility to use coherence funds, would improve the innovation and competitiveness of their economies. The analysis included eleven states from among which eight joined the EU in the year 2004 – the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary, two in the year 2007 – Bulgaria and Romania and one state in 2013 – Croatia. These states could expect significant European funds. Only in the years 2007–2013 the European Union assigned over 346,9 billion Euro for coherence policy. The amount of more than 175,5 billion Euro reached eleven states of Central-Eastern European states, which constituted well over a half of the full amount. The purpose of the elaboration is to compare and assess the extent to which the use of coherence policy funds contributed to the improvement of innovation and competitiveness of Central-Eastern European states. The fact that these states joined the EU at different times gives us an opportunity to observe the development of economies facing similar socio-economic problems within EU structures and at their outskirts.

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