The Role of Local Communities in the Construction of the European Territory: Evidence from Romania

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 605-624
Author(s):  
Dana Georgeta Alexandru

European integration has notable impact on the territorial organization of Europe, especially after the adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon. Therefore, it became urgent to develop guidance and best practices in the fields of territorial cohesion, urban matters and spatial planning, including with regard to local governments. Despite complicated relations in a multi-level governance setting, or because of this setting, local governments are an integral part of the construction of an European territory. The paper argues that territorial cohesion and spatial planning goals will not be achieved without a complementary focus on local communities as the engines of growth. It aims to clarify issues relating the local communities’ role in shaping and implementing European strategies and concludes with some recommendations on territorial perspectives and new goals and tools that should drive the European Union towards higher democratic integration.

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (Vol 18, No 4 (2019)) ◽  
pp. 439-453
Author(s):  
Ihor LISHCHYNSKYY

The article is devoted to the study of the implementation of territorial cohesion policy in the European Union in order to achieve a secure regional coexistence. In particular, the regulatory and institutional origins of territorial cohesion policy in the EU are considered. The evolution of ontological models of cohesion policy has been outlined. Specifically, the emphasis is placed on the key objective of political geography – effectively combining the need for "territorialization" and the growing importance of networking. The role of urbanization processes in the context of cohesion policy is highlighted. Cross-border dimensions of cohesion policy in the context of interregional cooperation are explored. Particular emphasis is placed on the features of integrated sustainable development strategies.


Author(s):  
ALEXANDER I. CHERKASOV

The system of multi-level governance is being established in the countries — members of the European Union, within the framework of which there is considerable redistribution of authority between the main levels of power. These levels — supranational, national and subnational — are becoming increasingly interdependent, and there is the lack of unambiguous domination of a single particular level of power or an institute.The decision-making mechanism within the multi-level governance system is sufficiently fragmented. It is consensus — based and involves participation of not only formal state institutions but also of different non-governmental structures connected with the civil society. Finally, we have a new system of mutual relations between the state and the society with borders becoming more transparent.There are two major dimensions of the multi-level governance being described in the scientific literature — the "vertical", based on the interaction of three power levels mentioned above, and the "horizontal", involving the dynamic interaction of state and non-governmental structures, with the activities of the latter being often of a network origin. Mutual relations of the power levels in the European Union are complex and dialectical. The subnational level begins to play an increasingly important role, and this role is no longer necessarily mediated by governments of the corresponding countries, i.e. by the national level. Subnational authorities are active on the European arena through their representative offices and channels of communication available to them. Meanwhile many European states failed so far to create more or less strong regions able to perform significant powers and to serve as real limiters to the powers of their national governments.With consideration of asymmetry typical for the territorial organization of public power in the European Union and the growing economic and political crisis the perspectives of the multi-level governance seem to be rather vague. The ideologists of the corresponding concept managed only to give a new interpretation of the decision-making process in the European Union, but they failed to describe clearly enough the mechanisms of further development of the European integration.


Marine Policy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 123-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Quero García ◽  
Javier García Sanabria ◽  
Juan Adolfo Chica Ruiz

2018 ◽  
pp. 45-54
Author(s):  
Anna GÓRNA-KUBACKA

The paper discusses the role of women in public life, in particular in the realm of politics. Surveys show that women do well in free market economies, where they rank quite highly in the European Union (35% of employers), whereas their participation in politics is considerably smaller. The paper presents the data on women participating in the highest bodies of representational authorities and local governments, as well as their achievements in the Women’s Parliamentary Group and their struggle to obtain parity on electoral ballots, concluded by winning a 35% quota.


2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 214-238
Author(s):  
Omero Marongiu-Perria

The objective of the initiative launched in Roubaix within theframework of the network entitled “Faiths and Social cohesion”,aims to study the way in which the local governments manage religious diversity and in particular their links with the Muslim presence and its mosques. The method adopted, in agreement with the coordination of the network supported by the European Union, was to have only one case study, i.e. a municipality with a significant Muslim population and the presence of one or several mosques, to study transactions of various types between religious communities and local institutions, as well as to experiment with a role of facilitation in the framework of these relations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 030913252110336
Author(s):  
Veit Bachmann

This article discusses the relation between human geography and European Studies and critically questions the role of geography in producing knowledge on ‘Europe’ and shaping debates about it. It lays out how geographic contributions to European Studies can roughly be grouped into three broad categories: Europeanization and economic geographies of integration; urban, regional and spatial planning; and critical (geopolitical) approaches to the European Union. They lack, however, an engagement with future processes of European (dis)integration. This article, thus, offers an approach to visionary geographies that seeks to strengthen both geography’s theoretical input and applied contributions to European Studies.


2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-241
Author(s):  
Oliver Schmidtke

Informal Governance in the European Union, Christiansen, Thomas and Simona Piattoni, eds., Celtenham (UK) and Northampton, MA (USA): Edward Elgar, 2003, pp. viii, 274.The nature of governance in the European Union (EU), the production of authoritative decisions through a plurality of actors and institutional arrangements, has been at the centre of recent scholarly debates. While at first sight many of its institutions resemble their national counterparts the EU seems to have established a system of governance sui generis with modes of decision-making that reflect the distinct institutional distribution of power and the complex multi-level game of accommodating interests in the regional, national and European arena. Thomas Christiansen and Simona Piattoni have focused on one critical aspect of this evolving mode of decision-making, namely, the role of informal governance. It is defined as the operation of networks and actors pursuing common goals through regular, though not codified and not publicly sanctioned exchanges in the institutional context of the EU.


1998 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
◽  
◽  
◽  

AbstractMulti-level governance is a term that is commonly used to characterize the nature of the European Union. In this article we argue that multi-level governance requires a research focus on negotiations and networks. Our focus is on day-to-day negotiations rather than ``history-making'' decisions, and we proceed from the assumption that negotiations vary in character across issue areas. After discussing the distinctive features of EU negotiations and applying the multidimensional network concept to the EU, we formulate a number of hypotheses as to why network patterns vary across issue areas and how network characteristics affect negotiations. Some illustrative cases are briefly presented, and some tentative observations are proffered concerning the role of networks in EU negotiations.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 7-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Goulas ◽  
Georgia Kontogeorga

Greece, in the frame of appliance of e-Government, the last years has made significant steps which have changed the way its public services work and especially the local self government, which is represented by municipalities. Many countries, not only in the European Union but also throughout the world, are adopting decentralization reforms in order to empower local communities. In Greece specially, the economic crisis that started from 2009, gave one extra motivation to use decentralization to make local self government more efficient. Decentralization is the process of transferring authority, responsibility and accountability from central to local governments. To accomplish this, Greek government applied the Law 3852 «Kallikratis plan», instituted in 2010, reforming the local self administration and its duties. The purpose of this paper is to present the consequences of this change to the e-government steps that were done before «Kallikratis plan».


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document