Towards Harmonised Frameworks for the Liquidation of Non-Systemically Relevant Credit Institutions in the EU?

As part of its ongoing consultation on the European crisis management and deposit insurance framework currently available for the management of bank failures within the EU generally and the Banking Union in particular, the European Commission has called for the respondents’ views as to the need for further harmonisation of resolution arrangements for banks that currently do not qualify for resolution under the auspices of the Single Resolution Mechanism. In this respect, the consultation takes up a broader discussion on the need for harmonised bank insolvency regimes within the EU, which also ties in with an earlier international debate on the functional characteristics of optimal bank insolvency regimes initiated by international standard setters in the early 2000s. Against this backdrop, the paper analyses the case for further reform, and identifies potential impediments (both technical and political) to be expected in this regard. It argues that, while a full harmonisation of resolution powers and the centralisation of decision-making powers can be expected to address relevant concerns regarding the status quo, a comprehensive harmonisation can also be expected to meet with substantial political opposition, which in turn requires a better understanding of the functional requirements to be met by less ambitious reforms.

Mary into Combat: Marian Devotions and Political Mobilizations during the European Culture Wars

During the 1870s, thousands of Catholics headed for old and new European shrines in mass national pilgrimages. The rise of mass pilgrimages as political demonstrations was the result of new devotional cultures and the long-term politicization of Catholic devotions. Pilgrimages were seen by participants as acts of reparation for the secularizing legislation implemented during the European culture wars and also as a way to increase Catholicism's presence and visibility in the contested public sphere. Likewise, the capture of Rome and the Roman Question fostered displays of solidarity with the Pope, contributing to the emergence of this new mass devotional culture. Finally, the convergent aims of Legitimists/monarchists and intransigent Catholics rapidly expanded these new mass religious demonstrations. This article seeks to re-evaluate the multi-faceted European crisis of the 1870s and the meanings of mass Catholic mobilizations in Europe by analysing the rise of mass pilgrimages in Spain.

A political ontology for Europe: Roberto Esposito’s instituent paradigm

The aim of my article is to relate Roberto Esposito’s reflections on Europe to his more recent proposal of instituent thought. I will try to do so by focusing on three theoretical cornerstones of Esposito’s thought: the first concerns the evidence of a link between Europe, philosophy and politics. The second is deconstructive: it highlights the inadequacy of the answers of the most important contemporary ontological-political paradigms to the European crisis, as well as the impossibility of interpreting this crisis through theoretical-political categories such as sovereignty. The third relates more directly to the proposal of a new political ontology, which Esposito defines as instituent thought. Esposito’s discussion of political theology is the central theoretical nucleus of this study. This discussion will focus, in particular, on the category of negation, from which any political ontology that is based on pure affirmativeness or absolute negation is criticized. In his opinion, philosophical theories developed on the basis of these assumptions have proved to be incomplete or ineffective in relation to the current European and global philosophical and political crisis. Esposito therefore perceives the urgent need to propose a line of thought that is neither negatively destituent (post-Heideggerian), nor affirmatively constituent (post-Deleuzian, post-Spinozian), but instituent (neo-Machiavellian), capable of thinking about order through conflict (the affirmative through the negative). Provided that we do not think of the institution statically–in a conservative sense–but dynamically, as constant instituting in which conflict can become an instrument of a politics increasingly inspired by justice.

Az Európai Központi Bank szerepének átalakulása az európai válságkezelés során = The Changing Role of the European Central Bank during the European Crisis in 2008

Az elhúzódó európai válság során az Európai Központi Bank (EKB) szerepe is átalakult. Egyrészt válság idején, inflációs nyomás helyett deflációs veszéllyel szembesülve, a stabilitás biztosítása mást implikál, mint szokványos időkben. Másrészt tartósan nulla százalék körüli kamat mellett az eszköztárnak kevésbé bevált további elemeit kell bevetni. Az EKB esetében 2010. májusban indult új korszak az első eszközvásárlási programmal, amelyet több hasonló követett. A jegybank mérlege néhány év alatt több mint kétszeresére duzzadt, a legdinamikusabban bővülő tétel eszközoldalon az euróövezetbeli értékpapírok kategóriája lett. Mindeközben az EKB-nak a kiépülő bankunióban is központi szerep jutott. A bankfelügyelet élesítésére 2017 nyarán került sor, az eszközvásárlási programot pedig 2018 végéig vezették ki. Az EKB tehát új és jelentős feladatokat vállalt az európai válságkezelésben, alapvetően sikerrel. In the course of the prolonged European crisis, the role of the European Central Bank (ECB) has also changed. Firstly, in times of crisis, facing risks of deflation instead of inflationary pressure, ensuring stability implies other methods than in usual times. Secondly, with long-lastingly around-zero per cent interest rates, further, less used monetary policy tools are needed. In case of the ECB a new era started in May 2010, with the first asset purchase programme, which was then followed by several similar ones. The central bank’s balance sheet more than doubled in a few years’ time; the most dynamically growing item on the asset side was the category of Eurozone securities. In the meanwhile the ECB was assigned a central role in the newly developed banking union as well. Supervision was put in place in summer 2017 and the asset purchase programme was phased out by the end of 2018. Overall, the ECB undertook new and significant roles in European crisis management – fundamentally with success.

Finland in Search of Foreign Policy Guidelines

The article analyzes Finland's attempts to find a solution to current foreign policy problems in the interwar period. The main problem was the search for possible allies and guarantors of independence. The solution to this problem was complicated by a complex of factors: the limited interest of the great powers in accepting obligations guaranteeing the preservation of independence by Finland, the political and military weakness of possible allies (Latvia and Estonia), contradictions in relations with Sweden (not least caused by domestic political aspects both in Finland and Sweden), fears about Poland's foreign policy ambitions, potentially dangerous Finnish involvement in crisis situations Domestic political consensus on the issue of foreign policy orientation seemed to be achieved in the mid-1930s. However, the so-called Scandinavian orientation did not even partially solve the security problem. By the beginning of the pan-European crisis, the search for guarantors of independence remained an unresolved problem.

Russia-EU political relations: Evolution and prospects

The article is devoted to the analysis of the evolution, nature and content of Russia-EU political relations, formally established by the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) of 1994. The paradigm of building a united Europe and a common European security space in line with overcoming post-bipolar confrontation and the emergence of post-Soviet Russia as well as the European Union, established in 1992, as new actors in international arena became the basis for their cooperative relations, which was built towards strategic partnership. It was strengthened at the turn of the 2000s, including on the basis of mutual strategies of relations, when Russia’s “European choice” was declared and the EU’s “new dynamics” in security and defense dimension were initiated. However, the NATO-centric model of European security and the policy of expanding Euro-Atlantic institutions to the East created a potential for conflict, and Russia-EU cooperation entered a phase of a latent crisis, especially as a result of differing interests in the so-called common neighborhood. Attempts at a new strategic start by the adoption of Russia-EU Roadmaps on the four common spaces and by planning the negotiations on a new basic agreement failed to overcome fundamental disagreements and contradictions. The Ukrainian conflict became the culmination of the Russian-European crisis and fundamentally changed the direction and content of Russia — EU relations. The defining of the future strategy of relations is becoming increasingly acute, which is considered in the article as a challenge of strategic choice for the parties. The author substantiates the prospect of overcoming the “new normality”, which is boils down to maintaining a controlled mutual deterrence, although it does not exclude the option of terminating the Russia-EU legal relations (“breakesit”).

URBAN MOVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF THE LEGITIMATION OF LIBERAL DEMOCRACY: ANALYSIS OF THE ACTIVITIES OF ALTERNATIVE GROUPS AND CIVIL ORGANISATIONS AT A TIME OF EUROPEAN CRISIS

This paper constitutes an analysis of urban movements, marked in the research as alternative groups and civil organisations, in terms of the new politics characteristic of new social movements. In particular it indicates that these movements, ostensibly urban, actually express demands towards the broader social system, delegitimating it in a twofold manner. Firstly, the acceptance of certain general principles in democratic values and rules is coupled with criticism of how the system functions in practice and of the political elites in Poland, via protest, lobbying, and watchdog activities. A separate type of delegitimation embraces organisations among which we may list cooperatives and squats, as well as organisations managing concrete spaces and withdrawing from participation in public life, shutting themselves away within autonomous spaces and realising a different cultural and democratic model. In both of these groups we are thus dealing with a strongly accentuated anti-systemic and anti-capitalist attitude towards the political reality of the period of transformation in Poland. The research delivered confirmation of the overall research hypothesis adopted in the Lifewhat project, according to which in response to economic crisis civil society responds with the emergence of alternative forms of resilience, not only alleviating the consequences of the crisis but which also, as time passes and the scale of their activities increases, may give rise to a new quality – including in a political sense. The research constitutes a part of the international Lifewhat project. It was conducted on a sample of eighteen purposefully selected civil groups and organisations operating in large cities in Poland, using the method of in-depth interviews.