Słowa kluczowe

methodology |regional economic integration |regional economic groupings |models of economic integration

Streszczenie

The author proposes in this article an updated methodological framework for the assessment and comparison of various models of regional economic integration in terms of assessing their advantages, strengths, weaknesses and effects. Set of criteria has been developed for this purpose (type, form, methods, mechanism, factors, terms). The proposed methodological approach also creates a framework, which allows comparing the scale, depth and dynamics of different models of integration.

Słowa kluczowe

EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region |macro-regional approach |theory of the multi-level governance (MLG) |implementation process |macro-regions of the EU |European Union

Streszczenie

In 2009, the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region was created in the Baltic Sea Region. This strategy is based on the concept of a macro-regional approach that was initiated in it. The theory supporting the concept is the theory of multi-level governance (MLG). The article analyses the process of implementation of this strategy and the macro-regional approach created in it. The analysis is related to 2019’s 10th anniversary of the creation of the strategy and the macro- regional approach, which was transformed into a concept implemented also in other macro-regions of the European Union.

Słowa kluczowe

security |European Union |the concept of multi-level governance (MLG) |Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) |Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) |Security Sector Reform (SSR)

Streszczenie

Governance is a way for society to get organised, take and implement decisions by means of mutual understanding, reaching agreements and taking actions. It works at every level and is visible in social, political and economic dimensions. It includes a range of instruments, principles, institutions and practical action. States, governmental and non-governmental entities with some competences in governance aim to boost development level and provide security to their citizens. The concept of multi-level governance (MLG) is a characteristic of the European Union (EU) and its areas, where it is capable of exercising its governance at many levels using sectorial internal and external policies. This article focuses on multi-level security management by the European Union within the concept of Security Sector Reform (SSR), dedicated to two sectorial external policies, i.e. the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), and the Common Security and Defence Policy (CFDP). In this article, the author will attempt to explain what Security Sector Reform actually means for the European Union. For better understanding this analysis author adopted the multi-level governance theory to demonstrate how the SSR concept can be combined with MLG. The author put forward a thesis that, due to many similarities, i.e. in the EU approach to security management in external relations.

Słowa kluczowe

Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) |EMU reform |Eurozone (euro area) |euro currency |economic crisis |legislative changes package

Streszczenie

The global economic crisis of 2007 revealed a number of weaknesses in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The Member States, together with the European Union institutions have made an effort to save the euro area by introducing a number of reforms for the functioning of the EMU. This article focuses on the analysis of legislative changes introduced to the euro area after 2007 in the fields of fiscal, economic, banking, and financial assistance. The documents constituting the EMU legislative changes package were a subject of a detailed examination. The main research questions were focused on the essence of weaknesses in the functioning of the EMU and the future of the euro area.

Słowa kluczowe

European Union |Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) |EMU reform |Eurozone (euro area) |Eurozone crisis |financial crisis

Streszczenie

The article discusses the structural weaknesses of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), key reforms introduced after the financial crisis and the most important proposals of further EMU reforms present in the public debate. Reforms introduced during the last decade should be deemed to have positive results, however the EMU reform process has not yet been finished. Its successful completion depends on an agreement between Germany and France, which is hindered by conflicting economic interests and by different views on economic policy. The main purpose of this article is to demonstrate how public policy makers attempt to respond to the structural weakness of the Economic and Monetary Union and to identify the key factors, which impede an agreement between France and Germany.

Słowa kluczowe

European Union |Eurozone (euro area) |political security |EU Member States |stability of the EU |EU institutions

Streszczenie

Political security is very often considered through the prism of individual states. In the scholar literature in-depth analyses of this kind of security are rarely encountered in the context of international entities that these countries integrate. The purpose of this article is to draw attention to key aspects of political security in the European Union (EU) Member States. The EU as a supranational organisation, gathering Member States first, ensures the stability of the EU as a whole, and secondly, it ensures that Member States respect common values and principles. Additionally, the EU institutions focus on ensuring the proper functioning of the Eurozone (also called officially “euro area” in EU regulations). Actions that may have a negative impact on the level of the EU’s political security include the boycott of establishing new institutions conducive to the peaceful coexistence and development of states. These threats seem to have a significant impact on the situation in the EU in the face of the proposed (and not accepted by Member States not belonging to the Eurogroup) Eurozone reforms concerning, inter alia, appointment of the Minister of Economy and Finance and the creation of a new institution - the European Monetary Fund.

Słowa kluczowe

European Union |China |EU–China relations |EU Common Security and Defence Policy |EU defence integration |EU defence partnership |concept of coopetition

Streszczenie

With the 2019 EU–China Strategic Outlook, the EU has revalidated its dual perspective on China as cooperation partner and strategic competitor at the same time. So far, considerations of China in EU and EU Member States have primarily focused on economic questions. However, as China‘s foreign policy becomes more assertive and visible via military deployments in the EU‘s geopolitical neighbourhood, the EU needs to confront this challenge by giving appropriate and concrete political responses in a geostrategic context as well. Based on the concept of „coopetition“, this article provides an analysis and subsequent recommendations on how the EU can integrate the “China factor” in its Common Security and Defence Policy, while ensuring that a balance of cooperation and competition in EU’s China policy is retained.

Słowa kluczowe

European Union |legal and political hybridity |decision-making analysis |decision-making process |genetically modified organisms (GMO)

Streszczenie

The European Union can be described as a particular hybrid integration structure that combines features of a state and intergovernmental organisation. Its institutional framework, legal system and division of competences are examples of a supranational organisation or a transnational decision-making system. The decision-making process is an outcome of network interactions between multiple actors, whose relations are non-hierarchically ordered. Genetically modified organisms (GMO) as an example of modern biotechnology application is a highly polarising subject in the EU, as well as globally. Thus, the policy towards GMO is an exemplification of legal and political hybridity of the EU. The analysis of the EU’s legal and political hybridity will be narrowed down to the GM plants case and methodologically organised around the concept of decision-making analysis that is composed of five categories: decision-making situation, actors, decision-making process, decision, implementation of the decision.

Słowa kluczowe

gender equality |economic development |the Baltic Sea Region

Streszczenie

One of the most exposed value in an Age of Neoliberalism is a gender equality, which is an essential condition to achieve goals of economic growth, employment and social cohesion. The Baltic Sea Region (BSR) is a non-homogeneous region. When examining the economic situation of the region, the BSR countries are traditionally divided into two groups: (1) the high-income countries Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany and Iceland, which are called “old market economy countries”, or “developed economies of the region”; (2) the middle- or low-income countries as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia. The latter are classified as post-socialist or transitional economies. The aim of the article is to analyse similarities and differences between those two groups of countries from 2006 to 2016 (ten years). The article compared gender gap using special tools as an economic participation, educational attainment and political empowerment.

Słowa kluczowe

pension system |pension reform |retirement age |EU countries |Ukraine |insurance period |solidarity system |accumulative system |professional schemes

Streszczenie

In this article, the problems of functioning of accumulative pension systems in the EU countries and Ukraine are investigated. The EU countries are characterised by the presence of developed multi-tier pension systems, which significantly vary in different parameters. The common problem for the EU and Ukraine is depopulation, which creates crises in solidarity pension systems. It caused the necessity of pension reforms in many European countries to implement the accumulative components. The European Commission has established unified approaches towards the assessment of pension systems in the EU. While introducing the accumulative pension system, Ukraine intends to apply the best European experience in the pension sector.

Słowa kluczowe

social science |political science |unit homogeneity |terminology in science

Streszczenie

In this essay the Author argues that definitions in social sciences are the subject of heated discussions, and that the debates are ultimately unresolvable because the things social scientists describe with their terms are themselves constantly changing. According to the Author, quantitative methodologists call this problem “unit heterogeneity”: individual manifestations of a particular phenomenon are not identical. Contemplating about the much fuzzier world of comparative historical sociology, comparative politics, and international relations, the Author comes to the statement that countries are in no sense comparable units. The root of the difficulty in making inter-temporal comparisons the Author finds in the definition of terms in social and political sciences. He argues that the meanings of terms like “country,” “nation” and “state” are slippery and always evolving. By questioning the terms of “country”, “nation”, “state” and “empire” the Author goes through the history of their creation in order to explain contemporary phenomena in social and political sciences. The Author also comes up with the suggestion that we, the scientists, must use more appropriate vocabulary while writing about social and political phenomena.