<p>This study investigates which out of seven predetermined factors influence the social adjustment of expatriates at a decentralized EU institution. Much of the existing literature that deals with expatriate adjustment departs from the assumption that the expatriates are entering an organization which is greatly influenced by the culture and customs of the country in which it is located, and that the expatriate is in minority in terms of nationality. In the decentralized EU institutions on the other hand (1) the culture of the organization and host country are markedly different from each other, and (2) the organization consists of mostly expatriates rather than host country nationals.</p><p>Three sources of data are used; secondary sources, questionnaires and interviews. The results show that all seven factors which were investigated to some extent influenced social adjustment. The unique nature of the decentralized EU institutions could be the reason to why organizational cultural novelty was perceived as more important for interaction adjustment and general cultural novelty more important for general adjustment. The unique nature also could also be the reason to the negative relationship between spouse adjustment and general adjustment, possibly because the expatriate families are more inclined to live in an international "bubble" when both work and social connections are multicultural.</p>

This study investigates which out of seven predetermined factors influence the social adjustment of expatriates at a decentralized EU institution. Much of the existing literature that deals with expatriate adjustment departs from the assumption that the expatriates are entering an organization which is greatly influenced by the culture and customs of the country in which it is located, and that the expatriate is in minority in terms of nationality. In the decentralized EU institutions on the other hand (1) the culture of the organization and host country are markedly different from each other, and (2) the organization consists of mostly expatriates rather than host country nationals. Three sources of data are used; secondary sources, questionnaires and interviews. The results show that all seven factors which were investigated to some extent influenced social adjustment. The unique nature of the decentralized EU institutions could be the reason to why organizational cultural novelty was perceived as more important for interaction adjustment and general cultural novelty more important for general adjustment. The unique nature also could also be the reason to the negative relationship between spouse adjustment and general adjustment, possibly because the expatriate families are more inclined to live in an international "bubble" when both work and social connections are multicultural.

The judicial system of Poland is at the forefront of public, constitutional, political and legal debates of the European Union. Different aspects of rule of law in Poland, such as independence of judges, their right to irremovability, the alleged intention of the government to occupy and impact Polish judicial sector are discussed among academics. The aim of this research conducted throughout the thesis is to add complete and all-inclusive analysis of the recent judgment of European Court of Justice (hereinafter: "ECJ") regarding lowering retirement age of judges to the ongoing academic literature. Furthermore, before reaching that conclusion, providing the reader with the review of Polish political debate, the responses of European Union institutions and analysis of the necessity of the reform for Polish judicial system. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Darbe analizuojama ES interesų grupių sąveika su ES institucijomis. Aiškinamasi, kaip, kodėl ir kur interesų grupės veikia, ką atstovauja ir ar atstovaujami Lietuvos organizacijų interesai Europos Sąjungoje. Darbo tikslas – EP ir EK sąveikų su interesų grupėmis įvertinimas. Darbo tikslui pasiekti iškeliami šeši uždaviniai. Pirmiausiai, siekiama išanalizuoti ES veikiančių interesų grupių veiklą. Ištirti interesų grupių santykį su Europos Komisija ir Europos Parlamentu, išanalizuoti ES interesų grupių veiklos reguliavimą bei EK ir EP interesų grupių registrus, atskleisti Lietuvos organizacijų interesų atstovavimą ES. Darbe naudojami aprašomasis, analitinis, statistinės analizės ir kokybinio tyrimo pusiau struktūruoto interviu metodai. Po Bendrosios rinkos sukūrimo jaučiamas interesų grupių suaktyvėjimas ES lygmenyje, kas buvo įtakota europeizacijos ir eurointegracijos faktorių. Interesų grupės veikia EK, EP ir ET sprendimus. ES teigiamai atsiliepia apie interesų grupes, kadangi jos padeda spręsti „demokratijos stokos“ problemą. Aktyviausios interesų grupės yra teisėkūros stadijoje, kuomet siekiama pakreipti įstatymo svarstymus reikiama linkme. Labiausiai veikiamas interesų grupių veiklos laukas yra EK. EK pagal suteiktas funkcijas turi lemiamą vaidmenį ES politikos formavime. EK turi didelę patirtį bendraujant su interesų grupėmis ir yra priklausoma dėl jų teikiamos informacijos. EP neturi tokių funkcijų kaip EK, todėl nėra toks svarbus interesų grupėms. EP tampa svarbiu... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The thesis analyzes interaction between EU interest groups and EU institutions. It explains how, why and where interest groups operate, what they represent, and whether the interests of Lithuanian organizations are represented in the European Union. The aim of the thesis is to evaluate interaction of interest groups with EP and EC. In order to reach this objective six tasks have been set. First of all, the activity of EU operating interest groups is considered. Also, the thesis studies the relation of interest groups with the European Commission and the European Parliament, the regulation of the activity of EU interest groups, the registers of EC and EP interest groups, and the representation of Lithuanian organizations in EU. In the thesis the following methods are used: descriptive method, analytical method, the method of statistical analysis, and the method of quality research semi-structured interview. After the creation of the common market, interest groups have become more active, which has been caused by such factors as europeization and euro-integration. Interest groups influence the decisions of EC, EP and ET. EU has a favorable opinion about interest groups, because they help to solve the problem of “the lack of democracy”. Interest groups are most active in the stage of the law establishment, when they seek to influence the formation of laws. The sphere where interest groups are most active is EC. By its functions EC plays a key role in the formation of EU... [to full text]

The thesis contains a description of the recruitment and selection for the European Union institutions. This HR activity is provided by the European Personnel Selection Office, which initiated "EPSO Development Programme" following an audit of personnel actions and complaints of applicants in 2010. The EPSO Development Programme's aim was to improve the recruitment and selection process including the shortening its duration and testing part. The goal of the thesis is to compare the recruitment and selection process before the EPSO Development Programme and after it. Then to evaluate how successful it was.

EU trade strategies which include multilateralism, bilateralism/inter-regionalism, unilateralism, and protectionism have displayed different trends in different time periods. Regarding the determinants of EU trade strategies, while institutionalist approach points to the roles played by core EU institutions, pluralist approach draws attention to the influence of domestic interest groups. Systemic approach, on the other hand, underlines the impact of external constraints or opportunities. Nevertheless, neither of these approaches can provide a complete explanation as each of them focuses on the impact of one factor. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the changing dynamics and determinants of EU trade strategies by developing a more interactionist approach. For this purpose, firstly, main arguments of the previous approaches utilized in the analysis of EU&rsquo / s external trade policy are critically reviewed. Later, all the major factors proposed by previous approaches are brought together in an interactionist manner in order to demonstrate that a direction of influence exists among these factors and they each play a distinct role in the determination of EU trade strategies. Secondly, reasons behind different trends displayed by EU trade strategies throughout history are investigated by utilizing the interactionist model for three major periods: 1958-1995 / 1995-2000 / 2000-present. The analysis reveals that in all three periods, external factors always drive the EU to reconsider its trade strategies while their specific content is rather shaped by domestic dynamics.

Europos Sąjungos institucijose dažnai remiamasi valstybių narių deleguotų nacionalinių ekspertų patirtimi bei žiniomis. Tokiu būdu gerinami institucijų administraciniai gebėjimai, didinamas veiklos efektyvumas, o ekspertams suteikiama galimybė patobulinti darbo įgūdžius bei iš arčiau susipažinti su tarptautinėmis institucijomis. Delegavimu taip pat naudojamasi kaip priemone politiniams tinklams užmegzti ar sukurti savitą tiltą tarp Europos Sąjungos bei valstybių narių. Tačiau pastaruoju metu įžvelgiama vis daugiau delegavimo trūkumų, kadangi dažniausiai jis neatneša realios naudos nei ekspertus delegavusioms institucijoms, nei pačių deleguotųjų ekspertų karjerai. Maža to, užmegzti politiniai tinklai taip pat pasirodo esantys trumpalaikiai. Nacionaliniai ekspertai, siekiantys laikinai užimti pareigas Europos Sąjungos institucijose, turi atitikti griežtus reikalavimus bei laimėti nacionalinę nei priimančios institucijos organizuojamą atranką. Atrinktiems kandidatams visą delegavimo laikotarpį nacionalinis darbdavys moka atlyginimą, išsaugo tarnybinį statusą bei suteikia visas socialines garantijas. Tuo tarpu priimančioji institucija kompensuoja tik papildomas delegavimo išlaidas. Nepaisant to, eidami pareigas deleguotieji ekspertai privalo vadovautis tik Europos Sąjungos interesais ir jokiu būdu neprivilegijuoti nacionalinės institucijos ar valstybės. Galimų interesų konfliktų siekiama išvengti stipriai apribojant deleguotųjų nacionalinių ekspertų savarankišką veiklą... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The institutions of European Union offen use the experience and knowledge of seconded national experts. Thus executive abilities of institutions are improved, efficiency of work is increased and national experts get a better opportunity to upgrade their working skills as well as familiarize with the international institutions. The secondment is also used for building the political networks or a specific bridge between European Union and the member states. However, recently more and more weaknesses of secondment are being found. First of all, it does not necesarily guarantee expert‘s promotion or bring a benefit to national institutions either. Moreover, the political networks built by seconded national experts mostly are nondurable. The applicants for the secondment must meet the strict requirements and pass both national and european selections. The secondment lasts from six months to two years and can be renewed up to a total period not exceeding four years. All this period the national employer who sent the experts on the secondment continues to pay salary and guarantees their position and social security. Whereas EU institution pays only the additional expenses of secondment. Despite this, the seconded national experts have to be loyal to the EU institution under whose supervision they work and do not privilege their national employer or state. The possibility of clash of interests is decreased by restricting the discretion of the seconded national experts. The... [to full text]

The main aim of those theses is to present possibilities of financial support from the EU {--} Community programmes of the EU for the subjects in the South Bohemia region. There are mentioned chances of the financial support from the EU in the first part of my work. The next part presents community programmes in the field of education and culture and activities, which can be supported from these sources. Statistic figures of the financial support status are named at the end of each chapter. There is an example of the successful apply of grants as well as some successful projects realised by subjects from South Bohemia in the conclusion part of my theses. The goal of this section was to present the application process. Theses contain also some recommendation for the future increase of the financial drawing from discussed available sources.

This diploma thesis looks at lobbying as one of the tools for shaping European legislation. Lobbyists are often perceived as carriers of valuable information that make it possible for decision-makers to get expert opinions and perspectives directly from the industry. Lobbyists can therefore make a significant contribution to policy making and to improving European legislation that meets the needs of stakeholders. The main objective of the thesis is to find out in what way and at what stages the interest groups participate and intervene in the EU decision-making process and identify the access points through which they can enter into the legislative process. For the sake of clarity, this research is applied to a particular case of lobbying in the field of animal testing of cosmetics, which has greatly influenced the legal regulation of the area.

Mgr. Soňa Fryščáková The aims and objectives of the European Union information policy (with a focus on librarianship in the institutional structure of the European Union) (dissertation thesis) (Směřování a cíle informační politiky Evropské unie (se zaměřením na knihovnictví v rámci institucionální struktury Evropské unie) Abstract This thesis is focused on the analysis of the selected libraries (and the other information services) of the European Union Institution, in particular the analysis of their current situation with an aim to address a proposal for their further development. The proposal points out problematic areas within the libraries' operation and prepares suggestions to the program goals of the information policy of the libraries of EU Institutions. The first part is devoted to the EU information policy in general and presents the development of the information society in the context of the European Union. The next section describes the information services of the EU Institutions. Specifically, those are libraries of selected EU institutions and also the Historical Archives of the European Union and the professional association of European libraries Eurolib. The last part deals with analysis of the information strategy of the EU institutions and with the solution that represent program aims of...