No description available.

No description available.

The institutions of the European Union (EU) have been involved in football-related matters for more than 30 years without having a direct competence in sport. This apparent paradox is the starting point of this thesis, which investigates the origin, development and consequences of EU policies on football. The EU interventions in football issues are examined through a conceptual framework based on models of agenda-setting and multilevel governance. This thesis draws on qualitative research through primary sources, mainly semi-structured interviews and official documents. The most important policy initiatives and decisions of the EU on football matters can be grouped under three headings: freedom of movement for workers, football broadcasting and football governance. EU institutions did not become involved in football matters by their own volition, but as a result of their responsibilities to adjudicate in legal disputes related to freedom of movement for workers and competition policy. The commercialisation of professional football especially over the last few decades generated internal conflicts in the governance of football that were only resolved with recourse to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The EU has acted as an alternative policy venue for football stakeholders wishing to challenge the decisions of football federations. Thus, the EU and football appear as two systems of multilevel governance that have coexisted in parallel for some time but have since clashed as a result of the instrumentalisation of EU venues by football stakeholders. The policies of the EU on football are a compromise between two different visions of the game. Whereas football was initially introduced onto the EU agenda only in economic terms through the ECJ and the Commission, the EU has subsequently developed a more holistic and nuanced vision of football that takes into account its wider social and cultural values. The intervention of the Member States and the European Parliament, at the request of football governing bodies, facilitated the further evolution of EU policies on football. As a result of all these processes, the authority of federations such as the international football federation (Fédération Internationale de Football Association, FIFA) and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has been diffused in favour of a horizontal network of governance that includes representatives from players, clubs and leagues.

The EU regulatory framework for direct taxation is composed of three interconnected elements. First, having satisfied the requirement of a unanimous vote, the EU adopted a range of directives on the basis of the general harmonisation provision (Article 115 TFEU). Therefore, a traditional hard law framework harmonising some aspects of direct taxation exists in the EU. Second, case law is an indirect method of exerting influence on the direct tax field. As long as no positive integration has been brought about, the Member States are free to regulate this sphere as they see fit. The boundaries of their regulatory freedom are imposed, however, by negative integration i.e. by the ECJ applying the Treaty rules on non-discrimination. Jurisprudence has been an influential and dominant regulatory tool. Third, corporate taxation has also been regulated through soft law. The key example of a non-legally binding instrument in the direct tax field is the Code of Conduct for Business Taxation. This thesis investigates interactions between these hard and soft law measures and draws conclusions about the future of EU direct tax regulation. To achieve these aims, two research strands are explored. First, the thesis discusses the nature of the Code. In particular, it is investigated whether the Code can be regarded as an example of a ‘pure’ soft law measure. It is argued that the nature of the Code is not as clear-cut as is officially presented. Behind soft law terminology, the Code operates as a hard law measure. Supported by an examination of the OECD anti-harmful tax competition initiative, the thesis concludes that the use of soft law in tax regulation has not been wholly successful. The introduction of legally binding solutions is restricted by the requirement of unanimity, which is difficult to attain in the expanding EU. Thus, hard law has instead been introduced through the back door, raising valid questions about regulatory legitimacy. Second, this thesis explores the relationships between hard and soft law in the wider context of EU direct tax regulation. The extent to which the Code is embedded in the broader environment of tax regulation is analysed. The Code tends to be characterised as a soft law measure situated within the regulatory environment of taxation that, for years, has been dominated by hard law instruments. At this level, interactions between ECJ jurisprudence and soft law instruments are also explored. Consequently, the thesis demonstrates that hard law and soft law are not necessarily alternative choices; both approaches can be applied simultaneously to influence one regulatory field, and both offer different strengths and values. In a field as politically sensitive as direct taxation, soft law may prove to be insufficient to bring about real change. The addition of a hard law (or legally binding) element might be necessary to secure effectiveness of regulation. This thesis proposes that the current, disingenuous hybrid regulation of direct taxes in the EU should be replaced with a more transparent hybrid, where hard law measures are openly applied and soft law is given the opportunity to regulate in parallel and to its own distinct potential.

This thesis explores the conditions under which the EU is an effective actor at the United Nations in the policy area of human security. Since the late 1990s, the United Nations has been increasingly active in addressing challenges posed by human security concerns. The concept of human security was introduced to emphasize the post-Cold War shift from a state-centred approach to security to an approach focused on the security of individuals. The EU is considered by some as a driving force in the UN policy process and has presented itself as a leader in the promotion of concrete initiatives to address human security challenges. This thesis seeks to examine whether the EU is truly an effective actor at the UN in human security negotiations and aims to identify conditions which influence the EU’s effectiveness. This thesis suggests that the analysis of conditions affecting the EU’s effectiveness at the UN requires the understanding of the ways in which a complex web of actors and institutions interact at three different levels: international, European Union and domestic. Using a multilevel game approach, this thesis examines the willingness of EU actors to work collectively at the UN (internal effectiveness) and the achievements of the EU’s objectives (external effectiveness). This thesis analyzes three cases of human security negotiations: 1) the ban on anti-personnel landmines, 2) the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons (SALW) and 3) the involvement of children in armed conflicts. Factors which have affected the EU’s internal and external effectiveness are identified in each of the case studies. The thesis uses qualitative methods such as expert interviews, documentary analysis and nonparticipant observation. This thesis demonstrates that, at the international level, the commitment of the EU to multilateralism can have an effect on the EU’s effectiveness in human security negotiations. The position of other key UN actors (such as the United States and the G-77) regarding a potential agreement also appears to directly influence EU Member States in achieving their objectives. The thesis argues that the use of consensus in the negotiations process can have a significant impact on the EU’s effectiveness. At the EU level, the analysis reveals that several key EU Member States channelled their efforts to convince their EU partners to act on all three issues. This thesis shows how the role of the EU presidency in coordinating the position of EU Member States can also affect the EU effectiveness in human security negotiations. The support of France, Germany and the United Kingdom, three dominant players in the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy, seems also particularly influential in negotiations. Finally, the case studies suggest that domestic politics can directly shape the EU’s effectiveness. Internal negotiations in EU Member States and the involvement of NGOs at the domestic level are two other factors which influence the EU’s effectiveness.

This thesis explores the origins and evolution of European integration through the lens of classical realism. Classical realism, as an approach to International Relations, has had little to say about one of the most fascinating and politically important developments in the post-war international system, namely the effort by Western European states to integrate economically from the 1950s onwards. Grounded in classical realism’s ontology of power and the desire by states to secure autonomy and exert influence in the international system the thesis argues that a combination of military power, economic power, and power over opinion can explain the main contours and dynamics of integration. At the core of the argument is the idea of ‘Three Europe’s’ – Protected Europe, Confederated Europe, and a Europe of States – which have coexisted in a stable equilibrium for most of the post-war era. Protected Europe is grounded in both the military power and capacity of the United States and the national interest of the United States, remarkably static from 1945 onwards, to play a hegemonic role within the European military and security sphere. It was Protected Europe that created the military security and stability necessary for Western European states to pursue economic integration. It altered the guns versus butter trade-off and permitted Western European states to invest more in their welfare states. Most importantly if resolved the security dilemma that had existed between the most powerful states on the continent, France and Germany, and created a context in which their interaction shifted to one of intensive cooperation. The product was Confederated Europe. The logic at the core of Confederal Europe was a desire by France to bind Germany, and consent by the Germans to be bound. This was done for a variety of reasons. Internally the concern was to exert as much control over Germany as possible and Germany’s long-term national interest – to secure normalisation, independence, and reunification – complemented this urge. Externally the concern was to secure autonomy in the global economic system and to project power and influence within that system. But the components of the confederation remained distinct nation states and thus a Europe of States existed in an often uneasy tension with Confederal Europe. The fault line between a supranational economic structure and a political structure still tied to the states created intermittent tensions and political earthquakes that have punctuated the history of post-war Europe. However, throughout the period the European masses formed a permissive consensus vis-à-vis integration and, given the rather limited and technical nature of the confederation, this minimised the inherent tension between Confederal Europe and the Europe of States. All three Europe’s are, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, in a state of flux. The decline in the relative power of the United States, and the rise of new challenges in the Asia-Pacific, has triggered a strategic pivot away from Europe and a weakening of the commitment to Protected Europe. How Europe will manage this shift remains unclear but a more prominent European leadership role in NATO or a rejuvenated and more focused European security and defence policy seem necessary. The historical balance between a France that wished to bind and a Germany that consented to be bound has shifted palpably. More willing to act as a ‘normalised’ power in the European system, Germany has emerged as a clearly dominant actor and this will require a shift in the diplomatic practices of a European system that has become used to France leading and Germany both following and supplying the supporting economic power. If Confederal Europe is to survive it must accept stronger German leadership. Finally the permissive consensus at the mass level is being eroded as European integration touches upon ever-more salient policy spheres. This means that the power of the idea of Europe has to be strengthened and entrenched more firmly, thus diluting the prominence of the Europe of States, or integration must retrench to bring its competences back into line with its legitimacy.

The global political system forms the backdrop to the changing function of the state and the emergence of new governing systems. This thesis develops a particular governance narrative in relation to endogenous rural development within the South West of England through the European Union’s (EU) LEADER+ rural development programme. This programme is important because it sits firmly within a wider set of discourses on the ‘new governance’. This discourse spans wider debates over emerging forms of deliberative democracy, European governance and globalisation. The LEADER programmes approach to governance is framed as a means to facilitate enhanced deliberative practice through‘partnership’ arrangements at the local level, and in turn ensure ‘local people’ and their‘communities’ develop in line with their strengths. This approach to governance, developed through the regional studies literature, is seen as a means to meet those challenges presented by the global economic epoch. There is a strong rhetoric on the potential of the LEADER approach, but this rhetoric does not result in effective deliberative processes and outputs. The LEADER programme fails to break free from its wider political contexts and the governmentalities of the state. These enable powerful actors to manipulate the political system and its objectives. This is possible through the even wider context of global governance, which helps us understand that relations of power no longer follow linear channels, that gateways once closed are now open (and vice versa), and that policy networks now stretch both horizontally and vertically beyond the traditional confines of state power.

This Thesis shall analyze the development, resp. the actual changes made in the structure of the European financial supervision system. The analysis is done with a view to the deepening economic integration of the Member States of the European Union, whereby in the Thesis the European supranational financial supervision is perceived as a necessary result of the supranational economic cooperation. However, it is also to be borne in mind that the structure of the European financial supervision is or - at least so far - it has been very imperfect, because the Member States of the European Union were willing neither to institutionalize the cooperation in the sphere of the supranational financial supervision nor to hand over any supervision competences to the supranational level. The Thesis takes into account, in particular, the impacts of the world financial crisis and its influence on the European financial supervision structure. However, with a view to the fact that the Thesis analyzes the long-term development of the European financial supervision as well as incentives, obstructions and goals of the particular former reform steps undertaken in this field, in addition to the impacts of the world financial crises the Thesis also analyzes other decisive factors. As for other factors that - from our...

The aim of this thesis is the euro as a common curency of selected member states of the European Union, that create a eurozone or euroclub. Information about the impact of this currency into the eurozone and specially the Slovak Republic should bring the conclusions that could make this process for the Czech Republic- by useful advices- transparent and easier. The thesis is based on method of comparison of what happened in the today eurozone before the euro and after it. Gained facts are used as a guideline to prepare suitable advices that are mentioned in the text and especially in the last chapter. The thesis is composed of four chapters, each of them dealing with different aspects of what was before euro and what the euro is and how it functions in changing circumstances in the background of world economic depression and fiscal problems in many EU member states. Thesis also describes the authorities responsible for euro in the European and Slovak level. Chapter One is introductory and describes the history of process, that had led during many phases and good or bad periods of time through different concepts into the definitive result called euro. This chapter is divided into three subchapters. It describes the history of common currency concept in the European Communities and results in...

"Natural Gas Consumption and Economic Growth in European Union" by Sergey Balitskiy Abstract: The objective of this Master thesis is an evaluation of relationship between natural gas consumption and economic growth in Europe. The sample includes panel time series data over the period from 1997 to 2011 for 26 EU member states (countries of the Euro zone). Based on neoclassical growth model, a multivariate model including gross fixed capital formation and total labor forces of a country as additional explanatory variables was created. Using recent econometric techniques: panel cointegration tests and error correction modeling, it was found that there existed long-run relationship between economic growth, natural gas consumption, labor and capital. In addition, it was investigated that in the short-run there existed bidirectional causality between natural gas consumption and economic growth. It appears that the causality between economic growth and the natural gas consumption is positive. On the other hand, the reverse causality (a relationship between natural gas consumption and economic growth) appears to be negative.