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In this paper, we study the employment of workers from Central, Eastern and Southeastern European (CESEE) EU Member States in Austria after the Eastern enlargement of the European Union. To prevent a sudden rush of immigrants into the labor market, Austria opted for a Transition period during which immigration remained restricted. We will show that these restrictions had the anticipated effect; while the stock of workers from the new CESEE Member States increased slowly in Austria during the transition period, the trend became markedly steeper after the introduction of free labor market access. Between 2003 and 2016, the stock of workers from CESEE EU Member States in Austria increased fourfold by about 185,000 individuals. The largest immigrant groups are from Hungary, Romania and Poland. A large share of migrant workers are employed in seasonal industries and in border regions closest to their home countries.

<p>This paper addresses the so-called political rationale of the European Union’s (EU) regional policy in the context of the forthcoming eastern enlargement. The political rationale emphasises a particular type of organisation, involving multiple layers of governance and actors. This organisation is considered important in effectively reducing regional disparities. Regarding the great amount of EU regional funding the candidate states in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are expected to receive upon accession, capable institutions and structures for handling these funds are vital. Also, it is a crucial part of the EU’s accession criteria. By using Hungary and the implementation of the partnership principle as a case study, the process of preparing for the regional funds in CEE is investigated in-depth. A policy analysis of the cohesion between EU policy objectives and the Hungarian implementation process of the partnership principle serves as the overall basis for the analysis. In order to analyse and understand the implementation process, Historical Institutionalism (HI) is applied as a theoretical framework. It contributes by assessing the factors affecting the implementation process and thus, policy coherence. A triangulation of data consisting of interviews with Hungarian officials and EU Member State experts involved in the implementation of partnership practices, primary and secondary texts as well as basic statistics is made against the propositions formulated through HI.</p><p> In turn, a number of analytical findings have been discovered. Firstly, the policy process is seen as highly constrained by formal and informal institutional factors, created by historical policy legacies. These have shaped the goals and preferences of the actors involved and have also privileged certain groups over others. In turn, path-dependency is noticed. Secondly, this has made policy cohesion rather weak, with certain short-term requirements being fulfilled but with a lack of more in-depth, long-term measures. Thus, there is a mismatch between the EU and the Hungarian regional policy organisation. Thirdly, although the formal institutional mechanisms for change are rather rigid, indications of informal mechanisms providing possibilities of institutional change were found, with some actors adapting to the EU enlargement context. This could lead to partnership practises gradually infiltrating some ofthe institutional and organizational features and in turn, become strengthened through the multi-level governance structure of the EU. Yet, implementation of the partnership principle is identified as a long and open process, with the real challenges arriving as Hungary enters the EU</p>

This paper addresses the so-called political rationale of the European Union’s (EU) regional policy in the context of the forthcoming eastern enlargement. The political rationale emphasises a particular type of organisation, involving multiple layers of governance and actors. This organisation is considered important in effectively reducing regional disparities. Regarding the great amount of EU regional funding the candidate states in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are expected to receive upon accession, capable institutions and structures for handling these funds are vital. Also, it is a crucial part of the EU’s accession criteria. By using Hungary and the implementation of the partnership principle as a case study, the process of preparing for the regional funds in CEE is investigated in-depth. A policy analysis of the cohesion between EU policy objectives and the Hungarian implementation process of the partnership principle serves as the overall basis for the analysis. In order to analyse and understand the implementation process, Historical Institutionalism (HI) is applied as a theoretical framework. It contributes by assessing the factors affecting the implementation process and thus, policy coherence. A triangulation of data consisting of interviews with Hungarian officials and EU Member State experts involved in the implementation of partnership practices, primary and secondary texts as well as basic statistics is made against the propositions formulated through HI. In turn, a number of analytical findings have been discovered. Firstly, the policy process is seen as highly constrained by formal and informal institutional factors, created by historical policy legacies. These have shaped the goals and preferences of the actors involved and have also privileged certain groups over others. In turn, path-dependency is noticed. Secondly, this has made policy cohesion rather weak, with certain short-term requirements being fulfilled but with a lack of more in-depth, long-term measures. Thus, there is a mismatch between the EU and the Hungarian regional policy organisation. Thirdly, although the formal institutional mechanisms for change are rather rigid, indications of informal mechanisms providing possibilities of institutional change were found, with some actors adapting to the EU enlargement context. This could lead to partnership practises gradually infiltrating some ofthe institutional and organizational features and in turn, become strengthened through the multi-level governance structure of the EU. Yet, implementation of the partnership principle is identified as a long and open process, with the real challenges arriving as Hungary enters the EU

This thesis assesses the underlying political and financial reasons of the recent budgetary crisis of the European Union. It aims to discuss the possible reform alternatives for the European Union budget in order to improve it to better serve for the objectives of the enlarged Union and to enable the Member States to share the budget burden more fairly. To this purpose, the thesis first analyzes the budget of the European Union in terms of its aims, evolution and structure of revenue and expenditure items and than presents a general overview of the shortcomings of the present own resources system. In general, the thesis discusses possible reform areas, in which the reform process could take place. The thesis also shows how the Union overcame the policy challenges, and particularly the budgetary implications brought out with the inclusion of Central and Eastern European countries and how its financial perspectives covering the 2000-06 and 2007-2013 periods were finalized.

The thesis analyses the effect of the Eastern enlargement on goods flows into four CEECs. In the beginning, the Eastern enlargement and numerous related economic effects are briefly characterised. After that it focuses on trade diversion and trade creation effects, starting with a concise discussion of the traditional customs union theory and followed by the explanation of the choice of the estimation method. A gravity model applied on a panel data set is then used to model the import flows into the EU15 and the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The results showed that a careful choice of the model specification and estimating technique is needed and the model that controlled for four sources of unobserved heterogeneity (time, country pair, importer, and exporter specific characteristics) was chosen. Based on this model's results, we could expect a significant increase of imports from EFTA into these countries but aggregately we should not expect any trade diversion as no further redirecting of import flows from the rest of the world is predicted. Eventually, some of the real trade flow developments (territorial and commodity structures and revealed comparative advantages of selected regions) are described.

My thesis deals with intra-EU migration, its motivation factors and then compares the advantages and disadvantages of migration. Free movement of workers is discussed in the next chapter as well as the key mobility drivers and its barriers. The thesis further deals with division of EU member states into receiving and sending countries. Future mobility intentions are analyzed in order to forecast the most probable moves in the future. In its last chapter it mentions labour mobility and ways how to measure it and then it analyses voluntary and forced mobility. In the following part labour mobility is compared to geographical mobility to see their practical implications. The eastern enlargement of the EU has brought some doubts about a massive inflow of labour migrants from the CEE countries to the old member states which has led to the introduction of transitional measures limiting free access to their labour markets. Therefore the main purpose of the thesis is to confirm or refuse the old member states' arguments that a potential migration from the new member states would threaten their labour markets.

This research represents a comparative analysis of the Bulgarian and Romanian European Integration in terms of corruption and media freedom. I argue that, however, both states have multiple common grounds to be analyzed together, as is done in the previous academic research, they take rather different paths after their accession in the European Union regarding their progress in fighting corruption and ensuring free media. I analyze why and how this happens through the theoretical lenses of Constructivism on the matters of identity formation, integration, and spread of values. I will present an overview of the IR academic discourse on the topic, then attempting to fill its lapses in the Analysis section. There, I utilize qualitative content analysis on official reports, issued by the European Commission within these 10 years framework of EU membership in order to investigate the research question. I am to interpret the information from these sources and present the four major aspects of the case, leading to the current situation.

During the eastern enlargement of the EU four emerging countries of the Visegrád Group - Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary - joined the community of European states. This significant event notably affected not only the transformation process in the countries mentioned above but also their relations with the EU member states. The aim of this master thesis is to research the impact of the eastern enlargement of the EU on economic relations between C.E. countries and Germany, and to answer the question whether the EU accession was the main decisive factor for the dynamic development of economic cooperation between the above mentioned states. The analysis of economic relations focuses on two key dimensions: trade relations and direct investment. The government's policy of supporting the investment activities both in Germany and C.E. countries is also taken into account. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first chapter intends to analyze the integration process of the C.E. countries in the '90s and its influence on the dynamic development of the economic cooperation between Germany and Visegrád Group. The second section deals with the theoretical aspects of international trade and foreign direct investment. This part intends to provide comparative criteria that will help in answering...

Diploma thesis "Free Movement of Services - The focus on Eastern Enlargement of the European Union" describes the development of the internal market of services of the European Union in view of the recent developments to complete liberalization of this market through the adoption of Directive 2006/123/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of the 12th December 2006 on Services in the Internal Market. The Eastern Enlargement of ten new countries partly affected the whole development, because it caused the reestablishment of some protectionist measures in the form of the transitional periods. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the situation on the market of services in the European Union after the admission of at least eight countries from Central and Eastern Europe, and to understand each of these steps, which have lead some states to these protectionist measures. For a greater understanding of my diploma thesis, I tried to explain some important definitions and terms in the first part of the thesis, which can help the reader to easily understand the following sections of the essay. The other chapter presents, in brief, the historical genesis of the internal market of services in the European Union putting greater emphasis on the important milestones such as the founding treaties and...