Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka minimilöners effekter på ungdomssysselsättning inom Europeiska unionen (EU). De åldrar som undersöks är ungdomar (15–24), vilket vidare delas in i tonåringar (15–19) och unga vuxna (20–24). Som metod används panelregressioner med fasta effekter för 17 EU-medlemsländer (inklusive Storbritannien) med lagstadgade minimilöner under perioden 2000 till 2018. Vi finner att minimilöner har signifikanta negativa effekter på ungdomssysselsättning inom EU och att dessa effekter är mer kraftfulla för tonåringar än för unga vuxna. Med hänsyn till resultatet drar vi slutsatsen att minimilöner inom EU bör handskas med försiktighet eftersom de kan leda till mindre sysselsättning bland ungdomar. / The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the effects of minimum wages on youth employment in the European Union (EU). The main study group is youths between 15-24 which is then further divided into teenagers (15–19) and young adults (20-24). We employ panel regression methods with fixed effects for 17 EU countries (including the UK) that have statutory minimum wages during the period 2000 to 2018. We find that minimum wages have significant negative employment effects for youths in the EU and that the effects are stronger for teenagers compared to young adults. We reach a conclusion that minimum wage policies in EU countries should be handled with caution as they can lead to lower youth employment.

Climate change is described as the greatest security challenge of our time. Climate-related events do not only run the risk of damaging the environment we depend on, but also risk undermining our political, economic and social systems.The European Union is an influential player and key actor in the fight against climate change and has in recent years adopted a number of ambitious initiatives. In December 2019, the European Union launched The European Green Deal, with the objective of making Europe a carbon-neutral continent by 2050. In June 2021, the first European Climate Law came into force, which incorporates the goal of a carbon-neutral continent by 2050 into European legislation. This thesis aims to examine to what extent the EU’s new climate policy is based on Green Growth Theory and what consequences this can have for security policy. The core of Green Growth Theory is the belief that economic growth is, or can be made, compatible with the ecology of our planet. However, the Green Growth Theory has been criticized by several researchers for lacking empirical evidence. This thesis finds that the EU’s climate policy is to a large part based on Green Growth Theory. Paradoxically, this causes both security and insecurity for the European Union. Economic and geopolitical security is sustained by continued economic growth creating competitiveness in the global arena. Nevertheless, environmental insecurity is triggered as the new climate policy is based on a theory that lacks empirical evidence, prioritizes economic growth and measures success in measures that disregard a sizeable part of the total emissions.

Ever since its inception, the EU’s main goal has always been to spread its values of democracy and freedom. The EU’s success in spreading these values has been great until recently when some of the member states have gone through an autocratization. The clearest case of this is Hungary, which can no longer be seen as a democracy, due to its autocratization. Seeing as the EU has certain demands in democracy for countries that want to join the EU, it is strange that they let Hungary continue to be a part of the EU.  This paper will examine what the EU has done to hinder Hungary’s autocratization through its normative power. The results show that the EU has penalised Hungary in terms of sanctions and an article-7 procedure. Though, the EU is far away from throwing Hungary out of the EU, mostly because it is near impossible for the EU to exclude Hungary from the EU. The only way that Hungary can leave the EU is by their own choice.

Inom samhällskunskapen i svensk skola ställer sig EU-undervisningen till synes vid sidolinjen. De studier som har gjorts på området visar på att det är ett ämne som få elever eller lärare är särskilt entusiastiska kring. Vidare tyder forskningen på att den undervisning som bedrivs om ämnet sällan är särskilt djupgående. Istället ligger fokus på att ge en mer övergripande och elementär undervisningen om unionen, avgränsat från kunskaper om demokrati och medborgarskap. Syftet med denna litteraturstudie är att undersöka hur upplevelsebaserat lärande kan användas inom EU-undervisning. Den primära frågan uppsatsen ämnar besvara är hur simuleringars potentiella inkludering i EU-undervisning kan se ut och vilka för- och nackdelar denna form av undervisning kan associeras med. Genom analys av tidigare forskning om EU-undervisning och simuleringar har en rad slutsatser kunnat dras. Litteraturstudien visar bland annat att simuleringar kan lämpa sig i undervisningen men att det beror på vad undervisningen ska ha för lärandemål. Simuleringar har bland annat önskvärda effekter såsom ökad motivation och engagemang hos eleverna och en ökad förståelse för det politiska systemet. Simuleringar konkretiserar och förenklar även studieobjektet till en hanterbar nivå vilket tillåter eleverna att enklare hantera ett annars komplext politiskt system.

The introduction of the European union’s pillar of social rights has marked a new chapter in EU social policy. The social policy of the union has been seen to affect the national welfare state of its members causing convergence between member states. Given that welfare politics is a salient issue of the electorate, this thesis aims at finding out what type of welfare regime is most prevalent in EU social pillar policy in order to identify the direction the EU is pushing its member states. By using a content analysis to examine policy initiatives within the scope of the social pillar through the lens of the theoretical framework of Esping-Andersen’s three worlds of welfare regimes, this thesis identifies a considerable prevalence of a social democratic welfare regime. Especially given the sizeable occurrence of universalism and defamiliarization in the analysed material. This shows that policy convergence between the member states will entail a considerable role of the state, universal welfare services and promoting female participation in the labour market.

In the EU proposal for a regulation laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (AIA), article 5.1.a forbids the use of AI systems deploying subliminal techniques. As the meaning of the term subliminal techniques lacks a definition in the proposal, the intended meaning of the phrase requires interpretation to clarify the scope of this prohibition. Using a method based on the legal reasoning of the European Court of Justice, the meaning of the expression subliminal techniques is interpreted based on arguments from a grammatical, contextual, teleological and historical standpoint. After reviewing EU documents concerning the proposal as well as the current versions of AIA, it becomes clear that the intended meaning of subliminal techniques is broader than the ordinary meaning of this phrase. Although subliminal stimuli are generally described as stimuli that are beyond human perception, the presence of a binary threshold of perception is not fully supported by brain imaging research. From the descriptions of subliminal techniques in documents regarding AIA, as well as in formulations present in different versions of the proposal, there is support for interpreting the legislators intent as adhering to this non-binary view of subliminal techniques. Instead of strictly focusing on a perceptual threshold the determination of whether an AI deployed technique is regarded as a subliminal technique focuses on whether the technique in some sense targets human perception, as well as the degree to which this technique infringes on human autonomy.

During the Cold War, the largest threat against the countries of Europe was an enemy attack or invasion. After the end of the Cold War, the strategic environment changed drastically. The impending threat of a large-scale war was gone and the countries of Europe approached each other in the hope of cooperation with mutual benefits. As the old threat faded away, new threats which were significantly more dynamic and complex emerged. Threats such as terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, organised crime over the boarders and state failure became more apparent, both, in Europe and in its proximity. Irregular conflicts as in Kosovo and Afghanistan showed an assortment of the various threats. This complexity poses as a big challenge for the officers of today and tomorrow. It is of vital importance that both current and future military commanders are well educated in the complexities of their line of work. The first step to achieve this is ensuring that adequate education in the subject is given. In this thesis, the author researches to what extent the Swedish National Defence College and the Theresan Military Academy choose to educate their officer cadets regarding the new threats. The purpose of researching more than one country is to enable a discussion on eventual areas of improvement in the two countries’ curricula, within the context of the common threats. The author chose Austria because of its many similarities to Sweden. The methodological approach of the thesis is mainly of a quantitative nature. The author researches whether the different threats are found in both national and military strategies as well as in the curricula of the two academies’ Basic Officer Education. The study shows that more education is needed regarding certain threats. More training is needed regarding cyber security as a result of the growing dependence on IT systems and digital information. In addition, an international collaboration could yield potential benefits for both officer cadets’ problem solving skills and their knowledge of the ESS. / Under det kalla kriget var det största hotet mot länderna i Europa ett fientligt angrepp eller invasion. Efter det kalla krigets slut förändrades den säkerhetspolitiska miljön avsevärt. Det överhängande hotet om storskaligt krig var borta och Europas länder närmade sig varandra i hopp om samarbete med ömsesidig nytta. I takt med att det gamla hotet bleknade så växte det fram andra hot som var betydligt mer dynamiska och komplexa. Hot som terrorism, spridning av massförstörelsevapen, organiserad brottslighet över gränserna och nedbrytning av svaga stater blev allt mer påtagliga, både i Europa och i dess närområde. Irreguljära konflikter som i Kosovo och i Afghanistan uppvisade en blandning av de olika hoten. Denna komplexitet innebär stora utmaningar för både dagens och morgondagens officerare. Det är av yttersta vikt att både nutida och framtida militära chefer och beslutsfattare är väl insatta i hur komplexa uppgifterna faktiskt kan komma att vara i deras yrkesutövning. Det första steget för att nå detta är att adekvat utbildning i ämnet ges. I detta arbete undersöker författaren i vilken utsträckning Försvarshögskolan i Sverige och Theresianische Militärakademie i Österrike utbildar sina officersaspiranter gällande de nya hoten. Syftet med att undersöka mer än ett land är för att kunna diskutera eventuella förbättringsmöjligheter i de två ländernas utbildningar, kopplat till de EU- gemensamma hoten. Författaren valde Österrike för dess många likheter med Sverige. Arbetets tillvägagångssätt är främst genom en kvantitativ metod. Författaren undersöker huruvida de olika hoten återfinns i såväl nationella som militära strategier och i kursinnehållen för de båda ländernas grundläggande officersutbildning. Studien visar att mer utbildning behövs avseende vissa hot, bland annat gällande cybersäkerhet som ett resultat av det växande beroendet av IT-system och digital information. Dessutom hade ett internationellt samarbete inneburit potentiella fördelar gällande både kadetters förmåga till problemlösning samt deras kunskap om ESS. / <p>Erasmus</p>

This study analyses the Actorness Cohesion (AC) of the EU’s foreign policy in the United Nations General Assembly First Committee by comparing the EU Delegation foreign policy-maker’s role conceptions to those made by the EU Member State (EU MS) Delegations on the same topic clusters. The concept of AC is developed from actorness and role theory as an ideational, constructivist measure of vertical policy coherence. AC represents the absence of ‘vertical conflicts’ between the EU and EU MS Delegation’s expressed role conceptions along four dimensions; Identity Cohesion, Goal Cohesion and Function Cohesion and Worldview Cohesion. This is studied by interpreting the role stability in the role-set; whether the contents are consistent, the EU role conception is central or whether the EU MS Delegations complement and/or are compatible to the EU role conception. Statements on topic clusters: ‘Disarmament Machinery’, ‘Conventional Weapons’ and ‘Outer Space (disarmament aspects)’ are analysed in order to determine the AC. The study concludes that whilst there is little evidence of the EU Delegation’s role conception being central to the EU MS Delegations, there is considerable consistency of contents. There are also indications of an emerging AC due to the EU MS Delegation’s role conceptions being complementary to that of the EU Delegation. The study calls for more research that will complement this plausibility-probe study and the concept of AC.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the role of identity when it comes to European integration. Specifically, the citizen of the European Union’s identity as exclusive national or as transnational. What does the social constructivist theory say when it comes to the role of EU-citizens identity and European integration? I also want to contribute to strengthen the social constructivist theory in political science and international politics. I will examine this through a discourse analysis on four different selected materials. A campaign webpage from the Vote Leave group who ran a campaign to make the Great Britain leave the European Union, an interview the German newspaper der SPIEGEL did with Marine Le Pen who is the party leader of the French right-winged party Rassemblent National, a debate article written by the French president Emmanuel Macron and the Swedish party Liberalernas webpage campaign for the European Parliament elections 2019. I analyse how the discourse these four examples shape and creates the feeling of national or transnational identity and what the message connected to that identity-making says about European integration. With my discourse analysis and the theories of Thomas Risse and Catherine E. De Vries on social constructivism, identity and European integration I analyse and see that those who identify exclusively with a national identity are less keen on solidarity between nations, common policies and have a xenophobic view as oppose to those who have a transnational identity who are positive towards solidarity between nations, want a closer European integration and are not hostile towards migrants. I come to the conclusion that the identity of the EU-citizens is a major factor in human action, political mobilization, political action as in choosing and voting for a party, the EU-institutions way of negotiating on common political issues, public opinion and election outcomes. This means that feeling of an exclusive national or transnational identity is an important factor of European integration.

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