Legal aspects of cooperation between the EU and ACP countries The origins of the EU cooperation with the group of Sub-saharan African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP Group) date back to the very beginnings of the European integration with Part IV of the Treaty of Rome establishing association of the former colonies of the several founding member states to the European Economic Community. After the colonies gained their independence, their association to the EEC was given a basis of the international law by means of the conventions from Yaoundé (1963, 1969) and Lomé (1975, 1980, 1985, 1990 - revised in 1995). The cooperation between the EC/EU and ACP countries has progressively evolved into a comprehensive partnership encompassing the political, development and economic cooperation. The relations between the EU and 78 ACP countries are actually ruled by the Cotonou Partnership Agreement (2000, revised in 2005 and 2010) which is to be in force until 2020. The EU-ACP partnership constitutes a specific system of international law and probably can be described as the most comprehensive relationship between developed and developing countries. In many ways, the cooperation with the ACP countries represents a special case in the field of the EU external relations and, due to a specific historical...

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The diploma thesis The role of the EU budget in the context of the ongoing reforms assesses the functioning of the EU budget and considers the question of what changes should bring the ongoing budgetary reform. The thesis analyses the problems of functioning of the existing budget, both on the expenditure and revenue side, and also within the budgetary procedures. The main problem is seen in the discrepancy between the structure of the expenditure and the priorities of the EU. Among other problems are listed the fragmentation of expenditure to a large number of goals, unsuitable character of revenue resources, insufficient flexibility and inadequate setting of some of the decision processes linked to the budget. The thesis focuses on the budgetary reform and debates its possible outcomes, which will shape the financial perspective for the period after 2013. The thesis examines different reform options from a complex point of view. It considers the reform proposals from the European Commission, independent academics, research centers and think tanks, and also from the point of view of the Member States' governments. The thesis assesses these proposals in the context of the EU's present priorities, to which belong above all the goals set in the Europe 2020 strategy, and in the context of the effectiveness of public spending in a multilevel government structure. The thesis concludes that the reform should transform the budget into a flexible instrument for achieving EU's priorities financed from autonomous EU revenue resources.

The Yugoslav and the present EU integration crisis display several parallels. In both cases, the integration models have proved to be unable to attenuate the uneven development patterns, and the state has been characterised by strong confederal elements. Deep economic crisis strengthened in both cases the centrifugal tendencies. The political discourse became increasingly dominated by the question "who exploits whom?". While central authorities pursued policies of neo-liberal structural adjustment eroding its legitimacy among the popular classes, the republican authorities in Yugoslavia, respectively, the national governments in the EU tried to shift the burden of the crises to the others and strengthened their role during the crisis management. With the deepening of the crisis, constitutional reform became an issue in Yugoslavia. In the Yugoslav case, the various proposals proved to be irreconcilable. In the EU, a debate on its future shape has begun as well. This issue is highly controversial. In the EU, a key problem is the relationship between euro zone and non-euro zone states. Such an institutional divide did not exist in Yugoslavia. It is significant that the leading state of the non-euro zone group, the UK, is the first state to exit the EU. A key question is whether the EU has already passed the critical point where a deep reform is still possible.

The main aim of the thesis is to evaluate the economic relationship between the EU and RF in the last ten years. Russia is a large and diverse country with the huge differences in the level of economy of their regions and society as a whole, that's why political, economic and social systems of Russia are complex and difficult. A considerable part of the thesis is devoted to analysis of the economic development of Russia in the first decade of the 21st century. Thesis is also analyzing trade and investment between Russia and the EU, by volume and type of commercial transactions, and by the volume and type of investment among states. The first part of the thesis is devoted to the main documents, which are the bases of any ongoing business relationship and cooperation between the European Union and Russia. The second part of the thesis is devoted to the economic characteristics of the Russian Federation and its position in the global economy over the last decade. First chapter discusses the changes in Russian foreign policy towards EU and economic development of Russia under Vladimir Putin. The next chapter deals with the impact of global financial crisis on the Russian economy, and describes the economic situation and contemporary problems of Russia. The third part of the thesis is devoted to the current forms of trade and economic relations between the EU and RF. The first chapter deals with the very nature and structure of mutual trade of goods and services and the further chapter analyzes the development of investments between the two countries. The third chapter is dedicated to the theme of energy, which is the core of Russia - EU trade. The following chapter is devoted to the common spaces and the last chapter of this thesis analyzes the current situation and existing problems between the EU and Russia.

First chapter of this thesis describes the formation of EU policy on energy and summarizes the current objectives, which should be followed by the European Union in the field of energy. There are also mentioned the main actors in the European energy market (i.e. markets with electricity and natural gas as the main focus of the thesis). In the second chapter, mergers and takeovers in general and then their control through the EU competition policy is described. Third, i.e. the last chapter is devoted to the possible consequences of mergers and takeovers (especially dominant position and its abuse). The whole chapter and thesis is closed by selected cases of control of mergers and takeovers in the electricity and gas markets.

<p>Abstract</p><p>The study examines the European Union coverage in a Swedish and a Romanian newspaper during three different weeks. The aim is to answer the question of how the different countries portray EU and what quality there is on the information the readers or users receive from the papers. How the media portrays the European Union is an important topic to study when it comes to democracy. The European Union makes a lot of national decisions and controls a lot of our daily politics so it is important that the people get relevant and good information.</p><p>Sweden joined the European Union in 1995 after a referendum where only 52, 3 percent of the Swedish population wanted to join and then only if the European Union acknowledged Sweden’s wish to remain neutral. Romania’s on the other hand joined the European Union in 2007 after long negotiations. The country had to improve a lot of social and economical problems before they were aloud to join. When they finally did join the European Union together with Bulgaria they did so under the strict conditions that they would fight the corruption and other problems harder.</p><p>The theories we used was: normative theory, media effect theories, framing, medialogic, gatekeeping and europeaness. The previous studies we were inspired by was Vanni Tjenströms “Europa Norrifrån” (2001), Ulf Wallin´s “ Vad vi fick veta” (1994) and Göran Palm´s “I marknadens och nationens namn” (2002).</p><p>With this study we could discover that the Swedes view the European Union mostly like a profit organization and the economical part of the membership was very important. The view the Swedes had of themselves was a very positive one. They thought that their living standards were much better than that of other citizens in other countries in the EU. The Romanian people see the union more like a hope for the future but they see themselves as failures.</p>

<p>Denna uppsats behandlar EU:s inre marknad och dess fria rörlighet av varor. Den fria rörligheten av varor reglerar i artiklarna 28 och 29 EG-fördraget. Dessa artiklar förbjuder import- och exportrestriktioner samt ÅMV mellan medlemsstaterna. Det finns däremot undantag till dessa artiklar i artikel 30 EG-fördraget, som kan tillämpas om åtgärden är tillräckligt nödvändig och lämplig. Artiklarna 28 - 30 EG-fördraget är framför allt tillämpliga på gemenskapens medlemsstater, men även på dess institutioner, något som bekräftas i EG-domstolens praxis.</p><p>EU:s institutioner har befogenheter att införa harmoniserande akter som exempelvis reglerar den inre marknaden. En av dessa institutioner är Kommissionen som har befogenhet att införa beslut, antingen i samråd med Rådet, eller på eget initiativ i enlighet med fördragsbestämmelserna. Ett av de beslut som Kommissionen inrättat är beslut 2004/388/EG om ett dokument om överföring av explosiva varor. Beslutet riktade sig till alla medlemsländer inom EU och hade till syfte att reglera handeln med explosiva varor. Ett företag som handlar med explosiva varor och som därmed påverkades av Kommissionens beslut är Orica Mining Services i Nora. Detta beslut innehåller flera regler om själva överföringsdokumentet som skall se ut på ett visst sätt.</p><p>Frågan huruvida Kommissionen kan införa beslut som strider mot artiklarna</p><p>28 - 30 EG-fördraget kan därmed bekräftas utifrån dels EG-domstolens praxis och dels den information som intervjuerna bidragit med. Genom att institutionen inte har tillräckliga skäl till att motivera en åtgärd i enlighet med undantagen i artikel 30 EG-fördraget strider åtgärdens införande mot fördragsbestämmelserna om den fria rörligheten av varor.</p>

Denna uppsats behandlar EU:s inre marknad och dess fria rörlighet av varor. Den fria rörligheten av varor reglerar i artiklarna 28 och 29 EG-fördraget. Dessa artiklar förbjuder import- och exportrestriktioner samt ÅMV mellan medlemsstaterna. Det finns däremot undantag till dessa artiklar i artikel 30 EG-fördraget, som kan tillämpas om åtgärden är tillräckligt nödvändig och lämplig. Artiklarna 28 - 30 EG-fördraget är framför allt tillämpliga på gemenskapens medlemsstater, men även på dess institutioner, något som bekräftas i EG-domstolens praxis. EU:s institutioner har befogenheter att införa harmoniserande akter som exempelvis reglerar den inre marknaden. En av dessa institutioner är Kommissionen som har befogenhet att införa beslut, antingen i samråd med Rådet, eller på eget initiativ i enlighet med fördragsbestämmelserna. Ett av de beslut som Kommissionen inrättat är beslut 2004/388/EG om ett dokument om överföring av explosiva varor. Beslutet riktade sig till alla medlemsländer inom EU och hade till syfte att reglera handeln med explosiva varor. Ett företag som handlar med explosiva varor och som därmed påverkades av Kommissionens beslut är Orica Mining Services i Nora. Detta beslut innehåller flera regler om själva överföringsdokumentet som skall se ut på ett visst sätt. Frågan huruvida Kommissionen kan införa beslut som strider mot artiklarna 28 - 30 EG-fördraget kan därmed bekräftas utifrån dels EG-domstolens praxis och dels den information som intervjuerna bidragit med. Genom att institutionen inte har tillräckliga skäl till att motivera en åtgärd i enlighet med undantagen i artikel 30 EG-fördraget strider åtgärdens införande mot fördragsbestämmelserna om den fria rörligheten av varor.

The inner market of the European Community is developing and as a part of this company law and the freedom of establishment are doing the same. Some of this development is carried out through case law from the European Court of Justice as well as through Community harmonisations. As this has happened some worried voices has been raised arguing that a development similar to that in the USA, known as the Delaware effect, might occur. There has been some development indicating such development; companies have made use of the freedom of establishment to seek a more favorable legislation and Member States have changed and adapted their legislations. An example is the lowering of the minimum paid-up capital for limited liability companies that has oc-curred. In this paper the Delaware effect is investigated in order to clarify what it is and how it has developed. This knowledge is vital to be able to se if a Delaware effect might be developing within the European Community. There has been a large discussion on the Delaware effect in the USA and it is evident from that discussion that there are scholars arguing in several directions and that it is in-conclusive whether or not the Delaware effect is detrimental to shareholders, companies and others. In this paper it is argued that, as it is questionable what the Delaware effect en-tails in the USA it is even more questionable to talk about a Delaware effect within the European Community. The Member States are to some extent re-stricted, due to Community harmonisations, as to what they can do in order to compete for incorporations. Companies are also hampered in their attempts to make use of the freedom of establishment, especially companies already incor-porated in a MS. It is also argued that there is a lack of incentives and possibili-ties for both Member States and companies to facilitate a competition for company law. Adding these components together, the preconditions within the European Community are not suitable for a Delaware effect or a European Community Delaware to emerge. The continued development of the freedom of establish-ment along with the companies increased understanding of its benefits might create incentives to seek more favorable legislations, but it is highly unlikely that a Member State will emerge to be as successful as Delaware.