This Master Thesis conducts a survey of the process of the liberalization of the electricity market, exclusively in the context of the European Union. The method of the review of the contemporary literatury is used to analyze reforms in the electricity supply industry. The thesis provides readers with the basic characteristics of the liberalization of this strategic net industry. The main focus is on one particular reform-unbundling- as it influences all principles of the eletricity energy markets. Scholars argue there are direct advantages and at the same time direct disadvanatges resulting from these reforms and it is almost impossible to find a clear agreement on if positive or negative effects prevails. In the thesis there is an attempt to evaluate whether contemporary research literature is able to decide if the liberalization reforms will bring about pure benefits for participants of the electricity markets.

For a long time the citizen participation in the European Commission Online Consultations have been low and quite insignificant. This came to an abrupt change during 2018, with the consultation on Summertime arrangements bringing out over four million citizens to participate and it is now clear that the citizen impact on consultations are not something to overlook. So, who participates in the online consultations? It is assumed that biases generated through the voluntarily participation of the Online Consultations (OC) will provide discrepancies between the participants in OC:s compared to the EU population in general. The aim of the study is to examine how individual participation in OC:s differs based on the complexity of the topic and the Member State affiliation of the citizen. The study is tested based on four hypotheses predicting how possible biases might take place. The hypotheses are tested by an quantitative study of the EU online consultations published on the “Your voice in Europe” website. The results indicate that participation differs between different regions, with the eastern Member States participating to a lower degree. Furthermore, the study indicates that it exists a negative covariance between positive EU policy opinions and participation per Member State. This is believed to be caused by a difference in diversity of the sample that participates. The study also examines how the technical complexity of the consultations affects political participation among citizens. This part of the study did not generate any clear results.

In recent decades, the EU has significantly expanded its presence and influence in many of the former Soviet states. This essay have examined how the relationship between the EU and Russia has change since The Eastern Partnership was introduced 2009 and the extent to which it can be seen as a contributing factor. The Eastern Partnership is a joint initiative involving the EU, its Member States and six Eastern European Partners. Among this six this essay has focued on Ukraine and its part in the relationship between EU and Russia. This essay have been a theory-consuming case study that analyzes and explains the EU and Russia`s actions concerning the EaP, with the help of Mearsheimer`s theory of offensive realism. The analysis showed that the relations between EU and Russia had changed and deteriorated. The Eastern Partnership has provoked Russia and has made them feel restricted in their sphere of power. There has been a conflict over the six countries, including Ukraine, between the EU and Russia.

The following research report will look at a series of domestic factors that posed a threat to Bulgaria’s integration into the European Union in January 2007. In this light, this research report will evaluate the efforts that Bulgarian political leaders have taken to meet those existing domestic political challenges and thus assess Bulgaria’s progress towards meeting the political and economic criteria towards EU membership. This research study will be explained by the theoretical tradition of the multi-level governance approach, which assumes the involvement of supranational, national and sub-national actors in the processes of European integration.

No description available.

<p>This thesis examines the ongoing European political debate on the links between livestock production and climate change. In the end of 2006 the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released their report <em>Livestock’s long shadow</em>,<em> </em>showing that livestock production represents some 18 % of the total global greenhouse gas emissions. The purpose of this paper is to explore the European Commission’s position and response to this question since the release of the report.</p><p>Using Arne Naess’ argumentation analysis, statements made by the Commission will be systematically organized and broken apart. The arguments will then be critically examined and explored through the lense of selected perspectives from the sustainable development literature, as well as the FAO report itself. The analysis will show that the Commission’s position on this question stands in sharp contrast to the many findings and recommendations in the FAO report, and relies on a set of assumptions that are often both unclear and of questionable validity. The line of argument used by the Commission is closely aligned to a wider theoretical discourse on sustainable development that, as argued by many of the theorists consulted in this paper, places a disproportionate focus on economic advantages, at the expense of social and ecological interests.</p>

<p><strong>This paper explains the position of the principle of transparency in the EU up to the year 2010. (Including the changes made by the Lisbon treaty.)</strong></p><p>The question to answer is: how could transparency develop into a general principle without being mentioned explicitly in the legislation? It was also out to try to see what the future of transparency might look like.</p><p>In the conclusion it was found that openness and transparency was not something fixed, but an evolving concept. If it was encoded into a single written principle, it could hamper the institutions‟ adaptation to the developing case-law. In the end I concluded that with will and trust, transparency could continue to grow in the future.</p>

<p>Uppsatsen ämnar besvara vilka aktiebolagsrättsliga skillnader det finns inom EU 25 för att starta och driva ett privat aktiebolag jämfört med den svenska aktiebolagslagens regler. Aktiebolagsrättsliga skillnader som undersöks generellt inom EU 25 är kapitalkrav, bolagsstyrning, aktieägare samt bolagsskatt. Utöver dessa fyra kategorier undersöks även bolagsbildning och bolagsstämma i fem länder som detaljstuderats. Sverige, Frankrike, Storbritannien, Tjeckien och Tyskland.</p>

<p><p><p> </p><p><p>Euro barometer surveys show quite an astonishing change in Turkish opinion towards European Union. In 2004, 73 % of the population considered EU as a good thing. In 2008, only 49 % were of the same opinion. At the same time, skepticism towards European integration is explained differently in earlier research. Some scholars claim that partisanship may explain attitudes of citizens better than “cost and benefit” approaches. The first aim of this study is to distinguish whether young Turkish citizens show a similar level of skepticism to the EU compared to the rest of the population. The second aim is to show how earlier research-identified factors can explain the EU attitudes of younger Turkish citizens. To map this out, a questionnaire based on Euro barometer survey questions has been used. The Turkish “youths” have been selected based on three conditions: age, profession and gender. To identify these individuals, the author has used what is sometimes referred to as the “snowball” technique. This basically means that the first identified individuals further contact people who fit the sample criterion. The result indicates that level of education; partisanship and strong nationalism all have an impact on EU membership attitudes. The result also showed that people who visited worship and other religious meetings on a regular basis, had a tendency to be more skeptical to a Turkish EU membership.</p></p></p></p>

<p>The purpose of the essay is to examine the Swedish Social Democrats (SAP) and its relation to the EU. The specific area of interest is the SAP in its relation to the process of the constitutional/reform treaty. The process period researched in this essay stretches from 2000-april 2008. The research question is, How has the SAP evolved in relation to the EU during the time period 2000 till 2008 and are there signs of external EU pressure changing the party behaviour or position?</p><p>This case study has the methodological approach of a qualitative text analysis. The concept of Europeanization makes it possible to construct an analytical framework which measures possible impact from the EU on domestic political parties. This impact is measured in three different areas, first if the party is adapting its internal structure to ease its engagement with the EU, secondly if the party is adapting its policy because of the EU and thirdly in the area of patterns of party competition. With the analytical framework drawn from the concept of Europeanization it is possible to point at indicators that are signs of EU-impact. The SAP seems to have both a practical adaptation and a policy adaptation but it still remains somewhat EU-sceptical in the area of patterns of party competition. The conclusion is that there are quite massive amounts of evidence of possible EU-pressure on the SAP.</p>