The main objective with the thesis was to analyze institutional change in the European Union pre-and-post financial debt crisis, with particular focus on the roles of the Parliament, the Commission, the Council as well as the Court of Justice. To attain the objective, the thesis intended to answer the subsequent queries; (i) what notable institutional changes were brought in the European Union pre-and-post financial debt crisis; (ii) what role did the Parliament, the Commission, the Council and the Court of Justice play pre-and-post financial debt crisis; were their roles enhanced by the financial debt crisis? In order to attain the objective, the thesis utilized an institutional analysis and development framework. This theoretical framework relied on a qualitative content analysis.  The results of the thesis exhibit that the European Union’s progression route was not free from crises. With the Union’s expansion, more decisions ought to be taken by the four institutional bodies. The role of the European institutional bodies resulted in various institutional changes with the establishment of the Treaty of Lisbon; from having a normative power to encompass an executive one. The Treaty of Lisbon also changed the decisionmaking procedure to an ordinary legislative procedure. Apropos decision-making, the Treaty of Lisbon also enhanced the Council and the Parliament’s role pre-financial debt crisis by making the Parliament and Council equal in the new co-decision procedure. The role of the Council has been dynamic since its formation, while the role of the three other institutions could somewhat vary throughout the pre-financial debt crisis. With regards to institutional change after the financial debt crisis, the results reveal that institutional changes occurred mainly in economic and fiscal policies, for instance strengthening the EMU with the intergovernmental Treaty on Stability and Coordination and Governance. Whilst the Treaty of Lisbon brought more supranationalism in the European Union, the period after the financial debt crisis rather celebrated intergovernmentalism in the Union. The role of the Council was dynamic even post-financial debt crisis, decreasing the role of the Commission in the agenda setting. However, with the introduction of the Six-Pack and the Banking Union, the Commission and the Parliament’s role became evidently enhanced, whilst the Court of Justice, did not play a key role in the financial debt crisis.

This study aims to compare the EU and US approach towards mergers and acquisitions, both from a theoretical point of view (the historical development and regulation) and the practical one(comparing certain cases), identify their similarities and differences, explain it and evaluate. To achieve the goal, the method of comparison was used (especially control procedures and assessing relevant markets). It was also assisted by case studies (specific decisions of the competition authorities), thus that the merger of GE / Honeywell and acquisitions, Oracle / Sun Microsystems. The work is divided into four chapters. The first chapter approaches the topic in terms of their development and legislation. The next two chapters introduce the merger control in both systems. The last chapter deals with cooperation between the competition authorities of the EU and the US. Chapter also compares the specific cases in which both teams have decided differently.

This diploma thesis aims to compare the approaches of EU and USA to the merger control from the point of view of the competition policy. Its goal is to confirm the hypothesis that both these approaches converge, but there are still significant differences. The comparative method was used to achieve this goal. The necessary information was gained from law regulations, academic papers and books. The results is that in the last years, mainly after the reform of merger control in EU in 2004, the definition of the lessening of the effective competition has been converged and the same happened in the field of horizontal mergers. However there are still significant differences in the area of non-horizontal mergers, mainly because the approach of USA is based on the ideas of Chicago school, but the approach of EU is rather based on the post-Chicago economics. Other differences can be found in the fact, that US merger control system is judicial but in EU it is administrative. Apart of that the US antitrust authorities use more economics and econometrics. These findings are also proved by the arguments of EU and USA in the cases GE/Honeywell and DB/NYX, in which both jurisdictions decided differently.

This thesis investigated the influence imbalance between worker’s and employer’s interest in the EU policymaking. It is assumed that worker’s interests are disadvantaged, and this study is therefore examining the consultation of social partners under article 154 TFEU that considers social policy and can be used as a most-likely case for worker’s influence.The study is conducted by identifying conflicts between ETUC and BusinessEurope in their consultation replies and compare the different opinions with the Commission’s legislative proposal to find out which organisation that succeeded in influencing the Commission within each conflict.The results from this shows that each consultation generated between 0 to 6 conflicts and that most of the conflicts were won by BusinessEurope. This strengthens the assumption that there is an influence imbalance in EU legislation that makes the employer’s organisation BusinessEurope more influential than the trade unions ETUC.

The master's thesis focuses on the influence of interest groups during the creation of the 2012 Proposal for a Directive on collective rights management. In particular, the thesis deals with the pre-legislative phase of the legislative process, which began in April 2004. The theoretical framework includes conceptualization of interest groups, lobbying and influence. The mechanisms of influence are analysed using two theories - rational choice theory and rational choice institutionalism. The thesis utilizes process tracing - theory testing as a main methodological approach. Empirical evidence is investigated by analysing primary sources. The main subjects of the analysis are the most relevant documents from the European Commission concerning the pre-legislative phase. Four semi-structured interviews with selected relevant actors were also conducted. The thesis concludes by confirming/ disproving of the main hypothesis: Specific interest groups succeeded in influencing the text of the proposal for a directive on the collective management of copyright.

The study seeks to explore the assigned role of culture in the discourse of sustainable development. It combines a conceptual-historical analysis of the concept of cultural sustainability and sustainable development with an analysis of ideas with cultural policy models as a theoretical tool as ideal types. It addresses cultural sustainability as an essentially contested concept, maps a context of leading contributions to the meaning and conceptual history of cultural sustainability and sustainable development and applicates Fornäs four cultural concepts to address different meanings of cultural sustainability. The concept is then explored in its absence in A New European Agenda for Culture by the European Commission. The study also explores how the agenda is implemented in projects throughout the Swedish participation in the Creative Europe program and how it effects the meaning of cultural sustainability. The role of culture in A New European Agenda for Culture seems to be an instrumental view of the capacity culture possesses in bringing people together and to bring creativity into businesses, which also is represented in Creative Europe. The instrumental view of culture and the esthetic cultural concept that permeate cultural policy, may influence the ability for cultural sustainability to be accepted as the fourth pillar of sustainability.

Cette thèse a pour objet de comparer le contrôle des concentrations tel qu’il est exercé en France et au Japon afin de souligner les différences et les points communs des deux systèmes en la matière. Cette comparaison s’effectuera tout d’abord sur le plan de la conception du contrôle, afin d’examiner quels types d’opérations constituent une opération de concentration faisant l’objet du contrôle, ce dans les deux systèmes étudiés. Cette étude sera suivie de la comparaison de l’analyse des opérations de concentrations, afin de déterminer les critères d’appréciation des opérations en France, en Europe et au Japon. Enfin il sera procédé à la comparaison des procédures et des décisions prononcées dans les deux systèmes. Cette thèse tient compte dans sa partie française des nouveautés apportées par la Loi de Modernisation de l’Economie (loi LME), et dans sa partie japonaise de la réforme de la procédure du contrôle des concentrations du 6 juin 2011 afin de rendre compte des dernières avancées en la matière. Elle s’attarde également sur l’état du contrôle européen des concentrations, celui-ci ayant une place fondamentale dans le système français / This thesis aims at comparing the merger control currently enforced in France and Japan in order to highlight the differences and common views of both systems in this field. This comparison will first focus on the conception of said control, in order to determine which kinds of mergers are targeted by merger control in both jurisdictions. This study will be followed by the comparison of the analysis of mergers, in order to determine the rationale used for the evaluation of mergers in France, Europe and Japan. Finally, we shall compare the merger control procedures and rulings of those systems. This thesis is based on the French antitrust law reform of August 4th, 2008 (loi “LME”), as well as the Japanese merger proceedings reform of June 14th, 2011 in order to give an insight on the newest developments in the merger control field. Because of its fundamental part in French antitrust law, this thesis also focuses on European merger control.

The purpose of this study is to analyze if the workmethods in the European Commission's crisis management had post-bureaucratic characteristics, more specifically less hierarchy, horizontal communication, collective decision-making and own responsibility, during the Greek debt crisis 2010-2015. To carry out an analysis this study identifies four characteristics of a post-bureaucratic organization, in order to use the theory as a tool to clearly identify if there are any post-bureaucratic characteristics in the Commission's workmethods during the Greek crisis 2010-2015. The material used in the study is based on published reports from the European Parliament, European Court of Auditors, International Monetary Fund and the European Commission where facts on the European Commission’s crisis management are presented. This study's analysis shows that post-bureaucratic characteristics can be identified on the workmethods the Commission used in some situations during the Greek debt crisis 2010-2015. The study's conclusion is summarized by the fact that the European Commission’s workmethods in relation to post-bureaucratic characteristics are only found in some instances. Therefore the study can not conclude that the European Commission is a post-bureaucratic organization during the Greek crisis 2010-2015.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study demonstrates application of the demand/supply model that derives from the three failures theory to the study of partnership effectiveness, showing that effective partnership is a partnership that provides each partner with assets that help them spend fewer resources on achieving their goals than when working alone, by compensating for each other's weaknesses while maximizing their own strengths. The study uses public-private partnership (PPP) in humanitarian settings as a unique opportunity to investigate partnership as a process and contribute to a nascent collaboration theory. The study shows that factors that define effective PPP during different stages of disaster relief are similar. However, different stages of partnership require different levels of compensation mechanisms from partnership participants to ensure that both actors maximize their strengths while achieving their missions. As a result, different stages of partnership call upon different combinations and degrees of factors affecting partnership effectiveness. This research uses descriptive data and inferential analysis, based on interviews with 10 representatives of humanitarian agencies that partner with the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Office. It gives scholars and practitioners of philanthropy insights into the question: "how to give?" It also provides collaboration research and public policy with guidance on how to create stronger partnerships and increase the likelihood of better collaboration outcomes as well as how to better deal with hazards in order to mitigate disaster outbreaks.

Following the rise of social media, the world has found itself in a hyperconnected state. Through the press of a button, it is today possible to reach every corner of the world. This has brought opportunities for freedom and liberation, but in the past years it has also become a danger for these ideas. The rise of disinformation has been declared a major threat to democracy and our society by several major institutions, one of them being the European Union. They have also made it clear that the tech companies, through whose products disinformation primarily spreads, not only inadequately prevent it, but also question if they have enough incentive to do so. The executive branch of the EU, the European Commission, has therefore put forth an action plan in which they outline their work going forward in mitigating the crisis. Comparing with previous research on the vital parts of disinformation, there are heavy indications that the EU’s work will focus on reactionary measures; discovery and sharing of data on ongoing disinformation campaigns between neighbouring and Member States, as well as societal media literacy efforts. For now, due to what seems to be a fear of over-regulating freedom of expression, the responsibility to battle creation and spread is left to the Code of Practice on Disinformation, a plan created by tech companies that hold the platforms that are center in the spread of disinformation. After a first yearassessment, the EU indicates that the results of this Code of Practice is unsatisfactory, and further action might be needed. / Med uppkomsten av sociala medier så befinner sig världen nu i ett hyperuppkopplat tillstånd. Genom ett simpelt knapptryck är det idag möjligt att nå hela världen. Med detta har vi sett möjligheter till en förhöjd frihet, men under de senaste åren finns det också exempel på när just idéer som dessa har satts under hård press. Ökningen av desinformation har förklarats ett stort hot mot demokrati och dagens samhälle av flera stora institutioner, en av dem den Europeiska Unionen. De har gjort tydligt att stora teknikbolag, genom vilkas produkter desinformation i synnerhet sprids, inte bara gör för lite för att förhindra det, men också ifrågasätter ifall de har tillräckligt med incitament för att göra det. EU:s verkställande gren, Europeiska Kommissionen, har därför satt fram en handlingsplan där de redogör för sitt arbete för att hantera krisen. I en jämförelse med tidigare forskning om de mest vitala delarna av desinformation så finns det tunga indikationer att EU:s arbete kommer att fokusera på reaktionära åtgärder: upptäckande och delning av data mellan grannländer och medlemsstater om pågående desinformationskampanjer, samt ansträngningar för samhällskunskap så som källkritik. I vad som verkar vara en rädsla för överreglering av yttrandefrihet lämnas ansvaret för bekämpningen av skapande och spridning till en desinformationspraxis skapad av de teknikföretag som har de plattformar som är centrala i spridningen av desinformation. Efter en första årsutvärdering indikerar dock EU att resultaten dittills ej är tillfredsställande, och att ytterligare åtgärder kan vara nödvändiga.