The European Union (EU) began as a prevention of future wars. Thereafter the work of the EU has been further integrated, partly linked with ongoing crises in order to follow common goals for the Union. The EU is a central actor affecting freedom and the future of the inhabitants within the member states, and therefore its development needs to be researched. This essay looks at the development of health politics within the EU. Has the pandemic crisis of Covid-19 fostered further integration of health politics within the EU (a political area that has historically been handled by the member states themselves)? This essay assesses the degree of integration and centralization of health politics, based on qualitative research on the conclusions of the European Council during the end of 2019 and 2020. The results of this research indicate further integration of health politics based on its conclusion documents of the European Council during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since I argue that the European Council is a central institution for the EU’s overall development and direction this results indicates a further integration in health politics during the pandemic. However the result needs to be supplemented by research of other institutions such as the Commission and the Council of the European Union (the council of ministers) in order to have wider implications on the overall integration within the European Union.

The aim of the Master thesis Liberal intergovernmentalism: The role of small states in the European integration process is to test the applicability of the theory of Liberal intergovernmentalism to cases of small Member States of the European integration. Furthermore, the thesis aims to clarify the role of this states in the evolution of the European integrative cooperation. In order to reach the research objectives, the thesis uses case studies of Belgium and the Netherlands and it examines their motives and behaviour during the negotiation of treaties of the European primary legislation. The thesis is divided into chapters based on a chronological succession. Each chapter describes a time period before one of the treaties of the primary legislation, from the foundation of the European Economic Community until the signing of the Treaty of Amsterdam. The chapters deal with the motivation of small states for new negotiations and their claims in concrete areas of diplomacy. These claims are further compared with results of the negotiations in the context of the significance of the arranged agenda. The final part of the thesis compares the negotiating power of small and large Member States, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, taking into account the most significant issues of the agenda. The...

Thesis Theoretical reflection Iceland integration into the European Union: neofunctionalism and liberal intergovernmentalism discusses integration of Iceland into the European Union, and tryi to analyze this case in the context of two theoretical approaches, neofunctionalism and liberal intergovernmentalism. Since the creation of an independent state in 1944, Iceland held traditionally isolationist and Euro-skeptic stance. In 1970 he became member of the European Free Trade Association. Gradually relationships has intensifyied and deepend with participation in the European Economic Area and the Schengen Convention. After the economic crisis in 2008, which hit in Iceland with unusual power because of risky actions of local banks, the newly elected government decided to make a historic step and apply for membership in the European Union. The first part of the thesis is an analysis of foreign policy and the position of Iceland in international relations. Subsequently thesis explores the integration of Iceland from the perspective of three different actors, Iceland, European Union member States and the European Union, first from a theoretical point of view following with empirical level. Based on the findings should be made to confirm the theoretical starting points of one of the two selected directions.

This thesis intends to establish whether and to what degree possible explanations for the Visegrad Group´s response to the 2015-2016 migration crisis can be provided by Postfunctionalism and Intergovernmentalism. The purpose of this study is not to explicitly test the two theories but to use them as tools to better understand the case under analysis, by applying a non-competitive approach. Based on the elaboration of 21 official statements released by the Visegrad Group between 2015-2016, findings show that both theories could (partially) confirmed my initial hypotheses. I conclude that security matters (as Intergovernmentalist suggests) consisted in the lion´s share in the statements, while economy matters (as also suggested by Intergovernmentalism) did not. When it comes to identity matters (as Postfunctionalism suggests), I conclude that those were used in connection to security matters, with the aim of forging a common European response to the crisis and to justify the partisan reaction of the Visegrad Group.

Flyktingkrisen 2015 avslöjade stora brister inom EU:s och medlemsstaternas asylsystem. Belastningen på medlemsstaterna var ojämn och gemensamma regelverk ignorerades. Utifrån tidigare forskning kan faktorer som avsaknad av stark struktur inom EU, låg harmonisering bland medlemsstater, försvagat gemensamt europeiskt intresse utgöra orsaker till bristerna under flyktingkrisen. Sedan dess har man inte lyckats uppnå en överenskommelse om hur EU:s gemensamma asylstrategi ska utformas. Uppsatsen har för avsikt att undersöka hur svårigheterna att komma överens om en gemensam asylstrategi kan förstås i statsvetenskapligt perspektiv, genom att analysera den politiska debatten kring kommissionens förslag om en gemensam asylpakt, som ännu inte lett till en fullständig överenskommelse. Undersökningen genomförs i form av kvalitativ innehållsanalys och motivanalys i syfte att identifiera de olika aktörernas ståndpunkter och bakomliggande motiv. Utifrån de identifierade motiven skapas förståelse för den politiska debatten genom det teoretiska ramverket neofunktionalism och intergovernmentalism som söker förklaringar på europeisk integration. Det empiriska materialet för studien omfattas av textdokument och inspelade panelsamtal och analysen identifierar motiv utifrån tre fördefinierade kategorier som sedan genomlyses med det teoretiska ramverket. Slutsatsen är att intergovernmentalism bäst förklarar svårigheterna genom att lösningar som ger vinning för nationalstaterna saknas vilket inte möjliggör en fullständig överenskommelse med fördjupad integration. Neofunktionalismen kan ge vissa förklaringar, kommissionen som pådrivande aktör kan utgöra en faktor för fördjupad integration, men de beslutsfattande församlingarna präglas av nationella och ideologiska intressen som inte leder till fördjupat samarbete. Dessutom ger neofunktionalismen utrymme för bakslag i en pågående integrationsprocess vilket kan förklara en tillfälligt avstannad integration i och med svårigheterna att uppnå en fullständig överenskommelse om gemensam asylpakt.

No / The European Union (EU) is an evolving system of multi-level governance (MLG). For scholars of the EU, a critical question is which level of governance has the most decisive influence on the integration process? Some studies of EU regional policy claim that subnational actors, using channels of interest representation that bypass national officials, interact directly with EU policy-makers generating outcomes that are neither desired nor intended by national executives. This article examines the development of EU biodiversity policy over a thirty-year period (c. 1970-2000) and finds that environmental groups, who were generally marginalized at the national level in Britain, have learnt to use EU opportunities to outflank the government, resulting in policy outcomes that they would be unlikely to secure through national channels of representation. However, the evidence presented suggests that supranational actors were the major cause of these unintended consequences, not environmental groups.

The volume deals with the analysis of the relationship of the two dominant theoretical approaches of European integration - supranational and intergovernmental - towards the EU enlargement policy on the example of the accession process of Montenegro. The research goes into depth by analysing not the complex accession process as such, but the relations and attention of various European institutions and the EU member states to the particular and deliberately selected negotiation chapters of the Acquis Communautaire. The main aim of the thesis is to find out to what extent and whether at all does the behaviour of the EU institutions and its member states by the accession process correspond with the internal structure of the EU policies and competences stipulated in the EU treaties. The thesis succeeded to show that there is no reason to believe that the activities of the supranational institutions of the EU - the Commission and the Parliament - are dominant by chapter which is closely connected to the exclusive competence of the EU or that they would pay any special attention to this chapter. Similarly, there is no explicit proof that the activities of the incumbent EU member states are dominant by chapter which is closely connected to the shared competence of the EU or that they would pay any...

This thesis analyzes the Organization of Black Sea Economic Cooperation and Turkey&#039 / s role in this international organization. This thesis argues that contrary to scholars who view institutional weaknesses of BSEC as the main reason of its failure in achieving sufficient level of cooperation among its members, political problems emanating from member states constitute the main reason of BSEC&#039 / s ineffectiveness as an international organization. There are six chapters of this thesis. Following the introductory first chapter, the second chapter of this thesis examines the factors behind establishment of BSEC and its formation process. In the following three chapters BSEC&#039 / s institutional structure, its issue areas and problems are discussed in detail. The last chapter is conclusion.

This study examines the evolution of the Common European Security and Defence Policy (CESDP) of the European Union before and after the Saint Malo Declaration of December 1998. The co-operation in foreign policy and security matters has always been a corollary element to the economic co-operation since the beginning of the European Integration process. Within this context this study argues that the conducting of co-operation in this field within the framework of European Community/European Union (EC/EU) was dependent on the national actors, the internal community/union factors, and the external dynamics. It is also asserted that, the European political co-operation is based on, on the one hand, the intergovernmentalist method of decision-making and implementation process, and on the other to the incrementalism through which the Member States could reconcile their diverging interests, which represent continuity within the EC/EU. The Saint Malo constitutes one of the momentous events in the trajectory of European foreign policy, security and defence co-operation, which launched the essentials of the CESDP. Within this framework, this study will analyse how a legally unbinding document has been incorporated into the legal framework of the European Union and consequently became the part of the acquis. Furthermore, the policies of France, Britain, and the United States within the process of establishment of the CESDP will be examined. Then, this thesis argues that, Saint Malo has initiated a ground for renegotiation of the terms of transatlantic relationship, which culminated in the redefinition of global roles and responsibilities of Americans and Europeans.

The recently intensifying climate changes enable a large-scale economic development of the Arctic region. This region is characterized by the vast hydrocarbon resources, but also by the unique fragile ecosystem. Therefore, any economic development must be aligned with environmental protection. This protection is encouraged by the leading intergovernmental institution in this area, the Arctic Council. This master thesis aims to analyse Russian environmental cooperation with the Arctic coastal states within the Arctic Council. Its structure follows a theoretical framework, introduced by the liberal intergovernmentalism. Firstly, formation of Russian national Arctic interests is analysed, using the key legal documents. Secondly, Russia's participation in the Arctic Council is studied. Thirdly, bilateral environmental cooperation between Russia and other four Arctic coastal states is analysed. Based on the performed research, the Russian Federation is aware, that reaching its very ambitious plans for economic development of the Arctic is only possible along with improvement of environmental protection. Russia cannot ensure this alone and therefore it actively seeks international cooperation. The research also pointed out, that before the establishment of the Arctic Council, the bilateral cooperation...