This study is an attempt to understand strategy-making in the European Union (EU). By targeting the strategy-making process of the European Union Global Strategy (EUGS), the stydy aims to reveal the legal provisions and the in-practice procedures of strategy-making in the area of EU foreign policy. The thesis presents two theories, liberal intergovernmentalism and neofunctionalism, from which it constructs two contrasting ideal types of policy-making. By applying the theoretical ideal types on the targeted case, that is the strategy-making process of the EUGS, the study reflects on the relationships between Member states and the EU, as well as on the inter-institutional dynamics that would come to characterize the progress and development of the EUGS.  Despite difficulties in rejecting any of the theoretical ideal types, the study finds the policy-formulation of the EUGS to be more coherent with the neofunctional ideal type than that of liberal intergovernmentalism. This is due to the central role of the European External Action Service (EEAS) which would come to conduct an innovative policy-formulation phase of the strategy and to the lack of bargaining between the Member States on the textual provisions of the strategy. The neofunctional ideal type does yet fall short in explaining for the EUGS as an initial concept and partly for the implementation of the strategy, favoring a liberal intergovernmental interpretation of how the instruments of the EUGS would come to be initiated. The study also reflects on if the experience of making the EUGS may provide for an argument to review the presumed centrality of Member States being the ultimate drivers of EU foreign policy.

<p>The aim of this paper is to explain how the European Union’s common strategy for theCommon Foreign- and Security Policy (CFSP) will change with the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon. A comparative case study and qualitative method is used. On the basis of Smith’s theory of institutionalization we will analyze two member states: France and Denmark. Our aim is to see which standpoints these countries have taken concerning the CFSP. We have chosen, in order to analyse the inner and outer factors, to use the liberal intergovernmental “two level game” theory as a theoretical approach. The purpose of the CFSP is to gradually increase the sovereign states’ foreign policy cooperation. The aim of the CFSP is to become an international visible and active player that represents the people of the European Union. At the moment the CFSP is an intergovernmental part of the EU, however there are presentiments that this will change and that CFSP will achieve supranationality. In conclusion, the results of the case study shows that Denmark is aiming for the CFSP cooperation to remain on an intergovernmental platform. France is aiming toward supranationality and a stronger cooperation within the CFSP. In time, with the full implementation of the CFSP, the EU will be able to compete on a global platform.</p>

The aim of this paper is to explain how the European Union’s common strategy for theCommon Foreign- and Security Policy (CFSP) will change with the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon. A comparative case study and qualitative method is used. On the basis of Smith’s theory of institutionalization we will analyze two member states: France and Denmark. Our aim is to see which standpoints these countries have taken concerning the CFSP. We have chosen, in order to analyse the inner and outer factors, to use the liberal intergovernmental “two level game” theory as a theoretical approach. The purpose of the CFSP is to gradually increase the sovereign states’ foreign policy cooperation. The aim of the CFSP is to become an international visible and active player that represents the people of the European Union. At the moment the CFSP is an intergovernmental part of the EU, however there are presentiments that this will change and that CFSP will achieve supranationality. In conclusion, the results of the case study shows that Denmark is aiming for the CFSP cooperation to remain on an intergovernmental platform. France is aiming toward supranationality and a stronger cooperation within the CFSP. In time, with the full implementation of the CFSP, the EU will be able to compete on a global platform.

<p>The nation state has over time become the natural locus for democracy and consequently also legitimate governance. Both concepts have been developed within the nation state and are therefore considered closely connected to it. Nation states are, however, not the only actor on the international arena anymore. The European integration is an example of a new actor, where nation states have started collaborating.</p><p>Similar to nation states, EU has decision-making authorities and must therefore attain legitimacy. The thesis questions how legitimacy can be treated within an entity such as the EU. Three different ways of attaining legitimacy are brought up. The first perceives EU as legitimate in its current design with an intergovernmental part and a regulatory part. The intergovernmental part is claimed to be legitimised through democracy from the member states, and the regulatory part is legitimised through non-majoritarian democracy. Non-majoritarian democracy implies decision-making by independent institutions, which relies on expertise and fairness. The second part emphasises the need to enhance democracy for the EU to become legitimate. The EU is considered too similar to a nation state to make do with lesser standards of legitimacy than a liberal democratic nation state. Deliberative democracy could bring legitimacy through creating a dimension where citizens become oriented towards what can be perceived or acknowledged as the “common good” through active participation in deliberative processes. Federalism is brought up as another alternative that would possibly permit for democracy to be practiced in the EU.</p><p>Legitimacy is claimed to be achieved through sustaining values such as mutual respect, reciprocity, compromise and toleration, values that are connected to a commitment to working for the “common good”. The purpose of this essay is to describe different aspects on the concept “legitimacy” in the EU context and to show how it is achieved and/or how it can possibly be achieved in a future union of nation states. The purpose is not to arrive at a solution, or even to construe a common ground, but to construe a limited insight on how “legitimacy” in the EU can be treated according to theorists/theories.</p> / <p>Nationalsstaten har kommit att bli den naturliga platsen för demokrati och legitimt styre. En trolig förklaring till detta är att båda koncepten har utvecklats inom nationsstaten och anses därför vara starkt sammankopplade med den. Nationalsstater är dock inte längre den enda aktören på den internationella arenan. Den Europeiska integrationen är ett exempel på en ny företeelse, ett forum/sammanhang där nationalsstater har börjat sammarbeta. Som med nationsstater har EU beslutsfattande befogenheter och måste därför uppnå legitimitet. </p><p>Uppsatsen ifrågasätter hur legitimitet kan behandlas inom en enhet såsom EU. Tre olika sätt att uppnå legitimitet tas upp. Det första uppfattar EU som legitimt i sitt nuvarande utförande med en mellanstatlig del och en reglerande. Den mellanstatliga delen skulle kunna legitimeras genom medlemsstaternas demokrati, och den reglerande delen legitimeras genom ”icke-majoritets demokrati”. ”Icke majoritets demokrati” innebär beslutsfattande av självständiga instutitioner, som förlitar sig på experter och rättvisa som värdegrund. Den andra delen framhåller behovet av att öka demokrati för att ska bli EU legitimt. Enligt detta synsätt är EU alltför likt en nationsstat för att klara sig med en lägre standard av legitimitet än en liberaldemokratisk nationsstat. Deliberativ demokrati skulle kunna bringa legitimitet genom att tillföra en dimension där medborgare, genom aktivt deltagain i deliberativa processer, blir orienterade mot lösningar som uppfattas och erkänns som ”allmänt goda”. Federalism tas upp som ytterligare ett alternativ. Legitimitet anses kunna uppnås genom upprätthållandet av värden såsom gemensam respekt, ömsesidighet, kompromisser and tålamod. Värden som är kopplade till åtagandet att sträva mot ”det allmäna goda”.</p><p>Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att beskriva olika aspekter av legitimitetsbegreppet i EU och att visa på hur legitimitet uppnås eller kan uppnås i en framtida union av nationalstater. Uppsatsen gör varken anspråk på att tillhandahålla klara lösningar eller ens att föreslå en gemensam bas av möjliga sådana, men att erbjuda läsaren en begränsad insikt i hur legitimitet behandlas utifrån några teoretiska perspektiv, och av några teoretiker.</p>

2008年全球金融風暴為歐洲債券危機埋下隱患，歐元區國家紛紛進行紓困以提振經濟，導致財政赤字更加嚴重。歐元區各國因採行單一貨幣而喪失獨立的貨幣政策，使得融資工具受限。信用評等機構又先後對周邊國家調降評等，無形中擴大危機。歐洲債券危機不僅讓歐洲經濟暨貨幣同盟的結構缺陷再度浮上檯面，亦引發歐元區解決方案的認知分歧，形成以德國為首的撙節派和法國代表的反撙節派間的對立，政治界興起一片波瀾。 為分析未來歐洲統合的方向和進程，本論文從政治和經濟面了解經濟暨貨幣同盟的建立與歐洲債券危機的發生，並透過自由政府間主義的分析層次，探究未來歐洲統合的發展。經由上述方法，研究發現就德法目前國內情勢和相互交往來看，未來歐洲統合的發展可能維持現狀，而不會開倒車或形成完全的超國家建制。至於理論是否和事實重合，又有待日後持續觀察。 / After the outbreak of the European Debt Crisis since 2009, the necessity and possibility of the further integration is once again highly valued. To analyze the future development of the European integration, the thesis looks into the establishment of the Economic and Monetary Union and the outbreak of the European Debt Crisis. In addition, it looks into the relation between Germany and France through the approach of the Liberal Intergovermentalism to explore the future development of the European integration. The result of the research demonstrates that it is likely European integration will remain at status quo, instead of advancing integration to the establishment of supranational institutions, nor leading to the breakup of the European Union. While Liberal Intergovernmentalism provides the integration analysis with a feasible approach, whether the result of the research coincides with the future development of the European integration still remains to be seen.

The starting point of this study is theories of European integration, which are used to formulate different scenarios about the future of the European Union. This is made in regards to the eurocrisis which has intensified the discussion about how to change the construction of the euro to overcome the economic difficulties that has arisen. In this study, four different scenarios are presented: "An updated Europe", "A new Europe", "The death of the euro" and "Goodbye Greece". The first two scenarios takes its starting point in the neofunctionalist theory of European integration and describes how the EU might increase its level of integration in different ways. We can either see a development where the EU tries to improve the implementation of the rules that are meant to coordinate the member states’ economic policy, or we might encounter a more advanced integration where fiscal policy competences are transferred to the EU-level. The latter scenarios, however, takes another theory in to account, liberal intergovernmentalism, and describes how the eurozone might be fragmented in different ways due to conflicts of interest between lenders and countries that has to receive loan-packages. In the third scenario the euro stands in front of a collapse. This is connected to a situation where Spain, which is one of the largest economies in the EU, is starting to have similar problems as countries like Grecce, Ireland and Portugal. The fourth scenario describes a more ordered progress where Grecce, as part of a joint decision with the other EU-members, decides to abolish the euro as their currency. This is a way for the EU to reduce its economic burden, in the same time as Greece are given an opportunity to use an independent monetary policy to cope with their problematic situation.

This thesis treats the development of the European Union asylum- and migration politics and the EU member states transfer of authority to the European Union. The main purpose has been to look closer with the use of the application of theory of neofunctionalism and liberal intergovernmentalism on the European Union case. The focus will be to answer the following questions: How has the political development within EU asylum and migration policy developed through the period of The Single European Act to the ratification of the Stockholm program? And how can the chosen theory explain European countries transfer of national decision regarding asylum policy in favor of a supranational European asylum policy? Based on the available material of European Union programs and harmonization measures for this area I have attempted to understand to what extent the European Union’s development in the area of the asylum and migration politics can be explained through the theories of neofunctionalism and liberal intergovernmentalism. The result of my analysis is confirmation of the European Union development of the area of the asylum and migration policy and also a series of explanations according to the theories regarding the member states transfer of authority to the EU. The thesis has also led to an understanding of the methods of application.

The study at hand aims at understanding the "twisted fate" of the EU's initiative to provide transparency of payments in oil, gas, and mining deals. The European Commission in October 2011 followed the lead of the US Dodd-Frank Act in establishing strict disclosure requirements for businesses in the extractive industries. Its initiative demanded annual reporting of any payments made by such enterprises to public authorities of commodity exporting countries, in order to mitigate corruption of public officials via transparency of payments. Praised by NGOs, the initiative was heavily opposed by the German government and experienced efforts by the very same to water its efficacy down. Germany's uncompromising position prolonged the search for an agreement between Council of Ministers and European Parliament until April 2013. It is hypothesized that the German opposition originates in highly effective interest representation of influential domestic actors, dismissive of a tight transparency regime. To validate this, Moravcsik's Liberal Intergovernmentalism is the theoretical framework of choice. At its core lies a genuine two-step of domestic societal actors, upgrading their particular interests to "national preferences" and the subsequent agency of their governments in rational bargaining with others. However, in order for this to apply in European everyday politics, theoretical amendments have to be made. Namely, the originally disregarded influence of supranational institutions as well as a shift of bargaining arenas has to be sufficiently respected by the theoretical frame.

Although the theoretical literature on the issue of European integration is extremely rich, the opposite phenomenon - disintegration - has so far escaped the attention of scholars. In the light of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, further ignorance of this phenomenon would be a mistake. The aim of this thesis is to analyze influential theories of European integration in order to determine whether they are able to grasp and explain the hypothetical disintegration of the European Union. Such an analysis can also provide us with the corner-stone for the creation of a coherent theory of European disintegration. In its course, the thesis focuses on the phenomenon of nationalism as one of the most frequently mentioned hypothetical causes of European disintegration.

The main aim of this diploma thesis is to evaluate the attitude of Justice and Development party (AKP) towards the European Union (EU). Moravcsik's Theory of Liberal Intergovernmentalism (LI) is used in the thesis for the evaluation. The thesis is divided into four main parts. The first chapter introduces two main theoretical attitudes which deal with process of EU enlargement. These two main approaches are Rational and Constructivist theoretical schools. The basic arguments of these two attitudes are used in several different particular theories. The first theoretical chapter is concluded by empirical limitations of constructivist approach in a case of the Eastern Enlargement. The second chapter is devoted to methodology. It justifies selection of the LI theory as well as selects main dependent and independent variables. Two other chapters pursue empirical part of the thesis while they reflect the logic of the LI theory. The empirical chapter focuses on Turkish domestic politics, especially on the AKP's position within this sphere. Rational behavior of AKP representatives is evaluated in the very first part of this chapter. Two other subchapters are devoted to the interconnection among the AKP and Turkish business interest groups and Turkish public opinion as well as their stance towards the EU....