Since the mid-eighties, progress in European economic integration has contributed to changing conditions for the conduct of business in many sectors of the economies. Such is the case in Sweden, whose commitment to the formal integration process also has changed in recent years, from a free trade arrangement (EFTA) via the European Economic Area (The EFTA states' affiliation to the European Union's Internal Market), to membership in the European Union. A theoretical point of departure for this thesis was the finding that although economic integration entails strategic consequences for firms, studies treating economic integration with a general business strategy perspective were rare. Hence, the main purpose has been to achieve knowledge about the European Internal Market's strategic consequences for Swedish firms, with the focus on manufacturing SMEs. Empirically, it is examined how integration has been experienced in firms through two questionnaires, sent in earlier and later stages of the formal integration process. Although the responses indicate a limited impact from the Internal Market, they present some arguments for an increased internationalisation. There are, however, reasons to believe that factors other than political initiatives were behind such a development. In the theoretical part of this thesis, obstacles to international competition, and the corresponding competitive advantages, are seen as being central for understanding integration effects as well as for the possibilities to respond to them. An essential distinction is made between different types of obstacles, based on origin or main causes. One or other of these categories may be crucial for a firm when defending a strategic market position, or may hinder the firm from competing in other markets. Furthermore, obstacles in the different categories are in principle influenced by integration measures to a varying degree, and the survey indicated that the type of obstacle that is primarily influenced by integration measures is the one with the least perceived influence on firms' competitive strength. In the last part of the thesis, and with several different points of departure - trade and integration theory, international business, strategic management, and the Internal Market's institutional framework - a model for analysis of integration effects in business strategy terminology is developed and presented. The model is constituted by a geographic dimension and a dimension concerning the product and distribution in a broad sense. For firms with strategic positions which are affected according to the analysis, two principal strategic responses are discussed: to re-establish former competitive advantages or to adapt to the new situation by re-orienting the business. / digitalisering@umu

More than 300,000 Spaniards have left Spain since 2008, the majority being the well-educated youth. The exodus of youth represents an unusual and concerning phenomenon for Spain. This thesis explains the factors contributing to the emigration of Spanish well-educated youth, and from there extrapolates on implications for the nature of an integrated market in the European Union. It concludes that push-pull economic factors and an affiliation with the European Union internal market encourage intra-European migration. Additionally, political disillusionment within Spain erodes the sense of national loyalty among youth to further promote emigration. The Spanish case demonstrates that within a community as integrated as the European Union, tensions between international markets and national sovereignty are bound to permeate the community. This tension is demonstrated by the validity of both terms "national crisis" and "functioning European Union market" to describe the emigration.

Establishment in foreign countries can be achieved through a subsidiary company or a permanent establishment. Profit of a subsidiary company is normally taxed in accordance with the law of the country of where it is established, since a subsidiary company constitutes a separate legal entity. A permanent establishment on the other hand is not a separate legal entity, therefore profit in a permanent establishment is usually added on to the company’s total profit and taxed in accordance with the law of the country of where the company is established. Establishing business activities in foreign countries do normally not create problems, unless the business is carried on in a low tax jurisdiction. If that is the case, unlimited opportunities are created for companies to circumvent domestic taxation by transferring profit to the low tax jurisdiction, which in turn decreases the domestic tax base. In Sweden this kind of circumvention is precluded by chapter 39a ITA, in the meaning that a shareholder in a foreign company can be tax liable of low taxed profit in a foreign. The question that arises is whether chapter 39a ITA infringes on freedom of establishment. The outcome in the analysis is that there is a likeliness that chapter 39a ITA constitutes a restriction on the freedom of establishment. The escape provided in article 52 TFEU cannot justify the measure. Nor is it likely that the measure can be justified by the rule of reason. In the light of the assessment done in the analysis, it can be concluded that the chapter 39a ITA is applied in a non-discriminatory manner, satisfies a mandatory requirement (prevention of tax avoidance) and is regarded as appropriate in securing the achievement of the objectives. But there is a potential risk that measure will fail in the proportionality test.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the European Union has focused its attention on moving the Central and Eastern European Countries towards democracy and the market economy, which culminated in the accession of these countries to the European Union on May 2004. With the accession of the ten new members to the Union, the European Union has acquired new neighbors and come closer to the old ones, with whom it had only indirectly interested in. There is a conviction in EU circles that future widening towards these countries is not possible without risking the integration process which the European countries have developed in the last fifty years. In addition to this internal consideration, the new neighbors of the EU, some of which have already declared their membership ambitions, are the countries which the EU perceives it cannot integrate in the foreseeable future because of their social, economic and political underdevelopment. In response to these realities, the Union developed the European Neighborhood Policy. In this thesis, potential of the new neighborhood policy to fulfill its objectives of being second best alternative to membership and its promise in providing a meaningful framework that is satisfactory both for the EU and its neighbors will be analyzed. Additionally, its impact on the European Union&rsquo / s foreign policy in general will be elaborated. It will be argued in this thesis that the ENP has such serious limitations in terms of its formulation, institutions, and its incentives that it will fail to realize its original aspirations.

Orientador: Renato Leite Marconde / Banca: Angelo Alves Carrara / Banca: José Flávio Motta / Resumo: O tema desta pesquisa é o comércio interprovincial de Minas Gerais. O objetivo é identificar e caracterizar as rotas deste comércio e revisitar a série de exportações totais de Minas Gerais no século XIX, inclusive ouro e diamantes. São utilizadas fontes primárias sobre o recolhimento de impostos na fronteira mineira entre 1839 e 1884. As informações de exportações agropecuárias e de alguns itens de importação estão desagregadas por estações fiscais ao longo da fronteira. A partir destes dados foram construídas séries de quantidades comercializadas através das diferentes rotas interprovinciais. Foram construídas séries de preços de mercado para calcular o valor. As informações de preços em diversas localidades permitiram inferir sobre as articulações do mercado interno mineiro. A análise do comércio interprovincial desagregado por estações fiscais foi precedida de um esforço de regionalização, que consiste na segmentação da fronteira mineira através da percepção da diferenciação das rotas. Os resultados permitem inferir sobre possíveis origens e destinos das exportações mineiras e os movimentos de curto, médio e longo prazo no valor e composição das exportações por rota de comércio. Observam-se a importância da intermediação mercantil, a relevância dos mercados consumidores de outras províncias, as preferências por caminhos, o movimento das fronteiras agrícolas de exportação. / Abstract: The subject is the commerce of Minas Gerais with other brazilian Provinces in the XIXth century. The objective is to identify and to characterize the routes of this trade and to revisit the series of total exportations of Minas Gerais, including gold and diamonds exports. The primary sources are based on the collect of taxes in the Mineiro border between 1815 and 1884. The information of agricultural, cattle and manufactures exports, and some items of importation are disaggregated per fiscal stations through the border. From these data, series of amounts commercialized through the different interprovincial routes were constructed. Series of market prices had been constructed to calculate the value. From the information of prices in diverse localities it is possible to infer on the connections of the Mineiro domestic market. The analysis of the interprovincial commerce disaggregated per fiscal stations was preceded of a regionalization effort that consists of the segmentation of the Mineiro border through the perception of the differentiation of the routes. The results allow the recognizing of possible origins and destinations of the Mineiro exportations and the movements of short, medium and long run in the value and composition for each route of trade. It is possible to observe the importance of the mercantile mediation, the relevance of the consuming markets of other provinces, the preferences for ways, the movement of the exportable agricultural cultivations. / Mestre

Essa tese tem por objetivo analisar o crescimento da produção açucareira em Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo. A primeira parte preocupa-se com o uso dado as ideias associativistas nesta área e a montagem dos engenhos centrais. A segunda chama a atenção para a transformação destes engenhos centrais em usinas e a ampliação da importância do açúcar nesta que ainda seria uma área secundária da produção açucareira. Na última parte analisam-se as características específicas da introdução de avanços técnicos no cultivo da cana. Encontra-se em comum em todo o estudo a tentativa de contribuir para a melhor compreensão de questões como a importância do crescimento do mercado interno, a atuação do Estado no processo de modernização da indústria açucareira nesta área, a inter-relação que se criou entre o café e o açúcar e o papel desempenhado pelos outros subprodutos da cana, como o álcool e a aguardente. Como não foi um contexto isolado que lastrearia o que se afirmou neste trabalho, embora a delimitação dos seus contornos regionais seja clara, explorou-se tanto a influência da realidade mundial na produção açucareira destes estados como também a de um campo menor, mas essencial: o Norte. Buscou-se conseguir na abertura que se deu ao tema uma visão menos fragmentada da indústria sucroalcooleira mineira, fluminense e paulista se valendo de um conjunto de fontes primárias constituídas por fontes oficiais, periódicos agrícolas, relatórios técnicos e uma documentação produzida pelos próprios produtores de açúcar. / The objective of this thesis is to analyze the growth of sugar production in the states of Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The first part of it deals with the utilization the ideas of the associativism in the area and the construction of central sugar mills. The objective of the second part is to call the attention to the transformation of such central sugar mills into modern mills and the enlargement of the importance of sugar in the secondary area of sugar production. In the last part of this thesis, some characteristics have been analyzed for the introduction of technical improvements in the cultivation of sugar cane. Attempts towards the contribution for a better comprehension of several factors, such as the importance of the internal market growth, the participation of the State in the modernization process of the sugar industry in this area and the interrelation between coffee and sugar are present throughout the whole study, as well as the role performed by other sugarcane sub products, such as alcohol and sugar cane spirits (aguardente). As no isolated context would support the present work, although the limitation of its regional outlines is clear the influence of the worldwide sugar production reality has been explored as well as the one existing in another smaller field, although essential, the North. The beginning of this work has dealt with a less fragmented vision of the sugar-ethanol industry in Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo through a set of primary sources obtained by official sources, technical reports and a documentation produced by the sugar producers themselves.

Free-lance professions under the law of the EU The free-lance professions under the law of the EU serve for the topic of the present thesis. They represent a special category of occupations playing though a significant role in the daily life of the society and in the economic events of both the state and the European Union. They distinguish from other forms of businesses by the "liberty" of carrying out, i.e. the independence on the direct state supervision. It is impossible to find among EU member states neither the identical term of a free-lance profession, nor the categories of the professions considered to be included. The term might regard advocates, architects, but also journalists, writers, artists etc. Neither do the EU member states agree on the content of individual activities, or usually performed duties. As some of these occupations are significantly linked to the public interest, the member states tend to increase their regulations. The first part of the thesis deals with differences of conceptions in individual member states, as well as with their common basis. The aim of the EU is to overcome the discrepancy of national regulations and to unify the conception. The common basis served as an inspiration for the definition of the free-lance professions on the European level. The EU law adjusts...

La jurisprudence de la CJUE correspond à un véritable mode d'emploi du marché intérieur des marchandises. En l'absence d'harmonisation, il revient en effet à la Cour d'arbitrer les choix conflictuels entre le principe de libre circulation des marchandises promu par le traité et les politiques non économiques défendues par les Etats membres de l'UE. Or, l'action du juge communautaire se caractérise par des interprétations ambitieuses du traité, mais au risque de sacrifier une ligne jurisprudentielle parfaitement claire. Notre analyse souligne à cet égard un compromis parfois critiquable entre les enjeux mercantiles, d'une part, et les impératifs non marchands, d'autre part. Elle promeut également une évolution vers une jurisprudence stabilisée signe d'une maturité dans la recherche du compromis nécessaire entre l'exigence d'un marché intégré et le respect des souverainetés nationales. / The influence of the Court of Justice of the EU on the evolution of the internal market for goods within the EU is at the heart of the issue to determine the degree of freedom that Community law intends to grant to the member states through the process of negative integration. The criteria selected by the judicial body of the EU to interpret and apply the provisions of the treaty are not neutral. Our analysis emphasizes a sometimes criticisable compromise between commercial issues on one hand, and non economic issues, on the other hand. It also promotes the idea that the time for a stabilised jurisprudence would be a sign of maturity in the search for a compromise between the need for an integrated market and respect of national sovereignties.

Free movement of persons is one of four basic freedoms of internal market EU. Graduation theses reports history and basic documents, rights and obligations of citizens of EU, limitation of free movement and social security. The thesis accentuates eastern enlargement in 2004 and transition period on free movement of workers. In terms of statistics dates and documents is striked a balance on impact of movement of workers from eastern countries on labour markets in EU. The thesis targets the austrian labour market in consequence of eastern enlargement.

This master thesis tests the statement whether the EU Economic Policy related to the Internal Market Project decreases the costs of doing business or not. We tested the conducting of business of Global Company in seven various regions (Visegrad Countries, Baltic, East Balkan Countries, Croatia, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey). We framed the research period into 2011 and focused on four major Research Fields (Transportation, Cross-border Trading, Consumer Protection and Financial Regulation). Based on the cost impact analysis we could confirm that Internal Market Project decreases the costs of doing business.