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EU-Verfassung im Härtetest
(2005)
The author discusses the failure of the EU-Constitution plebiscite in France and focuses on the different arguments brought forward in the French debate over the EU-Constitution. The draft of the Convent was a complex volume full of compromises. However, in comparison with the Treaty of Nice, it would have been a starting point for achieving a direct trans-national democracy. According to the author, the referendum only failed due to some unique plebiscite elements that were instrumentalised by governments which had overestimated themselves.
Community Initiatives are one part of implementing European Employment Strategy in the European Union’s member countries. By the example of the EQUAL-Project „INCLUSION - Integration-Network for Migrants in the Federal State of Brandenburg“, this article critically examines what results such projects can achieve. Following ADAPT and EMPLOYMENT, the initiative EQUAL started in 2001 with the stated mission to promote social integration in working life through fighting against discrimination and exclusion.
The European Employment Strategy (EES) belongs to the European Union’s „softer“, legally non-binding policy instruments. Many politicians and academics associated its introduction with the expectation for a strengthening of the EU’s social dimension and democratic quality. This article examines whether, so far, the EES can be regarded as effective and legitimate. To illustrate this, the author briefly examines the role of the EES for the development of labour market policy in Germany and the UK.
Europäische Arbeitspolitik
(2005)
Der Begriff „Arbeit“ hat Hochkonjunktur. Jedoch bleibt das grundsätzliche Verhältnis zwischen Arbeit und Politik weiterhin unbestimmt. Unsere Autoren beschäftigen sich mit ökonomischen Spielräumen und ungenutzten Handlungsoptionen. Sie wagen hierbei den Blick über den deutschen Tellerrand und suchen gezielt die europäische Perspektive. Im Eröffnungsbeitrag diskutiert Peter Ulrich nicht nur Fragen zur Effizienz, sondern zu einem gerechten Arbeitsmarktes und sinnvollen Arbeitsformen. Am Beispiel der Internetökonomie diskutieren Raphael Menez, Josef Schmid und Stefanie Springer das Spannungsfeld zwischen Arbeitspolitik und industriellen Beziehungen. Wie sich Arbeitspolitik mit all ihren Dilemmata auf der europäischen Bühne konkret abspielt, zeigen Milena Büchs, Kilian Kindelberger und Annerose Poleschner in ihren Artikeln exemplarisch auf. Unter welchen Bedingungen finden Investitionswettbewerb und Sozialpolitik in der „Ära nach Hartz“ statt? Diesen Fragen gehen Britta Rehder, Christine Trampusch und Klaus Deimer nach.
Through police co-operation, re-admission agreements, and setting up of detention camps, Italy’s immigration policy tries to delocalise border controls between Europe and North Africa. Italian immigration quotas and development aid should induce countries of origin and transit of migrants to tighten their border controls and cooperate with Italy. Development aid is used by the EU in order to exert pressure on other countries, whereas Libya for instance uses transiting refugees as a diplomatic weapon. On the other hand, relations between Italy and North African countries do not focus on human rights violations taking place in some of these countries.
Modernisierung und Islam
(2004)
Wer ist schon gegen Dialog? Und wenn es gar um jenen zwischen Orient und Okzident geht, ist der Applaus sicher. Neugier auf das Fremde, das zugleich Nutzen bringen kann, ist der Antrieb; Achtung vor dem Anderen die Basis. Aber oft ist dies mit falschen Hoffnungen, Fehlwahrnehmungen und Klischees verbunden, die in fataler Weise auch jene Ideologien hervorbringen, die imperiale Politik stets benötigt. Wenn ein gewisser Ulrich Jasper Seetzen, der zu den Begründern der Orientalistik hierzulande zählt, am Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts in sein Tagebuch notierte, „daß die Orientalen eben sowohl Menschen sind, als wir“, so wirft dies ein Licht auf europäisches Denken jener Zeit. Jedoch lohnt die Erinnerung an diesen Satz auch heute und hier. Huntingtons provozierende, weil vereinfachende These vom Clash of Civilizations ist mittlerweile abendländischer Zeitgeist, der nicht nur im Boulevard Unterschlupf findet. Wenn in diesen Zeiten arabische, persische und deutsche Intellektuelle über „die Moderne“, jenes zutiefst westliche Konzept, miteinander reden und dies auch noch in Potsdam, so ist das bemerkenswert. WeltTrends bietet die Chance, diesen Dialog in der aktuellen Ausgabe nachzuvollziehen.
Executive responsibility for EU policies is by tradition delegated to the member states and their internal administrative bodies. It is therefore of outmost importance that the new Central and East European members have the capacity to administer the acquis communitaire once they are full members of the EU. Based on a survey among current and former top-level decision-makers (ministers), this article argues that although there are significant implementation problems, efficiency gains can be made through administrative reform and not the least education aimed at changing the worldview and knowledge of the individual civil servant. However, there seem to be significant differences in how these countries tackle implementation problems and administrative reform.
From the Russian perspective, the author describes the danger of a hegemonic US, dominating the world’s fate, weakening the UN and endangering peace. A counterweight to the US domination could be stronger ties between Western Europe and Russia. The rise of the Franco-German-Russian troika has been the only positive effect of the Iraq war. But not all members of the EU seem to recognise the necessity of a „Great Europe” from Reykjavik to Wladiwostok. Especially the new members of NATO and EU are vassals of the US and exhibit strong anti-Russian resentments.
The author offers a survey of recent studies on the role of the European Union in world affairs. While some theoretical and conceptual progress has been made since the 1970s and 1980s, a good deal of the current work is still largely descriptive. Only a small number of studies take factors such as culture, norms, or ideas sufficiently into account. Referring to such variables, however, promises a value added for the explanation of certain phenomena in EU external relations. With reference to IR Theory, an institutionalist approach that conceptualises ideas as an intervening variable is therefore proposed.