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Prof. Dr  Wolfgang Schumann

13.11.09: The pace picks up on EU enlargement into the Balkans - 0 views

  • EmailSharePrint Back to Brussels Blog homepage The pace picks up on EU enlargement into the Balkans November 13, 2009 3:59pm Enlargement of the European Union is, almost imperceptibly, moving forward once more.  EU foreign ministers are expected next week to forward Albania’s membership application to the European Commission for an opinion.  This is a necessary technical step on the path to entry - small, but important. The Commission is already preparing opinions on the applications of Iceland and Montenegro.  The opinions will take quite some time to deliver - longer for Albania and Montenegro than for Iceland - but the machinery is now in motion. There are signs of progress elsewhere, too.  For a long time Serbia’s efforts to draw closer to the EU have been held back by the refusal of the Netherlands to permit implementation of Serbia’s EU stabilisation and association agreement.  The Dutch insist that Serge Brammertz, the chief United Nations war crimes prosecutor, must first of all declare that Serbia is fully complying with its efforts to capture war crimes suspects - principally, Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander. Brammertz is due to hand his latest report to the UN Security Council in early December, and the Serbian government appears confident that it will be positive.  That would remove the Dutch veto and allow Serbia to make a formal application for EU membership.
Prof. Dr  Wolfgang Schumann

10.08.10: Turkey Will Never Join the European Union - 0 views

  • So says Geoffrey Wheatcroft, an English journalist,  in an August 5 article in The New Republic. This, even though the new British Prime Minister David Cameron, on a recent visit to Turkey, said that Turkey should join the E.U. as soon as possible. Wheatcroft bases his argument largely on the economic and demographic disparities between Turkey and the rest of the Union.
  • So says Geoffrey Wheatcroft, an English journalist,  in an August 5 article in The New Republic. This, even though the new British Prime Minister David Cameron, on a recent visit to Turkey, said that Turkey should join the E.U. as soon as possible. Wheatcroft bases his argument largely on the economic and demographic disparities between Turkey and the rest of the Union.
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    Excellent analysis of the different attitudes of member states towards Turkey's accession, which make it quite unlikely that Turkey will ever become a member.
Prof. Dr  Wolfgang Schumann

SEE-EU-Blog - 0 views

  • This weblog is a forum for discussion on the political and social processes linked to EU integration in the Western Balkans. We would also like to use this space to create a virtual network of researchers on this topic. You are most welcome to contribute to this weblog with comments, postings, links, or photos. Please use the "add comment" function at the end of each posting!
Prof. Dr  Wolfgang Schumann

02.08.07: France could re-open debate on Turkey referendum - 0 views

  • The major political question of whether France will in future hold a referendum on the EU entry of Turkey and Balkan states may be soon re-opened for discussion, following the creation of a high-level committee on institutional reform by French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
  • The new president last month tasked a "Reflection Committee" of senior politicians and experts to re-think the overall institutional balance of the French Republic. Mr Sarkozy is hoping that this committee will also advise scrapping the compulsory referendum on EU accessions, Mr Quatremer writes on his blog.
Prof. Dr  Wolfgang Schumann

13.05.09: EU-Wahl als Testfall für Web-2.0-Kampagnen - 0 views

  • Seit Barack Obama mit starker Web-Präsenz punktete, gelten Facebook & Co. auch hierzulande als vielversprechende Wahlhelfer - Die SPÖ versucht es mit "120 BotschafterInnen"
  • Entwickelt und betreut wird sie vom heimischen Social-Media-Spezialisten Knallgrau, die Online-Kampagnen mit sozialen Medien von Youtube und Facebook bis Twitter für große Kunden wie BMW oder Bild.de durchführt und in der Blogging-Szene für das Gratis-Blog Twoday.net bekannt ist. "Die eigentliche Novität ist nicht die Technologie, sondern dass wir zusammen mit dem Renner-Institut in das Training von 120 Personen investierten, die als Botschafterinnen und Botschafter in sozialen Medien fungieren", beschreibt Knallgrau-Geschäftsführer DieterRappold. Die "120 BotschafterInnnen" fanden sich aus Teilen der SPÖ, und ihre Arbeit zielt mehr auf die Aktivierung der Basis als auf unmittelbaren Stimmengewinn ab.
Prof. Dr  Wolfgang Schumann

Search Europa - search engine for the 28 million europa.eu pages - 0 views

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    ... eine Spezialsuchmaschine, die auf der Basis einer Google Custom Search Engine verwirklicht worden ist. Das Suchinterface ist sehr einfach gehalten, es wird keine erweiterte Suche angeboten, weswegen man, um spezifische Ergebnisse zu bekommen, entweder die Google-Syntax bei der Suche anwenden muss (Pluszeichen, um Suchwörter zu erzwingen und Phrasen, wo möglich, sind unverzichtbar, wie z.B. "public opinion" +euro), unter dem Suchschlitz sind noch weitere Eingrenzungsmöglichkeiten (Rechtssuche ist Einschränkung auf EUR-LEX), die Dokumenttypen bringen z.T. auch etwas für die Eingrenzung. Die weiteren Optionen zur Eingrenzung (Jürgen Plieninger m Recherchen Blog).
Prof. Dr  Wolfgang Schumann

17.12.10: New European e-Government Action Plan: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. - 0 views

  • On December 15, in conjunction with the conference on Lift Off Open Government (see previous post), the European Commission issued its communication to to other European institutions (such as the Parliament and the Council) about the European eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015. The subtitle of the communication is quite intriguing: Harnessing ICT to promote smart, sustainable and innovative government.
Prof. Dr  Wolfgang Schumann

AriRusila's BalkanPerspective » Blog Archive » Bosnia on the road to the EU, ... - 0 views

  • Despite international community’s state building efforts in Bosnia the country is splitting parts Since war 15 years ago foreign aid has exceed USD 80 bn for artificial creature designed in Dayton agreement aiming multi-ethnic state with EU perspective. As a result Bosnia is now even more divided, with less national identity, 20 percent of population living under the poverty line, with a nightmare triple administration plus international supervising making the country as worst place in Europe to do business west of Ukraine, even as it seeks to join the European Union. (Bosnia this year ranked 116th in World Bank’s ease of doing business index.)
Prof. Dr  Wolfgang Schumann

16.12.10: Is Europe Missing Another Chance on Government 2.0? - 0 views

  • On December 15 and 16 the Belgian EU presidency and the European Commission are holding in Brussels a conference with an inspiring title: Lift-Off Toward Open Government.
Prof. Dr  Wolfgang Schumann

AriRusila's BalkanBlog - 0 views

  • Welcome to Arirusila´s BalkanBlog - a personal perspective on events in western Balkans. Topics of interest: Serbia, Kosovo province, EU enlargement, UN peacekeeping operations, crisis management. Other interests - middle East and Caucasus.
Prof. Dr  Wolfgang Schumann

19.12.08: 2009 shapes up as a weary, dreary year for EU enlargement - 0 views

  • With Croatia, there is less certainty. Quarrels with Slovenia, its former fellow-Yugoslav republic, meant that the EU on Friday concluded only three chapters with Croatia and opened one more. Slovenia blocked further progress.
  • Then there is Serbia. A report by the United Nations war crimes prosecutor this month made it clear that, even if Serbian co-operation with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague had improved, it ought to be even better.
  • Macedonia is stuck, too - over that wearisome dispute with Greece about what its name should be. As for Bosnia-Herzegovina, it will be something of an achievement if it hangs together as a state, never mind about joining the EU. And when Montenegro officially presented its membership application on Monday, there were mutterings on the EU side that this was much too premature.
Prof. Dr  Wolfgang Schumann

16.03.09: Bosnia's irresponsible politicians drive Auntie EU crazy - 0 views

  • Take Bosnia-Herzegovina, where EU foreign ministers today named Valentin Inzko, a high-ranking Austrian diplomat, as the bloc’s new Special Representative. Inzko will wear two hats - he was named the world’s High Representative for Bosnia last week. But it will be something of a miracle if he makes any progress towards bringing the Bosnian state off the international life support machine on which it has depended since the end of the 1992-95 civil war. Insofar as the EU has any idea what to do, it seems to believe that the mutual suspicions that poison relations between Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Serbs (and, to some extent, both communities’ relations with Bosnian Croats) will gradually disappear under the lure of eventual EU membership for the country. But as an excellent new report by the International Crisis Group points out, Bosnia is quite unlike the other former communist states to which the EU has - often successfully - applied this soothing strategy.
Prof. Dr  Wolfgang Schumann

04.03.09: The US - not the EU - stop Dodik's separation plans - 0 views

  • Americans have done it again. Until only yesterday, the Premier of the Serb-dominated Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik had been threatening Bosnia with his entity’s separation.   It appeared to be almost a done deal, and the only remaining questions were around technicalities – how and when that would be done. Then Dodik met Stuart Jones, the deputy US Assistant Secretary in charge of the Balkans, and out from the meeting stepped a seemingly different man. The “new” Dodik stressed that the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina can be changed only through regular parliamentary procedures and that there are no “adventurers” in Republika Srpska who would attempt anything irrationally. 
  • In the situation where divisions within European countries and the weakening of their military presence in the Balkans has effectively deprived the OHR of its governing s powers, Jones proved once again that only the Americans have the political clout to halt what until only yesterday appeared to be Bosnia’s inevitable stumble into the abyss.Yet, knowing Bosnia’s decayed political scene, politicians’ radical rhetoric will surely return unless both the US and EU follow up on whatever Jones said to Dodik and the other political leaders he met with during his stay in Bosnia. 
Prof. Dr  Wolfgang Schumann

EurActiv.com - Choosing 'Mr. Europe' | EU - European Information on EU Treaty & Institu... - 0 views

  • The Treaty of Lisbon, expected to enter in force in 2009, introduces two new European top jobs: a high-profile president who will chair EU summit meetings for a two-and-a-half year term and a revamped foreign policy chief. However, selecting the right people to fill these positions will prove a politically sensitive task in the months ahead.
  • Policy Summary Links The EU's new 'Reform Treaty' was agreed upon by EU leaders at a summit in June 2007 and the updated final text was formally approved in October at an intergovernmental conference (IGC) (EurActiv 19/10/08). The "Treaty of Lisbon ", as it was finally named, was officially signed by EU heads of state and government at a summit in the Portuguese capital on 13 December 2007 (EurActiv 14/12/07). 
  • Rules and timing unclear  The criteria for who to choose for these two new top positions were not written down in the Lisbon Treaty. It will therefore be up to Europe's heads of state and government to decide on who they want to choose as their new representatives. 
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  • The big question: who to choose?  In the absence of formal criteria, much speculation has broken out over who should take up the role of EU president. According to Stanley Crossick, a veteran EU policy analyst and founding chairman of the European Policy Centre (EPC) - a Brussels think tank - the new EU Troika needs to strike a balance between the following criteria (see blog post on Blogactiv for full analysis ):  Nationality;  geography;  size of country, and;  political affiliation. 
  • What do the citizens think?  According to a poll by Harris Interactive published in early April, most European citizens consider German Chancellor Angela Merkel to be the most influential leader in Europe, while Tony Blair is the preferred candidate for the job of EU president. 
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    Provides a comprehensive overview of the topic in question (selecting a president and a foreign policy chief) including the contractual basis to be found in the Lisbon-Treaty
Prof. Dr  Wolfgang Schumann

31.12.10: Poland's EU presidency: Six months to go | The Economist - 0 views

  • POLAND takes over the presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2011. The government has won some applause in Brussels for its early preparation. One feature of the process has been the government's use of think tanks, both as sounding boards and as advisers. But the following open letter (below the fold), co-authored by the heads of several Polish think tanks and published recently in Gazeta Wyborcza, implies that not everyone is listening. Let's hope that changes. The success of the Polish presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2011 requires that strategic decisions be taken and a great deal of attention be paid to detail. Much as we appreciate the effort the Polish government is putting into preparing the presidency, we would also like to note some problems which threaten the success of the project.
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