European Union

Dieser Sammelband gibt einen Überblick über die 20 zentralsten Politikfelder der EU – wie z.B. die Agrarpolitik, die Strukturfonds, den Verbraucherschutz, die Umweltpolitik. Für diese Politikfelder wird jeweils ein Abriss über die historische Entwicklung gegeben und auf die wesentlichen Steuerungsmechanismen und die maßgeblichen Akteure bei der Politikformulierung und Implementation eingegangen. Dabei wird jeweils die konkrete Ausprägung und Bedeutung des Mehrebenensystem thematisiert, das EU-Politiken in unterschiedlicher Weise kennzeichnet.

Kosovo Serbs have inaugurated their own parliament with a declaration that Kosovo is a part of Serbia, defying criticism from the UN and ethnic Albanian leaders that the assembly is illegal.

The delegates present at the session further said that the perceived "urgent need to protect their lives, rights, freedoms, dignity, identity, integrity, culture and property, and rejecting illegal secessionist acts," was the reason why the assembly was created.The assembly, the declaration adds, is a representative body for the citizens of Serbia in this province, that will work in publicly and aim to steer and harmonize the work of its member-municipalities. The assembly has the right to send draft laws to the Serbian parliament, on those issues that are relevant to the residents of Kosovo. However the assembly has no executive authority but reflects a deepening ethnic partition of Kosovo since its Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia in February, backed by the West but opposed by Belgrade and its ally Russia.

The Czech government has advised the country's Constitutional Court that the EU's Lisbon treaty does not violate the Czech Republic's own constitution, improving the climate for ratification in the most problematic EU state after the Irish No vote.

Analysts expect the EU treaty to get through the 200-seat lower house. But the eurosceptic ODS party, many of whose members say Lisbon is dead after the Irish referendum, holds a 41-strong majority in the 81-seat upper house. The Czech president, Vaclav Klaus - an outspoken enemy of Lisbon - must also sign the text to make it law. The largely honorary office of the Czech president would find it hard to block a parliamentary decision in practice, however.

Ratification map France, Germany and the European Commission have called for ratification to continue despite the Irish No, pointing to a scenario in which Ireland stands isolated against 26 EU states and faces pressure for a re-vote, as occured with the 2001 Nice treaty referendum. Sixteen EU states have so far definitively ratified Lisbon. The Finnish, Polish and German parliaments have approved the text, but are awaiting their presidents' signatures. The Swedish, Dutch, Belgian, Italian, Spanish, and Cypriot legislatures will finish voting between July and the autumn. The Czech Republic is not the only problem country left, with the Polish president's office questioning whether the treaty still legally exists and the German constitutional court considering a legal challenge. Austrian leader Alfred Gusenbauer last week said he would also call a referendum if Lisbon is tweaked for a second Irish vote.

French presidency Nicolas Sarkozy is set to visit the Irish capital on 11 July. The issue will come up at the October meeting of EU leaders and once again at the December summit where member states will be hoping that Dublin will set out a concrete plan of action.

A concrete issue where progress could be made is on a climate change deal. The EU in March last year agreed a series of ambitious goals, including reducing CO2 emissions by 20 percent by 2020.

In the run up to its presidency, France has made no secret of its desire to boost defence policy in the bloc. In a major speech on 17 June, Mr Sarkozy spoke of a making "the first step towards a genuine revival of European defence."

At the end of the last European Union summit, Nicolas Sarkozy said something that surprised hardly anyone after the Irish rejected the Lisbon Treaty: “For the enlargement of the EU to continue, we need the Lisbon Treaty.” In other words, no treaty, no enlargement. How blunt.

UK millionaire Stuart Wheeler's attempt to force a referendum in Britain on the Lisbon Treaty via a High Court order have been defeated.

"We have found nothing in the claimant's case to cast doubt on the lawfulness of ratifying the Lisbon Treaty without a referendum," said the judges in their decision, with the treaty now set to become UK law after its parliamentary and royal approval earlier this month.

Separately, while the Lisbon Treaty may have received good news from the UK court, Czech president Vaclav Klaus has said the treaty "cannot come into force."

Die EU-Kommission hat heute einen „Small Business Act“ für Europas Kleine und Mittlere Unternehmen (KMU) vorgelegt. Ziel ist, die Unterstützung der KMU zu verbessern, damit sie ihr Potenzial, langfristig nachhaltiges Wachstum und mehr Arbeitsplätze zu schaffen, voll ausschöpfen können.

Informationen im Einzelnen zum Small Business Act (SBA) und den zehn Grundsätzen finden Sie hier. Alle Dokumente zum SBA im Überblick gibt es auf der Seite der EU-Kommission. nformationen zum neuen Statut der Europäischen Privatgesellschaft gibt es hier. Weitere Informationen zur Europäischen Privatgesellschaft sind abrufbar auf der Seite der EU-Kommission. Hintergrundinformationen zu neuen praktischen Leitlinien für die Mitgliedstaaten im Bereich der Öffentlichen Auftragsvergabe für KMU gibt es hier.

With EU enlargement in question following the Irish ‘no’ vote to the Lisbon Treaty, Zagreb fears a fresh delay to its accession.

Some experts also maintain that enlargement to include Croatia might be possible even if the Lisbon Treaty does not enter into force. The Brussels think tank, the European Policy Centre, for example, noted in a recent paper that while Croatian accession would require some adjustments to Nice, “some of these, concerning, for instance, the composition of EU institutions and the voting rules, could be introduced through the Accession Treaty with the next entrant (probably Croatia)”. Michael Emerson, enlargement expert for another EU think tank, the Centre for European Policy Studies, agrees. “It is not impossible legally for Croatia to come in with few bits of adjustment to exciting treaties”, Emerson said. “However politically, some member states will use this as leaver to try to get Lisbon Treaty through”, he added.

Following six weeks of tense negotiations, the Serbian Socialists yesterday (23 June) agreed to form a government with the pro-European bloc of President Boris Tadic, in a move seen as an important step towards Serbia's future EU membership.

The agreement with the Socialist Party of former dictator Slobodan Milosevic provides Tadic's bloc with a comfortable majority in the 250-seat parliament. Tadic, who clearly won the elections in May but could not reign alone, was confident that the new government would be formed "very soon". Two smaller parties - United Serbia, a breakaway former partner of the Socialists and the Bosniak 'List for European Sandzak' - had already joined the alliance earlier (EurActiv 12/06/08).  

For the first time since the failed referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland, France has hinted at the possibility of reopening the text to address specific concerns that the Irish may have. A clearer picture could emerge following a fact-finding mission to Dublin by the French EU Presidency on 11 July.

"Then it will become clear if there is a need to reopen or not to reopen the Treaty," he said. 

MEPs in the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee on Tuesday (24 June) approved an enlargement report stressing that the EU's own capacity to absorb new states should be taken into account when considering membership applications in the future.

The EU's enlargement strategy should "strike a balance between the Union's geo-strategic interests, the impact of political developments outside its borders, and the Union's integration capacity, including its ability to cope with future internal and external challenges and to realise its political integration project," reads the report prepared by German centre-right MEP Elmar Brok.

It also comes in the aftermath of Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon treaty in a referendum 10 days ago, which has prompted divisions among EU leaders about the possibilities of continuing with the enlargement process at this stage. France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, have both declared that EU expansion will have to be halted until the document enters into force, while leaders in other countries – such as Poland – have said the process can continue.

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski attacked Greece for demonstrating "power" and "arrogance" over the infamous 'name dispute' following a disappointing EU summit for Skopje last week.

Background: In April, Athens vetoed Skopje's invitation to join NATO, arguing the name 'Macedonia' could lead Skopje to make territorial claims over Greece's own northern province of the same name.  A nationalist backlash followed in the small country of 2.5 million, which US former assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrook famously called "a hole in the middle of nothing".  Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski decided to ride on this wave and called for early elections. Macedonian legislators have ignored warnings from leading MEPs that early elections would threaten the country's EU accession (EurActiv 14/04/08). Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn warned in the meantime that the unresolved 'name dispute' with Greece could negatively affect Macedonia's EU agenda. 

The EU summit conclusions, adopted by European heads of state and government on 20 June, did not specifically mention that Macedonia would begin EU accession talks in 2008, to the disappointment of the small Balkan republic. 

Diese Internetseite bietet einen kurzen Überblick über die Transparenzinitiative. Deren Ziel besteht u. a. darin, die EU-Organe und -Einrichtungen offener und zugänglicher zu machen, besser über die Verwendung der EU-Haushaltsmittel zu informieren und der Öffentlichkeit mehr Rechenschaft über die Arbeit der EU-Organe und -Einrichtungen zu geben. Diese Seite wird im Zuge der Debatte kontinuierlich aktualisiert, so dass Sie stets die neuesten Informationen über die Ergebnisse der Diskussionen und über künftige Pläne abrufen können.

Poland is emerging as another potential problem for Lisbon Treaty ratification, with the office of the president - who has yet to sign off on the document - beginning to publicly argue that the EU pact is dead following the Irish No. "There are a lot of indications that...the Lisbon Treaty today doesn't exist in a legal sense because one of the [EU] countries rejected its ratification," presidential aide Michal Kaminski told Poland's Radio ZET on Sunday (22 June).

Enlargement of the EU will come to halt if the Lisbon treaty does not enter into force, French president Nicolas Sarkozy warned member states in the aftermath of the Irish No vote last week. "It is certain that as long as we have not solved the institutional problem, the question of enlargement is stopped de jure or de facto," he said at a press conference in Brussels on Thursday night (19 June).

But Central and eastern European EU states, traditionally favouring further EU expansion, may harm the process if they do not continue to pursue treaty ratification, said the French president. "A certain number of countries which have some reserves on the Lisbon treaty are the most active on enlargement… the Lisbon [treaty] allows further enlargement. No Lisbon, no enlargement," he added.

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has said his government will seek to complete the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty if the country's constitutional court confirms the new EU rules do not contradict the Czech constitution. Prague is one of seven European capitals where the bloc's reform treaty has not yet received a blessing from the national lawmakers, with the process currently on hold after the parliament's upper chamber sent it for a review by top judges in late April.

The EU is unlikely to agree concrete solutions to the institutional impasse created by the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty before the end of the year, the bloc's initial discussion on the issue has shown.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy noted that while there may be no set calendar, as "pressure should not be put on a country, everyone knows that there is a deadline and that is the next European elections."

On Friday, EU leaders are to agree a political statement on the situation expected to say that they respect the outcome of the Irish vote and that time be given to Dublin to find a solution. Whether it will suggest in black and white that ratification should continue is still unclear, due to Czech resistance.

The Irish No vote to the Lisbon treaty is causing headaches for many in Europe because the new basic treaty of the European Union has been in the making for more than six years and it has already been ratified by national parliaments in 18 member states. However, it is now rather clear that the new treaty is unlikely to enter into force according to the planned schedule – early next year.

There are two ways to proceed to take this direction without establishing a core Europe, forgetting about the necessary reforms altogether, or disregarding a binding vote of the people and isolating Ireland.