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This article attempts to clarify the modalities and degree to which advisory bodies, exemplified by The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), are capable of contributing to European Union (EU) governance processes and legitimacy-building in a meaningful manner. Besides acknowledging their contribution via provision of information and technical expertise, serious inquiries into the mechanisms through which EU advisory bodies operate are scarce. In that sense, this paper strives to elucidate the added value of the EESC. The author applies discursive institutionalism and legitimacy taxonomies to explain the functional development and character of the EESC. The paper concludes that the EESC seems to have focused to a lesser extent on influencing EU legislative initiative (dominantly on the public policy items in which the EESC disposes of the highest specific expertise, and administrative/ ideational capacities), and more on promoting itself as the bridgehead of organised civil society in the EU. It does so through its deliberative working methods and by detecting topical niches through which the EESC specializes in building civil society, mediating between civil society organisations (CSOs) and the EU, and nurturing decent relationships with CSOs on Member State, candidate country and third country levels. Finally, a novel window of opportunity has opened for the EESC to transmit the voice of civil society to the EU level and to influence EU socio-economic governance, namely through the procedures of the so-called European Semester. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Next to the Mediterranean region, Eastern Europe is set as one of the most important areas for the implementation of various EU policies. European Union enlargement policy, European Neighbourhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership are the most important instruments that ensure the construction of a democratic order in the European neighborhood. It is clear that the ultimate goal of EU policy towards its neighbors is to achieve security and stability. The aim of this paper is to point out that the European Union since the breakup of the Soviet Union, with various policies and instruments, is constantly present in the region of Eastern Europe. Emphasis is placed on measures and policies by which the European Union maintains its position in an attempt to stabilize the Eastern neighborhood. The paper will first define the region of Eastern Europe, and then provide a review of bilateral relations between the European Union and the Eastern European countries that participate in the Eastern Partnership (Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine). Analysis of bilateral relations tries to point out to what extent and in what way the European Union is present in the region of Eastern Europe and what are the main goals of the European Union in relation to the said countries. In the last part, the author gives the concluding remarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the dilemmas regarding the nature of the European Union in contemporary political science and in the field of European Studies as a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field. The first part focuses on the evolution of the European Union from the original European Coal and Steel Community, via the European Economic Community, to its growth into a political union. The Maastricht Treaty, which lay the foundations of the European Union as a political union of its member states, instigated a debate on the actual nature of this supranational union as political construct. Consequently, the author analyses the various characteristics of the European Union, which is manifest in various forms, and asserts that it has some "state- -like features" and some "organisation-like features", which are characteristic of international organizations. In the approach to the European Union as a supra-state community, some essential traits of both federation and confederation are simultaneously manifest, corresponding to two tendencies in the development of the European Union as a super-state. Moreover, there is the conception of the European Union as an empire. Finally, this paper specifies the tasks of present-day political science and the need to find a new heuristic instrument, which, according to the author, can be found in the conception of the political system that was introduced in political science (comparative politics) by Gabriel Almond and David Easton. Such an approach, which is nowadays further developed by Jean-Pierre Quermonne, Wolfgang Wessels and Simon Hix, is additionally strengthened by the fact that various models of democratic practice are being incorporated in the European Union in opposition to the basic, legitimacy-related democratic deficit, models which confirm the possible conclusion regarding a European Union as a complex community with many faces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the author analyses the possibility of 'creating' a European political people and forming a European political identity and a European political community. In the first, theoretical part of the paper, the author defines two concepts of people -- demos and ethnos -- and describes problems in identity building on purely political grounds of people as demos. By examining the references on a European political people in the EU legal foundations, the author illustrates dual premises of legitimacy for the Union and the Union's identity referents which are generally of a universalist nature. In the second, empirical part of the paper, the author presents how the European identity is formed, in line with classic distinction between 'civic' and 'ethnic' identity. Since the Eurobarometer survey showed a low level of European identification of EU member states' citizens, the author presents concepts which aim to overcome the low level of European afiliation. In the final part of the paper the question which is examined is whether the existence of a European political people is necessary for the future of the European integration. To this end, the author uses various theoretical approaches to the 'creation' of a European political people: economic/market approach, communitarian/ statist approach, 'constitutional patriotism' of Habermas, Weiler's 'multiple demoi' and pluralism/particularism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author analyzes the Polish 2003 EU membership referendum. In the first part of the paper she looks into the factors which influenced the evolution of individual political actors in the course of the European debate in Poland. Due to the increasing interest in the significance of the EU-related issues for the consolidation of the political system in Poland, the first part of the paper focuses on the EU-membership debate and on the role of the political elite and the public support. In the second part the author analyzes the role of the referendum in that debate and its impact on the political actors' strategy. The author analyzes the mobilization of the pro-European and the anti-European camp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of good governance is analyzed with particular emphasis on reasons that contributed to its development, main characteristics and possible impact on reform approaches which aim at achieving quality of contemporary governance. Different conceptions and developmental characteristics of governance are firstly examined, concluding with contemporary conceptualization that tends to widely engage citizens and civil society in the decision-making process, and at the same time accomplish greater effectiveness of public services as a precondition to economic and social development. According to findings presented in this article, this modern approach to the study of governance is in close connection with the effects of managerial reforms and the globalization process. Good governance principles introduced in the European Commission's document “European Governance - A White Paper” are especially focused on. The research's starting assumption was that those principles derive from the so-called Copenhagen criteria, or political, economic and institutional conditions for membership in the European Union. The article identifies three main characteristics of different approaches to the concept of good governance: strengthening of administrative capacities, determination of principles which should contribute to the quality of contemporary governance assessment, and wider engagement of and consultation with the civil society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The texts focuses on constitutionalisation of democracy in the European Union and the phenomenon of democratic deficit through the failed Constitution for Europe and, thereafter, the Lisbon Treaty, which takes over the definition of democracy as the foundation of the European Union. In this context, the author also looks into the contribution of political scientist Zvonko Posavec, who was one of the first in Croatia to advocate the need for constitutionalisation of the European Union as a project of finalising the process of European integration. While writing about the need for constitutional foundation of the European Union, Posavec simultaneously reflects on representative democracy as the form of democracy on which the European Union is predominantly founded. Beside a valorisation of Posavec's works on democracy in the European Union, this paper deals with the problem of the democratic deficit in the European Union which is manifest in the lack of democratic legitimacy of EU institutions, with the sole exception of the European Parliament. The author finds, however, that the main deficit of the European Union is not the democratic process, but political alienation. He perceives the latter as alienation of citizens from the EU as a derivative community, non-transparent and distanced from the basic interests of the citizens and the media interest in politics. Although the European Union declaratively relies on basic democratic values, in practice democracy is experienced primarily through a democratic deficit contrasted by a more obvious bureaucratic surfeit of the European political construction. The author asserts that the Lisbon Treaty was a step towards founding the EU on democratic principles inasmuch as it introduced elements of participative democracy, although it did not accept proposals for introduction of direct democracy in the EU. Finally, the author puts forward some ideas which might reduce the degree of political alienation of citizens in relation to the European Union; this requires giving greater authority to the European Parliament, abolishing the monopoly of the legislative initiative of the European Commission, incorporating the Council of the European Union into the European Parliament as the second House, i.e. the European Senate, and consequently implementing the mechanism of consulting the citizens regarding the legislative initiatives of the EU. The author concludes that the democratic deficit and political alienation cannot be overcome in the European Union without overcoming the democratic deficits and concrete forms of political alienation in the member states which the European Union consists of. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main proposition of this paper is that the Croatian legal framework for higher education fails to meet the criteria of the internal market of the EU. In the first part, the author draws a distinction between education as public good and education as service, and explains how EU law affects the regulatory autonomy of the Member States in the area of higher education. In the second part, the author analyses hitherto identified barriers to the exercise of market, freedoms created by national legal frameworks of higher education. The third part discusses the Croatian legal framework and tests it against EU standards. The author concludes that deficiencies of Croatian higher education law are partly caused by the ignorance of policy makers and partly by the structural weakness of the negotiating process, where chapters are negotiated independently from one another and focused on formal fulfillment of benchmarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the increasingly acute problem of low voter turnout for the elections for the European Parliament. The author identifies the key determinants of electoral participation, and focuses on how election campaigns affect the electorates' mobilization. By analyzing the results of various polls and by applying Sinnott's model of voter participation to the Slovenian institutional context, the author outlines the key circumstances leading to the disturbingly low voter turnout. The author points out the weaknesses of the institutional preconditions -- in the form of certain awkward electoral institutions, primarily regarding the institutional mobilization marked by halfbaked electoral strategies of political parties and the unremarkable and dull campaigns -- that are supposed to increase voter participation. The low level of institutional mobilization has evidently affected the electorate-s perceptions of power and trust in political institutions. This is why the institutional incentives for taking a vote have not been sufficient. By way of conclusion the author offers some recommendations concerning how to alter and improve the electoral institutions and the practice of the EU political parties, states and institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The turmoils in international relations following the fall of the Berlin wall represented a serious challenge for the overall concept of European political unity. In its first international assignment outside the context of the Cold war, traditional national interests and animosities surfaced, and they demonstrated rather precisely all the complexity of the project promulgated by the Maastricht Agreement. At the time there was no common European approach to the solution of the crisis on the territory of the former Yugoslavia and no consent regarding the key issues, such as the recognition of the former Yugoslav republics as sovereign entities i.e. defining the criteria for their recognition. The paper focuses on this very specificity of the new approach to this problem, since it has increasingly been a subject of discretionary political decisions rather than the issue of international law in the traditional sense of meeting certain criteria for state recognition. And finally, concerning the degree of encroaching upon national sovereignty, there is a marked difference between the nature of the process of shaping a common foreign and security policy and shaping policies in other areas (e.g. transport, science and education, and so on). Also, the importance of developing an awareness of this difference as the main precondition for the realization of the project of the EU political integration is pointed out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]