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Starting with the mid-1990s, the present contribution deals with the discussion in the German press of the eastward expansion of the European Union. The author deliberately chose to focus on two new members, the Czech Republic and Romania, in order to demonstrate that the recurring leitmotifs and narratives of the debate can be traced back to the semantics of specific possibilities of how to describe social space and its dynamics. Three paradigmatic notions of social space are evaluated and their consequences for describing and assessing "old" and "new" regions of the EU analyzed. In the media debate, however, these notions have always remained implicit, never have they been named, never has any reflection been voiced about them. Also striking is the fact that they have been used in the same sense by papers of differing political orientation and that there has been very little change over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with theoretical and practical position of the president in the Romanian political system. After the fall of the Ceausescu's regime Romania adopted semipresidential model, but Romanian semipresidentialism is often discussed mainly concentrating on the role of the head of state. Although the position of the president defined in the Constitution is significant, the real exercise of power of the head of state is often criticized for misuse of power. Authors firstly shortly describe the establishment of the semipresidential model in Romania and the reasons why it was chosen, then the Constitution dealing with the powers of the president is analyzed. The main goal of this article is to find the answer what are the conflicts of the presidents with the Parliament like and whether the criticism of the heads of state from the point of view of misuse of power and unconstitutional behaviour is right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]