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For some time, scholars have argued that Western and Eastern Europe differ in terms of the political culture of their unified political communities. Since all the available evidence indicates that political culture is crucial to the economic performance and political stability of individual states, it is important to detect the drivers behind the basic beliefs of citizens, two and a half decades after the fall of communism. The Relevant World Values Survey and the European Values Survey reports repeatedly confirmed that whilst the support for democracy is strong among the citizens of the former communist Eastern Europe, their belief in the vital components of a democratic political culture is weak. It could be argued that some post-communist countries have been less successful in building the “moral infrastructure of democracy” due to the resilient democratic values deficit, based partially upon the political and economic attitudes from the past. In a separate section of this chapter, the results of a survey conducted on a group of students from the Republic of Macedonia are presented and their replies on the dichotomy between autocratic and democratic values are analyzed. By assessing the opinions of the students who had not been born when communism was still alive, it has been concluded that a substantial cultural shift will have to take place if the current system of formal democracy is to be replaced by a more effective one.

The contemporary European Union is a decentralized community. The Union’s regional policy has a long tradition, which is shaped by common EU legislation. EU regional policy is primarily directed towards overcoming disparities in the economic development of various regions, which has a strong impact on the equalization of the whole EU. Funding for the development of various regions has been constantly increasing. In 2006‐2013, 347 billion Euros were allocated to the various regions. EU policy is very dynamic and it is being continuously upgraded.Since enlargement in 2004 and 2007, the transformation of regional policy has become unavoidable because the economic disparities have significantly deepened. Bigger disparities have caused the need for changes in EU regional policy legislation.Most recently, in December 2014, a package of new legislation was adopted, with which a new legal framework was established. It is aimed at providing for a more efficient and effective management of the ERDF, ESF and CH. The new legislation is faced with the numerous of challenges. The goal has been to produce a further simplification of procedures related to regional policy, to strengthen the links of all regional projects with energy efficiency and environmental matters and to enable a more comprehensive use of the economic potential of various regions. This will require stronger cooperation between the EU, the member states, and the regions. The main aim of this chapter is to analyze the new EU regional policy legislation and to highlight its future challenges and perspectives. The paper also includes a SWOT analysis of the potential for the implementation of the new legislation, so as to determine the obstacles and potential for the further strengthening of regional policy. This paper also aims at initializing a wider debate about the future perspectives of this legislation.&nbsp

What started as the fiscal challenge later exposed dormant structural problems within the European Union, at large. Among the other crucial areas the crisis impacted on was the coherence and content of the EU foreign policy, as well. Surprisingly, the most successful foreign policy project in EU history – EU enlargement has not been seriously harmed by the protracted political turmoil in Brussels. Common EU efforts to preserve the Euro have long overcome the parameters of the economy and have become a catalyst for transforming the overall patterns of the organization. The aim of this chapter is to analyze different options contemplated thus far for the reform of EU foreign policy and their direct dependence upon the changes eventually made on a broader political level. Western Balkan countries are not part of the current debate, but, they will be heavily affected by its outcome. Our basic assumption is that regardless of the transformations that may be made, EU enlargement policy towards the Western Balkans is going to stay. We would argue that this is because the region can be integrated without substantial EU resources being applied, and also because Western Balkan countries have weak capacities to fundamentally affect the pillars of the future Union once they are admitted in it.

For the countries on the continent, the EU constitutes the most important foreign policy context. The non-military character of the organization and the soft power of its political and economic stability are highly attractive for small entities. Through institutional integration they are able to avoid marginalization in international affairs at the same time as preserving their national identities. Once inside, small member-countries are more easily able to exert influence beyond their borders than by staying out and performing individually. There is no dilemma that the foreign policy of the Republic of Macedonia should be to strive for full-fledged membership of the EU in order to compensate for its substantial ‘traditional deficit’ of power. However, in the last two years some tendencies in the foreign policy of the country have deviated from the traditional patterns of the so-called double integration agenda (EU and NATO). The ultimate aim of this paper is to expose the structural weaknesses of multi-vector foreign policy when applied by countries with the size and capacities of the Republic of Macedonia