The primary purpose of this thesis is to investigate the operation of membership criteria, which are applied against countries that wish to join the European Union (EU). More specifically, the importance of some criteria in comparison to others is considered. To answer this proposal, three questions are posed: What are the EU membership criteria? Are some criteria more important than other criteria? Does the EU treat candidate countries differently in applying the membership criteria? Three countries are used in this analysis, each country representing one recent enlargement round: Poland (2004), Romania (2007), and current candidate country Turkey. Both official documents, such as EU treaties, and unofficial documents such as statements from EU leaders are used to analyze the application of membership criteria.

The purpose of this essay is to shed some light upon the children who grew up in Sweden after their parents fled the war in former Yugoslavia. Did the parents spread their own opinions about the other ethnicities which they fought against in the war to the children, even though they live in a new country? And if so, was it an act of patriotism for the country they once lived in and who was to blame for the war? Did the children who grew up in Sweden share the same attitudes as their parents? To find out about this we used interviews with four people, all with heritage from former Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Croatia. What we found out was that the thoughts from the parents partially were passed down to their children, even though the children thought that they had formed their own opinions. In this case the thoughts didn?t relate to any kind of patriotism or who to blame for the war, they rather believed that they shouldn?t blame the other ethnic groups for the war.

Since the 1st of May 2004 Cyprus is part of the European Union. The Republic of Cyprus as a whole is part of the Union, but all of the advantages of the Union membership cannot be enjoyed in all parts of the country. Since December 1963 the Cypriot administration has been separated into two, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, and since 1974 the country is also territorially divided. The Greek Cypriot political administration is considered to be the legitimate representative of the Republic of Cyprus, the Turkish Cypriot administration is only recognised by Turkey. Since the disruption of the country in 1963 the UN has been trying to get the Cypriot parties to agree upon a peace solution in order to reunite the country.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om det finns ett samband mellan lönsamhet och storlek på rörlig samt total VD-ersättning i de största svenska aktiebolagen. I uppsatsen diskuteras även funna samband samt bakomliggande teoretiska förklaringar till VD-ersättningens storlek. För att undersöka om VD-ersättning och företags lönsamhet korrelerar utförs kvantitativa undersökningar med hjälp av regressionsanalyser för respektive år mellan 2002 och 2007. Populationen som undersökningen baseras på är de företag som i september 2009 var registrerade på Stockholmsbörsens segment Large och Mid Cap.Undersökningen resulterade i slutsatsen att inget samband mellan vare sig rörlig eller total VD-ersättning och lönsamhet kunde styrkas. Istället gavs indikationer om andra faktorer som påverkade VD-ersättningens storlek.

The aim of this study is to examine how European companies? stock price is affected by an announcement about foreign direct investment in one of the BRIC countries. Another aim for the study is to examine if the market reacts differently to the three modes of entry methods in a given BRIC country and to examine if the market reacts differently to different European countries. The study also set out to answer if there were any effects of the three modes of entry that was visible a short time after the announcement. To answer and examine this, the authors used the event study approach. The study was conducted with a sample of 47 companies from France, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Germany.

This essay has the ambition to examine and compare Croatia?s and Bosnia and Herzegovina?s development towards a consolidated democracy. By applying Linz & Stepen?s theory on how to consolidate a democracy and put focus on political society, behavioral patterns, attitude and constitutional structure the purpose is to find similarities and differences between Bosnia and Croatia within this field.The focus of this study is to compare two similar countries that have developed in very different ways. By applying the theory and a comparative method the purpose is to examine why two so similar countries with so much in common have developed in so different ways?In order to better answer the question there are two part questions and these are:What difficulties, concerning consolidation of democracy, have Croatia and Bosnia faced since the democratic transition in the beginning of the 1990s?What similarities and differences in the area of democratic consolidation (with focus on political society, behavioral patterns, attitude and constitutional structure) are there between the two countries?As the analysis shows, the main reason why these two countries differ so much is that Bosnia is a divided country with different nationalities and each nationality only wants to realize its own interest and does not care about what is best for the country as an entity.

Since the 2006 election, the debate surrounding the Swedish labour market policy has intensified. There has been a discussion about a need for change towards a more flexible labour market. An example of this is on the other side of the strait, in neighbouring Denmark. Their flexicurity model, ?the golden triangle?, is characterized by a flexible labour market, generous unemployment benefits and active labour market policies.

The special relationship between Israel and the US has been subject to questioning, and good many theories have tried to explain why it is so strong. The most common explanation is rooted in the school of realism, where strategy and national interest decide who one's ally is. This essay aspires to examine another possible reason for allianceformation; identity. Several books, which make for the theoretical backbone of this study, have been written on the subject of sharing beliefs, identifying with others and the consequences of this. The question being asked is whether Israel and the US actually share beliefs and, if so, which ones.

Due to increasing regulations regarding new diesel vehicles particulate matteremissions the new Scania truck, Scania Euro 6, has been equipped with a particulatefilter. This component effectively stores the particles in the exhaust gas but must becleaned in order to prevent itself from clogging. The filter is cleaned through aprocess named regeneration which is a thermodynamic process in which thetemperature of the filter is raised through fuel supplied to the exhaust gas.The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the development of improved controlstrategies of the temperature during the regeneration process through thedevelopment of model-based controllers. These controllers are designed in order tohave good performance in stationary as well as automatic regeneration.In order to develop these model-based controllers a model of the system isconstructed. The model is described as a linear thermodynamic grey-box model withflow varying parameters, showing good results in validation.The model provides a simulation environment during the controller design, which isfocused around the development of linear regulators with the exhaust gas mass flowas a scheduling variable whose size determines controllers? mode of operation.

The object of this essay was, first, to study what advantages parliamentary members in the participating countries argue that their country gains when university students study abroad via ERASMUS, and, second, to study two factors that might affect what advantages that are emphasised by the parliamentary members in the participating countries. To achieve this object, two research questions were posed regarding what advantages of the ERASMUS Programme are mentioned in the parliamentary debate in three countries, United Kingdom, Sweden and Germany, and regarding whether the parliamentary debate is different between the countries as concerns what advantages are emphasised. Subsequently another two research questions were studied, regarding whether the countries? different positions in Europe and the existence of euroscepticism in these countries affect what advantages of the ERASMUS Programme are emphasised in the parliamentary debate. The study was carried out using argumentation analysis, in which the arguments for participation in the ERASMUS Programme presented in the parliamentary debates were compiled and grouped together according to whether they refer to economic and professional advantages or to cultural and social advantages.

This paper examines whether membership in the European Union has contributed to democratic stability and integration in an ethnic diverse society. By studying the Latvian multicultural society, before and after membership in the EU, the author is looking for evidence of enhanced ethnic stability in the country brought through European integration. The author will analyze what the consequences have been, by adopting European regional policy, for a country that yet has to create a unified national identity. By analyzing different areas of the Latvian society, the author has concluded that the EU has played a small but yet not insignificant role for the Latvian domestic integration process..

Linnéuniversitetet Kalmar Institutionen för samhällsvetenskaper  Arbetets art:                   D-uppsats, 15 hp                                                                           Lärarprogrammet                                      Samhällsutveckling med ett internationellt perspektiv Titel:                              Hur sker implementering av förebyggande arbete gällande hiv och aids?  Författare:                      Nina Svenman Handledare:                   Gunnar Hansson ABSTRACT This study analyzes the prevention of HIV and AIDS around the region of Pretoria in South Africa. The study's starting point is the cultural, economic, social and health which is relevant when different levels of society affirms. The aim has been the basis of the representation levels of society discern what is valued and given priority as well as the measures and the strategies used in implementation. The empirical data underlying the study is qualitative studies with respondents from a university, a hospital, a school, the Swedish Embassy and an organization in order to create an image of different levels in society means to implement preventive measures on HIV and AIDS to their citizens. The result demonstrates that there are clear shortcomings in its implementation guidance on prevention measures for HIV and AIDS as lack of resources is based.

Frågeställningar: Hur påverkas kundens förtroende till AA Logistik Västerås av AA Logistik Västerås CSR-arbete?Hur påverkas kundens förtroende till AA Logistik Västerås av kundens förväntningar på AA Logistik Västerås CSR-arbete?Syfte: Syftet med studien är att beskriva hur kundens förtroende till sin transportleverantör påverkas av leverantörens CSR-arbete, samt hur förtroendet påverkas av kundens förväntningar på leverantörens CSR-arbete.Slutsats: Studien visar att transportleverantörens CSR-arbete påverkar kundens förtroende för leverantören positivt. I två av de undersökta kundrelationerna finns det inte några upplevda brister angående någon av komponenterna delade värderingar, kommunikation och opportunistiskt beteende. I den tredje kundrelationen finns mindre brister angående komponenterna kommunikation och opportunistiskt beteende, men de är förknippade med en så liten del av relationen att det inte har någon större betydelse för hur det påverkar förtroendet från kund till leverantör. Att en stor majoritet av förväntningarna hos kunderna har uppfyllts gällande CSR-arbetet, styrker påståendet om att CSR-arbetet påverkar förtroendet positivt ytterligare..

This paper examines the European Commission?s, newly established, ?Register of interest representatives? The analysis is divided in two parts, first I analyze the registers purpose, the kind, and detail, of information it contains and the different kinds of groups that are supposed to register. After that I analyze the organizations in the register more thoroughly, using a database of my own creation. The database was constructed with information drawn from the register, as well as information from external sources. Regarding the design and purpose of the register, I find that improvements in the design are needed, if the register is to fulfill its purpose.

In an attempt to develop a more cost-efficient material for solar   energy applications, nano-particles of nickel oxide composite in a silikatmatris manufactured with solar gelmethod and studied structurally by electron microscopy. Furthermore, the thin film optical properties characterized by Variable. Angel Spectroscopic Ellipsometry. Sol gelfilms suitability as a selective absorber surface is also analyzed by optical modeling..