This bachelor thesis in European studies examines the perceived effects ofEuropeanization among officers, soldiers and seamen in the Swedish Armed Forces(SAF) through the use of semi-structured respondent interviews. The study focuses onchange in rules, values, identity and organizational changes.The study shows the most important parts of what is believed to be the biggestfactors behind the major change in the SAF during the last 20 years. The biggestfactors are shown to be the fall of the Warsaw pact and the increasing influence ofNATO in Europe. Interviews show that staff within the SAF has difficultiesseparating change coming from the EU and the above-mentioned factors, partially dueto the fact that most members of the European union are also part of NATO. Although in some areas, such as the completion of the Nordic Battlegroup, EU has played an important role and presents itself as a major factor in the ongoing change of the SAF..

ABSTRACTUniversity: Växjö University, school of social science, department of political scienceLevel: Bachelor?s thesis in political scienceTitle: SHIFTING BALANCE OF POWER? ? an analyze of the new EU-treaty?s consequences for the EC-court.Academic adviser: Associate professor Stefan HöjelidAuthor: Magnus NordahlThis study focuses on the increased role of the European Court of Justice through the establishment of a Constitution for Europe and its impact on the balance of power, both horizontal and vertical.To do this, the study takes its aims from the research problem, formulated as follows:Does the establishment of a constitution for Europe contribute to an increased role for the European Court of Justice and does it create a more legible horizontal and vertical division of power?To reach the relevant analyses and conclusions two precise questions are presented as well as an analytical model. The precise questions are:? Which are the relevant contributions for the balance of power from a perspective of juridification in the new EU-treaty?? What impacts do those contributions have on the so called ?European federalism??The theoretical perspective of this study is rooted in the concept of federalism with special emphasizes on constitution and sovereignty as well as a part about the process of juridification. Along with the presented analytical model consisting of a horizontal and vertical division of power, the empirical material is presented with focus on the new EU-treaty about a constitution for Europe and the European Court of Justice.

The purpose of this masters thesis is to study two subject gate-ways within the field of Swedish higher education and academic research, concerning structuring and selection of Internet resources to facilitate information retrieval for their target groups, and also to study two co-operation projects in the same field, one national and one European, to see how the co-operation is being carried through and how the gateways in the projects can serve from a wider perspective. The gateways, AGORA and NOVAGate, are being studied mainly by their Web sites and two e-mail interviews with persons responsible for the gateways. Facts about the national project are principally based on an interview with BIBSAM. The European Renardus is being studied out of articles and information on the Web site. From the results of the study it is being clear that the purpose of the gateways is to make a quality-selection of information accessible via the Internet and thereby facilitate for their target groups to find usable information.

The common asylum and migration policy of the European Union is a struggle between a strong belief in the protection of human rights and the need of strong and secured borders. This paper highlights the dilemma that occurs in the common asylum and migration policy of the European Union. What happens when the union have to choose between liberal standards with high priorities to human rights and a realistic focus on security? The aim is to study the asylum policy presented in the Stockholm Program, and thereafter evaluate what kind of character the union has itself. By an ideal type analysis of the Stockholm program from 2009, the common asylum policy is divided into either liberal or realistic ideas.

Recent changes in Swedish law suggest new groups of ?desired? labor migrants, which international students is an example of. Despite this, international students in Sweden have received little previous attention in the literature. The current study focused on international master students? experiences of job searching in Sweden and challenges they face in job searching, recruitment, and workplaces.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the 9/11 attacks, the landscape of the freedom of religion has changed. The issues now facing freedom of religion varies greatly from the issues that the drafters of the universal declaration of human rights faced after World War II.In the light of the new issues that States face in the intersection of religion and societal interest, scholars have criticized the European Court of Human Rights to give too much leeway to the States in determining how the human rights should be implemented, by using the doctrine of margin of appreciation. Critics of the margin of appreciation claim that it is based on culture relativism and that the doctrine undermines the universality of the human rights. In order to decide if the margin of appreciation has indeed led to a relativization of the human rights I compared it to the jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee and its use of the Syracusa principles. My conclusion is that the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights cannot be considered to be based on culture relativism.

The purposes of this thesis is study the European Court of Justice from a non legal perspective and investigate the courts possibility to advance its own preferred goals rather that of the member states in cases of non-compliance. Drawing on general principal-agent theory I construct a model from which I derive certain hypothesis mainly about under what circumstances we should expect the Court to be more sensitive to member states preferences and under what circumstances we should expect the Court to be less sensitive. These hypotheses are then tested empirically against all cases of non-compliance initiated by the European Commission against member states between 1953-2000. The results from the study are rather positive. The most important result is that when the threat of sanctions against the Court increases so does the Courts sensitiveness to member states preferences and when it decreases so does the Courts sensitiveness..

Currently there is a tendency in the EU to adjust the minimum-capital requirement. In France and Germany the requirement for private limited liabilities has been totally abolished, whilst other countries have chosen to reduce their requirement. The Swedish law concerning the minimum-capital requirement is from 1st of April 2010 being lowered to 50 000 SEK. In common law jurisdictions such as United Kingdom and USA a minimum-capital requirement does not exist. The european main argument to keep such a requirement is that it accomplishes a creditor protection.

The starting point of this study is theories of European integration, which are used to formulate different scenarios about the future of the European Union. This is made in regards to the eurocrisis which has intensified the discussion about how to change the construction of the euro to overcome the economic difficulties that has arisen. In this study, four different scenarios are presented: "An updated Europe", "A new Europe", "The death of the euro" and "Goodbye Greece". The first two scenarios takes its starting point in the neofunctionalist theory of European integration and describes how the EU might increase its level of integration in different ways. We can either see a development where the EU tries to improve the implementation of the rules that are meant to coordinate the member states? economic policy, or we might encounter a more advanced integration where fiscal policy competences are transferred to the EU-level.The latter scenarios, however, takes another theory in to account, liberal intergovernmentalism, and describes how the eurozone might be fragmented in different ways due to conflicts of interest between lenders and countries that has to receive loan-packages.

The purpose of this study was to look at the experiences of midwives in maternalhealth care encounters with non-european-born women and men, and to determine ifmidwives deem any special competence necessary to handle these encounters well.We gathered information by means of qualitative interviews and semi structuredquestions with eight midwives all of whom matched the inclusion criterias and gavetheir personal consent. Midwives from four district health care centers in Uppsalawere included. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed by means of qualitativecontent analysis.The results reveal the experiences from encounters with non-european patients to betwofold. On one hand the encounter is a positive, exiting experience with anopportunity to learn more about a foreign culture and exchange experiences. On theother hand complications can occur as patients may have unexpected expectationsregarding the health care, have great difficulties with the language or haveexperienced traumatizing incidents, all on top of coming to Sweden alone withoutrelatives.In the encounter with non-european-born patients the midwives consider it importantto have special competence in form of knowledge of other cultures and religions asthis provides a greater understanding of the reasoning behind the patients? decisions.Cultural competence is also important as it helps avoid inadvertently insulting thepatient during the encounter.The special competence held by the midwives has been attained from their basic andspecialist education as well as from self acquired experiences and interests.

After the last European Union expansion the east European countries became members of the European Union. This meant that they would become apart of the Schengen agreement and that they would be able to travel, live and work anywhere in Europe. This came as a shock tothe Scandinavian trade unions that were worried that work migration would escalate, and that it would lead to social dumping, which would make the working conditions worse for the native workers. .The Swedish labour market is build up by the principal of negotiations. The evolution of the labour laws comes from the rules and regulations of collective agreements.The Lex Britannia principal was made to regulate the working conditions for guest workers in Sweden, by making it possible for trade unions to take industrial action against foreign companies to make them sign a Swedish collective agreement.Even though Swedish labour law includes an obligation to maintain industrial peace it is not valid for foreign companies.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the 9/11 attacks, the landscape of the freedom of religion has changed. The issues now facing freedom of religion varies greatly from the issues that the drafters of the universal declaration of human rights faced after World War II.In the light of the new issues that States face in the intersection of religion and societal interest, scholars have criticized the European Court of Human Rights to give too much leeway to the States in determining how the human rights should be implemented, by using the doctrine of margin of appreciation. Critics of the margin of appreciation claim that it is based on culture relativism and that the doctrine undermines the universality of the human rights. In order to decide if the margin of appreciation has indeed led to a relativization of the human rights I compared it to the jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee and its use of the Syracusa principles. My conclusion is that the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights cannot be considered to be based on culture relativism.

Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this paper is to describe how a number of strategically selected employees at the Swedish Institute, with the purpose to promote Sweden in the world, look at the challenges facing Sweden concerning nation branding in the new era of cooperation within the European Union. I examine how these people look upon the work of public diplomacy and nation branding in order to actively participate and influence the EU's common communications platform.Material/Method: The method used in this thesis is qualitative interviews. The reason why I chose this method is because I consider it to be the most appropriate in order to collect information about how these selected employees at the Swedish institute regard the challenges that lay ahead in terms of nation branding within the European Union.Main results: On the basis of the results I have gained by dint of the analysis, it can be concluded that it is of utmost importance to take the societal changes, which are a result both of the worldwide globalization and the EU cooperation, into consideration when designing a future communication strategy for the Swedish Institute. The nation-state continues to play an important role in Sweden, but its importance is declining as the EU cooperation is progressing. The citizens? identity plays a crucial role in designing a nation?s communications strategy, and from the analysis I conclude that we move not from a Swedish to a European identity, but towards a pluralistic union where multiple identities meet under one umbrella; the EU..

This essay is about the origin, planning and establishment of the European Space Research Organisation's (ESRO) sounding rocket base Esrange outside Kiruna in Northern Sweden. Three main questions are examined. First I show there were not just scientific and technical but also political, economical as well as military reasons to build a European rocket base. Second, I scrutinize the reasons to choose Northern Sweden as the location for the rocket base. As it turns out, the main reasons were the favourable location of Northern Sweden within the aurora oval zone, the proximity of the Kiruna Geophysical Observatory, and the possibility to use a large, although not quite uninhabited, area where the launched rockets could crash.

The Common Agricultural Policy has been a burning topic for debate for severaldecades. According to the CAP:s opponents it's effects include pollution, market distortionsand not least a huge expense for the European union.In this study we seek to explain why the CAP has remained almostunreformed since it's constitution in the 1950:s. The means by which we do so isa case study where we analyze the CAP by using three different theories; liberalinter-governmentalism, realistic trade theory and new institutionalism.In the final chapter we conclude that the theories complement each other. Newinstitutionalism explains the rigidity of the CAP. The liberal perspective explainsthe origin and the logic behind the policy whereas the realistic point of view putsthe policy in the light of an international economic theory and recognizes nationalpolicy makers roll in the inflexibility of the CAP..