AbstractIn this thesis I will discuss the relationship between the European Union and the regions of Europe. The development of the European Union has meant that many decisions are taken in Bruxelles. Many actors participate in the policyprocess ranging from national goverment to policynetworks of different kinds. An emerging actor has been the regions of Europe. Their influence on the policyprocess have grown and today almost all of them are represented in Bruxelles through Region Offices.

Since the introduction of the European citizenship in the Maastricht treaty, social rights havetaken a back seat to the economic and political elements. Nevertheless, over the past yearssocial issues have been increasingly included on the agenda following the universalrecognition of challenges resulting from further economic integration and demographicchange. The extensive research on European social policy so far tend to focus on initiativesput forward by the European Commission, and offers little to explain the multitude of lines ofreasoning on how far EU social policy should be taken or why it still remains one of the leastdeveloped policy areas. By examining plenary debates in the European Parliament concerningfamily policy, this Bachelor thesis aims to describe the complex of problems connected to afurther development of the social dimension of the European citizenship.The analysis finds that the most imminent problems impeding an expansion of the EU familypolicy lie not only in the many clashes of opinions between advocates of the various existingwelfare models, but also in the conflicts of interests and the different levels of ambitionbetween EU institutions - most notably the Commission and the European Parliament..

This essay is about Turkey and its relation to the European union. EU is originally an economic organization; today it has developed to involve other aspect like culture and history. By using theories like motivation and non-decision making I have studied the reason why Turkey is still waiting in the agenda of the union. With the help of the theories I have discussed about Turkey?s possibilities to become a member of the European union.

This thesis examines the interaction between European football and the European Union and if it can generate Europeanization. By using theories of Johan P Olsen and Claudo M Radaelli a theoretical framework was constructed in which Europeanization is seen as an interaction between the European level and the domestic level. The Europeanization is regarded as a two way process with elements of top-down and bottom-up pressures. The study focus on the changes and the actors in the Europeanization process and how the European Union as a top-level and European football as a bottom-level influence each other to European changes. The theoretical framework is used to analyze the Bosman case and the Cotonou agreement's implementation in a Swedish football context.

The 1990s were one of the most profitable periods for European airline companies, mainly because of development of world economy and increasing globalisation trends. However, towards the end of the decade, a global economic downturn, high oil prices and new forms of competition turned the industry towards troubled times. The European air-travel industry had to face and accept the new airline business concept, called low-cost or no-frill airlines. In these conditions, traditional airlines had to rethink their strategies and question the old business model. As a response to the competition, European traditional full-service airlines formed alliances or networks to expand the route network and to increase efficiency.

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..

The European Union is struggling to maintain democracy and tries to increase the participation among the citizens in Europe. The European Citizens? Initiative, ECI, is a platform established by the European Commission to allow citizens to propose new legislation. ?Water and sanitation are a human right! Water is a public good, not a commodity!? is the first ECI that has met the requirements.

In order to facilitate trade between EU members, the European Committee has created regulations that will govern supervision of organic products. Every regulatory agency shall, according to the European Committees regulations, carry out a risk classification of each organic producer they regulate. This study for The National Food Administration compares regulation of Swedish organic products with other countries, and aims to produce a simplified model based on risk that can be the beginning of the risk classification model that Sweden in the current situation don?t have. The thesis is based on three questions: 1) What criteria should we use for assigning organic food producers? 2) How do selected European countries and frontrunners rate organic producers and what can Sweden learn from them? 3) How might a national classification model of organic production look in order to ensure an equivalent level of regulation and prevent competition among private inspection bodies? A review of information gathered from the different countries gave differing results.

This bachelor thesis aim to explore in what way the Euro crisis have affected the reciprocal relationship between European identity and the attitudes towards the euro, and how it differs between the members in the Eurozone and members that have not yet introduced the euro. This thesis is grounded in a theoretical view that the euro is a symbol through which European identity is created, but also that European identity is a factor for the attitudes towards the euro as a single currency. By statistical analysis of empirical data collected through the Eurobarometer, I discover that there is a difference between how the relationship between the European identity and the attitudes towards the euro changes during the Euro crisis. Members without the euro seems to be more affected than members with the euro, as the correlation between European identity and attitudes towards the euro weakens for members without the euro, which do not seem to be the case in member countries within the Eurozone..

The aim of this master?s thesis is to analyse the construction of European identity in three ofcontemporary EU initiated projects for the digitisation of collections from museums, archives, andlibraries. The source material consists of the web pages of the projects Minerva, MICHAEL, andEuropeana, as well as some other policy documents on digitisation and access from EU authorities.Theories on nationalism and construction of heritage are used as an overall context to the problem.After a brief description of the mentioned projects, the author undertakes an analysis of theways that the concept of ?European heritage? is depicted in the source material. The result is thefollowing: normally, the true European heritage is considered being united even though it isdiveded culturally, historically and linguistically.

Today Europe is faced with an identity crisis concerning its borders. Turkey stands at the threshold for an EU-membership while the EU-Commission is trying to formulate what constitutes a European identity. This identity seeking process will determine the future not only for Turkey, but also for immigrants now living in Europe.In this thesis a discourse analysis, underpinned by socialconstructionist theory, is conducted to explore how the European identity has been constructed throughout history up until today. A starting point is that identity always is defined through a dialectical relationship to "otherness". Therefore the analysis is focused not only on what a European identity consists of but also what and who it excludes.

AbstractA European identityA study of Manuel Castells criteria?s to create a European identityC-Essay in Political Science, by Helena Saagpakk, August 2007Supervisor: Björn ÅkerbergPhilosophers and visionaries dreamt early on the idea about a united Europe. This dream was destroyed by the two world wars during the first half of the 20th century. The first community was established in 1950 after the Second World War. This was the beginning of a peaceful cooperation between the member states, and the community later developed into the European Union.

The European identity plays an important role for the EU and especially within its will to further integrate its citizens, hence it is a way for individuals to not only identify with its nation, yet also with Europe. Previous research has already established that an individual can possess two territorial identities, such as a national and a European identity, above all it has established how the identities can equally interplay. Further it has been explained how territorial identities are composed of two aspects: civic and cultural. While the previous research has stated how the European identity possesses both aspects, though to varying degrees, little attention has been put to examine how individuals who possesses multiple territorial identification, defines its European identity. This study therefore aims to study which aspects, civic or cultural, individuals with a citizenship who possess multiple territorial identification, assign their European identity.

AbstractSince democracy was developed in the ancient Greece it has come to be used within a small city state, within the national state and as today used within a bigger perspective. After the end of the second world war political leaders wanted to make sure that there would never be a war between European countries again. Now, about 60 years later this type of cooperation now involves 27 of the European countries and goes under the name of the Euroapean Union. This means that democracy is no longer used just within the nation state, but within a big organisation that is responsible for almost 500 million Europeans lives. This also means that the European Union need to make some institutional reforms to be able to handle all the future challenges.

Within the political science research it is common to examine the effects on the national parliaments caused by European integration. In this Bachelor Thesis the aim is instead to show what involvement of the national parliaments in the European Union implicates to the European integration process.The object of examination is the introduction of the parliaments as supervisors of draft legislative acts, this is also known as ?the Early Warning Mechanism?, through the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. An analysis of answers from the national parliaments in the tests of three pilot cases, conducted by the COSAC, is made with help of Institutional theory and an Europeanization perspective.The main findings show that the mechanism of early warning probably will not become an obstacle for continued European integration, but it could slow down the process in some areas. Most probably though is that the mechanism forces the national parliaments to adapt and to be better equipped to react at events taking place at the European level.