AbstractPolitical Science, level III thesisSpring semester 2010Author: Emelie AlfredssonSupervisor: Tomas Mitander"A Changed Leadership? - A study of the EU leadership from a institutional standpoint, related to multilateral environmental negotiations"The EU has for a relatively long time considered itself a leader in the environmental policy area as a whole as well as in multilateral environmental negotiations. This study attempts to classify and identify the European leadership with the purpose of relating it to the institutional framework of the Union. The treaties of the European Union decide its ability to act and its institutions the right to engage in different policy areas, the environmental area being the focus of this study. With the recent ratification of the Lisbon treaty this study aims to make out if the type of leadership the Union showed during the Kyoto negotiations has changed with the new treaty, into a new type during the COP-15 meeting in Copenhagen.

This thesis analyses how the European Unions institutions deal with the issue of illegal and harmful content on the Internet in key documents presented during the period 19961999. Particular attention is attached to content where the legal status is determined in relation to the user and to content that is legal, but characterized as harmful and entailing a need for special protective measures. The theoretical and methodological approach draws on discourse theory as formulated by Laclau and Mouffe. The thesis studies how the problem is represented in key documents from the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, with particular regard to the discourse on harmfulness, the child and Europe. The findings are that the overall discourse has shifted focus over time, from an emphasis on the protection of minors toward a more market-oriented discourse stressing the importance of protecting the competitiveness of the European economy.

This article discusses desirable political representation within the framework of representative democracy. In the desirable representation it is the responsibility of the politician to balance authoritative decision making with responsiveness towards the voters. The article intends to make visible the ethical complexity within representative democracy. Ethically the commission to represent is further complicated because the political parties constitute a central role in the political life and request loyalty of the politician. At the same time the politician is elected by the voters and thus the representative has to balance the dual representation.The politician can meet supplementary but also contradictory norms of action in decision taking.

Saproxylic lichens in managed forests have less substrate available than in unmanaged forests due to the shortage of dead wood. However, a suitable substrate for these lichens could be dead branches on living trees. To this date, there has not been any systematically collected data about theabundance of dead branches on living trees and the lichens growing on these branches in managed forests. The aim of this study was to see where dead branches were located on living trees of Pinus sylvestris and Picea abies, how large the surface area of these branches was and what lichens grewof wood on these branches. The study was made in Finspång, Sweden, where 11 forest stands of P.sylvestris and P.

Forestry affects most of the forest-covered land in Sweden. In the landscape, the most common stream type is headwaters, which are important sites for many processes and organisms in both the terrestrial and the aquatic ecosystems. The aim of this study was to investigate how the abundance of benthic invertebrate functional feeding groups in headwater streams develops after clear-cutting and if it also is possible to detect a change in the composition of feeding groups. The study also attempts to determine what factors have an effect on temporal changes in abundance of these groups. For the study, 11 sites in northern Sweden were sampled for benthic invertebrates using a Surber-sampler, and for each site canopy-cover and pH was obtained.

The aim of my bachelor?s thesis is to investigate, through a literature review, changes in the distribution of filamentous algae as well as the general species composition of macroalgae and diatoms in Swedish eelgrass meadows. I have also studied the possibility of tracking these algae and diatoms in eelgrass meadows using eDNA methodology. The focus has been on linking these changes to climate change factors such as eutrophication, temperature increase, and anthropogenic emissions, and how these affect the health of eelgrass meadows and their ecosystem services, such as a carbon sink and biodiversity support. The results show that filamentous algae have increased markedly in coverage in Swedish coastal areas between 1980 and 2021, especially in sheltered bays, indicating that altered environmental conditions favor these fast-growing species. Genetic tracking using eDNA demonstrated that there are functional primers for many species, particularly among brown algae and red algae, whereas green algae require more specific primers due to greater genetic variation.

Bakgrund: Antalet personer som insjuknar i demenssjukdom o?kar va?rlden o?ver. Behovet efter utbildad personal och sjuksko?terskans ansvar att kunna ge sto?d och hja?lp till demenssjukas anho?riga o?kar da?rfo?r ocksa? da? en demenssjukdom pa?verkar hela familjen.Syfte: Syftet a?r att beskriva anho?rigas upplevelser av att ha en na?ra familjemedlem med demenssjukdom.Metod: En systematisk litteraturstudie enligt Evans (2002) analysmetod har anva?nts fo?r att analysera 12 stycken kvalitativa artiklar. Nyckelfynd sammanfo?rdes och bildade tre teman och sex stycken subteman.Resultat: Resultatet pa?visar att anho?riga upplever blandade ka?nslor av att en na?ra familjemedlem fa?tt diagnosen demenssjukdom.

The aim of this study is to investigate differences that exist in Estonia and Russia with regard to civil society, democracy and corruption and try to find out what can be possible causes to the vast differences in these two countries. Many political scientists claim that civil society plays a key role in democratic transitions. This paper takes its point of departure in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed and Estonia and Russia became independent. Since then Estonia has had a flourishing economy which attract many foreign investments, with Sweden as the greatest investor. The country has also managed well to adjust quickly from totalitarianism to democracy.

EU law is superior to Swedish domestic law, and it is on Sweden's responsibility to implement the COJ judgments so that it becomes compatible with EU law. The advantage of the Union being superior is the internal market given the member states.However, problems arise when the Swedish legislature goes further in its interpretation of EU law. Restrictions can be imposed but it must be considered to be strongly motivated so the restriction outweighs the need to maintain the freedoms granted by EU law. In Cadbury Schweppes, the court states that restrictions on freedom of establishment may be done to counter artificial arrangements whose sole purpose is to evade the national tax. Its further stated that an artificial arrangement does not exist in those cases there is a real business, even through the establishment in the low-taxing country is economically justified. The Swedish CFC rules states that the general rule is that if an establishment in a country within the EEA, which have lower corporate tax than 55% of the Swedish tax, the shareholder of this company is taxed on its current share in Sweden. The outcome of Cadbury Schweppes has not been made into a general rule, it became the exception. In addition to that in Sweden it is presumed that the company is an artificial arrangement that expressly are prohibited by the EUD, as well been implemented to supplement the rule, where the Swedish legislature changes the meaning of the term granted by the appeal. The Swedish legislature has amended the original economically motivated establishment, to be commercially motivated. The term is undefined, but applicable elsewhere in the Incometaxlaw and from this one can find that, for an establishment to be considered as commercially motivated the decisions to establish should be taken to promote normal profit-making enterprises based upon commercially motivated decisions..

Metod/Method: Semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med kommunchefen, personalchefen, fyra medarbetare och en facklig representant i Sala kommun. Materialet från intervjuerna analyserades sedan bland annat med hjälp av två av Morgans organisationsmetaforer, Kotters 8 steg, agil projektledning och Derbys tidigare forskning inom området./ Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with the local head of government, the human resource manager, four employees and a union member in Sala kommun. The material from the interviews was then analyzed with help from Morgans organizational metaphors, Kotters 8 step, agile project management and Derbys earlier research on the area. Slutsatser/Results: En organisationsförändring enligt agil projektledning innebar att de teoretiska rekommendationerna för hur en organisationsförändring ska genomföras följdes. Att personalen gjordes delaktig i förändringen gjorde att motståndet mot organisationsförändringen kunde minimeras vilket var den största fördelen. De nackdelar som fanns med en agil projektledning vid organisationsförändringen var i princip obefintliga i jämförelse med fördelarna./ Organizational change according to agile project management made sure that the presented theoretical recommendations on how to succeed with organizational change were followed.

The aim of this master?s thesis is to study the discourses on culture as developed by EU Commission. The method applied is a discoursebased historical analysis, where analysis of arguments and metaphors are functional to the enlightening of the construction of discourses within EU cultural policy. EU official documents constitute the empirical material studied. The theoretical framework of the thesis draws upon cultural public sphere theory as well instrumentalist cultural policy research.

This study takes its starting point in ongoing changes and differences in the global power dynamics. The liberal rules-based world order that has been acknowledged for governing the world with the US as the hegemon of power has been strongly challenged during the last decades. Russia?s invasion of Ukraine can be seen as an example of ongoing changes in the world order, with Russia as a challenger to the US as the hegemon of power. The changes and instability that this has led to for Sweden's national security situation can be seen as a concrete example of how ongoing changes in the world order affect Sweden?s foreign policy.

The aim of this comparative study is to analyse the French and the Polish regional governance in order to see if there are any differences in their regional ruling systems. Further more I will study their different possibilities in taking part in the European Union regional political market. The shape of the regional systems will be explored both organisationally (study of the institutional entities of the regional construction) and functionally (study of the competencies of the regional body etcetera) to focus on its cause on the regional development. My over all focus will be to find out whether regional rule means differently in the countries France and Poland.Several questions are dealt with and the two main ones are as follows; How do the different structures of the form of government in France and Poland influence the governance on the regional level? Do Poland, as a new member state of the European Union, have what it takes to face the challenges of the new membership; or are there a complex of problems arising from the admittance that prevent its regions from fully taking part in the European regional political market?Some of my conclusions are as follows;There are major differences between the two countries when it comes to their regional ruling systems leading to different abilities in taking part in the European regional political market.

Since the beginning of the new millennium the world?s population has increased exponentially fast. The majority of this growth has been accommodated for by urbanization of the developing world. This in turn has lead to a wide spread of informal settlements. Thus, areas of urban slums, that have risen illegally on the marginal lands within and at the periphery of the formal city.

Increased trade and exchange within the European Community has brought with it the need for less restricted circulation of judgments. The situation has improved greatly due to the enactment of Regulation (EC) No. 44/2001 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (the Brussels I Regulation).Despite recent improvements the proceedings are still time-consuming and difficult. Many creditors refrain from having judgments recognized and enforced as the proceedings cost too much time and are too time-consuming. On January the 21st 2005 a new Regulation entered into force, Regulation (EC) No.