The aim of this thesis is to ascertain if women are discriminated in the European Parliament, and if so, how it is expressed. Our hypothesis is that female members of the parliament suffer a kind of double discrimination. The European Parliament consists of roughly one third women, but nevertheless the discrimination does not end there. According to our hypothesis women do not have the same opportunity to influence as their male colleagues, hence the double discrimination.The results of this thesis show that women are discriminated, mainly by not gaining access to the European Union's important issues, whilst the female dominated issues are scheduled on late evening and at the end of a session week. Another unsatisfactory issue was that even though half of the reports were given by women, they only received one third of the references to their reports while men received two thirds of the references.

Each year 225 million pigs are transported within the European Union (EU) for slaughter, fattening and breeding. This results in poor animal welfare due to the fact that animals are exposed to several numbers of stress factors in the vehicle during loading, transit and unloading. Animal welfare can be defined as how well the animal attempts to cope with its environment and during transport there is often severe difficulty for the pigs to cope properly. There is a growing societal concern for animal welfare. This resulted in that the European Union enacted a law called the EU-regulation with certain directives of how to improve the welfare of the animals during transport.

This thesis is concerned with investigating the Roma, a group that is left out in most of the territory bound theories. The theoretical purposes are to develop theories that increase the understanding for the Roma as a diasporic nation without state and the advocacy networks they are organised in. The main empirical purpose has been to study two organisations as cases and how they position themselves against the European Union concerning identity politics. The two organisations are European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and Dzeno. They are a part of the same network that works on different levels with the rights of Roma.

Trade was assigned as a Community responsibility at the founding of the European Community in 1957. It was then recognized that Europe would achieve a greater international influence if it were to negotiate trade deals with one voice. Since then, the basic rule has been that the European Commission negotiates agreements on behalf of the EC, and presents the agreements negotiated for approval in the European Council. Today, the 25-member European Union is the largest trading power in the world, and most member states have decades of experience of coordinating their national trade interests into a common position. However, partly as a result of the complex nature of the trade decision-making processes it is sometimes problematic to identify who or what really influences EU trade policy.

AbstractThe opinions about the European Union vary considerably between the member states. There are likely several reasons of this, the following study examines one that ought to play a major role. This study examines the idea that media affects the public opinion. According to the theory of Framing media can not only tell us what to think about, media also has the power to influence how we think about the matter. ?Framing: Toward Clarification of a fractured paradigm? by Robert M.

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.

Given the current geopolitical situation in Europe and the upcoming election for the European Parliament, it is important to further analyse individuals? attitudes towards European integration, specifically the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). This analysis aims to gain a deeper understanding of individuals attitude towards CSDP. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyse which factors that plays a leading role in influencing individuals? attitude towards CSDP.

In this essay, I investigate Swedish possibilities to influence the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union (CAP). After having summarized my findings, I try to explain the structure of influence by using Multi-level governance theory.Ten years have passed since Sweden joined the Union, and many changes have followed in the agricultural sector. By investigating the small country of Sweden's possibilities to influence CAP, I hope to be able to get a notion of the possibilities to influence the EU in general. The essay examines four possible paths for agricultural interests to influence the policy process in Brussels:* Through elected representatives of Sweden in the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and in the Swedish Parliament* Through subnational institutions, such as the local authorities and regional representatives.* Through the Swedish Agricultural Office* Through the Swedish pressure group within the agricultural area, LRFThese four groups all have very different channels to the policy process on agricultural issues. The differences are mostly in terms of decisive power or advisory power and institutional contacts or lobby contacts.

This paper is a study of a European citizenship in relation to two different perspectives on citizenship ? universalism and pluralism - from a gender perspective. We discuss a universal citizenship with equal rights and a pluralistic citizenship with different rights (groupdifferentiated rights), in relation to women within the European Union.First, we try to decide whether the European citizenship draws towards a universal or pluralistic direction. Secondly, we discuss problems with the universal and the pluralistic citizenship in relation to women in EU. It's not evident which of them best favours women's needs and interests; both are problematic in its own way.

In the near future we need to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions significantly for the benefit of the environment around us. The European Union has de-manded a variety of climate and energy goals to be achieved by year 2020, the ?20-20-20? targets. With these aims, The European Union means that we must reduce our emissions from fossil fuels and instead increase our renewable fuels. With stump harvest in the forest it?s possible to increase the use of renewable fuels and reduce our emissions from fossil fuels.

After the appointment of a new European Commission in 2004, ?communication? was made a top priority on the agenda. The Commission presented a new communication policy, which would establish a dialogue with the citizens, thereby bringing more democracy to the union and bridging the gap to the citizens. Three documents containing the policy were published, namely an internal action plan for the Commission, Plan D which establishes the framework for national debates and a whitepaper on EU communication policy. These documents were met by mistrust and criticism from many different actors such as journalists and experts.The aim of this master thesis is to examine this new communication policy from a deliberative democratic perspective.

AbstractThe subject for this thesis is the Swedish gaming monopoly. This thesis describes the Swedish legislation that regulates the market for gaming in Sweden. The European legislation is also explained in the thesis; both the rules in the EC treaty and the rulings made by the EC court of justice (ECJ). The purpose with this is to see if the Swedish legislation can be upheld considering the rules set up by EC law. The second part of the thesis is focused on the actuality of the problem and the future possibilities for the regulation.

This thesis aims to study the indirect effects of the Europeanization on national parties and the presence of an established national opposition towards the European Union (EU) and its effects in Sweden, as a result of the so-called conflict of Vaxholm. The questions asked were whether or not it existed an established national opposition towards the EU, and if so, what the opposition consists of substantially. The research method, which was used, is a quantified text analysis on the chamber debates of the Swedish Riksdag and the party congresses of Socialdemokraterna. The study shows that there is an ambivalent opposition towards the EU and its effects in the aftermath of the conflict of Vaxholm.  Socialdemokraterna presented resistance, but did not manage to present apparent alternatives, which left the party with a rather indistinctive opposition. In contrast to the right-wing party, the left-wing party had some profound difficulties in positioning itself in the new and globalized economy. I therefore suggest, that it might be more providing and exhaustive to introduce Azmanova?s ideal-type analysis, which instead of positing parties on a left-right continuum, posit parties after respective party?s opinions concerning the risks or opportunities which the EU and the internal market?s effects. .

This thesis explores how the concept of ?legal corruption? manifests itself within the European Investment Bank with a modern approach to the theoretical understanding of anticorruption efforts. This approach conceptualises the idea of complementing theories based on contextual applicability rather than focusing on their competing qualities. The European Investment Bank (EIB), as the world?s largest multilateral lender, is an underexplored yet vital organ of the European Union, which has recently faced criticism for its alleged lack of transparency and dubious application of policy.

This thesis focuses on employers? use of non-­?solicitation of employees in commercial contracts within the union?s internal market and how this can result in restrictive practices in violation of European law. Using legal method, legal economic considerations, and guidance from modern American legal development in antitrust law, this thesis is aiming to investigate how this kind of anticompetitive cooperation in the European labor market should be assessed. The result seems to be that despite a distinct and pronounced restrictive approach to the application of EU competition rules in the labor market, there are strong incentives and not any legal impediment to apply Article 101 TFEU on no cold call agreements between employers. .