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 Union has faced lots of criticisms over the last couple of years when it comes to how refugees are treated in Europe. The Lisbon Treaty states in Article 2 that the European Union is founded on respect for human freedom, dignity and equality. Values such as democracy, rule of law, respect for human rights and that the rights of persons belonging to minorities should be respected are also something that the Union should be based on. How is it then that the Roma people, which are Europe's largest minority, are being persecuted all over Europe, that they get deported and have their camps destroyed? Why are refugees from North Africa being sent back before they even have a chance to seek asylum?  In this essay I have examined how the EU are treating refugees and tried to distinguish if there are any differences in how they treat internal and external refugees.

 Performance appraisals- a study of the performance appraisals significance as a tool for development in the public sector.Anders Larsson and Åsalill OlssonPerformance appraisals have been given a central role in leading businesses in the public sector and are seen as a tool to create development opportunities and achieve better results. This has resulted that performance appraisal in many organizations takes up capacity and time. This was the starting point of our interest to study whether the time spent on performance appraisals effectively pays for itself in the organization, in other words whether the effects expected actually are achieved. The paper examines first line managers` views on staff appraisal purposes and effects of a function within the Landstinget. The survey design, methodology and transaction are of qualitative and quantitative method with three different sources: literature review of previous research, interviews with first line managers in Landstinget Västmanland and the results from an employee satisfaction survey conducted on behalf of Landstinget Västmanland.

This essay explores the economical and social paradigms surrounding one of the most influentialNordic border dynastic noble families in the second half of the fifteenth century - the AxelssonTotts. How mercantile possibilities and opportunities offered to them, reflected on their politicalactions and social bands. The Axelsson brothers of the Tott Dynasty would become of one of themost powerful noble families within the Nordic Union between 1444 och 1487.Axel Pedersen (Tott) would through well chosen marriage alliances into the noble families of bothDenmark and Sweden, and with political prowess lay the foundation for one of the most dynamicfamily empires of the fifteenth century. In the year 1442, the Axelsson brothers swore loyalty toeach other; to protect and defend their mercantile and economical interests in Denmark andSweden. They would eventually control the trading routes in the border areas of the Union, and byexploiting the political chaos within the Union they would gain access and influence to the landtrading routes for export and import within the Union and the shipping export routes in the BalticSea allowing them access to the Russian market through Finland and Estonia.The island of Gotland, with its tactical and important geographical position in the Baltic Seabecame the key to the Nordic Union.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how four Swedish retail companies describe their information management in connection to ethical trade. My purpose is also to examine how this information management relates to organizational learning. My questions at issue are ? ?Which activities related to information management in connection to ethical trade is described by the companies?? and ?How can these activities and statements be related to organizational learning?? My method of investigation is to perform qualitative interviews with representatives from the retail companies and relate the results to theories on information management and organizational learning, mainly theories of double-loop- and single-loop learning. The information management literature address issues such as information needs, information sources and information seeking.

After Sweden became a member of the European Union, EU, the debate regarding the Swedish participation in the EU?s currency co-operation, the European Monetary Union, EMU, has been intense. One of the biggest issues has been how our national economic politics will work within such a monetary union. What instrument will remain for the national economic politics within the EMU are highly uncertain. The question whether we will be able to affect our own economy or not has long been the essence in the Swedish debate.

In this paper I attempt to analyze the ways the European Union defines its external borders in cross-border co-operation with its neighbours. The analysis is based on case study examining the founding components of a updated version of the Northern Dimension policy of the European Union.The analytical framework of the study is composed of three different perceptions on the cross-border co-operation; regionalisation, integration and flexible integration. I conclude that the model of cross-border co-operation laid by the Northern Dimension policy would have an impact on the EU's external border with Russia, making it more flexible and vague.As far as the geographical terms of the co-operation are concerned, they seem to shift from regional co-operation to greater emphasis the role of networks as basis for co-operation instead of traditional regions..

Since Sweden joined the European Union all Swedish fruit and vegetables are classified according to EU Quality standards. One important function is the product description and how it can facilitate the trade; for example in better comparing prices and also to guarantee the quality of the product. This quality standards or product descriptions are written as words of an Act and obligatory for all countries that has joined the EU. It?s often a demand from the customers to be certificated according to some of many certificating systems. One example is the common worldwide GLOBAL GAP-certification system created by the organisation EUREP which represents the leading European retail traders.

The EU has for a long time had a special relationship with its former colonies in Africa Caribbean and the Pacific, called the ACP?countries. This relationship is about to change radically with the new partnership agreement signed in June 2000 in Cotonou. This essay aims to study the EU ?ACP Partnership Agreement from the perspectives of two different theories: The liberalist, free-trade policy theory and the nationalist/regionalist, protectionist theory.

AbstractThe thesis investigates how the European Union promotes stability and security in the Mediterranean region. The aim is to analyse the European Union?s security ambitions with Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, the Barcelona Process. An analytical framework with five sectors (military, political, economic, environmental and societal), based on the Copenhagen School?s theories about security sectors and securitization, is used for the analysis.

Companies that are facing the global market are put in to new challenges in order to streamline its business. One industry that has realized that changes are necessary is the construction industry, it is an industry witch is far behind the development of introducing information technology-tools systems in there business. It has shown there is a relation between high IT usage and high productivity, which is one of the reasons to why companies in the construction industry should purchase a business system especially for procurement. However, companies that have purchased a business system are facing difficulties in having their employees using it for its purpose. People react differently to changes and that?s why variations in quantities exist for usage of information technology-tools.

Denna uppsats bygger på en utvärdering av leaderverksamheten i Blekinge, Halland och Skåne län, som jag genomförde tillsammans med Lina Brinte under hösten 2013. Utvärderingen var beställd av leaderområdena i Region Syd, som ville ta fram underlag för hur metoden fungerat under programperioden 2007-2013 i syfte att använda resultatet till strategiframtagandet inför kommande leaderperiod. Leader är ett av EU:s verktyg för att skapa landsbygdsutveckling, där underifrånperspektivet beaktas. Leader, som metod, fungerar bra i Region Syd och projektägarna är överlag mycket nöjda med arbetssättet som Leader innebär. Leaders viktigaste resultat är kvalitativa mervärden av typen engagemang, stärkt socialt kapital, ökad stolthet och samverkan som skapas genom projekten. Dessa värden är svåra att sätta ett ekonomiskt värde på och det behövs därför nya system för att hävda dessa värden i slutrapporterna, likväl som ekonomiska värden. Genom att belysa dessa värden och framhålla den nytta dessa gör, som till exempel sänka ohälsotalet bland befolkningen, öka den lokala nyttan och effektiviseringen samt skapa samverkan inom och utanför leaderområdet, skulle värdena få högre ställning när man beräknar vad leaderarbetet tillfört.

Unaccompanied minors who are fleeing and being sent way from their countries of origin are nothing new. In 2011, 12 225 unaccompanied minors where registered in The European Union, none undocumented minors included. Most of the minors are coming from Afghanistan and Somalia. The aim of this essay is to investigate how The European Union?s migration policies are applied in reality and how United Nation?s Convention on the Right of Children are put in practice by the member states of The European Union and Norway.

I dagens samhälle möter vi ständigt ledares behov av att öka sin kompetens när det gäller att hantera kritiska situationer inom den offentliga sektorn. Bristande kompetens hos ledarna drabbar inte bara dem själva utan även medarbetarna. Många uttalar sig om att det bristfälliga ledarskapet i den offentliga sektorn ger upphov till rekryteringssvårigheter, hög sjukfrånvaro, ineffektivitet, kvalitetsproblem, resursbrist och brist på kompetens. Även forskningsartiklar visar att det är högre sjukfrånvaro pga. dåliga ledare och det illustreras dagligen i dagspress och nyhetsförmedlingar.I vår kultur saknar vi metoder att hantera problemet med dåligt ledarskap.

AbstractBackgroundEvery company has some kind of employee turnover and we can tell that som business has higher employee turnover than other business. Employee turnover is individual for all companies but in companies that is in the same business simularities can be seen. The employee turnover in the line of business hotel, merchandise trade and restaurants was according to Confederation of Swedish Enterprise closer to 40 % during the period of 2006-2007 and close to the business with highest turnover, the service sector. This is comparable to the buildning activity that with it?s 22 % is one of the business with lowest turnover.