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This article analyzes the occurrence of human trafficking in Europe. During the 1980s, a debate opened up about the meaning of the concept of free movement of persons enshrined in the Treaty of Rome 1957. Some Member States felt that this should apply to European Union (EU) citizens only, which would involve keeping internal border checks in order to distinguish between citizens of the EU and non-EU nationals. Others argued in favor of free movement for everyone, which would mean an end to internal border checks altogether. The Schengen Agreement was signed in 1985 in the village of Schengen, on the borders of Luxembourg, France and Germany. Having decided to implement the intention expressed in that agreement of bringing about the abolition of checks at their common borders on the free movement of persons and facilitating the transport and movement of goods, it could be argued that the Schengen acquis has made it easier for human traffickers to break down internal EU borders in the true spirit of the agreement, after all Schengen's main purpose was to remove all controls at internal land, sea and airport frontiers. As of 2003, there are about 3-4.5 million people living in the EU without any legal papers, with an estimated 400,000 people a year being trafficked into Member States.

Abstract: Europe is currently embroiled in three ongoing and interacting crises concerning the eurozone, refugees and Brexit. After briefly describing each crisis, I turn to the ways in which they intersect and the role of institutions in solving the crises. There are two central themes in the paper. The first is that the three crises intersect and feed on one another. The second is that, while institutions can often help, they are not panaceas. Existing scholarship on the EU often implies that the EU operates far from its institutional frontier and that substantial improvements in welfare are just around the corner if only we ‘get our institutions right’. But institutional fixes do not exist for all problems. I argue that there is a large space for institutional improvement in the eurozone crisis, less regarding refugees, and still less for Brexit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the timeline of the "Journal of Public Affairs" in the papers of European Centre for Public Affairs (ECPA) from the 1990s up to 2012. The "Journal of Public Affrairs" started in the European Union (EU) from the 1990s. The author explains the evolution of public affairs transpired when organizations, from government to private institutions, saw its importance and power.

EU competition policy acts as an important buttress to the Single European Market, with Article 82 EC specifically prohibiting the abuse of a dominant position in the common market or a substantial part of it. Therefore the substantial part notion acts as a boundary or subsidiarity test, determining whether the alleged abuse falls under Article 82 or member state law. This paper contends that two different and potentially competing substantial part tests have been legally sanctioned, namely the territorial test and the economic relativism approach. It further reveals that court rulings have been instrumental in determining not only how the two tests are to be applied in practice but also their respective usage pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Last year the European Commission published itsAction Planon European contract law. That plan forms an important step towards a European Civil Code. In its Plan, the Commission tries to depoliticise the codification process by asking a group of academic experts to prepare what it calls a‘common frame of reference’. This paper argues that drafting a European Civil Code involves making many choices that are essentially political. It further argues that the technocratic approach which the Commission has adopted in the Action Plan effectively excludes most stakeholders from having their say during the stage when the real choices are made. Therefore, before the drafting of the CFR/ECC starts, the Commission should submit a list of policy questions regarding the main issues of European private law to the European Parliament and the other stakeholders. Such an alternative procedure would repoliticise the process. It would increase the democratic basis for a European Civil Code and thus its legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, there is an important consensus regarding the fact that regions have lost their attraction in terms of European studies. This leads us to the following paradox: while the metaphor "Europe of the Regions" that had such great resonance in the 1990s has become discredited, the degree of regional commitment with the EU has been constantly rising. Nowadays, the EU is enmeshed in a crisis that is not only of an economic and financial nature, but also a crisis of democracy. In this context, it seems appropriate to 'recover' this study on the role of regions in the European system of governance. This paper alms, on the one hand, to review the evolution of the role of regions in the European system of governance, and on the other, to explore the way in which this role has been dealt with in the European integration literature. Its ultimate goal is to understand what the future prospects are for regions within the integration process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on party organisational change emphasises environmental factors as well as internal circumstances. The literature on Europeanisation and political parties privileges the EU as a key environmental factor in terms of change. This article combines insights from the party organisation and Europeanisation literatures in order to more precisely conceptualise the EU as a stimulus and therefore causal factor in party organisational change. Two types of party change are analysed, new party positions (MEPs and specialised EU party staff) and party leaderships' responses to internal dissent over the EU. Linking a specific form of EU stimulus to a particular party goal helps to explain certain types of change, while inter-governmental bargaining may produce uncertainty for domestic political actors thereby inducing defensive reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Governmentality theory is a tool to study networked governance beyond the state. Its research profile is characterized by a focus on power and micro-practices from a critical perspective. This article identifies the theory's comparative strengths and its distinct analytical style. It lays out the conceptual tools of governmentality theory before applying them to internal CSDP governance and the external governance by the CSDP of post-conflict societies. These short case studies serve the didactic purpose of demonstrating the kinds of research questions, analytical concerns, arguments, empirical evidence and methods that governmentality research calls for and the sorts of findings that it can generate. The article concludes by pinpointing shortcomings of the theory that will be of concern to some CSDP researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relations between the European Parliament and the national parliaments were not free, in the past, from mutual neglect and sometimes jealousy. Only in the 1990s, after Maastricht, were foundations laid with a view to a more rational coexistence, and possibly cooperation. The chapter examines this evolution, including the experience of parliamentary participation in the constitutional convention and the claim of national parliaments for a more substantial involvement in EU affairs. The EP, after the elections of 2004, has taken first steps in order to meet the new challenge. The prospects for an improvement of relations between the European Parliament and the national parliaments are positive. They will be based on an orientation favouring policy issues rather than ideological controversies. If the European Constitution will be enacted, the role of the NPs will be considerably increased. If not, in order to avoid them falling back into their former role perception, the EP and the NPs could examine how to enhance their cooperation on a sub-constitutional pragmatic level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

France has difficulties in developing a European vision that takes into account the reality that the European Union is no longer based upon the Franco-German motor. Central to this situation is the French understanding of the nation-state and country ('patrie') and how its definition frames the ways the French political elite perceive France as a European and international actor. France has a vision of itself as the 'grand' nation-state with both an international and a European mission. This external dimension of the French nation-state identity will not simply fade away. It is impossible for France to be an introvert nation-state without vision. The problem with this, however, is that since 1989 France has been oscillating between two conflicting and mutually incompatible European concepts. Each of these gives a different meaning to what Europe/the EU is. This has resulted in an uneasy and contradictory French European policy. On one side it promotes the concept of a multipolar international system. But this concept is problematic because it is based upon the pre-requisite of a strong French-coloured EU. This is challenged by the idea of a France conducting a balance of power policy within Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slovakia, Croatia and Slovenia constitute 'awkward states' in the context of EU enlargement because their progress towards membership has been slower than that of some other closely-situated countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). This article considers the background and issues relating to EU enlargement, and how the individual 'awkward states' have failed to meet criteria for membership, or to seek it in the first place. A major finding is that political change has been and remains the key factor in turning 'awkward' states into suitable and enthusiastic would be members. In this context Slovakia is already there, Croatia is on its way, but in Serbia such change is only just now in prospect. Economic and human rights issues are important, and the question of the future movement of the gypsy population may delay Slovakian membership, but such factors appear to play a secondary role to that of political change towards more democratic governments and policies. Repression of the media is a common characteristic of states which remain 'awkward' in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]