CEE

The Central and Eastern European (CEE) capital markets (of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine and, to a limited extent, Belarus) are gradually evolving towards increased breadth (diversity) and depth (liquidity), however, they are still exposed to considerable cross-country volatility and interdependence spill-overs - especially in times of capital flight to more established asset classes (“safe havens”). Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) have widely been censured for their undesirable political interference and chronic operational opacity. This paper demonstrates that in CEE, contrary to widespread perceptions attributable to developed markets, SWFs can act as natural and powerful risk mitigators (contributing to a more stable capital base and reduced systemic volatility). Such a proposition is premised on several factors specific to SWFs oriented to CEE. They comprise: strategic long-termism and patience in overcoming interim pricing def...

Poland's European Union accession afforded Polish trade unions membership of European-wide, umbrella trade union organisations. This essay evaluates the strategies Polish trade unions adopted to represent their interests following Poland's accession to the European Union. It draws on a series of interviews and document analysis. In addition the essay seeks to gauge the extent to which Polish trade unions were ‘Europeanised’, understood in both the context of their adoption of European policy models and their ability to win support for their causes at the European level.

The real estate market in Poland is a relatively immature market, but one that has been experiencing substantial transformation. The development of the market has been encouraged by a number of factors, including changes arising as a result of new legislation and the migration of capital between capital markets. The progress of the real estate sector towards a western style competitive market has taken place within the gradual transformation of the Polish economy into a free market economy. As investment grade property is in relatively short supply in Poland, investors consider opportunities within the wider CEE block. An analysis of the risk-return characteristics of the three largest CEE real estate markets namely, Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic, shows that the returns in these markets have been negatively correlated with the UK. As these economies and markets evolve, and being part of the wider EU trading block, their economic performance will slowly converge and become more ...

There is selective evidence on the impact of natural and manmade disasters on household welfare. The principle causes are working on evidences from the Asian economic crisis, earthquakes, and tsunami disasters. It differentiates idiosyncratic risks which can be diversified away through mutual insurance from non-diversifiable aggregate risks which characterize a disaster. We also discuss the difficulties of designing index-type insurance against natural disasters, which are often rare, unforeseen events. Then, there is investigate the role of self-insurance against large-scale disasters under which formal or informal mutual insurance mechanisms are largely ineffective. Credit accessibility is identified as one of the key factors facilitating risk-coping strategies. It also discusses public policy issues of emergency aid after disasters. The recent fire in Uttarakhand was big challenges for the government to mitigate the situations.

The Government of India, headed by the Janata Party,
appointed a Backward Classes Commission under the
chair¬manship of B.P. Mandal, Member of Parliament,
with a view to get definite recommendations by
which it could implement its election promises.

L'archivio di Achille Albonetti costituisce una fonte di primaria importanza per la storia del nucleare italiano, ma anche per comprendere la nascita e l'evoluzione delle Comunità Europee e delle politiche italiane che si sono sviluppate nel periodo compreso tra gli anni '50 e '80 del secolo scorso.

Europeanisation and regionalization, European convergence versus local divergence are important and timely questions as regards the future of EU cohesion policy, that originally aimed to reduce economic, social and territorial inequalities. Recently, it does not solely support regional development and stimulate modernization processes, but also aims to advance competitiveness, job creation, innovation, and sustainable growth and development (Europe 2020 strategy), especially at the sub-national level. The comparison of regional processes, institutional systems, experience and the originating potential future scenarios of transition economies are interesting but yet under-examined fields of study. Is there a specific way (trajectory) of regionalization in transition economies, or practices vary from country to country? Do EU level policy changes affect national and sub-national level institutions and processes and if yes, for what extent? PHARE programmes were introduced in the early 1990s, short after the change of regime, and following the EU accession, Structural Funds have become the main public financial instruments in these countries, accompanied with a massive foreign direct investment flow. The subsequent EU programming periods and the connected terminology have been predominantly shaping regional policy in these Re-industrialisation are only a few keywords that describe this era. The objective of this study is to present a qualitative framework to the evaluation of the period from 1990 to 2015 in Hungary, as a case study of the transition economies, with the identification of the most important milestones and tendencies of regionalization. The relevance of the research is supported by the recent elimination of the NUTS II (regional) level institutional system in the country, and the relocation of ESIF management to the NUTS III (county) level. This process poses the question if Hungary is a trendsetter in Central and Eastern Europe with this practice, or a unique case. The contribution to the state-of-the-art is a qualitative, thorough presentation of the processes, focusing on the administrative and institutional aspects that can on one hand provide a better understanding and secondly, can form an inspiring basis and qualitative methodology for further research on past and future territorial processes and the future of Cohesion policy in the CEE region.

This book examines the professional activity of public television journalists in Poland operating in the still unstable system of a postcommunist state, to demonstrate how the media can work in the public interest to strengthen democracy. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Telewizja Polska (TVP) journalists, the author shows how public television in Poland has become highly politicised and commercialised, and must defend against constant attacks on its autonomy. She draws parallels with the media systems in Hungary and the Czech Republic to analyse potential legal solutions and to highlight how Poland's journalists are subject to influences from the political class as well as from the market-a situation brought about by flawed legislation, the absence of a political culture, an inefficient internal regulating process and lack of suitable training for the journalists themselves. Adding an important perspective on recently developed media systems, this book will be an important resource for scholars and students of journalism, media studies, media industries, politics and media history. Agnieszka Węglińska is an associate professor in the Department of Journalism and Communication, the Faculty of Applied Studies at the University of Lower Silesia, Poland. Her research concentrates on public service media and transformation of media systems in Europe.

To cite/refer to: Paweł Strzelecki, Marta Pachocka, Procesy migracyjne w krajach Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej – transformacja od państw emigracji netto do imigracji netto, in: Raport SGH i Forum Ekonomicznego 2020, eds. Hanna Godlewska-Majkowska, Piotr Wachowiak, Mariusz Strojny, Bartosz Majewski, Oficyna Wydawnicza SGH, Warszawa 2020, pp. 254-289, DOI: 10.33119/978-83-8030-386-7.2020

Celem opracowania jest przedstawienie transformacji wybranych krajów Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej (Czechy, Polska, Węgry, Słowacja, Litwa i Rumunia): od typowych obszarów wysyłających emigrantów do krajów o dodatniej migracji netto. Zaprezentowano bieżące dane, szacunki oraz prognozy migracji, a także oszacowano wpływ migracji na wzrost PKB wybranych krajów. Opracowanie uzupełnia także lukę w dyskusji o polityce migracyjnej Polski i krajów regionu EŚW poprzez przedstawienie różnych modeli tej polityki, ocenę stanu obecnego oraz sformułowanie zaleceń na przyszłość.

This article presents results of my research on personal indebtedness in Iceland. The search for meanings given by people to their indebtedness is based on biographical interviews with indebted Icelanders, Poles and Czechs. Along with the anthropological approach all debts were legitimate in this research, no matter if they were results of credit (including subsidised student loans) or other forms of financial obligations. The research shows differences between Icelanders who got used to debts (but not to their amount after the crisis) and migrants from CEE who refused to accept the inevitability of debt. Even though originating from CEE made people suspicious towards banks, their reluctance to credit did not prevent them from debts.

Historians have shown that the French socialists, since 1945, have built Europe. François
Mitterand, who lead a united Left to the victory in 1981, has been one of the major advocates
of Europe, before becoming one of its main architects. Its couple with Helmut Kohl has
become History.
Within this framework, the goal of this article is to develop the following hypothesis: even if
attached to process of European integration, the new Socialist party does not perceive, nor
subscribe to, nor even promote the supranational principle and the pooling of sovereignty,
which are both the conditions of existence and the instrument of this process.
However, this article also underlines how the first actions of President François Hollande in
this field lie in the continuity of the original choice of building Europe – a choice made by all
generations of French Socialists since 1945

While the dynamics of transitional justice and the attitudes towards the processing of the communist past have been often mapped in CEE, Albania has very rarely appeared in these classifications. Where does Albania's effort in dealing with the communist past stand in relation to the rest of the communist bloc? This paper looks at Albania's approach towards the communist past by exploring its efforts in declassifying the Sigurimi secret files and its ways of dealing with the communist officials and security agents. While still a work in progress, through a comparative perspective with the rest of the Eastern bloc, the paper will argue that Albania's efforts in dealing with its past have been moderate and that the last law on communist file declassification demonstrates this approach. Drawing from the broad literature, post-communist transitional justice in Albania will be mapped by looking at two dimensions: (1) timing of lustration or declassification efforts and (2) severity of measures towards former officials and security agents. The relatively moderate approach of Albania in dealing with its communist past (late efforts and low severity of measures aiming at informing the public rather than punishing former officials) will be analyzed and to a certain extent explained through three sets of variables: (1) the dynamics of the communist rule, (2) the politics of transition and (3) the current party politics.

is paper aims at presenting the conclusions drawn from a systematic review of the studies conducted among Polish journalists since the 1970s. By comparing results of the studies on journalists with expectations and attitudes of current Polish journalism students, the paper o ers an insight into the ongoing changes that have been observed among Polish journalists in the last four decades. In particular, the review revealed signi cant changes in a demographic pro le of Polish journalists regarding gender, education, and employment, as well as their motivation to work in the profession. Furthermore, professional values of journalism in Poland have been slightly shi ing from a traditional pro le of a social educator and watchdog to new ones, such as a news provider.

This paper attempts to highlight the most important aspects of Economic Nationalism as a contemporary movement in the region of Central and Eastern Europe, and the implications that it has on the business of Multinational companies in the region. Nationalist movements have a rich history in CEE and thoroughly permeate the political and economic landscape to this day. The sub-regional variety and complexity of the particular nationalist movements will be illustrated by three country examples: Hungary, Romania and Ukraine. The paper finds that the relationship between MNCs and local governments can be conditioned by the type of nationalistic sentiment present in the region of analysis. The economic orientation of nationalistic currents is contingent on their political fundament. On the one hand, some regions exhibit traditionalism and soviet era nostalgias, and on the other, some see nationalism as a basis for nation-building processes that are oriented toward western cultures. The observed cases present either a protectionist orientation or a more liberal one, depending on political inclination of the country or sub-region of study. At the same time, the heterogeneity of the intensity of economic nationalism in the region has to be noted, with rising extremism in some countries and fairly neutral political landscapes in neighboring ones.


The objective of this paper is a presentation of results of an analysis of the Three Seas Initiative (TSI), whose participating countries (except Austria) treat it as a method of: a) reducing their dependence on crude oil and natural gas imports from Russia, thus increasing their energy security; b) accelerated filling of the persisting civilisation gap between the initiative participants and more developed EU countries owing to the improved quality and maturity of the transport and digital North-South infrastructure; and c) the actual implementation of the “vision of a Europe whole, free and at peace.” The analysis has assumed the following research hypothesis: The CEE states’ joining the EU has not markedly changed those states’ development, as material differences do still exist in this respect between the new EU states and the old ones, which was verified positively.

Whilst there is significant discussion globally on the thesis that the Coronavirus is emboldening autocrats the world over through vastly expanded emergency powers, extraordinary measures and reliance on enforcement rather than on expendable democratic subtleties, this paper focuses on the particular case of Albania to show that even though the level of illiberal thrust in this country is far from equalling that of authoritarian regimes, a host of key similarities are already there, and the substance behind those similarities is equally worrying. In Albania, the operationalisation of the pandemic has made room for the relentless advancement of the government’s political agenda, giving rise to serious doubts about the sincerity of the government-sponsored measures, their end effects and their compatibility with public interest and constitutional framework.

Csehország az Európai Unióhoz 2004-ben csatlakozott közép- és kelet-európai tagállamok közül sokszor a leginkább euroszkeptikus: mind a cseh pártok, mind a cseh társadalom fenntartásokkal kezeli az integráció további mélyítésére vonatkozó szupranacionális törekvéseket. Ugyanakkor a csehek nem az európai integráció teljes jelenlegi projektjét utasítják el, hanem inkább egyes irányelvekkel, döntésekkel és jogszabályokkal kapcsolatban vannak fenntartásaik. Jelen elemzés témája, hogy mennyiben változott meg a cseh pártok attitűdje a 2014 és 2017 közötti időszakban; illetve programjukban milyen hangsúlylyal vannak jelen különféle, az Európai Unióra vonatkozó témák. Összességében megállapítható, hogy bár óriási változás a cseh pártok elhelyezkedésében nem mutatkozik, az mind a migráció kérdésében, mind gazdaságpolitikailag és ideológiailag szuverenistább irányvonalat követ, mint az korábban jellemző volt.

RESUMO
Ao contrário do que aconteceu numa série de países europeus onde no Pós II Guerra Mundial foram construídos museus de arte moderna, sinal de democracia e liberdade, em Portugal, devido ao regime de Salazar e Caetano, esta construção aconteceu já na década de 1980, por iniciativa da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. Assim, o Centro de Arte Moderna (CAM) da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, inaugurado em 1983, viria a ser, na prática, o primeiro museu de arte moderna do país, com uma colecção organizada de propósito para a ocasião.
Pensado como um centro de arte e não como um museu, o CAM incluía uma sala polivalente, um anfiteatro ao ar livre, uma sala de exposições temporárias e um pavilhão para
crianças. A actividade que tinha lugar para lá das galerias do museu era da responsabilidade do Serviço de Animação, Criação Artística e Educação pela Arte (ACARTE). Várias
temporalidades parecem coexistir: a promessa realizada de uma vontade de ter um museu de arte moderna vinda da década de 1950/1960; alojada num espaço arquitectónico característico da década de 1970 e inaugurada na década de 1980, o CAM; e albergando no seu interior um Serviço, o ACARTE, em sintonia com os esforços de criação de uma “Europa da Cultura” da década de 1990; e que se poderia entender como prefigurando a viragem curatorial em
direcção ao discursivo e ao performativo que tem lugar já em 2000.
O ACARTE pode igualmente entender-se como o culminar de duas décadas de investigação em Educação pela Arte e Educação Artística, pois a sua Fundadora e primeira
Directora, Madalena Perdigão, não apenas criou a Orquestra, o Coro e o Ballet Gulbenkian, como foi responsável pela reforma do Conservatório, em 1971, e por um projecto falhado de reestruturação do Ensino Artístico Nacional, em 1978. Uma história intrincada liga assim as
experiências em Educação pela Arte levadas a cabo na Gulbenkian antes da Revolução, a reforma do conservatório, a falhada reestruturação do Ensino Artístico Nacional e o regresso de Perdigão à Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian em 1984. Neste sentido, a actividade do ACARTE na década de 1980 continua as experimentações pedagógicas da década de 1960.
Mas não apenas: esta actividade pode também ser entendida no cruzamento entre uma série de práticas de curadoria e programação. Ao pautar a sua acção por uma “atenção à falta”, o ACARTE terá desenvolvido uma forma particular de albergar propostas estéticas e políticas
geralmente atribuídas a períodos distintos, abrindo-se às diferentes percepções que os contemporâneos teriam do seu momento histórico. Torna-se, como tal, um caso de estudo exemplar no que diz respeito a modernidades descentradas.
Estruturando-se como uma lente para observar o ACARTE na década de 1980, este trabalho organiza-se em duas partes: Texto e Timeline Digital ACARTE 1984-1989, composta exclusivamente para este fim. Se a última procura abrir a acção deste Serviço a investigações futuras, a primeira procura situá-lo no seu contexto de emergência, prestando
particular atenção aos modos como a sua acção contribui para uma reconfiguração da experiência da corporalidade que por estes anos tem lugar.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, ACARTE, MadalenaPerdigão, Arte Moderna, Nova Dança, Anos 80, Europa, CEE, Modernidades Descentradas, Arquivos Digitais, Modernização, Transformação da Experiência da Corporalidade, Comuns na Cultura

ABSTRACT

Unlike several European countries where modern art museums were built in the 1950s/1960s following World War II as a symbol of democracy, Portugal’s economic
conditions (the country was drained by the colonial wars) and Salazar’s rule would only allow for the construction of a modern art museum in the 1980s under the private initiative of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, shortly before Portugal joined the European Economic Community. The Gulbenkian’s Centro de Arte Moderna [CAM – Modern Art Center] opened in 1983, and it was the first modern art museum in Portugal.
Thought of as an art center rather than a museum, CAM included a multi-purpose hall; an open-air amphitheater; a temporary exhibition hall and a children’s art center. The activity taking place beyond the exhibitions gallery where the museum was lodged was the responsibility of ACARTE, the Gulbenkian Foundation’s Department of Artistic Creation and
Art Education. Several temporalities seem to be at stake. Schematically: CAM was a promise from the 1950/60s that was fulfilled; placed in an architectonic archetype from the 1970s; which opened in the 1980s; hosting the ACARTE Department, whose curatorial approach – mainly focused on performance, dance, theatre and relational events – could be seen as prefiguring the curatorial discursive and performance turn of the 2000s.
ACARTE can also be thought of as the culminating point of two decades of research on Education through Art and Artistic Education. Its founder and first director Madalena
Perdigão not only founded the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet, but was also responsible for the reform of the national conservatory school in 1971 and for a failed
reorganization project of the national artistic education in 1978, after the 1974 Revolution.
There is thus an intricate history linking the pedagogic experiments prompted by the Gulbenkian Foundation before the 1974 Revolution, the reform of the national conservatory
school, Perdigão’s failed efforts towards restructuring the National Art Education, and her return to the Gulbenkian Foundation as ACARTE Director in 1984. Hence, ACARTE’s
activities in the 1980s are directly related to the 1960s’ experiments in pedagogy. But not exclusively: the department’s activities can also be looked at as being at the crossroads between a series of curatorial and programming practices. By basing its activity on the need to attend to what “is missing” ACARTE developed a particularly attentive way of moving through aesthetic and political proposals usually allocated to different time spans, thus accounting for the different perceptions its contemporaries had of their time. As such, ACARTE is a superb case study with regard to decentered modernities.

Organized as a lens to look into ACARTE through the 1980s, this work is divided into two parts: Text and Digital Timeline ACARTE 1984-1989. If the latter, a digital archive, aims at opening up ACARTE’s activity to future researches, the first aims at situating this Department in its context of emergence. It pays particular attention to the ways in which
ACARTE can be seen as a major event for the reconfiguration of the subject’s experience of corporeality that was taking place by then.

KEYWORDS: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, ACARTE, Madalena Perdigão, Modern Art,
New Dance, 1980s, Europe, European Economic Community, Decentered Modernities,
Digital Archives, Modernization, Transformation of Corporeality, Culture Common

The authors would like to express their appreciation and gratitude to the two anonymous reviewers for their remarks and suggestions for further broadening of the research topic. While we followed all their positive remarks and suggestions of improvement of the present study, due to the limits of extent and substantial frames of the study, we could implement only a part of their valuable suggestions for extending the study for further directions. Abstract Successive crises and shifts in geopolitics necessitate a more coherent Europe, with the euro as a key instrument, yet the enlargement of the euro area is unfinished. The paper reconstructs diverging trends in non-EA countries, and considers the motivations of key stakeholders in countries without commitment to enter. The approach applied is dual: we reconsider economic arguments of a currency reform and conduct political economy analysis with the underlying hypothesis that euro adoption, for businesses, is a cost/ben-efit issue, while for governments, parties, and voters it is a sovereignty issue with cost/benefit aspects attached. The authors conclude that macroeconomic and business considerations would support Eurozone entry in all CEE countries concerned. As for key stakeholders, society and the business community support the euro, but particular government interests are at stake. Post-pandemic realities would reconfirm rational arguments for euro entry; to make that happen, economic nationalist and state developmental concepts need be discarded.

2019. március 31-én elnökválasztásokat tartanak Ukrajnában. A választás tétje ezúttal nem csak arról szól, hogy ki vezetheti az országot az elkövetkező öt esztendőben: az eredmény visszajelzés is lesz a választópolgárok részéről a 2014 óta eltelt évekkel kapcsolatban. Az akkori események, a tüntetések a kijevi Majdanon és más városokban, a Krím elcsatolása, majd a kelet-ukrajnai háború a mai napig meghatározzák az ország életét, politikailag, gazdaságilag és kulturálisan egyaránt. Az elnökválasztás ráadásul azért is lesz fontos, mert az eredménye nagy hatással lehet az őszi parlamenti választásokra is.
Jelen elemzés célja, hogy röviden bemutassa a 2013-14-ben kezdődött konfliktus óta a közelgő választásig terjedő időszakban bekövetkezett változásokat, politikai és gazdasági szempontból egyaránt. Az egyes részekben látszódni fog, hogy a több mint öt éve tartó krízis sok tekintetben megváltoztatta Ukrajna életét, s ezek természetesen hatással vannak a közelgő elnökválasztásra, valamint az őszi parlamenti választásokra is.

Ackermann Sándor elemzése

The research will cover areas of the EU-Moldova and EU-Georgia cooperation, linked to both, the European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plan and the EU conditionality. It looks at Moldovas and Georgia's economic, legal and political situation and development.

The focus of the project and project-related research is structuring the CEE states' reform experience and analysing the possibilities and limits of transferring the best practices and experience to Moldovas and Georgia's (possible) EU pre-accession process. It analyses the situation in Moldova and Georgia and suggests benchmarking opportunities best suitable for Moldova and Georgia. The results of the analysis and researchers/lecturers exchange are wrapped up via regular thematic workshops and publications. The output of the research results is also used in improving and developing the European Union-related curricula and courses in all participating universites: in Tartu, Vilnius, Moldova and Georgia.

Work Packages are as follows:
1. Mapping CEE states' reform experience: environment of positive conditionality mapping of success and failure of reforms in key policy areas related to EU accession criteria (Progress Report Chapters);
2. European Neighbourhood Policy and Europeanization (political, economic and legal aspects) analysing which CEE states' pre-accession knowledge is transferable and needed;
3. Moldova and Georgia the transition countries on the EU border and states between EU and Russia analysing the specific circumstances and policy trends;
4. Teaching EU, EU-Russia relations and European Neighbourhood Policy in the context of interdisciplinary European Studies curricula.

The study sheds critical light on one of the issues in the contemporary scholarly study of esotericism in general as it directly affects Central and Eastern Europe's place within the domain. The term "Western" in quotation marks its problematic nature that leaves Central and Eastern European esotericism, among many other geolocations, out of its premises.

Aucune région française ne s’est davantage retrouvée au cœur des discussions sur l’entrée de l’Espagne dans la Communauté économique européenne (CEE) que le Midi. En raison de la crainte suscitée chez les agriculteurs méridionaux par la concurrence des productions méditerranéennes espagnoles (vin, fruits et légumes surtout), une vive querelle éclate à la fin des années 1970 et au début des années 1980, aboutissant à des tensions parfois très graves entre Français et Espagnols. Cette querelle agricole illustre l’importance des pressions exercées par des groupes d’intérêts sur le gouvernement ou les partis politiques dans le cadre de négociations multilatérales ou communautaires. Elle confirme aussi l’idée d’une « affaire franco-espagnole », et l’opposition résolue des syndicats agricoles français à l’élargissement de la CEE aux pays ibériques.

After five years of membership in the EU (since 1 July 2013) the
challenges posed by the state to the democratic role of the media in
Croatia were growing, instead of diminishing. After having created
a democratic media policy and environment in the preceding period,
which enabled Croatia to start the EU accession process and to join
the EU, the challenges to media freedom in Croatia since the 2015
and 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections rapidly threatened
the attained levels of media freedom. The threats identified by the
Croatian Journalist Association, and by policy experts, were the worst
in the following four areas: an increased number of legal actions
against journalists and the media for “shaming” and slander, brought
by persons in political power or related to them; an increased pressure
on the independent editorial and journalistic practices of the public
service broadcaster, HRT, with a sharp ideological turn to the right;
an unrelenting policy of non-support to the civic sector media, and
pressures from the state and non-state actors on new forms of speech
in the digital sphere and in the legacy media. All of these important
problems were the result of the same illiberal and conservative
cultural politics which were being forced on the population by the
ruling conservative HDZ, often via the public service media whose
control they seized.

Storia politico-economica della UE, dagli accordi di Bretton Woods ad oggi. Funzionamento e struttura della UE (trattato di Maastricht), della BCE e analisi delle condizioni economiche. Cessione della sovranità monetaria dei paesi membri, differenze socio-economiche all'interno della UE, surplus/deficit: il caso della Grecia nell'eurozona. Il MES, Meccanismo Europeo di Stabilità.

Using the example of the hashtag #SanEscobar, which was triggered by a slip of the tongue made by the then Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Witold Waszczykowski, the chapter shows how Twitter provides a discourse arena for the subversion of political discourse. A multimodal discourse analysis of tweets reveals how participants jointly devise the virtual country of San Escobar. The conceptual structure of the unfolding discourse uses elements from frames which comprise knowledge about South-America, Pablo Escobar and about the national conservative PiS party. Conceptual elements and structure from these frames are combined in a way that associates PiS-governed Poland with the stereotype of a South American narco-democracy (San Escobar) and thus humorously criticises the current political situation in Poland.

The Rome Declaration, signed in Italy on March 25, 2017, aims to offer a renewed impetus to the European Union and its ideals to return to Europe its central position in the economy, the spread of values and dialogue for  international peace
The Author, looking back at the history of the European institutions, from the "Schuman Plan" to the Rome Declaration of 2017, tracks some of the profiles on the future of European policies, with particular regard to policies for neighboring Mediterranean countries.

Le désir d’édification d’une Union maghrébine est ancien. Néanmoins, sa réalisation concrète se heurte à la volonté des acteurs étatiques d’affirmer leur leadership par des stratégies concurrentes et de privilégier la logique de l'intérêt national. Afin de surmonter ces obstacles, le Maghreb a tenté de se structurer politiquement, par l'extérieur, dans son rapport à l’Europe.  Le début des années 1970, caractérisé par une accélération de l'intégration économique européenne mais aussi par une relance du projet unitaire maghrébin, est propice à cette expérimentation. Cet article n'a pas pour objectif de comparer le structuration de ces deux ensembles régionaux très disparates. Il s'agit d'examiner les initiatives maghrébines en direction de la Communauté afin d'évaluer en quoi elles ont pu contribuer à la structuration politique du Maghreb puis de comprendre pourquoi la crise militaire et pétrolière d'octobre 1973 bouleverse le processus en cours.

The ambition to constitute a Maghreb Union is ancient. Nonetheless, the practical achievement of this project collides with the State actors will, on the one hand, to assert their leadership through competing strategies and on the other, to privilege the national interest. In order to overcome these obstacles, the Maghreb has tried to structure itself politically, from the outside, in its relation to Europe.  The early 1970s characterised by acceleration of the European Community construction  and also by the revival of the project of Maghreb Union suitable for this experience. This paper’s objective is not to compare structuration these two very disparate regional entities. However, it aims to look at the Maghreb initiatives towards the Community in order to assess how these leads contributed in the political structuring of the Maghreb and then to understand why the military and oil crises in October 1973 subvert the ongoing process.

The paper analyzes the role of banks' ownership structure in crisis-resilience. The relevant literature and the 30 year history of the Hungarian and East European banking sector is surveyed. The state-owned and the domestically owned private banks collapsed during the transformation crisis in the nineties, while the mostly foreign owned banks proved to be crisis-resilient during the Great Financial Crisis of the 2000s. In spite of this in Hungary in the recent past intensive state intervention has aimed at the extrusion of the foreign investors and supported the domestically owned private banks. The emergent new structure does not seem to be as crisis-resilient as the previous one was. The arguments usually quoted to support the direction of the transformation cannot be justified.

NSZZ Solidarność is one of the most famous and well-researched trade union organisations in Central Eastern Europe. Currently, NSZZ Solidarność is undergoing changes by becoming active in national, European and international arenas. This chapter examines NSZZ Solidarność as a European organisation and attempts to understand what European integration meant to the organisation. What type of organisational changes has the European Union (EU) brought to the trade union? What has NSZZ Solidarność learnt from the EU? How has the EU influenced its identity and how NSZZ Solidarność is impacting contemporary labour politics in the EU?

The ‘16+1’ formula of cooperation between the countries of Central and Eastern Europe
(CEE) and China was launched in 2012. One of its priorities involved increasing the inflow of
China’s foreign direct investments (FDI) to the region. China has been interested in carrying
out investments which are likely to help Chinese companies gain competitive advantage in
areas such as advanced technologies, recognizable brands and distribution channels. The following
sectors were identified as areas of priority importance in CEE: construction and modernisation
of transport infrastructure, including motorways; development of the network of
railways, airports and sea ports; energy, in particular renewable sources of energy and nuclear
energy; companies trading in commodities; the food production sector. China’s strategy
mainly involves purchasing existing companies, preceded by cherry picking the most favourable
candidates for investment, rather than making large greenfield investments.
Due to the involvement of the state in the process of locating investments abroad, which is typical
of the Chinese economic model, stable bilateral relations with CEE partners have become
key determinants for achieving these goals. In this context, the stabilisation of China’s political
relations with CEE observed in 2011–2014 can be viewed as a success on China’s part. However,
the process of creating multilateral institutions to offer substantive and financial support to
Chinese companies was beset with difficulties. These included the lack of willingness on the
part of CEE partners to carry out coordination tasks, the inexperience of Chinese companies in
pursuing this model of cooperation, as well as failure to adjust the instruments created under
this cooperation initiative to the region’s economic reality. The credit line worth US$ 10 billion
offered by China has been used only in infrastructural projects carried out in non-EU member
states in the Western Balkans. A specialised investment fund known as China CEE Investment
Co-operation Fund turned out to be more successful. However, investments carried out under
this Fund in Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria are worth a mere US$ 0.5 billion. It can be expected
that China will seek other models of financing its investments in the region and will use such
instruments as the Silk Road Fund or the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Philanthropy in Slovakia is a hybrid phenomenon with two faces: a traditional face and a modern one. The document reviews the legal and institutional environment for the operation of philanthropic institutions, domestic tax and fiscal issues, cross-border giving, political, economic and socio-cultural environment and future of philanthropy.  It concludes that the philanthropic sector in Slovakia is gradually developing, but it is far from meeting its real potential. Charitable behaviour becomes more common in part due to the improved socio-economic conditions, which increases the financial capacity for giving by the middle class, and partly due to the intensified activity of philanthropic organizations approaching donors in offline and online spaces.  However, Slovakia still has a way to go in overcoming the challenges that the lingering idea of “otherness” and institutional mistrust has on charitable behaviour in the region. It is foreseen that there will be a continued increase in online giving through existing charitable portals and crowdfunding platforms.

The last three enlargements in 2004, 2007, and 2013 have opened a big gap between the Eastern and Western Еuropean Member States (MS). What is the situation in the Danube micro-region? How big disparities are both internally between the MS- Germany, Austria, and the Slovak Republic, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria and externally with the three non-MS (Serbia, Moldova, and Ukraine)?
In order to achieve better cohesion between the fourteen (14) countries, the European Commission has launched the new Danube Program in 2011, with budget 231 924 597 mln. еuro. Have these money improved the level of cohesion between the countries from the Lower and Upper Danube?