The Powers of the Head of State in the Legislative and Executive Branch in Former Socialist Systems

This paper deals with the position and the powers of head of state in the legislative and the executive branch in former socialist systems. It examines the system in countries that emerged from socialist regimes, where the parliamentary system and the function of the President of the Republic as the individual head of state were introduced in the 1990s, namely in 10 (newest) Member States of the European Union. The paper elaborates on the position of the President of the Republic, the extent of the office’s powers, and the resulting cooperation between the office of the President, the executive and legislative bodies, which is also one of the fundamental criteria of the standard classification of political regimes. The powers of the President in the field of legislation are the powers based on which the relationship between the President of the Republic and the legislative authority is established. The analyzed powers that the President exercises vis-à-vis the parliament are the powers of the President in relation to the adoption of an Act, the powers that the President of the Republic has in the domain of announcing parliamentary elections and convening a parliamentary sitting, as well as the powers in the domain of dissolving the parliament and announcing early elections. In the second part the paper focuses on the relationship between the President of the Republic and the government, and, consequently, the President's powers in the formation of the government and the appointing of state officials

Energy poverty policies and measures in 5 EU countries: a comparative study

Energy Poverty (EP) is the inability to attain a socially and materially necessitated level of domestic energy services. In the EU this occurs primarily due to low incomes, poor energy performance of buildings and high energy costs. The impacts of EP range from impaired social lives to unhealthy living conditions, with further consequences in the physical and mental health of energy poor individuals. Member states have been assigned by the EU with the responsibility of dealing with EP within their own territories. This is attainable mainly by creating effective policies, while also encouraging synergies among policies of different fields. However, scientific knowledge is gathered and action is taken on a national level only in a limited number of EU countries. For this reason, this paper aims to fill in the gap and capture snapshots from five EU countries (Cyprus, Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria and Lithuania) where EP has not been exhaustively examined. The study provides an overview of selected policies and measures directly or indirectly targeting EP alleviation and analyses their history and evolution at an EU level as well as at national level. It considers the different geographical dimensions, conditions and aspects (e.g. national or regional) where EP is encountered, in an attempt to identify any variances or similarities in the approaches adopted. Through this comparative study, strengths and weaknesses of national strategies are identified and analysed. Conclusively, based on this analysis, recommendations are made on how to utilise policy tools and provide the most efficient support to energy poor households in the corresponding countries

Citizenship policies in the New Europe: expanded and updated edition

De twee recentste uitbreidingen in de EU hebben het hedendaags begrip van soevereiniteit, natieontwikkeling en burgerschap binnen de EU vergroot. Dit boek beschrijft de staatsburgerschapswetten van de nieuwe lidstaten (en kandidaten Turkije en KroatiC+) en bevat een analyse van hun historische achtergrond.The two most recent EU enlargements in May 2004 and in January 2007 have greatly increased the diversity of historic experiences and contemporary conceptions of statehood, nation-building and citizenship within the Union. How did newly formed states determine who would become their citizens? How do countries relate to their large emigrant communities, to ethnic kin minorities in neighbouring countries and to minorities in their own territory? And to which extent have their citizenship policies been affected by new immigration and integration into the European Union? Citizenship Policies in the New Europe describes the citizenship laws in each of the twelve new countries as well as in the accession states Croatia and Turkey and analyses their historical background. Citizenship Policies in the New Europe complements two volumes on Acquisition and Loss of Nationality in the fifteen old Member States published in the same series in 2006

Proceedings

Proceedings of the Workshop CHAT 2011: Creation, Harmonization and Application of Terminology Resources. Editors: Tatiana Gornostay and Andrejs Vasiļjevs. NEALT Proceedings Series, Vol. 12 (2011). © 2011 The editors and contributors. Published by Northern European Association for Language Technology (NEALT) http://omilia.uio.no/nealt . Electronically published at Tartu University Library (Estonia) http://hdl.handle.net/10062/16956

Citizenship Policies in the New Europe

In May 2004 ten new Member States joined the European Union. This enlargement has greatly increased the diversity of historic experiences and contemporary conceptions of statehood, nation-building and citizenship within the Union. In contrast with the old Member States, many of the new ones have not existed as independent states within their present borders for more than two generations. Citizenship Policies in the New Europe describes the citizenship laws in each of the ten new countries and analyses their historical background. Turkey has been added as the largest source country of immigration into the fifteen old Member States because it illustrates the increasing interaction between citizenship laws in migrant sending and receiving countries. Citizenship Policies in the New Europe complements two volumes on Acquisition and Loss of Nationality published earlier in the same series and that present comparative analyses of citizenship regulations in the fifteen old Member States. Citizenship Policies in the New Europe is part of the IMISCoe Research series. Two other publications on the same subject, "http://www.aup.nl/do.php?a=show_visitor_book&isbn=9789053569498">Acquisition and Loss of Nationality, were released earlier this year. Authors: Andrea Barová, Eugene Buttigieg, Agata Górny, Priit Järve, Zeynep Kadirbeyoglu, Mária Kovács, Kristine Kruma, Andre Liebich, Dagmar Kusá, Felicita Medved, Judit Tóth, Nikos Trimiklinioti