The Southern African Development Community and its Relations to the European Union. Deepening Integration in Southern Africa? ZEI Discussion Papers C169, 2007

[From the Introduction]. While the aim of deepening integration in Southern Africa seems quite evident, the question remains what challenges SADC will face on its way. After introducing the organization SADC, this paper addresses the current challenges of regional integration in Southern Africa. However, in a globalizing world, regionalization is never just an internal affair of one world region. The interrelations with other regions and countries are and have always been an influential factor. Therefore this paper also analyses the role of SADC’s biggest International Cooperating Partner (ICP), the European Union, in the integration process. Finally, part three explores EUSADC relations with a view to its contribution to the objective of deepening integration

European Union - New Impulses for the Decade Ahead = Europäische Union - Neue Impulse für die kommende Dekade. ZEI Discussion Paper C185, 2008

[From the Introduction]. I would like to discuss three issues today which are directly related to the important work of ZEI and to the opportunity which European integration is providing for the further development of academic life across the EU: • the opportunity of re-thinking the relationship between the different levels of governance in Europe; • the opportunity to contribute to the dialogue among cultures, which is especially dear to us in this European Year of Intercultural Dialogue; • the opportunity of a new form of encounter between Europe and other parts of the world

Cooperation of metropolitan areas - case study metropolis cooperation Berlin - Hamburg

For metropolitan regions on the national and even more on the international level there is a specific context of competition, especially in terms of economic development but also referring to quality of life. At the same time, metropolitan regions are in the need to cooperate with each other: - synergies: neighbouring metropolitan regions are looking for synergies through networking, e. g. reaching a higher level of public infrastructure by specialisation or concentration, - problem-solving: exchange between metropolitan regions is supposed to lead to higher standards of problem-solving , e.g. in traffic, public administration or suburbanisation. - lobbying: together metropolitan regions can try to create a political lobby in order to gain support for their specific aims on the national or European level. But on the way to a successful "competitive cooperation" between metropolitan regions specific restrictions remain, which have to be overcome: - policy dimension: each metropolitan region has its own political agenda with topics of different importance. Cooperation has to identify interests of importance for all cooperants involved. - politics dimension: actors can vary because of different political majorities, these majorities can change during a cooperation process, or there are different regional cultures influencing the cooperation, - polity dimension: metropolitan regions show various forms of institutional organisation, some are organised in a more formal way, others more or less informally. Consequently, there are, e. g. different competences of the regional bodies. The paper to be presented describes the chances and restrictions of cooperation between metropolitan regions in a combination of a theoretical and an empirical approach. The Berlin - Hamburg metropolitan cooperation is presented as a case study. In addition, experiences of the German metropolitan regions' network are integrated: - The Berlin-Hamburg metropolitan cooperation formally started in May 2001, dealing with a wide range of subjects. In December 2001 a status report was launched (see enclosure). - The German metropolitan regions' network is financed by the Ministry of Spatial Planning. It has been working since July 2001. Its agenda includes identifying specific positions of German metropolitan regions in the context of national and European (ESDP-) policy.

The European Neighbourhood Policy. Foreign Policy at the EU’s Periphery. ZEI Discussion Papers C158, 2006

The French political scientist, physician, and author Jean-Christophe Rufin once stated that the “democratic civilisation cultivates the delicate privilege to know itself more mortal than all others.”(1) While his depiction of Western democracies as hypochondriacs appears to be somewhat far-reaching at first sight, the statement illustrates precisely one of the most prominent moods currently en vogue all over Europe, a Europe that does not yet seem to have overcome its identity crisis of the fin de millénaire. However widespread this mood might be, its assumptions are all but true. Europe, as one of the figureheads of democracy, has lived through manifold crises during the past decades but has eventually resolved all of them successfully.(2) Despite this strength, the European Union is only slowly adopting a more active international role, by spreading its values and influence piecemeal – but spreading them all the same

Goodbye Bismarck? : the foreign policy of contemporary Germany

This essay examines the foreign policy discourse in contemporary Germany. In reviewing a growing body of publications by German academics and foreign policy analysts, it identifies five schools of thought based on different worldviews, assumptions about international politics, and policy recommendations. These schools of thought are then related to, first, actual preferences held by German policymakers and the public more generally and, second, to a small set of grand strategies that Germany could pursue in the future. It argues that the spectrum of likely choices is narrow, with the two most probable-the strategies of "Wider West" and "Carolingian Europe"---continuing the multilateral and integrationist orientation of the old Federal Republic. These findings are contrasted with diverging assessments in the non-German professional literature.Finally, the essay sketches avenues for future research by suggesting ways for broadening the study of country-specific grand strategies, developing and testing inclusive typologies of more abstract foreign policy strategies, and refining the analytical tools in examining foreign policy discourses in general

Determinants of business and personal services: Evidence from West-German regions

In the Employment Guidelines for the year 2000, the European Commission stressed the need to develop a policy framework in order to fully exploit the employment potential of the service sector. This concern is especially related to Germany for its massive service gap compared to Anglo-Saxon (United States, United Kingdom) and Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Sweden) in general, and in personal and business services in particular. The focus of this study is to understand the theoretical basis of the dynamic of employment growth in services and to identify especially the determinants that foster the growth of business services and the creation of jobs in personal services in Germany. The paper starts therefore with an extensive literature review on service employment with a particular focus on business and personal services and on the German debate. -- In den beschäftigungspolitischen Leitlinien der Europäischen Kommission für 2000 wird die Notwendigkeit zur Schaffung politischer Rahmenbedingungen für die volle Ausschöpfung des Beschäftigungspotentials des Dienstleistungssektors hervorgehoben. Gerade für Deutschland, wo im Vergleich zu den Vereinigten Staaten und Großbritannien, aber auch im Vergleich zu skandinavischen Staaten wie Dänemark und Schweden, eine erhebliche Dienstleistungslücke herrscht, ist diese Einschätzung der Europäischen Kommission von großer Relevanz. Die Dienstleistungslücke betrifft insbesondere die Bereiche der unternehmens- und personennahen Dienstleistungen. Im Zentrum der Studie stehen die theoretischen Grundlagen der Beschäftigungsdynamik im Dienstleistungssektor und die Identifizierung jener Faktoren, die speziell das Wachstum unternehmensnaher Dienstleistungen und die Arbeitsplatzschaffung im Bereich personennaher Dienstleistungen fördern. Die Studie beginnt deshalb mit einem ausführlichen Literaturüberblick zur Dienstleistungsbeschäftigung mit Schwerpunkt auf die deutsche Debatte.

Eurolanguages-2012: Innovations and Development

Збірник наукових студентських робіт призначено для широкого кола читачів, які цікавляться проблемами вивчення іноземних мов та перекладу в Україні