Oscillating Friedman Cosmology

The non-singular, oscillating Friedman cosmology within the framework of General Relativity is considered. The general oscillatory solution given in terms of elliptic functions and the conditions for its existence are discussed. It is shown that the wall-like-matter and the small, but negative cosmological constant are required for oscillations. The oscillations can , in principle, be deep enough to allow standard hot universe processes like recombination and nucleosynthesis. It is shown that the wall-like-matter and string-like-matter can be interpreted as scalar fields with some potentials. This may give another candidate for the dark matter which may be compatible with observational data. For an exact elementary oscillatory solution it is shown that the associated scalar field potential is oscillating as well.Comment: Latex file, 27 pages, figures available on reques

The Global Financial Crisis: Lessons for European Integration

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the various challenges facing European integration and the EU institutional architecture as result of the global financial crisis. The European integration process is not yet complete, both in terms of its content and geographical coverage. It can be viewed as a kind of intermediate hybrid between an international organization and a federation, subject to further evolution. This is also true of the Single European Market and the Economic and Monetary Union, which form the core of the EU economic architecture. Certain policy prerogatives (such as external trade, competition, and the Common Agriculture Policy) are delegated to the supranational level while others (such as financial supervision or fiscal policy) remain largely in the hands of national authorities.financial crisis, European integration, European Union, Economic and Monetary Union, fiscal policy, financial supervision, global financial architecture, IMF

Fiscal Crisis in the Transformation Period: Trends, Stylized Facts and Some Conceptual Problems

The purpose of this study is to describe the separate stages of the transformation in light of the basic accompanying fiscal difficulties and to formulate general conclusions regarding the factors which substantially affect the state of public finances and the quality of fiscal policy in post-communist countries. The structure of the paper is as follows: Section 2 provides a synthetic classification of the post-communist economies according to their advancement in the transformation process; section 3 contains a proposed scheme for distinguishing successive stages of fiscal policy during the transformation period. In the following four sections, four such stages of fiscal policy are discussed. These are: initial destabilization, initial stabilization, secondary fiscal crisis, and finally, the restoration of fiscal potential. Section 8 is devoted to a group of countries which have not been able, so far, to achieve sustainable macroeconomic stabilization. Section 9 presents the issues concerning quasi-fiscal subsidies and the quasi- fiscal deficit. Section 10 contains a summary and concluding remarks.Poland, economic transition, fiscal crisis

Economic Relations between the EU and CIS (An Overview)

The purpose of this paper is to examine the economic aspects of EU policy towards its Eastern neighbors in the former Soviet Union. For a long period of time, this region was considered as less important for the EU, as compared to Central and Eastern Europe, which was the subject of a far-reaching economic and political integration offer materialized in two rounds of EU Eastern Enlargements (2004, 2007). However, moving the EU's geographical frontier further to the East and Southeast increased the importance of the CIS region as a potential partner of the enlarged EU. In 2004, East European and Caucasus countries were invited to participate in the European Neighborhood Policy a new EU external policy framework also addressed to the Southern Mediterranean countries. Russia has been attempting to build a strategic political and economic partnership with the EU outside the ENP framework but the content of this relationship is, in fact, very similar to the ENP. A general weakness of the ENP is that there is a lack of balance between farreaching expectations with respect to neighbors' policies and reforms, and limited and distant rewards that can potentially be offered. Thus, making this cooperation framework more effective requires a serious enhancement of the rewards using, to the extent possible, the positive experience of previous EU enlargements. The nature of contemporary economic relations in the globalized world calls for a more complex package-type approach to economic integration rather than just limiting cooperation to some narrow fields.EU-CIS relations, EU-Russia relations, EU and Central Asia, European Neighborhood Policy, Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, Wider Europe