In 1993 the Copenhagen Presidency of the Council specific requirements for membership, referred to as the "Copenhagen Criteria" including political, economic and acquis:

-          1) stable institutions to enforce the rule of law, protect human rights, guarentee democracy, ensure minority protection.

-          2) functional market economy insures ability to compete with market forces within the EU.

-          3) alline national law with the body of law governing the EU.  Acquis communautaire is the most important step, it ensures the countries ability to take on all

the other obligations of membership.....

Intergovernmentalists and reluctant integrators wanted a “Greek temple” of three separate pillars connected through a unifying preamble. Multilateral negotiating between member states would supplant the “Community Method” and its “institutional triangle” (Commission, Council, and Parliament).  The pillars were instituted due to the complicated relationships among "community” institutions of Commission, Council of Ministers, Court of Justice and Parliament.

Pillar 1 is the community pillar and contains: European Community, European Coal and Steel Community and Euratom. The principle of governance is community method, commission importance and ECJ jurisprudence.

Pillar 2 is the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) enforcing intergovernmental Council importance and National jurisprudence.

Pillar 3 is cooperation in matters of justice and internal affairs (policing transnational crime, migration) enforcing intergovernmental, Council importance and national jurisprudence.

states have high authority and need democratic control to set up the European Assembly

European Coal and Steel Community – common external tariffs and policies of distribution

-            The high authority was the executive branch of the former European Coal and Steel Community, independent, supranational, executive checked by a Court of Justice. Council (of governments) and Parliament (of MPs) to be created to act as a counterweight. Jean Monnet was the first president

  Customs union in coal/steel (common external tariff)

  Eliminate duties within

  Executive powers: Council of Ministers; High Authority

  Legislative powers: European Assembly (consultative, co-decision)

  European Court of Justice

Was a six-nation international organization serving to unify Western Europe during the Cold War and creating the foundation for European democracy and the modern-day developments of the European Union. The ECSC was the first organization to be based on the principles of supranationalism.^[1]

Created by Jean Monnet

-          member states congregate with the goal of coming to a consensus  - members have veto power to negate bill or establish  “majority” to pass

member states hold the most power and decisions are often made by unanimity. Elected representatives have sole advisory to implementational functions.

Intergovernmentalism in the EU allows members of national governments to make legislative and executive decisions amongst themselves, either by majority vote or by unanimity. Immediately binding, the bills do not pass through national parliaments, excluding amendments on the EU treaties.

The opposite method of decision-making in political communities is supranationalism.

-          Giving authority to an outside third party body that makes decisions without the involvement of all member state represented  (High Authority)

Is a decision-making process in multi-national communities, wherein power is transferred to an authority broader than governments of member states. Because decisions in some supranational structures are taken by majority votes, it is possible for a member-state in those unions to be forced by the other member-states to implement a decision.(often bribed, therefore the decision making body must be outside to a party uninfluenced by the outcome of the decision) Unlike in a federal supra-state, member states retain nominal sovereignty, although some sovereignty is shared with, or ceded to, the supranational body. Full sovereignty can be reclaimed by withdrawing from the supranational arrangements. A supranational authority, by definition, can have some independence from member state governments, although not as much independence as with federal governments. Supranational institutions, like federal governments, imply the possibility of pursuing agendas in ways that the delegating states did not initially envision.

-          Treaty of Paris 1950 – established European coal and steel coalition

o   Original 6: Luxemburg, Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium

-          Treaty of Rome 1957 – established (EEC) European Economic Community and Euratom

-          Single European Act of 1986

o   established closer institutional integration and strengthened institutional mechanisms which moved power towards the EU institutions (more supranational)

o   prepared single market for 1992

-          Maastricht Treaty 1992 –

o   Ensured the freedom freedom of movement of: Good, capital, labor, services [truly single market]

o   Created Greek Temple

o   EEC ceased to exist as single European integration – term EU introduced

§  EEC became the first pillar – coal, steel, nuclear, common market

§  Political – foreign policy, promote common interests abroad – all countries have sign about foreign aid and refugees

§  Justice domain – cooperation of judicial and police affairs, protect citizens domestically

-          Amsterdam treaty - 1996 extended third pillar [Justice and home affairs – you let people in to be part of society, how refugee and immigration is in this pillar]

o   `refugees and immigration internationally is in second pillar

-          Treaty of Nice 2000

o   Made it possible for enlargement to take place because you had to change the composition of parliament to let more reps be elected from new member states that were going to join in 2004

o   Was an institutional reform treaty

-          Constitutional Treaty 2004 (not ratified)

o   Europeans had a philly convention in US

o   Had to be ratified by all member states and some states chose to send it to their citizens

o   France and Netherlands voted majority no

-          Lisbon 2008 (Not ratified)

o   Ireland did not improve it

-          Before it was pay as you go where everyone received healthcare, school, vet but with this they dismantled social safety net, now individuals must be contributing to society to receive benefits

-          The reforms involved cutbacks in the free provision of services such as public transport and medicine to pensioners such as vets, disabled and were replaced by modest monetary payment – lower than the costs that people would pay for these services. Subsidies for public utilities and housing were also reduced. This lessened the burden on the local governments and to increase the role of the market

-          People who had previously received benefits were not the most disadvantaged, this program involved an effort to target state support to the more needy parts of the populations, in line with general efforts to reduce the poverty rate.

-          After protests the pensions were raised and transportation subsidies were reinstated

-          2005 Putin’s National Projects – health care, education, housing and agriculture

-          2005 purpose partly to redress inadequate social sector and to increase Russia’s population. The projects focus on four priority areas: health care, education, housing and agriculture. Some observers interpret them as a modest step back from reliance on market vehicles to address social policy, in line with traditional expectations of citizens about the leading role of the state in social welfare. The National Projects, under the stewardship of First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, got off to a slow start, however; opinion surveys indicate that most Russians were not impressed by what had been achieved by 2007 and had only modest hopes for the future.

-          Benefited from privatization process and often have had a significant political influence as well

-          Gained control of important economic interest but often did not reinvest their profits to spur business development; transfered into foreign countries

-          Money laundering in 1990’s to avoid taxes – putin made it clear that oligarchs that used economic power to influence politics would suffer sanction  

-          “Crony Capitalism”

-          Acquired commanding stakes in Russian enterprises, industries

-          Practically privatization by secracy and insider games

-          Putin did not stand by his promise to work with the oligarchs; He falsly claimed that he would forget how they came to wealth if they worked with him

-          Control over media as well, fashionable for oligarchs to buy media this got them into trouble because they could not openly criticize government, putin removed licenses

-          One oligarch was prosecuted for unpaid taxes

-          Government started to buy out property for removing him 

-          Shady deals and government envolvement = crony capitalism

-          Battle of the oligarchs – reduce speed of transition, oligarchs are not thinking of technological innovation but more so how to prevent government from taking property and tax evasion

o   Oligarchs investing in western economy (owner of chelsy soccer team) land in Britain, not reinvested in Russia

o   Owners of TV stations removed for being critical of government  

-          Bolsechevich revolution

-          Tacit social contract

-          Lenin’s political theory based on Marxist idea that worker of capitalism will become so strong there will be a revolution

-          Socialism – no private property but there is still market and capitalist ideas, never happened until 1917 – lenin believed that this is possible in one country and not in the most developed

-          Depends on who leads

-          Union of soviet socialists republic

-          Regime developed under socialism – first we live under a dictatorship of proletariat before we live in a commune

-          [[In many ways communism in Russia was more ideal and more repressive it was exported to e Europe but EE had not been a part of Russia it was more a part of west – it was more successful because it had a stronger hold on society than in EE]]

-          New political order in terms of social contract [in book] important thing in social contract in Russia was that people would live in almost perfect equality [sometimes if you have higher or basic education wages do not vary] but in return you accept to live under communist system with no political power

o   Leaders paying that they are paying us we pretend that we are working

o   You receive very little only food and clothes, line to buy things, housing was state property

o   people thrown out of own housing and placed back as tenants

-          Rule of the majority – democratic form of government: socialist democracy

-          One party rule, no opposition  - labor camps and stories after lenins death and in stalin rule by late 1920s pluralism was completely eliminated

-          Communism was dominate, ideological indoctrination, the cold war began

-          Western democracy vs. eastern communism

-          Russia rose to global super power status because of industrial war economy

-          Within Russia opposed groups removes, individuals who lived in opposition became political prisoner

-          With cold war the spread of soviet influence in eastern state

-          Increased importance in intellegencia in the soviet state the regime relied on them to spread ideology which is part of whole propaganda machine

-          KGB and secret police were part of repressive apparatus

-          Ability of firms to turn state regulations to their advantage through payoffs to officials

-          Been a major impediment to economic development

o   Low levels of law and order undermine economic growth and the capacity of the state to support good economic performance, especially combined with rapid democratization

-          officials associated with the security sector

-          Many of whom have career links to Putin

-          Viewed as an informal interest group

-          Parties in Russia do not follow normal Left Right spectrum

-          The leftists were primarily communist who were very nationalistic and critical of market reform.

-          The reformists were more liberal and pro-western

-          The centrists are the political elite and the party in power in United Russia

-          The nationalists (aka the extreme right) are very patriotic and all about the so called “motherland”

Other reforms to the federal system introduced by Putin in 2000 were even stronger measures to strengthen what he has called the “power vertical”. This concept involves the strengthening of an integrated structure of executive power from the top (presidential) level down through to the local level.

Wiki answer:

At the start of his presidency, Vladimir Putin announced that he would consolidate political powers in Russia into the so-called power vertical. However, despite being considered successful by many, this controversial endeavor partially backfired and led to the increasing factionalism within the president's inner circle. Although other institutions now became largely irrelevant, disputes and clashes between Kremlin factions, rather than the president's will, are getting more and more important in determining major policy outcomes.^[1]

Describe the place of organized crime in European politics.  Define the term, outline organized crime patterns, and discuss principal anti-crime policies. How important is the European Union in the fight against organized crime?

Transnational organised crime is one of the major threats to security. It damages the social, economic, political and cultural development of societies. Organised crime has evolved in times of an increasing globalisation and expanding international trade, so the range of organized crime activities has broadened and diversified. Criminals strictly adhere to a "high-profit, low-risk" approach. In the last few years, organised crime groups have built up large-scale international networks and amassed substantial profits from illicit trafficking in drugs, trafficking in human beings, trafficking in weapons, counterfeit products and international fraud. The proceeds from these crimes are laundered and re-injected into the legal economy, which helps further organised criminal activity

Europol, Eurojust, forum on organised crime prevention - the EU is getting organised against organised crime

Since organised crime has extended its scope and acts on a transnational scale, a sound anti-crime policy must rely on working structures and bodies with transnational projection. Whilst the United Nations are the world's principle global anti-crime body, the EU is continuing to reinforce its efforts to set up structures to combat cross-border crime regionally. Europol's range of activities has been considerably extended, Eurojust became operational under its definitive form in January 2003, alongside the European Judiciary Network for criminal matters which exists since 1998. The European Commission established a forum against organised crime and the G8 has already implemented numerous prevention legislations.

The EU is new to the international organisations dealing with organised crime and although there are already policies implemented to thwart organized crime, there is still much to be done to improve cooperation. The main objective of creating  a European area of justice is to ensure there are no loopholes and further develop the already established policies on crime prevention in the general worldwide policies. While the EU benefits from cooperating witht the already established United Nations and Council of Europe, the member states participate in Interpol, buit also participate in Europol for a more intensive, focused and direct control over the crime which directly affects the EU itself.

Balancing out repression with prevention

Despite growing expenses and efforts to crack down on criminal activities during the last 30 years, Europe has experienced and continues to experience a steep rise in petty and organised crime. In the light of this, the European Union has drawn up a global approach to crime so that punitive action can be balanced with prevention, that all forms of criminality and insecurity will be taken into account and that divisions amongst the various players in the fight against crime can be broken.

Crime in Europe has been growing since the 1960s, despite considerably increased budgets dedicated to crime repression. In fact new forms of criminality have appeared as a result of globalisation and the boom in new technologies. Child pornography on the Internet and worldwide money laundering are two examples of this trend.

Article 29 of the Treaty on European Union refers to the prevention of crime, organised or otherwise, as one means of achieving the Union's objective of providing citizens with a high level of safety within an area of freedom, security and justice. Building on the success of preventive experiments in some Member States and on the acknowledgement that combating crime, and particularly organised crime, required innovative countermeasures, European leaders emphasised at the European Council in Tampere in October 1999 that crime prevention should also be a common priority both in internal and external policies.

What is the European Commission doing to promote crime prevention at EU level?

In November 2000, the European Commission tabled a policy communication on crime prevention, (COM (2000) 786 of 29.11.2000) which presented some orientations and proposals for further action and contained also a proposal for a new EU financial programme, Hippokrates, to fund European-wide prevention projects, that was adopted in June 2001.

The EU Forum on Organised Crime Prevention was foreseen in the above-mentioned Commission Communication on crime prevention. The Forum aims to bring together a wide range of interested stakeholders, such as national law-enforcement authorities, business and professional groups, academic researchers, non-governmental organisations and civil society as a whole to discuss new approaches in preventing organised crime, in an illustration of partnership at European level.

The EU Council of Ministers has also created a European network on crime prevention. Inspired by a joint initiative from France and Sweden, this network will deal in priority with urban criminality, youth and drug-related crime.