The Western Balkans: deadlock in the EU enlargement process. OSW Commentary No. 43, 2010-11-24

On 9 November the European Commission presented the annual reports assessing the progress of the Balkans states in their preparations for EU membership, the enlargement strategy up to autumn 2011, and the assessment of the EU membership applications submitted by Albania and Macedonia. All these documents show that the reform process in the Balkan states has slowed down in comparison to previous years. The main reason for this slowdown is the negative consequences of the global economic crisis for these countries. Nonetheless, the transformation process is continuing, despite these difficulties. Another increasingly serious challenge for integrating the Balkan states is the EU's growing reluctance to enlarge any further. Among other measures, the EU states have blocked the formal acknowledgement of the integration progress (objections have been raised to the submission of membership applications by Albania, Serbia and Montenegro, and to granting Albania candidate status), which has significantly prolonged the accession process. In fact, this illustrates the lack of political will to accept new members. The European Commission is aware that the integration process may be blocked, and so in the coming year it is planning to focus on fostering the idea of enlargement among the EU member states. It will also focus on persuading the Balkan states to move on with reforms, especially those designed to strengthen state institutions (administration, the judiciary), even if their progress will not be formally considered during the integration process. The Commission assumes that by the end of next year, the reforms implemented by the Balkan states will be comprehensive enough to persuade the EU states to step up the integration process in subsequent years. However, if the EU member states' standpoint on the enlargement process does not change, the Commission's efforts will not bring about the expected results. Considering that their prospects for EU membership are receding, the Balkan states may not have sufficient motivation to go on with long-term reform efforts. As a result, the transformation process may become impeded, and in the longer perspective, the situation in the entire region may be destabilised.

Flashlight Europe N°3–April 2015. Greece – What else?

The first hundred days in office have become a benchmark for every new government. Early in May, the Tsipras coalition government will reach this date. Given the difficult financial, economic and social situation in Greece, there was no such thing as a closed season for Alexis Tsipras from day one on, and he himself could not have expected one. After all, his new government acceded office with a political agenda demanding nothing less than an end to austerity and the submission to a reform programme seen as unduly imposed on Greece by its creditors, the EU and the IMF.

Flashlight Europe N°5–June 2015. OMT is Monetary Policy and Not Economic Policy

In January 2014, for the first time in its history, the German Federal Constitutional Court submitted several questions to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg and asked for a preliminary ruling. The questions had arisen within the framework of the OMT case, and the issue was whether or not the OMT (“outright monetary transactions”) programme announced by Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank (ECB), is in compliance with the law of the European Union. The OMT programme (which has be-come well-known because Draghi said “what-ever it takes to preserve the euro” when he unveiled it) plays an important role in the stabilization of the euro area. It means that the European System of Central Banks will be empowered to engage in unlimited buying of government bonds issued by certain Member States if and as long as these Member States are simultaneously taking part in a European rescue or reform programme (under the EFSF ot the ESM). Hitherto the OMT has not been implemented. Nonetheless a suit contesting its legality was filed with the Federal Constitutional Court. The European Court of Justice now had to decide whether or not the activities of the ECB were in compliance with European law. How-ever, the ECJ had to take into account the prior assessment of the Federal Constitutional Court. In its submission the Federal Constitutional Court made it quite clear that it was of the opinion that there has been a violation of European law. But at the same time it did not exclude the possibility that the ECJ set up legal conditions for OMT in order to avoid a violation of European law.

Excavation and resource evaluation of sites 23PU2, 23PU255 and 23PU235 (Miller Cave complex), Fort Leonard Wood, Pulaski County, Missouri /

"For submission to U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, Champaign, Illinois."

Archaeological investigations for the relocation of Valmeyer, Monroe County, Illinois /

"For submission to Federal Emergency Management Agency, Mitigation Division, Springfield, Illinois".

Archaeological test excavations of four sites at Fort Riley, Riley and Geary Counties, Kansas /

For submission to U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories, Champaign, Illinois"

Phase II excavation and evaluation of eight sites at Fort Leonard Wood, Pulaski County, Missouri /

"April 1996"

Phase II excavation and evaluation of seven sites at Fort Leonard Wood, Pulaski County, Missouri : final report /

"November 1995"

Phase 1 archaeological survey of 3,000 acres at Fort Leonard Wood, Pulaski County, Missouri /

"March 1997."

Phase I survey of 3,500 acres at Fort Leonard Wood, Pulaski County, Missouri /

"For submission to U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories, Champaign, Illinois"

Annual report : Intergovernmental Law Enforcement Officers In-Service Training Act fiscal year ... /

Provides a summary of Mobile Team Unit appropriations and activities, and serves to meet the requirements of Public Act 82-674, which directs submission of an annual report to the Governor and the legislature.

Final report on electronics equipment disposal and recycling : reporting to Governor Rod R. Blagojevich, the 95th General Assembly, and IEPA director, Doug Scott.

"Section 999. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law."--Leaf 23.

A memorial of Mrs. Margaret Breckinridge ...

pt. I. A memoir of Mrs. Margaret Breckinridge. Submission: a sermon ... by the Rev. A. Alexander, D.D.--pt. II. Letters of a grandfather, to the surviving children of Mrs. Margaret Breckinridge. by the Rev. Samuel Miller, D.D.

Annual report.

Submission of an annual report by the Dept. of state was provided for in the reorganization of state departments effective Jan. 1, 1927. Prior to that date there were only a few reports issued in printed form.