European Union Leadership and Enlargement in 2014. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series Vol. 14 No. 14, July 2014

On July 15, 2014 the European Parliament confirmed the new European Commission President. An absolute majority was needed for this purpose, and the 422 votes “For” cleared the 376-vote threshold in the legislative body of 751 members. A Grand Coalition has been formed among the three largest political parties: the European People’s Party (EPP), the Progressive Alliances of Socialists Democrats (S&D), and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). Considering policy decisions going forward, the European Union (EU) faces the pressing question: Will there be more, less, or similar power from the EU? There are a greater number voices from across the political spectrum contributing to the democratic plurality. European leaders may regain trust by acknowledging that future governance will not be “business as usual” as the reform agenda gets underway. 2014 has been an exciting and important year in European politics. “This time is different” was the motto for the European Parliament’s election campaign. This essay analyzes recent EU political trends with the new Commission leadership and the Parliamentary elections results. The Parliamentary elections, held in late May, and the new European Commission, planned to be in place in the autumn, influence the leadership direction of the 28-member bloc. Additionally, this year on July 1 Croatia celebrated the first anniversary of joining the EU in 2013. Leading the way for candidate countries, Croatia embraces the democratic politics and capitalist market economics embodied by the EU. The greater number of seats held by newer political parties in the European Parliament demonstrates increasing plurality in the EU democracy. The Parliamentary elections have taken place every 5 years since 1979. In this eighth legislative session, the EPP and the S&D remain the largest parties represented, with 221 and 191 seats respectively. As the EU has evolved, a greater number of voices influence politics. The ongoing point of contention on a host of policies is national sovereignty in relation to pooled sovereignty in the EU. The European Parliament is important for democracy in EU governance since it is the direct link from the national citizens to their elected leaders at the supranational level. The representatives of the European Commission are appointed by the national governments of Member States, and their heads of government are the representatives to the European Council. These three political institutions – the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the European Council – together with other important institutions, including the European Court of Justice Luxembourg, form the EU. The new European Commission President is Jean-Claude Juncker, former Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Luxembourg (1995-2013). After being nominated by the European Council on June 27, his candidacy was voted on by the European Parliament on July 15, according to the guidelines of the Lisbon Treaty. The leadership for the President of the European Commission has been an important issue, considering Britain’s deliberations on whether or not to stay in the EU in the face of a future national referendum. Voting on June 27, among the European Council on the nomination of Commission President-Designate Juncker, was 26 in favor and 2 opposed. Only Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, joined David Cameron, the prime minister of the United Kingdom (UK), with a negative vote (Spiegel and Parker 2014). The UK had not been supportive, being concerned that Juncker embraces the policies of a federalist, prioritizing an ever-closer union above the interests of individual Member States. Historically, since joining the predecessor institution of the European Economic Community in 1973, the UK has had a relatively independent attitude about participation in the EU.

Memorandum of Agreement The University of Maryland, Adele H. Stamp Student Union Leadership & Community Service-Learning and Universidad de Cuenca and Ixa Tours

English

Leadership research and cognitive neuroscience:the state of this union

Advances in cognitive neuroscience and other approaches to understanding human behavior from a biological standpoint are only now beginning to filter into leadership research. The purpose of this introduction to the Leadership Quarterly Special Issue on the Biology of Leadership is to outline the organizational cognitive neuroscience approach to leadership research, and show how such an approach can fruitfully inform both leadership and neuroscientific research. Indeed, we advance the view that the further application of cognitive neuroscientific techniques to leadership research will pay great dividends in our understanding of effective leadership behaviors and as such, a future symbiosis between the two fields is a necessity.

Visibility and Voice for Union Women

A new collection of Case studies about gender and trade unions in nine countries, ranging from Turkey to India, Brazil to Africa, the Philippines and New Zealand. Researched and written by insider/outsider union activists and officers, the book is the culmination of five years of collaborative research by the Global Labour University Gender and Trade Unions Research Group.

Communism and Public Opinion in Queensland, 1939-1951 : An Explanation of Queensland's Vote in the 1951 Anti-Communist Referendum

The starting point of this thesis was a desire to explain the rapid demise in the popularity which the Communist Party enjoyed in Queensland during the second world war. Wartime Queensland gave the Australian Communist Party its highest state vote and six years later Queensland again gave the Communist Party its highest state vote - this time however, to ban the Party. From this I was led into exploring the changing policies, beliefs and strategies of the Party, as well as the many sub-groups on its periphery, and the shifts in public response to these. In 1939 Townsville elected Australia's first Communist alderman. Five years later, Bowen elected not only Australia's first but also the British Empire's first, Communist state government member. Of the five electorates the Australian Communist Party contested in the 1944 Queensland State elections, in none did the Party's candidate receive less than twenty per-cent of the formal vote. Not only was the Party seemingly enjoying considerable popular support but this was occurring in a State which, but for the Depression years (May 1929 - June 1932) had elected a Labor State Government at every state election since 1915. In the September 1951 Constitution Alteration Referendum, 'Powers To Deal With Communists and Communism', Queensland regist¬ered the nation's highest "Yes" majority - 55.76% of the valid vote. Only two other states registered a majority in favour of the referendum's proposals, Western Australia and Tasmania. As this research was undertaken it became evident that while various trends exhibited at the time, anti-Communism, the work of the Industrial Groups, Labor opportunism, local area feelings, ideological shifts of the Party, tactics of Communist-led unions, etc., were present throughout the entire period, they were best seen when divided into three chronological phases of the Party's history and popularity. The first period covers the consolidation of the Party's post-Depression popularity during the war years as it benefited from the Soviet Union's colossal contribution to the Allied war efforts, and this support continued for some six months or so after the war. Throughout the period Communist strength within the trade union movement greatly increased as did total Party membership. The second period was marked by a rapid series of events starting in March 1946, with Winston Churchill's "Official Opening" of the Cold War by his sweeping attack on Communism and Russia, at Fulton. Several days later the first of a series of long and bitter strikes in Communist-led unions occurred, as the Party mobil¬ized for what it believed would be a series of attacks on the working class from a ruling class, defending a capitalist system on the verge of an economic collapse. It was a period when the Party believed this ruling class was using Labor reformism as a last desperate 'carrot' to get workers to accept their lot within a capitalist economic framework. Out of the Meat Strike emerged the Industrial Groups, who waged not only a determined war against Communist trade union leadership but also encouraged the A.W.U.-influenced State Labor apparatus to even greater anti-Communist antagonisms. The Communist Party's increasing militancy and Labor's resistance to it, ended finally in the collapse of the Chifley Labor government. Characteristically the third period opens with the Communist Party making an another about-face, desperately trying to form an alliance with the Labor Party and curbing its former adventurist industrial policy, as it prepared for Menzies' direct assault. The Communist Party's activities were greatly reduced, a function of both a declining member-ship and, furthermore, a membership reluctant to confront an increasingly hostile society. In examining the changing policies, beliefs and strategies of the Party and the shifts in public response to these, I have tried to distinguish between general trends occurring within Australia and the national party, and trends peculiar to Queensland and the Queensland branch of the Party, The Communist Party suffered a decline in support and membership right across Australia throughout this period as a result of the national policies of the Party, and the changing nature of world politics. There were particular features of this decline that were peculiar to Queensland. I have, however, singled out three features of particular importance throughout the period for a short but more specifically detailed analysis, than would be possible in a purely chronological study: i.e. the Party's structure, the Party's ideological subservience to Moscow, and the general effect upon it of the Cold War.

As Presidências Portuguesas da União Europeia

O estudo das Presidências Portuguesas do Conselho da União Europeia, desenvolvido no âmbito desta tese de doutoramento em relações internacionais, tem por objetivo descrever, comparar e explicar o papel, os objetivos e as prioridades políticas internas e externas de Portugal durante os três exercícios presidenciais da União: 1992, 2000 e 2007. Partimos de uma análise assente nas teorias da integração europeia, para analisar a evolução e importância das Presidências para os Estados-membros. Dentro destas adotamos o modelo conceptual da perspectiva racionalista e sociológica, de forma a compreender o comportamento e desempenho dos Estados no exercício das mesmas. Neste enquadramento procuramos explicar o desenvolvimento institucional da Presidência, o seu papel e respectivas funções ao longo do processo de construção europeia, a forma como os Estados através destas influenciam a agenda europeia, como lideram determinadas políticas e/ou dossiers e inerentemente defendem o seu interesse nacional. Descrevemos e comparamos as três Presidências Portuguesas do Conselho a nível empírico e analisamo-las de acordo com o quadro teórico adoptado. Desta forma, pretendemos explicar as razões que levaram Portugal a definir um determinado tipo de prioridades políticas para cada uma das suas Presidências, as estratégias desenvolvidas para obter o sucesso na prossecução das mesmas, bem como a respectiva importância para o país e para a União Europeia. Cada uma das Presidências ora referidas, oferece um contributo específico e importante na sustentação da nossa tese e concorrem para o argumento central da mesma: explicar o papel de Portugal nos três exercícios presidenciais, e consequentemente a sua relevância para a política externa nacional e para o processo de integração europeia.

La 'gran huelga petrolera' de 1968 en Ensenada : Crónica, prácticas y discursos de un conflicto laboral en la Argentina pre-cordobazo

El presente trabajo es un estudio de caso sobre la llamada huelga santa de los obreros de la Destilería, Flota petrolera y Taller Naval de Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales de Ensenada, que tuvo lugar entre septiembre y noviembre de 1968. Se pretende en el mismo analizar las prácticas y los discursos que contribuyeron a la transformaron de su carácter económico-corporativo en una lucha política contra la Ley de Hidrocarburos en particular, y más en general, contra la política de racionalización económica impulsada por la dictadura del Gral. Onganía. La investigación pretende así, contribuir a la comprensión de la dinámica de la lucha de clases en la época. Es hipótesis de este trabajo que la politización y radicalización de la huelga tuvieron lugar en un marco caracterizado por el enfrentamiento entre aquellos elementos nacionalistas de la identidad de los trabajadores de YPF y la total intransigencia de la dictadura. Sin embargo, la prolongación de la medida también es comprensible en virtud al respeto por las decisiones colectivas y la disciplina gremial de estos trabajadores. El trabajo consta de 5 capítulos, el primero de ellos analiza el contexto histórico de la huelga, enfatizando en el carácter del programa económico de la dictadura. El segundo describe las condiciones de la explotación petrolera en Ensenada y las relaciones laborales de los obreros petroleros tanto a nivel histórico como en el contexto de la huelga. La huelga en sí, es analizada en los tres últimos capítulos: en el tercero se realiza una crónica del conflicto, orientada a conocer su dinámica interna. Los discursos de los trabajadores son analizados, finalmente, en los dos últimos capítulos pero desde ópticas diferentes, el cuarto apunta a conocer las disputas discursivas de los actores involucrados como un momento central en la construcción de legitimidad y sentido, y en el último se encuentra un análisis de las entrevistas realizadas a 5 ex trabajadores y un estudiante que participaron de la huelga. A partir de estos testimonios se pretende reconstruir la memoria en torno a este acontecimiento y algunos aspectos subjetivos e identitarios de los ypefianos

Las potencialidades políticas de lo gremial y sus límites : Un caso de sindicalismo clasista

En este artículo nos proponemos realizar una indagación sobre el sindicalismo clasista a partir del período político inaugurado por la presidencia de Néstor Kirchner. De esta manera, planteamos una comparación con las primeras experiencias de esta tradición sindical en los años '70. Específicamente, se trata de indagar en torno a la relación entre la dirigencia sindical clasista y el conjunto de los trabajadores por ella representados. Nos preguntamos centralmente por cuál es la naturaleza de la relación entre la dirección gremial y las bases, en esta orientación en particular. Para ello, tomaremos como caso de estudio el sindicalismo desarrollado por la Junta Interna de ATE (Asociación Trabajadores del Estado) en el Hospital Garrahan, en el contexto del nuevo ciclo de relaciones laborales abierto en Argentina a partir de 2003

La 'gran huelga petrolera' de 1968 en Ensenada : Crónica, prácticas y discursos de un conflicto laboral en la Argentina pre-cordobazo

El presente trabajo es un estudio de caso sobre la llamada huelga santa de los obreros de la Destilería, Flota petrolera y Taller Naval de Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales de Ensenada, que tuvo lugar entre septiembre y noviembre de 1968. Se pretende en el mismo analizar las prácticas y los discursos que contribuyeron a la transformaron de su carácter económico-corporativo en una lucha política contra la Ley de Hidrocarburos en particular, y más en general, contra la política de racionalización económica impulsada por la dictadura del Gral. Onganía. La investigación pretende así, contribuir a la comprensión de la dinámica de la lucha de clases en la época. Es hipótesis de este trabajo que la politización y radicalización de la huelga tuvieron lugar en un marco caracterizado por el enfrentamiento entre aquellos elementos nacionalistas de la identidad de los trabajadores de YPF y la total intransigencia de la dictadura. Sin embargo, la prolongación de la medida también es comprensible en virtud al respeto por las decisiones colectivas y la disciplina gremial de estos trabajadores. El trabajo consta de 5 capítulos, el primero de ellos analiza el contexto histórico de la huelga, enfatizando en el carácter del programa económico de la dictadura. El segundo describe las condiciones de la explotación petrolera en Ensenada y las relaciones laborales de los obreros petroleros tanto a nivel histórico como en el contexto de la huelga. La huelga en sí, es analizada en los tres últimos capítulos: en el tercero se realiza una crónica del conflicto, orientada a conocer su dinámica interna. Los discursos de los trabajadores son analizados, finalmente, en los dos últimos capítulos pero desde ópticas diferentes, el cuarto apunta a conocer las disputas discursivas de los actores involucrados como un momento central en la construcción de legitimidad y sentido, y en el último se encuentra un análisis de las entrevistas realizadas a 5 ex trabajadores y un estudiante que participaron de la huelga. A partir de estos testimonios se pretende reconstruir la memoria en torno a este acontecimiento y algunos aspectos subjetivos e identitarios de los ypefianos

Las potencialidades políticas de lo gremial y sus límites : Un caso de sindicalismo clasista

En este artículo nos proponemos realizar una indagación sobre el sindicalismo clasista a partir del período político inaugurado por la presidencia de Néstor Kirchner. De esta manera, planteamos una comparación con las primeras experiencias de esta tradición sindical en los años '70. Específicamente, se trata de indagar en torno a la relación entre la dirigencia sindical clasista y el conjunto de los trabajadores por ella representados. Nos preguntamos centralmente por cuál es la naturaleza de la relación entre la dirección gremial y las bases, en esta orientación en particular. Para ello, tomaremos como caso de estudio el sindicalismo desarrollado por la Junta Interna de ATE (Asociación Trabajadores del Estado) en el Hospital Garrahan, en el contexto del nuevo ciclo de relaciones laborales abierto en Argentina a partir de 2003

La 'gran huelga petrolera' de 1968 en Ensenada : Crónica, prácticas y discursos de un conflicto laboral en la Argentina pre-cordobazo

El presente trabajo es un estudio de caso sobre la llamada huelga santa de los obreros de la Destilería, Flota petrolera y Taller Naval de Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales de Ensenada, que tuvo lugar entre septiembre y noviembre de 1968. Se pretende en el mismo analizar las prácticas y los discursos que contribuyeron a la transformaron de su carácter económico-corporativo en una lucha política contra la Ley de Hidrocarburos en particular, y más en general, contra la política de racionalización económica impulsada por la dictadura del Gral. Onganía. La investigación pretende así, contribuir a la comprensión de la dinámica de la lucha de clases en la época. Es hipótesis de este trabajo que la politización y radicalización de la huelga tuvieron lugar en un marco caracterizado por el enfrentamiento entre aquellos elementos nacionalistas de la identidad de los trabajadores de YPF y la total intransigencia de la dictadura. Sin embargo, la prolongación de la medida también es comprensible en virtud al respeto por las decisiones colectivas y la disciplina gremial de estos trabajadores. El trabajo consta de 5 capítulos, el primero de ellos analiza el contexto histórico de la huelga, enfatizando en el carácter del programa económico de la dictadura. El segundo describe las condiciones de la explotación petrolera en Ensenada y las relaciones laborales de los obreros petroleros tanto a nivel histórico como en el contexto de la huelga. La huelga en sí, es analizada en los tres últimos capítulos: en el tercero se realiza una crónica del conflicto, orientada a conocer su dinámica interna. Los discursos de los trabajadores son analizados, finalmente, en los dos últimos capítulos pero desde ópticas diferentes, el cuarto apunta a conocer las disputas discursivas de los actores involucrados como un momento central en la construcción de legitimidad y sentido, y en el último se encuentra un análisis de las entrevistas realizadas a 5 ex trabajadores y un estudiante que participaron de la huelga. A partir de estos testimonios se pretende reconstruir la memoria en torno a este acontecimiento y algunos aspectos subjetivos e identitarios de los ypefianos

Las potencialidades políticas de lo gremial y sus límites : Un caso de sindicalismo clasista

En este artículo nos proponemos realizar una indagación sobre el sindicalismo clasista a partir del período político inaugurado por la presidencia de Néstor Kirchner. De esta manera, planteamos una comparación con las primeras experiencias de esta tradición sindical en los años '70. Específicamente, se trata de indagar en torno a la relación entre la dirigencia sindical clasista y el conjunto de los trabajadores por ella representados. Nos preguntamos centralmente por cuál es la naturaleza de la relación entre la dirección gremial y las bases, en esta orientación en particular. Para ello, tomaremos como caso de estudio el sindicalismo desarrollado por la Junta Interna de ATE (Asociación Trabajadores del Estado) en el Hospital Garrahan, en el contexto del nuevo ciclo de relaciones laborales abierto en Argentina a partir de 2003

State of the Union and key challenges for Europe's future. CHALLENGE EUROPE Issue 22 - Challenges and new beginnings: Priorities for the EU's new leadership, September 2014.

In the last five years deep cracks have appeared in the European project. The 'euro-area crisis' triggered by a severe global financial and economic crisis has put European integration to a major test, more profound than ever before. The experience of recent years has revealed and exacerbated significant deficiencies in the European Union's (EU) economic and political construction. At time it has cast doubt on fundamentals of the European project and raised questions about whether Europe will be able to deal effectively not only with the immediate crisis, but also with the many other serious socio-economic, politico-institutional, societal and global challenges that Europe is and will be confronted with. At the start of a new institutional-political cycle (2014-2019) and while the crisis situation has for a number of reasons improved significantly since the summer of 2012, at least in systemic terms, the Union's new leadership and Member States will now have to take strategic decisions about the future of European integration.

Monetary and fiscal policies interactions in a monetary union with country-size asymmetry

Within a country-size asymmetric monetary union, idiosyncratic shocks and national fiscal stabilization policies cause asymmetric cross-border effects. These effects are a source of strategic interactions between noncoordinated fiscal and monetary policies: on the one hand, due to larger externalities imposed on the union, large countries face less incentives to develop free-riding fiscal policies; on the other hand, a larger strategic position vis-à-vis the central bank incentives the use of fiscal policy to, deliberately, influence monetary policy. Additionally, the existence of non-distortionary government financing may also shape policy interactions. As a result, optimal policy regimes may diverge not only across the union members, but also between the latter and the monetary union. In a two-country micro-founded New-Keynesian model for a monetary union, we consider two fiscal policy scenarios: (i) lump-sum taxes are raised to fully finance the government budget and (ii) lump-sum taxes do not ensure balanced budgets in each period; therefore, fiscal and monetary policies are expected to impinge on debt sustainability. For several degrees of country-size asymmetry, we compute optimal discretionary and dynamic non-cooperative policy games and compare their stabilization performance using a union-wide welfare measure. We also assess whether these outcomes could be improved, for the monetary union, through institutional policy arrangements. We find that, in the presence of government indebtedness, monetary policy optimally deviates from macroeconomic to debt stabilization. We also find that policy cooperation is always welfare increasing for the monetary union as a whole; however, indebted large countries may strongly oppose to this arrangement in favour of fiscal leadership. In this case, delegation of monetary policy to a conservative central bank proves to be fruitful to improve the union’s welfare.

When the rising dragon sees fading stars: China's view of the European Union. CEPS Special Report No. 73, 29 November 2012

This CEPS Special Report gives an overview of China’s perceptions of the EU and the protection of Chinese investments in Europe since the outbreak of the European sovereign debt crisis, especially since the more concrete talks in late 2011 on possible financial support from China. Although the top leadership of the communist party of China (CPC) changed in its recent handover, the perceptions described in this paper are likely to remain the same, just as the main tenets of China’s foreign policy are unlikely to change in the near future. The report argues that while the EU’s image has suffered greatly from the sovereign debt crisis and the way it has been handled, there is room to improve China’s view of Europe and for the EU to maintain a relatively strong negotiation position towards China.