The Lisbon Treaty stipulates that the European Union's and the Member States' actions should be guided by the principles that inspired its creation. These principles are democracy, the rule of law, human rights. However, influence from outside forces can affect the European Union's unity, and leave Member …

Emerging during the negotiations for the unratified Constitutional Treaty and officially launched with the Treaty of Lisbon, the European Citizens' Initiative allows citizens to invite the European Commission to propose legislation to the European Parliament and the Council based on an idea which gathers …

This study examines the role the European Union Battlegroups can play in accomplishing EU security goals. In doing so, an assessment is made of the capabilities and shortcomings of the Battlegroups in light of EU defence ambitions. The security environment of the European Union is changing. Since the …

The aim of this dissertation is to research if and how Lithuania’s LNG terminal could be a method to ensure energy security within the European Union. Lithuania’s energy position has been a very vulnerable one, and used to import 100% of its gas supply from Russia’s state monopoly Gazprom. In order to …

Enlargement fatigue is an effect that has been felt in the European Union (EU) by member states ever since its creation in 1957. Enlargement fatigue can be felt in the member states in two different ways, which are the constitutional deepening of the EU and the geographical widening of the EU. While …

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the foreign policy changes that the EU experienced due to the Iraq crisis. The increasing complexity of the global security environment has played an important role in the EU foreign policy evolution by challenging the EU’s effective management of …

The successful policy intervention of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement was the result of a combination of public and institutional advocacy. ACTA aimed to harmonise the combating of copyright infringements in the digital environment, which are believed to have been left out by the former agreements. …

This report examines the consequences of unaccompanied and separated, asylum-seeking children (UASASC) turning 18, that are passing through the asylum process in France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. It compares the asylum procedures as well as the practices in the management of unaccompanied …

This report is the result of a research to press freedom in the European Union. In recent years, several EU-countries have experienced a dramatic fall in the ratings on press freedom. On the other side, EU-member Finland is the highest rated country in the world when it comes to press freedom. The aim …

In this dissertation, the European Commission's selection process of policy instruments to tackle climate change has been reviewed, with the main focus on understanding what internal factors have influenced the Commission in this process and how this has led to the implementation of soft policy instruments. …