This article examines the organisation and strategies of Belgian interest groups and their European peak-organisations with respect to the EU policy-making arena. It conceptualises the European Union as a of multi-level governance political system that consists ofmultiple interlocking government levels, governed by means of non-hierarchical actor configurations with a blurred boundary between the public and the private sphere. It further argues that the European policy-making can best be studied from a new-institutionalist perspective which emphasises that the preferences andthe behaviour of (...) political actors are shaped by the institutional context which provides opportunities and constraints. Evidence of the institutionalfactors within a multi-level governance setting is then given from the organisational structure and strategies of Belgian interest groups in general and from the environmental policy sector in particular. (shrink)

The democratic revolutions in Eastern Europe, the speedy unification process of the two Germanies, growing economic disarray in the Soviet Union and the Gulf War put great pressure on the European Community - and raised high expectations throughout 1990. The external challenges initially seemed to slow down the internal integration process. But by the end of 1990 the Twelve committed themselves to further European political union and European economic union culminating into a central bank and a common currency. The two (...) intergovernmental constitutional conferences on EPU and EMU were installed on December 15. The execution of the internal market programme is on schedule with 70% of the directives adopted by late 1990, although the Commission expressed concern about timely transposition of the directives into national law. The EC's record on external relations is mixed : appreciation for its stepped-up cooperation with Eastern Europe, criticism for its tough stand on agriculture at the Gatt-conference, weak diplomatie performance during the Gulf War. (shrink)

In view of the pessimism on the two EU presidencies before 1994 and ofa number ofpolitica[ breakthroughs that has been reached during that year, one can say that the last year of the Tweve has been relatively succesful. It was a year in which the economic recession came to an end, in which the enlargement negotiations have been concluded, and in which the Europe Agreements entered into force. At the same time, however, 1994 showed the first signs of future problems (...) with which the enlarged EU wilt have to cope. The expected eastern and southern enlargements wilt necessitate institutional adaptations and wilt intensify the already bitter discussions on the EU's budget. At the same time, the EU wilt have to find ways to cape with rising unemployment. This will have to happen in a period during which the member states are having difficulties to fullfil the budgetary conditions of Maastricht. In other words, the difficult years are not yet over for the process of European integration. (shrink)

In 1995 the newly enlarged European Union has proved to be capable to handle its problems and to take decisions in a large array of issues. The EU tried to cope with unemployment, continued the preparation of the third stage of the Economic and Monetary Union, adopted its 1996 budget decisions relatively smoothly, and intensified its relations with different parts of the world. On the other hand however, enlargement itself is increasingly affecting the Union as it preparing itself for the (...) upcoming accession of some of its Central European and Mediterranean neighbors. The northern member states look with some suspicion at the budgetary consequences and already show a lot of restraint in paying more to the EU-budget, for the sake of their southern counterparts. Some member states are looking for a balanced enlargement in which the eastern enlargement would be counterbalanced by a Mediterranean one, and for a balance in the financial support that is provided by the EU to third countries. The biggest issue is however, the institutional adaptation of the European Union to a new enlargement. The preparations of the 1996 Intergovernmental Conferencethat took place in 1995, have shown however, that this process will be a difficult one. With the 1995 enlargement, the European Union has increased the number ofmember states that perceive the process of European integration primarily as an economic one. This will make institutional adaptations more difficult and risks to paralyze the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the Union even more than it already did in the past few years. Stated differently, 1995 has left a number of question marks on the EU's future. Whether these will disappear soon, 1996 will show. (shrink)

On 13 June 2003, elections for both the regional parliaments and the European Parliament were held in Belgium.The percentage of voters casting a preferential vote increased when compared with the previous regional and European elections of 1999, reaching scores clearly higher than 60%. The new electoral laws are one explanation for this increase, together with societal evolutions, such as individualism, anti-party feelings, personalization of polities and the appearance of cartels. In comparison with the federal elections of 2003 however, there was (...) a decrease in prererential voting, due to lower campaign expenditures and to the success of parties that traditionally do not attract many preferential votes. Voters can also cast a vote for several candidates figuring on the same party list, which is contrary to the past done quite frequently now. Finally, more candidates than ever succeeded in becoming elected out oî the order of the party list. (shrink)

While Christian Democratic parties in several Western European countries are often said to be in crisis, the European People's Party holds the largest parliamentary group in the European Parliament since 1999. This paradox relies on the specificity of the different 'national' electoral logics on the one hand and the realisation of a long-term 'European' majority strategy on the other hand. The alliance with Conservatives and Conservative parties has to overcome an absolute electoral decline in 'old' EU countries and a relative (...) decline through the accession of 'new' member states without Christian Democratic parties. The EPP majority strategy is realised through various ways : the key position of the transnational party and party group, the role of political leadership, the way of decision making, the co-operation with side-organisations, the problem-solving of ideological conflicts, etc. Our analysis proves how the majority strategy of the European Christian Democrats realises its ultimate 'survival strategy' despite several nationalparty crises. (shrink)

The distribution of the seats in European Parliament which is most probably to result from the European elections in Belgium, on June 10, 1979 is forecasted.The extrapolation is based on the results of the general elections for the House of Representatives, which took place on April 17, 1977 and December 17, 1978.The mode of allocation of seats among the different political formations is influenced not only by the options taken by the parties themselves, whether they form a coalition with a (...) like-minded party or not,but also by some characteristics of the electoral systems.Alternative systems lead to a different distribution than the one that is most likely to come out. (shrink)

Aan het eind van Zur Genealogie der Moral kondigt Nietzsche aan dat hij later een boek zal schrijven over ‘de geschiedenis van het Europese nihilisme’ . Dat boek is er nooit gekomen, althans niet van Nietzsches hand. Het enige wat we hebben zijn de aantekeningen daarvoor in zijn nalatenschap. Een van die notities is het beroemde ‘Lenzer Heide Ontwerp’ , een tekst waaraan Nietzsche zelf de titel Het Europese nihilisme gaf.Nadat Nietzsche de winter van 1886/87 in Nice had (...) doorgebracht, trok hij in het voorjaar weer richting Zwitserland om zich voor de zomer in Sils Maria te vestigen. In Nice had hij juist Dostojevski ontdekt, van wie hij onder andere de Aantekeningen uit het ondergrondse las, een boek dat een zeer kritische psychologie van de nihilist bevat. Op zijn reis naar het Engadin bleef Nietzsche steken omdat het in het hooggebergte nog te koud was en de Julier-pas nog niet sneeuwvrij. Tijdens zijn gedwongen oponthoud in Lenzer Heide noteerde hij deze tekst, aan de hand waarvan we nu een paar elementen van Nietzsches analyse van het Europese nihilisme belichten. (shrink)

Belgium is generally perceived as being one of the most fervent supporters of European integration. It is supposed that this is equally true for both, the Belgian political elite and the Belgian population. Unlike in other EU member states, no large public discussion on EU integration has taken place. Therefore, it is generally supposed that Lindberg's concept of the permissive consensus applies to the Belgians. This article aims, first, at challenging empirically the existence ofa permissive consensus in Belgium. In 1997 (...) both qualitative and quantitative data on the policy position on EU issues ofabout 130 Belgian social organisations have been collected. Content analysis ofthese positions shows that the existence ofa permissive consensus seems to be dependent on a number of variables and that a general observation of a permissive consensus has to be relaxed. Second, if permissive consensus is declining, why is it, then, that no open political controversy on European integration has emerged? In answering this, thefocus is on two explanatory variables: the resources of those that would liketo mobilise are quite limited and their opinion on European politics is rather heterogeneous and undeveloped. (shrink)

During the past year, the European integration process steadily continued along familiar as well as less familiar paths. This contribution gives an overview of the core decisions made within the three pillars of the European construction in the year 2000. Although the vast majority of these decisions were closely linked to the approaching Eastern enlargement of the European Union, new avenues have been followed during the past year as well. The debate about the finality of the European integration process gained, (...) by way ofspeeches of European leaders like Joschka Fischer, Jacques Chirac, Tony Blair and Guy Verhofstadt, fifty years after the Schuman declaration, a new momentum. (shrink)

‘Hoe dat ook moge zijn, één ding is duidelijk: welke kenmerken van de Europese cultuur worden benadrukt, hangt af van datgene waarmee Europa wordt gecontrasteerd. Dus mijn eerste punt is: probeer niet Europa te definiëren met behulp van positieve begrippen, maar met behulp van cultuurvijandige begrippen, door het te contrasteren met de vijand.Ik heb weinig toe te voegen ter verduidelijking van het begrip ‘‘cultuur’’, maar ik zou wel iets willen toevoegen dat ontbreekt in de gangbare beschrijvingen van cultuurkenmerken, een (...) kenmerk dat ik uiterst relevant acht voor de omschrijving van de Europese cultuur. In de Europese cultuur hebben gemeenschappelijke herinneringen, met name aan de twee wereldoorlogen, een grote rol gespeeld in de totstandkoming van de cultuur. Ik zou zelfs willen beweren dat Europa als culturele eenheid meer blijk geeft van collectieve herinneringen dan van collectieve normen en waarden.’. (shrink)

Het antieke sceptische oeuvre van Sextus Empiricus werd in de tijd van het humanisme herontdekt en verder ontwikkeld. De Engelse denken Hume nam de draad op in de achttiende eeuw en sindsdien is het scepticisme in het Europese denken een rol blijven spelen. Wittgenstein heeft dit rationalistisch scepticisme van richting doen veranderen en het de weg van postmoderne pluraliteit opgedreven.

Essays over de beeldvorming rondom het fenomeen 'Europa' door de eeuwen heen.

Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc was een geleerde die niet tot een bepaalde institutie hoorde. Hij streefde naar de vooruitgang van wetenschappelijke kennis, had een netwerk van geleerden, politici, kooplieden en anderen en had contacten in Goa en Ethiopië, in het Ottomaanse Rijk en in christelijk Europa. Hij bewoog zich onder meer op terreinen als astronomie en de kennis van bijbelhandschriften in oosterse talen en werkte samen met protestanten, joden en moslims. Gedachte-experiment: iemand als Peiresc die internet ter beschikking heeft. (...) Peiresc heeft geen publicaties nagelaten en postuum hebben zijn vrienden zijn brieven niet gepubliceerd. Maar de archiefnalatenschap van deze briljante spin in zijn web is in onze tijd beschikbaar. (shrink)

Atheïstisch-filosofische poging tot begrip van de relevantie en continuering van christelijke religiositeit in een moderne en seculiere Europese cultuur.

Willen de lidstaten kunnen beantwoorden aan de politieke, rechtsstatelijke en sociale ambities van de Europese Unie, dan moet er iets gaan veranderen bij de overheidsstructuur in Brussel, Straatsburg en Luxemburg. Dan moet er weer aandacht komen voor de ‘ziel van Europa’. Vormen de Europese Gemeenschappen, begonnen om oorlog te voorkomen, alleen maar een vrije markt? Is de Europese Unie slechts een geografisch afgebakende ruimte voortgedreven door het grootkapitaal, of is het ook iets meer? Wat delen de burgers (...) van Europa eigenlijk met elkaar? In de EU is het besef doorgedrongen dat het in een club van vijfentwintig lidstaten, die nog onvoldoende is doordrongen van de ‘idee Europa’, belangrijk is om te praten over gemeenschappelijke waarden. (shrink)

As a generation of ‘digital natives,’ secondary students who were born from 2002 to 2010 have various approaches to acquiring digital knowledge. Digital literacy and resilience are crucial for them to navigate the digital world as much as the real world; however, these remain under-researched subjects, especially in developing countries. In Vietnam, the education system has put considerable effort into teaching students these skills to promote quality education as part of the United Nations-defined Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4). This issue (...) has proven especially salient amid the COVID−19 pandemic lockdowns, which had obliged most schools to switch to online forms of teaching. This study, which utilizes a dataset of 1061 Vietnamese students taken from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s “Digital Kids Asia Pacific (DKAP)” project, employs Bayesian statistics to explore the relationship between the students’ background and their digital abilities. Results show that economic status and parents’ level of education are positively correlated with digital literacy. Students from urban schools have only a slightly higher level of digital literacy than their rural counterparts, suggesting that school location may not be a defining explanatory element in the variation of digital literacy and resilience among Vietnamese students. Students’ digital literacy and, especially resilience, also have associations with their gender. Moreover, as students are digitally literate, they are more likely to be digitally resilient. Following SDG4, i.e., Quality Education, it is advisable for schools, and especially parents, to seriously invest in creating a safe, educational environment to enhance digital literacy among students. (shrink)

Aims and Scope -/- The Vietnamese Social Sciences and Humanities at a Fork in the Road, utilizing an object-oriented structured database on the productivity of Vietnamese researchers, seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of the development of Social Sciences and Humanities in Vietnam from 2008 to 2018. -/- Quan-Hoang Vuong (Ph.D., Université Libre de Bruxelles) is the director of Centre for Interdisciplinary Social Research, Phenikaa University in Hanoi, Vietnam. He is chairman of the Vietnam chapter of the European Association of (...) Science Editors and serves in the NAFOSTED Scientific Council on Basic Research in the Social Sciences and Humanities (2019-2021). Dr. Vuong has published more than 120 academic articles, and book chapters in about 50 refereed journals and books by such publishers as Elsevier, Inderscience, Nature Publishing Group, Springer, Praeger, Wiley, World Scientific, etc. -/- Trung Tran is an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education and works at Vietnam Academy for Ethnic Minorities. He is a member of the Vietnam chapter of The European Association of Science Editors (EASE), a leader of the Vietnamese Science Editors (VSE) Team, and a chairman of Editor's Board of Journal of Ethnic Minorities Research (ISSN: 0866-773X). (shrink)

We present our method for tackling a legal case retrieval task by introducing our method of encoding documents by summarizing them into continuous vector space via our phrase scoring framework utilizing deep neural networks. On the other hand, we explore the benefits from combining lexical features and latent features generated with neural networks. Our experiments show that lexical features and latent features generated with neural networks complement each other to improve the retrieval system performance. Furthermore, our experimental results suggest the (...) importance of case summarization in different aspects: using provided summaries and performing encoded summarization. Our approach achieved F1 of 65.6% and 57.6% on the experimental datasets of legal case retrieval tasks. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a nudge for public–private cooperation in healthcare to rapidly cope with limited resource. However, Vietnam’s historical reliance on a public healthcare system, combined with a traditional emphasis on socialization in the Polanyian sense, hindered the swift integration of the private sector. This research investigates path dependency in Vietnam’s public health sector, using theories including path dependency, Karl Polanyi’s double movement with legal analysis method to analyze the interplay of historical decisions, and socialist policies in healthcare. Recognizing (...) these institutional and market governance flaws, a deeper understanding of the role of law becomes vital in crafting strategies for a more resilient and sustainable healthcare system in Vietnam. In this article, Ho Chi Minh City is chosen as a case study due to its notable mix of public–private healthcare facilities and its status as a leading area in infection cases during the third COVID-19 wave. The article suggests that there should be a change in the way public and private sectors work together, one that is more in line with market-driven solutions which requires solid legal framework for cooperation beyond merely mobilizing resources. (shrink)

Business Ethics: A European Review, EarlyView.