Volumen 13 (2017): Edición 1 (June 2017)

The paper focuses on the variation of institutional confidence in the Baltic countries. Within of framework of qualitative comparative framework, it employs a historical approach to detect causes of divergence of trust in rule of law institutions between Estonia vis-à-vis other two Baltic states. While it observes a range of variables that could affect the differences, it emphasises the role of political leadership during critical junctures, which might explain both why Estonia forged ahead at the outset of the post-communist transformation and most recent positive developments in the Baltic countries since the financial crisis in 2008–2010.

The European Union and its member states are facing one of their biggest challenges in recent years due to the surge in migration. This crisis saw more than a million migrants and refugees cross into Europe in 2015. Solutions and policies have been advanced at both the European and national levels, keeping in mind that migration policy is an area of shared competence under Article 4 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). On 13 May 2015, the EU adopted the European Agenda on Migration, which set out immediate and medium-term actions designed to tackle the crisis more effectively. Earlier, in October 2013, the Hungarian government adopted its own migration strategy. The first part of this study provides some insight into the aims and measures contained in the European and Hungarian migration strategies. In the second part, I focus on the steps taken by the Hungarian government regarding asylum policy and crisis management. I conclude that the actions and communications of the Hungarian government are contrary to both these strategic documents.

This contribution asks whether sub-regional integration projects such as the Visegrád Group may be understood as mechanisms for pursuing one Group member’s national interests while it stands at the European Union’s helm. I assess this question based on the case of the first Visegrád Group member to assume the EU Council presidency: the Czech Republic. Examining three specific policy areas – the reinvention of the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood policy; the strengthening of EU energy security; and the incorporation of a stronger human rights and external democratisation approach into EU foreign policy – this case study presents a mixed picture. It confirms the potential of the Visegrád Group to be a vehicle for furthering the national preferences of one Group member while it holds the rotating EU Council presidency. Whether or not this potential is fully realised will depend primarily on the degree to which the interests of the four Visegrád countries converge.

The automobile industry is one of the most rapidly growing industries, a significant employer and investor in research and development, and also one of the most important sectors of the EU economy. Nevertheless, even this sector has gone through a series of structural changes and territorial transfers, recently. Exactly for this reason, it seems crucial to examine the competitiveness of the automobile industry on the national level, analyze the long-term trends throughout the whole EU, and put them in a global context. The article uses standard methods of statistical analysis of indices of revealed symmetrical comparative advantage to detect the trends characterizing the shape and long-term development of the automobile industry in Europe. The authors point out the substantial shift s in production and exports from traditional Western European car makers in favor of the new EU member states, but also from the USA and Canada in favor of new, fast-growing developing countries in the South and Southeast Asia and in Latin America. A brief outline of the European Commission’s response to these changes in the European automobile industry in the form of an Action Plan CARS 2020 can be found in the final part of the article.