Tom 6 (2016): Zeszyt 1 (February 2016)

What has now been coined the term XXI Century Silk Road had evolved from a speech given by Chinese premier Xi Jinping in Kazakhstan in 2013. It was initially a plan aimed at promoting the bilateral relations of China and its neighbors; however, the initiative had since then traversed the region’s borders and become a global project.

This paper examines the Silk Road Economic Belt initiative in light of Chinese-EU relations. It reviews the initiation of the Silk Road Project and focuses on its political economic analysis through investigating the potential routes the Belt can take, the EU-Chinese trade and investment standings as well as the global political context that the increased cooperation and connection is likely to influence.

The paper uses the Modern Silk Road concept as an example of China’s foreign policy in the wake of globalization and the emergence of a new multipolar world order. To set the stage we will begin with a political-economic approach of the New Silk Road. Highlighting the possibilities of Chinese high culture, which accommodate global governance, we state that the Modern Silk Road project is one of its materialized forms. The concept of the New Silk Road (together with the Eurasian Union) denies the previous era of corruption and personality cult and indicates a milestone in the development of China, proving that it is already a globally responsible power (Värk, 2015).

Even if transport by land is significantly more expensive than transportation by sea, the New Silk Road may have significant advantages: It may take only two weeks, saving potentially a week in shipping time, and diversify China’s dependence on sea transport that could reduce the importance of its regional diplomatic conflicts. Already these aspects show that the purpose of the Modern Silk Road is basically not to explore cost-efficiency but to contribute to the establishment of a new, multipolar world order. The fact that the Modern Silk Road is a supply-driven concept in spite of the historical one underlines this argument. Even if politics dominate, henceforward directing the economic activities, we will nonetheless examine the China-Eastern European relations through the lenses of trade and investment as well.

After the initial analysis and description of the Silk Road Economic Belt as a tool of Chinese foreign policy, the paper goes on to examine the potential routes the railway takes from China to Europe. It reviews the trade and investment ties that the two entities share and assesses how this initiative contributes to the rise of Europe and China beside the USA. Lastly, it outlines how various regional and global powers are affected by the renewal of the Silk Road.

Recently there have been several examples of different regional integration systems intervening to prevent unconstitutional events. The interventions can be based on explicit powers or be developed in response to events. This happens despite most regional integration systems having economic cooperation rather than explicit democratisation aims. Organs that issue laws or take constraining decisions must have a clear right to do this and a basis for exercising power-in other words, be legitimate. Where legitimacy comes from is debated, but as most countries today are democracies or purport to be, it somehow emanates from the people. National governments have a higher degree of legitimacy than regional integration organisations, possibly except the European Union. Regional integration organisations have to prove their legitimacy. The article examines if, to what extent, and on what basis regional integration systems have the right to exercise an independent role on the global stage. Legitimacy is a precondition for effective application of decisions of the organisation. Given the frequent lack of strong enforcement mechanisms, the question of legitimacy becomes even more important. With strong legitimacy, decisions taken by the regional integration organisation will be followed to a large extent even despite absence of effective enforcement mechanisms.

The free movement of persons is one of the most successful European Union projects, serving as a majorly important factor promoting the European integration processes. The adoption of the Treaty on the European Union and the creation of EU citizenship implemented significant changes: the status of EU citizens and their right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States can no longer be interpreted in the way it was before the adoption of the Treaty on the European Union. There are no requirements for EU citizens within the Treaty to pursue professional or independent activities or to work under an employment contract in order to access provided rights. However, the right of free movement is not unlimited. The administrations of the Member State governments are authorized to impose restictions on the free movement of citizens. In the light of these facts, this article examines exceptions in the field of free movement of persons and indentifies concepts of public policy, public security and public health. Special attention is given to so-called rule limitation of restrictions and to the mechanism of protection against expulsion from the country. The article concludes by saying that the institutions of Member State governments have the right to evaluate threats within the territory of the country and to decide on the content of public security by themselves. However, their discretion can not be used as an instrument to treat the conduct of other Member State citizens in a worse way than that of their own local citizens.

Being one of the core values of the European Union, human rights have been centrally located in the European Union-Turkey relations especially since the country gained the candidate status in 1999. In human rights practices, the actor who comes to the forefront most on behalf of the state against the citizens whose rights must be protected is the police force. Therefore, the security practices enforced by the police form a huge part of human rights practices in the state and thus play a decisive role in Turkey’s relations with the Union. This article presents an evaluation of the so-called ‘internal security package’, which has just passed into law, and its potential impact on European Union-Turkey relations. The package includes specific amendments regarding the police duties and authorities, which unarguably affect human rights practices in the country. As the Union lacks a uniform norm relating to the security practices the package in question contains, the answer to the question will be sought by screening two sources: EU progress reports on Turkey and relevant ECtHR decisions, which provide definite judgements regarding the threats and risks posed by the package under discussion.

Even though the concepts and observations underlying sustainability are not a novelty, sustainable development was given impetus and made popular in 1987 by the Brundtland Report. This report introduced development policies and strategies that acknowledged the importance of resource and environmental constraints and the limitations imposed on growth patterns. Although sustainable development proved difficult to define and make operative, the concept was progressively applied to those economic sectors which had major detrimental effects on income, employment and wealth. Sustainable tourism was effectively one part of the effort to take full account of the current and future economic, social and environmental impacts of the sector, addressing the needs of visitors, industry, environment and host communities. After reviewing the main questions referring to the environmental, economic and social aspects of tourism development, this paper tries to identify a balanced indicator showing the impact of tourist accommodation facilities and related infrastructure in Sicily in terms of the three fundamental pillars of sustainability. Based on this indicator, the ranking of the nine Sicilian provinces is provided. In a wider perspective, the proposed approach is applied to make a comparison of tourism sustainability in Sicily and in other Italian regions.

Despite the fact that documentary letters of credit (LC) are meant to facilitate the process of international trade, their specific characteristics may increase the risk of fraud while being used as the method of payment in the process of international transaction. Many factors like exclusive use of documents, geographical distance, absence of efficient prosecution, the diversity of legal system at the global level and restricted application of fraud rule can be considered as reasons for LC fraud. While billions of dollars are lost annually due to fraud in the course of LC operations, such vulnerability can result in reducing the global popularity of documentary letters of credit as the main method of payment used in international trade. Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that fraud risk management is an unexplored territory in the practice of documentary letters of credit operation. Existing research tries to fill the gap in the study on comprehensive methods for mitigating fraud risk in operations with documentary letters of credit by using risk management theory in order to answer the question of how to manage fraud risk in LC transactions? In a quest to answer the research question, the paper is divided into two parts: the first part is dedicated to preventive measures while the latter explores responsive measures of an enterprise to manage fraud risk in LC transactions.

With a historical approach, this paper examines the Nixon administration’s policy and stance towards the European Political Cooperation (the EPC). In December 1969, at The Hague Summit the leaders of the European Community expressed their determination for deepening European integration. The final communiqué of The Hague Summit stressed the European Community’s desire to achieve the EPC and to parallel the European Community’s increasing economic strength with a role to play in the world affairs. With this in mind, the paper will examine the impacts that Nixon administration’s attempts to rebalance U.S. foreign relations reflected in the opening to China and the détente with the Soviet Union had on the European political integration. Then, it will be argued that the Nixon administration’s shifting of foreign policy priorities can be seen as one of the driving forces of the EPC. The paper puts forth that a European Community, whose weight was increased first by its economic integration and then by its political cooperation, was seen by the Nixon administration as a challenge to the United States. It is concluded that after a long time of consistently supporting European integration as a means to secure peace and prosperity in Europe, the United States under the Nixon administration had to reconsider its foreign relations and rebalance its focus on the global chessboard. This rebalancing certainly impacted the EPC in particular and the European integration process in general.

Estonia is famous among politicians for its e-Governance policies. One core ingredient for this progress is the abolishment of outdated technologies and standards as this kind of legacy policy slows down the innovation process. This short paper adapts the Estonian approach towards legacy policy and proposes a political symbol initiated by the EU Presidency Trio of the United Kingdom, Bulgaria and Estonia. The entire topic was inspired by the motivation of the Estonian government to use the presidency to make a mark for Estonia. The twice-yearly occurring process of introducing and disabling the summertime, is not only annoying but has also almost exclusively negative impacts. Meanwhile, the summertime itself comes with many aspects of questionable impact and even opposing empirical results, but it also has some generally agreed upon positive influences. This paper takes side against the process of changing times, but does not take position for one of the possible solutions. This short article shall only inform and show the possibilities in regard to the summer time, the EU presidency and the political symbolism of celebrating the centenary of the First World War.

The delegation of the European Union to Moldova takes upon itself the task of making the case for the Association Agenda between the country and the EU. The European foreign policy in the borderlands of the Union is carried out against the background of the war in Eastern Ukraine. A war of words is being fought in Moldovan media as well. Mostly on Romanian-speaking TV, Pirkka Tapiola, the EU ambassador, is among those who lead the way. At a time of renewed Western concern about Eastern Europe, the media presence of the EU in Moldova reveals anxieties about the future: once again, the former Soviet republic seems to be teetering on the brink of Russian control. The breakaway region of Trans-Dniester and the prospect of default are the two main concerns that the EU mission has to address while speaking the language of European politics in a country battered by corruption, high inflation, and unemployment. The discourse of Pirkka Tapiola, Head of the EU delegation, is an exercise in spokesmanship, which seems to underplay the seriousness of the situation. According to opinion polls conducted recently, the avowedly pro-Russian parties would win the next election. In hindsight, it is possible to surmise that the pro-EU parties pulled off a political coup by deferring the costs incurred during the mandates of the previous government coalitions. Parties whose constituencies are declining stayed in power, while better alternatives have developed: the new names that can be found on the right wing of the Moldovan political spectrum show that their electorate is ready to embrace the goal of European accession once again.