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European Union regional policy is implemented through structural funds, such as the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which support investment in peripheral regions of the EU. We studied the effects of EU regional policy on key economic variables using a rare natural experiment setting. In 2007, parts of regions that were previously covered by the ERDF programme for Western Finland were reallocated to the ERDF programme for Northern Finland, with higher support intensity per capita. This area reallocation was caused by the newly adopted EU legislation regulating the classification of regional statistical areas. With a detailed postal code area dataset and a difference-in-differences estimator, we discovered desirable regional policy effects on unemployment and the number of jobs.

The effects of free trade policies on the welfare of the country in the light of the continued growth of multinational corporations as viewed by organized labor are examined. The labor unions argue that the operations of multinational corporations undermine all previous notions about the gains from trade & that new restrictions on the imports of commodities & the export of capital & technological knowledge are urgently needed. Hence, 2 different ways in which multinational corporations can give rise to new valid arguments for trade restrictions are examined: a careful examination of the attributes which set them apart from previous forms of business organization, in particular their ease in transnational coordination of production & marketing decisions across national boundaries; an examination of multinational corporations as catalysts in the rapid alteration of existing patterns of trade & investment with the burden of the adjustment in the composition of domestic production which must be borne by labor. It was concluded that though multinational corporations do pose problems for government, labor unions & other groups, labor can provide its own solutions (stronger ties between the national unions of different countries, experiments with new institutional forms of international collective bargaining) & the appropriate response of governments is to enforce existing laws. Agreement is expressed with some of the accusations of labor & other groups against these corporations in that they do indeed pose the problem of enormous power yet further removed from the individual. They thus aggravate the individual's sense of powerlessness. It behooves the corporations to change the image. E. Loomis.

1\. Introduction 6 2\. From Block-to-Block to Region-to-Region. The EPA Negotiations with a 'Not So Weak South' 7 3\. Theorizing Regional Dynamics in the New EU-ACP Trade Relations 11 3.1 Beyond a 'North-South' Scenario 11 3.2 Beyond a 'Global South' – Regional Hegemons in a Heterogeneous South 12 4\. Comparing Regional Dynamics in the SADC and the EAC EPA Negotiations 13 4.1 Negotiation Structures 13 4.1.1 The Negotiation Structure of the SADC EPA Group 13 4.1.2 The Negotiation Structure of the EAC EPA Group 14 4.2 Regional Coalition Building in the EPA Begotiations 15 4.2.1 From North vs. South to East vs. West – Varying Coalitions in the SADC EPA Group 15 4.2.2 A Joint Approach or a Non-Approach? Inside the EAC Negotiation Group 16 4.3 Leading or Lagging Transformations? Regional Hegemons in the EPA Negotiations 20 4.3.1 South Africa in the SADC-EU EPA Negotiations 20 4.3.2 Kenya in the EAC-EU EPA Negotiations 22 5\. Negotiating Economic Partnership Agreements, Transforming North-South Trade Relations? 24 Literature 26 ; In the past ten years, the long-standing trade relations between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries have experienced radical transformations. The negotiations of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the EU and seven regional groupings formed by the ACP countries have led to the EU being maneuvered into an unexpectedly weak position. For the first time, European negotiators had to substantially leave their pre-agreed negotiation path and positions due to the immense pressure from ACP countries, regional organizations, and non-state actors – and still have not been able to finalize negotiations that had initially been expected to only take five years until the end of 2007. These developments constitute a two-tire puzzle: Not only could the EU not play its 'negotiation game' and largely determine the outcomes of negotiations, but also did the outcomes of the negotiations differ between the individual regional negotiations groups despite ...

The Common European Asylum System (CEAS) experienced significant developments during the Tampere programme (1999 – 2004). This article analyses how security is constituted or viewed by the European Union in the area of asylum policy; more importantly how the European Commission, in the face of the emerging discourse on the 'war on terror' decided to push for a more inclusive agenda. Thus, the European Commission can (though not always does) play a significant role in this process - the role of a supranational policy entrepreneur that enables the normative construction of a policy. The article analyses the high-profile case of the first phase of the CEAS, particularly the four main directives, its legal and political construction, and suggests the significance of the Commission in the political and normative process. Despite the challenges of the 'war on terror', the Commission managed to keep the CEAS within the limits of the Geneva Convention.

ÖZET1990'lı yıllarda, serbest ticaret yanlısı kesimlerin ülkeler arası ticaret engellerini kaldırma çabaları büyük ölçüde başarılı olmuştur. Ancak günümüzde ticaretle doğrudan ya da dolaylı olarak ilgisi olan, insan sağlığı, çalışma standardları ve çevre gibi yeni konular gündeme oturmuştur. Ticarette serbestleşmenin çevre üzerine etkileri ve çevre koruma politikalarının ticaret üzerine etkileri görece yeni bir konu olmasına karşın; serbest ticaret yanlıları ve serbest ticaretin çevre korumaya olumsuz etkisi olacağına inananlar arasında muhtemel bir çatışma alanı olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır.Bu çalışmada ticaret ve çevre politikalarının birbiri üzerindeki pozitif ve negatif etkileri ele alınmıştır. Dünya ticaretini yönlendiren uluslarası örgüt olması sebebiyle konu Dünya Ticaret Örgütü içerisindeki tartışmalar ve DTÖ ile ticareti sınırlayıcı hükümler içeren Çok Taraflı Çevre Anlaşmaları ilişkisi açısından da incelenmiştir. Ayrıca Avrupa Birliği hem dünyadaki en büyük ticaret bloğu olması hem de kendi içerisinde kapsamlı bir serbest ticaret - çevre politikası oluşturması sebebiyle çalışmamıza dahil edilmiştir.İncelemelerimiz sonucunda, pek çok durumda çevresel problemlerin temel sebebi olmayan ticari faaliyetlerin çevre üzerinde kesin bir olumlu ya da olumsuz etkisinin olmadığı, Dünya Ticaret Örgütü düzenlemelerinin ticaret ile bağlantılı yeni konuları çözümlemekte yetersiz kaldığı, Avrupa Birliği'nin küresel çevre düzenlemeleri için istikrarlı biçimde çevresel korumanın savunucusu rolünü oynamayı sürdürdüğü ve kendi içindeki serbest ticaret-çevre dengesinin diğer ülkeler için de model olabilecek bir yapı olduğu bulgularına ulaşılmıştır.ABSTRACTThe efforts to erase trade barriers between countries in the 1990s have been successful for the free trade policy community. But new trade related issues such as human health, labor standards and environment is at the global agenda. The effect of trade liberalization on environment is a relatively new debate and it is one of the most important potential conflict areas between trade policy community and environmentalists. Since 1996, the topic is also in the agenda of World Trade Organization and various international organizations.In this study, the positive and negative effects of free trade policy on environment and of environment policy on free trade are compared. As being the international organization that governs world trade, the debates on this issue within the WTO and the clash between WTO provisions and Multinational Environment Agreements' regulations is evaluated. Also, policy balance in the EU which is the largest trading bloc in the world with its comprehensive environment policy and the global role played by EU is analyzed.At the result of this study, it is found that; trade is not absolutely good or bad for environment because mostly it is not the root cause of environmental degradation. Because of this, trade sanctions are not effective to deal with the environmental problems. GATT Rules are not sufficient to cope with the new trade agenda but also WTO is not the appropriate organization to solve environmental problems. EU supports global environmental regulations and is a good example of balancing trade and environment policies.

Paper from the conference: Attempts at Liberalization : Hungarian Economic Policy and International Experience. November 16-18, 1989, Budapest