Archil Chochia

Winston Churchill And The European Union

Abstract Given Winston Churchill’s influence and achievement as a writer, historian, adventurer, soldier, artist, and politician, his participation in the European integration process is crucial to understanding the entire scope of the project in its origins. Churchill was a fundamental voice promoting the Franco-British Union, a promoter of the European Communities, and an active participant of the Congress of Europe, embryo of the Council of Europe. This article analyzes Churchill’s view of European integration through his political speeches, in particular those delivered in Zurich and in The Hague, his ideas about the League of Nations and the United Nations, his understanding of the British Empire, and the special relations between the UK and the USA. His participation in the process of uniting Europe in its early stages provides us with essential information about the original plans for the creation of a united Europe and understanding the traditional British approach to the EU, including the current position of the conservative government led by Cameron.

The Freedom to Conduct Business and the Right to Property: The EU Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation and the Relationship Between Intellectual Property and Competition Law

The Charter of Fundamental Rights is a rights catalogue for a modern market economy. It recognises the freedom to conduct business, Article 16, as well as the right to property, Article 17. The second paragraph of Article 17 states that intellectual property shall be protected. The history of the European Union (EU) shows that competition law promoting especially competition across the EU is of primary concern. In this context, there are interesting relations between property rights and the right to conduct business, especially with regard to intellectual property. This article analyses the Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation and its accompanying guidelines, assessing to what extent it encourages innovation and maintains effective competition and how it stands up against other like-minded pieces of legislation drafted across the world. The comparison will first show the similarities and then the differences between the approach herein that has been developed and followed in the EU, US, and Japan, among other countries. It will be analysed to what extent this approach towards IPR and Competition law is coherent and how things may possibly stand in the future in this regard. Finally, the authors will attempt to answer these questions: how meaningful and essential is this interface between IPR and competition law, and has the TTBER in particular served its purpose? Are the freedom to conduct business and the protection of the right to property well protected?

The Concepts of Trademark Exhaustion and Parallel Imports: A Comparative Analysis between the EU and the USA

Abstract The article intends to analyze the closely correlated concepts of trademark exhaustion and parallel imports. The growing importance of these concepts in the current world, especially in the European Union, makes it an interesting research topic, even though the concepts are complicated due to their nature and different actors involved. The authors use comparative approach, concentrating on two world leaders in the field, in order to discover what is the approach of the EU as well as the approach of the USA to the concepts of trademark exhaustion and parallel imports, what are the benefits and weaknesses of these approaches, and analyze why these markets have arrived at certain conclusions.

Change of Power and Its Influence on Country’s Europeanization Process. Case Study: Georgia

Georgia is an interesting example to analyze among Eastern Partnership countries due to the variety of complex political processes taking place in the country. Georgia has been one of the most successful partners within EaP initiative, achieving considerable success in implementing policies and following the European Union integration path. However, a set of obstacles has remained for Georgia on its Western route. Continuous reluctance in European capitals toward further enlargement of the EU, especially with regard to countries belonging to Russia’s immediate neighborhood, has delayed the integration process. Security threats throughout the Eastern partnership region, coupled with fears of clashing with Moscow, have seemingly caused certain unease among certain member states to invest fully in the enlargement process vis-a-vis the region. Furthermore, shift of power in Georgia has raised a few questions in European circles regarding the country’s future commitment to the European goals, and therefore understanding these developments correctly is vital for EU–Georgia relations and Georgia as a country. This chapter therefore aims to analyze recent political developments in Georgia and their influence on the country’s relations with the EU.

Informality and Ukrainian higher educational institutions: Happy together?:

In post-socialist spaces, informal payments in educational institutions have often been at the centre of anti-corruption campaigns. A direct consequence, so far, has been that reforms in the public sector have largely been based on attempts to eradicate, or at least minimize, the phenomenon of informal payments. Ukraine is no exception. According to several independent surveys, educational institutions are second only to health care providers for the number of informal transactions recorded. While more than two in three of Ukrainians claim to have engaged with informal exchanges in the past 12 months, almost half of them has made an informal payment in an educational institution, be this a university or a school. The goal of this paper is two-fold. First, we explore the nature and relevance of the phenomenon of informal payments in the educational sector. We rely for this on quantitative studies showing how widespread informal payments are. Second, we provide an alternative explanation on informal payments by suggesting that they have an ambiguous function: while often regarded as a legacy of the socialist period, they can also be seen as a way to cope with an ineffective system that is mostly based on informal rules. By doing this we will provide some recommendations on how anti-corruption policies, and in general reforms aimed at decreasing the amount of informal payments in the country, could be improved.

De Gaulle and the British Membership in the European Communities

While de Gaulle has been comprehensively studied on the EU level, this is—to a large degree—not the case for his influence on the British involvement in the European integration process. As this influence will cease to apply once the UK is no longer a member of the Union, the Brexit will cause essential challenges for the British, especially for the rural areas and for the EU-British future relations.

The First European Community and the British Position

This chapter traces the role of the United Kingdom (UK) in the European integration process, from the founding of the European Communities to its eventual membership in 1973. It considers several key factors leading to the UK’s exclusion from the European Communities in the 1950s and 1960s, including economic factors related to its coal and steel industries, its relationship with the Commonwealth, as well as diplomatic concerns within the realm of ‘high politics.’ The chapter also considers the UK’s role in creating alternative integration arrangements, namely the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the European Economic Area (EEA). The chapter provides a historical foundation to understanding the UK’s relationship to the European Community as an ‘awkward partner,’ shedding light on its eventual exit from the EU four decades after joining.

The First Attempts to Unify Europe for Specific Purposes and British Flexibility

This chapter describes the initial effort of Briand, who presented his proposal for the creation of the United States of Europe through memorandum. This organization had to be based on peace like the League of Nation and had to create European market, which meant criticism from the UK as a protagonist of liberalization of trade and the main reason this attempt failed. Second part of the chapter is about Anglo-French Union, which had as a goal the protection of France against defeating by Germany and it was the only possibility how to keep France in the war. This proposal of Anglo-French Union had many similarities with the previous proposal of Briand.

Cooperation or Integration? Churchill’s Attitude Towards Organization of Europe

This chapter analyzes Churchill’s regard on European integration mainly through his political speeches, especially one in The Hague Congress and one in the University of Zurich. First part provides historical context, political ideas of Churchill, his attitude to European integration and the process of integration itself. The chapter also shows us the original plans for creating of European Union, Churchill’s support of League of Nations, and his scepticism about integration. Through his participation in the process of European integration, we can see obvious British influence and we can understand the traditional British approach to the EU.

Enlargement to the UK, the Referendum of 1975 and Position of Margaret Thatcher

The negotiations for the British accession were successful in the early 1970s only after de Gaulle left his position as President of France. The French blockade to the British accession was removed only after the British Premier had reassured his French colleagues about the British commitment to Europe and secured concessions on specific French concerns. The enlargement of the UK, Ireland, Denmark, and Norway had become a difficult challenge for all the parties involved. The financial contribution to the European Budget was also a major issue during the negotiations. The official reason for the referendum of 1975 was that the UK citizens needed to express their opinion and decide about such an important issue linked with their individual and collective freedoms. Margaret Thatcher’s vision about European Communities covered such diverse areas as Europe and the EU; the Cold war, the USA, and the EU; the European Communities belonging to all its members; the Community not being an end in itself; national power against supranational constructions; weak bureaucracy; policies of the EU; European Market; European defence and relations between Europe and the USA.