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This paper represents the argument that in the Ukrainian crisis, the EU, not only has fallen short to rise up to the seriousness of the situation (after all, as in past turmoil’s on European soil), but for the first time in its history, has found itself in the role of a serious instigator of an international conflict. Faced with the disastrous consequences of its aggressive and hasty \"Europeanization\" of the \"new\" East of Europe (emphasizing the rights to the normative hegemony guided by dominant geopolitical motives), once the conflict flared up, threatening to cause immense consequences for the stability of the post-Cold War security order, it did not have many options but to conform to the policy of the United States. By these actions another opportunity was neglected in the field of foreign policy to formulate a specific European approach that would truly be concerned about the values that are embedded into its Founding Act (Peacemaking and unifying project). The paper concludes that if it wants to regain its damaged international credibility, the EU needs to make a qualitative shift from the current policies predominantly shaped by geopolitical interests, toward political values that many believe are specific to the EU. Partly, this is about the values that are related to its soft power and partly to those that represent the legacy of the political system of the EU, such as the single market without barriers.

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European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker stated that there is a need to establish a European army that would be able to respond to the threats to peace in a Member State or in the neighboring countries of the Union. This army is necessary in order to demonstrate seriousness in defending European interests in relationships, for example with Russia. The European Union has developed interstate cooperation in the field of defense. However, the question of the establishment of a European army goes into substantial commitment to the development of European integration. European military forces need unified command and democratic political power to manage them. In this context, the dilemma was , whether the European Union should be a technocratic creation which deals with maintenance of the wide European market and policies to protect the interests of financial lobbies which in the past led to the impoverishment of its people, or is the solution in the creation of a federal state with a democratically elected government that would have the legitimacy to lead a unique economic, foreign and defense policy?

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Diplomacy in the 21st century is marked by changes, in the content and in the way of its implementation. Several features that should be mentioned are the participation of new (non-state) actors, expanding of the diplomatic agenda, new diplomatic techniques and in relation to this, the emergence of new forms of diplomacy as is the celebrity diplomacy. These changes are associated with certain changes in the international community after the end of the Cold War and with the changes of the international relation theories and diplomatic studies, showing that countries are no longer the only place for the performance of political power and the only actors who work in diplomacy. In the processes of diplomacy are also included different actors, from governments to international organizations, NGOs and individuals.

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The concept of energy security reaches the top of political and security agenda of the EU in 2005, when the first disruption of natural gas supply began. The greatest concern of EU officials, in that sense, is related to the possibility of (ab)use of energy as a political weapon in terms of dependence on Russian energy supplies. The topic of this paper is related to the securitisation of natural gas that Russia exports to the EU member states. The paper analyzes the documents and official statements of the highest EU officials in which the dependence on Russian gas was designated as an essential security threat to the energy security of the EU. The paper also presents the dynamics of the process of securitisation, the main actors of the process, outlined possible causes, and presents the consequences that have encouraged or accelerated the special measures by the EU.

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The renewal of party pluralism in Romania occurred in 1989. In addition to the parties supported by the majority of the nation, in that period national minority parties were established as well. As the largest minority in Romania, the Hungarian community has sought to protect their rights and realize interests through ensuring the formation of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), as an umbrella organization that united many political positions and gained a monopoly on the votes of the Hungarian minority. This paper examines only the first phase of the political organization and activity of the Hungarian minority in Romania, i.e. the period from 1989 to 1996. During this period the UDMR has acted as an opposition political party, but after the 1996 elections it entered the coalition government.

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Credit rating has an important role as an economic instrument in investment decision-making. Nowadays, credit rating agencies play an important role in terms of global investment. These agencies did play a major part over the past century, but their role in the economic crisis has led to a great discussion regarding their business and their susceptibility to various influences. All this has led to controversy and to a general attitude about opening the markets, both in the EU and in the rest of the world. Therefore, on account of credit rating in the global investment ranking, this process should not be neglected and left to a handful of people to manage, thus indirectly enabling them to control the world. Hence, the results of the research presented in the paper accomplished its primary objective: to affirm both credit rating as an economic instrument and impartiality of credit rating agencies. The paper elaborated the most important determinants of both credit rating itself and the concept of credit rating agencies. Particular attention was paid to various impacts affecting credit rating agencies indirectly affecting the global economic crisis. The paper elaborated several thematic units with respect both to the credit rating and credit rating agencies, likewise including a representative example of the impact of rating agencies in the creation of economic crisis. Finally, the paper proposed measures on how to properly establish a credit rating via the European Credit Rating Agency.

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Free movement of capital is one of the fundamental freedoms affirmed in the EU Treaties ensuring business continuity and foreign investments. It does not only mean simple liberalisation of commodity and capital flows, but it involves much broader freedoms and rights, including trade in capital services, securities trading, but also free trade in real estate in the areas of different European Union member countries. During the process of accession of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia to this organisation the elimination of all internal legislative and administrative barriers to real estate buying and selling was provided for in the transitional period. A special emphasis in the accession documents was put on free trade in agricultural and forest lands that for the most part had been owned by the state in the transition period. The specification of the conditions in the accession documents mentioned above enables the harmonisation of legislations of states with the EU acquis communautaire, thus contributing to the further development of connections among them and thus, their more rapid integration in the Union internal market.

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The integration process of the Western Balkans into the EU is going slower in the second decade of the twenty-first century, especially considering the way it made the last expansion. The researches of correlates of the national identity are plentiful both in Serbian and foreign literature, but in the past decade or so, new social identity starts to make its way into the researches of the European identity or the sense of belonging to Europe and the Europeans. This paper deals with the relations between the national and European identity, as well with the correlates of both of these, or one of them. From the standpoint of analyzing the quality of human resource studies were performed on selected samples.