Union Republics Research Articles

Voices from the Sudanese Revolution

24 | International Union Rights | 26/3 TOWARDS UNIVERSAL RATIFICATION OF C87 AND 98 Sudan ratified ILO Convention No. 98 on collective bargaining and protection of the right to organise as far back as 1957, but it has not ratified Convention No. 87, the principle freedom of association instrument. Given recent instability there is little immediate prospect for ratification, but as the country marks its transition to a new political future there is fundamental concern with the country’s trade union structures and with the concepts of freedom of association. Fathi El Fadl is Vice President of ICTUR in Khartoum The beginnings of the trade union movement in Sudan was closely linked with the upsurge of the movement and struggle for national independence in the late 1940s. This stage of building the union movement was characterised by democratic and mass participation. Rank and file members were actively involved in the discussions and consultation that led to the establishment of the first workers’ trade union. At different times trade unions faced repressive measures, detention of leaders, banning of organisations, attempts to create fictitious organisations and assassinations. But governments and regimes come and go; the Sudanese democratic trade unions continued to live and develop. In 1989 the Muslim Brotherhood took power through a military coup, overthrowing the democratically elected government, banning political parties and trade union organisations. The 1990s were the darkest period in the history of Sudan. Thousands of trade unionists, politicians, women, youth and student leaders were jailed. Tens were tortured to death and over 250,000 were dismissed from work. In their attempt to stifle workers’ resistance, the dictatorship embarked on a policy of privatisation, dismantling the public sector and establishing organisations that were part of the regime. Labour laws were reformed to stifle trade union democracy and abolish independent trade union organisations. This practice continued until 11 April 2019. Sudanese democratic trade unions continued to struggle under very difficult conditions, to fight for their rights and against repressions. Thanks to international solidarity and assistance rendered by trade union organisations such as ICTUR, the democratic trade union movement survived the brutal repression and managed to organise even under the most difficult conditions. Professional bodies started to appear and organise independently. Gradually they managed to present an alternative to the government-controlled bodies. Today there is still a long way to go to reach the goals of the mass uprising: Freedom, Peace and Justice. However the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, a pillar of the mass protest movement, is working hard to rebuild democratic, independent and unified trade union organisations. Sara Abdelgali is President of the Sudan Doctors’ Union (UK) Unions in Sudan have always been fighting for democracy, that is part of our history, and professional unions always played a role in democratic change in Sudan in the 1960s and the 1980s. Since the 1940s we had independent unions, but in 1989 these were demolished and went to work underground, while pro-regime unions were formed [under the government-controlled Sudanese Workers’ Trade Union Federation, SWTUF] which was politically affiliated to the NCP [Omar alBashir ’s National Congress Party]. They re-organised the unions to make them more generalised, including different sectors together, and abolished a lot of rights. This was new for Sudan, because even in the two previous dictatorships, the unions were still there, but this regime demolished them. The SWTUF did not serve its members. In Sudan in the last thirty years there have been a lot of proposals and activities, but these activities have not been reflected in the lives of the professionals or citizens of Sudan. Implementation of any change was not done unless it was in the interests of the regime. The SWTUF leadership was not democratically chosen, they were appointed based on their affiliation to the regime. We continued independently and separately, not only the doctors but also other professionals. It took a while for these unions to gather, but there have been several previous attempts at calling for unity. Mostly this was not successful, for different reasons. One of the doctors [Dr. Ali Fadul of the Sudan Doctors’ Union] was tortured and killed in 1990, following a strike. Others have been arrested, expelled from...

Сampaigning against the «nationalistic wrecking» in translations in Ukraine in 1933-35

The study deals with the Soviet translation policy into Ukrainian in 1933-35, when a gradual shift in official judgments on translation took place and a new function of translations, the one connected with nationalities policy, emerged, as translations became considered an instrument of consolidation of the Soviet Union republics around Russia. Stalinist regime has been shown to have attempted to openly regulate literary expression in translated books, including not only the textual choices and source language, but even the translation methods. The study describes a unique for the XX century Europe campaign in press against “the nationalistic wrecking” in translation incriminating the translators a nationalistic distortion and counterrevolutionary actions toward separating the Ukrainian language from Russian (and not at all inaccuracy of translation!).which triggered plentiful relay translations as well as retranslations and revisions to near the texts to Russian. Five condemning publications against “wreckers” in translation of both political literature (“distortions” of Lenin’s works in the translations edited by Scrypnyk) and fiction (“distortions of Maхim Gorky works and of Sholokhov’s Virgin Soil Upturned in Ukrainian translations), as a part of the campaigning accessible to the observer. The campaign has been displayed to have triggered plentiful retranslations and revisions to near the texts to Russian. Their vocabularies were purged of “archaisms,” or words harkening back to national history, and “alien” elements (e.g., the vocabulary of Polish or Czech origin), and the prohibited words and other elements were replaced by “internationalist” ones (Russian-derived modern vocabulary and grammar constructions borrowed from Russian).

How the journalism community in Kazakhstan views journalism education

The main objective of this study is to analyze journalism education in the context of the former Soviet Union Republic of Kazakhstan. Although many studies already exist globally about journalism education, Kazakhstan is one of the many developing countries that are largely absent from academic knowledge. Specifically, this study seeks to understand widely perceived outdated journalism educa- tion curriculum and its implications for the profession of journalism in this Central Asian country. The proposed broad research question: What substantive changes (if any) do journalism stakeholders see the need to insert in journalism programs in the country? To answer this research question, authors conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with 24 work- ing journalists, editors and students of journalism across the country. The interviews were undertaken in February-May, 2019. Some recent developments highlight the urgent need for such study. For example, there was a public call for closure of all journalism programs at universities in part because the Kazakhstan universities are said to be failing to prepare knowledgeable journalists who can shoot, edit and undertake journalistic tasks. Many local editors publicly describe college and university graduates as lacking skills to be able to work in journalism. The main problem of journalism is similar to the problems in the technology indus- try - it changes too quickly. In addition, universities are generally not well equipped with the necessary equipment, on which students could work or practice. The findings are discussed in relation to practical implications for journalism education in the context of Kazakhstan.

ПРИЧИНЫ ЭТНОПОЛИТИЧЕСКИХ КОНФЛИКТОВ НА ПОСТСОВЕТСКОМ ПРОСТРАНСТВЕ, ИЛИ ДОЛГАЯ ДИСКУССИЯ В 30 ЛЕТ

The paper is a brief review of foreign scientific literature on post-Soviet ethno-political conflicts. The author considers the formation and development of the focus of ethnopolitology regarding the causes of interethnic violence in the late Soviet and post-Soviet period. The chronological framework of its formation begins in the 1970s. when a common opinion is formed about the initial vulnerability of the multicultural and multinational nature of the union state. In the 1980s, works appeared differing in great analytical content, but also skeptical about the future unity of the Union republics, mostly due to economic reasons. The discussion reached its peak in the late 1990s – early 2000s, when the most fundamental studies on interethnic conflicts in the USSR and in the post–Soviet space appeared. The question is raised about the completed nature of the discussion in the conditions of a “frozen” state of current ethnopolitical conflicts.

Комиссия содействия ученым при Совнаркоме СССР как инструмент управления советским научным сообществом в 1931—1937 годах

The article is devoted to the historical trajectory of the Committee for the Assistance to Scientists (CAS) under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR, which existed in 1931-1937. It is reported that the CAS replaced the Central Committee for the Improvement of the Welfare of Scientists (CCIWS), which had operated under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR since 1921. It describes the functions that were inherited by the CAS from the predecessor organization, and the new powers acquired by it. The author examines in detail the traditional areas of CAS activities inherited from Central Committee for the Improvement of Welfare of Scientists (CCIWS): food and commodity supply of the higher social group of the Soviet scientific intellectuals, elite housing construction for this category of scientists, the organization of medical and sanatorium-resort services for scientists, and their corporate leisure activities. It is emphasized that CAS was an organization for the Soviet scientific elite (1,500-2,000 people). It was shown that the selection of scientific workers was based on the nomenclature-official approach and formal signs of scientific achievements (leadership position, membership in the USSR Academy of Sciences and the academies of the Union republics, etc.). It is noted that the activities of the Committee were organized for the purposeful ideological subordination of a significant part of the scientific intellectuals in exchange for solving a set of its financial, welfare and professional problems.

European Union’s contribution to civilian security sector reform in Ukraine after 2014

The article looks at ways on how Common Security and Defence Policy of the European Union are contributing to peace and stability in Ukraine. Since 2014, after the Euromaidan and its demands for Europeanization of the country, the EU and other international donors are assisting Ukraine in its modernization efforts. The spread of violent military conflict in Eastern Ukraine required multilateral engagement of strategic partners in transformation of security and defence sectors, as well as active participation in conflict management in the Eastern part of the country. EU was taking part in various initiatives offered by member states, the Community itself, and Ukraine. The article questions whether those instruments, which constitute the essence of CSDP, have been utilized, and how beneficial those efforts were for Ukraine. The article also explores what improvements in the implementation of CSDP could enhance transformation of security sector in Ukraine and what are the main communication channels used to explain the reforms. Cooperation between Ukraine and the European Union was considered in a historical aspect. The authors emphasize that the first mechanisms for cooperation with the former Soviet Union republics were proposed by the European Union in 1994. These are the TACIS (Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States) and the TEMPUS (Trans-European Mobility Programme for University Studies) programmes that Ukraine has used in part. Ukraine’s cooperation with the EU within the framework of the European Union Advisory Mission (EUAM) in Ukraine, the aim of which was facilitating the transformation of the civil security sector, was also considered. The article gives an overview of the tools that the European Union has at its disposal to work with other countries in the civil security sector. The results of the work of the EU in Ukraine after 2014, when the European Union Advisory Mission (EUAM) in Ukraine was launched, are analyzed. A list of issues to consider in the future is given.

Employment discrimination in a former Soviet Union Republic: Evidence from a field experiment

We provide the first experimental evidence about ethnic and gender discrimination in the labor market of a former Soviet Union country, Georgia. We randomly assign Georgian and non-Georgian, male and female, names to similar resumes and apply for jobs as advertised on help-wanted websites in Georgia. We find that gender has no effect on the probability of callback, but a job applicant who is ethnically Georgian is more than twice as likely to be called for a job interview than an equally skilled ethnic non-Georgian (Azerbaijani or Armenian). The 113% ethnic gap in callbacks (167% among males and 79% among females), which is substantially larger than the gap typically documented in the existing literature for both developed and developing countries, is statistically significant and cannot be abridged by having more experience or education. There is no evidence of gender discrimination in callbacks, both within the Georgian group and the non-Georgian group.

National Populism and the European Union

Abstract The diffusion of both nationalism and populism is the symptom of a crisis in European democracies. The convergence of nationalist ideology and populist rhetoric is the major challenge that the European Union faces today and can be effectively countered by developing the political project of a truly democratic and supranational union. In this article, I will first outline the distinctive features of nationalism and populism. I will then analyse the major factors fostering the rise of national populism in the European Union countries, and I will conclude by discussing its more effective alternative.

Постсоветское пограничье России между Востоком и Западом (анализ политического дискурса). Часть II. Глядя на Восток

The article is devoted to the study of evolution of public perceptions of new Russia’s borders through the analysis of their representation in Russian printed media. “Nezavisimaya Gazeta” was chosen as a focus newspaper. The study is based on a database of publications collected through screening of this edition in four periods: 1994-1995, 2000-2003, 2008-2012 and 2013-2014. The newspapers “Sovetskaya Rossiya”, “Zavtra” and “Novaya Gazeta” were used as the sources of additional information. The authors discovered that modernized East-West dilemma serves as a framework of these representations. Russia faces a fundamental choice between two vectors. The Western (European) vector means the rapprochement with the EU and NATO, adoption of their values and development models. The Eastern (Eurasian) one implies total or partial reintegration of post-Soviet space and creation of new autonomous center of power within upcoming multi-polar world. Debates about the future of newly formed borders and the whole post-Soviet space, about building relations with former union republics on the one hand and the EU and NATO on the other, about aims and composition of regional integration projects etc. has invariably focused on the analysis of this dilemma. Since the 1990s there have been changes not only with the balance between two vectors within the media political discourse (non-contradicted in early 1990s they turned in the middle of 2010s into opposite sides of a dichotomy while the eastern vector appeared to be a dominant one) but also with their proper understanding. This article concerns with the Eastern part of two-faced discourse that reflects the transformation of Eurasian integration from the process of mutual attraction of Russia and other post-Soviet republics after a long period of coexistence as parts of a single state to one of the basic forms of global war between East-Russian and collective West. The issue of identity, state building and “battles of memories” which influence the perception of post-Soviet borders are considered in the same context. The final section assesses the possibility of usage of semantical approach to the analysis of meanings (words and senses) forming political language.

Theoretical and empirical links between trade unions and democracy

This special issue wants to honour the memory of Giulio Regeni, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge who was assassinated while he was conducting field research on independent trade unions in Egypt. This introduction and the following articles focus on the theoretical, empirical and methodological questions at the core of Regeni’s research. Unions have traditionally been regarded as crucial for representing the interests of the working class as a whole and for building and sustaining industrial and political democracy; however, there is a debate about the conditions under which unions can be effective, and the role of unions’ internal democracy is particularly controversial. The article discusses the theoretical linkages between trade unions, democratization and union democracy and concludes with a reflection on the new concerns about the risk of conducting field research on these issues raised by Regeni’s death.

Unions for whom? Union democracy and precarious workers in Poland and Italy

Focusing on the cases of Italy and Poland, this article examines the link between union organizational democracy and the economic and political inclusion of precarious workers. It argues that union membership of vulnerable groups is not a necessary condition for the representation of their voice and economic interests by labour organizations; rather, these two forms of inclusion are shaped primarily by the institutional contexts in which unions operate as well as by their identities and structural characteristics. In both examined countries the economic inclusion of precarious workers has been more advanced, while the degree of their political inclusion has lagged behind and varied across major union confederations in line with two distinct models of unionism: a solidaristic and a diversity-oriented one.

Democracy in trade unions, democracy through trade unions?

Since the Webbs published Industrial Democracy at the end of the nineteenth century, the principle that workers have a legitimate voice in decision-making in the world of work – in some versions through trade unions, in others at least formally through separate representative structures – has become widely accepted in most West European countries. There is now a vast literature on the strengths and weaknesses of such mechanisms, and we review briefly some of the key interpretations of the rise (and fall) of policies and structures for workplace and board-level representation. We also discuss the mainly failed attempts to establish broader processes of economic democracy, which the eclipse of nationally specific mechanisms of class compromise makes again a salient demand. Economic globalization also highlights the need for transnational mechanisms to achieve worker voice (or more radically, control) in the dynamics of capital–labour relations. We therefore examine the role of trade unions in coordinating pressure for a countervailing force at European and global levels, and in the construction of (emergent?) supranational industrial relations. However, many would argue that unions cannot win legitimacy as a democratizing force unless manifestly democratic internally. Therefore we revisit debates on and dilemmas of democracy within trade unions, and examine recent initiatives to enhance democratization.

Trade union strategies in the age of austerity: The Romanian public sector in comparative perspective

This article examines the impact of the economic crisis and its aftermath on collective bargaining, by comparing reactions to austerity policies of trade unions in healthcare and education in Romania. We develop an encompassing theoretical framework that links strategies used by trade unions with power resources, costs and union democracy. In a tight labour market generated by the massive emigration of doctors, unions in healthcare have successfully deployed their resources to advance their interests and obtain significant wage increases and better working conditions. We also show that in the aftermath of the crisis, healthcare trade unions have redefined their strategies and adopted a more militant stance based on a combination of local strikes, strike threats and temporary alliances with various stakeholders. By comparison, we find that unions in the education sector have adopted less effective strategies built around negotiations with governments combined with national-level militancy.

Dynamics of the Mordovians number in the union republics of the USSR

The external parameters of the ecumene include the ethnos number and its dynamics. In the course of the historical process, the Mordovian population on the territory of the near abroad republics (in the Union Republics of the USSR) varied according to natural and climatic, social and economic factors. The history of population migration and the Mordovian population formation in the CIS countries is recorded by the results of the censuses of the Russian Empire and the USSR. The dynamics of the Union republics Mordovians can be traced by censuses of Byelorussia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, etc. Statistical data are confirmed by documents extracted from fund 473 of the Mordovian SSR State Committee on labor and social issues of the Republic of Mordovia Central State Archives. There are folders with various decrees, edicts, plans for interregional migration in the Mordovian ASSR; lists and questionnaires of settlers, acts-lists on workers transferred to enterprises, application forms compiled for resettlers, etc. The purpose of the study is to analyze the types of documentary sources and create a picture of the Mordovian population dynamics on the territory of the near abroad countries (the former Soviet Union Republics). A wide range of documentary sources made it possible to create the picture of the Mordovians migration in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, and others.

European Union Democracy Promotion and its impact on Civil Society in Central Asia

After a period of relatively small activity in this region, in 2007, the European Union offered a strategy for Central Asia. This strategy addressed many issues, including democratic deficit and human rights violations. The main obstacles to the implementation of the strategy are autocratic tendencies and corruption, the influence of neighbors strongly leaning towards autocracy and the post-Soviet legacy. Additionally, the EU’s activity is overshadowed by the US and has minimal capacity for pursuing its own policy toward Central Asia. Another problem is the fact that after implementing this EU strategy toward Central Asia there are no new initiatives which contribute to more visible European activity in that region.

Contrasting centenaries: how Russia, Ukraine and Belarus marked October

The ‘Great October Socialist Revolution’ of 1917 was the foundational event for the USSR, continually invoked by the CPSU to justify the Soviet state and its political and economic order. Its anniversary on 7 November was the major public holiday in the Soviet Union, and up to 1990 was celebrated across the Union in thousands of official marches, meetings and ceremonies large and small. After 1991, following the dissolution of both the Union and the party, the anniversary lost its raison d’etre as a public holiday, not least because in several of the former Union republics, there had been no ‘October revolution’ – the Soviet system had been established by quite different means, at different times, often against serious local resistance. The fifteen successor states to the USSR needed to devise their own foundational stories, usually on the basis of national mythology. If ‘October’ played any kind of role in these stories, it was often a negative one.For the most part, celebration of the anniversary across the former Soviet Union after 1991 became the exclusive preserve of the local communist parties, where these were allowed to exist openly. Over the years the day ceased to be a public holiday, and the state authorities generally simply ignored it. The hundredth anniversary in 2017, however, could not be passed over in silence – it would have to be commemorated in some way.

THE AUTHORITIES OF THE ELECTRIC POWER AND ENERGY STATISTICS OF THE USSR IN THE 1920S

The article is a continuation of the study of statistical sources on the history of the domestic power industry, the first (pre-revolutionary) period of which the author devoted a separate article published in No. 4 of the journal Statistics and Economics for 2017. This time the author considers the creation of energy management authorities in theUSSRin the 1920s and analyzes the results of statistical studies of the state and level of development of the country's electric power industry. It is noted that the main task of energy statistics for this period was the collection and processing of empirical material for the development of fuel, heat and energy balances, as well as analysis of the structure of the power industry of large-scale industry (primary engines and electrical installations). Accounting for existing and under construction power plants was carried out on a sectoral basis. The Supreme Economic Council of theUSSRmaintained the all-Union accounting of the factory power plants of the industry united in trusts and the largest large-scale public power plants. People's commissariats of the internal affairs of the union republics kept records of urban communal power stations, and the people's commissariats of agriculture – rural electrical installations and electrical installations of the industry for processing agricultural raw materials. The leading role in the study of quantitative factors of the correlation and changes in the sphere of extraction and processing of energy raw materials, production and consumption of electric energy was played by the Department of Electrical Industry of the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) of theUSSR. The author identified the main complexes of statistical data on the number and main types of power plants, their installed capacity and the electricity they generated, recorded in the following editions: – Statistical yearbook for 1918–1920, – – All-Russia census of industrial establishments of 1920; – – All-Union urban industrial census of 1923; – – All-Union survey of power plants of industry for 1926–1928 on 46 branches of the censored industry and 8,887 enterprises, summarized and published in a separate edition in 1931. Of particular interest is the first detailed technical and economicstatistical study of the energy economy of the factory and general-use power plants for primary materials (the so-called B forms) for 1925/26, published by the CSB USSR in 1929. Along with taking into account the power industry proper (mechanical and electrical installations: in terms of the number of units, capacity and produced energy), the first time a continuous census of the boiler equipment of the entire census industry was carried out. According to this statistical source, in the year 1925–26, 3220 million kWh of electricity was consumed in the country, which is 1220 million kWh more than in the pre-war period in 1913 and by 1,180 million kWh (36, 6%) less than in the pre-revolutionary year 1916. Taking into account that the development of the economy of theUSSRas a whole and large industry in particular had a restorative nature until 1928/29, this showed that the revolution, the civil war and the post-war devastation had discarded the country's electric power industry, at least 10 years ago.

Genesis of Approaches to Legal and Doctrinal Definition of Criminal Offense

The concept of a criminal offense according to experts has been known to the nationallegislator and law enforcement for about three centuries. In the pre-revolutionary period,the notion of misdemeanor along with the concept of crime was enshrined in the Code ofCriminal Laws of 1832, in all editions of the Code of Criminal and Correctional Penaltiesof 1845, in the Criminal Code of 1903. In these legal acts, offense, like crimes, wereconsidered as a variety of criminal illegal acts. In the Сriminal Сodes of the RSFSR in1922, 1926, 1960, the concept of a criminal offense was not fixed. In the draft Code of Criminal Offenses (1973), which was not adopted, the criminal offense was proposedto be considered as а non-criminal offence. In 1977, the Fundamentals of CriminalLegislation of the USSR and the Union Republics of 1958 and the Criminal Code of theRSFSR in 1960 introduced provisions on crimes that do not pose a great public danger. Inthe early 1990s, the introduction of criminal offenses as an independent group of criminalacts was proposed in some projects of the Criminal Code. The problem of a criminaloffense is not new for the domestic science of criminal law. In the criminal legal doctrineof the pre-revolutionary period, the allocation of criminal offenses was justified by dividing“according to the kind of iniquity”. In the Soviet period, the problem of a criminal offensebegan to be actively discussed from the 1960s. Most of academics considered thecriminal offense as a kind of crime, which has a certain degree of public danger. It wasquite popular that the criminal offense was viewed as a kind of socially dangerous actprohibited by Criminal Code along with a crime. Some researchers considered it as an actthat was not at criminal-illegal and criminally punishable. In the modern Russian doctrineof criminal law, essentially the same three basic positions have been preserved in thematter of determining the nature of a criminal offense.In the case of implementing thelegislative initiative, issued in the form of Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Courtof the Russian Federation of October 31, 2017 No. 42, the Criminal Code of the RussianFederation will introduce the concept of a criminal offense, which will be understood onlyas a sub-category of crimes of small gravity.

Focus: Union rights in a region of dynamic change

Talking about the trade unions rights in a dynamic region such as the Arab World these days is really not an easy task. At the time where people lose their lives across the region, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and elsewhere, we still note the increase of the attacks by governments against democratic unions and the right of the trade unions to act on a democratic environment. In this article I will be talking about trade unions rights in different Arab countries, including countries who don’t accept any trade union activities like, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE. The region can’t be taken as one block in respect of trade unions rights, as each country has its own characteristics: Morocco The nature and structure of the trade unions in Morocco is very similar to the French trade unions structure, where there are more than one federation representing the workers at the same entity, and the most representative federation has the right to negotiate. Many of the federations in Morocco belongs to political parties and implement the parties’ agendas, so, if the party is part of the government you find its associated federation supporting government policies, and they will change their role if the party is out of the government. Another important area is to note that for the last ten years the (Islamist) Justice and Development Party has been in power as the party won enough seats to form the government. This right wing party has a clear agenda to undermine trade unions rights in Morocco. The ITF and ITUC affiliate the UMT realised the party’s intention after a series of moves, starting from amending the pension law, reaching to suggest the amendment of the labour code to restrict the right to strike in Morocco, which is guaranteed by the Moroccan constitution. The UMT, with other federations, formed the alliance trade union group to defend the right to strike, and declared a one-month campaign, where hundreds of thousands of its members demonstrated against the government intentions to restrict the right to strike. Algeria In Algeria the situation is a bit different where the UGTA is still the biggest and more active federation, with representation all over the country. During the last five years when the oil prices have been dropped, workers started to face pressures on their economic situations, as the rise in fuel prices led to inflation in the cost of living. As Algeria ratified ILO Conventions No. 87 and No. 98, other independent unions are active in some sectors as education and health. Some of these unions outside the UGTA lead long strikes demanding improving working conditions. These unions have never been supported by the UGTA or its affiliated unions, and claim that they were under pressure by the government authorities. We can say that that the most represented federation, the UGTA, has representation across the country, with CBAs in most of the sectors, and the non UGTA unions are active in some sectors, but face pressure on their activities. Tunisia The UGTT is the lead trade union federation in Tunisia, where it plays a major role political developments as well, since they are part of the Carthage Declaration, which lead to the stabilisation of the country. The UGTT was one of the four organisations who received the Nobel Prize in 2016 due its contribution to the peace in Tunisia. Now, political and security pressures, have lead the country to lose more than 30 percent of tourism, which used to highly contribute to economy. The World Bank and IMF intervened putting more pressure on to the social situation, to facilitate loans to the government. The government started a series of actions to introduce privatisation, PPP, and liberalisations to many sectors. For example, the government announced plans to sign an open skies agreement with the EU, which will put more challenges on the national carrier, Tunis Air, which is unionised and facing challenges due to the drop in tourism. On the other hand, its worth mentioning that the UGTT unions are very active in all sectors, to the extent that employers and government think that the unions are one of the reasons of the economical deteriorations. Libya During...

ЧЕСЬКА ПАРАДИГМА ЄВРОІНТЕГРАЦІЇ: ПРОБЛЕМИ ТА ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ

On the basis of a wide range of documents from the European Union and Czech Republic, the article analyses preconditions, main stage and consequences of the integration with the EU, the features of the Czech integration model, its legislative basis and institutional mechanism. The author emphasizes that the transition into a full-fledge EU member in May 2004 was the result of a long, complicated and painful process of the «European Come Back», which started in the early 1990’s and allowed the state’s government to solve a number of problems. In particular, the author argues that the Czech government managed to have improved the macroeconomic situation, to accelerate structural reforms and to adapt the national legislation to the EU legislative system. The Czech experience proves that the EU membership may have both advantages and disadvantages. The article draws special attention to the results and consequences of the Czech EU membership. Numerous facts provided in the paper allow to evaluate the state’s gains from the integration processes and to emphasize the key trends, main challenges and new opportunities for the country. Last but not least, the article studies the causes of multivariance and discrepancy of the European integration prospects, the low level of trust among the Czechs towards the EU, stable strengthening of European skepticism, the factors that had an impact on the results of the last parliamentary and presidential elections of 2017 and 2018 respectively.