The European Council summit took place on 14 and 15 December 2001 in Laeken. The conference participants unanimously confirmed their readiness to close the accession negotiations before the end of 2002. In Declaration on the Future of the European Union the chiefs of states and heads of governments of the member states established the European Convention. It was also stated that the Convention’s task would be to prepare and lead a discussion on the future of the European Union and organize an Intergovernmental Conference in 2004. During the summit anagreement was reached according to which without institutional reforms the EU would not be able to fully use the enlargement profits. As Joschka Fischer adequately pointed “the enlargement process is a suitable opportunity for carrying out the reforms”.

The parties empowered to lodge a constitutional complaint under the Polish model are defined in Article 79(1) of the Polish Constitution, stating that: “Everyone whose constitutional freedoms or rights have been infringed, shall have the right to appeal to the Constitutional Tribunal (...). The above quoted article is considered to have the fundamental significance in the process of identification of the parties entitled to lodge a constitutional complaint, so in other words, provides a clear answer to the question who can effectively lodge such a complaint in order for the adequate proceedings to be officially opened (however – which is explainedin detail in this article – having fulfilled certain specifi ed objective conditions).

The end of Cold War left Central Europe facing rediscovered tensions, but with little training in co-operation. Bilateral, regional and sub-regional co-operation, both at the intergovernmental and trans-frontier levels for example between the BENELUX countries and between Nordic Countries, has been an integral part of the process of European integration since 1945, but it was relatively underdeveloped in Central Europe.

Plans to impose the martial law in the region of Toruń have been prepared since autumn 1980. Already in February a list of people to be interned was completed, it was, however, successively actualized. On the night of 12 December 1981 the militia and army troops seized some works in Toruń, the seat of Toruń Solidarity was also demolished. The leading activists of Solidarity, Solidarity of Individual Farmers and Independent Students’ Association (the NZS) have been interned. Further arrestments of individual activists have continued till autumn 1982. Strikes proclaimed in the works of Toruń within the very first days of martial law were suppressed quickly. The longest, one-day protest, took place on 13 December 1981 at Nicolaus Copernicus University. In the first days of the martial law Solidarity and Independent Students Association activists, who have managed so far to escape internments, took steps to rescue and secure the organizations’ property, which later turned out to be extremely useful at underground work.

The notion of ‘style’ with reference to power is inherently vague and non-existent in the research terminology of social science. On the other hand though, it is difficult to find a more adequate expression to describe a peculiar, individual way of making use of powers deriving not so much from systematic adjustments as from the personality of a leader. Political power does not simply come down to a simple mechanism of giving and executing orders. It is a sort of performance demanding appropriate requisites lights, prestige and actors. As Herman suitably states: authority by its very nature seeks obedience and enhances prestige. Adopting a common view that each leader is a product of his own age, the personality of a president, therefore, incorporates both individual features and a shared experience of his generation. Considering the ways of realization the presidential power in Poland after 1989 it should be referred not only to its institutional or political aspects but also to historical and cultural background as factors co-determining this peculiar model of leadership.

Political cooperation between Poland and Germany has not been running smoothly lately. It has been a long time since those relations had such bad press. The idea of the Center Against Expulsions, the matter of war reparations or discussions concerning the shape of the European Constitution are the issues which have made our relations colder. However, there is a area of co-operation, the military sphere, where co-operation runs exemplary. In this article I would like to draw attention to a few issues connected with this matter.

When analyzing events which unfolded in the Ukraine during the final months of 2004 and the involvement of Polish politicians and public opinion in the struggle for the preservation of the democratic character of presidential elections, a question arises regarding the connection of their actions with the political projects of Jerzy Giedroyć, the founder and sole editor of an influential magazine and a centre of political thought, which was Culture, published in Maisons-Laffitte, near Paris, in the years 1947–2000. Historians and political scientists rightly emphasize the fact that the „Eastern doctrine”, also known as the ULB doctrine (from the abbreviation of „Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus”), has been a constant element of Polish foreign policy since 1989. Generally speaking, Giedroyć was convinced that nationalist impulses would eventually destroy the Russian empire from within, and a sovereign Poland would gain three new neighbours in the East: Ukraine, Lithuania and Belarus. This process was expected to take place in the near future, as foreseen by Culture contributors who called on the émigrés from Eastern Europe to work together in laying solid foundations for the future partnership.

In contemporary Europe, there can be noted the overlapping and rivalry of the two signifi cant tendencies, which are becoming stronger and stronger. On one hand, one can notice multilevel processes of integration and conditions connected with them and that are concerned with democracy, tolerance, globalization, etc. On the other hand, one can observe disintegrative factors of various kind, which refer to actions and postures connected with chauvinism, xenophobia, neo- fascism and separatism. In the second view, especially in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), various aspects connected with nationalism seem to be of great significance. This is clearly reflected by the events which took place in, for example, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo or Macedonia.

One of the characteristic features of modern world are migrations of people. They are caused either by social or economic and political reasons of respective states and regions of the world. Population processes constitute, at present, a global problem. In the consequence of population’s number fast increase and the irregular economic development of the world, they still remain as an actual research question. An universal regularity of present migratory processes is a decrease of birth rate along with improving the life conditions. The highest birth rate can be observed in the poorest countries. Depopulation tendencies occur, in turn, in economically developed countries. Apart from economic factors, the differences in population increase, are also influenced by social and cultural conditions of a certain region, and the evolution of political system and programs of ruling elite. Greatly diverse is also, so called, the “quality” of contemporary migration. It is presented alike by poor, uneducated people and highly educated specialists from diff erent fi elds of social and economic life.

This publication aims at presenting the signifi cance of the regionalization or rather integration process taking place in post-communist Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) in the light of globalisation, with particular attention on political and economic aspects. This article also aims at presenting this problem in a very concise way, both substantially and quantitatively. The Europe of the XXI century is an integrating Europe, and by means of regional integration it moves towards a higher range of integration – globalisation. Thus, each European country, including post-communist Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) while adapting to quality changes of contemporariness, realizes both the regionalization or integration processes, as well as globalisation one.