The European Union has been recognised as an international system whose decisions and actions are conditioned by environmental determinants, which is a dynamic process of change. The article attempts to explain the EU’s decisions based on the conclusions of the European Council in 2010–2022. 93 documents containing the conclusions of the European Council adopted during that period were analysed. It was found that the determinants of EU decisions and actions function – firstly – at the international system level and, secondly, at the level of the domestic systems of the Member States. In addition, the article: 1) reconstructed the discussion in the science of international relations on behavioural determinants, 2) reconstructed the perception of determinants in the conclusions of the European Council; 3) a model for organising the analysis of the determinants of the decisions of the European Council was proposed.

The analysis aims to reconstruct, explain and evaluate the position of the Polish government on the essential elements of the EU migration and asylum policy proposed by the European Commission in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. Thus, the article discusses the potential priorities and objectives of the EU migration and asylum policy from the point of view of the Polish government, articulated both during the ongoing work on the EC document (2018–2020) and after its publication in September 2020. However, the article is not intended to present the Polish government’s position on the particular, detailed solutions contained in the legislative proposals of the EC due to the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. Although, it allows identifying what the Polish side considers desirable, tolerable and acceptable, and what is utterly unacceptable in terms of the proposed changes to EU migration and asylum policy. Therefore, the main priorities of the Polish government regarding the reformed policy are indicated and explained. The first two concern counteracting irregular immigration by enhancing the protection of external borders and intensifying cooperation with third countries (in particular as concerns readmissions and returns), which means approving the postulates of the EC. At the same time, the third priority opposes the EC’s proposal addressing asylum issues.

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of digital technologies on the creation and final shape of the EU’s strategic autonomy. The author employed the network institutionalism as a theoretical basis and applied a critical analysis of the available material. The following hypothesis is positively verified: development of digital technologies is modifying strategic autonomy and extending it beyond the logic of freedom of political and military action. Digital resilience of core areas of EU’s functioning should be at the heart of this concept. The author argues that this model of strategic autonomy (enhanced by the close alliance with the United States) will enable the EU to strengthen its global position in technologically driven world. Less politicization is also a key reason for such a solution. It is particularly important in the context of the crisis of European integration.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the United Kingdom’s foreign policy after its withdrawal from the European Union, which finally took place on February 1, 2020. Brexit made it necessary to redefine British foreign policy, including modification of the strategy aimed not only at maintaining but even strengthening the global position of the United Kingdom. A key element of this new strategy seems to be the strengthening of the US-British alliance, traditionally referred to as the Special Relationship. The author tries to prove the thesis that for the British government, reinforcing the cooperation with the United States is one of the most important ways to counteract the negative effects of Brexit. The experience so far shows, however, that it is not so easy, because after leaving the European Union, the United Kingdom has become for the United States, for many reasons, an increasingly less attractive partner.

The main consequence of rapidly progressing globalization is the strengthening of new, dynamically developing economies. The paper includes the author’s reflections on the European Union’s strategy for the Indo-Pacific region, which is responsible for 60% of global GDP and 2/3 of global economic growth. As a result, this makes that neighborhood an area of conflicting interests and rivalry between the economically strongest state entities. Despite the relatively late involvement of other foreign players in the region, the European Union is also trying to strengthen its position in this area. On September 16, 2021, the “EU Cooperation Strategy in the Indo-Pacific Region” was established. The author of the paper will try to answer two main research questions: (1) What influences the shape of the European strategy towards the Indo-Pacific region? and (2) What obstacles does the European Union face in the process of shaping its relations with representatives of this region?

The European Union and the Eurasian Union: legal mechanism of cooperation and the problems of establishing

The paper takes a close look at the concept of establishing the Eurasian Union – a political and economic community modeled after the European Union. The author of the article shows the impact of Kazakhstan on the integration process of other countries participating in the establishment of this community: Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Tacgicastan. The author also describes institutionalized forms of cooperation on which the functioning of the Eurasian Union is to be based.

Opportunities and prospects for Turkey’s accession to the European Union

The purpose of this article is to analyze the relations of the Turkish and the European Union, first of all the values and threats that it may bring into force the Old Continent. The article presents the history of European integration of Turkey and the challenges faced by this country before accession. The arguments for and against the country’s membership in the European Union from the point of view of both the Member States and Turkey are featured.

EU member states: a new paradigm of sovereignty? An outline of the issue

Political and economic integration of countries taking place within the European Union leads to the modification of certain traditional features of the state’s sovereignty, such as, for example, exclusive judiciary competence within the state’s territory or independent financial, budget and fiscal policy. This calls for the analysis whether, and if so, to what extent, being the EU member state influences the country’s sovereignty. There are two contrasting views regarding this matter: some theoreticians claim that this integration limits or even eliminates the country’s sovereignty, while others argue that countries retain their sovereignty, and integration is the manifestation of sovereignty. The aim of the article is to reflect on these theories in the context of a new paradigm of EU member states’s sovereignty, which takes into account new relations between such agents as an individual, society, nation, or state.

The concept of terrorism raises serious disputes and doubts. Difficulty in defining the phenomenon of terrorism is the problem of distinguishing terrorist activities from acts committed by madmen or criminals. The considerations taken in the text concentrate on the searching for the answer to the question: is it possible to construct a commonly accepted definition of terrorism? It was necessary to refer the perception of terrorism and show the scientific approach to terrorism as a phenomenon present in the modern societies.

The article is a review of the European approach to economic policy, taking into account the feature of gender, so-called gender mainstreaming. It analyses the legislative achievements of the European Union in this area and domestic solutions. There is also compared the situation of women and men in the European labor market, with particular emphasis on Danish and Polish examples, and the causes and consequences of gender inequality in economic decision-making. Identification of barriers to the implementation of gender equality in the social, economic and political aspects as well as possibile ways of their elimination is also attempted.

Health care is one of the determinants of the entire policy of the European Union. In this regard, the EU has a well-developed legislation and institutions designed to protect the environment. One of the areas of protection of human health is the natural environment. Also in this range, the EU has a fairly well developed system of laws and institutions. The aim of the study is to show the influence of EU policy on health and the environment on the health status of EU’s citizens.

Among the axiological foundations of European integration, security was undoubtedly the most important of them. The inclusion of post-war Germany in the bloodstream of Western European economic and social ties, on the one hand, and, on the other, fears of the Soviet Union growing in strength and hostile to Western values, were the reasons behind the projects to strengthen cooperation between the countries west of the Elbe. Understandably, integration processes progressed fastest in the sphere of economic exchange and regulation of its rules, and slower in areas related to the very tissue that creates the sovereignty of each state, i.e. security and defense. The aim of the article is to present the shaping of a common European policy on this last issue. For its purposes, three different dimensions of the integration processes were adopted, which complemented each other and led to the present institutional order of the Common Security and Defense Policy. The first of them, which can be called a kind of laboratory of formal structures of cooperation of Western European states in the field of security and military, covered the creation and evolution of the Western European Union. The second perspective is the development of the idea of political and defense integration through the formulation of various initiatives, reports and analyzes by actors of the political life of the Member States, which often informally constituted a strong impulse to accelerate the integration processes. The last area of analysis is the provisions of the treaty, which organized and reformed the functioning mechanisms of the community elements of the European security and defense space.

The notion of region is particularly vague, as this issue is referred to by studies from various disciplines. It has long been one of the subjects of interest of the Council of Europe which perceives local and regional administration as one of the fundamental ingredients of modern European democracy. The European Charter of Local Self- -Government is the main document that regulates these matters in the Council of Europe law system. It is accompanied by a number of other documents, including The European Charter of Regional Self-Government. The article provides an analysis of these normative deeds within the realm of Union law. When the Single European Act entered into force, regions have become an important part of Union policy. Committee of the Regions set up in 1994, whose operation is related to the principle of subsidiarity and programming of the idea of the Europe of Regions, is the most important body concerned with regional issues.

The problem of the opportunity to place advertisement in mass media has been analysed both by Polish courts and the European Court of Human Rights only with regard to the content of said advertisement and its reference to current legal advertising bans. However, there occurred a significant problem not only from the point of view of the freedom of press, but also civil liberties, namely that of presenting advertisement undesired by newspaper editors. Cases tried by Polish courts, one being subject to analysis of the European Court of Human Rights, prove that within the scope of placing advertisement the voice of publishers and editors is decisive. Any citizen referring to the freedom of speech stands no chance that the content of advertisement presented by them will be published. Free press is to be free to choose advertisement, and what’s crucial here is the economic freedom of contract. tantamount to conceding that this norm ceases to exist, but only affirms that it cannot be applied.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the European Union (EU) Migration and Asylum Policy, a perspective of African migrants in Europe. Attempts were made to identify the perception of Africans in the EU on its migration and Asylum policy and assess whether the policy encourages migration and Asylum in the EU. To achieve this, descriptive survey was employed and questionnaires were administered to 100 respondents in Europe from different African countries. The data collected using the online questionnaires were analyzed using percentage, mean and standard deviations. From the results, it was concluded that immigration into the EU is undertaken by male citizens of most African countries especially at their youthful ages driven by the need to pursue education and job opportunities. Their stay in the EU breeds the desire (positive perception and desire) to obtain either work status or EU nationality. Many of them desire to be integrated into the host countries rather than repatriated to their countries. Finally, most of them greatly esteem the EU migration and asylum policy and prefer to stay within the EU than be resettled or repatriated, according to the new EU Pact policy.

The European Union Media Freedom Act in the Context of Organizations’ Activities to Improve the Quality of Democracy

The European Union’s activity in the area of media, which has been undertaken for the past four decades, demonstrates a growing interest in the problems of the sector od media services, not only in economic terms but also in establishing regulations to strengthen their independence, pluralism and the quality of their contene. Axiological aspects, expressing the values on which the EU was built, are reflected in an important piece of legislation that was presented by the European Commission in September 2022. The European Media Freedom Act proves that issues of freedom and pluralism have become a sensitive area for the Union. The document highlights the dual nature of the media – economic players in the market and an important actor in the social areas, meant to create a sphere of civic society activities and a space for promoting the standards of liberal democracy: economic freedoms and individual liberties.

What is explored in the presented text, in reference to the results of authorial studies conducted in 2005/06 and 2012/13 on teachers working in kindergartens, primary, lower- and upper-secondary schools, are the issues of the implementation of intercultural education in the Polish-Czech borderland. This is done in reference to the levels of the work of school and the teacher, outlined by Jerzy Nikitorowicz, within three major tasks of intercultural education. The empirical data based on questionnaire surveys, observation and document analysis allowed for characterizing contemporary chances and barriers of education towards interculturalism in the environment of both urban and rural school.

The European Union has been recognised as an international system whose decisions and actions are conditioned by environmental determinants, which is a dynamic process of change. The article attempts to explain the EU’s decisions based on the conclusions of the European Council in 2010–2022. 93 documents containing the conclusions of the European Council adopted during that period were analysed. It was found that the determinants of EU decisions and actions function – firstly – at the international system level and, secondly, at the level of the domestic systems of the Member States. In addition, the article: 1) reconstructed the discussion in the science of international relations on behavioural determinants, 2) reconstructed the perception of determinants in the conclusions of the European Council; 3) a model for organising the analysis of the determinants of the decisions of the European Council was proposed.

The real system of government in Poland after the country’s accession to the European Union

The subject of research presented in the article is the system of government in Poland. The considerations concern the relationship between the normative solutions defined in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1997 and the influence of the EU on the modification of political solutions in Poland. It was hypothesized that after Poland’s accession to the EU, the system of government in Poland changed in terms of political practice. It has been shown that functioning in the EU resulted in a departure from the characteristic rationalization of the system of government and bringing it closer to the parliamentary model. The prediction presents possible further directions of modification of the system of governance depending on the evolution of the EU. The research was based on the following methods: institutional-legal, systemic and comparative.

The purpose of the publication is to study the state and peculiarities of teaching European studies for students of technical specialties in higher educational institutions of Ukraine, mainly on the example of Lviv Polytechnic National University (hereinafter LPNU), where the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Chair project “European Studies for Technical Specialties” (hereinafter EUSTS) has been implemented since September 2022. The hypothesis of the presented research is the statement that with the strengthening of the European integration course of Ukraine the demand for knowledge about the European Union and the European integration of Ukraine among students of technical specialties is increasing, and university education is ready to satisfy such a request, applying the latest methods and approaches in the organization of education. The main focus is on clarifying the peculiarities of the formation of European studies in Ukraine; including not only classical, but also technical universities in this process; search for effective mechanisms for implementing knowledge about the EU into the educational process of students of technical specialties. To achieve the specified goals, a number of research methods were used, such as: historical-comparative, periodization, analysis of empirical data, systemic and structural-functional. It has been found that the development of European studies in Ukraine has gone through several stages of its formation. The first lasted from the moment Ukraine regained its state independence in 1991 and was characterized by the presence of limited opportunities in universities to introduce European studies in the conditions of a centralized higher education system. The second stage was marked by the adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On Higher Education” (2014), which, in fact, provided sufficient tools for the development of European studies in Ukrainian universities. Similarly, at that time, the study of the European Union and European integration was formed at Lviv Polytechnic National University, including for students of technical specialties. On the basis of statistical data, it has been concluded that among the students of the National Academy of Sciences, there is a growing interest in the study of academic disciplines related to the EU and the European integration course of Ukraine. To a large extent, this is explained by the current political status of Ukraine as a candidate for EU membership and the strengthening of Ukrainian society’s support for the process of European integration as a result of Russian aggression. Accordingly, a number of educational disciplines have been introduced for students of technical specialties at the level of LPNU in recent years, which form knowledge about the EU and European integration, but only thanks to the implementation of international projects here, mainly the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet programs. This creates prerequisites for the fact that, in the future, separate educational programs in European studies can be developed at the university, which are most expedient to implement at the second (master’s) and third (PhD) educational levels. It is important that they focus on those policies of the EU and European integration directions of Ukraine that are of particular interest to students of technical specialties, for example, EU digital policy, EU energy policy, EU policy in the field of climate, environmental protection, etc. The acquired competences will not only allow the graduates of LPNU to implement European standards and values in their professional activities, but also to more effectively use the EU toolkit in the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. Also, taking into account the recommendations of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Ukraine and the political situation of the state, it is worth introducing a mandatory educational discipline for all students of technical specialties of Ukrainian universities on the topic of the European Union, its principles, foundations and values, as well as the features of Ukraine’s European integration progress in various areas.