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Browsing Thesis by Subject "Association Agreement"
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Item Comparative Analysis of Working and Rest Time Regulations in Georgia and European Union(Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi state university, Faculty of social and political sciences, 2019-06) Urotadze, Jaba; უროტაძე, ჯაბაIn 2014, the “Association Agreement” was signed between the European Union and Georgia, which aims at deepening political and economic relations between the parties. According to the Agreement, Georgia will approximate its legislation with EU law in different spheres, including decent working conditions. The “Association Agreement” has annexes, where there is a list of EU legal acts and Georgia has to gradually harmonize its legislation with these acts. The Labour Code of Georgia regulates labour and its concomitant relations in the territory of Georgia, unless they are otherwise governed by other special law (e.g. Public Service Law) or international agreements of Georgia. In 2006, within the frame of liberal social-economic policies, a new Labour Code was adopted, which significantly worsened the labour rights of employees. The process of elaboration of labour legislation should not be conducted only according to the wish to alleviate burden on business and ignore minimal safety and health requirements at work – this is against European values. In June 2013, significant amendments to the Labour Code were made, after which the labour relations between employer and employee became more balanced. Although, in order to approximate Georgian labour law with EU standards, there still are some legislative amendments to be made. In the research, special attention is paid to one of the central aspects of labour law – working and rest time. In Georgia, the upper limit of weekly working time (including overtime) is much higher than in EU member states; the employer is not obliged to ensure that, per each seven-day period, every worker is entitled to a minimum uninterrupted rest period of 24 hours; in relation to working and rest time, there are other discrepancies with EU standards. According to article 26 of the Constitution of Georgia, the right to safe working conditions and other labour rights shall be protected by the organic law; it is also mentioned that the freedom of enterprise shall be guaranteed. Therefore, it is important to keep an adequate balance between these two constitutional rights: the law governing labour rights should not impose an unbearable burden on the employer, which will hinder economic development and job creation; in the meantime, the government should ensure that the labour law will provide protection of health and safety at work according to the EU standards. In the research: a) EU Directives given in the “Association Agreement” and related to organization of working and rest time are studied; b) Several EU member states’ experience on transposition of relevant directives are studied; c) Comparative analysis of above mentioned legislation with Georgian labour law is conducted and recommendations are given to amend Georgian legislation on working and rest time.Item European Integration and Development of Georgian Land Transport(Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi state university, Faculty of social and political sciences, 2019-06) Sidamonidze, Davit; სიდამონიძე, დავით; Deisadze, Nana; დეისაძე, ნანაThe study deals with the perspectives of development of land transport in Georgia on the path of European integration. European integration means a broader understanding of social, political, economic, cultural and legal integration of the European states, whose main driving force is the European Union. European integration is an important factor in the development of Eastern Partnership countries. It is therefore important to know about the Association Agreement, EU Transport Strategy and ongoing reforms in Georgia's Land Transport to analyze the results of the European Integration. The study presents the development of Georgia's land transport and its role in the European integration process with regard to the transport corridor. The theme is chosen by taking into account the actuality of the issue. The decrease in passenger and freight turnover in Georgia's land transport indicates that there are problems in this sector. To solve this problems, it is necessary to search for its origins, to evade the process of evolution, and to identify the factors that are responsible for the current situation. The aim of the work and the novelty is, to study public geographical aspects of Georgia's land transport, which covered the following objectives and issues: analysis of contemporary literature around Georgia's land transport search and explanation of the causal links; Parallels between past and present are allocating the main trends and aspects that have changed. Also, it is aimed to identify the factors, that will facilitate European integration. One of the main objectives of the study is the assessment of adequacy, with respect to the aims of the actions implemented in the process of Euro- integration; Taking into account the effect of real environmental conditions, to which degree is it possible to achieve results in this direction? A systematic approach is used as a research methodology. The transport sector is considered as a single system with internal and external factors in complex and dynamic - continuous time and space. In analyzing the system of time and space, the advantages of the analysis of the secondary documents are given. Using the method of analysis, the fact is that the study of the documents should be taken into consideration with other factors identified at the same time. Also, when using the method of analyzing the document, the importance of the basic criteria (authenticity, accuracy, legitimacy, importance) of the document's validity and reliability are given. The transport location of Georgia can be viewed in the theoretical context of the location / location theory. The theory associated with the geographical location of economic activity is the most important part of economic geography, regional science and spatial economy. The Locations Theory answers questions on which economic activities are located where and why. In 2011, the European Commission issued a document titled "White Paper on Transport", which represents the core strategy of the EU in terms of transport development. The goal of the document is to prepare the European transport space in the future, to develop its competitive and sustainable transport system, for this purpose the EU's objectives are: • Increase transport and mobility at the expense of 60% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions; • Establishment of multi-modal urban travel and transport system; • Development of an effective network of continental trade and shore travel; • Clean urban transport; • Product transportation costs are minimal. Unfortunately, the interviews with transport experts show, that Georgia is still unable to fulfill its obligations. For example, the representatives of Hub Georgia stressed that the EU transport policy document is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe by 60% in comparison with 1990, but by the Paris Agreement, Georgia submitted its official document - NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution), where transport is not even mentioned.Item European Integration: Goals and Reality (Comparing Central European, Baltic and the South Caucasus States)(Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi state university, Faculty of social and political sciences, 2019-06) Gachechiladze, Revaz; გაჩეჩილაძე, რევაზ; Robakidze, George; რობაქიძე, გიორგიThe predecessor of the European Union – European Economic Community (EEC) –was established as an economic alliance of western (later -- southern) European states. The EU, which came into being in 1993, appeared to become an example of the most successful economic integration case in history, which brought welfare and secured peace to the western part of the European continent. After the collapse of the USSR, the example of European integration turned out to be attractive for the former communist states of central and eastern parts of Europe. The core of the European Union – its founding members – agreed to accept new members from Central and Eastern Europe. Ten countries – Cyprus, Malta, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia joined the EU in 2004, Bulgaria and Romania - in 2007 and Croatia - in 2013. Thus, the total number of EU member states reached 28. For all these countries, the membership in the EU turned out to be very beneficial. Multiparty democracy has strengthened and economic development accelerated. In 2004, the total GDP of the former Communist countries of Central Europe, better known as "Visegrad four" (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary) amounted to $521.7 billions, while in 2017 to $975,07 billions, in other words, after joining the EU, the total sum of the GDP of these countries increased by 86,9%. After restoring the independence (September 1991) the three Baltic states – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which were forcibly included by Moscow in the Soviet Union in 1940, had undergone a fast process of re- westernisation and they joined the European Union in 2004. Their total GDP grew by 111% in 2004-2017. Meanwhile the EU has focused its attention further eastwards to the former Soviet republics. In 2009 for six of them (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) the Eastern Partnership (EaP) programme had been established as a specific Eastern dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). This programme is still ongoing. Unlike the Central European and Baltic states, where a common pro- western public opinion existed and the efforts of the political elites were directed towards European integration, in the three states of the South Caucasus no similar spirit of solidarity is to be felt. Their foreign policy is also affected by factors outside of the region. E.g. prior to September 2013, Georgia and Armenia worked in parallel to achieve a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) with the EU, which is an initial step on their way to the European integration. But Moscow has forced Armenia to abandon this policy in 2013. As for Azerbaijan, it was from the beginning rather sceptical about the EU integration process. The incompatibility of foreign policy vectors and unresolved conflicts hinder the South Caucasus to be presented in the world as a single region that, in its turn, hampers the process of its integration with the European Union.Item Europeanization of Georgia and Changes in Labour Relations(Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi state university, Faculty of social and political sciences, 2021-06) Beridze, GiorgiGeorgia signed the Association Agreement with the European Union in 2014, laying the groundwork for significant institutional changes in the country. These changes are reflected in the commitments that Georgia must fulfill over a period of time in order to bring governance and the political agenda closer to EU standards. In the study of Europeanization, which covers the last three decades of EU enlargement, documents such as the Association Agreement are perceived as a kind of "intermediate" agreement between the EU and another country. In this way, the state must "download" the norms of political relations of the EU (Flockhart, 2008) (Ladrech, 1994), the EU also has various mechanisms to ensure the implementation of responsibilities from the targeted state (Schimmelfenning, 2015) (Grabbe, 2006) (Schimmelfenning, Scholz, 2008). Our research task is to study the Europeanization of Georgia in the context of labor relations, given that the implementation of labor relations reforms is one of the obligations of Georgia under the agreement. From 2003 to 2012, the Georgian government often relied on a libertarian agenda in economics and public policy, but soon after the government change in 2012, the new team that came to power was given important tasks by the Association Agreement. If in 2003-2012 the state largely avoided responsibility in labor relations and gave more freedom to businesses, since 2014 this trend has changed. Therefore, the changes we are going to study are a kind of "reversal" from neoliberalism to a more responsible state. To further narrow our focus, we will look at the legal changes that affected labor law during the post-association agreement, and we believe that conducting a qualitative study will lead to significant results. Therefore, we find it interesting to discuss the changes in the context of Europeanization that have affected the field of labor relations in Georgia, to discover the achievements and limits of this process.