Month: February 2024

New UNIO issue now online

On By officialblogunioIn NewsLeave a comment 
By the Editorial Team
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The Editorial Board is happy to announce that a new issue of the UNIO – EU Law Journal is now online. The 9(2) issue of UNIO includes contributions from various highly respected scholars and young academics and addresses issues such as i) regulation and governance of artificial intelligence; ii) the European data market; iii) the influence of European Union personal data protection standards in Latin America; iv) decentralised energy production and its intersection with the right to the city and environmental, climate, and energy-related concerns; v) the European Union’s strategy for the circular economy; and vi) European cyberculture.

We hope this new issue is relevant for our readers and would like to remind you that we are accepting submissions at UNIO and also at our blog.

You may find UNIO’s 9(2) issue here.

Editorial of February 2024

On By officialblogunioIn EditorialsLeave a comment 
By the Editorial Team
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The Autumn Eurobarometer and the expectations of European citizens

The Eurobarometer is an instrument used by the institutions of the European Union (EU) to find out and assess the state of European public opinion. Strictly speaking, it is a method of collecting public perceptions, like a survey or poll. Naturally, it focuses on issues and problems that directly concern European integration, but it also covers issues that are relevant from a political, economic, and social point of view. It is a kind of “pulse measuring” of the EU and its citizens. The rigour of the method used, and its credibility make Eurobarometer particularly representative of currents of thought and opinion, with relevance and use in the decision-making and political actions of the EU institutions.

This type of survey – when at all credible, despite the volatility of people’s feelings, emotions, and reactions, which are increasingly moulded by immediacy in the media – is also a factor in good governance. It therefore helps to enliven democracy. It brings the frame of mind of citizens (and therefore voters) closer to political decision-makers. It should be noted that we are increasingly moving towards post-modern democracy – in the sense of post-national, post-State democracy. This means that, with all the (relative) imprecision of the terms now used, democracy and the “popular will” can no longer be circumscribed, imprisoned, reduced to a mere electoral expression, a sporadic vote, preceded by an electoral process (campaign). Furthermore, permanent interaction between elected representatives and voters, as well as an understanding of the people’s messages and way of thinking, are integral factors in a desired democracy and political activity that is sound, transparent and fruitful in terms of satisfying the needs and aspirations of those who are governed. Knowing the reality is fundamental to defining public policies – and the people’s way of feeling and thinking is an inescapable element of that reality.

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Dr. Strangelove or: What Lights Sheds Kubrick on Today’s Union

On By officialblogunioIn ReviewsLeave a comment 

Gonçalo Martins de Matos (Master in Judiciary Law by the University of Minho)
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Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Stanley Kubrick’s political satire black comedy film, completed, in the past Monday, 60 years of age since its release on 29th January 1964. Often considered one of the best comedies ever made and, arguably, the best political satire of the 20th century[1], the depths of human stupidity are surgically dissected by the keen, sagacious mind of Stanley Kubrick. More than that, Kubrick’s cautionary tale about nuclear apocalypse exposes humans in what they tragicomically have more contradictory, hypocritical and idiosyncratic.

Encompassing a wide spectrum of themes, Dr. Strangelove remains very present, shedding, like all great Art, some light on contemporary issues and events. More so in recent years, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, bringing to the Old Continent the dark fog of war again. Since Russia is a nuclear power, the fear of nuclear escalation invaded once again people’s hearts, reminding the great powers of the Cold War’s Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD – a fittingly ironic name, as well) doctrine. NATO members have been (well) cautious, as to avoid a backslide to the obscurity of the Cold War. Obscurity is the right word to describe the surroundings of war: freedom is suffocated, barricades are erected, and truth is the first victim.

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