Political supervision

Political control and strategic direction

Within the scope of this Chapter, the Political and Security Committee shall exercise, under the responsibility of the Council and of the Union Minister for Foreign Affairs, the political control and strategic direction of the crisis management operations referred to in Article III-309.

National Parliaments may, within the framework of the area of freedom, security and justice, participate in the evaluation mechanisms provided for in Article III-260. They shall be involved in the political monitoring of Europol and the evaluation of Eurojust's activities in accordance with Articles III-276 and III-273.

It shall exercise functions of political control and consultation as laid down in the Constitution. It shall elect the President of the Commission.

Croatia amends its current legislation on political party financing, inter alia, to extend its scope to election campaigns and to improve transparency and independent oversight;

The Council may authorise the Committee, for the purpose and for the duration of a crisis management operation, as determined by the Council, to take the relevant measures concerning the political control and strategic direction of the operation.

The Government shall supervise the work of the ministries, give political guidelines to them for the implementation of policies, laws, other regulations and general enactments, and ensure they perform their functions in a coordinated manner.

In particular, the EU encourages Croatia to fully review and improve its current legislation on political party financing, inter alia, to extend its scope to election campaigns and to improve transparency and independent oversight.

The EU underlines the importance of effective implementation of these measures at national and local level, as well as of its action plan on fighting corruption in state owned companies, in particular to reduce political interference and to improve independent oversight and control.

In accordance with adopted policy, a Minister of State shall head and represent the ministry, issue policy guidelines for the work of the ministry and its constituent bodies, supervise their work, issue regulations and other enactments within the competency of the ministry and its constituent bodies, and carry out other tasks prescribed by law or other regulation.

International cooperation, particularly transfer of technology, knowledge and financial assistance and provision of related expertise, to establish and implement effective tobacco control programmes, taking into consideration local culture, as well as social, economic, political and legal factors, is an important part of the Convention.

Within the scope of this Title, this Committee shall exercise, under the responsibility of the Council, political control and strategic direction of crisis management operations.

Through this it enables a balanced performance of the ruling political power in the country, and the control of that power'.

The European Correspondents' Group shall be responsible, under the direction of the Political Committee, for monitoring the implementation of European Political Co-operation and for studying general organizational problems.

People who sit on the supervisory boards of these funds, banks and companies are a group of individuals with unambiguous political profiles.

In most of the former socialist countries it is precisely the composition of supervisory bodies that has proved to be an explicitly political issue.

While in principle there existed a political decision to leave the media to market forces, there was no such 'consensus' regarding the method of privatisation.

These supervisors actually supervise themselves and take care that their economic and political interests are safe against undesired media reporting.

In comparison with the currently prevailing political communication that is effected by means of the traditional media, communication through the Internet enables the parties to exercise greater control over the mediation of selected information.

No matter how (un)profitable investments in the Slovene print media may be, it is obvious that ownership stakes will continue to be the vehicle of exerting political influence (ownership control).

The new political elites, which took over in the 1990s, have made attempts time and again at gaining control over the media and have tried to turn them into a kind of pseudo state media or pseudo public media.

Among the conditions that are indispensable for successful operation of a public service broadcaster are its political and economic autonomy, a supply of funds which enable programming in the public interest, and public control.

The question of the transformation of state television into a public service television was related to the question of how to secure the influence of the public and prevent political parties from assuming indirect control over the public radio and television network.

Therefore whether the Mass Media Act will be respected or not depends on the fundamental issue of the control offer the transparency of the media owners (and especially their associations with various political circles).

Among those conditions are political and economic independence of the media, a supply of funds which make possible broadcasting of programs in the public interest, and public control.

The decision of a party to communicate through the Internet also creates an opportunity to bypass the traditional media and take control of the process of communication (Nixon, Johansson, 1999: 142).

operational links between WEU and NATO for the planning, preparation and conduct of operations using NATO assets and capabilities under the political control and strategic direction of WEU, including:

political democracy, market economy, appropriate security of human rights, control of the democratically elected authorities over defense structures, and good-neighborly relations.' (Thaler, March 24-25, 1997)

The Council may authorise the Committee, for the purpose and for the duration of a crisis management operation, as determined by the Council, to take the relevant decisions concerning the political control and strategic direction of the operation, without prejudice to Article 47."

This can be partly attributed to historical factors such as experience of restrictive legislation through which every organisational aspect and content of the media was controlled, and the role that the media (as representatives of civil society) played in political changes.

As a result, the legal decision was that the representatives of parliamentary parties would be in the minority in the rtv Council, while the majority of members would be delegated by civil society groups, institutions and rtv Slovenia's employees.

WEU affirms that this identity will be grounded on sound military principles and supported by appropriate military planning and will permit the creation of militarily coherent and effective forces capable of operating under the political control and strategic direction of WEU.

Smole was by no means a political opponent, rather he was a 'party solider', but he was among the first to realize that the Communist Party could survive only if it slowly loosened its grip while still overseeing the process and if it conceded to political competition once it felt ready.

At the beginning of its activities, the commission controlled the privatisation of 178 newspapers and periodicals, of which 71 were given over to editorial teams (including two leading news weeklies), 104 were sold to private owners and three were returned to the control of the state treasury.

On the other hand, it protects journalists and the media against potential moves by the ruling power, judicial authorities, or the public itself aimed at establishing unacceptable control over the media. The council further reflects the readiness of professional circles to ensure self-regulation and take on responsibility for their conduct.

If one wants to understand fully the implications of the current debate on the media in Slovenia, we must first analyze some vital questions that were formulated over the last decade - the implementation of the media law, the issue of control, the privatization of the former 'socially owned' media, some political attempts to establish new media, the concentration of media ownership, and attempts at 'political' takeovers of the biggest Slovene daily newspapers.

In addition, the new law should provide the transparency of operation and funding of the public service. Political interests should be eliminated from the supervisory body of the public broadcaster (the rtv Council). Sufficient funds should be available to finance the content that is in the public interest. The public should be enabled to influence programming. A body that would take care that public complaints are taken into account should be established.

The current director general of the public service broadcaster, Hrvatska Radio Televizija (HRT), witnessed three legislative amendments in the course of his term in office. Some among these radically altered the composition of the HRT Council as the highest management and supervisory body - it changed from the Council whose members were appointed by political bodies, to the Council composed of individuals appointed by various civil associations (as representatives of the public interest), to the Council that represented a compromise between political interests represented in the Croatian Parliament.

The Political and Security Committee shall exercise under the responsibility of the Council the political control and strategic direction of the operation.

- The Political and Security Committee shall provide the political control and strategic direction.

The PSC exercises "political control and strategic direction" of the EU's military response to the crisis.

The Political and Security Committee shall exercise under the responsibility of the Council the political control and strategic direction of the mission.

the military aspects relating to the political control and strategic direction of crisis management operations and situations,

(8) The Political and Security Committee should exercise political control of and provide strategic direction to the EU-led operation and take the relevant decisions in accordance with Article 25, third paragraph of the Treaty on European Union.

The following arrangements will be put in place to enable the PSC to ensure full "political control and strategic direction" of a military crisis-management operation:

In order to ensure an adequate flow of information and effective political control by Member States of the implementation of the development phase of the Galileo programme, a Supervisory Board shall be established.

The Team will start functioning in January 2004. The AET exercises its mission under the political supervision of the Council, from which it receives guidance.

(3) The Council has authorised the Political and Security Committee to take relevant decisions concerning the political control and strategic direction of the operation.

(11) It is necessary to ensure maximum transparency and financial control of political parties at European level funded from the general budget of the European Union.