On the enforcement of targeted sanctions: Estimating the control of sanctioned Russian entities over European companies and proposing a methodology to detect sanction circumvention

LABOR HISTORY SYMPOSIUM

Reviewed by: The Silk Road Trap: How China's Trade Ambitions Challenge Europe by Jonathan Holslag Min Ye (bio) Jonathan Holslag. The Silk Road Trap: How China's Trade Ambitions Challenge Europe. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2019. vii, 190 pp. Paperback $19.95, isbn 978-1-5095-3469-2. Jonathan Holslag's The Silk Road Trap: How China's Trade Ambitions Challenge Europe makes an argument on behalf of Europe (or the European Union) that is quite popular nowadays in the United States. That is, the West's economic engagement with China in the past two decades has failed. It failed to transform the Middle Kingdom toward a more liberal political-economic system. In addition, it caused severe economic risks to the West's own economies and social wellbeing. As a response, Holslag argues in the book that European societies should adopt economic realism and maximize their economic power, because, in his view, "the possession and distribution of [End Page 45] power is what fundamentally shapes their [Europeans'] ability to defend themselves, to influence external relations, to preserve internal cohesion, and to shape their own future" (p. 13). The book, however, has a light touch on Europe's economic exchange with China. It has very limited analysis of China's economic system. Despite the book's title, it does not offer much on China's Belt and Road initiative, launched in late 2013. Rather, the book most strongly demonstrates that member countries of the European Union (EU) have experienced severe political divisions internally and across the countries. Those divisions have lately been intensified by the continent's interactions with China. With profound divisions inside and across individual members, a "cohesive" statecraft at the European level is rather unlikely, if not impossible. In short, while the book is titled "The Silk Road Trap," its most salient message to this reviewer is the intractable "EU trap." The European integration project, in particular its expansion to the East, has encountered severe headwind during the deep globalization era, and China is an accelerator of these challenges. The European societies are deeply divided. Holslag starts the book with critiques of European states and corporate interests in China and praised European integrationist thinkers for their realistic views of economic engagement with China. He makes it clear that the book speaks for "a general interest" of European societies and their citizenships at large. In critiquing economic risks posed by China, he concedes that European companies have benefited from their investments in and trade with China. From this description, it is clear that globalization, with China as an important part, has brought uneven distributions to political groups in Europe, like it did in the United States. Such uneven distribution contributed to intensifying cleavages in Europe's democratic politics. As a result, the political leadership at the European level has had difficulty emerging. Instead, to the dismay of the Europeanist, Europe's political landscape has been dominated by various "nationalist" leaders in separate member states. Not only have class cleavages intensified in Western and Northern Europe, division between richer Europe (EU's North) and less developed new members (EU's South) are even more severe. Holslag sheds light on the internal tension between more advanced European economies that seek to rebalance economic relations with China and governments in Eastern Europe and the Balkans that are more willing to embrace exchange with and investment from China. The book's emphasis on China's protectionist policies and Europe's failed objectives in past engagements cautions these new EU members' growing embrace of China, particularly after the launch of the Belt and Road. The chapters provide cautionary reminders, but the deep problem remains. That is, advanced European economies are motivated to uphold its technology and economic [End Page 46] standards in competing with China. The less advanced economies on the continent still have unmet demand for investment in infrastructure and industries. So long as such structural needs persist, Chinese Belt and Road is not going elsewhere. Cohesive statecraft, or economic realism as the book proposes, is infeasible also because of vulnerabilities to financial crisis during the globalization era, and the EU is particularly susceptible because member economies are quite diverse, as pointed out...

Economics and politics are making offshoring an increasingly attractive option for biobusinesses

After more than three decades of disagreements, the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers finally adopted on 8 October 2001 the Regulation to establish a European Company Statute and its related Directive concerning employee involvement in European Companies.The formal adoption of the two amended texts is the result of the political agreement reached by the EU Council at the Nice Summit in France held in December 2000.The legislation is due to enter into force in 2004.The European Company or 'Societas Europaea' (SE) represents a "major breakthrough" for companies operating within several EU Member States.Until now, such companies had to establish a whole net of subsidiaries throughout the territories in which they operate.Due to disparities between national legislations and the necessity of incorporating at least one legal entity for each country, crossborder operations have proved to be especially costly and time-consuming.Under the new SE Regulation, companies will have the option of setting up a single company under European law with a single set of rules and unified management and reporting systems.

Corporate reporting has developed globally in the last three decades, encompassing economic, social, and environmental information. From the GRI standing out as the first organization that offers companies guidelines to sustainability reporting, to the recent ESRS standards adopted by the EU, there is an increasing trend in the diversity of sustainability reporting frameworks. This empirical research attempts to provide insights into sustainability reporting frameworks used by European companies from six countries grouped into two regions of Europe, namely Western (France, Germany, Netherlands) and Eastern (Hungary, Poland, Romania) to highlight the directions of action of companies to achieve sustainable objectives. The sample includes 30 companies headquartered in Europe, 15 companies for each region of Europe. The reports of the companies during the period of 2018–2022 were used to extract the information on sustainability frameworks, resulting in 150 sustainability or annual reports used. To achieve the objective of the research, quantitative data were collected through the content analysis of the companies' sustainability or annual reports, the extracted information being applied in statistical analyses. The study finds that the trend of using sustainability reporting frameworks in Western and Eastern Europe increases from year to year. Western European companies stand out with better corporate performance by relying on multiple sustainability reporting frameworks in the preparation and publication of sustainability or annual reports. Most European companies have a low level of compliance with the requirements of sustainability frameworks and are economic science-oriented and business-oriented. Western European companies are more focused on investment and environmental aspects, while those in Eastern Europe are more focused on profitability and social aspects. This study fills the gap in corporate reporting research in relation to the sustainability frameworks used by Western and Eastern European companies.

For more than a decade, developments originating from the European Union (EU) have considerably impacted on German corporate governance. First, there have been several leading decisions by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) which, to a large extent, have established for companies the freedom of settlement within the EU. These decisions, secondly, have influenced the national laws of the EU Member States. Thirdly, the EU has adopted its European Council Regulation of 8 October 2001 for the establishment of the European company (Societas Europaea (SE)) accompanied by a Council Directive on employee codetermination of the same day. Unexpectedly, the SE has become a success story within the last years in an unprecedented way. It not only serves the needs of big companies, but – to the astonishment of many observers – is also accepted as a form of incorporation by medium-sized and small companies. That success, fourthly, has spurned the struggle for the introduction of a European private company (the Societas Privata Europaea (SPE)), which shall be tailored to meet the special needs of small and medium-sized companies. There are good reasons to believe that, within the foreseeable future, the Proposal for a Council Regulation on the Statute for a European private company will successfully pass the legislative bodies of the EU. Fifthly, the EU has adopted the Directive on Cross-Border Mergers of limited liability companies of 26 October 2005 which has been implemented by the insertion, in April 2007, of new statutory provisions into the German Transformation Statute (Umwandlungsgesetz). Another topic which has been hotly debated over recent years, is the topic of cross-border transfers of companies and here there are two types of transfers possible and relevant for our discussions, namely transferring of companies’ registered seats (place where a company was incorporated or formed and where it appears on the a country’s ‘Register of Companies’) and transferring of companies’ seats of administration (place where a company has its main administrative headquarters, also called real or actual seat). There is still considerable confusion about the exact legal rules applicable and their effect on companies when there are cross-border transfers of companies and these uncertainties apply to transfers of companies’ registered seats as well as to transfers of companies’ administrative seats.

The article deals with the rind aspects of European Company (also known by its Latin name Societas Europaea or SE), a “type of public limited-liability company regulated under European Union law”. Although this form of company was proposed more than 40 years ago, it was only in 2001 when the Council issued Regulation (EC) No 2157/2001 of 8 October 2001 on the Statute for a European company defining the European company (SE) as “a legal structure that permits a company to operate in different European Union (EU) countries under a single statute”, as determined by the law of the Union and common to all EU countries. Being a new legal form, the SE coexists with the corporate forms that already were in each Member Statebeing governed by both European Regulation and national law. As it follows we address the rules, classification, conditions for settling an SE, organization structures, tax harmonization, employee involvement in the SE, advantages and disadvantages of SEs, as well as the opportunity of SPEs.

This paper investigates the pattern or trajectory of implementing ISO 9000 standards versus TQM in Western Europe from a longitudinal perspective, using empirical data. The research is based on three large-scale surveys conducted in 1992-1993, 1996-1997 and 2001-2002 respectively, in 13 Western European countries. The results of the surveys show that European companies have put considerable effort into ISO 9000 certification. However, the results also reveal that, around 1996-1997, European companies had also planned to implement TQM. However, the result of the planned “go beyond ISO to TQM” fell short of the anticipated extent, indicating that the adoption of TQM in Europe was slower than expected. Early in the twenty-first century, European companies are still very keen on implementing TQM, indicating an obvious intention to shift from ISO 9000 to TQM. To ensure that the shift will occur this time however, the two approaches must be integrated properly. Although both ISO 9000 standards and the TQM/EFQM model have been recently updated or modified, how to best incorporate the two systems remains one of the major tasks of quality management in the future.

Last summer ushered in a new era in the regulation of chemicals. On 1 June 2007, REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals), the expansive scheme by the European Union (EU) to regulate chemicals used in commerce and consumer products, took effect. REACH applies to chemicals manufactured or marketed in Europe, and its regulations affect companies exporting chemicals to Europe as well as those located there. REACH puts the burden on chemical companies to provide information on how the chemicals they make affect human health and the environment. REACH has two parts: the collection and sharing of data throughout supply chains, and the authorization of chemicals of higher concern to human and environmental health.

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of the development of grain wholesale trade in the context of Ukraine's integration into the EU. It is determined that the wholesale trade in Ukrainian grain occupies a leading position in the production and export of agricultural products in the world market, and the critical direction of development is Ukraine's integration into the EU. The current state of Ukraine's grain wholesale trade in the EU market is determined, the volume of grain exports to the EU countries is estimated, fundamental problems are identified, and directions of development of grain wholesale trade in the context of Ukraine's integration into the EU are generalized. The article analyses the volumes of grain exports by Ukraine to the EU countries in 2022, including more than 53 million tons of grain: wheat - 20.7 million tons, corn - 26.1 million tons, rye - 314 thousand tons, and 6.6 million tons of other grains. The most significant Ukrainian grain exports were to the EU countries: Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Romania, Poland, Portugal, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, and others. The potential of the grain market in Ukraine is substantiated, and its place in the world rankings of production and export of wheat and corn as the main types of Ukrainian grain is determined. It is determined that the most significant export potential in terms of wheat is in such countries as: Australia with an export-to-production ratio of 79.6%, Argentina - 58.4%, Ukraine - 54.1%, the USA - 46.5%; in terms of corn, it is Ukraine - 96.2% and Argentina 60%. It is outlined that the quality of Ukrainian grain and its adaptation to the requirements of the EU countries remains a problem. It is noted that in developed European countries, the protein and gluten content is not the basis for classifying grain quality and is taken into account only when determining the price of high-quality milling wheat, especially durum wheat. The critical issues in the grain wholesale trade are as follows: assessing the quality of Ukrainian grain and adapting it to the requirements of the EU countries; integrating the Ukrainian transport system into the European one; ensuring compatibility of the transport systems of Ukraine and the EU; strengthening cooperation with European transport companies; and developing governmental decisions between Ukraine and the EU countries to address grain export issues. One of the most promising areas of grain wholesale development is the establishment of grain transportation between Ukraine and the EU countries using modern information support. Keywords: wholesale trade, grain, production, export, transportation, Ukraine, European Union, integration, martial law, problems, ways of development.

Since 1990, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have been under considerable pressure to develop explicit regulatory institutions. Initially, the main pressure for this policy came from the World Bank and other international lending agencies. Indeed, the requirement for an independent regulator was often included as an explicit loan condition by lending agencies. Subsequently, and in practice more importantly, there was the pressure for transparent regulation arising from the need to provide an effective basis for private investment and privatisation. More recently, there has been the impetus from desired accession to the European Union (EU) and the need to meet the terms of the relevant EU Directives. Before 1990, in all CEE economies, the economic regulation of utilities (including energy, telecommunications, etc) was not at all recognised as a separate activity. It was carried out along with policy and the ownership/management of the state-owned enterprises by the relevant Government Ministries. Indeed, the regulation of eg investment and prices was not recognised as at all separate from policy or from the running or financing of the enterprises. The dominant forces involved were typically the Communist Party leadership and the senior managers of the relevant enterprises (the nomenklatura) who paid little weight to commercial factors. As a result of these factors, the CEE countries have had to start from the very beginning in developing regulatory functions for utilities - just as in the financial sector and other parts of the economy. In addition, there has been considerable competition from supporters of different regulatory models. Thus, not surprisingly, USAID assistance has tended to promote the US model of rule-based, legally-driven regulation; UK assistance and companies has tended to promote independent but less formal regulation; Continental European countries and companies have tended to urge caution on the development of explicit, independent regulatory institutions, and so on. Perhaps more importantly, potential foreign investors and privatisation purchasers have also been active lobbyists for their preferred style of regulation and, even more so, for their preferred degree of liberalisation. The energy and other companies involved in activities in CEE countries, not surprisingly, also tend to advocate the style of regulation of their home country. This tendency does, though, have some interesting exceptions, as we shall demonstrate below. In consequence, we can see that, over the last decade, CEE countries have seen a competition among external forces over the relative merits of the various different approaches to utility regulation as used in Western Europe, North America and elsewhere.

The EU Response to COVID-19: From Reactive Policies to Strategic Decision-Making.

Conformity assessment bodies functioning within the field of New Approach Directives (Notified bodies (NBs)), may provide a fertile research subject concerning the field of corporate law since many variables – not only in terms of their business field and activity, but also the importance attested to them by the European Commission – are already harmonised throughout the EU. There are mainly two stages in this study. The first stage is about what the business forms and ownership structures of those NBs are. This is done by inventorying the business forms of NBs in a sample of five European jurisdictions (France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK), and also their largest shareholders’ business forms, investor groups, primary and secondary activities, and country of origin until the ultimate controlling shareholder. Subsequently, as the second stage, it is discussed what the statute of European Company – as an alleged single common European business form – could offer for these NBs. The challenges ahead with respect to tax issues are also reviewed generally to see the complete picture. In the end, it is argued that SE does not seem to be an especially attractive business form for all NBs, not only because of corporate law reasons but also tax law ambiguities. On the other hand, it is argued that its employment could provide the national competent authorities (notifying bodies) with some side-benefits like reduced surveillance costs in case parent companies/NBs (controlling several subsidiary NBs) decide to re-structure the group via branches. Besides, certain NBs in Germany and the Netherlands may opt for the SE form to circumvent national employee participation rules. Last but not least, it is argued that a more flexible business form, like European Private Company would probably lead to a much more extensive use by NBs, particularly by the ones resembling to SMEs.

BackgroundThis paper discusses the results of a study focusing on the differences of regulation around product safety, especially machines for use at work, between the European Union (EU) and the...

The coalitional politics of the European Union Regulation on deforestation-free products