Commission's White Paper Research Articles

Vor der Erweiterung der Europäischen Union: Vom Weißbuch der Europäischen Kommission zu einer effizienteren Arbeitsweise und flexibleren Architektur

Enlargement is back on the European agenda. But without a reform of the European Union (EU) it may lead to an ‘overstretch’ and as a consequence to disintegration. Nonetheless, tackling the ongoing European ‘polycrisis’ by adequate reforms has been and still is complicated. An EU that has become more diverse by enlargement is being expected to deepen in areas that are highly sensitive domestically. With reference to the scenarios presented in the European Commission's White Paper on the Future of Europe from 2017, the author argues for a more flexible working method of the EU. It should be based on more efficiency by among others focusing on political priorities, extending qualified majority voting, implementing a new concept of cooperative enforcement and applying a common concept of subsidiarity, including „better regulation”. Where no consensus can be reached among Member States greater flexibility and – in the long run – a new architecture of the EU should allow for pioneer groups to move ahead and to lead by positive example.

Outlook of the Solar Photovoltaic Energy in Spain

In this paper, the state of development and outlook of the solar photovoltaic energy in Spain are analyzed in the framework of the Action Plan included in the 1997 European Commission White Paper of the Energy. The reviewed topics are the installed PV power, legislation and incentives, market situation and I+D+I activities. It is showed that the objectives for year 2010 are established as well as the legislative base. There are government financial aids but they have showed scarce to fulfil the objectives. In Spain there is an important PV industry at a world level as well as plenty of suppliers and installers.

Leveraging the trust of nurses to advance a digital agenda in Europe: a critical review of health policy literature.

This article is a critical and integrative review of health policy literature examining artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications for healthcare systems and the frontline nursing workforce. A key focus is on co-creation as essential for the deployment and adoption of AI. Our review hinges on the European Commission's White Paper on Artificial Intelligence from 2020, which provides a useful roadmap. The value of health data spaces and electronic health records (EHRs) is considered; and the role of advanced nurse practitioners in harnessing the potential of AI tools in their practice is articulated. Finally, this paper examines "trust" as a precondition for the successful deployment and adoption of AI in Europe. AI applications in healthcare can enhance safety and quality, and mitigate against common risks and challenges, once the necessary level of trust is achieved among all stakeholders. Such an approach can enable effective preventative care across healthcare settings, particularly community and primary care. However, the acceptance of AI tools in healthcare is dependent on the robustness, validity and reliability of data collected and donated from EHRs. Nurse stakeholders have a key role to play in this regard, since trust can only be fostered through engaging frontline end-users in the co-design of EHRs and new AI tools. Nurses hold an intimate understanding of the direct benefits of such technology, such as releasing valuable nursing time for essential patient care, and empowering patients and their family members as recipients of nursing care. This article brings together insights from a unique group of stakeholders to explore the interaction between AI, the co-creation of data spaces and EHRs, and the role of the frontline nursing workforce. We identify the pre-conditions needed for successful deployment of AI and offer insights regarding the importance of co-creating the future European Health Data Space.

Pieaugušo mācīšanās – pieaugušo pašattīstība

Rapid progress in the world regions illustrates the importance of innovative, progressive and quality education as one of the key factors for economic competitiveness. There is a need to raise the overall skill level to meet the needs of the labour market and enable people to play an active role in today's society. Education raises people's self-confidence, promotes career development, and serves as a tool for personal growth. The future society expects the individual to be the initiator of various changes and their implementer, using knowledge, skills and creative approaches to problem solving. At present, every individual needs to be involved in a variety of change processes that are first and foremost related to the implementation of their needs and the ways of doing it. It is difficult for an adult to adapt to the demands of the new age. Various problem solving paths are being sought to facilitate the adaptation of society to the new circumstances. They are most widely described in the European Commission's White Paper (1998), which states that there is a need to: 1. Focus on comprehensive learning. 2. Develop understanding of the essence of things. 3. Understand the interactions between the past and the present. 4. Develop the potential for employment and economic life of everyone by focusing on: • foreign language knowledge, • communication skills, • ability to work in a team, etc. From the above we can conclude that adult learning is one of the most pressing issues of modern society.

Legal and Ethical Framework for AI in Europe: Summary of Remarks

In the European Union (EU) and Europe in general, there is currently no legally binding definition of artificial intelligence (AI) nor a common EU framework for the regulation of AI. The EU Independent High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence (AI HLEG) defines AI systems as “software (and possibly also hardware) systems designed by humans that, given a complex goal, act in the physical or digital dimension by perceiving their environment through data acquisition, interpreting the collected structured or unstructured data, reasoning on the knowledge, or processing the information, derived from this data and deciding the best action(s) to take to achieve the given goal.” The European Commission in its white paper emphasized that a definition of AI “will need to be sufficiently flexible to accommodate technical progress while being precise enough to provide the necessary legal certainty.” In particular, the terms “data” and “algorithm” need to be defined. With the exception of autonomous vehicles, there are not many AI-specific binding rules yet. A common EU legal framework, which has been proposed in the European Commission's white paper, will build trust and provide legal certainty for consumers and businesses.

Civil Liability Applicable to Artificial Intelligence: A Preliminary Critique of the European Parliament Resolution of 2020

On 20 October 2020, the European Parliament approved a Resolution with recommendations to the Commission on a civil liability regime for artificial intelligence (2020/2014(INL)) (the 2020 Resolution). The Resolution highlighted the importance of defining a clear and harmonised civil liability regime in Europe for the development of artificial intelligence technologies and the products and services that benefit from them, so as to provide due legal certainty for producers, operators, affected persons and other third parties. The same motivation had previously led the European Parliament to put forward a series of proposals on the subject of liability in its 2017 Resolution (European Parliament Resolution of 16 February 2017 with recommendations to the Commission on Civil Law Rules on Robotics (2015/2103(INL)). There are some important differences between the two documents. These differences reflect the deeper analysis that the European Commission, in particular, has been engaged in with regard to civil liability for harm attributable to artificial intelligence systems. On this subject, we may note, lastly, the “Report on the safety and liability implications of Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things and robotics” (COM(2020) 64 final - Report), which accompanies the European Commission White Paper on Artificial Intelligence – COM(2020) 65 final, of 19 February 2020 (White Paper). One important element underpinning the 2020 Resolution is the distinction made between two different regimes for establishing civil liability for harm attributed to artificial intelligence-systems: strict liability for high-risk situations, and subjective liability with a presumption of fault, in other situations. The aim of these brief notes is to, on one hand, provide a critical assessment of how far this option corresponds to the assumptions on which the Resolution is based, also taking a brief look at the concept of wrongdoing proposed and the scope of compensable harm, and, on the other hand, to assess the adequacy of the distinction indicated in the light of the choices made in the 2017 Resolution and, above all, in the light of the challenges that the development of artificial intelligence raises for the traditional foundations on which compensation regimes have been based up to the present.

Response to European Commission White Paper on Artificial Intelligence

This is the submission made in response to the European Commission's consultation on its White Paper on Artificial Intelligence, focusing only on the proposed regulatory framework.

A theoretical review on the structural convergence issue and the relation to economic development in integration areas

Abstract The aim of the paper is to provide a consistent literature review on the importance of structural convergence for the countries within the same economic area focusing on two main topics: the structural similarity problem of countries within an integration area and the evolution and development of the union itself (in line with Chenery and Singer’s approach). We aim to synthesize the most referential findings of the literature and project them on the most recent events in the European Union pointing out the relevance of structural convergence and of the continuation of the process under a reassessed form. The relevance of studying the structural convergence process lies in the medium and long term implications related to the synchronization of business cycles, long-run development patterns and of the dynamics of specialization. Moreover, the topic is of high interest both in the context of the future evolution of the European Union and in the decision making process of adopting the Euro in Romania’s case. On the side of theoretical papers, there is a rich literature on structural change that generally recommends that economic structures and the differences between them should be the starting point for analysis and development of theories of economic development. We believe that the preoccupations for this topic should be recalled in the context of the European events and new facets should be explored. Along with the views expressed in the European Commission White Paper, that the form will follow the function, we emphasize the importance of designing the proper institutions at European Union and Eurozone level, but also at national level with taking into consideration the goal of advancing towards structural convergence.

The Impact of Alternative Enforcement Procedures Under EC Competition Law on Damages Actions

I took the distance learning Postgraduate Diploma and MA at King’s College London during the academic years 2007/2009. My dissertation considered the interaction between public and private enforcement of the competition rules, and in particular the implications for private actions of alternative enforcement procedures – i.e. leniency programmes, commitments and settlement procedures. In the drafting of what would become Directive 2014/104/EU on antitrust damages actions, this issue raised complex policy problems: the European Commission was, in principle, in favour of more private claims for damages, and did not want a system of settlements to render private actions more difficult. In 2009, this dissertation took part to the debate: it surveyed a range of evidential, procedural and substantive issues, and expressed opinions on how best to reconcile the settlements procedure and the position of claimants in civil litigation. In the first part, the dissertation analyses the context in which the studied interaction materializes by: underlining the main goals and characteristics of the three alternative enforcement procedures; emphasizing briefly the main goals and current issues of damages actions; presenting the key recommendations of the Commission White Paper; and assessing the tension between alternative enforcement procedures and . In the second part, the dissertation analyses and assesses the solutions offered by the Commission White Paper to find a balance between alternative enforcement procedures and private enforcement by: identifying the theoretical and practical obstacles to damages actions that alternative enforcement procedures imply; and assessing, in relation with alternative enforcement procedures, the solutions identified in the Commission White Paper. The proposed solutions were often insufficient to remove obstacles to the development of damages actions This research was presented and discussed with DG COMP and to university professors. Member States needed to implement Directive 2014/104/EU on antitrust damages actions in their legal systems by 27 December 2016. In 2017, the impact of alternative enforcement procedures on damages actions is still being discussed and I have been asked to publish this dissertation to help feeding the reflexion of competition law specialists. I would be delighted if such was the case.

The Independent European Sport Review: Half Full or Half Empty?

This contribution reviews the ongoing debates on the role of European public authorities in the governance of sport, focusing on the recently published Independent European Sport Review, an initiative of British sports minister Richard Caborn during the 2005 UK Presidency of the EU. Former Portuguese Presidency minister, José Luis Arnaut, was charged with the task of carrying a review of the current state of European football in the aftermath of major corruption scandals in Germany, Belgium and Italy. With the support of UEFA, FIFA and the European sports ministers, Arnaut delivered his report last May, claiming that, despite being focused on football, it presents a template to improve the governance standards of sport in Europe, define the role the EU has to play and to preserve the so-called European Sports Model. The Independent European Sports Review is now featuring heavily in the consultation process conducting to the forthcoming European Commission White Paper on Sport.

Bridging the Gap in the Shifting Sands of Non-controlling Financial Holdings?

Hawk and Huser, who started the legal debate on EU competition law relating to minority shareholdings, compared the evolving legal situation in the 1990s to shifting sands. More than two decades after their demand for a clearer approach, the situation has not substantially changed. The legal framework emerging from the recent Commission White Paper, entitled ‘Towards a More Effective Merger Control’, looks to be struggling in the midst of two kinds of shifting sands, that is, on the one hand, those pertaining to the uncertainty of current EU competition law on this matter and, on the other hand, those represented by evolving European corporate law and practice, among which are the increasing introduction of stronger minority shareholder rights, the diffusion of new forms of equity ownership, for instance the so-called morphable ownership, and the emergence of hybrid finance, especially in the banking sector. Such uncertainties at the corporate law level may suggest the opportunity to improve the proposed reform framework, redesigning thresholds, including the assessment of the anticompetitive effects of debt and hybrid financial instruments and eventually the decentralization of part or all of the application of the new rules at a national level.

'Back to the Future?' EU Merger Control 30 Years after the Commission's White Paper on the Completion of the Single Market: Case Study of the Automobile Industry

This article charts the period between 1985 and 2015 and looks at the impact that the European Union Merger Regulation has had during that time on the ways in which modern businesses can collaborate to innovate. Particular attention is paid to the car manufacturing industry. The car manufacturing industry affects millions of people around the world and the strategic business decisions of automakers can have deep political and economic consequences. This makes it prone to political intervention on both sides of the Atlantic, which can prove to be a burden by preventing rational actions and hindering the implementation of a group’s planned industrial strategy. The case study describes recent developments in the car industry from the perspective of the theories of harm which lawyers and economists have identified as being worthy of the attention of competition regulators.

CONSTRUCTIVISTIC PATHS IN TEACHING PHYSICS: FROM INTERACTIVE EXPERIMENTS TO STEP-BY-STEP TEXTBOOKS

Teaching Physics, in-between theory and technical applications is nowadays a tedious task. Apparent abundance of web resources makes access to information easy, but its use by pupils is quite unclear. These difficulties, added to less importance held by physics nowadays than in the last decades, inside the national educative system, caused in many countries a fall of interest in studying science and technology. Within several national and international programs, involving mainly Poland and Italy, various recipes for school education at lower and higher secondary level were developed in our group. All these recipes were oriented towards real experiments and constructing the discovery paths with pupils. The school (and extra-scholastic activities for primary-age pupils) included: collections of simple experiments “Physics and Toys”, interactive lectures for children, itinerary exhibitions, innovative textbooks inviting the reader to a heuristic dialog, computer-guided experiments, and collections of problems in physic solved step-by-step. We resume some of these implementations and draw main results. Actions were undertaken with three cultural goals: trigger a wide interest in physics through “Fun in Physics” activities, improve didactical efficiency at schools, induce students’ initiative in an independent discovery of science. In detail, for a lower secondary school simple interactive experiments on electromagnetism were introduced, and a textbook on mechanics. For higher secondary schools – a textbook on modern physics and computer-guided experiments; for children aged 5-10 – interactive lectures on mechanics, electricity, acoustics. Evaluations were performed by qualitative and quantitative measures, in Poland and Italy, in collaboration with several teachers and PhD students. All these, constructivist applications show an improved efficiency and find positive evaluations among teachers and pupils. However, partial and sporadic actions do not lead to significant results. Only conjugated implementations of new experimental tools (real objects) and didactical methods (inquiry-based teaching) shows achievements congruent with the Lisbon EU declaration on Knowledge-based Societies (EU Commission White Paper: Education and Training, 1995). Key words: educational systems, teaching physics, interactive exhibitions, simple experiments, computer-guided laboratories, constructivism, cognitive sciences.

Politiche sociali e previdenziali contro la crisi

The global crisis – whose roots are in imbalances of the real economy – in Europe is particularly virulent because of the contradictions existing in European Union project and the “rigor” of its financial policies that challenge even the European social model. Significant expression of this counterproductive approach, but confirmed in the recent European Commission White Paper on pensions, is the indication to reduce the pay as you go public systems coverage and to increase the replacement rate of private funding schemes. This is also the setting policy of the last Italian pension reform, even though presented by the government as technically due. However – because of the increased market volatility, which is both a cause and a consequence of the crisis – making private funded schemes entrusted to provide, as a substitute of public system, sufficient and stable pension coverage to most workers is contraindicated. Moreover, the last pension reform generates additional negative effects on economic and social equilibria.

Public Health Ethical Perspectives on the Values of the European Commission's White Paper "Together for Health"

In 2007 the European Commission issued the White Paper: "Together for Health". Considered the EU Health Strategy for the years 2008-2013, it offers the cornerstones for setting priorities in EU health actions. The public health framework offered in this strategy is explicitly built on shared values--including the overarching values of universality, access to good quality care, equity and solidarity that reacted to certain health care challenges within the EU. This article analyses the Health Strategy via its ethical scope and considers implications for future health policy making. The Health Strategy and related documents are scrutinised to explore how the mentioned values are defined and enfolded. Additionally, scientific databases are searched for critical discussions of the value base of the Health Strategy. The results are discussed and reasoned from a public health ethical perspective. The Health Strategy is barely documented and discussed in the scientific literature. Furthermore, no attention was given to the value base of the Health Strategy. Our analysis shows that the mentioned values are particularly focussed on health care in general rather than on public health in particular. Besides this, the given values of the Health Strategy are redundant. An additional consideration of consequentialist public health ethics values would normatively strengthen a population-based health approach of EU health policy making.

The European Commission White Paper on adaptation: appraising its strategic success as an instrument of soft law

The European Union took its first strategic step on the topic of climate adaptation in 2009 with publication of a White Paper on Adaptation. Since its publication, many researchers and analysts have criticized the White Paper for its lack of concrete and enforceable actions. In this paper, we analyse the White Paper as an instrument of soft law. First, we provide background on the theory of soft law, its terms of applicability, and the standards by which to judge its success. Second, we analyse the content and context of the White Paper according to soft law principles. We find that the conditions under which the White Paper was adopted were exactly those suited to a soft law approach and highly determined by the European multi-level governance context. As such, the White Paper has managed to achieve several of the common objectives of soft law in particular in setting up processes allowing information-sharing and subsidiarity. However it has failed to achieve several others especially in fostering the commitment of the states, and in moving the European Union in the direction of binding regulation. Further strategy development will be required to fix these deficiencies.

The impacts of climate change in Europe (the PESETA research project)

How much will climate change damage the European economy? Which geographical areas would be the most affected? Which sectors are most vulnerable? Where and why will there be gains from climate change? How sectoral policies should be changed to consider climate impacts and adaptation? These questions are relevant for designing and prioritising adaptation strategies, as stressed by the European Commission White Paper on Adaptation (European Commission 2009). Within that context, the main motivation of the PESETA research project (Projection of Economic impacts of climate change in Sectors of the European Union based on boTtom-up Analysis) has been to contribute to a better understanding of the possible physical and economic impacts induced by climate change in Europe over the 21st century, paying particular attention to the sectoral and geographical dimensions of impacts (Ciscar et al. 2009; Ciscar et al. 2011a). There are two approaches in the literature used to estimate the economic impacts of climate change. The first approach implements a top-down perspective proposing reducedform damage functions that relate climate variables to a measure of economic impact. The effect of climate change on gross domestic product (GDP) is usually a function of the average global temperature, such as in e.g. Hitz and Smith (2004) and Stern (2007). Yet, this approach has some drawbacks. Firstly, estimates are based on results from the literature, derived from different, and maybe inconsistent, climate change scenarios. Secondly, only average temperature and precipitation are usually included. Other relevant climate variables and the required time-space resolution in climate data are not taken into account. Thirdly, impact estimates lack the necessary geographical resolution for assessing regional impacts and prioritising adaptation policies. A second strand of the literature has followed a bottom-up approach, where the physical effects of climate change are estimated by running high-resolution impact-specific models, Climatic Change (2012) 112:1–6 DOI 10.1007/s10584-011-0336-x

The Effectiveness of National Fora in Europe for the Practice of Antitrust Litigation

The baseline effectiveness of any national forum within the EU for the practice of European antitrust litigation is set by the principle of effectiveness as expressed by the European Court of Justice in its Courage and Manfredi judgments. In the absence of European Union rules on the practice of European antitrust litigation, it is for the domestic legal system of each Member State to lay down the procedural rules governing such litigation, provided that such rules do not render practically impossible or excessively difficult the exercise of rights conferred by Community law. That baseline may create some convergence between the practical outcome (effectiveness) of antitrust litigation throughout the Member States. A closer look at three jurisdictions will give some insight into possible convergence and differences in effectiveness of antitrust litigation in each jurisdiction. We will discuss antitrust litigation in the legal systems of England and Wales, Germany and the Netherlands. All three jurisdictions have set the stage for current complex antitrust litigation for damages on behalf of claimants from all over the EU against pan-European (or worldwide) cartels. The absence of European Union rules is most acutely ‘felt’ in relation to actions for damages, hence the title of the Commission White Paper of 2 April 2008: ‘White Paper on damages actions for breach of the EC antitrust rules’. This contribution will therefore mainly concentrate on antitrust litigation for the recovery of damages and not on antitrust litigation for (interim) relief from an infringement of competition law. Pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No. 44/2001 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (Regulation 44/2001), a national court has jurisdiction in antitrust matters if the defendant is domiciled in its jurisdiction. In addition, the jurisdiction in tort claims can rest with the courts of the country in which the harmful event occurred according to Article 5 paragraph 3 of the Regulation. In addition, pursuant to Article 6 paragraph 1 of Regulation 44/2001 the claim against all the defendants in a matter can be brought in the courts of the country where one defendant is domiciled if the claims against the other defendants are so closely connected that it is reasonable to hear and determine them together, in order to avoid the risk of irreconcilable judgments.

CARTEL MEMBERS ONLY—REVISITING PRIVATE ANTITRUST POLICY IN EUROPE

AbstractThis paper examines the current European private antitrust enforcement policy. The European Commission's White Paper of 2008, the unofficial Draft Directive of 2009 and the collective redress consultation of 2011 consider a facilitated access to private actions for all types of antitrust violations under articles 101 and 102 TFEU in order to effectively compensate the victims of anticompetitive conduct. Assuming that changes are necessary, the paper argues that it might be worthwhile to limit this policy to damages claims against hardcore violations such as cartels. This suggestion is based on two main arguments. Firstly, the current European private antitrust policy probably underestimates the risks of more damages actions against all types of infringements neglecting insights from the economic analysis of law. Secondly, a revised approach is not only in line with the thinking that underpins the reform but also addresses an actual need as revealed by a comparison of litigation data from different jurisdictions. Refining the European private antitrust policy, it is argued that a focus on hard-core anticompetitive constraints such as price fixing would mitigate the potential for a strategic use of antitrust litigation and reduce the likelihood that the reform of European antitrust damages actions will lead to negative outcomes.

New Modes of Governance, Political Accountability and Public Reason

AbstractNew modes of governance are said to create problems of political accountability. To understand this claim, we need a theory of accountability. Electoral accountability provides authorization and sanction, but it neglects the problems entailed in the requirement to provide explanation and justification. Political accountability in this discursive sense can be understood through the idea of public reason, where this is defined in terms of substantive rationality and an orientation to the public interest. This conceptualization leads in turn to the requirement of replicability and openness in public reasoning. The problem of accountability is one of securing the conditions under which the institutions within which policy deliberation takes place can merit the confidence of citizens in these terms, and the Commission White Paper on European governance is used to illustrate the application of these tests.