European Common Market Research Articles

The judicial response to rent controls in Europe: Protecting property rights against state’s intervention?

This essay examines, from a legal and economic perspective, the judicial response to rent controls in the EU focusing on three courts that operate at the fundamental rights and constitutional level: the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the German Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfGE), and the Italian Constitutional Court. Based on an analysis of a sample of judicial decisions rendered over time, a convergent trend emerges: these Courts have recognized and effectively protected the landlord’s property rights against rent controls that were disproportionate and could not ensure a reasonable return on investment. This trend is prominent in the jurisprudence of the ECtHR: the Strasbourg Court has contributed to reshaping the distribution of power between tenants and landlords, encouraging the transition of Eastern and Southern European Countries to the common European housing market. In both upholding and striking down rent control measures, judges generally take market value and the comparative reference price as the preferred benchmarks for fair rent price. A consumption-based and financial characterization of housing, coupled with the fundamental right to derive economic benefits as core elements of the right to property, underpin the legal reasoning of the three Courts.

Notifications Related to Fraud and Adulteration in the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) in 2000–2021

Fraudulent and adulterated food is produced mainly to reduce prices and attract consumers’ attention whilst threatening their economic interests, health, and safety. As such, this type of activity should be eliminated. This study’s aim was to identify the most common hazards related to food fraud and adulteration, reported in the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) between 2000 and 2021, taking into account the product category (including individual products), country of origin, and notification type. We used Microsoft Excel (filtering, vertical-searching, transposition, and pivot table functions) and Statistica 13.3 (two-way joining cluster analysis) to analyse similarities between the hazards identified throughout the research period. Notifications relating to food fraud and adulteration accounted for 18.7% of all RASFF notifications, fluctuating between 1000 and 1200 per year in recent years. These mainly included hazards related to composition and novel foods in dietetic foods, food supplements and fortified foods, sulphites in fruits and vegetables, colours in cereals and bakery products, or Sudan in herbs and spices. Dietetic foods, dietary supplements, and fortified foods were mainly reported as alerts and information notifications, meaning that they were already available on the common European internal market. The other products originated mainly from outside the European Union (Asia—Turkey, Uzbekistan, India and Africa—Ghana, Nigeria) and were submitted on the basis of border rejections. Therefore, it is necessary to continue closely monitoring imported products at the EU border to ensure food safety, avoiding fraud and adulteration and protecting consumers’ financial interests.

Integration perspectives for improving regional policy in rural areas of Bulgaria

Purpose. The purpose of the research is to determine the degree of implementation of specific regional policies in rural areas in the context of Bulgaria’s integration into the European Union through the prospects of the changing economic situation and new trends in the implementation of regional policy. Methodology / approach. The focus of the research is the need for a working regional policy that gives importance to the development of rural areas and influences the demographic and socio-economic processes in Bulgaria. The study is defined by comparative analysis, reference to expert assessment, use of statistical data, and analysis of strategic documents and programs related to regional development. Results. This research has shown that the applied regional development policies within the European Union have partial success. At the same time, the problems and emerging deficits are successfully defined, but it is more difficult to find optimal solutions that can be applied in more than one municipality. In this direction, regional policy has its achievements in its development, but new solutions are still being sought for several spatial and territorial problems in connection with integration into a common European market. This means a comprehensive process of functional impacts in the socio-economic development of nearly 281 regions. In Bulgaria, the situation is even more complicated, because it is necessary to have a dual approach in regional politics. On the one hand, the development of the most urbanised regions, and on the other hand, the development of the rural areas, which are decisive for the development of the greater part of the territory of Bulgaria. Originality / scientific novelty. The regional development policy carried out in the years after 2007 has a static and spontaneous character, the new approach of the measures and programs after 2023 are based on new concepts and elements in line with information technologies, development of intelligent systems, economic connectivity to overcome the backward development of rural areas. New approaches and moments are proposed in the construction of a regional policy, which has a new framework and provisions for the development of the European economic space. In this direction, the need for expert decisions related to the management of regional development comes to the fore. Practical value / implications. It is necessary to make regional development a national priority. In addition, governments should facilitate access to young people and medium-sized businesses for the use of inputs and the promotion of projects. Access to financing, strategic, and planning activities, which have their characteristics at different levels, must be further developed.

Transnational trade union strategies in the context of market integration: The case of company union clubs in the Nordic finance sector

The creation of a common European market for financial services has significantly altered the strategic edifice for banks, as well as for the trade unions representing their employees. In the Nordic countries, where regulation of the labour market has long relied on multiemployer bargaining and strong sector-level actors, this has led to a strategic realignment. Faced with mergers and acquisitions, the potential for delocalization and an increasing amount of directly applicable EU-regulation in the sector, Nordic finance trade unions have supported the creation of company-level trade union alliances within MNCs, while still building upon resources and repertoires stemming from Nordic ‘comparative institutional advantage’. Our ‘extended case study’ of three such alliances in the finance sector, called ‘Nordic company clubs’, concludes that, while trade unions there still benefit from strong, typically Nordic institutional and associational power resources, important actor-centred variables and capabilities such as narratives, scaling, resourcefulness and institutional experimentation complement and strengthen our understanding of trade union strategies and institutional change in the context of market integration.

Britain and European Union, the Repercussions of Accession and the Effects of Secession

Europe's openness to the East, while it lives in historical, political, or cultural temporal regions, where soon after a certain crisis was settled, a new crisis emerged, such as questioning the borders and demarcating them again, as well as the dispute between the economic downturn and the necessity of reforms, the place of the ideological confrontation between the East and the West, and the emergence of the phenomenon of fear and caution. Internal dangers replace the fear of external aggression, and the perspective of fear of internal dangers is stronger because it directly affects the security of society and threatens the weakness of the state and its inability to protect internal society. This realistically explains that the concerns and challenges in the security field are constantly increasing, and the problems of the major European countries related to immigration and organized crime may become more severe in terms of their number due to the size of those countries, but they differ from the problems of the dominant countries in terms of their nature and attempts to settle them. Therefore, major private countries, or what were previously called major countries, such as Britain, seek to take proactive measures and measures in anticipation of future threats. In addition, Britain seeks to restore its international status as a great power and its desire to play the role of peacemaker. In order to achieve interests, which is a religion rooted in its history. Those interests must be achieved, even if this is at the expense of European unity, European integration, or the European Common Market.

The Italian-Yugoslav Rivalry for Political-Economic Influence in Albania 1929-1934

The purpose of the study is to analyze in a substantive manner the circumstances in which Albanian-Italian and Albanian-Yugoslav relations have developed and in particular to reflect the causes and consequences of the Italian-Yugoslav rivalry for economic and political dominance in Albania. Although the objective and clear reflection of the Italo-Yugoslav rivalry affects the exact recognition of the specifics and challenges that these countries faced in extending their influence over Albania through the economy during the above-mentioned period. As a result of the essence of these challenges, we are able to create a clearer perspective in the development of more intensive economic and political relations between Albania and the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia, on the one hand, and Italy and the countries of the former Yugoslavia on the other. Though today Italy does not focus on the Albanian area due to the common European market, the countries of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia continue to have tendencies for dominance in the economy of the Albanian state. The real reflection of the specifics and challenges in the period 1929-1934 and the analogy with the specifics of today, are another essential goal.
 Scientific novelty: it was concluded that the characteristic of the Italian-Yugoslav rivalry in the period 1929-1934 is the dominance of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the political and to some extent also the economic life of Albania, in particular in the years 1933-1934, although Italy was much more powerful and more present in political and economic life. But the reason for this favorable position of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia only in this period of time was the crisis in Albanian-Italian relations, as a consequence of the refusal of the Albanian side to renew the Pact of Friendship in 1931 and Italy’s request for customs union with Albania in 1932. The rivalry between these two countries was exacerbated by the geographical proximity of the two countries to Albania, and the small cost of benefits, so their interest was extremely high.
 Conclusions. In 1929-1934, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Italy had fierce competition for political and economic dominance in Albania. However, despite the temporary advantage of the first one and its constant efforts, Italy managed to be dominant and challenge its main competitor in Albania: the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It even managed to remove Albania from Yugoslav influence, turning it in its entirety on its side. In addition to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia’s economic and military powerlessness in comparison to Italy, the Italians throughout the 1920s had invested a great deal of time and resources in establishing the state of Albania, which sought support from some power of the time, such as Italy, in its efforts to attain overall development. The political and economic life of Albania was also dominated by Italy due to its proximity to Albania and the fact that neither Greece nor the Kingdom of Yugoslavia had territorial claims towards Albania, at least not until the mid-1930s.

Italy's position in European defence integration

Brussels favours the eventual creation of a common European defence market. Rome favours simultaneous European defence integration and a permanent relationship with US and British companies (due to the strong Anglo-Saxon industrial ties of major Italian companies), but is concerned that excessive use of "off-the-shelf" solutions will undermine the European Defence Technology and Industrial Base (EDITB) due to the "lock-in" effect. Rome's aim is to promote defence cooperation with the EU, benefiting itself, while at the same time preventing EU initiatives from damaging Italian industrial cooperation ties with third countries such as the US, UK.

European artificial intelligence “trusted throughout the world”: Risk‐based regulation and the fashioning of a competitive common AI market

AbstractThe European Commission has pioneered the coercive regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), including a proposal of banning some applications altogether on moral grounds. Core to its regulatory strategy is a nominally “risk‐based” approach with interventions that are proportionate to risk levels. Yet, neither standard accounts of risk‐based regulation as rational problem‐solving endeavor nor theories of organizational legitimacy‐seeking, both prominently discussed in Regulation & Governance, fully explain the Commission's attraction to the risk heuristic. This article responds to this impasse with three contributions. First, it enrichens risk‐based regulation scholarship—beyond AI—with a firm foundation in constructivist and critical political economy accounts of emerging tech regulation to capture the performative politics of defining and enacting risk vis‐à‐vis global economic competitiveness. Second, it conceptualizes the role of risk analysis within a Cultural Political Economy framework: as a powerful epistemic tool for the discursive and regulatory differentiation of an uncertain regulatory terrain (semiosis and structuration) which the Commission wields in its pursuit of a future common European AI market. Thirdly, the paper offers an in‐depth empirical reconstruction of the Commission's risk‐based semiosis and structuration in AI regulation through qualitative analysis of a substantive sample of documents and expert interviews. This finds that the Commission's use of risk analysis, outlawing some AI uses as matters of deep value conflicts and tightly controlling (at least discursively) so‐called high‐risk AI systems, enables Brussels to fashion its desired trademark of European “cutting‐edge AI … trusted throughout the world” in the first place.

Willingness-to-Pay for Energy Efficiency: Evidence from the European Common Market

This paper explores the willingness-to-pay for energy efficiency by exploiting variation across products and countries within the EU market for household appliances. Based on scanner data at product-level, I use the hedonic method to estimate implicit prices for energy efficiency and derive implicit discount rates. The paper argues that the implicit price will be underestimated when energy consumption is not only a determinant of operating cost but also is positively associated with other features of a product. The empirical analysis confirms that estimates of the willingness-to-pay are higher when this effect is accounted for in the estimation. This is especially true of product types for which the heterogeneity of usage intensity is low. The results thus indicate that the energy efficiency gap is smaller than found in earlier studies.

Developments in the cost of grid balancing services and the design of the European balancing market

Balancing services are traded on the balancing market, which has undergone major shifts in recent years due to external factors like the growing share of renewable energies in electricity production and the progressing electrification of society, especially in the mobility sector. This trend increases the demand for balancing services. However, market design is also changing to lower overall expenses for grid stability, which influences price volatility and overall costs for balancing services. Shorter provision times, low capacity limits, and a smaller gap between gate closure time and delivery time enable more flexible market participation of balancing service providers. This article provides an overview of the common European balancing market with a focus on Germany, including recent and upcoming regulatory changes and market design. Recent price trends highlight the importance of market design, especially provision times and price limits. The reduction of the provision time for Frequency Containment Reserve increased offered capacity per bid, and the end of the mixed price procedure in August 2019 led to a less concentrated price range for balancing energy. The introduction of the energy-only market in November 2020 shifted demand from tertiary to secondary control reserve. However, high energy prices in 2021 and 2022 have revealed the limited responsiveness of the balancing energy market. This effect will be reinforced with the exiting of coal-fired and nuclear plants from the pool of balancing service providers in the current decade. Additionally, the future development of the market depends on the integration of energy storage systems such as stationary batteries and electric vehicle batteries, including the regulatory framework.

«ЗОЛОТИЙ ВІК»: ІНТЕГРАЦІЯ ІТАЛІЙСЬКОЇ ЕКОНОМІКИ У ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКИЙ РИНОК (1951–1973 РР.)

The article is devoted to the development of the Italian economy in 1951–1973, which is recognized by researchers as the most successful period in the economic history of independent Italy, and which coincided with the first two decades of its European integration. The division of the economic history of Italy for 1951–1973 into three stages was proposed. In the first stage (1951–1957) Italy joined the European Coal and Steel Union (ECSU). Together with the admission, Italy has undertaken to change trade legislation toward liberalization, reduce quotas and tariff rates. At the same time, the Italian Government developed a program of accelerated development of some sectors of heavy industry, including metallurgy, based on the availability of cheap coal and technologies from other countries of the European Union, as well as on the emergence of promising markets for sales. The second stage (1958–1963) was reached for the first years after Italy joined the European Economic Community (EEC). This stage is known in the historiography as “economic miracle”, or “economic boom”, due to extremely high rates of economic development. It is argued that the factor of European integration has become a significant impetus for the development and transformation of Italy. As a result of the deliberate economic policy, the EEC countries have become Italy’s main trading partners. The third stage (1958–1973) is characterized by the rationalization of economic management, as well as by the gradual slowdown in economic growth. There signs of stagnation began to emerge, and they became evident after the failure to fulfil the goals of economic development of the country. A number of economic indicators demonstrate the beginning of a change in the type of Italian economy from industrial to post–industrial. However, this process had a negative impact on the pace of economic development. In general, the changes in the Italian economy during 1951–1973 were not only quantitative but also structural. Italy is an example of a semi–agrarian, under–developed country, that was in a state of post–war recovery with limited financial and natural resources, but with the help of its competent economic policy and European integration, it has become a developed industrial country, which has taken a leading place in the newly created the European common market.

European Degree a necessity for continuous education and training in the context of an integrated European system

Motto: “if you do not have general competences in life, you become a slave” (C.V. ICOCIU). Under the Treaty of Accession to the European Union, we have undertaken to ensure the mobility of workforce on the European common market. This involves training specialists who have the skills for the future and who can work in any Member State of the European Union, in accordance with the requirements of the labour market, but also taking into account the qualification and field of each one [13,16,17,18]. This paper demonstrates that the use of current instruments such as Europass, ISCO, ESCO, ISCED can define a European degree that can be completed, automatically recognized and equated in any market of a Member State of the Union. This requires the creation of a system model of study programs/common standards for broad ISCED fields that are complemented with a similar degree, regardless of the state in which it is obtained. At the same time, there is a need for a quality assurance system at European level, in different areas, to accompany education and training. The two systems together with the European qualifications system – the EQF must be a whole, that is, an integrated education and training system leading to a European degree – “European degree”, as said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. This European system leads to real labor market mobility.

The European Agricultural Crisis (1919-1931): From Nansen Management of International Humanitarian Aid during the Famine in the USSR to the Common European Agricultural Market.

La investigación realizada se centró en el vínculo de la ayuda humanitaria con la hambruna en Rusia, organizada principalmente por Fridtjof Nansen. La acción internacional apuntó a millones de vidas, aunque las autoridades soviéticas limitaron su impacto. La gran hambruna de 1921 en Rusia provocó un amplio movimiento humanitario en Europa y América. Si bien la Rusia soviética permaneció aislada diplomáticamente hasta 1924, las organizaciones humanitarias no gubernamentales desempeñaron un papel importante en el establecimiento de contactos a ambos lados del cordón sanitario. El Comité Internacional de Socorro a Rusia y la “Misión Nansen” parecían estar entre los de mayor alcance en sus tratos con los bolcheviques durante las campañas de socorro internacional dirigidas por los bolcheviques a Rusia a principios de los años veinte. Por lo tanto, esta investigación se centra en cómo Nansen logró tal éxito en un momento de inestabilidad social y política tan delicado. Finalmente, se analiza la propuesta de un mercado común agrícola como instrumento para superar la crisis agraria europea.

Understanding European integration with bipartite networks of comparative advantage.

Core objectives of European common market integration are convergence and economic growth, but these are hampered by redundancy, and value chain asymmetries. The challenge is how to harmonize labor division to reach global competitiveness, meanwhile bridging productivity differences across the EU. We develop a bipartite network approach to trace pairwise co-specialization by applying the revealed comparative advantage method within and between the EU15 and Central and Eastern European (CEE). This approach assesses redundancies and the division of labor in the EU at the level of industries and countries. We find significant co-specialization among CEE countries but a diverging specialization between EU15 and CEE. Productivity increases in those CEE industries that have co-specialized with other CEE countries after EU accession, while co-specialization across CEE and EU15 countries is less related to productivity growth. These results show that a division of sectoral specialization can lead to productivity convergence between EU15 and CEE countries.

동유럽의 신흥 지역 연합체

The Three Seas Initiative(TSI) is a forum of twelve states, in the European Union, running along a north-south axis from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic and Black Seas in Central and Eastern Europe. The Three Seas Initiative, which was influenced by the Polish interwar Intermarium concept, was launched in 2015 by Polish President Andrzej Duda and Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović. The Three Seas Initiative is aimed at developing infrastructure in Eastern Europe, which would create solid foundations for economic growth in key areas - energy, transport and digital economy. 12 countries joined the Initiative - Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The Three Seas Initiative’s priority is to create in Eastern Europe a coherent and well integrated infrastructure, which would enable to overcome development deficiencies caused by a turbulent history of this region. This would eliminate infrastructural and economic imbalances of the common European market. The Initiative’s main added value lies in ensuring political support at the highest level for vital investments in Eastern Europe. Therefore, the Three Seas Initiative is pro-European in nature and complements other formats for regional co-operation. It is also a valuable platform for strengthening transatlantic links.

Democracy in Central Eastern Europe and European Union

Some of the countries in the region have contributed through assistance programs to develop and align their democracies with what the EU itself lobbies. EU aid to CEE is seen as a phenomenon of EU-perceived responsibility in the interaction of new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe. This paper will create a genuine study of the perceived responsibility for the development of democracies in these countries. It paints a clear picture of the development of democracy and the need for CEE countries to be under EU assistance. The assistance coming from this institution has given and continues to contribute to developing a democracy with strong executive foundations for society and beneficial to the region. In this way, the EU manages to achieve its objectives of achieving a federal union. When we say federal union we mean a Europe with the same democratic values and executive standards.In this paper the EU's responsibility for the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe is seen in activities with EU programs to enhance institutions above democratic values. Having access to the issues facing the democracies of Central and Eastern Europe, the Council Acquis provides an overview in the field of democracy. The paper gives us the opportunity to look more closely at democratic forces in countries where the latter is still developing, aiming not only at the analysis of democracy, but also at the analysis of the European common market. We will look at these two EU phenomena in the context of the EU's perceived responsibility for the interaction of new democracies in CEE. The EU has undertaken this responsibility in the context of strengthening, developing and maturing new democracies on the European Continent. Giving its contribution through various programs designed in the form of grants, which are given to countries that are in the process of maturation, in the form of programs that pave the way for development. The question that arises at this stage is: Does democracy help in a market economy?

Brasil e as origens do Mercado Comum Europeu

The main objective of this article is to discuss the process of recognition by the Brazilian government in 1958 of the European Common Market. When announced, with the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957, the establishment of the European Common Market prompted a harsh reaction from the Brazilian government, who led the opposition of Latin American governments, fearful of the consequences that the binding of the colonies and ex-European colonies had for their exports directed to the traditional European markets.

Assessment of Individual Resource of High-Pressure Rotors of Nuclear Power Plants Steam Turbines

Integration of the Ukrainian energy system into the European one is a component of Ukraine's strategic goal – joining the EU. Our country has sufficiently strong and developed gas and oil transport networks, as well as electricity networks, all connected with the transport networks of the EU and CIS countries, which allows it to participate in shaping European energy policy and common energy market, play an important role in energy cooperation between CIS and EU countries. The resource indicators of high-pressure rotors of nuclear power plants steam turbines with a capacity of 220, 1000 MW are estimated. An integrated approach to the study of the individual resource of steam turbines and the possibilities of prolonging the operation of power equipment is applied. For power units no. 6 of Zaporizhzhia NPP, no. 4 of Rivne NPP, no. 2 of Khmelnytskyi NPP, the total damage of high-pressure rotors is 59–83%, and the residual life is 40,604–94,383 hours, which allows to prolong the operation for 40–50 thousand hours. According to the results of calculations of resource indicators of high-pressure rotors of NPP turbines, the total damage of high-pressure rotors of power units no. 3–5 of Zaporizhzhia NPP, no. 1 of Khmelnytskyi NPP, no. 2, 3 of South-Ukrainian NPP varies between 85–90%, and the residual life is 22,403–34,494 hours, if we set the allowable equipment resource of 270 thousand hours. This will allow to prolong the operation of high-pressure rotors of NPP steam turbines for 25 thousand hours. The individual resource of high-pressure rotors of NPP turbines for power units no. 1, 2 of Zaporizhzhia NPP, no. 1, 2, 3 of Rivne NPP, no. 1 of South-Ukrainian NPP is exhausted.

Assessing the diversification risk of a single equity market: evidence from the largest European stock indexes

Abstract Diversification of financial securities is considered a substantial element of portfolio risk. In this context, the construction of an optimal portfolio is an ongoing concern for portfolio managers. This study measures the risk–reward tradeoffs linked to the stock indexes of Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and England. First, the stock indexes are analyzed as individual portfolios and later compared to the hypothetical common equity index. The results show diversification benefits gained from a hypothetical common European stock market. Individual stock prices and trade volumes are collected weekly from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2018. The results indicate that, on average, the most well-diversified equity indexes are IBEX35, FTSE MIB, and FTSE100. In contrast, DAX, MDAX, and CAC40 on average tend to be less diversified. The diversification risk for DAX, MDAX, and CAC40 decreases from joining a common hypothetical stock market, while for FTSE100, FTSE MIB, and IBEX it increases.

Стабильность и безопасность Западных Балкан в контексте последствий пандемии

The article analyses influence of the pandemics on economic and political developments as well as on the conflict resolution process in the Western Balkan (WB) region. The unprecedented epidemiological conditions of the years 2020–2021 led to utter deterioration of regional economic rates. Serbia can be named as the only exception with its GDP growth in 2020 (although also negative) higher than the regional and, moreover, European average. Negative political consequences of the two recent years with COVID‑19, observed in the article, range from the rise of “covidocracy”, namely strengthening of executive institutions at the expense of the local parliaments, courts and media freedom, to the landmark changes in political elites of Montenegro and Kosovo as well as deterioration of conflicts in Kosovo and Bosnia. The pandemics has also negatively affected the pace of the European integration process in the region. The slowdown was connected both with turbulences inside the EU given its initial lack of solidarity and with an attempt to address the crisis on the national rather than on the European level, its consequent emphasis on the internal rather than external development. The EU perspective as such has grown more distant from the Western Balkans. Yet, regional cooperation with the introduction of the “Open Balkans” initiative has accelerated, which has been designed to bring the WB countries closer to the European common market. At the same time, the pandemics significantly strengthened Russian and Chinese presence in the region, which provoked the EU into geopolitical race. The author comes to a conclusion, however, that eventually, the European assistance can be characterized as systemic and structural, masterminded within the context of future WB integration in the EU institutions. Nevertheless, European mediation in the situation of stalemate in Belgrade–Pristina negotiations could not prevent serious degradation of the conflict over Kosovo’s status. In Bosnia, former High Representative’s imposition of the Genocide denial ban also sparked off the crisis, which puts the future of a unified Bosnian state into question. These negative developments in conflict management, to some extent triggered by the pandemics, can impair stabilization process and security in the Western Balkans.