EU Core Research Articles

How do SUMPs Consider Factors Influencing Walkability and Cyclability? A Review of Literature and Planning Tools

Improving active mobility in settlements is one of the EU's core objectives to improve people's quality of life. EU guidelines indicate Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) as strategic planning tools to achieve sustainable results through the definition of objectives and the provision of actions. Scientific research has extensively explored numerous factors in the built environment and active mobility infrastructures that influence mobility features and demands. However, a gap exists between research and urban plans employed to promote sustainable mobility. This paper examines whether these identified factors from scientific literature have implications for enhancing active mobility actions in Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans. First, a literature review highlights recurring factors in assessing active mobility networks. Then, an overview of actions supporting walkability and cyclability within Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans applied in the Emilia-Romagna Region in Italy is conducted. The two reviews comparison points out the expected implementation gap between research and practice.

Ethical codes for public administration – reflection of EU core values or part of national anti-corruption policy? Example of the Czech Republic and Ukraine

Ethical codes for public administration – reflection of EU core values or part of national anti-corruption policy? Example of the Czech Republic and Ukraine

Falling behind whom? Economic geographies of right-wing populism in Europe

ABSTRACT Existing studies suggest that right-wing populist parties (RWPPs) appeal to people in communities that have fallen behind in material terms. However, it remains open which benchmark communities apply as they become politically discontented. We argue that the structure of territorial inequalities influences the benchmarks used by people in regions falling behind. Panel data regressions using subnational election results in EU states from 1990 to 2018 reveal a sharp contrast between the economic geographies of right-wing populism in core and peripheral EU member states. We find a strong association between falling behind the richest region of the country and RWPP support within core EU countries, while in peripheral EU states falling behind the EU core is associated with regional support for RWPPs. This suggests that RWPP voters in peripheral countries cue on how they are faring relative to the EU core, while RWPP supporters in core countries cue on how they are faring relative to dynamic regions of their own country. Our analysis also shows that increased manufacturing employment reinforces the effect of falling behind the richest region in core EU member states, while we find no strong evidence that regional economic stagnation is important to the electoral performance of RWPPs.

Europeanisation and the Dialectics of Crisis and Solidarity in the Croatian and Serbian Broadsheet Press between 2007 and 2017

Abstract This article explores representations of European solidarity in the aftermath of crisis-like events between 2007 and 2017 in the Croatian and Serbian broadsheet press, as well as their resonance with the discursive construction of Europe and Europeanisation. In order to achieve this goal, corpus-based discourse analysis is performed over a large collection of ca. 20,000 articles, originating in four newspapers. The results demonstrate that discourses on European solidarity rose to particular prominence in 2008–2009, 2011–2013, and 2015. This constitutes a dialectical relation with discourses on crises: the global financial crisis, European debt crisis, and migration crisis – especially the latter – redefined the notion of European solidarity, reflected in Croatian and Serbian discourses as a value promoted by the EU core and related mostly to the EU members. In Serbia, the solidarity discourses were of particular local importance during the first phase of the global financial crisis, coinciding with the country’s application for the EU candidacy, and later losing significance. In Croatia, the notion of European solidarity seems to become more relevant for domestic actors after the 2013 EU accession.

Women Leading the Opposition: Gender and Rhetoric in the European Parliament

The European Parliament (EP) is an intriguing arena to study the nexus between gender, speech-making, and leadership performance, as it simultaneously challenges and confirms gender-based hierarchies in legislative contexts. While the EP has a higher level of women’s representation than national parliaments, women’s access to top-level positions nonetheless remains limited. Yet the EP is a special case of a legislature. Lacking a right of initiative, it often acts collectively as an inter-institutional opposition to the EU core institutions. In this article, through a software-assisted analysis of EP debates following the president’s State of the Union Address, we investigate party group leaders’ evaluations of the Commission’s proposals and their charismatic rhetoric from a gender angle. Focusing on the three most recent legislatures (2009–2021), our analysis shows that while collective inter-institutional opposition is present in the EP, women leaders generally show higher levels of rhetorical skillfulness and voice either approval or opposition toward the Commission more emphatically than their male counterparts.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ДІЛОВИХ ЦИКЛІВ У КРАЇНАХ ЦЕНТРУ ТА ПЕРИФЕРІЇ ЄС: ДОСВІД ДЛЯ УКРАЇНИ

Economic theory suggests that economic integration can promote business cycle co-movement, which in turn facilitates the institution of common counter-cyclical policies. However, evidence from empirical studies on co-movement within the EU and Europe as a whole is mixed, particularly concerning a so-called group of peripheral countries. This article argues that the existence of large international shocks and their heterogeneous impact on national economies changes the interpretation of co-movement. A decomposition of business cycles into common and country-specific components via a flexible Bayesian dynamic factor model with time-varying parameters and stochastic volatility reveals that the patterns of co-movement among the EU core and periphery are similar after common shocks – such as the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic – and the upward bias introduced by the use of the Pearson correlation coefficient is accounted for. However, it is found that there is another important distinction between the EU core and periphery; that is, during the period of the Great Re-moderation that followed the Great Recession, the business cycles of the core EU countries converged to a lower level of volatility than those of the periphery. Moreover, it is shown that various standard measures of business cycle co-movement can conflate co-movement and volatility convergence, which alters their interpretation. Importantly, this article relates the experience of the EU core and periphery to that of Ukraine. In particular, it is found that the business cycle of Ukraine is similar to those of the EU periphery in terms of the level of its volatility and co-movement vis-à-vis the core EU countries, which has important implications for further development of Ukraine's European integration policy.

"Romanian Commitment to Independence of Justice and Anticorruption Reforms under CVM and Rule of Law Incentives. Some Considerations on Case-Law of the Constitutional Court"

"During 2017-2019 Romania faced a controversial justice laws’ ‘reform’, undermining the rule of law and independence of justice principles, challenging the commitments established under Commission Decision 2006/928/EC in the areas of judicial reform and the fight against corruption. In the context of democratic backsliding in Central and Eastern Europe, Romanian evolutions could be seen as following a regional pattern. The study proposes a critical analysis of the most important legislative evolutions in the area of justice and fight against corruption in the region, as reflected by the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism for Romania (CVM) and Rule of Law Reports, European Court of Justice and European Court of Human Rights judgements. The analysis focuses on some controversial decisions of the Constitutional Court, concerning justice laws ‘reform’ and the application of primacy of EU law principle. The study expresses a strong concern related to Romanian Constitutional Court’s tendencies to walk along the authoritarian path of politically captured courts of Poland and Hungary. The conclusions reveal the requirement for new political instruments of EU supranational intervention to safeguard democratic EU core values."

Governing the Greek Consolidation State: The Far Right as a Symptom of Failure and Manifestation of Efficienlcy

Abstract: The victory of the conservative party New Democracy with an absolute majority in the 2019 Greek general elections was met with enthusiasm from the international political and financial media. The newly elected administration was depicted as technocratic with a natural aversion to populism and capable of ending the political tensions between EU core and periphery, and between fiscal consolidation and social welfare. Such a depiction painted a distorted picture of an administration whose electoral victory and subsequent policies depend on the appropriation of the far-right’s communicative strategy and political opposition tactics. The aim of this article is twofold. First, the article establishes the relationship between the mainstream right and the far-right in Greece with reference to the wider political landscape of EU and Eurozone membership. Second, the article examines the negotiated scope of acceptable far-right politics in Greece as an EU and Eurozone member-state by deploying the concepts of the ‘consolidation state’, ‘technopopulism’ and ‘authoritarian liberalism’.

Cross-border integration of universities as a possible research topic in border studies

The text deals with the cross-border co-operation of universities as a possible new research topic in border studies. We identified two important associations of universities operating in border areas in the EU core and two associations gathering universities from Czech, Polish and Slovak areas. Then we tried to identify the areas in which these universities co-operate. It turned out that the principal difference is in significantly higher level of functional cross-border integration of the universities in the EU core, which is evidenced mainly by higher number of joint study programmes. We believe that the topic is promising and deserves much higher attention, as it points at new and not really exploited cross-border integration potential for universities located in border areas of V4 countries.

EU‐China trade and intra‐EU trade: Substitute or complementary?

AbstractThis paper examines how EU‐China trade affected intra‐EU trade. The estimation shows that when a country's share of trade with China increased, its share of trade with EU partners declined. This suggests that stronger trade links with China resulted in weaker trade links among EU countries. Furthermore, the “disintegration” effect of the export to China was stronger than that of import from China, meaning that the influence of China as an export destination was greater than that of China as a source of import. An extended analysis shows that the disintegration effect was most strongly felt in trade links among EU core countries, less strongly felt in trade links between EU core and periphery countries, and least strongly felt in trade links among EU periphery countries. In comparison, we find that EU import from the United States and India significantly weakened and strengthened intra‐EU trade, respectively. Estimation results using product level data demonstrate that the effects depend on the types of products we are concerned with. Whether using gross value or value added, the conclusions remain valid.

States of the Former Yugoslavia – A Different Look at Convergence with the EU Core

States of the Former Yugoslavia – A Different Look at Convergence with the EU Core

Synthesis and enhanced luminescence properties of CuS@YF3:Eu core–shell nanoparticles

The rare earth luminescent nanoparticles are regarded as one of the most ideal fluorescent probes. In order to solve the problem of insufficient luminescence intensity of rare earth luminescent imaging materials, a new core–shell-structured CuS@YF3:Eu with strong luminescent nanoparticles was successfully prepared. The nanoparticles possessed stronger luminescent property than individually dispersed YF3:Eu nanoparticles that it is attributed to the plasmon-enhanced localized electric fields effect of the interface of CuS and YF3:Eu nanoparticles. This work provides insight on the development of nonmetallic plasmon-sensitized optical materials and to promote their application in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Углубление интеграции и институциональная трансформация: дилеммы стран Евросоюза

The Covid-19 pandemic was a catalyst for the growing systemic crisis of the EU and at the same time gave the Union an impetus towards its qualitatively new development in favor of deeper integration, expressed in a change in the financial and economic space of the EU. Realizing the risks of their internal destabilization, the EU core countries decided to sacrifice the surplus from their economic successes through the socialization of debts in order to save the most affected peripheral Member States to preserve both the integration union and the European idea itself. The purpose of this article is to explain the difficulty of making this decision and its compromise nature, as well as to clarify the likely consequences and suggest options for the further development of the situation. The authors first compare the pros and cons of debt socialization. Then the variables are compared: the Spanish proposal, the Franco-German initiative and the negotiating platform on the "next generation EU" by Ursula von der Leyen with the fundamental points of the European Council compromise decision. It also provides answers to questions about the volume, conditions, mechanism, and control over the expenditure of the financial assistance provided. The breakthrough steps taken by the Member States towards finding an optimal solution are analyzed. The result of the study is a balanced conclusion about the ambiguous nature of the decision adopted by the EU but having a historical significance and opening prospects for the further deepening of integration processes. This is facilitated by reaching an agreement on the need to bring the core of the EU closer to the periphery through the socialization of debts, as well as the importance of structural reforms that would ensure the construction of a harmonious economy of the future based on a new technological platform and formulated in a breakthrough plan called the next generation EU. Success is not guaranteed, as it depends on the behavior of all Member States, but it is real.

Buying Up the Semi-Periphery: Spain’s Economy of ‘Golden Visas’

ABSTRACT After the 2008 crisis, Spain forged new economic connections with Asia as relations with EU core countries soured, including a programme called ‘golden visas’ that offers EU visas, and eventual citizenship, linked to purchasing second homes. Southern European countries with housing gluts, sovereign debt, austerity measures, and aging populations embraced these programmes while discouraging the migration of refugees. Using research with potential Asian property purchasers, this article shows that those seeking visas are not only motivated by political conditions in their home countries but they also seek to ‘buy into’ the European social model. Home-purchasers see their investment as a means to cheaply access state services unavailable in their countries and they make longsighted geopolitical predictions through the purchasing of homes and the visas that come with them.

Challenging EU constitutional law: The Italian Constitutional Court's new stance on direct effect and the preliminary reference procedure

AbstractThis article seeks to examine the relationship between EU law and the Italian legal order in light of the recent Italian Constitutional Court (ICC)’s jurisprudence attempting to redefine EU core principles. When fundamental rights are at stake, three assumptions are challenged: the determination of direct effect shall be a prerogative of the ECJ; EU directly effective provisions entail the disapplication of conflicting national law; judges have the discretion to refer preliminary references to the ECJ where a clarification on EU law is needed. The contribution argues that the judicial search for a balance between sovereignty and supranationality is undermined by the ICC's new resistance to the well‐established EU jurisprudence. In that respect, the paper posits that the ICC's activism is the result of an unjustified ‘argumentative self‐restraint’ of the ECJ vis‐à‐vis the evolution of EU foundational principles.

Two kinds of small? The ‘EU core’ in Slovak and Czech geopolitical imagination

ABSTRACTThe article critically examines Czech and Slovak discourses on the so-called ‘core‘ of the European Union. It argues that despite their similarities as small Central European states, Slovakia and the Czech Republic exhibit significant differences in how the geopolitical imagination of their political establishments re-presents the countries‘ position in the center-periphery relations. The article does a two-step analysis. First, it discusses the cultural roots of the contemporary geopolitical imaginaries, tracing them back to formative periods of national history. Then, it analyzes present day establishment discourses on the ‘EU core‘, concluding that the Czech foreign policy debate demonstrates a much stronger tendency towards deliberate self-marginalization and is characterized by competing securitization discourses, one of which warns of the danger of marginalization outside of the ‘core‘ while the other attempts to securitize European and German ‘hegemony‘. The Slovak discourse, on the other hand, is characterized by an underlying constitutive fear of the Self, related to past experiences of anti-Western authoritarianism. This stimulates a much more Euroenthusiast Slovak attitude towards the ‘core‘. The article contributes to the social constructivist debate by arguing that small states can display different attitudes towards European integration based on their identities and historical experiences.

Core–periphery disparities in Europe: is there a link between political and economic divergence?

This contribution examines whether and how economic divergence between the EU core and its southern and eastern peripheries relates to the emerging political divergence within the EU. Data show that persistent and growing economic disparities are linked to EU member states moving apart with regard to their democratic quality, but not as straightforwardly as the literature claims. This gives rise to two puzzles: first, economic divergence does not always go together with political divergence. While all countries in the eastern and southern periphery marked by low or declining levels of democratic quality are poor, not all poor countries are weak democratic performers. The contribution argues that weakness of state institutions as exemplified by high levels of corruption constitutes a crucial condition under which economic divergence is likely to promote political divergence. Corruption makes poor countries more likely to backslide or to perform poorly with regard to their democratic quality. Second, economic convergence is not necessarily linked to political convergence. Even in times of economic development, identity politics that caters to a strong perception of relative deprivation is likely to drive democratic backsliding in the peripheries. This mechanism is also at work in EU core countries.

Mesoporous multi-silica layer-coated Y2O3:Eu core-shell nanoparticles: Synthesis, luminescent properties and cytotoxicity evaluation

Mesoporous multi-layered silica-coated luminescent Y2O3:Eu nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by a urea-based decomposition process, and their surfaces were gradually modified with nanoporous and mesoporous silica layers using modified sol-gel methods. The synthesized luminescent core-shell NPs were characterized thoroughly to investigate their structural, morphological, thermal, optical, photo luminescent properties and their surface chemistry. The morphology of the core NPs were nearly spherical in shape and were nano-sized grains. The observed luminescent efficiency of the mesoporous multi-layered silica-coated luminescent core NPs was gradually reduced because of bond formation between the Y2O3:Eu core and the amorphous silica shell via YOSiOH bridges on the surface of the NPs; the bonds suppressed the non-radiative transition pathways. Biocompatibility tests on Human breast cancer cells using the 3‑(4,5‑Dimethylthiazol‑2‑yl)‑2,5‑diphenyltetrazolium bromide and lactate dehydrogenase assays indicated that the core-shell NPs were non-toxic even at high concentrations. The mesoporous SiO2 layer played a key role in perfecting the solubility, biocompatibility, and non-toxicity of the NPs. The zeta potential, surface chemistry (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy), and optical absorption spectral analyses revealed the high hydrophilicity of the as-prepared core-shell NPs because of the active surface-functionalized silanol (SiOH) groups, which could potentially offer many exciting opportunities in photonic-based biomedical applications.

Product Complexity in International Production Networks: Comparing EU Core and Old and New EU Periphery

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on analyzing the complexity level of the basket of parts and components exported by EU countries and how it is related to trade linked to international production networks. Three blocks of EU countries, which enjoy different available comparative advantages, are distinguished (Core, New Periphery, and Old Periphery). Our analysis shows that more than one third of exports of P&Cs are of very high complexity in the three blocks of countries. By estimating a panel data gravity model, we find that the higher the product complexity, the higher the volume of trade linked to international production networks, with the impact larger for EU Core countries that exhibit a wider set of high capabilities.

Ce3+ and Eu3+ emissions in YAG via a core-shell strategy for warm white LED lighting

YAG:Ce and YAG:Eu sols were synthesized by a polymeric sol-gel route. The crystallization temperature of YAG was determined by X-ray diffraction as a function of the calcination temperature, revealing that YAG starts to crystallize directly from the amorphous phase at 800 °C. The effects of the thermal treatment and the dopant amount on the photoluminescent properties were studied, observing the highest emission after calcination at 1000 °C for 1 h in both cases and with a concentration of 1 and 3 mol% of Ce and Eu, respectively. Core-shell materials were prepared by dipping YAG:Ce or YAG:Eu sintered pellets into the synthesized sols and then, these materials were calcined at 1000 °C for 1 h. An effective energy transfer from Ce to Eu was observed in the sample YAG:Eu (core)–YAG:Ce (shell) when blue light (λ = 465 nm) is used as excitation source. This wavelength excites the Ce but not the Eu; however, in the photoluminescence emission spectrum, the bands associated to both ions can be clearly detected, confirming that the core-shell strategy is a good method for the preparation of warmer white LEDs.