European Harmonization Research Articles

Regulating Sustainable Construction in Europe: An Inquiry into the European Commission's Harmonisation Attempts

The purpose of this paper is (i) to gain insight into how the European member states have addressed the concept of sustainability in their building regulatory frameworks; and (ii) to gain insight in the effects of harmonization attempts of these frameworks by the European Commission (EC). Data on the member states’ building regulatory regimes was gathered using a survey questionnaire. The survey questionnaire addressed over sixty different aspects of sustainable construction that may, in various ways, be regulated by the member states. The data obtained shows mixed results. Some aspects of sustainable construction show far reaching homogeneity, whilst others do not. It appears that current EC directives have a positive effect on homogeneity of sustainable construction regulation throughout Europe. However, this does not provide a firm base to advise more directives as these often appear a too resource intensive tool to achieve sustainable construction in a timely fashion. Additional and complementary approaches to such directives are proposed. The paper presents an overview of how European member states have addressed various aspects of sustainable construction in their construction regulatory frameworks. This provides valuable insights for further studies on regulatory change, regulatory convergence and divergence, and policy outcomes related to sustainable construction in the European Union. Also, the study presents a number of approaches to achieve homogeneity that may complement earlier approaches taken by the EC.

Range of data reported to the requirements of the IAS 12 and impact of the IFRS adoption for tax purposes in the tax collection of the Czech Republic

An issue of relationship between corporate income tax and accounting is one of the most discussed at present. Until recently the tax base was derived from the accounting profit defined in the Czech accounting law. But from 2004 there are companies which have to use IFRS in bookkeeping and financial reporting and from the perspective of the Czech accounting law they do not care about Czech accounting regulation. On the other hand Czech tax regulation has not accepted this change in the field of European accounting harmonization and still directs to pay tax on the basis of Czech accounting regulation for all entities. Fear of adverse change in tax collection is one of the main reasons why the Czech Tax Administration does not allow to pay income tax under profit or loss patterned on IFRS. The most important goal of this work is to characterize the relationship between accounting profit or loss under IFRS and the tax base of income and to find out the impact of taxation under profit in accordance with IFRS in total tax collection. Basic sample of all analyses consists of 35 accounting entities which mandatorily use IFRS and this sample was also confronted with a list of 106 major payers of income tax published yearly by the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic for the needs characterization of the relationship of profit under IFRS and the tax base of income.

Three important steps to European neurology harmonization: core curriculum, visitation program, European board examination

Three important steps to <scp>E</scp>uropean neurology harmonization: core curriculum, visitation program, <scp>E</scp>uropean board examination

French Diplomas and Skills in European Context

This article aims to present the French educational system and particularly the context of higher education in the process of developing diplomas in a competency-based approach. It aims to establish the underlying models of competence and describe the tools used for European harmonization (Bologna, 1999). It shows how the French model, strongly rooted in its values and culture, has an impact on how the professionalization of students in higher education and how territoriality question support the development of an interface between education and higher socio-economic sector.

El legislador europeo en materia de seguridad y justicia tras el Tratado de Lisboa : avances hacia la cooperación judicial penal en la UE = The european security and justice legislator after the Lisbon Treaty : progress toward the criminal judicialcooperation in the EU

El proceso europeo de aproximación y/o armonización legislativa en materia penal y procesal penal arrancó en tiempo reciente: de hecho, hasta hace bien poco parecía un ejercicio de voluntarista wishful thinking, en la medida en que impactaba sobre un ámbito preservado a la idea tradicional de soberanía de los Estados. La incorporación de la legislación penal y la cooperación judicial penal al ámbito definitivo de la política europea es ejemplificativa de la construcción europea en espacios históricamente monopolizados por los legisladores nacionales. En efecto, en este ámbito se han superado en poco tiempo las limitaciones de la cooperación intergubernamental en el III Pilar que emergió con la entrada en vigor del TUE de 1992, tras su conversión en Espacio de Libertad, Seguridad y Justicia en el posterior Tratado de Ámsterdam de 1999. En este marco se adoptaron importantes Decisiones Marco (DM) que dieron pasos significativos en el ámbito de la cooperación judicial, mediante la implementación de medidas específicamente orientadas a la seguridad europea contra la criminalidad grave transfronteriza por la vía de la cooperación judicial en materia penal. La conversión del Espacio de Libertad, Seguridad y Justicia en una genuina política europea sujeta al procedimiento legislativo ordinario (con especialidades) tras el Tratado de Lisboa de 2009, junto a la proyección de la Carta de Derechos Fundamentales de la UE (en especial, de los principios de seguridad jurídica, de «proporcionalidad» y de «necesidad» y/o «subsidiariedad» en la articulación y aplicación de la legalidad penal) son ahora en efecto, la expresión más rotunda de la ambición política y de la dimensión constitucional de la UE. En paralelo a la entrada en vigor del Tratado de Lisboa, el Programa de Estocolmo, adoptado en diciembre 2009, estableció la conversión del antiguo acervo del III Pilar en una nueva y genuina política europea sujeta, por tanto, en lo sucesivo, al Derecho europeo. Los desarrollos futuros de los principios de primacía, eficacia directa, interpretación uniforme, seguridad jurídica y garantía jurisdiccional de los derechos de la ciudadanía, en el marco de las legislaciones internas en los EEMM de los que siguen siendo competentes los Parlamentos nacionales, requerirán un ejercicio intensivo de clarificación judicial por vía interpretativa, y por tanto, exigirá poner particular énfasis en la formación judicial, y del conjunto de las profesiones jurídicas, en la comprensión y manejo del Derecho europeo.The European approximation and/or harmonization in both criminal matters and criminal procedure legislation got started not so long ago: As a matter of fact, until recently, it all seemed a voluntary exercise of wishful thinking, in as much as it was making on a field so far preserved within the traditional realm of States’ sovereignty. The final incorporation of criminal law and criminal judicial cooperation to the sphere of European policy is an outstanding example of the european construction towards areas and competences that had been historically monopolised by national legislators. Indeed, the limitations in this matter of the intergovernmental cooperation in the Third Pillar that emerged with the entry into force of the TEU in 1992, after its conversion into the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice in the subsequent Treaty Amsterdam 1999, have been just recently overcome. Accordingly, some most important Framework Decisions (FD) meaning significant steps in the area of judicial cooperation were taken, through the implementation of specific measures on European security against serious cross-border crime by means of judicial cooperation in criminal matters. The conversion of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice is a genuine European policy subject to the ordinary legislative procedure (with some specialties) after the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009, together with the projection of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (i.e., of the principles of legal certainty, of «proportionality» and «necessity» and/or «subsidiarity» in the articulation and application of criminal law) are now, in fact, the most visible expression of the EU’s political ambition and constitutional dimension.

Directive 85/374 – European Victory or a Defective Product Itself?

Over the last few decades, product liability has become a well-established area of European private law. It surfaced as a subject in its own right in the US in 1963 in the judgment of Greenman v Yuba Power Products. In contrast, modern European product liability originated over two decades later when Directive 85/374 was introduced in 1985, concerning liability for defective products (Product Liability Directive hereafter), and embracing the idea of strict liability of manufacturers for damage caused by circulating a defective product. The Directive aims for full harmonisation and the provision of a high and equal level of consumer protection. In recent years the EU Product Liability Directive has become something of a global smash hit, providing not only a template for EU Member States, but also an international blueprint used by countries worldwide, including South Africa, Australia, Brazil and countries in the Asia Pacific Region when reforming their product liability regimes. There is no doubt that the Directive politically speaking has been a major success, representing arguably the most powerful example of European harmonisation efforts within the area of tort law where previous initiatives have failed,3 and influencing the law worldwide. However its actual impact has been negligible; The Directive has not done much to unify EU product liability law in action, nor strengthened consumer protection. In the majority of countries the implementation of the Directive has not significantly affected the nature or frequency of product liability litigation. If victims sue at all they rarely make use of the special legislation implementing the Directive’s strict liability rules.

The SHARE European Earthquake Catalogue (SHEEC) for the time period 1900–2006 and its comparison to the European-Mediterranean Earthquake Catalogue (EMEC)

This short communication describes the differences of the seismicity data file of the SHARE European Earthquake Catalogue from 1900 to 2006 in comparison to the European-Mediterranean Earthquake Catalogue by Grunthal and Wahlstrom (J Seismol 16:535–570, 2012). SHARE is the EC project Seismic Hazard Harmonization in Europe. Differences occur in the very north of the study area, in Greece and adjacent areas, and with respect to local volcanic earthquakes at Etna, Italy.

Introduction: How Does European Harmonisation Affect Political Science?

The contributions to this symposium document what has been happening in European politics in relation to the Bologna Process and the European Commission, focusing on the question of how harmonization is affecting political science. The contributions should send an alarm signal to political scientists about the effects of this process and its politics on their discipline. The introduction examines the main global and European developments and their more visible implications. The Symposium focuses on political science, although the Bologna Process does not differentiate between disciplines, Brussels treating political science as part of the broader category of ‘SSH’ (Social Sciences and Humanities).

Democracia directa y religión: problemas derivados de la decisión suiza de prohibir los minaretes

The option to approve by referendum constitutional amendments proposed by popular initiatives is one of the characteristic of the Swiss regime, which fosters the use of direct democracy mechanisms. However, the narrowness of the constitutional limits to this kind of initiatives may open the door to serious contradictions between the domestic legal order and those international commitments undertaken by the country, being this particularly relevant in respect of human rights protection. Thus, the approval in 2009 of a new constitutional clause banning the construction of minarets in the Helvetic Federation entails a set of legal questions, starting from the possible violation of the religious freedom or the right not to be discriminated against, both protected by the highest international norms on human rights. Within the current conditions, finding an stable solution to these legal inconsistencies seems difficult, being the Swiss political culture reluctant to enlarge the limits of the popular sovereignty and to receive mandates from foreign judges. In this way, we face on the one hand problems or difficulties in the legal field and, on the other hand, questions of a political nature. Among the former, it must be firstly analysed whether the ban for construction of new minarets at the Constitution entails per se a violation freedom of religion or the right not to be discriminated against, in the way these rights are understood in the main international human rights instrument, such as the European Convention of Human Rights. In relation to the same point, it is also possible to study the access to the European Court of Human Rights as legal guarantee of the aforementioned treaty, appealing against the constitutional clause or against the possible decisions taken in its implementation. Secondly, it is necessary to reflect about the conflicts that may arise at the Swiss legal order between constitutional dispositions and international norms, as well as look for possible solutions to these inconsistencies. As for the political aspects, their analysis becomes relevant to rightly contextualize the aforementioned legal difficulties. Firstly, it is necessary to reflect about the real meaning of the 2009 referendum in a country where no more than four minarets can be found. The traditional political culture of Switzerland helps in this respect to understand the difficulties to put together direct democracy and international legal controls, or the absence of parliament or judicial domestic controls for popular initiatives. The peculiar Swiss model is thus a problematic one in a context of European harmonisation on the basis of a common framework of human rights protection. The analysis brings us to underline the need to enlarge the admission filters of the popular initiatives, adopting a new interpretation of the concept of peremptory norms of international law, with the aim of including in it those elements of human rights that constitute today a European common acquis.

What Happens when a Systemically Important Financial Institution Fails: Some Company Law Observations re. SNS Reaal

On 1 February 2013, 08:30hs., the Dutch Minister of Finance decided to expropriate all shareholders and subordinated bondholders of SNS Reaal, one of the four largest financial conglomerates in the Netherlands. Various aspects of this case are typically Dutch in nature. Yet the European Commission has undertaken to introduce a Crisis Management Directive so as to provide for harmonised rules for the recovery and resolution of credit institutions and investment firms. This laudable initiative is coupled with proposals for a single supervisory mechanism (commonly referred to as ‘banking union’), harmonised rules on the ringfencing of commercial bank activities from investment bank activities, and, most importantly, a common Eurozone redemption fund. Even if such a far reaching European harmonisation would prove to be politically feasible (which is unclear at best), it would be unlikely that the national idiosyncrasies of company and tort law discussed above would cease to be of relevance.

Fiscal Harmonization and Economic Integration in the European Union

Since the foundation of the European Economic Community there is an incessant debate about the necessity of an overall tax and fiscal cooperation and harmonization in Europe, which recently has been intensified mainly because of EMU. By reviewing the literature, this article argues that closer cooperation in tax issues, for both indirect and direct taxation, needs to accompany the current state of integration in the EU. Advances have taken place in indirect taxes, value added tax (VAT) and excises. With respect to VAT, the major agreements were achieved with the Sixth VAT Directive (1977) and the agreements on rates after the elimination of the frontier controls (1992). In the case of excise duties, the progress have been less significant and there can be noted only the agreements of minimum rates for alcohol, tobacco and energy (fuels). In direct taxation, it is necessary to point out that the powers are national and the EU is limited to guaranteeing the performance of the single market. Community legislation is centered on company taxation and the taxation of savings income. Taxes and social security contributions strongly influence patterns of saving, consumption, investment and employment, and thus shape the operation of markets for goods, services, capital and labor. The reforms launched by the Cardiff European Council of June 1998 are designed to ensure that the differences between systems that have become even more apparent since the introduction of the euro do not hamper trade, result in fragmentation of the single market or prevent the efficient allocation of resources. Tax fraud is another problem of increasing concern in the Community. European Parliament and Council Decision 888/98/EC instituted a program (Fiscalis) to improve the operation of indirect taxation systems in the single market and to secure wide-ranging and effective cooperation between Member States and with the Commission, and to improve administrative practice. International VAT fraud, particularly on sales and deliveries within the EU, has led to serious losses of revenue. Only through closer coordination of national tax policies a balance can be struck between the diversity of Member States’ tax and social contribution systems and the right to the freedom of establishment and movement throughout the EU. In a monetary union, with one currency and common policies, a larger harmonization and coordination of the fiscal policies are forced.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.24.1.3503

The Law and Policy of Harmonisation in Europe's Internal Market, * by Isidora Maletic

The Law and Policy of Harmonisation in Europe's Internal Market, * by Isidora Maletic

Comparative analysis of façade regulations in the Nordic countries

This paper presents a comparison of Nordic fire safety requirements of facades. A reference building was chosen as a four-story residential building. The requirements were analysed with focus on what fire safety objectives they represent, and what type of pre-accepted solutions that were used. The results reveal large differences in the Nordic building regulations concerning facades. The differences occur both with regards to performance objectives, criteria and acceptable solutions. Current European methods are not sufficient to characterise the requirements needed for fire safety of facades. There is a need to develop new common verification methods, as well as better data and research, to improve requirements and to reach conformity. INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND Fire safety in facades has been under the spotlight in recent years due to several significant fires. Also, new facade designs challenge the traditional pre-accepted fire safety solutions and therefore call for new verification methods. In the European perspective, several countries have used large-scale methods to evaluate facades, whereas the European standardization has not yet agreed on a common verification method. This paper demonstrates the lack of commonly agreed verification methods by comparing the building legislation and regulations in the Nordic countries. The Nordic comparison is interesting because of the many similarities, with yet a great spread in resulting regulations. In this context, current practice in Sweden is discussed. The Nordic countries share a history of collaboration for the area of building regulations. This goes back to work done by NKB (Nordic Committee on Building Regulations) that started in the sixties. However, there are still large differences in the regulations. These differences can present a barrier of trade for products and services. The construction products directive (CPD), and now the construction products regulation (1), CPR, and the resulting European harmonization of testing and classes for fire safety has mitigated some of these differences. However, the testing and classification methods do not cover all fire safety aspects relevant to facades. It would be reasonable to assume that climate, occupant behaviour etc. would be quite similar in the Nordic countries, which also would give ground for similar regulation of fire safety of facades (and other areas). By identifying differences and analysing these from a fire risk perspective, further steps may be taken to adequately regulate fire safety of facades. In 2008, another Nordic project analysed differences in classifications in the Nordic countries but no deeper studies of facades were conducts. The conclusions in the final report still revealed that there

The Comparability of Audit Reports Issued In the European Union: An Empirical Study Based On Separate and Consolidated Financial Data

The purpose of this article is to analyse the degree of European harmonisation of audit reports. This analysis refers to the international auditing standards that have been formally adopted in Europe.In this article we analysed the wording of audit reports issued in the European union. This analysis is accompanied by tests that verify the assumptions of homogeneity and comparability of European reports. The interpretation of results is assisted by several statistical techniques including univariate and multivariate tests.The results show that the objective of the European harmonisation of audit reports is not fully realised. Despite the wealth of information in some reports, European auditors do not always conform to the International Standard on Auditing ISA 700.This paper includes an empirical analysis on the normative content of audit reports Europe. This analysis refers to international standards that support the performance of audit reports in Europe. In addition to information on the separate financial statements, this article considers, for the first time, the consolidated reports. The author discusses and tests the hypothesis of European harmonisation of audit reports.

The European returns policy and the re-shaping of the national: reflections on the role of domestic courts

This article highlights some of the key issues relating to the protection of irregular migrants facing expulsion, using the example of Italian practices and rules. The article examines the current debate on the applicability of European immigration standards to return procedures, focusing on the entry into force of the Return Directive. The analysis first addresses the recent changes in the regime for the protection of migrants brought about by the adoption of new national legal provisions to check the conformity of Italian legislation with the Directive, seeking to identify the challenges and the practical problems that Italy is facing in transposing this instrument to the national level. The analysis will aim to identify jurisprudence issuing from regional and national bodies, which is advancing the standards of the treatment of unauthorised migrants in the context of hostile domestic law and political rhetoric, applying the doctrine of “direct effect” of European Union law. The article also explores the role of jurisprudence in providing effective protection of the fundamental rights of irregular migrants once present in a host State, limiting the absolute discretion of States. It concludes by looking at some features of the European harmonisation of return policies to find out whether or not this issue should be dealt with at the European level for a human rights-based approach.

The SHARE European Earthquake Catalogue (SHEEC) 1000–1899

In the frame of the European Commission project “Seismic Hazard Harmonization in Europe” (SHARE), aiming at harmonizing seismic hazard at a European scale, the compilation of a homogeneous, European parametric earthquake catalogue was planned. The goal was to be achieved by considering the most updated historical dataset and assessing homogenous magnitudes, with support from several institutions. This paper describes the SHARE European Earthquake Catalogue (SHEEC), which covers the time window 1000–1899. It strongly relies on the experience of the European Commission project “Network of Research Infrastructures for European Seismology” (NERIES), a module of which was dedicated to create the European “Archive of Historical Earthquake Data” (AHEAD) and to establish methodologies to homogenously derive earthquake parameters from macroseismic data. AHEAD has supplied the final earthquake list, obtained after sorting duplications out and eliminating many fake events; in addition, it supplied the most updated historical dataset. Macroseismic data points (MDPs) provided by AHEAD have been processed with updated, repeatable procedures, regionally calibrated against a set of recent, instrumental earthquakes, to obtain earthquake parameters. From the same data, a set of epicentral intensity-to-magnitude relations has been derived, with the aim of providing another set of homogeneous Mw estimates. Then, a strategy focussed on maximizing the homogeneity of the final epicentral location and Mw, has been adopted. Special care has been devoted also to supply location and Mw uncertainty. The paper focuses on the procedure adopted for the compilation of SHEEC and briefly comments on the achieved results.

Renewable energy policies in Europe: Converging or diverging?

Nations today are urgently challenged with achieving a significant increase in the deployment of renewable energies. In Europe that need has given rise to a debate about the most effective and efficient support strategy. Whilst the different interests debate whether full European harmonisation or strengthening of national support policies for electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E) is the best way forward, individual national support schemes are rapidly evolving. This study investigates how the EU member states have applied support policy types over the last decade. By identifying predominant developments in the application of feed-in tariffs, premiums, tradeable green certificates, tax incentives, investment grants, and financing support for specific technologies (wind, biomass, PV), this study shows that Europe is currently experiencing certain tendencies towards a ‘bottom-up’ convergence of how national policy-makers design RES-E policy supports. While some outliers remain, the policy supports of most countries become more similar in the policy types applied (dominance of feed-in tariffs) and in their scope of implementation (differentiation for installation sizes and ‘stacking’ of multiple instruments). These trends in national decision-making, which show tendencies of convergence, could make an EU-driven ‘top-down’ harmonisation of support either dispensable or at least (depending on the agreement) less controversial.

The Myth of European Term Harmonisation: 27 Public Domains for the 27 Member States

The term of protection of copyright and related rights is generally considered to be one of the best harmonised areas of European copyright law. However, close examination of the EU Term Directive’s intricate provisions reveals a piecemeal and permissive approach to harmonisation which preserves many differences between the national rules. In this report, four main sources of legislative variability are identified and analysed: a) contagion from unharmonised areas of substantive copyright law; b) explicit exceptions to the harmonisation of the term of protection; c) national related rights of unharmonised term; and d) incorrect implementation of the provisions of the Term Directive into national law. As a result, the desired harmonising effect has not been fully achieved: although a single rule may be applicable across the EU in theory, drastically divergent terms of protection may attach to the same information product depending on the jurisdiction within which protection is sought. In this way, the territorial nature of copyright undercuts harmonisation efforts, forcing the public domain to contract and expand according to divergent national rules. The result is a legislative framework that makes cross-border rights clearance calculation difficult, hampering end-users and cultural heritage organisations from taking full avail of the new opportunities now technically available for the digitisation and exploitation of the public domain. If the EU wishes to establish a truly harmonised term of protection for copyright and related rights, a more committed and comprehensive approach will be a necessary.

Bologna in Medicine Anno 2012: Experiences of European medical schools that implemented a Bologna two-cycle curriculum – An AMEE-MEDINE2 survey

Background: The 1999 Bologna Agreement implies a European harmonization of higher education using three cycles: bachelor and master before doctorate. Undergraduate medical programmes were restructured in only seven of the 47 countries.Aim: Given the debate about a two-cycle system in undergraduate medical education, providing an overview of experiences in medical schools that applied this structure was the purpose of this investigation.Methods: In 2009, an AMEE-MEDINE2 survey was carried out among all the 32 medical schools that applied the two-cycle system in medicine. At the end of 2011, a member-check validation using a draft manuscript was carried out to complete an accurate up-to-date impression.Results: All the 32 schools responded initially; 26 schools responded to the second round. All schools had implemented the two-cycle system (all but one in a 3 + 3 year model) with hardly any problems. All reported smaller or larger curriculum improvements, often triggered, but not caused, by the two-cycle system. No school reported that introducing the system interfered with any desired curriculum development, particularly horizontal or vertical integration.Conclusion: In 32 of the 442 medical schools in Bologna signatory countries, introducing a two-cycle model for basic medical education was successfully completed. However, harmonization of medical training in Europe requires further international collaboration.

The European Harmonisation in the Sector of Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law: The Results Achieved and Further Needs for Intervention

The article analyses the results achieved by European harmonisation on the protection of the environment through criminal law. The article illustrates the relationship between the needs of harmonisation of environmental criminal legislation and the evolution of ‘European criminal law’. It examines the issue of the correct criteria of ‘European criminal policy’ and analyses the obligations established by the Directive on the protection of the environment through criminal law in the light of these criteria. Based on the results of this analysis, the article identifies the further need for intervention by the European legislator and the basis on which this intervention can be achieved.