European Perspective Research Articles

Justifying the Cost of Implementing Contactless Travel in Non-Primary Airports: A European Perspective

Justifying the Cost of Implementing Contactless Travel in Non-Primary Airports: A European Perspective

Uncertainty of Climate Models and Policy Implications: A European Perspective

Uncertainty of Climate Models and Policy Implications: A European Perspective

Uncertainty of Climate Models and Policy implications: A European Perspective

Uncertainty of Climate Models and Policy implications: A European Perspective

Economic Policy Objectives of the First Orbán Government (1998–2002)

The right-wing coalition government, which came to power in May 1998, led by Viktor Orbán, broke with the former applied neoliberal paradigm and began to pursue economic patriotism, which placed emphasis on assisting the activities of Hungarian SMEs. It also focused on boosting domestic consumption by supporting families to have children through state incentives. Thanks to these measures introduced between 1998 and 2002, both the government deficit and gross government debt started to fall substantially, which reduced the external vulnerability of the Hungarian economy. The objective of this paper is to analyse the economic policy objectives of the first Orbán government between 1998 and 2002. Emphasis will be placed on evaluating the key macroeconomic indicators of Hungary while taking into account both internal and external factors. Due to length constraints, the essay will not highlight domestic politics, but it gives an overview of the main features of economic patriotism from a European perspective.

ЕВРИСТИЧНИМЙ ПОТЕНЦІАЛ ГРОМАДЯНСЬКОГО СУСПІЛЬСТВА В РЕАЛІЗАЦІЇ СТРАТЕГІЇ ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКОЇ ІНТЕГРАЦІЇ УКРАЇНИ: КОНЦЕПТУАЛЬНІ ВИМІРИ

The radical transformations that modern Ukrainian society is experiencing in the conditions of full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and its acquisition of the status of a candidate for the EU require a proper, in-depth and comprehensive analysis of Ukraine’s humanitarian development strategies, the implementation of the European integration vector of its development. The humanitarian strategies of Ukraine’s development in the context of full membership in the European Union are studied. It is shown that they should be determined by the national interests of the entire society, ensuring the rights and freedoms of citizens, and updating the system of fundamental values of the Ukrainian people. Paradigmatic European values include Ukrainian civilizational identity (spirituality), state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, high level of human development, democratic society, full standards of living, gender equality, etc. The focus of the research is: artifacts of totalitarian society and their overcoming; European experience and the Ukrainian way in forming a system of values; civil society and state institutions; synergy of interaction in the European integration context; formation of collective memory and rethinking of Ukraine’s past in a European perspective. Special attention is paid to the dynamics of the processes of democratization and decommunization, cultural and linguistic policy, interethnic and interreligious relations, etc.

The effect of industry level characteristics and cross-country differences on earnings management: A European comparative perspective

The effect of industry level characteristics and cross-country differences on earnings management: A European comparative perspective

Expertise in surgical neuro-oncology. Results of a survey by the EANS neuro-oncology section

IntroductionTechnical advances and the increasing role of interdisciplinary decision-making may warrant formal definitions of expertise in surgical neuro-oncology. Research questionThe EANS Neuro-oncology Section felt that a survey detailing the European neurosurgical perspective on the concept of expertise in surgical neuro-oncology might be helpful. Material and methodsThe EANS Neuro-oncology Section panel developed an online survey asking questions regarding criteria for expertise in neuro-oncological surgery and sent it to all individual EANS members. ResultsOur questionnaire was completed by 251 respondents (consultants: 80.1%) from 42 countries. 67.7% would accept a lifetime caseload of >200 cases and 86.7% an annual caseload of >50 as evidence of neuro-oncological surgical expertise. A majority felt that surgeons who do not treat children (56.2%), do not have experience with spinal fusion (78.1%) or peripheral nerve tumors (71.7%) may still be considered experts. Majorities believed that expertise requires the use of skull-base approaches (85.8%), intraoperative monitoring (83.4%), awake craniotomies (77.3%), and neuro-endoscopy (75.5%) as well as continuing education of at least 1/year (100.0%), a research background (80.0%) and teaching activities (78.7%), and formal interdisciplinary collaborations (e.g., tumor board: 93.0%). Academic vs. non-academic affiliation, career position, years of neurosurgical experience, country of practice, and primary clinical interest had a minor influence on the respondents’ opinions. Discussion and conclusionOpinions among neurosurgeons regarding the characteristics and features of expertise in neuro-oncology vary surprisingly little. Large majorities favoring certain thresholds and qualitative criteria suggest a consensus definition might be possible.

Budget Impact Analysis of Minimally Invasive versus Open Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion for Lumbar Degenerative Disease: A European Hospital Perspective.

When traditional therapies fail to provide relief from debilitating lower back pain, surgeries such as transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) may be required. This budget impact analysis (BIA) compared minimally-invasive (MI)-TLIF versus open (O)-TLIF for single-level fusion from an Italian hospital perspective. The BIA compared costs of 100 MI-TLIF and 100 O-TLIF procedures from an Italian hospital perspective over a one-year time horizon. The base case included costs for length of hospital stay (LOS), blood loss, and sterilizing surgical trays. The scenario analysis also included operating room (OR) time and complication costs. Base case inputs were from the Miller et al meta-analysis; scenario analysis inputs were from the Hammad et al meta-analysis. The device costs for MI-TLIF and O-TLIF procedures were from Italian tender prices for Viper Prime™ System and Expedium™ Spine System, respectively. Base case deterministic analysis results showed cost savings of €207,370 for MI-TLIF compared with O-TLIF. MI-TLIF costs were lower for LOS (€215,277), transfusion for blood loss (€16,881), and surgical tray sterilization (€28,232), whereas device costs were lower for O-TLIF (€53,020). The probabilistic result was similar, with MI-TLIF resulting in savings of €211,026 (95% credible interval [CR]: €208,725 - €213,327). All 1000 base case probabilistic sensitivity analysis runs were cost saving. Deterministic scenario analysis results showed cost savings of €166,719 for MI-TLIF. MI-TLIF costs were lower for LOS (€190,813), transfusion for blood loss (€16,881), surgical tray sterilization (€28,232), and complications (€2076), whereas O-TLIF costs were lower for OR time (€18,263) and devices used (€53,020). Despite the increase incremental cost for medical device innovation and OR time, this study demonstrates the economic savings of MI-TLIF compared to O-TLIF from a European hospital perspective. The findings will be useful to policy and hospital decision makers in assessing purchasing, funding and reimbursement decisions.

Cost-effectiveness of applying high-sensitivity troponin I to a score for cardiovascular risk prediction in asymptomatic population.

Risk stratification scores such as the European Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE) are used to guide individuals on cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention. Adding high-sensitivity troponin I (hsTnI) to such risk scores has the potential to improve accuracy of CVD prediction. We investigated how applying hsTnI in addition to SCORE may impact management, outcome, and cost-effectiveness. Characteristics of 72,190 apparently healthy individuals from the Biomarker for Cardiovascular Risk Assessment in Europe (BiomarCaRE) project were included into a discrete-event simulation comparing two strategies for assessing CVD risk. The standard strategy reflecting current practice employed SCORE (SCORE); the alternative strategy involved adding hsTnI information for further stratifying SCORE risk categories (S-SCORE). Individuals were followed over ten years from baseline examination to CVD event, death or end of follow-up. The model tracked the occurrence of events and calculated direct costs of screening, prevention, and treatment from a European health system perspective. Cost-effectiveness was expressed as incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) in € per quality-adjusted life year (QALYs) gained during 10 years of follow-up. Outputs were validated against observed rates, and results were tested in deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. S-SCORE yielded a change in management for 10.0% of individuals, and a reduction in CVD events (4.85% vs. 5.38%, p<0.001) and mortality (6.80% vs. 7.04%, p<0.001). S-SCORE led to 23 (95%CI: 20-26) additional event-free years and 7 (95%CI: 5-9) additional QALYs per 1,000 subjects screened, and resulted in a relative risk reduction for CVD of 9.9% (95%CI: 7.3-13.5%) with a number needed to screen to prevent one event of 183 (95%CI: 172 to 203). S-SCORE increased costs per subject by 187€ (95%CI: 177 € to 196 €), leading to an ICER of 27,440€/QALY gained. Sensitivity analysis was performed with eligibility for treatment being the most sensitive. Adding a person's hsTnI value to SCORE can impact clinical decision making and eventually improves QALYs and is cost-effective compared to CVD prevention strategies using SCORE alone. Stratifying SCORE risk classes for hsTnI would likely offer cost-effective alternatives, particularly when targeting higher risk groups.

Building Integrated Greenery systems from the New European Bauhaus perspective

Building Integrated Greenery systems from the New European Bauhaus perspective

At home in the upper strata: Social positions of small-scale landlords in a European cross-country perspective

Although the private rental sector has registered growth in recent years, knowledge about small-scale landlords (SSL) as key actors in housing provision is still scant, especially when it comes to their social position. From an inequality perspective, the phenomenon of letting is characterised by two dimensions of asymmetries: an everyday asymmetry due to legal imbalances and an inequality in the resources that can be used to assert claims and interests, both in letting practice and at the level of housing policy. While previous research has focused on the former, this article examines the social positions of SSL and asks whether tenancies are characterised by a twofold inequality: legally and socially. This is based on the conflict-theoretical assumption that letting is not only an output of housing systems but that SSL, depending on their capital resources, can also be an input factor in the emergence of housing issues. This is the first cross-country study in landlord research portraying SSL and their social position on the basis of harmonised and representative data (Household Finance and Consumption Survey 2021). Despite country-specific housing regimes, SSL are mostly at home in the upper social strata regarding their economic and non-economic capital. The landlord-tenant relationship is marked by a twofold asymmetry because of legal and social advantages. The work provides fundamental insights into SSL and can serve as a basis for further research on the interrelationship between SSL and the constitution and development of housing systems.

ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКІ ЦІННОСТІ ЯК ЧИННИК КОНСОЛІДАЦІЇ УКРАЇНСЬКОГО СУСПІЛЬСТВА В УМОВАХ РОСІЙСЬКО-УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ ВІЙНИ

The article analyzes the value dimension of the consolidation of Ukrainian society under the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The author’s attention is focused on the attitude of Ukrainians toward the value foundations of a united Europe. The paper is based on sociological research from 2014–2024 years. The author traces the dynamics of the attitude of Ukrainians toward the European Union, the possibility of joining Ukraine the EU, basic and political European values (freedom, equality, security, democracy, political system, political regime). The article emphasizes the transformation that has taken place in Ukrainian society: from misunderstanding, reticence or denial to mass support for the European perspective of Ukraine and awareness of the civilizational choice. Consolidation is seen as the unity of society based on common values and a common goal. The Russian-Ukrainian war became one of the means of consolidating Ukrainian society around European values to protect Ukraine’s right to exist as an independent democratic state. Any country striving to be a subject of history must rely on a certain level of internal and external consolidation. The article argues that only by relying on the community of its consolidated citizens, the country can realize its own civilizational project, remaining a historical and geopolitical subject. At the same time, to ensure a dignified life and the self-realization of these citizens, the country must economically and politically consolidate with other countries. It has been proven that the consolidation of Ukrainians on the axiological basis of a united Europe in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war is the basis of its stability, the driving force of social development, and the unifying factor in the formation of a political nation and civil society in Ukraine. Summarizing, the author notes that during the post-war reconstruction of the country on the basis of European democratic values, the development of a scientifically based strategy of social consolidation and the involvement of professionals in its implementation acquires practical significance.

Institutionalization of rights and responsibilities of the opposition in parliament: A comparative European perspective

Institutionalization of rights and responsibilities of the opposition in parliament: A comparative European perspective

Thinking night studies through a southern European perspective

AbstractTo emphasise the contribution of situated perspectives to the advancement of the field, this review provides a genealogy of night studies across southwestern Europe. This interdisciplinary field of research has significantly developed in English‐speaking scholarly communities, and it has only more recently been growing in importance on southwestern European scholars' research agendas. Usually, they produce research outputs in both English and a Romance language. As a result, intertwined lines of scholarly literature emerge and contribute to the advancement of night studies to different degrees, depending on international readers' proficiency in the employed (Romance) language and (inter)disciplinary interests. To help handle this accessibility issue, this review focuses on what brings night studies together, despite their heterogeneity. That is, the geographical understanding of local night space–times as situated phenomena frequently referred to as nightscape. Accordingly, the review suggests reframing the geographical nightscape as a connective concept to bridge the gaps between multilingual and multidisciplinary research, fostering the interpretation and assemblage of hybrid theoretical frameworks for situated investigations that delve into the diverse and interdependent relations co‐producing local night space–times.

Accountability for Russian Imperialism in the Global East: The Special Tribunal for Aggression from a Post-Colonial Eastern European Perspective

Accountability for Russian Imperialism in the Global East: The Special Tribunal for Aggression from a Post-Colonial Eastern European Perspective

An Ecological Investigation of Polish Olympic Coaches’ Career Pathways and Their Experiences of Career Transition to Olympic Coaching Roles

Most research on coaching adopts a Western, predominantly Anglo-Saxon, vantage point. This study sought to fill the gap in the literature by providing an Eastern European perspective on transition to high-performance coaching. Ten Polish Olympic coaches were interviewed to glean insights into their career pathways, cumulatively spanning the last three decades. First, using abductive analysis, three patterns of nonlinear career pathways were identified: teacher-track, club-coach track and athlete fast-track. Next, contextual and reflective thematic analyses were employed to examine the environmental constraints affecting role transitions. Consequently, drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model, the Ecological Model for Coach Development was proposed to offer an alternative perspective on career transitions. The findings provide evidence for the situated and relational nature of career transitions as processes occurring in nested environmental contexts. We claim that advancing knowledge on transitions requires not only zooming into coaches’ lived experiences of transitioning in/out of coaching roles, but also zooming out on macrolevel societal transformation processes, historically rooted values and belief systems, as well as mesolevel institutional constraints that steer career pathways and shape experiences. The study’s ecological orientation has the potential to enhance coaching education and practice by accounting for contextual complexity and temporality.

Rethinking the Privilege Against Self-Incrimination in Terms of Emerging Neuro-Technology: Comparing the European and United States Perspective

Rethinking the Privilege Against Self-Incrimination in Terms of Emerging Neuro-Technology: Comparing the European and United States Perspective

Eastern European perspective on Security Studies. Lessons from Poland

ObjectivesThe aim of the article is to determine the directions of research conducted in the field of security, and realized by the most frequently cited (according to popular bibliometric databases) scholars. On this basis, the frequency of selection of research areas of Polish scientists dealing with issues in the field of security was determined.Material and methodsThe text presents the author's conclusions from a cross-sectional analysis of Scopus and Google Scholar databases of the most frequently cited authors. The selection of sources was based on several citation indices. Foreign publications were selected in the field of social science on the basis of citations from the internationally recognized and prestigious Scopus database . The analysis refers to the years 2015-2020, as this is the period in which the scientific discipline took shape.ResultsPolish research, despite raising often important from the point of view of world security problems, is not very noticed in the world. There are several reasons for this. First of all, until recently, it was published mainly in Polish. Secondly, local scientific periodicals or multi-author monographs were usually chosen as the place of publication.ConclusionsThe Polish literature is dominated by topics related to internal security, such as: public and general security (crisis management), social security, cultural security, etc. Another theme is terrorism (along with its varieties), which is replaced by other problems, such as: the aging of society, the relationship between security and development, or the problems of migration. They mostly refer to regional or even local problems.

Making of the Other: Critiquing Baloch Historiography

Orientalism is the critique of the European perspective about the creation of colonial discourse and this approach advocates that European colonialism has created a concept of “othering". The Occident and the Orient is a pure European construct, and it would see another world from the lens of Europe and give a verdict of being inferior about all those concepts, cultures and ideologies which are not in conformity with European perceptions. The present work is based on the colonial construction of the history of Balochistan, and colonial scholars had provided the landmark of historiography in Balochistan. These colonial scholars had derived their concepts of the cultures and histories of the indigenous people based on the official documents provided by the colonial masters. So, the primary premise of the colonial discourse was not to do academic research rather it was to control the indigenous people. This premise of colonial historiography was bequeathed after partition as the post-partition and indigenous scholars had followed the footsteps of colonial scholars especial in the theories of ethnic origins. The present work is a historiographical critique of colonial and post-independence historiography into Balochistan, and it has been endeavored to provide main themes of oriental historiography and its counter-narrative which based on a post-colonial perspective derived from primary and secondary sources. The paper is an attempt in opening of new debates in the historiography of peripheral regions like Balochistan and its an effort to shed light on the areas on which there is a historical silence.

A transnational regioscape in the making. The Baltic Sea in Christian Petzold’s Barbara and Ilze Burkovska-Jacobsen’s My Favorite War

The Baltic Sea has effectively separated the Scandinavian and Eastern European countries, especially in the period when this body of water constituted a part of the Iron Curtain and functioned for Scandinavians as an imaginary protective moat. From the East-Central European perspective, the Baltic Sea offered a hope of escape to freedom, encapsulated in the cinematic trope of the sea as a ‘blue boundary’, or a ‘horizon of hope’. But the Baltic Sea was also feared as a life-threatening border, as expressed in the trope of ‘Baltic noir’, a variation of the ‘Eastern noir’ trope (Mrozewicz 2018) – imagining the sea in nocturnal scenery as wild and under state control. The article discusses screen representations of the Baltic Sea understood as performative regioscaping practices (Chow 2021), offering insights into the memories and histories of human mobilities across the Baltic Sea beyond official narratives, as well as into the human relationship with the sea as both a cultural boundary and material body of water. As demonstrated by the analyzed film examples, Christian Petzold’s Barbara (2012, Germany) and Ilze Burkovska-Jacobsen’s My Favorite War (2020, Norway, Latvia), the Baltic Sea continues to be an important spatiotemporal node in the transnational re-telling of the region’s history and identity.