European Union Challenges Research Articles

Quo Vadis Consumer Dispute Resolution? UK & EU cross border consumer dispute resolution in the post Brexit landscape

The United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union challenges the existing framework for cross border consumer dispute resolution and exacerbates the negative effect of the EU’s harmonisation approach in this area. Both EU and UK consumers face an uncertain future after the transition period. This paper will analyse and evaluate key challenges to UK and EU consumer cross border dispute resolution after the transition period ended on 31 December 2020. The paper will consider procedural impediments to UK consumers enforcing consumer rights against EU/EEA traders as well as to EU consumers enforcing rights against UK traders. The paper will also consider the jurisdictional impact of UK’s status and its effect upon the reciprocal enforcement of consumer court judgments/ADR decisions between the EU and UK. Finally, the paper suggests that a Lugano+ approach would help to mitigate the impact of the impediments to effective consumer dispute resolution between EU and UK entities. In doing so, it first takes a preliminary look at the existing paradigm of cross border cooperation in consumer dispute resolution. The chapter also includes some thoughts on the normative clashes facing the creation of a new relationship in this area.

EDITORIAL NOTE: Foreign and Energy Policies of the European Union Challenges in a Time of Growing Geopolitical Struggle between the East and the West

EDITORIAL NOTE: Foreign and Energy Policies of the European Union Challenges in a Time of Growing Geopolitical Struggle between the East and the West

Statistická syntéza indikátorů kvality života – návrh tvorby indexu v evropských regionech

The quality of life is complex, with human existence closely linked theme. Both scientific and international political organizations have been focusing on this topic in recent decades. This research follows the European Union's challenges to deal with the quality of life as a multi-aspect phenomenon. Firstly, the authors' concept of quality of life, based on key aspects and their respective indicators is introduced. To assess the quality of life not only multidimensionally but also comprehensively, it is necessary to address the issue of data aggregation. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a statistical method used to reduce the dimensionality of the data and can also be used to construct a synthetic index. In its basic form, this method is designed for non-spatial data and does not take into ac-count the potential spatial relationships. However, geographically weighted PCA can capture these relationships. Simple PCA, robust PCA, simple geographically weighted PCA, and robust geographically weighted PCA were tested on the quality of life data. The results of the paper describe differences in selected methods and the possibilities of their applica-tion in the regional evaluation of the quality of life in Europe. Using the PCA, a synthetic quality of life index was constructed based on the defined quality of life indicators on the pan-European scale at the regional level defined by NUTS 2 classification. The result does not bring innovation in terms of the used methods, but it is a challenge in the interpretative level. Comprehensively analyses the topic in a broad spatial scope and detail, compared to the existing studies.

The Common Energy Market of the European Union–Challenges and Perspectives

Abstract The European Commission has the initiative to foster the sector of renewable energy and to build an Energy Union, with a common energy market at the level of the European Union, but is this only a utopic vision or is this possible to achieve? The topic of clean energy is very new and of great interest for the European Union, which is shown by the fact that the European Commission recently adopted on the 30th November 2016 the package “Clean Energy for All Europeans”, which contains proposals for the modernization of the energy market at the level of the European Union. But which are the challenges such a project is confronted with? According to the literature, such challenges are related to the process of liberalization of electricity markets. Conflicts between national interest and international actors of the energy market might occur. Due to the oligopolistic structure of the energy market, there are several barriers to the market entry. In order to answer to the research questions, case studies regarding the liberalization of the energy market will be analyzed in a comparative manner, offering an international overview. Furthermore, the legal provisions on which the common energy policy of the European Union relies, will be analyzed, as well as their economic and social impact. The package “Clean Energy for All Europeans” comprises a proposal of the revised Renewable energy Directive, energy efficiency measures and issues related to the Energy Union Governance. It contains as well proposals for the electricity market design, which will be analyzed and the present paper outlines the contribution of this proposal in building a common energy market of the European Union. What role does competition play in implementing the common energy market of the European Union? Which role do competition authorities have in this context? These are interesting aspects to be analyzed in the present paper.

Judicialized Law‐Making and Opportunistic Enforcement: Explaining the EU's Challenge of National Defence Offsets

AbstractThis article seeks to explain how the European Union (EU) – by challenging national defence offsets – managed to move into a highly sensitive policy area under formerly exclusive Member State competence. Whereas major accounts of integration depict defence policy as a least likely case, our process‐tracing analysis shows that the EU's recent challenge of defence offsets was a case of supranational self‐empowerment. We theorize two consecutive strategies of judicial politics, which the Commission employed at different policy stages to overcome opposition from Member States and defence firms against domestic policy change: judicialized law‐making and opportunistic enforcement. Both strategies depend on three scope conditions: expansive case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), its fit with policy priorities of the Commission and a credible threat of follow‐up litigation.

The European Union challenge: integration of energy, climate, and economic policy

AbstractThe European Union (EU), the largest economy in the world, has binding sustainable energy and climate goals for the year 2020. The EU has recently presented a vision of a low‐carbon Europe in 2050, which requires the cutting of carbon emissions by over 80%. This will necessitate increased technology development and market deployment efforts in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and clean energy. In addition, such plans need to pay attention to the uneven financial capabilities of the 27 EU member states to undertake such ambitious climate measures. To reach acceptable levels of carbon emissions on a global scale, compensating for economic asymmetries worldwide may require a considerably higher input from Europe as well. The co‐benefits of a proactive European climate policy may be considerable, in particular for economic growth. Achieving these benefits will require greater integration of energy and climate and economic policy, which could form the basis of a green economy in Europe.This article is categorized under: Energy and Climate > Economics and Policy Energy Policy and Planning > Economics and Policy

Security Sector Reform and Georgia: the European Union's challenge in the Southern Caucasus

Security Sector Reform (SSR) holds different meanings and hence varying implications for recipients and donors. Therefore, as an initial point of departure it is necessary to offer a more precise understanding of what can the European Union (EU) offer as a donor to recipient nations in need of SSR? The empirical case of Georgia presents an interesting and challenging case for SSR. There have been a number of domestic and international conflicts in the post-Soviet era, which has left a volatile legacy. There needs to be a cautious and long-term approach that balances what Georgia needs and wants with what the EU can offer. Rather than a narrow approach to the SSR programme, a broader and more encompassing assistance needs to be undertaken in order to affect a more stable and sustainable change. This process shall require talking and offering, but also listening to what Georgian officials request and desire.

Associations between self-rated health and psychosocial conditions, lifestyle factors and health resources among hospital nurses in Lithuania

The aim of our study was to investigate the association between self-rated health and psychosocial factors at work and everyday life (job demands, job control, social support, workplace bullying, life-threatening events); health behaviours (smoking, alcohol, being overweight, obesity, low physical activity); mental distress; job satisfaction; and sense of coherence in a representative sample of Lithuanian hospitals' internal medicine department nurses. Recent trends to extend the retirement age in many countries of the European Union challenge future public health. Nurses are exposed to a broad variety of adverse psychosocial factors at work and in every day life that affect their health perception. As the retirement age in Lithuania is to be extended to 65 years for women, research on the associations of poor self-rated health with related factors is important. A cross-sectional study was carried out in the period 2005-2006 using the representative sample of Lithuanian hospitals' internal medicine department nurses. Data were collected from 748 nurses using questionnaire (response rate 53·9%). About 60·4% of nurses rated their health negatively. In the fully adjusted model age, high job demands, low job control, low social support at work, life-threatening events, low physical activity, being overweight, obesity, mental distress, job dissatisfaction and weak sense of coherence were associated with negative self-rated health. Preventive strategies against adverse psychosocial working conditions of nurses should be implemented in the Lithuanian hospitals.

An enlarged European Union challenges priority settings in conservation

Biodiversity is declining worldwide under increasing human pressure. Since the location of and the threats are unevenly distributed and the resources available for conservation are limited, prioritization is essential to reduce the losses. Most conservation efforts until now proved to be ineffective in stopping the present worldwide decline of threatened species. We focus on the European Union (EU) after the repeated enlargements in the last decade, from 15 to 27 countries, by considering the present conservation priorities that have shifted towards a continental scale approach. The situation in the EU indicates that despite the differences in wealth across countries, there are no significant differences in the number and surface of protected areas between them, so re-evaluating conservation priorities at a continental scale and a reallocation of funds is required. A major limitation in priority settings for conservation is data availability. We recommend including in the decision process data provided by phylogeographic studies. This will prevent the decline of populations and species with evolutionary potential from centres of speciation and climate refugia. Recent EU members from central and eastern Europe still retain high biodiversity with a rather good conservation status. A large number of areas with high evolutionary potential identified by phylogeographic studies are located there and should be considered priorities within the context of global changes, as a proactive approach. We recommend a periodic re-evaluation of the status of species and habitats based on current research results, harmonization between the priority species listed in the conventions, directives and Red Lists at both EU and national levels.

Competition between unfunded systems: A European Union challenge

The first pillars of social security systems widely differ across European countries, in both the contribution rate and intra-generational redistribution. What would be the impact of these differences if European Union citizens had free access to all systems? This paper aims to highlight some basic features of this question.

Energy and Democracy: The European Union's Challenge

Energy requirements could end up compromising a central feature of the eu's self-understanding and projected image: its role as a committed promoter of democratization and civil freedoms.…

Global Policy Issues: New Member States of the European Union—Challenges for Safety of Consumer Products

Global Policy Issues: New Member States of the European Union—Challenges for Safety of Consumer Products