European Union Strategic Research Articles

A Cross-Sectional Study to Assess the Knowledge of Pharmacy Students About Drug Pollution in Spain

The presence of pharmaceuticals in the environment is an issue of growing concern. The European Commission adopted the “European Union Strategic Approach to Pharmaceuticals in the Environment”, which focuses on actions to reduce the risk of pharmaceuticals in the environment, including how environmental aspects can become part of medical training programs. ObjectiveObtain data from pharmacy students about pharmaceutical pollution to provide information about the training needs that may help develop new actions related to the training and dissemination of this issue. MethodsA total of 1614 pharmacy students from 5 Schools of Pharmacy in Spain completed a self-administered questionnaire consisting of 24 questions: 13 about knowledge, 8 related to attitude, and 3 to opinion. ResultsAround 75% of students reported that they did not know “One Health” or “emerging pollutant” concepts and around 88% declared that they did not know that diclofenac caused a catastrophic vulture decline in Asia. The importance of this topic and their attitude to acquiring new knowledge was evaluated higher than 8 points out of 10, while received training during their studies was a score of 2.8 points out of 10. ConclusionThe knowledge about key concepts was relatively poor. In fact, they judged training about pharmaceuticals in the environment during their pharmacy studies was very scarce. However, students consider drug pollution to be a very important issue and have a very good attitude toward acquiring knowledge about it.

Update of Poland’s Energy Plan 2040 in Light of European Union Strategic Documents: Directions, Challenges, and Perspectives

Poland, possessing abundant coal resources, has been dependent on this raw material for many years, utilizing it as the primary source of energy in the country. However, due to global regulations and the European Union's commitment to achieving climate neutrality by 2050, Poland, like other nations, has set a goal for the transformation and modernization of its energy sector. Additionally, there is an emphasis on increasing the role of renewable energy sources in the national energy mix. The Energy Plan for Poland 2040 (PEP 2040) is a crucial document outlining the directions for the development of the energy supply in Poland for the next two decades. In light of new strategic documents introduced by the European Union, it is essential to update this plan to align it with overarching goals related to combating climate change, electricity production, and energy sources. “RePowerEU” is a significant EU document that outlines actions aimed at rapidly reducing dependence on Russian fossil fuels, accelerating the development of renewable energy sources, and hastening the ecological transformation of the continent. This article proposes changes to the Energy Plan for Poland 2040 (PEP 2040) in the context of European Union strategic documents. The analysis focuses on key aspects and recommendations of the EU, such as diversifying supplies and supply routes, increasing the pace of renewable energy development, improving connections within European energy networks, and enhancing the European energy security system. The article discusses major threats arising from past energy policies and presents the benefits that the implementation of the updated PEP 2040 will bring.

The new European Union Strategic Framework for Roma Integration 2020-2030: Insights and recommendations for the national strategic frameworks

The paper “The new European Union Strategic Framework for Roma Integration 2020-2030: Insights and recommendations for the national strategic frameworks” seeks to present some of the most important elements that target specifically the Roma community in the new EU strategic framework. Moreover, after some crucial aspects of the strategy are presented, some key recommendations are presented for the upcoming national strategic frameworks..

Aspects about the implementation of the occupational safety and health strategy in Romania

European directives related the occupational health and safety set out minimum requirements and fundamental principles, for managing the specific problems related to occupational risks, principle of prevention and risk assessment, as well as the responsibilities of employers and employees. A series of European guidelines aims to facilitate the implementation of European directives, including standards of related fields. The European Union Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work 2014 – 2020 has pushed the Member States to review their national strategies in close consultation with relevant stakeholders including the social partners. Thus, national strategies must transfer and customize the European vision to the national culture and specifics, considering the European framework that acts as a common guide and reference. Romania has adopted several versions of the National Strategy for Health and Safety at Work and the last one is related to the 2018 - 2020 period. Based on this document and the implementation plan associated the article will present a quantitative approach of the SWOT analysis. This research approach is meant to identify and characterize the new strategic direction that should be followed, together with a set of important aspect for the implementation plan up-date. The conclusions of this study will provide a scientific base for policy makers in the field of occupational health and safety.

A comparison study of the Romanian occupational safety and health strategy with other European countries’ strategy

The European Union Strategic Framework on Occupational Health and Safety at Work 2014 – 2020 has pushed the Member States to review their national strategies. Thus, national strategies have customized, the European vision to the national culture and specifics, considering the European framework that acts as a common guide and reference. The 2018 Report on occupational safety and health strategies in Europe, do not include the Romanian strategy. Based on the national strategy last version (2018), the paper will present and debate a comparative analysis between the Romanian OHS strategy and the other Member State strategy. This research approach is meant to identify, and underline Romania’s efforts made in the field of OHS, but also the gaps and missing aspects of the related strategy in comparison with the other countries.

The Impact of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (Ttip) On the usa and European Union Strategic Cooperation

The main aim of the paper is presentation of the impact of TTIP on the USA and European Unionstrategic cooperation. It has been emphasized that the talks will make reducing regulatory barriers. New agreementsto remove trade barriers aim at reducing dead-weight costs and at increasing net social gains frominternational trade. The paper examined in particular, investor-state dispute resolution mechanisms in reducingthe power of national governments to regulate and elimination of market inequality. The article offers examplesof successful regulatory cooperation efforts in the hope that it will shed light on possible approaches to addressingregulatory divergences. Ideally, the best way to address problems arising from regulatory divergence would be ona multilateral basis. The particulary objective of the research task are the regulatory trade barriers in USA - EUforeign trade policy, the nature an d th e promoters of the TTIP, interrelationship between regulatory standards andinternational cooperation in the TTIP. The general theoretical approach will be of broad interest to economistsinterested in international questions especially transatlantic cooperation as well as to political scientists. It wasused the institutional method, comparative method, the documentation method and statistical methods.Additionally, it used also, the methods of deductive and inductive forecasting.

Ukraine, Russia and the strategic partnership dynamics in the EU’s eastern neighbourhood: recalibrating the EU’s ‘self’, ‘we’ and ‘other’

The present contribution explores the changing relationship between the European Union (EU) and the two largest countries in its eastern neighbourhood, namely Ukraine and Russia, between 1991 and 2014. Taking the differential between the existence of the EU Strategic Partnership (SP) with Russia and the absence of such an arrangement in the relationship with Ukraine as a point of departure, it investigates how the EU has dealt with different aspirations and challenges stemming from its two largest eastern neighbours. Adopting the Social Identity Theory perspective, the contribution analyses the interrelationship between the evolution of the EU’s SP approach towards the eastern neighbours and the development of (particular dimensions of) the EU’s identity. It demonstrates how the process of categorization relating to the ideational ‘self’, ‘we’ and ‘other’ took place; and how only the EU’s relationship with Russia and not that with Ukraine has accumulated the discursive markers of a strategic partnership. The contribution, furthermore, analyses the challenges to the EU changing approach stemming from the 2013–2014 Ukraine crisis.

The potential risks from metals bottlenecks to the deployment of Strategic Energy Technologies

This paper examines the use of materials, in particular metals, in six low-carbon energy technologies of the European Union's Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan), namely nuclear, solar, wind, bioenergy, carbon capture and storage and electricity grids. The projected average annual demand for metals in the SET-Plan technologies for the decades up to 2020 and 2030 is compared to the known global production volume in 2010. From an initial inventory of over 50 metals, 14 metals were identified that will require 1% or more of the 2010 world supply per annum between 2020 and 2030. These 14 metals are cadmium, dysprosium, gallium, hafnium, indium, molybdenum, neodymium, nickel, niobium, selenium, silver, tellurium, tin and vanadium. These metals were examined further by analysing the effect of market and geo-political factors of supply and demand, which highlighted five metals to represent a high risk to large-scale technology deployment, namely: neodymium, dysprosium, indium, tellurium and gallium. The five metals were further analysed with respect to the wind and solar sectors, showing that the demand of these metals could increase significantly depending on future sub-technology choices. Mitigation strategies to alleviate potential shortages are also discussed, e.g. extending primary output; re-use, re-cycling and waste reduction; and substitution.

Identification and development of waste management alternatives for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)

The European Union Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive (2001/42/EC) requires the assessment of likely significant effects on the environment of implementing plans or programmes and reasonable alternatives. While SEA regulations and guidelines emphasize rigour and objectivity in the assessment of alternatives they have little to say on their actual identification. Therefore, criteria should be developed which would aid decision makers in the identification of alternatives appropriate to the tier of decision-making and which meet the objectives of SEA. A methodology is set out in this paper for identifying SEA alternatives for a proposed waste management plan/programme. Specifically, the methodology describes a set of alternatives identification criteria, which will meet the requirements and objectives of SEA and waste management legislation. The outputs from the methodology will help focus on the identification of more sustainable alternatives for waste management planning in Ireland.

Decision criteria for the identification of alternatives in strategic environmental assessment

The European Union Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive requires the assessment of likely significant effects on the environment of implementing plans or programmes and reasonable alternatives. While Irish SEA regulations and guidelines emphasise rigour and objectivity in the assessment of alternatives they have little to say on the actual identification of alternatives. Therefore, criteria should be established that would aid decision-makers in the identification of alternatives appropriate to the tier of decision-making. A methodology is set out in this paper for identifying generic SEA alternatives for a proposed plan or programme. Specifically, the methodology includes a set of alternatives identification criteria. The outputs from this methodology will help focus on the identification of more sustainable alternatives for SEA.

Writing strategic environmental assessment guidance

The main authors of five of the early guidance documents for how to implement the European Union Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive at regional and national level (those of England, Iceland, the Lombardia region of Italy, Portugal and Scotland) discuss the respective documents. They summarise the evolution of the five documents, then discuss what they were trying to achieve and whether they feel they have succeeded, common and diverging aspects of the documents, and unresolved issues.