Individual Member States Research Articles

Concluding International Investment-Related Agreements with Non-EU Countries: Roles of the EU and Its Member States

The 2009 Lisbon Treaty has added an important exclusive competence for the European Union (EU) in the common commercial policy area, namely, foreign direct investment, thus making it a crucial actor in international investment protection. This has a huge impact on shaping international investment policy in Europe and has raised important questions, especially regarding the legal consequences of the EU’s exclusive competence in the negotiation process of international investment agreements (IIAs) with third countries. This article explores the role of the EU and its member states in negotiating and concluding IIAs with third countries. In the first part, the article illustrates when individual member states are authorized to conclude a new bilateral investment treaty with a third country, with a focus on the EU´s Regulation No 1219/2012 and its implementation. In the second part, the article questions what it means for the EU and its member states to conclude investment mixed agreements with third countries, how the negotiation processes are conducted, and what is the impact of the division of competences between the EU and its member states. The final part of the article shows the current issues of ius standi and financial responsibility in investment dispute settlement involving foreign investors, with a focus on the EU´s Regulation No 912/2014 and the negotiation processes of the EU with third countries.

The impact of the Russian import ban on EU agrarian exports

The main goal of the paper is to evaluate the impact of the Russian import ban on the development of agricultural exports from EU member states. The study is based on a time-series analysis of empirical statistical indicators. The analysed period is between 2009 and 2019. The source of data for individual analyses is UN Comtrade (2021). The evaluation of export performance is extended by hierarchical cluster analysis. The study quantifies the effects of the import ban on the EU and individual member states through two scenarios. Scenario 1 is based on the cumulative loss of the value of exports. Scenario 2 assumes a continuous development of the value of agricultural exports. Based on the results, it is possible to confirm that the application of the Russian food import ban had a significant impact on EU countries. The impact of sanctions varies across EU countries. Four specific clusters could be identified in the period under investigation. In the period after the ban, the distribution of individual countries among individual clusters changed significantly. The applied ban could be understood not only as an attempt at counter-sanctions. Import restrictions also aim to reduce Russia's dependence on food imports and promote national food security.

Spatio-Temporal Assessment of Biomass Self-Sufficiency in the European Union

Growing concerns over ecosystem degradation, climate change, loss in biodiversity, and rapid depletion of natural resources have urged societies of the developed countries all over the world to encounter the challenge of shifting from fossil-based to bio-based economies. With European Green Deal priorities on a transition to a climate-neutral economy with net-zero GHGs emissions by 2050, projected demand for biomass is 40–100% higher, relative to its supply. To provide an overview on the capacity of the European Union countries to satisfy its demand for biomass through the organic materials extracted directly from the domestic natural environment, the study aimed to assess the biomass self-sufficiency based on its domestic extraction-domestic consumption balance. Both the spatial and temporal variability of the self-sufficiency ratio are used to characterise the stability of capacity to satisfy our own needs for biomass in the EU economy as a whole, and at the level of individual member states. The findings indicate that the differences in biomass self-sufficiency ratios are quite high among the European Union member countries (i.e., in the range of 15% in Malta and 33% in Cyprus; up to 184% in Estonia and 224% in Latvia (on average in 2016–2018)). GMM analysis (EU-28, 2000–2018 period) is provided in this study to define the main statistically significant factors that have an impact on the biomass self-sufficiency ratio. This study contributes to the debate on the issues of biomass self-sufficiency in the context of ecological constraint and the EU’s Green Deal.

Analysis of the level of energy security in the three seas initiative countries

Ensuring energy security is one of the main objectives of the economic policy of the European Union (EU) and individual member states. This particularly concerns the new EU members, which, apart from Austria, form the Three Seas Initiative. One of the primary goals of this Initiative is to achieve energy independence while achieving climate neutrality. In order to diagnose the state of energy security of the Three-Seas Initiative countries and how it changed between 2009 and 2019, a study in this area was conducted using the Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) method. The research is based on 17 selected indicators that characterize energy security in energy, economic, environmental, and social dimensions. Indicators were selected based on the priorities of energy policy of the EU. The weights of the indicators were specified as average values with the following methods: CRITIC, entropy and standard deviation. Based on the values of the Grey Relational Grade (GRG) index in the GRA method and its standard deviation, the level of energy security in these countries was evaluated. In addition, for each country, basic descriptive statistics regarding the indicators in question and the coefficients of dynamics of change in the studied years were also delineated. The results unambiguously showed the current state of energy security in these countries and show its changes over the study period. Austria was found to rank highest in terms of energy security in the analyzed period, and Poland and Bulgaria were found to rank lowest. In addition to the discussion on the results and conclusions of the study, recommendations were formulated on how to ensure energy security in the countries of the Three Seas Initiative, which can also be applied to other EU countries.

Global governance and the Global Green New Deal: the G7\u2019s role

Current headlines suggest that the world at large has missed the opportunity to ‘build back better’ from COVID-19 by way of a green recovery. However, such claims do not consider novel trends among plurilateral summit institutions, especially the extent to which global governance of a green recovery is encapsulated by the burgeoning norm bundle of the ‘Global Green New Deal’. Plurilateral summit institutions like the G20, G7 and the BRICS have the potential to play a key governance role in implementing a Global Green New Deal, given the breadth and depth of reform required to ‘build back better’ from COVID-19. This contribution adopts a practice-relationist methodology to explore this thesis. Green recovery practice is analysed through novel interrogation of the open-source stimulus spending data of the Global Recovery Observatory. The results reveal that the G7, the G20 and the BRICS are all funding proportionally more clean than dirty stimulus in response to COVID-19. However, the proportion of clean stimulus is much stronger among members of the G7. A relationist frame is then used to assess this practice against the potential norm entrepreneurship role of the G7, both as individual member states and as a collective. It concludes that although this norm entrepreneurship role is undoubtedly nascent, it yields valuable insights into the pathways and barriers for further norm diffusion of the Global Green New Deal among plurilateral summit institutions. In this way it highlights the unique role plurilateral summit institutions can play in not only globalising the green new deal, but crucially operationalising it. Thus, while the world may not yet be ‘building back better’ as a collective, it is institutional norm entrepreneurs who currently hold the blueprints.

The European Commission on Sustainable Development. A New Normative Power in Its Making?

There is an on-going scholarly debate on European (dis)integration. Research (Cross, 2017; Jones et al., 2021; Vollard, 2018; Webber, 2018) has addressed how historical European crises often led to deepened European collaboration (Cross, 2017). The scholarly work has mentioned how severe crises in EU member states’ reluctance to stay as member-state or include new member-states, obstruction to integration in certain policy areas (the Euro, CFSP, SEM and Schengen), right-winged populism and anti-EU rhetoric in most cases not resulted in expected disintegration, but rather in new negotiations and policy-making. In such context, the European Commission plays an important role to promote European interest beyond individual member-states’ national interests. The climate change challenge provides one of the most contemporary global crisis. The Agenda 2050 on sustainable development is a bold and ambitious vision by the European Commission for a climate neutral Europe and may serve as a normative model globally. This study explores the recent role of the European Commission to promote sustainable development. It is argued that in times of serious European crises, the European Commission has acted as a normative power and transformed crises into a window of opportunity.

Digital Platforms as Objects of Regulation: Issues of Development of Antitrust Legislation in the EAEU Member States

The main directions of development of antitrust and competitive regulation of digital platforms were investigated. Approaches of legislators of individual EAEU member states to antitrust regulation of digital markets, emerging law enforcement practice were considered. Based on the analysis of proposals for amending the Entrepreneurs Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the practice of antitrust rulemaking of other states, the authors formulate recommendations for developing approaches to regulating digital platforms. Normative and expert approaches to the definition of digital platforms for the purposes of antimonopoly regulation and also modern classifications of digital market entities considered as objects of antimonopoly regulation were investigated. The practice of antitrust regulation of digital markets in the EU, China and the USA has been investigated. The article reflects the content characteristics of the term “gatekeeper”, introduced for the first time, which reveals the priority characteristics of the behavior of the main digital platform for creating the most balanced regime of regulatory norms in the field of antitrust enforcement.

Scoping the impact of the Comprehensive Agreement on investment: liberalization, protection, and dispute resolution in the next era of EU–China relations

ABSTRACT Ensuing the commencement of bilateral EU–China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) negotiations in 2014, European Union (EU) took seven years to confirm the agreement ‘in principle’. The finalization of the agreement owing to politicization will take time. However, both EU and China have committed to conclude the awaiting negotiations on investment protection and investment dispute settlement by the first half of 2022. EU's main objective is replacing bilateral investment treaties (BITs) between China and its own individual Member States. The article confers a first comprehensive analysis of CAI with advancing EU's international investment policy. It further analyzes the CAI provisions in light of both, pre-existing BITs between EU Member States and China and the EU-Vietnam FTA investment chapter. The comprehensive analysis helps to apprehend CAI's influence on the global regime for investment concerning investment liberalization, investment protection, and investment dispute resolution.

Management of Competitiveness in the EU Member States: The Main Strengths and Weaknesses

The paper's main objective is to investigate the differences in competitiveness among the EU member states. Each nation's competitiveness is determined by its government's management capabilities on the national, regional and local levels and thus poses substantial implications to economic growth. For this purpose, hierarchical clustering as the primary method of investigation was selected. The data mining process was based on extracting GCI score data about individual member states. Based on the GCI score evaluation, the cluster analysis showed two groups of EU member states, according to the 'traditional' division of old member states (OMS) and new member states (NMS). Results showed a statistically significant gap in GCI scores between the OMS and NMS. Furthermore, the within-class variability in the OMS cluster appears to be higher than in the NMS cluster, which underlines growing disparities among old member states. Most significant differences among both groups prevail in the field of institutions, ICT adoption, business dynamism and innovation. Finally, the link between achieved GCI score and average economic growth has been investigated. Contrary to expectations, more developed member states (OMS) showed, on average, relatively lower economic growth rates over the investigated period than the less developed member states (NMS). The results showed a moderately negative link between the GCI score and economic growth, which suggests that a higher GCI score does not mean achieving higher economic growth, whereas member states with lower total GCI scores could outpace the higher ones in terms of economic growth. In many aspects, the EU still resembles two rails in Europe, and a significant gap between OMS and NMS prevails. Relatively higher economic growth of NMS might help reduce the gap over time. However, it may prove a short-sighted, and significant lags in many crucial factors will stiff the competitiveness in the long term.

Zabrana spaljivanja žetvenih ostataka na poljoprivrednom zemljištu

Burning plant residues is a practice that some farmers apply on agricultural land after the harvest. It causes numerous harmful effects on the land, environment, climate, and can endanger the lives of people, animals and property. This paper analyzes the legal regulations of the European Union and individual member states in order to find an answer to the question of how to regulate the ban on burning crop residues. Given that a large number of fires occur in the Republic of Serbia every year in the post-harvest period, special attention is paid to the analysis of domestic regulations to find answers to the question of whether this decades-long problem is caused by inadequate legal regulations or whether the existing regulations are not applied properly.

THE POWER OF SMALL EU MEMBER STATES AFTER BREXIT: HOW POWERFUL IS THE VISEGRAD GROUP?

The power of individual EU Member States has been changing over the past decades as a result of revisions to the voting systems and the enlargements of the European Union. The present article analyses the development of the voting power of individual Member States in the Council of the European Union before and after the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union. We use the calculation of the standardized Banzhaf power index to calculate the legislative power of the Member States. The calculations recorded in the table point to changes in the weights of national votes caused by Brexit. The article pays special attention to the Visegrad Group, which we define within the European Union as an informal group consisting of four Central European states - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and the Slovak Republic. The results indicate a significant growth of the voting power in Poland and more moderate growth in the other three Visegrad Group countries which contributes to the shift in the voting equilibrium within the ordinary legislative procedure of the European Union.

Корпоративне звітування: європейський досвід

Disclosure of environmental, social and governance aspects (ESG) in the activities of companies of the European Union Member States (mainly large and medium-sized businesses) has recently become increasingly relevant. The purpose of the study is to summarize the European experience regarding the essence, format of presentation, contents, regulatory support and the main problems that arise in the preparation of corporate reporting. The article determines that corporate reporting in the EU is at the stage of development and continuous improvement, since information requests of internal and external stakeholders are changing daily, to which the management of companies has to respond promptly and efficiently. European experience in understanding the economic essence of corporate reporting is considered. The main prerequisites for the implementation of corporate reporting and elements of the non-financial component of corporate reports in the EU are allocated. The regulatory support operating in individual Member States of the European Union on the formation of corporate reporting (the scope of the company’s activities, non-financial indicators reflected in the reporting, etc.) is considered and analyzed, which constitutes an important basis for the development of the principles of sustainable development. The main proposals on corporate reporting on sustainable development, submitted in 2021 by the European Commission, are outlined. The most common reporting formats reflecting the effectiveness of the implementation of ESG aspects at enterprises are considered. It is determined that the formation of a non-financial component in corporate reporting provides specific benefits for the company, helps to strengthen investor confidence, be more transparent, open up access to new sources of capital for companies, but at the same time it is a troublesome process that creates new challenges for the scientific community and business.

NATO and the Full-Scale Invasion of the russian federation of Ukraine

The article deals with the interaction between Ukraine and NATO in the context of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It is worth noting that Ukraine and the Alliance are already paving the way to closer ties, as determined by the logic of war. The focus is on strengthening bilateral contacts and forging regional alliances by means of Ukrainian diplomacy. Therefore, the author highlights the role of individual member states of NATO and the organisation as a whole in helping Ukraine in the military, humanitarian, and economic spheres. Ukraine’s membership in NATO would be a reliable guarantee of the security of our state. At the same time, the author mentions the prospects of the security alliance of the United Kingdom, Poland, and Ukraine with the possible participation of the Baltic states in pursuit of European stability. Russia presents a threat to world security considering its nuclear and energy potential. Nevertheless, the author also offers an insight into the controversial views and pro-russian sentiments of foreign analysts regarding the russian full-scale attack on Ukraine and future world order and stability. Some mentioned analysts are displacing the focus to justify the russian invasion and provide narratives for the sake of russian propaganda. The author determines the main provisions of the NATO 2022 Strategic Concept on the partner countries of the Alliance, approved at the Madrid Summit. The steps that the North Atlantic Alliance must take to become an effective player in international stability in Europe are listed. The conclusion comes up as follows: if these measures are not taken, NATO as an organisation for overcoming the problems of international security and deterring the aggressor will be comparable in effectiveness to the OSCE and the UN. Keywords: russo-Ukrainian war, NATO, cooperation, security, stability.

Germany’s Position Concerning the Nord Stream-2 Pipeline in the Context of the European Union’s Energy Security

The article analyzes the underlying foundations of Germany’s position regarding the construction of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline, as well as the impact of this position on the European Union’s joint energy policy and energy security. Against the backdrop of the constantly growing energy consumption both globally and in EU specifically, supplies of energy sources are being increasingly used by exporters as an instrument of political influence. In this context, the Nord Stream-2 pipeline is regarded as such an instrument, primarily by Russia itself. On the other hand, Germany has been supporting the construction of the new Russian pipeline due to the need to ensure uninterrupted supply of cheap natural gas. The latter is of particular significance for the realization of Germany’s long-term energy transformation strategy. However, by sticking to such a position, Germany prioritizes its own political and economic interests over those of EU and individual Member States, which is contrary to one of the main principles of EU’s functioning, i.e., the principle of solidarity. With this in mind, it is reasonable to conclude that Germany is almost single-handedly defining the strategic direction of the entire EU’s energy policy without paying due attention to alternative suppliers and sources.

EU Legal Migration Policy: Are There Prospects for Progress or Is It at a Standstill?

The aim of the article is to attempt to identify the state of, and prospects for, the development of the common policy of the European Union regarding legal migration from third countries. The subject of interest is, above all, legal economic migration, which is crucial from the perspective of certain demographic processes taking place in the EU, the changes and needs of the Community’s labour market, and the challenges posed by the digital transformation. The adopted hypothesis assumes that, within the framework of EU migration and asylum policy, policy as regards legal economic migration is still an underdeveloped area and remains in the hands of individual Member States. Initiatives undertaken in this area remain overshadowed by the main focus of the common migration and asylum policy, namely the development of a common asylum system and the prevention of irregular migration. Policy regarding legal economic migration in the near future will mainly be created by Member States and play out on the domestic stage due to the lack of direct motivation for its development at the Community level. In this case, the strength of particular stakeholders’ interests is not balanced out by any direct and easily identifi able benefits to be gained from the adopted common solutions.

Economic Security of the European Union in the Context of the Dynamics of Development of Globalized World Economy

The European Union is currently one of the most sophisticated and comprehensively developed examples of regional economic integration. The analysis of selected strategic documents adopted and implemented on the territory of the European Union primarily focused on the economic dimension of further development of this complex and economically interconnected transnational economic complex shows, that one of the main, strategic goals are oriented on the higher economic convergence and cohesion within its internal space, as well as the full range of objectives aimed at maintaining and improving its position in the world economy. Changes in the internal and external economic environment of the European Union, often associated with a certain degree of unpredictability of their effects, determine the dynamics of economic development of the European Union and the degree of economic security achieved. The presented contribution focuses on the study of the formation of a specific model of economic security forming in the environment of the European integration area. In the context of the indicated starting points of the research, the main attention is focused on selected aspects and factors based on the possibility to identify development trends in the processes of shaping economic security within the European integration area. In the process of elaboration of the submitted professional contribution, its authors focused on the following basic research questions: How does the European Union approach the formation of economic security in its internal economic environment formed on the basis of specific national economic complexes of individual member states? Which selected factors need to be examined in the context of monitoring the development of economic security within the European integration area and to follow their development direction? Based on monitoring and predicting the possible future development of selected factors supporting the formation of economic security to deduce how the level of economic security is currently achieved by the European Union and what are the possible future trends in this area? Several methods and procedures were used in the process of processing the submitted paper. The frequency of use of individual methods and procedures was different in individual parts of the presented text. In the process of processing the outputs of the research into a comprehensive text of the submitted paper, the analysis, comparison, as well as the synthesis of collected knowledge, data and information and comprehensive and logically arranged units were most significantly used. Different types of data and data which were the result of the application of various mathematical-statistical methods and procedures, were also used in the process of processing the submitted paper. The outputs of the research of the subject of the paper can be summarised as follows. The European Union currently has the appropriate starting conditions for shaping a comprehensive model of economic security. Inwards, as well as innovations, it acts in the context of economic security as a stable economic actor with a well-developed and well-established economic environment. The economic security of the European Union, as well as other geoeconomic actors, is determined by the dynamics of the development of the global and regional economic environment. In view of the indicated dynamics of development, it will be necessary in the future for the European Union to have created economic structures capable of responding flexibly to these influences and subsequently adapting to them effectively.

The importance of cohesion policy for the development of the railway system of the Republic of Croatia

Cohesion policy is one of the European Union’s policies, which provides Member States with the possibility of financial support under the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) as well as with the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), to reduce disparities and encourage the development of less developed Member States. By funding through Cohesion policy funds, the European Union seeks to accomplish a prosperous economy by achieving appropriate European standards in the individual Member States. Cohesion policy emphasizes the development of transport and mobility, and in particular, the investment in key transport links and sections of international importance through the revitalization of railway infrastructure in line with European Union standards. The railway system of the Republic of Croatia has been under-invested for many years, which is why it has not followed the requirements and needs of the development of the transport market. Membership in the European Union has provided the Republic of Croatia with co-financing for the development of the railway system. This paper will analyse the current investments in the railway system and the development potentials that are planned to be achieved in the next programming period. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the importance of the Cohesion Policy of the European Union for the development of the railway system of the Republic of Croatia in the Programming period 2021-2027. The analysis aims to identify opportunities for further development of the railway system as the ‘cleanest’ transport industry, guided by the need to reduce harmful emissions following the European Green Deal by using funds from the European Structural and Investment Funds.

The definitive VAT system and its impact on tax collection

Value Added Tax (VAT) is a significant source of fiscal revenues in the EU. However, the VAT treatment of cross-border supplies enables large-scale tax frauds, such as the Missing Trader Intra-Community (MTIC), which takes each year billions of euros from Member States' public budgets. In 2016 a definitive VAT system was proposed by the European Commission to respond to the shortcomings of the current temporary system. This new system should reduce the possibilities of MTIC fraud for intra-community transactions through the collection of VAT by the supplier in the same way as for domestic transactions. The tax collection by the supplier would impact the administrative costs of the financial authorities. This paper contributes to the discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of the newly suggested system. The analysis focuses on the study of the change in administrative costs and VAT revenues for individual Member States and across the EU. The results are that after implementing the definitive VAT system, total administrative costs of the Member States would increase at least by EUR 107 million, whereas total VAT revenues would rise by EUR 40 billion. This indicates the overall positive impact of the definitive VAT system for the EU. However, individual Member States would not benefit equally. The net exporters, whose intra-community supplies exceed the intra-community acquisitions, would spend more than others for the collection of VAT in connection with the international trade of goods.

Economic Development of the European Union in the Relation of Sustainable Development—Taxonomic Analysis

The purpose of this paper is a multidimensional assessment of the diversification of economic development in EU countries in the context of the progress in the implementation of the concept of sustainable development in 2014 and 2019. The issues discussed in this article are topical and important, given that the spatial disparity of economic development in the EU has never been so pronounced as it is today. While there is a wealth of studies on economic development in the literature, research on the comprehensive approach to this problem in the relation of sustainable development appears to be rather scarce. The article emphasizes the role of energy in economic growth. Authors used taxonomic measures. They were constructed on the basis of selected methods of multidimensional comparative analysis. By using the Hellwig method and the TOPSIS method, taxonomic measures were constructed, and linear ordering of the EU countries was carried out. In addition, using the so-called threshold method, the clustering of EU countries was carried out. The analysis involved 27 EU countries. The conducted research revealed significant disproportions between the respective EU countries in terms of the level of economic development in the relation of implementing the concept of sustainable development. It seems justified to take action aimed at eliminating the differences between the countries in the analyzed aspect. It is necessary both to intensify efforts at the level of individual Member States and the EU, oriented towards pro-development activities.

European Labour Law and its Challenges in Multilingual Terminology and Translation: A Case Study

The translation of legal texts has become a very important activity in our modern, international societies. Globalization has created a great need for multilingual versions of all kinds of legal texts. However, both law itself and legal language and terminology have a special characteristic: they are system-bound. Every country or autonomous region sets up its own legal system, and this has far-reaching consequences not only for the drawing up and especially the translation of legal texts, but also for comparative law and international and European law.
 In this article, we describe certain typical features of the terminology of labour law and expand on one particular term to show the problems in translation work. The multilingual character of European law, the need for translation and the specific wording of labour law texts in the individual member states lead to many translation problems and to legal insecurity for citizens. By analysing relevant terms in the transport sector, we discuss current research that compares concepts and terms in European, Polish, Dutch and Belgian labour law.