Member State Level Research Articles

Implementation of the EU LEADER programme at member-state level: Written and unwritten rules of local project selection in rural Poland

Local Action Groups (LAGs) are multi-sectoral, area-based partnerships operating throughout the European Union to support participatory local development in rural areas. One of the operational elements of the programme is that multi-sectoral partnerships at the local level select and fund local development projects. The aim of this paper is to explore the dynamics of the selection process at the local level, paying attention to both exogenous and endogenous dynamics that originate at both the EU, national and local levels and how these influence the selection and funding of local development projects. We present the results of qualitative case studies conducted of 15 LAGs in rural Poland. Results indicate that centrally prescribed scoring criteria for the selection of projects issued are used, but, in many cases, local unwritten rules favouring territorial distribution of funds according to number of inhabitants and perceived fairness are highly influential on the selection process. We highlight in this context how local criteria shape top-down rules for the operationalisation of LEADER at the local level, illustrating features of mixed exogenous-endogenous development. We discuss how the interplay of local and external decision-making factors ultimately determine the activities of EU-funded development programmes, highlighting benefits of local decision-making in rural development but also signalling that EU procedures are realised to variable extents.

Quality Jobs as Well as Jabs: Protecting Health by Tackling Precarious Work

Policy implications:• Tackling precarious work is essential for a fair Covid‑19 recovery and healthier future of work.• The Covid‑19 crisis is worsening existing inequalities in the world of work. The European Commission should embed the principle of equity into the country-specific recommendationsof the European Semester, with a view to allocating resources in a manner that recognises and remedies these fundamental inequalities.• Policy interventions should focus on preventing the negative health impacts of poor working conditions, which are particularly apparent in precarious work.• The Member States should use EU funds to tackle all aspects of precarious work, with a focus on supporting women, youth, lowskilled workers, and migrant workers.• The pandemic has highlighted the need for reinforced and updated occupational safety and health legislation, both at the EU and the Member State levels."

Think Green Before You Apply: EU Competition Law and Climate-Change Abatement

European Union (EU) competition law and the protection of the environment may not be the most obvious bedfellows. Nonetheless, how the EU competition rules can contribute to the EU’s mission to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 is a subject of keen debate – both by the European Commission (EC) and at Member State level. It is submitted, however, that the manner in which Article 101(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and the EU Merger Regulation (EUMR) are applied by the EC is unconducive to the achievement of the EU’s ambitious climate goals. As such, it requires adaptation. A principal, though not the only, stumbling block in this regard pertains to the EC’s insistence on the need to demonstrate economic ‘in-market’ efficiencies with a view to offsetting any alleged competition concerns. Environmental benefits, however, tend by definition to be ‘out-of-market’. Drawing upon recent developments at national level, in particular, this article therefore seeks to offer some food for thought on how the rules relating to Article 101(3) TFEU and the EUMR could be amended/ applied differently as a means of accommodating environmental benefits and supporting the 2050 climate neutrality objective. European Green Deal, Climate neutrality, Environment, Article 101(3) TFEU, EU Merger Regulation, In-market efficiencies, Out-of-market efficiencies, CECED, UK CMA, Netherlands ACM

From conflict early warning to fostering resilience? Chasing convergence in EU foreign policy

ABSTRACT To prevent violent conflict and governance breakdown abroad, the European Union (EU) needs anticipatory analysis and preventive action at the EU and member state level that follow a coherent approach. The EU’s resilience agenda can complement early warning risk analysis for prevention, but it is unclear to what extent it has been operationalized. We compare the role that resilience plays in crisis early warning in diplomatic services at the EU and member state level in France and Germany. Drawing on the literature on Europeanization and diffusion, we seek to explain different levels of convergence regarding a resilience approach in early warning at the levels of strategy, analysis and action. We find that the diffusion item’s specificity, the number of sources and particular institutional contexts impact the resulting level of convergence. Member states see value in complementing risk analysis with a resilience perspective, but the EU has failed to provide a sufficiently clear source model. Our results contribute to the literature on EU foreign policy diffusion and coherence and show that the EU has not exhausted its potential to promote resilience as a tool for more coherent and effective conflict prevention.

Scientific & research services: problems of elimination of administrative and tax restrictions in the EAEU single market

The subject. The article analyzes the legal rules of the Eurasian Economic Union (hereinafter ‘EAEU’) Member States that may potentially create barriers for access to the single market for services in the field of scientific research through establishing requirements for state registration (accreditation, licensing, etc.) of a scientific research participant. These procedures of registration (accreditation, licensing, etc.) may be relevant for the purposes of receiving the preferential tax treatment. The authors consider possible ways to overcome these obstacles. The aim of this paper is to identify typical obstacles remaining at the level of EAEU Member States’ national legislation and preventing respective participants from an access to the scientific research single market. The authors dare to identify the appropriate means of overcoming these obstacles. The methodology. The authors apply formal logical and comparative legal methods as well as analysis, literal and systematic interpretation of the domestic legal rules of the EAEU Member States and the EAEU legal framework. The main results, scope of application. The results of a comparative legal analysis of the EAEU Member States’ legislation illustrate that certain obstacles to access to the market of research services still remain within the framework of the legal systems of the EAEU Member States. Such obstacles in particular, are related to the requirements for research subjects to undergo the registration or accreditation procedure in order to receive recognition of their activities as scientific ones. Moreover, there are interconnected barriers, which consist, for example, in the requirement to not just incorporate a scientific research subject in the jurisdiction where the services should be provided, but also to register the results of the respective research activities, in particular, for the purpose of exempting these activities from VAT taxation. These barriers impede cross-border research services performance and in some circumstances do not comply with the principles of the EAEU single market of services. Conclusions. The identified barriers to cross-border scientific research can usually be overcome by directly applying the EAEU Treaty, in particular, the provisions defining the rules of the services’ single market (paragraph 38 of Annex 16 to the Treaty). The EAEU Member States’ national legislative provisions require clarification in terms of extending the national regime to scientific research subjects incorporated within other EAEU Member States.

Mapping the coordination and cooperation mechanisms of risk communication on feed/food safety in the EU.

The mapping of the EU coordination and cooperation mechanisms of risk communication in the field of food safety (i.e. encompassing all matters pertaining to the feed and food chain) was conducted for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), following a mandate by the European Commission, to inform the General Plan for Risk Communication that the Commission will set out. This study focuses on communication activities in 'peacetime' situations (i.e. non-crisis) on the published outputs of risk assessment and risk management. This is a specific part of the risk communication process defined in the General Food Law. Data were collected through an online survey of competent authority organisations involved in risk communication at national and regional levels in the EU-27 Member States and Norway; and interviews with selected organisations at Member State, EU and international levels. Based on these data, this report provides an overview of the current information flow of risk communication, in terms of whether and how organisations at all levels receive, produce, and disseminate risk communication material. The existing flows in each country are described and mapped in flow charts. Flows are also presented for each of the EU/international organisations involved in risk communication on food safety. A number of relevant networks are identified that actively engage in sharing/exchanges of risk communication material on food safety, including networks managed by EFSA. This project also highlighted certain challenges in current risk communication systems, and recommendations are made to address them. At national level, these are: an increase in resources dedicated to coordinating communication on EU food safety issues, to improve capacity to undertake this task; strengthen the cooperation and coordination between authorities involved in risk communication activities to ensure a more proactive approach. In addition, recommendations are provided to enhance further collaboration of communication activities at all levels (between Member States and with EFSA; between EU Agencies), so that the coordination of risk communication at EU level follows a partnership approach.

The International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories Presents Abstracts from Its 2021 Annual Meeting Connect and Collaborate through Biobanking: Powering Innovation and Discovery May 10–14, 2021

The International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories Presents Abstracts from Its 2021 Annual Meeting Connect and Collaborate through Biobanking: Powering Innovation and Discovery May 10–14, 2021

Can the Plight of the European Banking Structural Reforms be a Blessing in Disguise?

One of the problems perceived to be at the heart of the global financial crisis was an amalgamation of various commercial and investment banking activities under one entity, as well as the interconnectedness of the banking entities with other financial institutions, investment funds, and the shadow banking system. This paper focuses on various measures that aim to structurally separate the banking entities and their core functions from riskier financial activities such as (proprietary) trading or investments in alternative investment funds. Although banking structural reforms in the EU, the UK, and the US have taken different forms, their common denominator is the separation of core banking functions from certain trading or securities market activities. Having reviewed the arguments for and against banking structural reforms and their varieties in major jurisdictions, including the EU, UK, US, France, and Germany, the paper argues that a more nuanced approach to introducing such measures at the EU level is warranted. Given the different market structures across the Atlantic and the lack of conclusive evidence of the beneficial impact of banking structural reforms, the paper concludes that the withdrawal of the banking structural reforms proposal by the European Commission has been a prudent move. It seems that in the absence of concrete evidence, experimenting with structural reforms at the Member-State level would be less costly and would provide for opportunities for learning from smaller experiments that could pave the way for a more optimal approach to banking structural reforms at the European level in the future.

Cybersecurity of consumer products against the background of the EU model of cyberspace protection

Abstract The entry into force of Regulation 2019/881 heralded a new stage in the construction of the EU cybersecurity model. At present, at the level of both EU institutions and individual Member States, preparatory work is underway to create the first ICT certification programmes relating to the area of cybersecurity. To date, the role of national competition and consumer protection authorities in helping to build a coherent cybersecurity model has not been sufficiently highlighted. The problem of the cybersecurity of products intended for the consumer market is a pressing issue. Furthermore, its significance is growing due in no small part to the increasing number of so-called smart connected consumer products and the mass expansion of the IoT market. As a result, threats to security or privacy increasingly stem not from cyberattacks on leading providers of online services but from the exploitation of vulnerabilities in commonly-used consumer products. This article aims to discuss the possible role of competition and consumer protection authorities in shaping a future model of EU cybersecurity. We discuss the existing mechanisms in EU law that allow supervisory authorities to shape the consumer product safety market and consider whether these measures can also be considered adequate for cybersecurity purposes. Particular attention is paid to identifying what legislative steps would be necessary to effectively synthesize the new EU cybersecurity regulations (including the planned cybersecurity certification framework) with existing consumer product safety laws.

January to March: Vaccinating Europe

The three European Council meetings which are discussed in these Notes covered a wide range of subjects and included sessions with the new US president and NATO's secretary general. They were nevertheless dominated by the pandemic and more particularly by the efforts of the EU and its member states to vaccinate their citizens as rapidly as possible. It was not an easy task and the EU rollout during the first three months of 2021 was significantly slower than that of either the UK or the US. There were many explanations, including the European Commission's failure to invest enough money early enough, inefficiencies at member state level and the production difficulties of the manufacturers in general and of AstraZeneca in particular. As the months have passed, many if not most of these difficulties seem, however, to be less consequential than they did at the time. The Commission and most of the member states learned from and made good their early failures and, AstraZeneca apart, BioNTech and the other manufacturers succeeded in delivering even more vaccines than they had promised to do. These improvements were already beginning to make themselves felt before the end of the first quarter. They were not widely acknowledged however, either inside or outside the political class. Partly because good news is always slow to drive out bad news, but still more because the debate about the vaccination rollout was driven by forces which were only loosely connected with the pandemic, including in particular the German-German debate in an election year, the British government's need to find and proclaim a post-Brexit success and the blunders of the European Commission's president. The politics of the rollout are indeed as interesting as, if not more interesting than the objective challenges which policymakers grappled with. Above all because the process highlighted once again the significance of the European Council. Despite strong countervailing pressures in the media, which continued to propagate the story of 'Europe's failure' and widespread dislike of von der Leyen's management style, the European Council maintained its commitment to an EU-wide rollout strategy and endorsed a string of initiatives, including an EU certificate, which aimed to defend the Union against the corrosive effects of the pandemic. The non-Covid business which the European Council addressed between January and March may have been overshadowed by the pandemic but it was far from unimportant, and the debates which it provoked anticipated both the concerns and the language of European Council discussions later in the year about the EU's role in a rapidly changing world order. The sessions with Jens Stoltenberg and Joe Biden in February and March respectively were reassuring rather than dramatic, but it was already apparent, particularly in the debate before and during the February meeting, that the lines between 'Atlanticists' and 'Europeans' have shifted significantly and that the buzz words of the emerging EU consensus – 'resilience', 'the reduction of dependencies' and 'a European capacity for autonomous action' – were well on the way to becoming common currency.

The Ideological Shade of the Constitutional Order: Public Law and Political Economy in the Eurozone

This paper argues that the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) created at Maastricht conformed to the neoliberal theory of interstate federalism in seeking to constitute structural conditions that circumscribed the effective exercise of activist public authority at both the Member State and European level. A response to a perceived ‘crisis of governability,’ it was designed to address the problem of excessive, and ineffective, governmental interventions in economic matters. By separating monetary and fiscal policy, the EMU ensured that no single public authority at the Member State or European level could control all the main levers of economic government. The Eurozone Crisis challenged this construct by emphasising the need for a coherent and effective exercise of public authority. The problem was thus no longer an excess of government but the absence of effective governmental authority for the EMU as a whole. Eurozone Crisis reforms introduced a greater scope for federal interventions in the domestic affairs of Member States and such reforms have elicited a new constitutional imaginary, expressed by European elites, that emphasises the need to generate ‘European sovereignty.’ This imaginary departs radically from the original EMU by foreseeing an omnicompetent European governmental apparatus that is able to intervene in, and control, economic developments across the Union in accordance with political objectives. The constitutional imaginary of the EMU can thus no longer meaningfully be called neoliberal. The early response to the COVID-19 Crisis, furthermore, highlights that the objectives pursued under the reformed EMU may depart from the set of policies traditionally associated with neoliberalism. What it should be called instead, however, remains unclear.

Responses of the EU and Member States to the Tunisian Revolution: Discourse vs Action

ABSTRACT Despite the normative positioning of individual EU member states´ domestic interests and the EU´s prioritizing of security and business interests over its values, there is sometimes an overlap making the EU´s relations with the southern neighbourhood complicated. Consequently, it is important to understand how EU leaders assess their interests and what they have done in Tunisia as well as taking note of consistent cooperation and conflict with member states. The aim is to see if the rhetoric is in conformity with the actions or if normative speeches are used for justifying interests. Findings based on interviews with experts as well as content analysis of official documents and media coverage show that there is no policy area where speeches are based on values while actions are based on interests. Secondly, it is confirmed that an increase in interest-based policies at the member state level is associated with a decrease in value-based policies at the EU level, especially in the area of migration.

Legal Lobbying: The Evolving (But Hidden) Role of Lawyers and Law Firms in the EU Public Affairs Market

AbstractThere is an increasing involvement of lawyers and law firms in public affairs through activities that are aimed at influencing legislative and regulatory developments. Law firms offer services which can be regarded as lobbying, and yet, to the detriment of transparent policy-making, they are reluctant to register in the European Union Transparency Register (EUTR) and provide information about their activities. As growing attention is paid to the need to regulate lobbying at the EU and Member State levels, the question arises as to whether and to what extent such regulatory framework should also cover certain services provided by law firms, that is, legal lobbying. This Article charts the phenomenon of legal lobbying and its regulation in the EU context. It shows how the EUTR attempts to distinguish between legal services and lobbying by defining two lawyer roles: a legal expert, and an advocate. These roles allow the possibility to pinpoint two unresolved issues associated with legal lobbying: the scope of professional secrecy, and the meaning of the legal advice exception. An important conclusion is that regulatory clarification is necessary to resolve ambiguities and broadly address the implications that legal lobbying raises in terms of transparent and legitimate law-making processes.

Securing compliance: some lessons for EU strategy on occupational health and safety

This paper discusses fi review of recent literature on support for securing compliance and better practice in occupational safety and health (OSH) in the changing world of work in advanced market economies. It explores innovative responses of regulators and private actors to the challenges created by these changes, as well as considering their impact on further forms of support for good practice, such as provided by prevention services and OSH professionals. Although the review is based on a wide-ranging search of the literature in English, its discussion is focused on implications for prevention policies in the European Union. In particular, it considers the extent to which the literature suggests that the current strategic framework for supporting compliance — via EU policies over the past two decades, with a new Strategic Framework anticipated in 2021 — can be said to address these challenges effectively. Not surprisingly, it finds that the literature reveals some gaps between the policy rhetoric and the practice at both EU and Member State levels.

Conference report: Protection of groundwater under the Water Framework Directive: Member States Obligations and recent judgements

This paper is a report on the online webinar “Protection of groundwater under the Water Framework Directive (WFD): Member States Obligations and recent judgements” that took place on 9th November 2021 as part of an elni webinar. The two speakers were Christoph Sobotta (Legal Secretary at CJEU) and Prof Marleen van Rijswick (Utrecht University). The webinar addressed the protection of groundwater under the WFD and the challenges observed at the Member States level. This report summarises Christoph Sobbota’s presentation on several water-related cases and Prof Ryswick’s presentation on the implementation of EU law in the Member States as illustrated by the protection of groundwater in the Netherlands. Main findings include that negative impact on the environment will still happen and that instead of focusing on a single project a broader approach should be applied.

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The paper generalizes the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion on the migration impact on the countries� economic convergence. European integration in the long run provide for the convergence of the Ukrainian socio-economic development to the level of member states of the European Union (EU). Considering the neoclassical model of growth of Solow-Swan, the convergence of the national economy to the EU could be bosting by intensifying international processes. In particular, the international migration of labor resources allows increasing the amount of private income from abroad, which makes it possible to improve the socio-economic quality of migrant families and achieve the welfare of the EU society. Based on the theoretical analysis of the scientific literature, the authors highlighted the diversified nature of the migration impact on economic growth and economic convergence. The paper aims to determine the migration impact on the Ukrainian and EU economic convergence. The paper�s object is Ukraine and EU member states, which have the common features of long-term development in the economic and political dimensions. The time for analysis is 2000-2020. The methodological basis of the investigation is the concept of s � and b � convergence. The endogenous parameter of the econometric model of b � convergence is the GDP per capita, and exogenous parameters: the volume of private remittances to countries from abroad, the volume of net migration.

Eco-innovation as a tool to support sustainable development and increase the competitiveness of enterprises

Research background: For several years, the world´s leading producers have been looking for new possibilities for an environmentally sustainable production model that will make it possible to generate ecological products. Eco-innovation is a tool for increasing the competitiveness of producers, reducing their costs and providing new solutions for customers whose environmental awareness is constantly growing. Purpose of the article: The purpose of the paper is to point out the key characteristics eco-innovations measurement and to define basic attributes that allow answering strategic questions for the future application of eco-innovations in business practice, identify new possibilities of applying eco-innovations and finding suitable support formats. These attributes will be defined on the basis of knowledge of the theoretical background of the issue of eco-innovation, analysis of strategic documents at the EU level and evaluation of successful projects. Methods: An analysis of the available scientific literature including electronic sources with a subsequent synthesis of the acquired knowledge, will be applied for the factual theoretical definition of solved problem. Descriptive statistics indicators will assess the current situation and development of the eco-innovation segment at EU member state level. Findings & Value added: The results will enable business practice to understand the essence of eco-innovation, get to know this environment and the current trend, as well as to create a suitable platform for planning successful eco-innovation projects.

Long-Term Policy Recommendations for Improving the Efficiency of Heating and Cooling

Abstract Targets set by the European Green Deal to increase efficiency, reach towards sustainable development and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have placed additional focus on necessary improvements in heating and cooling sector. This article aims to determine whether the objectives set at the EU and on the member state level for achieving climate and environmental goals are being implemented at the regional and local levels. The case of Latvia is considered. A keyword extraction text analysis method is used to identify whether improving the efficiency of heating and cooling is included in regional and local sustainable development strategies. Results are evaluated by using multi-criteria analysis methods TOPSIS and AHP, to determine how much attention in the strategies is paid to direct heating and cooling supply aspects and overall efficiency aspects. Results obtained while assessing the sustainable development strategies of cities and municipalities are compared with the climate index of their heating supply. Considerable differences can be seen in the inclusion of heating and cooling efficiency improvement plans in the strategies at regional and local levels.

브렉시트가 민주적 헌법 국가에 남긴 과제

The research examines the legal and political issues in the constitution raised during the Brexit process until the 2019 UK general elections. This study aims to show that Brexit issues apply to all countries with a democratic constitutional order. Brexit began due to fundamental problems in the European Union. European integration echoes marketism and nationalism. While the identity of the sovereign state rapidly disintegrated, the new EU’s identity failed to quickly replace the existing national identities of member states. In the process, representative democracy’s flaws and British populism at the level of the European member states exacerbated financial or refugee problems. Discontent and antipathy toward the EU were redirected to the parliament and the institutional politicians who had handed over sovereign authority to the transnational organisations. However, institutional politics failed to make a binding decision about political controversial issues. Rather, the political system relied on the negative communications which devide the people and lead to social disintegration. Foreign policy lost its original function of peacefully resolving conflicts between countries and became a means of internal political mobilisation. Disgust against institutional politics resulted in the rapid emergence of anti-parliamentarianism in people and political parties. Thus, Brexit does not just concern Britain; it is a universal issue. If we remove particular elements such as the European integration and the United Kingdom, it becomes our reality and future here in Korea.

Does the proposed CAP reform allow for a paradigm shift towards a greener policy?

Aim of study: The paper explores whether the legislative proposal for the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2021 and the novelty of comprehensive strategic planning at Member State (MS) level can bring about a greener, more multifunctional policy paradigm. While existing research has explored long-term policy change over the entire decision-making process, this study aims to demonstrate the usefulness of conducting policy analysis at the inception of the legislative procedure.Area of study: The study applies to the European Union.Material and methods: The research employs a qualitative method of policy analysis, using a combination of three theoretical frameworks – social learning, path dependency and intergovernmentalism. Extensive document analysis and in-depth interviews were applied to evaluate the proposed reform and gauge the responses of key interest groups.Main results: The proposal holds potential for a substantial overall greening of the policy but will be strongly dependent on implementation at the MS level; the institutional framework provides space for increased environmental ambition, but does not guarantee it, as the proposed safeguards are too weak.Research highlights: More accountability is required during the formulation and implementation of Strategic Plans. Due to strong elements of path dependency and intergovernmentalism, an overall paradigm shift at EU level is unlikely. Strengthening the role of MSs is weakening the commonality of the policy that guarantees at least minimal environmental standards.