Union Level Research Articles

Air, land, and water pollutants and public health expenditures: Empirical data from selected EU countries in the transport sector

The increase in economic activity, particularly in transport, leads to a significant increase in emissions of pollutants, such as ammonia, arsenic and cadmium, at the European Union (EU) level. This can seriously impact human health and, consequently, public health spending. Based on data from 15 European Union countries from 1992 to 2020, a panel co-integration approach is used to study these pollutants’ short- and long-term co-movements and per capita health expenditure. The results show a long-term relationship between ammonia, arsenic and cadmium emissions and per capita health spending, as they are panel-cointegrated. Ammonia and cadmium emissions exert a statistically significant positive effect on health expenditure in the short run, and arsenic emissions have a statistically significant positive impact in the long run. The forecast assessment of reductions in health spending resulting from policies to reduce emissions of air, land and water pollutants, such as ammonia, arsenic and cadmium, from the transport sector supports investments in its policies that reduce pressure on health spending. The reduction in annual healthcare expenditure is greater when these reductions are made sooner and more severely. Indeed, varying the reduction in emissions for each pollutant by 10% and 100%, respectively, from the first year for all countries over a 3-year period results in an average annual reduction in health spending of 2.05% and 51.02%, respectively. However, if we wait until the third year, the annual reduction is only 0.77% and 17.63% respectively.

A farewell to welfare? Conceptualising welfare populism, welfare chauvinism and welfare Euroscepticism

This conceptual article and special issue introduction argues for the importance of studying three policy paradigms surrounding welfare policy opposition. The first is welfare populism, the opposition to welfare policies that do not benefit the ‘common people’. The second is welfare chauvinism, the opposition to welfare policies for non-natives within a nation-state. The third is welfare Euroscepticism, the opposition to welfare policies at the European Union level. These paradigms have distinct causes and consequences that should be studied in more detail across different political actors. And while welfare policy opposition may not lead to a complete farewell to welfare, they have been shaping and will continue to shape welfare state recalibration. This article offers summaries of the special issue contributions with empirical snapshots of welfare policy opposition and concludes with avenues for future research.

Labour standards in global garment supply chains and the proposed EU corporate sustainability due diligence directive

Growing concerns over labour standards and workers’ rights in global supply chains (GSCs) have led many companies to adopt codes of conduct (CoCs) as part of increasing attempts to self-regulate through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) instruments to promote international labour standards in suppliers’ factories. However, improvements in labour standards and the level of protection of workers’ rights in GSCs are unsatisfactory, the garment industry labour force being a case in point. At European Union (EU) level this has led to the adoption of an EU corporate sustainability package in addition to previously adopted sector-specific/thematic due diligence legislation. This article looks closely at selected labour standards and labour rights aspects of the EU proposed Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence (CSDD) and evaluates its contribution to the improvement of workers’ rights protection in global garment supply chains.

Energy Lobbying in the Decision-Making Process of the European Union

Lobbying is part of social life and constitutes an informal path of influencing politics at the national and international levels. The EU is a prime example of an organisation wherein Member States act as lobbyists trying to influence EU policy. The energy transformation that has begun is a process that is particularly dependent on the shaping of climate and energy policy at the European Union level should one compare it to previous socio-technical transformations, with interest advocacy playing an important role in this process. This article aims at examining and explaining the activities and influence of Germany’s lobbying on the shaping of energy policy in the European Union (EU). The subject of the research is Germany’s lobbying strategy based on the Europeanisation of the country’s energy transition (in German, Energiewende). The research shows that lobbying activities have had the intended effect of Europeanising Germany’s Energiewende, which has allowed for increased innovation in technology and as well as increased production of products from the broader environmental sector. Furthermore, these activities have created new jobs in the sector, which has kick-started and strengthened the German economy. In conclusion, the more resources a Member State has and the longer it has been a member of the EU, the better the conditions are for effective lobbying.

Between armed conflict and state terrorism - specific individual restrictive measures adopted in Poland in the context of the war in Ukraine and the situation in Belarus. Legal perspective

The aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine in 2022 and the actions of Belarus, both at the internal level and in support of Russia, have caused numerous changes in the geopolitical dimension, with consequences reaching beyond the European continent. They also resulted in the adoption of specific legal measures, both at the European Union and national levels, to counteract support for this aggression. The aim of this study is to present national legal solutions regarding restrictive measures against persons and entities that were introduced by the Act on special solutions for counteracting support for aggression against Ukraine and for the protection of national security. The article sets out their relationship to the mechanisms contained in European Union regulations and identifies the need for legal changes to adopt permanent systemic solutions for the application of national restrictive measures.

Legalism and the European Union’s rule of law crisis

AbstractThe past decade has seen the rise of the semi-authoritarian regimes within the European Union. EU law scholars are rightfully concerned that, in the absence of a meaningful response, this leads to an existential crisis for the Union, as these regimes threaten respect for the Union’s foundational values. The Union did respond to what it has framed as a rule of law crisis by means of a constitutional transformation, asserting Union power to protect judicial independence within the Member States even in areas previously thought beyond the reach of Union law. This paper contends that the Union’s response to the authoritarian threat is flawed for its legalist faith in law and courts. In institutional terms, it was the Court of Justice of the European Union, rather than the Union’s political branches, that took the lead in this transformation. In substantive terms, the Union has transformed its constitutional framework to protect the organisational infrastructure of the judiciary, but it failed to do the same in response to various other strategies in the authoritarian playbook. By framing the authoritarian threat as, above all else, a threat to the judiciary, the Union’s response contributes to the reification of political debate at Union level and risks the alienation of the European polity.

Article: A Change in the Law or A Guideline from the EU VAT Committee? Evaluating Soft Law Instruments for Clarifying EU VAT Law Through the Lens of Legitimacy

In addition to amendments to the European Union (EU) value added tax (VAT) statutory law and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), various types of soft law have increasingly been used in recent years to elucidate the essence of EU VAT provisions. These include the guidelines issued by the EU VAT Committee which is a body explicitly enshrined in the EU VAT Directive. This article is aimed at discussing the significance of the EU VAT Committee guidelines from a legitimacy perspective. It will be demonstrated that they do not correspond to the ideals of inclusive governance that have long been advocated at the Union level and thus generally show deficits in input legitimacy. Some recent examples relating to the amended special scheme for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be utilized to argue that the EU VAT Committee guidelines can only be considered to have a certain level of output legitimacy. They can thus be useful as a legal opinion that national authorities and courts should take into account when interpreting and applying EU VAT law. However, they must therefore comply with the mandate of the EU legislature enshrined in Article 398 paragraph 4 of the EU VAT Directive. Value added tax (VAT), EU VAT law, EU VAT Committee, soft law, legitimacy, rule of law, interpretation of law, SME scheme, Amending Directive (EU) 2020/285

International legal approach to liability and prosecution for concluding and participating in anti-competitive agreements

Economic development is one of the main goals of states, state entities and unions. An important place in the development of the economy is to maintain and ensure competition. The legal order and forms of maintaining competition in state entities are different. At the same time, they are all aware of the high public danger of anti-competitive agreements. In this connection, the legislation of most countries and unions (organizations) provides for the prohibition of anti-competitive agreements and serious measures of prosecution for their conclusion. The aim of the work is the author's analysis of the international legal approach to the regulation of liability and prosecution of persons (both legal and physical) for the conclusion and participation in anti-competitive agreements. In this work, the methods of logical and analytical analysis of the legislation of countries, international organizations and unions were used. According to the results of the study, it can be concluded that the importance (and hence the danger of cartels) of combating anti-competitive agreements is understood in most countries with leading economies. This danger is recognized both at the level of the state itself and at the level of state unions and organizations. The international community pays great attention to the issue of competition. The competition law of developed countries and international organizations in which they are composed is a developed system of effective regulation. In order to optimize the interaction of law enforcement agencies and agencies involved in the fight against cartels, it is necessary to create common information bases, regulate the exchange of documents and information. In our opinion, it seems necessary to develop and implement the institute of joint activities by foreign agencies.

European Social Dialogues: Shaping EU Social Policy through Parental Leave Rights

The European Social Dialogue (ESD) has served as the platform for European social partners to negotiate parental leave policies at the European Union (EU) level since 1995. The partners’ efforts to revise the regulations in 2015, in response to the European Commission’s broader approach toward European work–life balance policies, failed, however, and the reasons for and implications of this failure remain insufficiently explored. Drawing on existing ESD literature and leveraging the regulator-intermediary-target (RIT) model, the authors develop a typology of policymaking outcomes based on the analysis of three parental leave directives from 1996 to 2019. The findings demonstrate that divergent preferences among European social partners, particularly when juxtaposed against the Commission’s policy objectives and interests, reduced the probability of a successful ESD through which European social partners could generate a framework agreement. Instead of being rule-makers, these conditions relegated European social partners to the role of rule-takers. If this trend continues, it poses a significant challenge to the role and influence of European social partners in EU policymaking.

Does the European Union's rule of law require the criminalisation of EU public officials? A first appraisal

AbstractThis article emphasises the role of criminal law as a strategic form of accountability aimed at safeguarding the EU rule of law, especially when public officials are entrusted with powers that may violate fundamental rights. Abuses committed in the context of border management serve as a case study and a test bench for the more general argument developed in the contribution. It is argued that criminal law—through sanctioning serious abuse of power irrespective of any lucrative intent—contributes to the legitimacy of policies and actions carried out in the name of the union. As impunity gaps may result from the difficult application of domestic law, the article maintains that it is necessary to stigmatise at the union's level such misdeeds that go beyond cases of mere bad policy or ‘maladministration’. It therefore advocates for a directive requiring Member States to criminalise abuse of powers, which are in breach of the rule of law as one of the foundational values enshrined in Article 2 TEU.

Defining “Crisis” in Migration Governance: a Critical Legal Mapping of EU Crisis Response Mechanisms

Abstract Over the past ten years, the language of crisis has become increasingly common in discourse about migration governance at the European Union (EU) level, and policy responses have been oriented by an emergency rationale that prioritizes short-term solutions over long-term planning. EU migration and asylum law incorporates several crisis response mechanisms, and the addition of a new set of instruments has recently been proposed. This paper offers a critical legal mapping of what counts as a “crisis” in EU migration and asylum law, and the mechanisms for responding to such crises. It exemplifies a complex system in which the tension between the imperative to address threats purportedly arising from unwanted migration is intricately intertwined with the necessity of granting Member States flexibility to respond to contingencies without compromising the integrity of the common EU asylum and migration system.

Dirbtinis intelektas viešajame sektoriuje: progresas versus regresas?

AI is analysed from different perspectives, one of which is the application of AI in the public sector. The development of the AI requires a responsible approach, including ethical guidelines, regulation, and continuous public education. It is important to strike a balance between promoting innovation and minimising potential negative consequences. There is also a need to promote technology development in a way that benefits society as a whole and not just certain groups. It is becoming a common tool in education. Already, AI is changing the way schools, universities, students, and educators work and children learn. Educational institutions benefit from it by helping teachers meet the specific needs of each learner. There is a strong push for closer cooperation on digital education at European Union level and the importance of collaboration across all sectors to make education fit for the digital age. The article provides a general overview of artificial intelligence, its impact on society, how it can be applied in the public sector, whether humans are already able to exploit and benefit from this technology, and how to guard against the negative effects of technology. What legal measures need to be taken to ensure that artificial intelligence is a progress for mankind and not a regression in any field. Keywords: public sector, artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence technologies, artificial intelligence systems, big data, ethics, national power, education, teacher, teaching.

Right to Privacy and Data Protection Concerns Raised by the Development and Usage of Face Recognition Technologies in the European Union

Abstract The fast and fragmentedly regulated development of facial recognition technologies and related artificial intelligence poses various challenges to personal privacy, which leads to potential infringements of a wide range of related human rights. This article analyses the threats that the development and use of facial recognition technologies pose to privacy and personal data protection. It discusses the concept of privacy and the protection of personal data, including biometric data, at European Union level, and assesses the proposed new legal framework. It questions whether this is sufficient to protect privacy and ensure personal data protection in the context of the rapid development and increasing usage of facial recognition technologies in public and private sectors.

Информационные угрозы и международная информационная безопасность в работе ООН и ШОС

The purpose of this article is to comparatively analyze the work carried out by the leading countries in the UN and the SCO on international information security (IIS). The UN activities in the sphere of IIoS are disclosed in the working formats of the GGE and the OEWG. The authors show that the Russian side is moving from the goal of establishing an international regime of non-proliferation of information weapons to the creation of an international regime of non-use of information weapons on critical infrastructures. The article notes that the Western approach has evolved from recognizing that there is no need to create additional norms to the norms of international law and the need to develop an international universal, legally binding instrument to the exact opposite objectives. Based on the highlighted areas of comparison between the UN and the SCO, the authors conclude that, unlike the UN, the SCO addresses the problem of cyber threats promptly and consistently through several forms of interaction (at least four): signing international documents, creating and developing regional institutions to combat cyber threats, etc. At the UN level, work is carried out only in two areas, which requires improvement and expansion of these areas.

Influence of audience on the home advantage: a comparative study in French Rugby union and Football championships before and during Covid-19 pandemic

Several sources suggest that the behavior of supporters is as important as their number in the stadium in influencing the advantage of playing at home in team sports. Some studies indicate that Football fans display more violent behaviors than Rugby ones and we hypothesized that they contribute more importantly to the home advantage. We analyzed the performances of the teams involved in the highest level of Rugby union and Football French championships during 2019-2020 season (with fans in the stadiums) and the 2020-2021 season (without public). Results revealed that the advantage of playing at home is significant when public was present in both sports. However, when fans were not present, this advantage disappeared in Football but remained unchanged in Rugby union. So, crowd attendance is an important factor in determining Home advantage (or Away disadvantage) in Football, but not in Rugby union. These results are discussed in terms of differences in fans behavior in the two sports, and we hypothesized that the feeling of territoriality is more important in Rugby union than in Football.

FURTHER STUDIES ON THE PHENOMENON OF TAX OPTIMISATION VERSUS TAX EVASION - THE SCOURGE OF CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY

In this paper we aim to study the phenomen of tax evasion and tax optimization at the European Union level, in particular on value added tax, in order to outline the concept of the VAT revenue shortfall and to identify its determinants. Tax evasion is a complex and persistent problem faced by most countries around the world. This harmful practice affects the budgets of countries, reducing their revenues and jeopardising the sustainability of tax systems. Either tax evasion or tax optimisation both have the same strategic objective, namely to reduce through legal or illegal means the financial resources allocated to the state budget as taxes or duties. In order to ensure that we achieve the above-mentioned goal, we have set ourselves the objective of carrying out a study in EU member countries on the determinants of the VAT gap.

Leverage points for increased grain legume consumption: a Swedish case study

Abstract Food production and consumption need to substantially change to meet global environmental and public health goals. Increasing grain legume consumption in most countries is key to providing nourishing food for all while contributing to cropping system sustainability with relatively low environmental impact. But what actions have the potential to increase such consumption? The wide knowledge of how to cultivate grain legumes among Swedish farmers, low current consumption in most of the population, and prior shifts in dietary patterns make Sweden an interesting context for studying the potential increase of grain legumes in diets. We identify system-level actions in peer-reviewed and grey literature with the potential to increase grain legume consumption and apply the leverage points framework to evaluate the transformative potential of these actions for the food system in Sweden. Our findings show that most actions suggested in the literature so far focus on increased production, while fewer suggestions integrate production and consumption. Few actions address the deeper leverage points with most transformative potential compared with those with less transformative potential. We qualitatively analyze the actions and develop a chain of leverage illustrating how several actions together could be combined to support change at the deepest leverage point, creating social norms for the consumption of healthy foods. The chain includes developing new tools, facilities and products; changing standards; building feedback loops; changing the food environment; building new information flows between actors; and reforming the value chain. To implement the actions identified in this analysis, a range of value chain actors and supportive policies at the national and European Union levels will be needed.

«Третий сектор»: вызовы и потенциал вузовской науки в инженерно-технической сфере позднего СССР

The article analyzes the efforts to stimulate university science at the level of management and methodolog-ical organization of university R&D during the period from the 1960s to the 1980s. The article is based on the study of materials of late Soviet publications, interviews with engineers who worked in the field of R&D during the late Soviet period, and recollections of university employees involved in R&D. It is generally believed that research activities in the late USSR were predominantly concentrated in the academic sector and branch research institutes, while universities were on their periphery. However, new studies show that HEIs were seen as an inte-gral element of the R&D system, and there were attempts made at the Union level to intensify the involvement of Soviet HEIs in these activities. Decrees were adopted on additional funding and incentives for contracting between performers from HEIs and customers from industry and sectoral research institutes. This practice be-came known as “contract science” and can be regarded as the inclusion of pro-market mechanisms in the sphere of R&D. The author discusses contradictions and barriers to more active involvement of universities in R&D. Soviet experts noted that financial and legal departments of universities approached initiative and contractual R&D with caution and created bureaucratic delays in their conclusion and implementation. Funding for R&D was unstable, leading to a high share of incomplete R&D. University science in engineering and technology also suffered from the common problems of Soviet R&D, such as the gap between the stage of development of a new product and inventing it and bringing it into industrial production. Delays or stoppages in implementation resulted in significant number of new developments made in cooperation with universities remaining at the prototype stage.

Legal particularities of AI technology usage in real-world data formation

In recent decades, technological progress has contributed to a consistent change in approaches to organizing the provision of medical care in various regions of the world. Electronic data-gathering systems make it possible to create extensive information databases about the health status of the population of certain territories or entire states. The introduction of technological solutions based on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies makes it possible to provide a systematic analysis of large volumes of information, as well as to develop new treatment methods of life-threatening diseases. The use of AI technologies not only has significant potential for improving the organization of medical care, but also brings essential risks of human rights restriction, it may also form discriminatory practices or even cause harm to health. The authors demonstrate the importance of AI technologies in improving separate stages of medical care and the circulation of healthcare technologies, and also present various approaches to defining the notion of “artificial intelligence”, that is a crucial element in specifying the object of legal regulation. The article systematizes the list of threats and challenges to human security associated with the use of AI technologies. The development of legal regulation of this sphere at the national (United States of America) and supranational (European Union) levels is analyzed, and also the main directions of development of this field in the Russian Federation are presented.

International legal mechanisms for the protection of human rights and freedoms in times of war: the practice of the ECHR

The issue of human and civil rights and freedoms is an integral part of the problems of the real human situation in society and the State. Never before have the issues of human and civil rights and freedoms been raised as acutely as they are today in connection with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The international community is on the side of Ukraine, the inviolability of its territorial integrity, and most importantly, in defense of human rights as the highest social value in the country.
 Also, after the armed aggression of Russia and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, ensuring international security has become a major issue of the day. As an independent, legal and social state, Ukraine is particularly interested in protecting human rights and freedoms. Currently, there are many international bodies that monitor the observance of human rights and freedoms and protect these rights, including courts and tribunals. They are divided into universal, i.e. those that operate at the UN level, and regional (European, American, African, Asian and others). For a detailed study of this issue, the author has researched and analyzed international standards of human and civil rights and freedoms, in particular, the case law of the ECHR in favor of Ukraine in the human rights protection system from 2014 to the present.
 As of February 21, 2023, the following interstate cases were pending before the ECtHR: the «Crimean case» related to the annexation of Crimea by Russia; the case of human rights violations in the occupied territories of Donbas, which includes the complaint about the downing of Malaysian flight MH-17 filed by Ukraine and the Netherlands; the case of violations of the rights of Ukrainian political prisoners; the case of the seizure of Ukrainian sailors and vessels in the Kerch Strait in 2018. the case of crimes committed by the Russian military during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
 However, it is worth noting that on September 16, 2022, Russia finally withdrew from the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. This was the result of Russia's expulsion from the Council of Europe. The European Court of Human Rights has finally lost jurisdiction over Russia, and the consideration of thousands of complaints against it has been called into question, including those filed by Ukraine.