Union Level Research Articles

EXTERNAL LOBBYING FOR GLOBAL FINANCIAL MARKET STANDARDS AND LEGAL PROTECTION OF RUSSIAN MONETARY AND FINANCIAL SOVEREIGNTY

Introduction. The article is connected with the importance of financial and legal analysis of the level of expediency and effectiveness of the use of external regulatory standards in the financial legislation of Russia as “global initiatives” in order to achieve standardization of monetary and financial regulation. It is noted that the process of introducing legislative initiatives into the financial law of the Russian Federation is subject to external influence through lobbying by self-regulatory and international financial organizations of global financial market standards. It is shown that external lobbying has not only positive, but also negative aspects that threaten the monetary and financial sovereignty of the state. Materials and methods. The most significant global codes of norms and principles of international financial organizations, the provisions of which are lobbied at the level of legislative initiative, are analyzed. Regulatory and analytical materials were used to assess the need for external influence of global financial standards on the legal norms of the Russian Federation in the field of monetary and financial regulation. The synergetic method in law, used by international organizations for the legal regulation of financial markets, is critically evaluated. Results. The lack of clear criteria for the responsible behavior of systemically important and other participants in financial markets in global standards was noted. There is abstract content of legally significant concepts of obligations and responsibilities in the global codes of the IMF, the Bank for International Settlements, the Council for Financial Stability on the principles of transparency of financial markets, on the set of principles of good faith behavior of participants in foreign exchange transactions, on the transparency of balances of payments, etc. Discussion and conclusions. The danger of external lobbying for “soft law” of financial markets lies in the fact that these norms are adopted without discussion at the UN level and without taking into account the interests of UN member states. Global financial standards threaten the monetary and financial sovereignty of states, creating a supranational monetary and financial structure of global regulation, bypassing the applicable law of national states. Not all global financial standards contribute to the development of the Russian financial sector in the context of a national economic growth strategy.

Production of Electricity at the European Union Level vs. Romania

The purpose of this paper is to carry out a quantitative analysis of the electricity production at the level of the European Union (EU) and in Romania, in the period of 2011-2020. To address the current environmental concerns, the package “Fit for 55” proposes that by 2050, most of the energy production will have to come from renewable sources, but the question is whether this desideratum can indeed be achieved. Among the methods used in scientific research, the quantitative analysis was selected and applied in this paper, in order to carry out a detailed statistical analysis on the trend of increase or decrease in the electricity production from different energy resources, and then comparative analysis was performed, so as to draw relevant conclusions in this respect. Through this study, it can be found that, at the level of the European Union, the electricity production from renewable energy resources is increasing, while that from solid fossil fuels is decreasing. In Romania, the same trend of increase and decrease can be observed, except on a smaller scale. Accordingly, the greatest increase in electricity production was recorded from renewable energy resources, for both the EU and Romania, while the biggest decrease in electricity production from fossil fuels. In order to address the decarbonization of the energy system in Romania, the hypothesis that the decrease in total electricity production is due to the decrease in electricity production from solid fossil fuels was tested. However, this hypothesis was only partially confirmed, since the production of electricity from other energy resources, apart from renewable resources and natural gas, also experienced a similar downward trend.

New agri-environmental measures have a direct effect on wildlife and economy on conventional agricultural land.

The objective of this article is to evaluate economic profits along with return on investment and also the impact of newly designed agri-environmental measures (AEM) on the presence of bioindicator species-European hare and roe deer-in comparison to conventionally cultivated agricultural land. The abundance of European hare was, on average, 4.5-6.7 times higher on AEM compared to the standard agricultural regime and 3.5-6.4 times higher in the case of roe deer in 2020 and 2021. From an economic point of view, the highest incomes were found for extensive orchard alleys and standard conventional crops-wheat and rapeseed rotation. The cash flow from extensive orchard was 4.3 times larger and wheat and rapeseed were 3.5 times larger than from the clover grass mixture. Moreover, the lowest value of operational expenses was found in the case of extensive orchard alleys. The payback period ranged from 16.02 years (wheat and rapeseed rotation) to 53.6 years (clover grass mixture). It is crucial not to assess the economic parameters separately but optimize them with sustainable wildlife management and other benefits that provide ecological and efficient directions of AEM for future generations. However, the performed economic analysis highlights the significantly lower incomes of most components of AEM. We see a principal issue of AEMs usage in the lack of strong incentives for farmers to maximize conservation outcomes. Therefore, the AEMs are often placed in locations with presumed low agriculture profit, which is often related to insignificant conservation effects. Thus, the incomparable AEMs profitability compared to conventional agriculture has to be reflected by the agricultural policy at the European Union level and subsidy policy of particular member states.

Understanding Social Accountability at Rural Local Governance in Bangladesh and the Way Forward: In the Case of Union Parishad

In the 21st Century social accountability has become one of the preconditions to create a more transparent and representative government and aid public institutions in meeting the expectations of the population through empowering citizens which is necessary for effective and sustainable development. Social accountability of the elected representatives at the rural level may help the government increase service quality, empower rural citizens, and promote good governance. At present Bangladesh, mostly known as the “Development Surprise”, has leaped towards lower middle-income country status from a poor developing one within four decades of its decisive victory. In this stage of growth and development, the persistence of social accountability at the rural local government would ensure the attainment of sustainable development through ensuring demand-based service delivery. Against this backdrop, this paper intends to explore the present status of social accountability mechanisms at the Union Parishad which is the lowest tier of rural local governance in Bangladesh. Based on the analysis, several recommendations for the way forward have been summarized. Secondary data analysis and empirical knowledge have been exerted which would refer to a clear view of the current status of social accountability at the grass root level. The first section mentions the importance of social accountability at the union level based on theoretical analysis. Existing mechanisms to ensure social accountability at Union Parishad have been delineated in the second section. The third section develops a compact understanding of the current status of social accountability at the Union Parishad level. The fourth section will share a discussion of the findings, recommendations, and conclusion. This study finds that the lack of interest among Union Parishad Functionaries, avoidance by citizens, irregularities in committee formation, irregular meetings, lack of resources, clientelism and Govt. supervision, etc. have made the social accountability mechanisms at the rural local government ineffective and fruitless. The political willingness of the Government, GO-NGO collaboration, allocation of resources to rural local government, awareness raising among citizens, educating citizens politically, and ensuring proper training for the officials in the Union Parishad can play an important role to revive social accountability through deliberative forums and committees in the rural local government.

Analysis of the Determinants of Agriculture Performance at the European Union Level

In the context of the increase in energy prices and, as a consequence, on other inputs on the global and European market, the study aims to analyze the performance of the European Union’s agriculture through the lens of the correlations and links that are established between different determinants/factors and which provide a much clearer picture of the agricultural sector than the analysis of the result/output and its contribution to GDP. The working methodology consisted in the comparative analysis of the statistical data related to the Member States and the aggregated general data for the EU 27 using the EUROSTAT data by processing them in order to achieve the proposed goal. The results indicate a high level of performance for a number of states that are not considered very important in this area and, in contrast, a lower level of performance for a number of states considered at the top of the pyramid in terms of performance. The derived indicators used and calculated within the research can represent basic elements in the fundamental analysis of the agricultural activity performance of a country and the European Union as a whole.

Incommunications at the Heart of the European Recovery Plan

The recovery plan, which aims to breathe new life into the European economy in the post-COVID era, has been built through dialogic communication / incommunication, which has been one of the cements of the European Union since its creation. The opposition and then the negotiation between the frugal states, supporters of budgetary orthodoxy and an intergovernmental debt, and the prodigal souths, in favor of pooling the debt at the Union level, gave rise to sufficiently ambiguous points of agreement to allow an ideal consensus vis-â-vis the pooling of the debt and its financing.

National payment card system: Problems and prospects of international cooperation and work in foreign markets

Subject. This article examines the economic relations between the National Payment Card System and operators of foreign payment systems, their participants, users of payment services, as well as Russian and foreign regulators and organizations that ensure the functioning of the payment infrastructure. Objectives. The article aims to analyze the problems and prospects of international cooperation of the National Payment Card System and its work in foreign markets, and formulate basic recommendations for improving its international cooperation effectiveness. Methods. For the study, I used theoretical research methods. Results. The article finds that the National Payment Card System’s development has greatly contributed to consolidating the sovereignty of Russia in the financial sphere. The article highlights the priority areas of foreign expansion of the National Payment Card System and priority formats of cooperation with foreign partners. Conclusions. Western partners, refusing to fulfill their obligations and imposing sanctions bypassing the mechanisms and rules adopted at the UN level, demonstrate their unreliability in mutual economic relations. That is why, when developing international cooperation in foreign markets, the National Payment Card System should rely on its own strength and mutually beneficial partnership with friendly countries.

An exploratory study into the relationship between playing at home or away and concussion

ABSTRACT Primary Objective To investigate the effect of home and away game travel on risk of concussion across different levels of rugby union. Research Design Exploration study across school, university, and professional rugby teams. Methods and Procedures Retrospective analysis of concussion incidence and symptomology of surveillance data and prospective data collection for potential concussions via surveys. Data was collected from school rugby teams (n = 344 matches, over 2 years), a university rugby (n = 6 matches), and a professional rugby team (n = 64 matches, over two seasons). Main Outcomes and Results School level rugby had an increased prevalence of concussions in away matches (p = 0.02). Likewise, there was a significant increase (p < 0.05) in concussions at away matches in university rugby. In addition, the professional rug by team had significant differences in recovery times and symptoms with away fixtures, including longer recovery times (p < 0.01), more initial symptoms (p < 0.01), as well as greater and more severe symptoms at 48 hours (p < 0.05). Conclusions This research highlights an increased prevalence of concussion in school and university-aged rugby players away from home, as well as increased symptoms, symptom severity, and recovery times in professional rugby players.

Towards an airtightness compliance tool based on machine learning models for naturally ventilated dwellings

Physical models and probabilistic applications often guide the study and characterization of natural phenomena in engineering. Such is the case of the study of air change rates (ACHs) in buildings for their complex mechanisms and high variability. It is not uncommon for the referred applications to be costly and impractical in both time and computation, resulting in the use of simplified methodologies and setups. The incorporation of airtightness limits to quantify adequate ACHs in national transpositions of the Energy Performance Building Directive (EPBD) exemplifies the issue. This research presents a roadmap for developing an alternative instrument, a compliance tool built with a Machine Learning (ML) framework, that overcomes some simplification issues regarding policy implementation while fulfilling practitioners' needs and general societal use. It relies on dwellings' terrain, geometric and airtightness characteristics, and meteorological data. Results from previous work on a region with a mild heating season in southern Europe apply in training and testing the proposed tool. The tool outputs numerical information on the air change rates performance of the building envelope, and a label, accordingly. On the test set, the best regressor showed mean absolute errors (MAE) below 1.02% for all the response variables, while the best classifier presented an average accuracy of 97.32%. These results are promising for the generalization of this methodology, with potential for application at regional, national, and European Union levels. The developed tool could be a complementary asset to energy certification programmes of either public or private initiatives.

An Interpretation of Articles 18-23 of Directive (EU) 2019/790: Open Issues in Contractual Copyright and Related Rights Law

Abstract Although creators have always been placed at the centre of the copyright system, they generally face difficulties in being fairly remunerated for their work. Articles 18-23 Directive (EU) 2019/790 require Member States to establish a series of protective measures in favour of authors and performers who license or transfer the exclusive economic rights to their works or performances to third parties for the purpose of exploitation. These measures constitute an absolute novelty at the European Union level and at the level of most Member States, and present a potential which must not be wasted. However, these provisions are in many ways complex and ambiguous, so that their effectiveness could be undermined in various ways. This article focuses on some still open issues concerning Arts. 18-23 Directive (EU) 2019/790 and attempts to provide the most appropriate interpretation in order to achieve the intended goals. In doing so, particular attention is paid to previous fragmented national and European experiences in the field of contractual copyright and related rights law.

The motility of posted workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: policies, trends and worker experiences in Austria

PurposeTo analyse the policies, posting trends and worker experiences during the pandemic, this study uses the concept of motility, i.e. workers' mobility capital, and examines how posted workers' geographical mobility, their access to and conditions of employment and social protection were impacted. The authors discuss how the measures against the pandemic undertaken at the European Union (EU) and national level have affected labour mobility, the impact these measures have had on macro trends of posting to Austria, and lastly, how the pandemic and the actions against it have influenced the lives of posted workers at the individual level.Design/methodology/approachIn this article, the authors focus on the specific case of posting to Austria. The authors ask whether, and if so, how EU and national policies which came about during the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the motility of posted workers, and how these workers used their mobility capital in this unfolding context. The authors address the research questions with analyses of EU and national level policies, use administrative data on posting, and individual-level data based on interviews with posted workers and public authorities.FindingsThe authors find that the Austrian government's public health and economic priorities were jointly influential on the motility of cross-border workers. The specific case of the posted workers shed new light on the limits to such a national sovereignty approach when it comes to economic interests in an increasingly interdependent European labour market. This study’s findings show that despite the access provided at the policy levels, the motility of posted workers was also affected by their individual circumstances, or competences, which produced different forms of appropriation.Originality/valueThe authors apply the theoretical framework of motility by studying policy developments through the element of access options and conditions, and the posting trends to Austria and worker experiences at the individual level through the lenses of appropriation and competences. The authors find that while the EU and national public policy in enhancing access options have been successful during the COVID-19 period, amelioration attempts in access conditions have not been realised as observed in our analysis of the competence and appropriation dimensions of the posted workers in Austria. This highlights the need for a more integrated approach in the study of policies by exploring beyond the national and EU level policies and focussing on the implementation and observations at the individual level.

Explaining why public officials perceive interest groups as influential: on the role of policy capacities and policy insiderness

This article asks why public officials perceive some interest groups as influential for policy outcomes. Theoretically, we rely on resource exchange and behavioral approaches. Perceived influence of interest groups does not only follow from the policy capacities they bring to the table; it also relates to the extent to which public officials consider groups as policy insiders. Both effects are assumed to be conditional on advocacy salience, i.e., the number of stakeholders mobilized in each legislative proposal. We rely on a new dataset of 103 prominent interest groups involved in 28 legislative proposals passed between 2015 and 2016 at the European Union level. Our findings show that interest groups associated with high analytical and political capacities are perceived as more influential for final policy outcomes than other groups with less policy capacities. Yet, in policy issues with high advocacy salience, interest groups characterized by higher ‘insiderness’ are perceived as more influential among public officials.

Disrupting healthcare? Entrepreneurship as an "innovative" financing mechanism in India's primary care sector.

"Innovation" - whether in the form of digital technologies or business models - dominates imaginaries of global health futures and is often promoted as a "solution" through which the goal of universal health coverage can be achieved. Seemingly disrupting the status quo, it offers the promise of novel and simple answers to longstanding and complex social problems. In this article, I analyze a public-private partnership between the Indian state of West Bengal and an Indian-owned social enterprise. One of its defining features is an "innovative" financing mechanism based on loans and entrepreneurship. The project employs young people from marginalized communities as health entrepreneurs, who market digital healthcare in rural areas in order to provide access to affordable and high-quality biomedical care. Although the model promises sustainable modes of financing healthcare, it shifts financial risk to low-income groups. As health workers resisted attempts to be turned into self-reliant entrepreneurs and continued to make demands on the developmental state, frictions emerged during project implementation. The question of how healthcare should be made accessible and affordable, in what manner the state should be involved in financing it, and what role innovation should play in this regard was all contested. Although an entrepreneurial business model to deliver primary care is seen as an innovative solution at a time when government expenditure in the social sector remains low and levels of un- and underemployment are high, this paper complicates prevailing claims about its disruptive powers in India and argues that its effective role for equitable social change has to be critically examined.

Health misinformation and freedom of expression: considerations for policymakers.

Health misinformation, most visibly following the COVID-19 infodemic, is an urgent threat that hinders the success of public health policies. It likely contributed, and will continue to contribute, to avoidable deaths. Policymakers around the world are being pushed to tackle this problem. Legislative acts have been rolled out or announced in many countries and at the European Union level. The goal of this paper is not to review particular legislative initiatives, or to assess the impact and efficacy of measures implemented by digital intermediaries, but to reflect on the high constitutional and ethical stakes involved in tackling health misinformation through speech regulation. Our findings suggest that solutions focused on regulating speech are likely to encounter significant constraints, as policymakers grasp with the limitations imposed by freedom of expression and ethical considerations. Solutions focused on empowering individuals - such as media literacy initiatives, fact-checking or credibility labels - are one way to avoid such hurdles.

STUDIES ON THE MANAGEMENT OF THE INTEGRATION OF QUALITY SCHEMES FOR AGRI-FOOD PRODUCTS

Quality systems established at Union or national level, including farm certification schemes for agricultural and food products, provide consumers with assurances about the quality and characteristics of the products or the production process used as a result of farmers' participation in these schemes, confer added value to the products concerned and increase their market opportunities.Until June 2022, Romania received, from the European Union, the proof of registration in the Register of Protected Designations of Origin and Protected Geographical Indications of the product "Telemea de Ibăneşti", as well as of the wines "Insuraței" and "Adamclisi" as products with the Designation of Protected Origin (PDO). Also, the products registered as PGI were: "Salam de Sibiu", "Cârnaţi de Pleșcoi", "Magiun de prune Topoloveni", "Novacafumat din Tara Bârsei", "Scrumbie de Dunăreafumată" and "Salad with pike roe from Tulcea". The only product registered as STG was the product "Salată cu icre de știucă de Tulcea".In Romania until June 2022, five documents were published in the eAmbrosia database for the registration of 5 food products that come from 3 classes, respectively: Class 1.2. Meat products (boiled, salted, smoked) - "Salinate de Turda"; Class 2.3. Bakery products, pastry products, confectionery products, biscuits - "Pita de Pecica"; Wines - "Drăgășani", "Bohotin", "Terasele Dunării".

Implementing post-normal science with or for EU policy actors: using quantitative story-telling

There is increasing recognition of the wicked nature of the intertwined climate, biodiversity and economic crises, and the need for adaptive, multi-scale approaches to understanding the complexity of both the problems and potential responses. Most science underpinning policy responses to sustainability issues, however, remains overtly apolitical and focussed on technical innovation; at odds with a critical body of literatures insisting on the recognition of systemic problem framing when supporting policy processes. This paper documents the experience of implementing a mixed method approach called quantitative story-telling (QST) to policy analysis that explicitly recognises this normative dimension, as the methodology is part of a post-normal science (PNS) toolkit. The authors reflect on what was learnt when considering how QST fared as a tool for science–policy interaction, working with European Union (EU) level policy actors interested in sustainable agriculture and sustainable development goal 2. These goals—also known as UN Agenda 2030—are the latest institutionalisation of the pursuit of sustainable development and the EU has positioned itself as taking a lead in its implementation. Thus, the paper illustrates our experience of using PNS as an approach to science policy interfaces in a strategic policy context; and illustrates how the challenges identified in the science–policy literature are amplified when working across multiple policy domains and taking a complex systems approach. Our discussion on lessons learnt may be of interest to researchers seeking to work with policy-makers on complex sustainability issues.

Initial Evidence on the Association Between Audit Fees and Client Participation in Underfunded Multiemployer Pension Plans

In this study, we examine the association between audit fees and client participation in underfunded multiemployer pension plans. Consistent with our hypothesis, our regression results find that audit fees for firms with underfunded balances in multiemployer pension plans (MEPPs) are consistently higher and statistically significant compared with firms without MEPPs after controlling for other factors known to influence audit fees. The fee premium for firms with a net underfunded plan balance is 6.2%. Thus, the magnitude of the economic effect appears to be an average increase in audit fees of about $280,240. Furthermore, we find a significant inverse relationship between audit fees and estimated MEPP underfunding when firms with higher unionization levels. Our findings are likely to be of interest to standards-setters, regulators, and policymakers in the United States, European Union, and other countries as appropriate.

Effectiveness of Agricultural Information and Communication Center for Disseminating Agricultural Information

Nowadays, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are playing important role in communicating agricultural information. In this connection, the government of Bangladesh established a number of Agricultural Information and Communication Centers (AICC) at the Union level to disseminate agricultural information. The purposes of the study were to determine the effectiveness of AICC for disseminating agricultural information and to explore the contribution of the selected characteristics of the AICC member farmers to the effectiveness of AICC. Data were collected from 90 randomly selected farmers of nine Upazillas of Faridpur district under Dhaka division. Face-to-face interview followed by pretested structured questionnaire was held with the selected farmers to gather data. The survey revealed that an overwhelming majority (80%) of the farmers perceived medium effectiveness of AICC, while 7.8% of them perceived low and 12.2% of them perceived high effectiveness of AICC for disseminating agricultural information. The effectiveness of AICC was influenced by the intensity of use of ICT, length of experience to use ICT and ICT using confidence. Therefore, responsible organizations such as Agriculture Information Service (AIS) with the help of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) and other advisory service-providing organizations should take action to enhance the effectiveness of AICC.&#x0D; Vol. 9, No. 3, December 2022: 259-265

Geographies of devaluation: Spatialities of the German coal exit

This article analyzes the geographies of the German coal exit by looking at the spatial dimensions of coal devaluation. It argues that while the Energiewende has been described as having a national origin, central triggers of the national coal exit agreement have to do with devaluation pressures created by the combination of global relations in the fuel markets, the territorial bordering of electricity and carbon markets at the European Union level, and place-based and multiscalar anticoal networks. The role of place-based resistance to the past, relational, expected, and imaginary concomitant forms of devaluation in lignite regions is also described as a key spatial barrier to the German coal phase-out. It will be shown that the emergence of a coal exit agreement, which represents a national fix to address not only existing market devaluation forces, but also a double legitimacy crisis for the government, was based on spatially uneven relations. The German case is relevant for the geographies of energy transitions for showing how multispatial strategies, the spatial organization of energy markets, and the territorial regulation of energy systems shape the possibilities for the devaluation needed to accelerate the pace of the fossil fuels phase-out.

Application of Fuzzy algorithms in conjunction with 1 H-NMR spectroscopy for alcoholic beverages differentiation.

According to recent statistics elaborated at the European Union level, wine represents one of the most falsified commodities. In this context, the development of reliable classification models for alcoholic beverages differentiation requires, besides sensitive analytical tools, the use of the most suitable data processing methods like those based on advanced statistical tools or artificial intelligence. The present study aims to establish a new innovative approach for alcoholic beverages differentiation (wines and fruit distillates) able to increase the discrimination rate of the developed models. Thus, a data dimensionality reduction step, performed on the obtained 1 H-NMR profiles, was applied. This stage consisted in the application of Fuzzy Principal Component Analysis (FPCA) before themodel development through discriminant analysis. The enhancement of the classification potential given by the application of FPCA as compared to Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was discussed. The association between 1 H-NMR spectroscopy and an appropriate statistical approach proved to be a very effective tool for alcoholic beverages differentiation. In order to develop reliable metabolomic approaches for the differentiation of wines and fruit distillates, 1 H-NMR spectroscopic data were exploited in corroboration with fuzzy algorithms for data dimensionality reduction. The study proved the efficiency of using FPCA scores over those obtained through the widely applied PCA. Based on the proposed approach, it was proved that for wine classification a perfect separation was obtained according to the geographical origin, cultivar and vintage. A percentage of 100% correctly classified samples was also achieved for botanical and geographical differentiation of fruit distillates. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.