EU Ones Research Articles

Cumulative effects of offshore renewables: From pragmatic policies to holistic marine spatial planning tools

To alleviate climate change consequences, the UK government is pioneering offshore renewable energy developments at an ever-increasing pace. The North Sea is a dynamic ecosystem with strong bottom-up/top-down natural and anthropogenic drivers facing rapid climate change impacts. To ensure the compatibility of such large-scale developments with nature conservation obligations, regulatory processes set out that all effects need to be evaluated through cumulative impact assessments (CIA). However, by excluding climate change impacts and bottom-up effects of renewable developments, the CIA lacks spatio-temporal baselines linking oceanic ecosystem indicators to population dynamics, leading to uncertain predictions at population levels. CIA is currently required in Europe under the Strategic Environmental Assessment and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), suggesting that these two policy areas should be more closely aligned. This study presents an overview of the current CIA policy framework, enabling an ecosystem-based approach linking lower ecosystem components to top-predator populations using the UK as a case study. At the UK level, CIA requirements mirror the EU ones under the Marine and Coastal Access Act, the UK Marine Policy Statement, and the UK National Policy Statement. Firstly, we show how CIA and MSFD requirements are integrated into the UK licensing and maritime planning frameworks. Secondly, we provide policy pathways embedding the MSFD as a baseline for CIAs with European and UK regulations. Thirdly, we propose a framework encompassing a shared monitoring effort, an ecosystem modelling approach connected with two existing online databases supported with funds from Contracts for Difference. This integrated approach will enable a holistic and pragmatic ecosystem-based framework for more accurate and rapid methods for producing CIAs for offshore renewable energy developments.

Convergence patterns in income and manufacturing productivity in EU: does the latter drive the former?

ABSTRACT While exploring convergence in real income and in manufacturing productivity of the central and eastern European countries (CEE) and the southern EU counties with the developed EU ones, testing and clustering methodology and sigma convergence are used. We found that CEE countries strongly converge, both in real income and manufacturing productivity, with developed EU countries, while the southern EU countries do not. Moreover, the convergence pattern in real income follows that in manufacturing productivity in both peripheral EU groups suggesting that the underlying productivity clubs determine the formation of income clubs. The observed time pattern of sigma convergence also suggests that manufacturing productivity drives economic growth, as (non)convergence of the former preceded (‘caused’) that of the latter. Aforementioned findings are robust, since they are supported by the results obtained both by the Phillips and Sul (2007) approach and sigma convergence.

Sustainable development goals for the coastal territories of the Baltic Sea Region

The article focuses on determining priority Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the mesolevel coastal territories of the Baltic Sea Region (BSR), including EU and Russian ones. The analysis of strategic documents and supranational (BSR), national and subnational voluntary reviews allows identifying the main approaches to the development of strategies and the selection of indicators for monitoring progress towards the achievement of the SDGs. The paper identifies priority areas and objectives for designing sustainable development strategies in the BSR coastal territories. As a tool to choose the development path to sustainability in three spheres (economic, social and environmental), the authors propose to conduct a mesolevel economic complexity analysis.

European smart specialization for Ukrainian regional development: path from creation to implementation

The focus of the research is to develop recommendations of smart specialization (SS) for Ukrainian policymakers using European approaches. The authors revealed that the main SS projects are presented in such sectors as agri-food, industrial modernization and energy. More than 12 EU countries were the plot for conducted analysis of SS, as a result of which the level of activity of each country was determined. The creation of consortiums, including SMEs, associations, universities and other participants, disclosed the successful way of SS realization. The structure of SME’s innovative potential in Ukraine was identified underlining their main characteristic features like types of innovations and innovative activity, differentiation according to enterprise size, their regional distribution. The authors explored lack of innovations on regional and national level and significant territorial disparities, which could be eliminated through policy implementation of regional SS. The existing legislative norms for possibility of SS implementation in Ukraine were analyzed due to correspondence with the EU ones. The analysis provides the opportunity to consider them only as general framework documents without any action plans and sectoral prioritization at all. The weak points of these law documents are emphasized. As a result of research, the authors developed recommendations presented by direct action plan for Ukrainian policymakers, which include such activities as underlining key priorities (especially ICT applicability in every SS project) and their correspondence with the EU ones; eliminating regional imbalances by focusing on innovation development and reorientation of some regions according to SS priorities; respecting regional existing capacities; providing organizational mechanism for cooperation of stakeholders and financial mechanism for SS support through the EU structural funds.

Use of Renewable Energy Sources in Low-Emission Economy Plans of Selected Municipalities of the Lubelskie Province

Summary Subject and purpose of work: The work concerns the reduction of greenhouse gas emission thanks to renewable energy sources (RES) utilized in selected municipalities of the Lubelskie Province. The aim of the study was to assess the consistency between the tasks provided in low-emission economy plans (LEEP) and the strategic documents on RES, especially biomass. The investment priorities of municipalities regarding RES and the impact of these investments on the emission of CO2 have been presented. Materials and methods: The analysis covered 8 LEEPs and programming documents: EU, national and regional ones concerning RES. Results: EU and Polish policy contribute to the development of RES, including biomass, under the condition that their negative effect on the environment, resulting especially from biomass burning, is limited. Municipalities intend mainly to use solar energy, yet the technologies of biomass they suggest are not always in line with new trends. Conclusions: Measures limiting the emission of greenhouse gases, including the use of RES, are provided in the analysed LEEPs. However, some municipalities intend to produce energy from biomass, mainly in the process of combustion. As this is not in line with the latest EU recommendations, such plans should then be verified.

Российско-евросоюзовское и российско-китайское приграничье: экономическое и демографическое измерение

In the modern world, the intensity of inter-civilizational, intercultural and interstate interaction is increasing. Border regions, territories where this interaction involves direct contact, are of great importance in this process. This has given rise to a new area of research — border region studies. The Russian Federation has the longest state border, the largest number of neighbouring countries, and centuries of experience in the peaceful existence and cooperation between different cultures. Most importantly, the country straddles two continents. Located between two principal economic actors (the European Union and China), Russia binds the huge Eurasian continent into a single whole. It is very important to study Russian-European and Russian-Chinese border regions to make full use of their strategic advantages for the economic development of Russia. This task has been especially relevant since the deindustrialization of Russia, which occurred in the 1990s and most deeply affected the economy of the Russian periphery. In this article, I rely on the literature, national and regional statistics, and survey results to essay a border region study — a comparative analysis of the socio-economic and demographic processes taking place in Russia’s western regions bordering on the EU and eastern ones bordering on China. My findings may contribute to providing a rationale for the need to abandon a commodity-driven economic model, as well as to creating a broader theoretical and methodological framework for Russia’s strategy towards its neighbours.

Arbitrability and Public Interest in International Commercial Arbitration

Summary The aim of this article is to analyse the mutual relationship between arbitrability and public interest. The definition of arbitrability has remained in the domain of national law; there is no internationally unified definition, although a common trend towards the extension of its scope may be observed. There is no doubt about arbitrability in disputes concerning only the individual interests of the parties. However, if the dispute shows elements of public interest, it does not automatically imply that it is not arbitrable. A sign of equation thus cannot be put between public interest and inarbitrability. Disputes arising from economic activities involving public interest can be resolved before the arbitral tribunals. This for instance includes private-law enforcement of competition rules (including EU ones), disputes affected by illegal (criminal) actions, disputes concerning intellectual property rights (in certain countries also with erga omnes effects) or disputes related to insolvency proceedings.

Is the European Union Trade Deal with Canada New or Recycled? A Text‐as‐data Approach

AbstractAre the rules in the Canada‐European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) largely copied from past trade agreements, or are they new and potentially groundbreaking? Some critics charge that CETA merely replicates the failures of past trade deals, while others worry that CETA is specifying new ‘behind the border’ rules that threaten state sovereignty. Using text analysis we compare the contents in CETA to those in previous trade agreements signed by both parties. Unlike many other recent trade deals, we find that much of the content in CETA is indeed novel. On average only about 7 per cent of CETA language is copied directly from any of the 49 previous trade agreements we analyze. This same pattern holds across many of the most controversial issue areas, like investment. Some recent agreements like EU‐Singapore (30%) and Canada‐South Korea (24%) are replicated in part in CETA, although recycled text is more likely to come from past Canadian PTAs than EU ones. Our results suggest that fears that CETA is ‘more of the same’ are overblown and indicate that if ratified CETA likely will play an important role as a model in future trade agreements.

Perspectives of Sustainable Development of Tourism in the North-East Region of Romania

In this paper we propose to highlight the tourism evolution and its intensity in the North-East region of Romania, compared to two regions with similar touristic potential from the Eastern European Union: Subcarpathia from Poland and Central Slovakia. We analysed if the EU attachment of Romania, Poland, and Slovakia had some effects on tourism development in the three regions mentioned. Issues arising from the analysis of the current situation of tourism will allow us to draw some sustainable development directions of tourism in the North-East region based on conserving and capitalizing the uniqueness of the area. We will consider the experience of the other two regions, trying to adapt them to the situation of the North-East region. Based on the analysis we have made, we consider that other countries can inspire us by authorities’ initiatives in supporting tourism, good human resources training, entrepreneurship stimulation, and assistance in accessing financial resources, including EU ones.

The methods of expressing obligation in English, Hungarian, and Polish statutory instruments

The authors analyze the structure of imperative clauses in English, Hungarian, and Polish statutory instruments, including the EU ones. The emphasis is put on the exponents of modal meanings used in the above-mentioned three languages. The clauses are analysed from a semantic and syntactic perspective. Grammatical and lexical exponents of deontic modality in English, Hungarian, and Polish are compared. The semantic components constituting modally marked utterances are described.

Dwellings and Housing Market in Hungary, 1990-2015

Purpose of the article is to provide a wide-range overview of the Hungarian housing market development since the political change in 1989. The time period monitored has brought ups-and-downs in the construction industry due to different reasons which are all worth to examine. Research is based on database of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office and EUROSTAT, and interviews with housing market professionals. The article collects influencings factors of the housing market: macro-economic indicators and influence of economic crisis in 2008, performance of the construction industry, changes in housing policy during the time period researched, status of Hungarian credit market which has the speciality of high rate of foreign currency loans. It is important to analyse why new housing construction suffered its historical bottom in 2013 or the reason behind why credits are used mainly for renovation and not for new built. Interesting point of view provides contrasting Hungarian dwelling types, tenure status, housing quality and affordability with the ones in EU and results lead to important conclusions. As construction industry provides important ratio of Hungary's GDP, it is crucial to revivify it. Data shows that especially residential market lacks projects. New regulations which came into force beginning of 2016 are expected to help housing market and construction industry. Although results of these will be reflected in statistics only after a while professionals estimate that housing market will warm up already in 2016 and will bring new projects latest by 2017. Regulations change too often in Hungary thus quick reaction of population is expected not to miss this support. Despite hurry design and construction hopefully thorough job will be done so that houses will be built for long-term in high quality and with good real value. Unfortunately, goals of new regulations do not show commitment regarding environmental awareness or sustainability. First version of the law included that new houses and flats which are built with help of state support must achieve high level in energy efficiency but this condition evaporated in a short time.

KNOWLEDGE-BASED MIGRATION AND MOBILITY: THE ECONOMIC 'GAMBLE' OF THE EASTERN NEIGHBOURHOOD

To what extent can the scientific migration and mobility, and remittances impact the economic development of the donor and recipient states? How significant are they as a resource for the enhancement of the Eastern Partnership? The policy brief provides the results of the quantitative assessment of the costs and benefits of labour migration in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries and proposes some policy recommendations to enhance the benefits stemming from knowledge-based migration and mobility flows. We received the proof of mutual causality between human development indicator of donor-state and most significant performance indicators of EaP migration in the EU (smart mobility). This means that HDI of a donor-state is flexible to the internal situation in the country, and so the positive effect of smart mobility and remittance inflows can be easily absorbed inside the EaP. The same we observed for gross national income of EaP donor-states. However, our approach does not provide the answer: what is exactly the effect or the result. The convergence effect of scientific migration in the EU and the Eastern Partnership region is considered on the ground of the calculative assessment. We considered fi-convergence approach, stating that it occurs when the EaP mobility rate grows faster than the EU ones. As for o-convergence, we defined it as a reduction of future rates of variation (inequality, differentiation) in the levels of migration of regions (countries). We can conclude that there is the convergence between the EU & EaP in the scientific migration in the years of the EaP initiation, but no results in the process of its fulfilment.

Tax competition strategies in corporate income tax - The case of EU countries

The process of globalization, which is ongoing in a variety of dimensions, the ever-increasing mobility of capital and production factors as well as the fiscal problems in many European countries make the debate over tax competition still relevant today. The article discusses the problem of tax competition in the corporate income tax in the context of inward foreign direct investment in the Member States of the European Union. The advantages and disadvantages of tax competition as well as its consequences for the revenues from corporate income tax and for the inward foreign direct investment have been presented for the years 2000-2013. On the basis of an analysis of the literature and a general statistical analysis, the authors identified and described three strategies of tax competition: aggressive, moderate and conservative. Furthermore, rankings of the countries were created on the basis of two elements, namely: changes to FDI and the share of CIT revenues in GDP. The authors have also estimated parameters of the dynamic panel model in order to find relations between the corporate income tax and the ratio of FDI to GDP and have found differences between crisis period and stable period and differences in results for two groups of countries (new members of the EU and old ones).

A comparison of the revenues of wheat producers in Turkey: A case of EU member and non-member status with spatial reference to Central Anatolia Region

This study aimed to present a comparison of the revenues of Turkish wheat producers with the ones in EU, based on Turkey’s probable EU member and non-member status. The data of the study were based on 104 questionnaires acquired from the conducted surveys in the Central Anatolia Region in the period of 2008 to 2009. The revenues of wheat producing holdings in Turkey were below the revenues of the ones in EU according to the results of the study. Based on probable EU membership from Turkey, the gap between average revenues is widened more and the Turkish producers’ competitive power is weakened. Agricultural supports ought to be directed to the cost deducting devices, and incentives for preventing land fragmentation. Besides, measures to improve productivity in agriculture should be taken into consideration in order to narrow the income gap between the Turkish and EU producers.

Eaux minérales naturelles et eaux de sources en Algérie

An up-to-date inventory of natural mineral and spring waters in Algeria is here presented. First, the legislation regarding exploitation, production and marketing of the latter is compared to the EU and international ones. Then, a physicochemical characterization and classification of the water types are proposed as well as a tentative establishment of a database for natural mineral and spring waters in Algeria.

MiFID, Reg NMS and Competition Across Trading Venues in Europe and United States

This paper examines the differences between MiFID and Reg NMS and provides, based on market microstructure principles, insights as to their likely impact on European and US securities markets. Although MiFID and Reg NMS share the common objective of enhancing competition in securities markets, they adopt different provisions with respect to three issues that strongly influence the competition for order flow among trading venues. Specifically, some of the provisions set forth by the US regulation with respect to the best execution duty, the consolidation of market data and the disclosure of execution quality information appear to be more effective, compared to the EU ones, in strengthening competition for order flow among trading venues. The paper also provides an investigation of the degree of market fragmentation among incumbent exchanges and new trading venues in European and US securities markets, and suggests possible explanations for understanding the current macrostructure of such markets.

Photoconductivity and thermally stimulated current in CaGa2S4single crystals doped with Eu2+and Ce3+

Photoconductivity (PC) measurements are carried out on single crystals of CaGa2S4 doped with Ce3+ and Eu2+ at room temperature and at about 30 K. Low temperature PC spectra can only be measured for Ce doped samples but not for Eu ones owing to too high resistivity. Based on the data obtained, the energy level scheme of Ce3+ ions is discussed in reference to the optical band edge. Single crystals of CaGa2S4 are grown by codoping Ce3+ with Na+ ions to observe the charge compensation effect expected to occur under the substitution of Ca2+ ions by Ce3+ ions. Their electrical resistivity is reduced about two orders in magnitude from ca. 1013 Ω cm to ca. 1011 Ω cm without much change in PC spectra, suggesting a mere decrease in scattering centers for carriers. From the variation in DC resistivity with time, it is expected that many carrier traps may exist in the compounds. To clarify those trap levels the thermally stimulated current (TSC) is measured using samples with different Ce3+ concentrations. From the analysis of TSC spectra, 6 traps with different depths have been retrieved. We have also found traps which may have repelling potential barriers. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

CHALLENGES AND CONSTRAINTS FOR THE E.U. POLICIES

The EU Commission launched in 2004 On the review of the Sustainable Development Strategy - A platform for action, and also a renew ed Sustainable Development Strategy for the enlarge d EU, as a consequence of several new challenges we have to face: enlargement, climatic changes, energetic cons trains. The meaning of these documents is to ground the fin ancing of the latest priorities as major issue in n ational policies regarding rural development and agricultur e. These documents set out a coherent strategy on h ow the EU will more effectively live up to its long-standi ng commitment to meet the challenges of sustainable development, in the sense that The Rio-Conventions approach, (upon bio-diversity and upon climatic ch anges) is and will be applied systematically to all econom ic and environmental EU policies. Romania develops its own priorities in accordance with its needs and nationa l plans, policies and programs, in order to achieve significant progress in the years ahead in meeting the fundamen tal objectives of convergence in rural and agricult ural sectors. The political measures are based on compar ing the macroeconomic indicators, in order to cut d own the existing gap among the national levels of developme nt and more evolved EU ones, in several key branches, process known under the generic notion-term of convergence. The solution able to diminish the gaps s eems to be the internal effort, combined with an added fina ncial injection in the targeted activities.

Inside the European Union: A Macroeconomic Diagnosis of Romania At the Moment of Integration

Romania joined the European Union after many years of uneven efforts and uncertainty about the effective date of integration. In this paper we try to evaluate the economic situation of Romania at the moment of joining the European Union. We try to identify the main macroeconomic developments over the last years prior to integration, which will show the extent to which the country has prepared this integration from an economic point of view. This diagnosis will serve as a basis for inquiring about the possible future consequences of membership, as well as about the perspectives of the Romanian economy after the integration. The regional characteristics in terms of development are equally analyzed. Economic growth has resumed since 2000, but its drivers have gradually shifted from investment towards private consumption, while the level of development is still significantly lower than the EU average. Most of Romania's social indicators lag behind EU ones. Persistent macroeconomic imbalances have slowed down the real and nominal convergence process. The economy is still affected by low competitiveness, incomplete restructuring, modest productivity in agriculture, a high level of employment in subsistence agriculture and slow disinflation.

Editorial

COURT, MEET THY PUBLICThe public stir caused by recent rulings of the European Court of Justice opens a new window on the EU judiciary's condition and especially on its relations with the public. In the Pupino judgment, the Court ordered Italian colleagues to align domestic rules of criminal procedure with the EU ones by way of construction, whenever possible. The Environmental Framework decision ruling was about a legislative act meant to have states protect the environment by the use of criminal sanctions.