Union Citizens Research Articles

Odluka suda EU u slučaju Coman - indirektno priznanje istopolnog braka?

In the Coman case, the European Court of Justice was asked whether the term "spouse" - for the purpose of EU law - includes the same-sex spouse of an EU citizen who has moved between EU Member States. The ECJ answered this question affirmatively, holding that a refusal to recognise a same-sex marriage and the resultant refusal to grant family reunification rights to a Union citizen who moves to another Member State, would constitute an unjustified restriction on the right to free movement that Union citiyens enjoy under EU law. This case comment analyses the judgment, arguing that the Court's pronouncement is a very welcome first step towards marriage equality at a cross-border level in the EU. At the same time, the case poses a number of important questions, which will only be answered in case law and practice in the years to come.

Cognitive Health and Economic Benefits of Using Vitamin B Food Supplements Among the European Union’s Aging Population

Giving the ageing of its citizens, and the expected rise in cognitive impairment that is likely to follow, the need for the mitigating tools to help manage the burden and the consequences of cognitive impairment grows daily in the European Union (EU). The total annual cost of managing the consequences of cognitive impairment among those age 65 and older in the EU was €265.17 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach €530.69 billion by 2030 given that more than 17 million European Union citizens will likely be inflicted by cognitive impairment of some type by 2030. This case study found that the total potential benefits for adults age 65 and older at risk of suffering from cognitive impairment from the daily utilization of Vitamin B at an effective intake level can yield over € 25 billion in health care cost savings per year between now and 2030 if all at-risk adults age 65 and older utilised Vitamin B supplements at effective intake levels. This finding is based on the meta analysis results of the qualified set of scientific studies where it is expected that the absolute risk reduction of a prevalent cognitive impairment event, given the supportive daily use of vitamin B food supplements is 9.5% relative risk reduction. This research and related case studies show that significant healthcare cost savings could be realised through a rigorous effort to identify high risk populations, such as seniors at risk of brain diseases that causes severe cognitive impairment, and inspire them to use an vitamin B food supplement that is shown through the scientific literature to have a significant health benefit to the user.

Legal and Historical Aspects of Civic Activity in the European Communities and in EU

Civic activity in the European Communities and the European Union has never been the priority. This is visible in the legislative acts which emanate a lack of political will of the European decision-makers in this respect. The project of European Communities had an elite character from the very beginning. Increasing integration, which meant that the sovereignty of national states was gradually ceded onto the institutions of the Community, enforced gradual involvement of citizens in this process. This was supposed to show in direct elections to the European Parliament (since 1979) as well as in the possibility of expressing the will in treaty referendums. Together with the formal establishment of the European Union, its citizenship was established too by introducing the European Citizens’ Initiative. Theoretically, it was supposed to be an instrument allowing the Union citizens to get directly involved in its legislative process. In practice it proved to be a highly imperfect legal tool whose provisions had to be amended. The few attempts to give the vote to the citizens, such as the referendum over the Maastricht Treaty, the referendum over the Treaty establishing the Constitution for Europe, or the Treaty of Lisbon effectively discouraged the legislator from this type of democratic experiments. When the EU citizens noticed that the legally available forms of civic activity were but a façade of democratization, they focused on other models of operativeness.

A Blurred Piece of Jigsaw: On the Status of Jobseekers within the Framework of Directive 2004/38

Abstract This article explores the status of jobseeker in Directive 2004/38 that is aimed to simplify and strengthen the right of free movement and residence of all Union citizens. Unlike the categories of economically active and inactive persons, Directive 2004/38 employs a somewhat piecemeal approach towards setting out the status of jobseekers. It is submitted that this leads to much uncertainty over their residence rights and raises the prospect of divergent national implementation measures, leaving much leeway for the adoption of stringent approaches. While this is manifested itself, for instance, in the UK’s policy towards Union jobseekers, it is also particularly salient within the framework of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement that authorises a constitutive approach to post-Brexit residence status, which is shown to carry a greater risk for UK nationals residing in EU Member States. Both instances are argued to further substantiate the need for a more systematic approach towards the outline of the status of jobseeker in Directive 2004/38, though the introduction of any legislative change may not currently be politically viable.

Level of First Aid Skills Among Drivers in Russia and the European Union

The Russian Federation occupies one of the first places in terms of road transport mortality. While the countries of the European Union play a special and significant role in reducing global indicators of road traffic mortality. The objective of the study is to compare the level of knowledge on first aid techniques among drivers in the Russian Federation and EU countries. In continuation of the previous work, in the framework of which a study was conducted by interviewing citizens of the Russian Federation according to the questionnaire developed by the authors, the number of respondents increased from 107 to 403 people. To compare the indicators, 402 European Union citizens were surveyed. The survey was conducted in May–September 2018 and in January and June 2019. A direct survey was conducted by the students of VPI (branch) of VolSTU and Volgograd State Medical University. The platform https://docs.google.com/forms was also used, a link to the questionnaire was posted in the most active driver communities in the social networks Vkontakte and Facebook. According to the data received, Russian driving schools are much more likely to neglect conducting first aid classes than European ones. EU respondents were much less likely to encounter the need for first aid, which may be due to the shorter time for arrival of a team of doctors at the scene of an accident. The most significant discrepancies were revealed in drivers’ knowledge regarding issues related to application of a hemostatic tourniquet, indications of beginning of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and its methods, and actions in case of fractures of the extremities, i.e. critical in cases of traffic accidents. The general preliminary conclusion, subject to fruther detailing, is drawn that more attention is paid to first aid issues in the EU. To improve the situation in Russia, a number of measures have been proposed: compulsory medical classes at driving schools by a medical professional, greater attention to training in first aid techniques in educational institutions, training of special services for first aid skills and facilitating the training of ordinary citizens.

Comparison of Expectations and Perceptions of Resident European Union (EU) Citizens about Hospital Service Quality in Their Home Countries and Turkey

The aim of this research is to reveal the assessment of EU (European Union) citizens residing in Alanya regarding the quality of hospital services in both their own countries and Alanya. The study was carried out face-to-face with a survey method with 295 resident EU (European Union) citizens between June and August 2018 in Alanya. The analysis was done with the SPSS 22.0 package program. 229 (76.60%) of the participants are women and 66 (22.40%) are men, 159 (54%) are German citizens and 30 (10.22%) are British citizens. Expectations of EU citizens regarding hospital service quality are empathy, reliability and assurance, particularly physical assets and accountability. It was found that quality expectations of EU citizens were met in terms of accountability and reliability, whereas expectations related to other dimensions were not satisfied. The overall perception levels of EU citizens regarding hospitals in their own countries are higher than the overall levels of perception of hospitals in Alanya. For this, Hospital managers in Alanya need to pay particular attention to assurance, physical assets and empathy dimensions for better quality health service delivery.

A Reflection on the Nature of Free Movement in An Enlarged EU: Does It Still Follow the Original Logic?

The paper discusses the wider framework of free movement of people in EU law, bridging various research fields. In doing so the initial part of the paper indicates the major differences between free movement of people before and after the Eastern Enlargement both in numbers and characteristics. This part is followed by the analysis of the effects produced in sending and in destination countries. Subsequently the focus moves on the possible reasons motivating migration and on how these decisions are facilitated by the current regulatory framework of free movement. It will be shortly recalled that free movement has been object of a constitutional evolution towards a fundamental right including all Union citizens, not only labour force. In this context free movement effectively accommodated a diversified set of reasons and motivations to exercise this right. The conclusions suggest that until cohesion remains limited, the persisting gaps in working and living standards among the Members States will continue to distort free movement.

A Secure Protocol for Managing and Sharing Personal Healthcare Data.

Current technologies provide the ability to healthcare practitioners and citizens, to share and analyse healthcare information, thus improving the patient care quality. Nevertheless, European Union (EU) citizens have very limited control over their own health data, despite that several countries are using national or regional Electronic Health Records (EHRs) for realizing virtual or centralized national repositories of citizens' health records. Health Information Exchange (HIE) can greatly improve the completeness of patients' records. However, most of the current researches deal with exchanging health information among healthcare organizations, without giving the ability to the citizens on accessing, managing or exchanging healthcare data with healthcare organizations and thus being able to handle their own data, mainly due to lack of standardization and security protocols. Towards this challenge, in this paper a secure Device-to-Device (D2D) protocol is specified that can be used by software applications, aiming on facilitating the exchange of health data among citizens and healthcare professionals, on top of Bluetooth technologies.

Circular Economy Practices among Industrial EMAS-Registered SMEs in Spain

The Eurobarometer report from December 2019 revealed that 80% of European Union (EU) citizens believe that industry is doing too little to protect the environment and that more work needs to be done to help companies transition to a more sustainable economic model. In recent years, the EU has made the Circular Economy (CE) a priority, and an environmental management system based on the EMAS Regulation can help companies achieve this goal by assisting them in analysing and measuring an efficient and sustainable use of resources. Thus, this study analyses EMAS companies’ environmental statements in order to identify and quantify the CE practices they have implemented. Findings identify 23 circular practices and show that the majority of companies focus their efforts on reducing emissions by optimizing the materials cycle and improving internal production processes. Eco-design stands out as the main driver amongst the circular transformation practices. This study has also detected a lack of uniformity in the way companies quantify the various circular practices currently operating, or how they communicate this information. These results may be useful to companies, professionals and administrations responsible for promoting the CE, and it can also provide guidance on what information to include in future environmental statements.

코로나 19 바이러스 팬데믹으로 인한 유럽연합과 유럽시민의 결속 강화 및 통합

본 연구에서는 코로나 19 바이러스 팬데믹으로 인한 유럽연합 내 위기 상황에서 유럽연합과 회원국, 시민 간의 결속 강화로 통합이 확대되는 현상을 고찰한다. 연구결과, 유럽 시민들은 위기 상황에서 유럽연합에 대한 강한 신뢰를 형성하였고, 큰 정부로서 유럽연합의 강력한 역할을 기대하는 것으로 분석되었다. 또, 위기 속에서 분열을 조장하는 민족주의나 포퓰리즘 보다 통합을 강조하는 강한 유럽을 원하는 것으로 나타났다. 이에 유럽연합은 컨트롤타워로서 위기 극복을 위한 여러 정책적 해결책을 마련한 것으로 나타났다. 유럽연합은 통합과정에서 영향력이 증대될 수 있도록 위기 이용ㆍ목표창출ㆍ새로운 정책 제안을 시도하며, 이 때 국가의 역할은 감소하고, 초국가수준에서의 통제와 책임에 대한 요구가 증대된다고 주장하는 신기능주의의 정치적 파급효과 (political spillover)로서 설명되어진다. 유럽연합은 리스본조약에 의해 공중보건에 대한 지원을 회원국의 정책을 보완하는 수준에서 행할 수 있었다. 이러한 한계로 유럽연합이 위기 상황에 적극적으로 대처하지 못하였으나, 현재는 다양한 방식으로 위기 극복을 위해 협력을 하고 있다. 이는 회원국의 독자적인 위기 모색보다 회원국 간 공조가 위기를 극복하고 유럽연합을 결속시키는데 유리하다는 판단으로 해석된다.

Gloss to the Judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Case C 129/18, SM versus Entry Clearance Officer, UK Visa Section

The right of family members of Union citizens to live with them in the host Member State has always been considered essential for an effective freedom of movement of citizens. However, the provisions of Directive 2004/38/EC contain a different description of the scope of rights of family members of Union citizens taking advantage of the freedom of movement of persons as to the possibility of accompanying or joining EU citizens taking advantage of the freedom of movement of persons, depending on whether they belong to the circle of ‘closer’ or ‘distant’ family members. This issue acquires particular significance in the context of family members who are not citizens of any Member State of the Union. For individuals belonging to the circle of ‘closer’ family members, the EU legislator grants the subjective right to accompany or join a Union citizen exercising the right of the freedom of movement of persons. In the latter case, the legislator only obliges the host Member States to facilitate entry and residence for such individuals in accordance with their national legislation. The glossed judgment, by determining the status of individuals under legal guardianship within the framework of the Algerian kafala system as a ‘distant’ family member of a Union citizen, clearly touches upon a significant issue in the context of the Union’s freedom of movement of persons.
 

Analyzing the Interaction Between Double Taxation Treaties (DTT) and Workers Mobility Within the European Union (EU)

A major advantage of being an European Union (EU) citizen is that as a citizen, you have the right to move freely from one-member state to another. The concept of free movement of persons, is one of the four freedoms of the single market and a fundamental right of EU citizens. A citizen can therefore move across the all member states for several reasons, such as holiday visit, reunion with family members or job search. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how bilateral double tax treaties may affect the mobility of EU workers, based on the free movement principle. This will be achieved by firstly discussing the limitations caused by the DTT and secondly, supporting the previous discussion using case analysis.

Cultural differences in the association between subjective age and health: evidence from the Israeli component of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE-Israel)

AbstractResearch has demonstrated that holding a young subjective age (i.e. feeling younger than one's chronological age) has been associated with various positive aspects of physical and psychological health. However, little is known about how such associations differ between cultural sub-groups within a given society. Accordingly, the current study focused on the Israeli component of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE-Israel) and aimed to explore the moderating role of culture on the association between subjective age and objective physical health, subjective physical health and psychological health. Data were collected from 1,793 respondents, who were classified into three groups: veteran Israeli Jews, immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Israeli Arab citizens. Age ranged from 50 to 105 (mean = 69.65, standard deviation = 9.49). All participants rated their subjective age and filled out scales examining six dimensions covering psychological health, as well as objective and subjective physical health. Across all examined dimensions, an older subjective age was associated with unfavourable health outcomes. For the majority of health dimensions, the subjective age–health links were most prominent among Israeli Arabs. Results are discussed from both a general societal standpoint (i.e. group differences in access to health services), as well as from the individual's specific role in his or her culture and society.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing of EU Citizens in the UK: A Systematic Review of the Qualitative Literature

Moving to a new country impacts on migrants’ mental health and wellbeing. There are over 3.6 million European Union citizens living in the United Kingdom. We conducted a systematic review of the qualitative literature to explore what is known about their mental health and wellbeing at the post-migration stage in pre-Brexit period. We searched five databases from 1st January 2009 to 19th February 2019; Web of Science, MEDLINE, CINAHL, SocIndex and Scopus for studies. Ten papers reporting nine studies were included in this review. Two themes were constructed; a narrative of adjustment and of employment realities. The former focuses on the process of settling in and the role of social connectedness. The latter concerns employment realities with included studies exploring the financial position and employment experiences of migrants. Findings indicate that we still know relatively little about the range of post-migration experiences among EU citizens and their implications for mental health

Coordination of classic and specific family benefits – challenges and proposed solutions

Family benefits in Regulation 883/2004 comprise a broad palette of benefits intended to meet family expenses. The coordination rules on family benefits are based on the idea that it is irrelevant who the recipient of the benefit is, assuming that the benefit is not related to individual rights. Rather, the family/child is the focus. The children of migrant Union citizens are to receive the highest possible benefits from the Member States involved. This is achieved through the principle of exportability from the competent Member State to family members residing in another Member State, as well as through a complex system of overlapping rules for determining primary and secondary responsibility. The CJEU has interpreted the notion of a family benefit in a broad way, which includes income-based benefits paid during child-rearing periods. Over the years, it has been acknowledged that this creates coordination problems. To this end, specific coordination rules have been proposed regarding family benefits that are intended to replace income during periods of child-raising. These rules clarify that such benefits, although they are family benefits, are individual rights and are to be coordinated in a specific way. This article describes and analyses the challenges related to coordinating family benefits, with a particular focus on benefits related to child-rearing, in the light of the proposed amendments.

Union citizens’ rights against their own Member State after Brexit

The treatment by the United Kingdom of Union citizens remaining on its territory after Brexit and conversely that of UK nationals by EU27 Member States on theirs has given rise to much discussion and analysis. By contrast, there has been comparatively little systematic and detailed exploration of the question of the impact of Brexit on the exercise of Union citizens’ rights against their own Member State. It is an issue which is for the most part ignored in the current Withdrawal Agreement. The purpose of this article is to show that this blind spot opens up a potential gap in legal protection of the rights of Union citizens, which is likely to remain regardless of the outcome of the Brexit negotiations and whether a withdrawal agreement is concluded or not. The paper discusses the extent to which the adversarial nature of the withdrawal process has contributed to this failure to address this issue and the ways in which courts could step in to provide the legal protection that political processes were unable to deliver.

The politics of embedding and the right to remain in post-Brexit Britain

The European Union membership referendum (i.e. the Brexit referendum) in the United Kingdom in 2016 triggered a process of introspection among non-British European Union citizens with respect to their right to remain in the United Kingdom, including their right to entry, permanent residence, and access to work and social welfare. Drawing on interview data collected from 42 European Union nationals, namely Finnish and Polish migrants living in Scotland, we explore how European Union migrants’ decision-making and strategies for extending their stay in the United Kingdom, or returning to their country of origin, are shaped by and, in turn, shape their belonging and ties to their current place of residence and across state borders. In particular, we draw on the concept of embedding, which is used in migration studies to explain migration trajectories and decision-making. Our key argument is that more attention needs to be paid to the socio-political context within which migrants negotiate their embedding. To this end, we employ the term ‘politics of embedding’ to highlight the ways in which the embedding of non-British European Union citizens has been politicized and hierarchically structured in the United Kingdom after the Brexit referendum. By illustrating how the context of Brexit has changed how people evaluate their social and other attachments, and how their embedding is differentiated into ‘ties that bind’ and ‘ties that count’, we contribute to the emerging work on migration and Brexit, and specifically to the debate on how the politicization of migration shapes the sense of security on the one hand, and belonging, on the other.

The European Union between solidarity and justice

In discussions about the Greek debt crisis, the refugee crisis, and EU regional policy, appeals to solidarity are often made. European Union citizens and member states are asked to be solidary with Greece, with member states visited by large numbers of refugees, and with regions burdened instead of benefitted by the internal market. It is not so clear, however, what this appeal to solidarity is based on or in what way it differs from (and relates to) demands based on justice. This paper argues that normative theories of EU solidarity usually do not discriminate systematically between solidarity and justice or at least do not problematise the way in which these standards are related. The result is that EU crises cannot be analysed properly. In this paper, I explain why Kantian legal thought (Kant in The metaphysics of morals (revised edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2017; Ripstein in Force and freedom: Kant’s legal and political philosophy, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2009; Rawls 1993) helps us understand the underlying issues more clearly.

General Data Protection Regulation in Health Clinics.

The focus on personal data has merited the EU concerns and attention, resulting in the legislative change regarding privacy and the protection of personal data. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) aims to reform existing measures on the protection of personal data of European Union citizens, with a strong impact on the rights and freedoms of individuals in establishing rules for the processing of personal data. The GDPR considers a special category of personal data, the health data, being these considered as sensitive data and subject to special conditions regarding treatment and access by third parties. This work presents the evolution of the applicability of the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 six months after its application in Portuguese health clinics. The results of the present study are discussed in the light of future literature and work are identified.

Juxtaposing Right to be Forgotten and Copyright Law

Privacy plays a pivotal role in the life of the people. Internet governs every aspect of a person’s life. It is significant to see what information is available on the Internet about an individual as that sculptor the digital image of that individual. At any point in time, “we have wished to erase some part of information related to us on the Internet. It may not have been foreseen when the Internet was invented but it is now a right conferred to the European Union citizens. Right to be forgotten has been codified and given judicial recognition. The right places a substantial burden on the data controller to assess whether a take down request should be accepted or not. Usually, the pictures used in revenge porn are selfies and the victim owns a copyright in the image. In this research paper, the researcher has made an attempt to analyze the interface between Copyright law and the right to be forgotten. Further, the researcher has analyzed the implications of the use of the right to be forgotten and copyright law to combat revenge porn. The research paper will also include the judicial precedents to provide more clarity on the current position along with principles of legal philosophy.