Search results

Ensuring internal security is one of the core objectives of European integration in the context of the establishment of an area of freedom, security and justice of the European Union (E.U.). The aim of the internal security policy of the E.U. is to support Member States with regard to the maintenance of law and order and the safeguarding of internal security. In the last 20 years in the area of internal security of the E.U. many important initiatives, political agendas and legal instruments at the E.U. level have arisen. This article aims to show the development of the internal security policy of the E.U., its most important guidelines and the challenges in the coming years.

The aim of this publication is to outline changes that have been observed in Poland and to present the place of the Polish industry, including production, services and international trade, since the accession to the European Union. Rating highly the role of industry and proper conducting of a pro-growth policy in Poland and the European Union, one part of the study concerns the analysis of basic indicators of the Polish industry structure and the final part the realization of the Europe 2020 strategy. The analytical description in the publication was enriched with a wide set of tables, as well as a crosssectional collection of information on industry in Poland and on the European Union member states in rank order. The high dynamics observed in Poland resulted, among others, from an over double growth in the production of electrical equipment, computers, electronic and optical products as well as of metal products. The Strategy Europe 2020 is a socio-economic development programme for Poland and the EU growth. The goal of the Europe 2020 strategy is to create the economy - based on knowledge, low-emission policies promoting environmentally friendly technologies, making an efficient use of resources, and also aiming at social cohesion.

Public deliberation mechanisms play an important role in the process of the EU public policy making because they are to compensate the shortage of representative democracy. One of them is social consultation carried out mainly by the European Commission. The paper consists of the analysis of open public consultation role in designing and implementing the EU sector policies. Their growing importance and frequency of use with regard to the economic policy and its kinds is clearly visible. The aims of such consultations are various. They are primarily used as an instrument of legitimacy of decisions taken by the Commission as well as an important source of information about the stakeholders' opinions and stance. The case of social consultations concerning the transatlantic agreement TTIP is analysed here in detail due to the significance of social mass protests which used to occur and owing to the imp

The author describes and summarises the main theories relating to the specificity of the European Union structure as an internally complex organism which is being characterised by scientists as an international organisation as well as a confederation and a federation. Many researchers compare the process of the European Union formation to the nation-state formation, others compare the E.U. to the United States of America and many more indicate that the E.U. structure with its specific multi-level governance looks like a neo-medieval empire. What we can see in this empire is a network of overlapping systems of powers and areas of loyalty. The author points out that structurally the E.U. can be visualised as a model of multilevel governance and as such can be defined as a sui generis political system. So it is not analogous to the nation state but rather to a system of governance without a formal governing body. This notion is the result of a growing level of interdependence one can see in the international arena. In the second part of article, the author addresses the sovereignty issues which relate to the E.U. member states as well as the E.U. as a separate body. He reviews the theories which variously explain the process of European integration and its influence on internal policies within member states.

Multi-level governance is now an established field of public policy research. In this context there is a need to introduce two new concepts: substantiation of public policy goals and multi- level coordination of public policy goals. In the study based on this assumption a qualitative approach is used. Usefulness of these two concepts was proved by participatory action policy research on one specific goal substantiated and coordinated within Europe 2020 Strategy in the policy area of poverty. In the course of the research (2012-2015) the author was a representative of the network of social NGOs in the governmental body responsible for implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy in Poland. The main action research tool was an attempt to modify the goal of poverty reduction decided by the government in 2011. In that process rich data was generated, analyzed, interpreted and used for subsequent actions. The effect of the research is a deep insight and understanding of multi-level governance process in a specific policy area and a proposal for two new concepts. Emerging new research areas were proposed and discussed.

The activity of international holding companies has become crucial for the European economy. In particular, attention should to paid to the tax-related issues, which arise out of the cross-border activity of holding companies. Increasingly, holding companies employ aggressive tax optimisation in their strategies. While the tax policies of individual E.U. Member States have turned out to be of little effectiveness, simultaneously, the lack of a common and harmonised tax policy designed to counteract tax optimisation has become a serious problem for the European Union. Therefore, the European Commission strives to develop a fiscal concept which will - on the one hand - allow to effectively combat international tax optimisation adopted by holding companies and - on the other hand - be integral with the internal tax systems of individual Member States.

TTIP - the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is an agreement that carries a number of risks for the economy, the natural environment, consumer rights, labour rights and access to public services in the European Union. The mechanisms included in the agreement, concerning the settlement of disputes between states and foreign investors, pose a number of threats to democracy as well. The benefits that are supposed to result from the implementation of the agreement will primarily be reaped by large corporations involved in the transatlantic trade. Mostly the citizens and societies of the EU member states will be under threat from the agreement. The principle of mutual recognition of regulations, which is expected to be practically universally used in accordance with the agreement, will mean in practice lowering safeguards protecting the rights of citizens, workers and consumers in the European Union. The liberalization of trade within the TTIP will be a factor forcing increased competition also in relation to the Polish small and medium-sized enterprises, and as a result, putting also pressure to reduce wages and other costs, including those related to the need of complying with the norms or standards. Thus, there are far more threats than benefits of the agreement.

Due to the social and economic costs the problem of climate change has recently become one of the factors which antagonizes or merges national political systems and their entities. The case of Norway as a leading European producer and exporter of oil and gas seems to deserve particular attention. Although the main political actors in the country, such as the Norwegian Labour Party (DnA), the Conservative Party of Norway (H), the Socialist Left Party (SV), the People's Christian Party (Kr.F), the Centre Party (S) and the Liberal Party (V) have quite similar ideas about the major objectives of the national climate policy, their opinions differ in operational matters. The position of the Progress Party (Fr.P) is an important exception to the approach towards the discussed issue. This article aims to analyse the programme assumptions about the climate policy and climate protection of all parliamentary groups and assess their practical implementation in the past decade.

The author addresses the social participation issue in the context of its significance to public policy in Poland. He examines the barriers limiting the expansion of participation. He notices them in the way a democracy functions ("failed democracy" according to Democracy Index), as well as in the way the dialogue has been organised (for example, two separate currents have been established - i.e. the social one and the civic one, which is quite unusual by Western European standards). He regards the politicians' perception of what a democracy is as a next barrier. As a result of that one can see lower standards of public sphere in place, antiquated public governance still in place, the underdevelopment of the legal framework for social dialogue and the low quality of policy-making. The author also describes the most important social phenomena relating to the functioning of the social and civic dialogue mechanisms. He analyses the sources of the current condition of the dialogue in terms of historical, structural as well as political factors.

The reviewed book by T. Piketty has become one of the bestsellers in the world, and soon after its publication appeared reviews expressing both positive (and even enthusiastic) opinions, as well as highly critical ones. The latter, to some extent, refer to the theory of K. Marx, whose works are used by the author in the title of the book and partly in research. The subject of this publication is creation, division and possession of capital (wealth, wealth) in the modern world economy, especially highly developed countries. The key research task undertaken by Piketty concerns changes in the creation and distribution of wealth and income from the 18th century to the present, as well as lessons from this for the society and the present and future. In this context, an important place is occupied by the problem of economic and social inequalities arising in the global process of capital multiplication, which remains in the hands of a small group of its owners. The need to counteract unfavorable phenomena is growing, which leads to the development of a social state, a new type of public policy and the use of strong instruments to redistribute income.

In June 2015 the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy announced an amendment to the Labour Code, which is the reaction to the prevalence of employment based on-fixed term contracts in Poland. The scale of this phenomenon is not observed in any other E. U. state. New regulations may result in a decrease in the share of fixed-term employees of the total number of employees to be observed in the last few years. The Ministry intends to replace the limit of the renewals of a job contract concluded with an employee (currently the second renewal of the contract results in the conclusion of a permanent job contract) with another restriction: the total duration of such contracts should not exceed 33 months. The problem of an excessive share of flexible forms of employment has been widely analysed in the literature in recent years. It has become the subject of studies in the area of economy and sociology as well as an issue addressed by labour law experts. The expansion of flexibility has also received criticism from the trade unions, which influenced the mass media discourse - it is enough to mention the popularity of the term 'junk contracts' since 2012. The author attempts to comprehensively analyse the problem of flexible forms of employment, which include such issues as: the reasons for their popularity among employers, the scale of the use of particular forms based on the available statistical data, the construction of protective regulations of domestic labour law in the light of the requirements resulting from the E. U. and the I. L. O. membership, as well as social and economic consequences of the use of flexible forms of employment.