Suchergebnisse

The article examines the processes of formation and institutionalization of the pan-European political space as an important element of the political system of the European Union. The main theoretical approaches to the study of this problem are presented. The analysis of the Europeanization process and its possible influence on the formation of this space is given. The attitude to this process on the part of the EU political elite, as well as ordinary European citizens, is shown. It is demonstrated that the political institutions of the European Union and the European integration itself influence the political culture, the formation of a common European identity of citizens and their political attitudes. The basic principles and elements of the pan-European political space, including pan-European institutions, political parties, mass media, etc., are described, particularly from the perspective of proponents of various description models, inter alia the models of liberal representation, participatory democracy and deliberative democracy. The main aspects of the evolution of the European Union party and political system, which is an important element of the pan-European political space, are presented. It has been noted that since the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, the European parties have significantly increased their role and influence in the pan-European political system. An attempt is made to understand how the elements and models interact with each other, what the positions of specific European parties and their factions in the European Parliament are considering the future EU development. The importance of successful implementation of the "Spitzenkandidaten principle" was specified, which will allow the European party leaders and their election manifestos to become better known and understood not only by politicized voters, but also by a majority of the electorate. The role and influence of the media and cultural sphere on the formation of this space are analyzed.

OBJECTIVES: Differences between country-specific guidelines for economic evaluations complicate the execution of international economic evaluations. The aim of this study was to develop cross-European recommendations for the identification, measurement and valuation of resource use and lost productivity in economic evaluations using a Delphi procedure. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search was conducted to identify European guidelines on the execution of economic evaluations or costing studies as part of economic evaluations. Guideline recommendations were extracted by two independent reviewers and formed the basis for the first round of the Delphi study, which was conducted among European health economic experts. During three written rounds, consensus (agreement of 67% or higher) was sought on items concerning the identification, measurement and valuation of costs. RESULTS: Recommendations from 18 guidelines were extracted. Consensus among 26 panellists from 17 European countries was reached on 61 of 68 items. The recommendations from the Delphi study are to adopt a societal perspective, to use patient report for measuring resource use and lost productivity, to value both constructs with use of country-specific standardized/unit costs and to use country-specific discounting rates. CONCLUSION: This study provides consensus-based cross-European recommendations on how to measure and value resource use and lost productivity in economic evaluations. These recommendations are expected to support researchers, healthcare professionals, and policymakers in executing and appraising economic evaluations performed in international contexts.

The European Union internal market seeks to ensure the free movement of goods, services, capital and citizens. The primacy given to these economic freedoms has culminated in a socio-economic reasoning dominated by competition, bringing about side effects that may pose a threat to working conditions and labour standards. This article examines the problematic relationship between economic freedoms and labour standards in the context of cross-border labour recruitment. It starts with a summary of the relevant EU acquis, in particular rules concerning social security coordination and the pay and working conditions of posted workers. It reviews key issues of the 'hard core' of the internal market legislation (free choice of contracts, freedom of establishment for firms, deregulation of the 'business environment' and free provision of services). The next part identifies experiences of rule-enforcing institutions: regime shopping, non-compliance with social standards, lack of cross-border enforcement, the difficulty of tracing circumvention in a transnational context and weak sanctioning mechanisms. The possibility of verifying, legally and in practice, whether a worker is correctly posted within the framework of the provision of services has become an Achilles heel of the enforcement of the use of cross-border recruited labour. The article also assesses whether the 2014 Enforcement Directive can be seen as an effective remedy for the identified problems.