Suchergebnisse

The European Union has a long experience in tobacco tax harmonization, which provides useful lessons learned. In the European Union, tobacco tax harmonization took place in stages, and currently all Member States have agreed upon definitions, tax base, and minimum excise duty rates for all product categories of manufactured tobacco. Tobacco tax harmonization pursues several different objectives, among which some might appear contradictory at first sight. This is the case in the European Union, where ensuring collection of revenues and ensuring a high level of health protection are, among others, objectives of tobacco tax harmonization. Reaching the objective to ensure a high level of health protection implies a declining consumption and thus declining revenues. It therefore seems impossible to reach both objectives with the same legal provisions. However, experience in the European Union proves otherwise. Lower tobacco consumption and the decrease in revenue this would otherwise generate have been compensated by increased rates, thereby reaching both objectives.

Costas Lapavitsas's The Left Case Against the EU (Polity, 2019) is recognized as the leading work advocating Lexit, the left-wing case for Brexit, and for nations leaving the European Union more generally. In light of current Conservative British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's commitment to exit the European Union by October 31, even if it means a no-deal Brexit, the role of the left takes on growing importance. Moreover, this raises issues of the European Union generally, including the dominance of neoliberalism within it and the question of German hegemony. Here, Neil Davidson offers an assessment of Lapavitsas's book.

"This book reflects on selected issues of European law in dialogue with leading legal scholar Bruno De Witte, whose work has enlightened generations of students, scholars and practitioners of European law. The volume is designed to mark the impressive academic oeuvre of a great legal mind and true academic whose elegant and insightful writings have decisively contributed to the advancement of the study of European law. The contributions attempt to 'make sense of European Union law' reflecting Bruno's mission as a legal scholar and commenting on some of the themes that he has worked on: constitutional Europe, differentiated Europe, social and educational Europe and minorities Europe. It culminates in reflections on the very nature of Bruno's scholarship and his academic persona. Not only is this book a public recognition and an expression of appreciation for all that Bruno has offered to the European legal community but also an invitation to challenge the way many scholars think of academic careers and their ways to success"--

One of the most important developments in the history of the EU's codecision procedure has been the steep rise in "early agreements" since 1999, and the shift of legislative decision-making from public inclusive to informal secluded arenas. As part of a wider research project on "The Informal Politics of Codecision", this working paper launches a new data set on all 797 legislative files concluded under codecision between 1999 and 2009. The paper discusses the process of data collection and coding; explains and justifies the operationalisation and measurement of key variables; and elaborates on the methodological challenges of capturing informal political processes. The paper offers rich descriptive statistics on the scale and scope of early agreements across time, and explores how key characteristics of the legislative file (legal nature, policy area, complexity, salience, policy type, duration) and of the main negotiators (priorities of the Council Presidency, ideological distance between Parliament's rapporteur and national minister, Presidency's workload) co-vary with decision-makers' choice to "go informal". Demonstrating that early agreements are not restricted to technical, urgent or uncontested files but occur across the breadth of EU legislation, and increasingly so with time in use, the data strongly underline the relevance of informal decision-making for scholars and policy-makers alike.

Dieser Band untersucht Koalitionsbildungsprozesse europäischer Verbände im Bereich der Energiepolitik sowie die Strategien der (häufig informellen) Koalitionen zur Beeinflussung der Entscheidungsträger auf EU-Ebene. Gleichzeitig werden Fragen der Transparenz europäischer Entscheidungsprozesse thematisiert: Während formelle Koalitionen einen administrativen Unterbau besitzen, der die Arbeit der Koalitionsmitglieder koordiniert sowie nach außen repräsentiert, verfügen informelle Koalitionen meist über keine derartigen Strukturen. Daher erscheinen sie auch in keinerlei Lobbying-Registern, was jedoch den im Weißbuch European Governance dargelegten Grundsätzen der Kommission widerspricht.

Observing the political processes taking place in the modern European Union, one can see the anchoring of the position of the cohesion policy as one of the most important policies of the organization, and within it its growing role of "territorial cohesion". In legal terms this is reflected even in Treaty on European Union, and clearly confirms the same meaning given to the territorial dimension as economic and social dimensions were given in previous treaties. This fact, can have a significant impact on the shaping of the future of European territorial cooperation – its priorities, benchmarks, implementation forms and purposes. Increasing importance of territorial cooperation is strictly connected with the role of the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC), which is one of the most important new instruments for its implementation.

Annotation

This report serves as a primer on the EU and provides a brief description of U.S.-EU relations. It also discusses about how EU works, how EU is governed and Eurozone crisis.

Martin Elvins' book is the first to trace the evolution of anti-drugs policies at European Union level from the late 1960s to the present. Phases of drug policy development, key policy actors and institutions are described with particular reference to the influence of transnational networks of expertise. Policy development is placed in the context of both European integration and a broad harmonization of international policies against drug trafficking. Concerns are also raised about secretive and anti-democratic features on intergovernmental EU decision-making.