Suchergebnisse

We use a panel of European countries to investigate whether or not governments interact with their neighbors when they decide their fiscal policy; we consider both taxes and expenditures, at aggregate and at separate aspects of policy. We analyse possible different competitive behaviours and find evidence of fiscal interdependencies consistently with the literature on tax and yardstick competition. For corporate taxes, the regression results suggest that European countries follow large countries in order to attract capital; for income taxes and public expenditures, instead, fiscal interactions exist but they are mainly due to yardstick competition. Finally, we have found the countries are interdependent with each others before joining the EU, and than, once they are in, they become more independent.

The UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (BRs) comprise core conservation areas supported by a buffer and transition zone of sustainable development. This zoning can help manage urbanisation around conservation areas. Although it is UNESCO policy to measure the number of BRs that have interactions with urban areas, there has been no systematic assessment of urban biospheres since 2008. This research addresses this deficit by measuring the extent of urbanisation of all designated BRs within the European Union (EU). Using the Copernicus Urban Atlas, the proximity of BRs to Functional Urban Areas (FUA) was determined. The results show that 46% (76/167) of BRs are situated within FUAs, including 11% (18/167) entirely within an FUA. The majority (64%) of EU-28 countries have BRs within FUAs. Urban influences on EU-28 BRs are extensive, as 90% are found within 50 km of an FUA. However, integration with urban areas may be lacking as 14% of EU BRs were adjacent to an FUA. Urban pressures are acute for 11% of EU BRs which had multiple FUAs within a 50 km radius. Therefore, urbanisation of BRs is a widespread challenge and recommendations are provided for BRs to function as an information sharing network and develop a new urban strategy.

BACKGROUND: The recent occurrence and spread of African swine fever (ASF) in Eastern Europe is perceived as a serious risk for the pig industry in the European Union (EU). In order to estimate the potential risk of ASF virus (ASFV) entering the EU, several pathways of introduction were previously assessed separately. The present work aimed to integrate five of these assessments (legal imports of pigs, legal imports of products, illegal imports of products, fomites associated with transport and wild boar movements) into a modular tool that facilitates the visualization and comprehension of the relative risk of ASFV introduction into the EU by each analyzed pathway. RESULTS: The framework's results indicate that 48% of EU countries are at relatively high risk (risk score 4 or 5 out of 5) for ASFV entry for at least one analyzed pathway. Four of these countries obtained the maximum risk score for one pathway: Bulgaria for legally imported products during the high risk period (HRP); Finland for wild boar; Slovenia and Sweden for legally imported pigs during the HRP. Distribution of risk considerably differed from one pathway to another; for some pathways, the risk was concentrated in a few countries (e.g., transport fomites), whereas other pathways incurred a high risk for 4 or 5 countries (legal pigs, illegal imports and wild boar). CONCLUSIONS: The modular framework, developed to estimate the risk of ASFV entry into the EU, is available in a public domain, and is a transparent, easy-to-interpret tool that can be updated and adapted if required. The model's results determine the EU countries at higher risk for each ASFV introduction route, and provide a useful basis to develop a global coordinated program to improve ASFV prevention in the EU.

On September 2009 the European Union (EU) adopted a regulation banning the import of seal products into the EU or placing seal products on the EU market. The European Parliament was the main driving force behind the regulation and the EU has been criticised by affected countries outside the EU for not basing this decision on the available expert knowledge. The questions asked are how, given epistemic dependence, non-experts may challenge an expert based policy proposal. Can non-experts hold experts accountable, and if so in what way? Three main tests and ten subtests of expert knowledge are proposed and these tests are then used to assess whether the European Parliament did in fact argue in a way consistent with available expert knowledge in amending the Commission proposal for a regulation.

On September 2009 the European Union (EU) adopted a regulation banning the import of seal products into the EU or placing seal products on the EU market. The European Parliament was the main driving force behind the regulation and the EU has been criticised by affected countries outside the EU for not basing this decision on the available expert knowledge. The questions asked are how, given epistemic dependence, non-experts may challenge an expert based policy proposal. Can non-experts hold experts accountable, and if so in what way? Three main tests and ten subtests of expert knowledge are proposed and these tests are then used to assess whether the European Parliament did in fact argue in a way consistent with available expert knowledge in amending the Commission proposal for a regulation. ; publishedVersion

A study of the European Union financing structure shows a disjunction between the EU taxing powers and the rules determining the resources funding the EU budget. Such a disconnection has deep historical roots, however, currently constitutes an obstacle towards the achievement of a sustainable Economic and Monetary Union. At the same time, the emergence of the solidarity principle in EU law is tangible proof that, in certain circumstances, the European Union also has as one of its objectives to grant financial assistance to Member States in distress. However, from a legal perspective, the current institutional framework needs reform in order to effectively serve this purpose, considering the magnitude of the economic consequences of the current pandemic. In this context, the debate on the adoption of truly European taxes must be relaunched.

The formation and expansion of the European Union (EU) have attracted much attention. However, the impact on the level of corruption in a nation after joining the Union has not been formally studied. Any nation that joins the European Union potentially faces two different and opposite effects on corruption. On the one hand, there are reasons to believe that corruption is going to decrease because of the efforts of the EU to fight corruption or because of the opening of the markets to trade; on the other hand, there are reasons to imagine that corruption may increase due to the increase in bureaucracy and new regulations. Hence, the overall effect is not entirely clear from this perspective. This work focuses on the last three rounds of EU entry and empirically studies the effects of joining the EU on corruption. Placing the analysis in the broader literature on the determinants of corruption, the results suggest that entry into the EU increases corruption. However, equally insightful is that this corruption increase does not hold for nations that are potential entrants or that are in the negotiation stage.

ÖZETBu çalışma, Türk-Yunan ilişkilerindeki ikili sorunları ve bunların Türkiye'nin Avrupa Birliği'ne üyelik sürecindeki etkilerini araştırmaktadır. Bu çerçevede Avrupalılaşma kavramı, Türk-Yunan ilişkilerinin, Türkiye-AB ilişkilerine dönüşümünü açıklamak için analitik bir araç olarak kullanılmaktadır. Kısaca ulusal ve AB düzeyindeki dış politika ile ilgilenen bu çalışma, bir AB üye ülkesi olan Yunanistan'ın Türkiye'nin adaylık statüsüne etkisini, özellikle Yunan dış politikasının kendi çıkarları ve önceliklerini AB düzeyine 'upload' etme becerisine atıfta bulunarak incelemektedir. Bu nedenle, genel olarak siyasi ve hukuki çerçevelerden kaynaklanan ihtilaflı konular, çatışmalar ve krizlerle tasvir edilen Türk-Yunan ilişkileri, bu tezin konusu olan AB üye ülkelerinden birinin bir aday ülkenin katılım sürecini nasıl etkilediğine iyi bir örnek sağlamaktadır. ABSTRACTThesis Advisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Yonca ÖzerThis study explores the bilateral problems in Greek-Turkish relations and their effects on Turkey's membership process to the European Union (EU). Within this framework, the concept of Europeanization is used as an analytical tool to explain the transformation of Greek-Turkish relations into Turkey-EU relations. Briefly being interested in foreign policy at national and EU-level, this study analyzes the impact of Greece, as a EU member country, on Turkey's candidacy status with particularly reference to the Greek foreign policy's ability to 'upload' its national interests and preferences to the EU-level. Accordingly, the Greek-Turkish relations, depicted by the disputed issues, conflicts and crises which are rooted in political and legal framework, have provided a good example in the argument of this thesis how one of EU member countries influences the accession process of a candidate country.

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While public support is central to the problem-solving capacity of the European Union, we know little about when and why the EU can increase its citizens' support through spending. Extensive research finds that citizens living in countries that are net beneficiaries of the EU budget are more supportive of the EU, assuming that citizens care equally about all forms of spending. It is argued in this article, however, that the amount of spending is only part of the story. Understanding the effects of spending on support requires a consideration of how transfers are spent. Drawing on policy feedback theories in comparative politics, it is shown that support for the EU is a function of the fit between the spending area and economic need in individuals' immediate living context. Results from a statistical analysis of EU spending on human capital, infrastructure, agriculture, energy and environmental protection in 127 EU regions over the period 2001–2011 corroborate this argument. As the EU and other international organisations become increasingly publicly contested, the organisations themselves may increasingly try to shore up public support through spending, but they will only be successful under specific conditions.

In response to Russia's attack on Ukraine, the United States and 37 countries formed a coalition in February 2022 to implement a barrage of export controls outside of any formal arrangement. By contrast, US controls on China are often unilateral, such as its October 2022 measures on semiconductors that went ahead without explicit con­sent, let alone a commitment by its allies to join. But to deny China access to "dual-use" technology, unilateral export controls will not be effective. As European Com­mission President Ursula von der Leyen announced during her visit to the White House, the European Union (EU) wants to renew its export controls on dual-use prod­ucts and new technologies and to coordinate them more closely with US measures. That means that member states will need to develop a common position on the scope of their export controls - including the extent of their alignment with the United States - as well as ways forward with multilateral controls of dual-use goods, given the freeze of the Wassenaar Arrangement due to Russia's actions. (author's abstract)