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With multivariate analysis of national survey data from 1976 and 1980, we test the conventional wisdom that ownership has a conservatizing political effect and encourages political participation. Using measures of ideological identification, voting choice, and attitudes toward socioeconomic policy, we find that homeownership is associated to some extent with more conservative politics in the population as a whole, but its net effects are small or not significant. In terms of political participation, homeowners are somewhat more inclined to vote than renters, but not to participate more actively at the local or national level. We test also the proposition that homeownership has a conservatizing effect and promotes participation within the working class, in effect fragmenting it as a political force. Among workers, homeownership is associated modestly with a conservative orientation and participation in terms of voting.

Industrial processes are currently responsible for almost 26% of European primary energy consumptions (275 Mtoe/yr). Furthermore, most of the energy sources that drive the industrial sector are fossil fuel based. Every industrial process is characterised by a multitude of waste heat streams at different temperature levels whose recovery would undoubtedly contribute to the enhancement of the sustainability of the industrial sites and their products. Waste heat recovery systems can offer significant energy savings and substantial greenhouse gas emission reductions. For the latter to materialise technological improvements and innovations aimed at improving the energy efficiency of heat recovery equipment and reducing installation costs should take place. This paper outlines the opportunities and the potential for industrial heat recovery in the European Union by identifying and quantifying primary energy consumption in the major industrial sectors and their related waste streams and temperature levels. Through a systematic analysis considering waste heat and Carnot's potential estimation, detailed results are given for all industrial sectors, temperature ranges and EU countries. The 'big picture' is rather promising with regards to the estimated total waste heat potential.

Partial contents: Environmental questions; The re-orientation of the far right; The Kopp affair; Mainstream parties; Foreign policy evolution; European Community relations; The economic outlook.

This paper show why the standardization of administrative procedure is important for the state legal system that, in the last two decades, the administrative procedure codes were adopted in almost all of the European states. Afterwards author analyzed main driving forces for development of administrative procedural law at the level of the European Union and the Council of Europe. The most important legal sources of European administrative procedural law (basic standards, principles, recommendations and guidelines in this area) are concisely presented but it is clearly indicated that there are certain ambiguities, that these sources don't apply equally to all institutions of the Union, and that they still don't make finished, complete and forever given system that can be automatically transferred to jurisprudence of the member states and candidate countries. Moreover, often administrative process laws of the member states contain rules that are not existing in this kind of regulation at European Union level and that is why the process of adopting the first European Union general law on administrative procedure was initiated, which would further improve the standards of European administrative process in general. When it comes to the general administrative procedure of the Republic of Serbia it has been shown that in spite of the strategic orientation towards the reform of the Law on Administrative Procedure expressed in numerous strategies, our executive authorities in this area have not yet moved beyond the development of the third version of the Draft Law on General administrative Procedure which was afterward adopted by the Government as the Bill. In his final remarks the author concludes stating that the largest number of European standards of administrative process are included in the final version of the Draft, but without eliminating the shortcomings of the existing Law, and without normative adjusting to the circumstances in which the Serbian administration operates, and with unnecessary abandonment of some solutions that have proved to be right in the decades-long practice of administrative authorities.

The subject of the article is the issue of using the institutions of direct democracy in the process of shaping the directions of a very specific element of foreign policy – relations with the European Union, of which San Marino is not a member. While most of the referenda related to the European Union concern the accession of countries to this organization, the vote in 2013 was of a slightly different nature. Therefore, the author attempts to indicate how the use of the instruments of direct democracy by citizens, in a way in opposition to the institution of indirect democracy (parliament and its dependent government), can contribute to the decision-makers making political decisions desired by citizens, even in seemingly rather unusual (apart from the aforementioned accession referenda) for direct democracy, spheres as the directions of foreign policy.

In many countries, diverse legislations are today asking for more rational use of energy. For this reason, several initiatives are nowadays promoting a reduction of the overall energy consumption. The European Union has published a Directive 2009/125/EC which fix eco-design requirements to energy-related products. One of these products is power transformers which are a basic piece of generation, transmission, distribution and consumption of electrical energy. The operation of these machines implies the transformation of energy, a part of this energy is dissipated in electrical and magnetic circuits. The amount of losses produce by transformers is defined during the design of these machines. So, they must comply with the above EU Directive. In fact, the Official Journal of the European Union has set a list of energy efficiency limits to be fulfilled by new machines sold in Europe (Commission Regulation 548/2014). This article presents three parts. The calculation of the maximum performance is presented in the first part. This is independent of the load percentage, the impedance and the voltage level. A description of the European fleet of power transformer, up to 100MVA is presented on the second section. In the last part of this work, the efficiency of the fleet is analysed using the maximum performance concept and considering the EU Regulation.

The admission, reception and treatment of asylum seekers in the European Union has been an issue of continuing political and legal concern throughout the 1990's. The rising numbers of persons seeking protection at the beginning of the period coupled with a rapidly developing regional jurisprudence on the right to protection from the European Court of Human Rights in particular, changed the nature of the debate. The Member States began to search for common policies and practices as regards asylum through intergovernmental measures. With the Amsterdam Treaty, the most important aspects of asylum have been transferred to the EC Treaty: criteria and mechanisms for determining which Member State is responsible for considering an application for asylum; minimum standards on reception of asylum seekers; minimum standards with respect to the qualification of nationals of third countries as refugees; minimum standards on procedures for granting and withdrawing refugee status amongst others.

The rarity with which firms reduce nominal wages has been frequently observed, even in the face of considerable negative economic shocks. This paper uses a unique survey of fourteen European countries to ask firms directly about the incidence of wage cuts and to assess the relevance of a range of potential reasons for why they avoid cutting wages. Concerns about the retention of productive staff and a lowering of morale and effort were reported as key reasons for downward wage rigidity across all countries and firm types. Restrictions created by collective bargaining were found to be an important consideration for firms in euro area countries but were one of the lowest ranked obstacles in non-euro area countries. The paper examines how firm characteristics and collective bargaining institutions affect the relevance of each of the common explanations put forward for the infrequency of wage cuts.