Suchergebnisse

The systems of direct taxes and cash benefits in the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU) vary considerably in size and structure. We explore their redistributive effects using EUROMOD, the tax-benefit microsimulation model for the EU. As well as describing redistributive effects in aggregate this allows us to assess and compare the effectiveness of individual types of policy in reducing income disparities. We consider the following categories of benefits and taxes: income taxes, tax allowances, tax credits, social contributions, cash benefits designed to target the poor or redistribute inter-personally (through means-testing) as well as cash benefits intended to redistribute intra-personally across the lifecycle (through social insurance or contingency-based entitlement). We derive results for the 27 members of the European Union using policies in effect in 2010 and present them for each country separately as well as for the EU as a whole.

Europe and the European Union -- Back to the future -- Belonging without believing -- Leading from behind : opt-outs, opt-ins and red lines -- Party games and politics -- Devolution and European Union membership -- The press and the European Union -- The pound, the euro and the City -- Britain, the European Union and the wider world -- 'Banging on about Europe' : the Conservatives and the European Union 2010-2015 -- Hallmarks of British membership of the EU -- The Referendum of 2016 : the campaign -- The Referendum of 2016 : the result -- The May government and Brexit 2016-2019 : decline and fail -- The Brexiter government, 2019-2020.

People have the right to manifest their religion or belief. They also have the right not to be discriminated against because of their religion or belief. In addition, most people need employment to provide in their livelihood. It was already known that freedom of religion can be restricted in the employment in the public sector. The public sector (i.e. the government) needs to be able to project neutrality also through its employees. However, the Court of Justice of the European Union expanded this possibility of rights restriction to the private sector. This decision has the potential to harm the chances of obtaining employment of certain minorities in Europe.

This article introduces the European Union Policy -- Making (EUPOL) dataset. The dataset contains the complete records of the European Commission's PreLex database, which tracks the interactions between the European institutions on legislative proposals and non-legislative policy documents over time. To be of maximum use to the research community, the dataset is both comprehensive and replicable. It relies on 2600 variables to describe the detailed event histories of more than 29,000 inter-institutional decision-making processes between 1975 and 2009. The data collection has been completely automated, enabling scholars to scrutinize and replicate the generation of the dataset. To illustrate the dataset's general utility and discuss specific pitfalls, I present a descriptive analysis of the outcome and duration of Council decision-making. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright holder.]

Together with the IMF and the World Bank, the EMU is the biggest monetary project in the history of mankind. Its goals are reduction of trade costs between its member-states, increase in the convergence in their relations and their economic growth. The main pillars of the monetary institutions were set up for its normal operation. However, the member-countries kept their fiscal sovereignty. The EMU was not a part of a larger political integration of the member-countries. It enabled them to make political decisions on a national level which were not in line with the so-called Maastricht criteria. The outcome of the lack of a political union is: growing budget deficits and continuing growth of the public debt of most of the member-states of the EMU. A debt crisis was created which shakes the basis not only of the EMU but also of the EU. For the first time in its six and a half decade existence, the EU faces an existential crisis. The exit of this condition lies in redesigning the basic structures on which it stands. This process might be fatal, as well as painful for the EU. In such a situation, the Balkan aspiring memberstates will have to wait longer to enter the union. In the meantime, to protect their national economic and political tissue, as well as to prepare for the accession in the EU, a regional cooperation and union is a necessity. A Balkan Economic Union in which Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Turkey and Macedonia will be a part will help in achieving the goal of entering the EU less painfully. The Balkans can finally cease being the "gunpowder barrel". With application of a quality, historic, comparative and descriptive method, this paper presents the possibilities and opportunities of this model of designing a political and economic picture of the Balkans. The aim of this paper is to show that with such a union, the Balkan countries have a serious chance to overcome, still, the prevalent antagonisms and thus clear the way to their final destination – the EU.

Objectives The primary aim of this study was to investigate educational inequalities in health-related exit from paid employment through different pathways in five European regions. A secondary objective was to estimate the proportion of different routes out of paid employment that can be attributed to poor health across educational groups in five European regions. Methods Longitudinal data from 2005 up to 2014 were obtained from the four-year rotating panel of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), including 337 444 persons with 1 056 779 observations from 25 countries. Cox proportional hazards models with censoring for competing events were used to examine associations between health problems and exit from paid employment. The population attributable fraction was calculated to quantify the impact of health problems on labor force exit. Results In all European regions, lower-educated workers had higher risks of leaving paid employment due to disability benefits [relative inequality (RI) 3.3-6.2] and unemployment (RI 1.9-4.5) than those with higher education. The fraction of exit from paid employment that could be attributed to poor health varied between the five European regions among lower-educated persons from 0.06-0.21 and among higher-educated workers from 0.03-0.09. The disadvantaged position of lower-educated persons on the labor market was primarily due to a higher prevalence of poor health. Conclusion In all European regions, educational inequalities exist in health-related exclusion from paid employment. Policy measures are needed to reduce educational inequalities in exit from paid employment due to poor health.

This book reports on results achieved in a research project that dealt with agriculture and the food industry in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC). It examines the current economic conditions and the changes that are taking place and yet must occur, in the process of preparing for accession to the European Union. The project was structured in six tasks, ranging from methods to analyse the economic situation in agriculture, through an analysis of productivity in CEEC agriculture, a study of economic transfers along the food chain, research into market developments under policy adjustment to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and an analysis of macroeconomic implications of accession, all the way to an investigation of agricultural policy developments in CEECs.

"Luxembourg and the European Union" published on by Oxford University Press.

We, human beings and human societies, become what we think we are. If we have conflicting ideas of what we are, we become a puzzle to ourselves and to others. If we have no clear idea of what we are, we become what circumstances make us. Conceptual dissonance and conceptual drift have been characteristics of the life-story of the three societies (called European Communities) which are now contained in a society called the European Union. A member of a select but ominous class of international social systems which also includes the Holy Roman Empire and the League of Nations, the European Union is a paradoxical social form, namely, anunimagined community.