Suchergebnisse

With advancement of the European integration process, income convergence has become a debated topic that has challenged both the academic forums andthe decision-makers' community. With the first waves of the EU enlargement, it has become indisputable for the European leaders that in order to ensure economic and political stability, the European Union has to promote convergence between countries and regions. The main purpose of this paper is to study income convergence in the European Union by taking into consideration both the national and regional dimensions. In this respect, we have examined (absolute) β- and σ-convergence between 2000 and 2018, finding evidences in favour of the neoclassical growth model assumptions. The results of our study confirm the β-convergence hypothesis as the poorer countries and regions from Central and Eastern Europe experienced higher growth rates than the developed ones. In the second part of our paper, we have tried to examine the key drivers of economic growth in the European Union (conditional β-convergence). Our study suggests that variables such as gross fixed capital formation, real labour productivity and labour force participation rate had a positive impact on convergence. In contrast, the growth rates in the European Union were hampered by over-indebtedness, high rates of inflation and unemployment. These internal vulnerabilities together with external challenges threaten the stability and prosperity of the European continent. Consequently, the European Union needs more than ever to reconsider its growth model in order to ensure long-term convergence and to avoid the polarisation between its Members.

Purpose This research uses the institutional theory perspective to better understand the social dynamics of the European Union (EU) tourism policy and its directions. Design/methodology/approach A thorough literature review involving a critical discourse analysis on the regulative, normative and cultural elements of institutionalisation improves our understanding of the EU policy, in terms of its processes, content and outcomes. Therefore, this paper explores how the European institutions have incrementally legitimised tourism policy among Member States. Findings Over the years, the EU's policies were intended to enhance the European single market whilst supporting the growth of the industrial competitiveness, sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship. This has inevitably led to the development of new policies in the realms of tourism. Originality value This contribution has identified a gap in academic research as it reports about the evolution of EU tourism policy and on the conditions of how it has been planned, organised and implemented. It also exposes the challenges of institutionalising tourism policy in intergovernmental institutions. ; peer-reviewed

Migration can be defined as a process whereby people move from one place to another, either for a certain period of time or forever. Europe was built on migrations and its peoples have helped populate other continents. The European Union (EU) is an international organization sui generis which has a new form of migration – intra organizational migration. If the EU decides to close its doors to further immigration from outside the EU (or to end the process of enlargement), its economic development will be at risk. Its aging population will not be able to compete in the global market as successfully as now. Shrinking numbers of workers and employees will not be able to produce the resources needed to bear the burden of the pensions of those retired or for the repayment of the sovereign debts of various EU nations. The financial crisis will continue, leading to emigration from Europe to other parts of the world. If, on the other hand, the EU decides to open its gates to greater immigration, especially from the developing nations, it would be helping not just the immigrants themselves but also its own people. States and international organizations exist to provide services for their people, increasing their standards of living within international solidarity. This paper shows that a reduction of natural population growth will affect the EU and the world, that the candidate countries (Turkey excluded) are in a population crisis greater than that of the EU, and that global solutions for peace and prosperity should be leading ideas in creating future migrations policies. Europe will need a larger population, from its candidate countries and beyond, in order to maintain its position in the world. Further academic research as well as consultations among EU and nonEU nations on migration will provide the main avenue to a better world

The European Union is facing multiple challenges. Departing from mainstream theory, this article adopts a fresh approach to understanding integration. It does so by taking two theoretical steps. The first introduces the structure–agency debate in order to make explicit the relationship between macro-structures, the institutional arrangements at European Union level and agency. The second proposes that the state of integration should be understood as the outcome of contestation between competing hegemonic projects that derive from underlying social processes and that find their primary expression in domestic politics. These two steps facilitate an analysis of the key areas of contestation in the contemporary European Union, illustrated by an exploration of the current crisis in the European Union, and open up the development of an alternative, critical, theory of integration.

1. Introduction -- 2. The Regulatory Power of Corporations -- 3. Protecting Consumers and the Environment in Europe -- 4. The Expert: Striving for a Circular Economy -- 5. The Innovator: Boosting Resource Efficiency -- 6. The Operator: Providing an Essential Service -- 7. Brexit: Corporate Power Undone? -- 8. Conclusion: The Corporate Challenge to Regulators -- References -- Index.

This paper aimed at evaluating the level of sustainability in agriculture in 28 member states of the European Union. The surveys were carried out based on a synthetic technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS)-based measure. This method synthesizes factors of various nature and assigns them a synthetic aggregate measure. The analysis made it possible to develop a ranking of EU member states according to a differentiated level of measures and assign them to one of four groups characterized by different levels of sustainability in agriculture. The group of member states representing the highest level of sustainability in agriculture included two countries from Central and Eastern Europe, i.e., Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The group of countries with a greater than average level of sustainability comprised 14 member states of the European Union, including seven countries admitted to the community after 2004. The group with a low level of sustainability consisted of eight EU member states, six of them from the group of old EU member states, i.e., Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Denmark and the United Kingdom, and two new members, i.e., Romania and Slovenia. On the other hand, the lowest level of sustainability was characteristic of two &ldquo ; old EU&rdquo ; member states, i.e., The Netherlands and Belgium, and two &ldquo ; new EU&rdquo ; member states, i.e., Cyprus and Malta. The differentiated synthetic measure values showed disparities in the level of sustainability in agriculture among the member states of the European Union. They are a result of the varied level of development of this sector, production intensity and the resulting environmental impact.

This paper is intended to analyze the challenges and consequences of the integration of Western Balkans to the European Union. Specifically, in the first case, challenges of this integration path and in the second case the consequences as a result of eventual stagnation in this path. For more than a century, the Western Balkans region has been seeking its way of European transformation. The region remains in the agenda of European Union expansion, but even after two decades of promises, the integration of Western Balkan countries to EU is not certain. The integration journey is first of all closely connected to building the institutional capacities, adoption of laws, rules, norms and European behavior in the domestic policymaking. Therefore, the challenges are converted into obstacle or inability to the establishment of values, identity, institutional and social aspects in the Western Balkan countries, whereas the consequences are reflected as derivatives of failure to accomplishing the membership of the region to EU. Based on the research conducted on this issue, this study argues that such challenges as lack of rule of law, high levels of corruption and organized crime are derivatives of historical legacy and political elite efforts to capture the state or dominate certain state resources, as well as of the EU approach towards this region. This study is important particularly in this aspect and unequivocally presents the common and separate challenges of the Western Balkans towards integration into the European Union. Along with this realistic presentation, the consequences themselves appear which first of all are not only to the detriment of the Western Balkans.

1. Post-Crisis Growth: Prospects in the European Union -- 2. Convergence Is Alive and Well in Europe -- 3. Unconventional Monetary Policy in the United States and Europe -- 4. Time to Tidy up EU Competition on Information Exchange Object Restriction Concerted Practices? -- 5. European Union Transport Policy: Post Crisis Challenges -- 6. Size of the Shadow Economies of 28 European Union Countries from 2003-2018: The Latest Development -- 7. Evaluating the Prevalence and the Working Conditions of Dependent Self-Employment in the European Union -- 8. Political Economy, Inward Foreign Direct Investment and EU Accession of the Western Balkans -- 9. Greece as a Bridge to the Most Vibrant Region of the Next Decades -- 10. The Third Hellenic Economic Adjustment Program: Success Story of Macroeconomic Stabilization or Failed Story of Economic Growth Restoration? -- 11. The Quality of Domestic Institutions as a Driver for the Initiation of Firms' Exporting in the EU Post-Crisis Period -- 12. Labor Market Duality under the Insider-Outside Theory, Labor Division, Rent-Seeking, and Clientelism: The Case of a European Union Member Country -- 13. How the Economics Profession Got it Wrong on Brexit

This paper covers citizenship by investment (CBI) schemes in the European Union (EU) context which allow to acquire nationality of the EU member state through targeted investments. We were verifying whether the negative attitude of the EU towards the CBI schemes of member states and the ongoing war in Ukraine threaten their very existence. In order to achieve the objective, we analysed the rules on the acquisition of citizenship by naturalization as well as the relationship between nationality of the EU member states, which is still their exclusive competence and the EU citizenship status. Subsequently, we compared CBI schemes of three EU member states (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Malta). The results show that the EU has put pressure on member states to cancel their CBI programs because of the complex relationship between the national citizenship on the one hand and the EU citizenship and related rights enforceable across the whole EU on the other hand. This EU pressure has been further intensified following the war in Ukraine. The reason is that Russian nationals made up a significant number of CBI applicants and also because some Russian or Belarusian nationals who are supporting the war in Ukraine might have acquired EU citizenship under CBI schemes. Of the three countries we analysed, only Malta currently has a valid CBI program. Bulgaria and Cyprus abolished their CBI programs. This development indicates that the EU has gradually succeeded in eliminating the existence of CBI in the EU member states. However, it is not yet clear whether this practice of member states is contrary to the EU law. We assume that the Court of Justice of the EU will resolve this question in the ongoing infringement procedure initiated by the European Commission against Malta.

Network activities are an essential part of the economy. They represent services of general economic interest and include electronic communication, electricity, postal and railway services. At the end of the 1980s, the European Commission brought forward legislative proposals to open the monopolistic service markets of general economic interest. In that way, states would prepare the legislation to liberalise services, and state-owned monopolistic enterprises would adapt to the new conditions in the market. State-owned railway companies were megalomanic, exerting a triple role of managing the railway infrastructure and service facilities and providing railway transport services. In the early 1990s, the European Union (EU) adopted new legislation that would open the railway freight transport market. This initiated a new era of the railway. Separation of the functions within state own monopolistic companies into infrastructure management and railway undertakings quickly became a reality, paving the way for new railway freight operators. EU directives are implemented differently throughout the EU, which leads to various solutions. We have analysed various scientific and professional sources to understand better different correlations between the traffic parameters of the railway freight transport market. The key parameters were: (1) number of new undertakings, (2) ton-kilometres, (3) infrastructure charges and (4) quantity of transported goods. This paper researches the current state of the railway freight transport market and aims to define the shortcomings in the analyses of the impact of railway liberalisation on freight transport. Our research pointed out the need for seeing a broader picture of state interventions and infrastructure manager independence in the context of preventing market marginalisation. In addition, we have concluded that a number of the new undertakings is not a crucial parameter for understanding the railway freight transport market.