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The European Union has been traditionally perceived as a values-based power that has exerted a certain appeal to the world and a transformative influence on its neighbours. The power of its attraction derives from the fact that it is a unique model in history, constructed on common values, mutual interests, solidarity and joint policies for economic development and convergence, with the aim to preserve peace, stability and welfare for all European peoples. Despite occasional ups and downs, this has been a successful endeavour, as demonstrated by its successive development and unprecedented enlargements. The effectiveness of the EU in disseminating its values varies, depending on different factors. Overall, the EU's most powerful tool is its paradigm. In response to current challenges threatening the credibility of its model, the EU needs to remain committed to its values and principles, speak with one voice and keep inspiring its peoples first, so that it can inspire the world.

FEUTURE Online Paper No. 19 This paper presents a trends survey of identity-related primarily European representations of Turkey (but also vice versa) in the 1999-2017 timeframe with a view to identifying the most salient, pertinent, and durable drivers likely to obtain and drive the relations between Turkey and the EU into 2023. It identifies four key drivers underpinning European representations of Turkey, three drivers underpinning Turkish representations of Europe and one shared driver that collectively reveal the underlying dynamics of identity-related representations of each other, a both pivotal and often controversial aspect of EU-Turkey relations. In conclusion, the paper unfolds the nature of the likely scenario of a 'conflictual orientation' in 2023, and adds some initial recommendations for decision makers and stakeholders to address this often both sensitive and elusive aspect of EU-Turkey relations. ; This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 692976. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

In this paper we discuss changes in family patterns in the European Union over the past fifty years and the policy implications of these trends. First, we address regional developments in family formation, with respect to childbearing- and partnership patterns, and how these changes affect household structures in different European countries. Thereafter, we turn our attention to socio-economic trends, focusing especially on changes in women's labour force participation. We address the linkages between these trends and the new family patterns, followed by a discussion on policies, mainly at the EU-level. In the brief conclusion we summarize the main policy challenges ahead. Throughout, we rely on data from the Eurostat Database, Eurobarometer, OECD Labour Force Statistics and the OECD Family Database. ; FamiliesAndSocieties

The European Union agreed on a directive (DIR) for the protection of animals used for scientific purposes in 2010 which was implemented by member states at the onset of 2013. The DIR applies to animals used for science or education that are subjected to pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm equivalent to, or higher than that caused by a needle. The DIR changes the legal framework for wild animal research and requires educational and training standards of staff involved in capturing, planning, or performing research. Both wild animals studied in or taken from the wild into captivity are covered by the DIR. An animal welfare body must be established that includes a scientific member and at least one person responsible for animal welfare, and they must receive input from a designated veterinarian. The DIR will aid and improve wild animal research because standards of animal welfare and research ethics must be met. Although similar standards for moose research were employed previously in Scandinavia, future moose research and conservation will likewise benefit.

Institution building is crucial for successful integration into the European Union (EU). Through the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), Croatia bound itself to strengthen institutions at all levels in the area of the administration, priority areas being protection of competition and state aid. According to the demands that the EU has made on the public administrations of the accession countries in the pre-accession period, we shall identify the criteria for membership. We shall define the level of the fulfilment of conditions for membership and the measures that should be carried out during the process of the reform in Croatia by a comparative analysis of the state of affairs in Croatia, the candidates and the EU members. The main conclusion is that institutional weakness in Croatia is the outcome of failure to define the priorities and the timetable for the implementation of given reforms.

François Mitterrand had a leading role in directing the course for the European integration process. While he orchestrated the economic integration of Europe, he remained deeply opposed to further political integration within the Communities. This article researches Mitterrand's rationale for his clear focus on economic affairs and develops his vision for the institutional setting of the European Union (EU). The focus of the article is allocated to four different perspectives that reflect the four pillars of Mitterrand's European policy: the common currency, the establishment of a closely integrated and small Western European based EU, the development of the Social Europe and of a free trade area between Europe and Africa. It is argued that although EU institutions have been established based on Mitterrand's design, today's reality deviates from the conditions on which his plan was based. For Mitterrand, the ideal EU involved a deep-rooted Western Europe with France at its core and a loose association with Central and Eastern Europe. His perception resembles the current discussions of multi-speed Europe and the determination of France and Germany to proceed to the next stage of the integration process. Importantly, Mitterrand's print can still be recognised in the EU's social policy included in the treaties, yet still far from being implemented. Notably, like all of the French Presidents, Mitterrand developed a design for Africa in which an extensive free trade area between Europe and former French colonies were to be established. In this proposal, Germany was to be assigned the part of the economic engine behind the actualisation of the proposal, while France was to carry out the role of a required middle man of the transactions. To further assure France's political predominance over the Communities, Mitterrand designed a common currency for a small number of homogenous Western-European states.

Developing a system of securities regulation in the European Union has been a difficult task. Currently, markets are regulated at the national level and are guided by certain minimum standards established by EU Directives. The Investment Services Directive, enacted in 1996, was heralded as the final piece of legislation required to complete a unified market for securities. This Note discusses the ISD's failure to result in a fully integrated market and concludes that EU markets need supervision by a centralized regulatory body to allow them to become fully integrated.

The main aim of this paper is an analysis of the region in general form and to look at innova- tion and knowledge in the European Union's economic growth and social security strategy. The research objectives here encompass the presentation of the innovation system and knowledge in promoting entrepreneurship, the theoretical concept of the innovation system and process at the level of the region, the knowledge-based economy, constructed advantage, the constructed advantage provided by the Triple Helix model, Europe 2020 strategy, Innovation Union and Horizon 2020 as the financial instruments implemented by the Innovation Union. An important result of the research is the conclusion that in the innovation process the connections between science (universities), market (industry) and government are very important. There is a positive dependence between innovation activities and the effectiveness of the innovation process. More interaction and cooperation can be observed on the regional than on the state level. The new programmes of scientific and innovation research, Europe 2020 and the Innovation Union, are very important factors in the strategy of the European Union's economic growth and social security.

The key challenge for medium- and long-term policy in European Union countries is to use the potential of knowledge-based economy (KBE), which is a condition for maintaining high total factor productivity in Europe. For this reason, the relationship between quality of institutional system and total factor productivity in the EU countries has been examined. The quality of institutional system is defined here from the perspective of incentives that influence the use of the potential of KBE. In order to determine the level of effectiveness of the institutional system in the analyzed countries the method for linear ordering of objects was applied based on data from Fraser Institute. The main hypothesis of the article was formed as follow: the quality of institutional system in the context of KBE has significant influence on the level of total factor productivity in the EU. In order to verify the hypothesis, the parameters of the Cobb-Douglas production function were estimated, which allowed to evaluate TFP for EU countries. The calculation made in the article was based on Eurostat data. Then, the identification of the relationship between the quality of institutional system and the level of TFP was made with the application of panel model. The research made for the years 2000-2010 allowed to verify the hypothesis.

AbstractWhile anecdotal evidence suggests that transnational private rule-making organizations (TPROs)—such as eco-certification organizations—lobby public policy makers, we know little about the extent of this phenomenon or the characteristics of TPROs that lobby. TPRO lobbying is relevant given that their rule-making activities directly intersect with public policy. We use the interest group and private governance literatures to examine TPRO features that distinguish TPROs that lobby from those that do not. We developed an original data set of 147 environmental TPROs and assessed TPRO lobbying by their registration in the European Union's Transparency Register (TR). We find that a quarter of the TPROs in our data set are registered in the TR, and that capacity and expertise matter. Contrary to expectations, however, we do not find that certain key features of TPROs—such as business origins or credibility—are correlated with being registered, which implies that these features do not create inequalities in the TPRO population in terms of lobbying likelihood. By assessing environmental TPROs as interest organizations that engage in lobbying, we contribute to research on public–private governance interactions and identify TPROs as an interest group population in its own right.