Suchergebnisse

Whether the security environment in Europe will be more or less demanding than during the cold war; implications for NATO and the US. Based on papers presented at a conference organized jointly by the US Army War College and the Ridgway Center for International Security Studies, held in Pittsburgh, Sept. 1991. Also published as a monograph under the same title, London, Frank Cass, 1992. Explores key issues: nationalism and instability, the new role of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, ethnic conflicts in the Commonwealth of Independent States, NATO's military intervention in civil conflicts, nuclear arms control, Germany's role in Europe, France's defense policy, British security policy, and foreign and US role and presence in NATO countries.

"In March 2000 the European Council of Lisbon introduced the 'open method of co-ordination' (OMC) as a new policy instrument to tackle politically sensitive areas, namely social inclusion, old-age security, health, and long-term care. This paper gives a view over the most important developments and main issues raised by the OMC process, particularly in the area of old-age security. The paper is descriptive and focuses on the processes and their tools, the involved actors and their different broad objectives as well as approaches. Finally, the paper deals with the enlargement process of the European Union. In the same context it is discussed that not much thought has been given to the question of how exactly the 10 candidate countries can be integrated comprehensively into the OMC. Nevertheless, it is possible that - especially due to the enlargement process - the OMK has an indirect effect on future national old-age security reforms." (author's abstract)

A dissertation submitted to the School of Production Engineering and Management at the Technical University of Crete in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ; Summarization: The aim of this thesis is the evaluation of energy efficiency in EU countries and industrial sectors over the period 2000-10 and 2000-09, respectively. In the first stage of analysis in which the energy efficiency in 26 EU countries is evaluated, we follow a two-stage approach based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Multicriteria Decision Aiding approach (MCDA). The proposed two-stage DEA/MCDA approach can be easily used for benchmarking purposes, allowing for the formulation of a complete ranking of all countries under consideration, as well as the monitoring of the performance of a country over time using data solely at the country level, without having to resort to relative assessments in comparison to data from a set of peer countries. The results of the empirical analysis indicate that despite the considerable improvements achieved in terms of energy intensity, a more refined view of energy consumption and economic activity data shows that there is still much to be done to improve the actual energy efficiency of European countries. Additionally, the economic crisis of the past few years has had negative effects on energy efficiency. Furthermore, it is has been found that for European countries, the effect due to the consideration of the structure of their economic activity is stronger than the effect due to the introduction of a breakdown by their energy mix. Next, we extend our research to evaluating the energy efficiency trends of ten energy-intensive industries in 23 EU countries. Specifically, the performance of the construction, electricity, mining and quarrying, transport, food and tobacco, textiles and leather, pulp and paper, coke and chemicals, other non-metallic mineral and fabricated metal, machinery and equipment is examined. In the first stage, the DEA combined with the ...

Our study addresses the link between ownership concentration and corporate performance in the manufacturing sector in the European Union in an economic environment stressed by the global financial and sovereign debt crises. This is, to our knowledge, the first attempt to tackle differences between companies with different origin-countries in EU from the perspective of ownership concentration and corporate performance in a period marked by the adverse impact of the global financial crisis. Ownership concentration is measured by the number of shareholders and the percentage of their individual and collective holdings, while performance is measured by accounting-based and market-based indicators. Our results, based on a detailed and methodical statistical analysis, show a clear division between Western and Eastern companies in terms of ownership concentration and performance, with an impact on businesses&rsquo ; recovery patterns. Overall, there is a positive link between ownership concentration and corporate performance in the case of Western companies, but not for Eastern-based companies. Moreover, ownership concentration has supported business recovery in EU, but particularly for Western companies. On the other hand, our results suggest that market investors&rsquo ; assessment of corporate performance is disconnected from business fundamentals and do not acknowledge the role of ownership concentration (either beneficial of detrimental) for performance assessment.

The system of surveillance and control of food safety and animal and plant health is a vital building block of the single market in both the European Union (EU) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). The free movement of goods (the first of the four fundamental freedoms of the EU and the EAEU) throughout the union depends on the proper functioning of a union-wide system of assessment and control of food safety and animal and plant health risks. Sanitary and phytosanitary measures taken in response to a food safety threat, while they are a necessary part of the system for food safety control, are barriers to the free movement of goods within the union. They can be avoided only by ensuring an effective system of preventative control. While food safety is a worthwhile goal in and of itself, it is important to recognize that it is also an indispensable "pillar" upon which the free movement of goods rests. [.] The present analysis of the "architecture" of food safety control systems in the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union is designed to assess the degree to which the present systems in the two unions can ensure effective food safety control, thus ensuring the free movement of goods within the single market. It is a comparative analysis of the EU and EAEU systems for ensuring food safety through sanitary and phytosanitary measures (Box 1). The analysis spans both central and country level institutions for ensuring food safety in the countries of these two economic unions. We first compare laws, institutions and the governance of food safety issues in the two unions at the supranational level. Second, we describe and compare the food safety systems at the country level in both unions. Last, we provide a synthetic conclusion that reports our findings about the key differences between food safety control in the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union. We conclude that there are cardinal differences between the food safety systems in the two unions both at the central and country levels. The overhaul of the EU food safety control system in the 2000s led to a significant transfer of decision making authority to EU institutions. Very little, if any, of the EU-type central edifice exists in the Eurasian Economic Union. In fact, despite the existence of the Eurasian Economic Commission, the Eurasian Economic Union operates an extremely decentralized system of food safety control. At the country level the roles and responsibilities of institutions, while relatively clear in the EU countries, are not well defined or well understood in the countries of the EAEU. There are also major differences in the accession process within the two unions. While in the EU this is a long and transformative process, it is more a political process in the EAEU. Finally, while the EU seems to have a relatively effective system of food safety control, we find that in the EU the lack of Union-wide rules concerning the system of national controls means that there is no guarantee of coherence or comprehensiveness.

The European continent, under the urge of the events generated by the process of building Europe that has led to an enlargement of the external European Union borders towards the east, undergoes a process of alteration. No matter on which side of the EU border they may be, the citizens of the European countries are entitled to enjoy the fruit of welfare, security and freedom. The development of a coherent neighbourhood policy in Brussels becomes an imperative resulting from the need for communication and cooperation amongst people and countries.
No matter the view on the European Union external border, the dialogue on all levels of the society through the means of inter-university cooperation is a factor providing the communication needed for good neighbourhood. Thus, the stiff borders fade away. By setting up a university network comprising both partners from within and outside the European Union, a bond is established over the external border of the community. From this point of view, inter-university cooperation at the external borders of the European community turns into a promoter of good neighbourhood values.