Suchergebnisse

This paper focuses on the non linear adjustment of import prices in national currency to shocks in exchange rates and foreign prices measured in the exporters' currency of products originating outside the euro area and imported into European Union countries (EU 15). The paper looks at three different types of non linearities: (a) non proportional adjustment (the size of the adjustment grows more than proportionally with the size of the misalignments), (b) asymmetric adjustment to cost increasing and cost decreasing shocks, and (c) the existence of thresholds in the size of misalignments below which no adjustment takes place. There is evidence of more than proportional adjustment towards long run equilibrium in manufacturing industries. In these industries, the adjustment is faster the further away current import prices are from their implied long run equilibrium. In contrast, a proportional linear adjustment cannot be rejected for some other imports (especially within agricultural and commodity imports). There is also strong evidence of asymmetry in the adjustment to long run equilibrium. Deviations from long run equilibrium due to exchange rate appreciations of the home currency result in a faster adjustment than those caused by a home currency depreciation. Finally, we also find that adjustment takes place in the industries in our sample only when deviations are above certain thresholds, and that these thresholds tend to be somewhat smaller for manufacturing industries than for commodities

The European Union and Member State: Towards Institutional Fusion?, edited by Dietrich Rometsch and Wolfgang Wessels, is reviewed.

The completion of the internal market reduces the capacity of member states to shape the collective fate of their citizens through their own policies, while the policy making capacity of the European Community cannot be increased sufficiently to compensate for the loss of state control at national level. There is a need for coordination techniques which impose minimal constraints on the autonomous problem solving capacities of member states, who, in turn, must pursue policy goals in ways which impose minimal constraint on free movement within the Union. (Original abstract-amended)

For many years, the future of energy has been one of the most important problems and challenges for both national and global policy making. It is related to the high responsibility of the energy sector for climate change on Earth, but also for caring about ensuring sufficient energy for the future generations. Thus, energy policy is an important pillar of maintaining, broadly understood as internal security of the country. The biggest challenge related to ensuring energy security of the European Union is the diversification of energy sources. Member States are trying to tackle this challenge in two ways. Firstly, through the development of renewable energy, and secondly, looking for new channels for the supply of non-renewable energy. The restructuring of the energy sector, which has taken place in recent years, in accordance with the guidelines of the European Union, aims to intensify the use of environmentally friendly renewable energy sources. Equally important is the construction of the Nord Stream 2 and Turk Steam gas pipelines, which has been ongoing for several years, which raises much controversy in the Member States. The article is an analysis of the opportunities and challenges facing the European Union related to ensuring stable energy supplies to European citizens.

For the past 15 years or so, the claim of a rise of the regulatory state in Europe has been a dominant theme in public policy research. This paper critically reflects on this claim and the associated scholarship by considering four key questions. First, what is the significance of the supposed rise of the regulatory state for the state in Europe and how can this trend be explained? Second, what insights have been gained from the study of phenomena associated with the regulatory state, both in terms of EU and national levels of government as well as in terms of process and organisational understandings of policy analysis? Third, does the regulatory state represent a stable arrangement or does it suffer from its own peculiar dilemmas that fundamentally affect the nature of European states? Fourth, and finally, this article develops three scenarios-those of withering away, plodding along, and rejuvenation-for the future of the (study of the) regulatory state in Europe. Adapted from the source document.

Guerra, Somina. 2013. Central and Eastern European Attitudes in the Face of Union. Basingstoke - New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 179 pages.

'The European Union and ASEAN: Trade and Investment Issues' edited by Roger Strange, Jim Slate, and Corrado Molteni is reviewed.