Suchergebnisse

European Community legislation requires EU Member States to implement representative procedures for enforcement of consumer protection, intellectual property, and late payment laws, but not yet for compensation claims. The possible introduction of damages claims for competition law infringements and electronic privacy, and examination of collective redress in the consumer protection field, is being considered.

The increase in the concentration of the banking industry across European
Union countries during the last fifteen years can be explained in terms of:
a) global factors, like the comprehensive adoption of technological
innovations, the intensification of competition that has resulted from the
deregulation of the financial sector and, more recently, as a consequence of
the government interventions and forced acquisitions prompted by the
2007-2009 financial crisis; and, b) factors that have been specific to the
E.U., in particular, the structural changes that took place in the region as
a result of the creation of the Single Financial Market (1993) and the
introduction of the euro (1999). This work analyzes the concentration process
of the banking industry in the E.U. during the last fifteen years giving
preeminence to the strategic choices made by the region?s commercial banks.
It also reports the most visible E.U. banks? M&As and government
interventions that resulted from the 2007-2009 financial crisis, make a
preliminary evaluation of the outcomes, and suggests possible future trends
for the banking industry in the region.

Since the collapse of the state socialist systems of Central and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980s, the countries of the region have undergone a variety of transformation paths, in some cases involving integration into the European Union through a continuing process of enlargement. Three major groups of countries in the region can be identified: Central European and Baltic states, South-East Europe, and the Commonwealth of Independent States, with different experiences and prospects; Turkey is also part of the process of engagement with the European Union. Various problems can be identified that make it unlikely, except for small countries in Central Europe, that further enlargement will take place. Realistic political alternatives for countries at present and possibly permanently left outside are new forms of association not leading to EU membership. Adapted from the source document.

Preventive policies have to be an integral part of any strategy to bring about a significant and lasting reduction in poverty. Of course, lifting people out of poverty is also essential, but this can only be a part of the plan. Preventing poverty in the first place and then preventing its recurrence must form a clear and specific part of the strategy. This article begins by examining prevention within the anti-poverty strategies promoted by the European Commission through the objectives set out in its Reports on Social Inclusion. It also considers preventive measures presented in countries' National Action Plans on Social Inclusion and the Commission's responses to these. The second part of the article discusses why prevention has been given less priority than the Commission's specific objectives would seem to require. The paper concludes with an exploration of the issue of poverty prevention at a broader, structural level and suggests key elements for such a strategy. Preventing poverty requires more attention to the underlying causes of poverty and the wider, structural factors that help to perpetuate it if a successful attack on the problem is to be sustained over time. This includes better linking of social and economic policy and closer attention to the ways in which widening and persistent inequalities handicap anti-poverty policies and undermine government effort – especially when they are combined with declining mobility.

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