Ensuring internal security is one of the core objectives of European integration in the context of the establishment of an area of freedom, security and justice of the European Union (E.U.). The aim of the internal security policy of the E.U. is to support Member States with regard to the maintenance of law and order and the safeguarding of internal security. In the last 20 years in the area of internal security of the E.U. many important initiatives, political agendas and legal instruments at the E.U. level have arisen. This article aims to show the development of the internal security policy of the E.U., its most important guidelines and the challenges in the coming years.
The European Union currently operates three types of competence: exclusive, shared and supporting (complementary and harmonization). For each country, it is very important autonomous power of taxation and the ensuing independence in shaping tax policy. Countries acceding to the European Union, however, have to reckon with the fact that 80 Artur Kuś Studia z Polityki Publicznej since joining will not have a kind of monopoly on the creation of a fully independent and autonomous tax regulations. EU tax law is primarily the proper functioning of the EU internal market. The aim of the tax legislation is mainly provide income for the state. Thus, the main feature of the national tax law is fiscal function and the EU's - the proper functioning of the internal market. EU tax law in the broad sense (sensu largo) is the collection of EU law (primary and secondary) concerning and affecting the tax law of the Member States. EU tax law in the strict sense (sensu stricto) is a set of rules while EU law relating to and used directly in the tax law of the Member States of the EU. In the simplest terms it can be assumed that these are the rules relating to the taxation mainly indirect taxes.
The purpose of the paper is to study the actions undertaken by the European institutions, aiming at a larger openness of resources, such as cultural works, scientific publications and educational materials, as well as to examine the motivations and results thereof. The European Union, being the area of production of a significant number of works belonging to each of the aforementioned categories, views these resources as strategic to its development. Thus it has taken diverse measures in order to maintain an appropriate balance between the public (social) interests, understood as open access to the resources, and the private interests, prioritising the protection of the owner's rights. The paper demonstrates that these actions are not uniform due to a diverse character and standing of these resources in the economy. The first instruments regarding scientific and educational resources had been implemented ten years before the implementation of legislative measures concerning the cultural products. Hence the public interests, meaning users' access, were treated as more important than the private proprietary rights.
The aim of this publication is to outline changes that have been observed in Poland and to present the place of the Polish industry, including production, services and international trade, since the accession to the European Union. Rating highly the role of industry and proper conducting of a pro-growth policy in Poland and the European Union, one part of the study concerns the analysis of basic indicators of the Polish industry structure and the final part the realization of the Europe 2020 strategy. The analytical description in the publication was enriched with a wide set of tables, as well as a crosssectional collection of information on industry in Poland and on the European Union member states in rank order. The high dynamics observed in Poland resulted, among others, from an over double growth in the production of electrical equipment, computers, electronic and optical products as well as of metal products. The Strategy Europe 2020 is a socio-economic development programme for Poland and the EU growth. The goal of the Europe 2020 strategy is to create the economy - based on knowledge, low-emission policies promoting environmentally friendly technologies, making an efficient use of resources, and also aiming at social cohesion.
A deposit guarantee scheme is a crucial element of the financial safety network, which is currently undergoing a major reform in the European Union due to the process of the creation of the banking union. Therefore, it is important to present a variety of the possible target models, their adequacy in relation to the objectives set in the reform as well as to analyse the conditions which contributed to the choice of the one that is being implemented. What also needs to be addressed is the issue of the proposed model along with its potential to eliminate systemic dysfunctions, involving those addressed by the EU legislator as well as the moral hazard inherently present in the mere concept of a deposit guarantee scheme.
Public deliberation mechanisms play an important role in the process of the EU public policy making because they are to compensate the shortage of representative democracy. One of them is social consultation carried out mainly by the European Commission. The paper consists of the analysis of open public consultation role in designing and implementing the EU sector policies. Their growing importance and frequency of use with regard to the economic policy and its kinds is clearly visible. The aims of such consultations are various. They are primarily used as an instrument of legitimacy of decisions taken by the Commission as well as an important source of information about the stakeholders' opinions and stance. The case of social consultations concerning the transatlantic agreement TTIP is analysed here in detail due to the significance of social mass protests which used to occur and owing to the imp
The author describes and summarises the main theories relating to the specificity of the European Union structure as an internally complex organism which is being characterised by scientists as an international organisation as well as a confederation and a federation. Many researchers compare the process of the European Union formation to the nation-state formation, others compare the E.U. to the United States of America and many more indicate that the E.U. structure with its specific multi-level governance looks like a neo-medieval empire. What we can see in this empire is a network of overlapping systems of powers and areas of loyalty. The author points out that structurally the E.U. can be visualised as a model of multilevel governance and as such can be defined as a sui generis political system. So it is not analogous to the nation state but rather to a system of governance without a formal governing body. This notion is the result of a growing level of interdependence one can see in the international arena. In the second part of article, the author addresses the sovereignty issues which relate to the E.U. member states as well as the E.U. as a separate body. He reviews the theories which variously explain the process of European integration and its influence on internal policies within member states.
The mission of the European Community and later the European Union was to take all actions that reduce disparities in economic development among Member States and their regions. These objectives were achieved through creating a customs union, a single European market and economic and monetary union, and the introduction and implementation of trade, agricultural, cohesion, competition policies. The problem of obtaining financial resources that would allow the EU to fulfill the tasks assigned to it by treaties and other legal acts is inseparable from the functioning of the European Union. The EU needs to raise new own resources. In recent years there have been proposals for the introduction of new own resources in the form of a uniform VAT which would apply equally to all Member States and in the form of a tax on financial transactions. The principal disadvantage of the new methodology for calculating own resource based on VAT on supplies of goods and services, acquisitions and imports subject to the standard rate of VAT in each Member State is its complexity. Despite the efforts made, the abovementioned taxes still will not be typical own resource that directly supplies the budget of the European Union. They will still be transferred through state agencies or economic entities for tax on financial transactions and they will continue to be dependent on the systems and tax rates of each Member State.
The article discusses the problem of the reform of the system of the protection of personal data in the context of changes, new tasks and challenges faced by the European data protection authorities, in particular the European Data Protection Supervisor, Article 29 Working Group or the national supervisory authorities. The proposals of regulations and directives submitted in recent years by the European Commission related to data protection in general, as well as the specific rules governing the functioning of the EU agencies involved in the fight against crime clearly show that the proposed changes are intended to increase the role of these bodies at both the E. U. and the national level by ensuring a more effective implementation of the new rules. The planned strengthening of the relationship between the national authorities as well as the coordination of their activities also aims to meet this objective.
Multi-level governance is now an established field of public policy research. In this context there is a need to introduce two new concepts: substantiation of public policy goals and multi- level coordination of public policy goals. In the study based on this assumption a qualitative approach is used. Usefulness of these two concepts was proved by participatory action policy research on one specific goal substantiated and coordinated within Europe 2020 Strategy in the policy area of poverty. In the course of the research (2012-2015) the author was a representative of the network of social NGOs in the governmental body responsible for implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy in Poland. The main action research tool was an attempt to modify the goal of poverty reduction decided by the government in 2011. In that process rich data was generated, analyzed, interpreted and used for subsequent actions. The effect of the research is a deep insight and understanding of multi-level governance process in a specific policy area and a proposal for two new concepts. Emerging new research areas were proposed and discussed.
The activity of international holding companies has become crucial for the European economy. In particular, attention should to paid to the tax-related issues, which arise out of the cross-border activity of holding companies. Increasingly, holding companies employ aggressive tax optimisation in their strategies. While the tax policies of individual E.U. Member States have turned out to be of little effectiveness, simultaneously, the lack of a common and harmonised tax policy designed to counteract tax optimisation has become a serious problem for the European Union. Therefore, the European Commission strives to develop a fiscal concept which will - on the one hand - allow to effectively combat international tax optimisation adopted by holding companies and - on the other hand - be integral with the internal tax systems of individual Member States.
Adjusting the legal status, and support policies for migrant workers is an issue on the agenda of international institutions for nearly a hundred years. The first efforts to protect foreign workers have been taken during the first session of the International Labour Conference in 1919. In the following decades ILO activities has led to the preparation of three international documents concerning this issue (non-binding ILO Convention No. 66 in 1939, and Convention No. 97 of 1949, and No. 143 of 1975). For many decades, the problem of the protection and assistance of migrant workers' rights was considered as a narrow issue of international labor law. Codification efforts, undertaken during seventies, has led to the adaptation of the UN document (International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families) in 1990, and inclusion this issue into more general area of international human rights law. Despite this fact, and the existence of several categories of documents concerning migrant workers within Council of Europe, the European Union, and even ASEAN, the protection of migrant workers has never been effectively functioning system. The aim of this article is the analysis of the codification of that issue, and the main obstacles to consensus on the protection of migrant workers' rights. The state parties of the UN Convention contains primarily countries of origin of migrants (such as Mexico, Morocco and the Philippines). It seems, therefore, that despite 46 ratifications the, UN convention does not have a global character, and activities of its monitoring body (Committee on Migrant Workers-CMW) reflects primarily demands of sending countries. The article closely examines particularly controversial provisions of the ILO and UN documents from the point of view of current labour migrations and policies of sending and host countries.
Genetic modifications of organisms arouse a lot of controversy. Some people consider them to be beneficial for the future of the world, others, on the contrary, see them as a series of threats. For this reason, the function of the State is important, through creating specific regulations, controls the flow of GMO products on its territory. There are doubts, whether the regulations sufficiently protect the domestic market against uncontrolled flow of genetically modified products. Also the question remains if the scope of norms is sufficient, and the use of GMOs is appropriate for the safety of the environment.
TTIP - the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is an agreement that carries a number of risks for the economy, the natural environment, consumer rights, labour rights and access to public services in the European Union. The mechanisms included in the agreement, concerning the settlement of disputes between states and foreign investors, pose a number of threats to democracy as well. The benefits that are supposed to result from the implementation of the agreement will primarily be reaped by large corporations involved in the transatlantic trade. Mostly the citizens and societies of the EU member states will be under threat from the agreement. The principle of mutual recognition of regulations, which is expected to be practically universally used in accordance with the agreement, will mean in practice lowering safeguards protecting the rights of citizens, workers and consumers in the European Union. The liberalization of trade within the TTIP will be a factor forcing increased competition also in relation to the Polish small and medium-sized enterprises, and as a result, putting also pressure to reduce wages and other costs, including those related to the need of complying with the norms or standards. Thus, there are far more threats than benefits of the agreement.
The following publication elaborates on the notion of international tax competition and international tax avoidance in the light of cross-border public policy. In terms of intercommunity relations, tax competition may be defined as a phenomenon consisting in application of various tax instruments for the purpose of developing a state's economy and prosperity by means of increasing competitiveness of the domestic business activity or attracting foreign investments. Tax competition is a natural consequence of the processes of globalization since in the reality of growing business interrelations, tax considerations exert more and more influence over investment decisions of holding companies. It reveals the dissonance between the interests of the particular member states in the EU and the interest of the European Union as a whole. Usually it is difficult to mark the border between a harmful and an advantageous tax competition.
