Suchergebnisse

Turkey has historically struggled to attract foreign investors. This paper argues that not only macroeconomic and political stability, but also regional integration explains the upsurge in foreign direct investment observed since 2005. The analysis draws from a qualitative framework. It discusses how, contrary to the Customs Union Treaty for industrial products with the European Union, the official start of the European Union's accession to negotiations in 2005 encompassed a wide set of reforms in several chapters directly or indirectly affecting the business climate. The reforms helped to enhance foreign direct investment attraction in Turkey. However, it seems that the global economic slowdown starting in 2009 and increasing Euro-skepticism have already started to erode this effect. Only large foreign investment in the energy sector observed in 2009–13, explained by the energy security strategy of the European Union and the privatization agenda, has prevented the collapse of foreign direct investment inflows to Turkey

AbstractIn this article, we show how judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) have provided nationalists with an unexpected opportunity to promote a nationalist discourse that is seemingly in line with human rights while fundamentally at odds with the counter-majoritarian core of human rights. We start our analysis with two judgments in which the Court accepted the arguments of liberal democratic states to infringe fundamental rights of persons belonging to (immigrant) Muslim minorities in the name of "requirements of living together" or "social integration": SAS v France (2014) and Osmanoglu and Kocabas v Switzerland (2017). Strikingly, the justifications by the states for these infringements point to concerns about perceived threats to national identity and culture. We show how nationalist politicians in countries with minority populations, including those in East Central Europe, have used justifications in terms of national self-protection, tacitly or explicitly, to pursue old anti–human rights agendas. The case law discussed here enabled them to present these justifications as ECtHR proof, notwithstanding the underlying nationalism.

AbstractThe paper analyses the determinants of regional disparities in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and their evolution over time in the enlarged European Union (EU). With reference to the literature it groups EU regions on the basis of three different factors—specialisation, socio‐economic features, and innovation. It then analyses regional disparities in per capita GDP (EU‐relative and country‐relative) across groups over 2004–2011 using both non‐parametric tools and traditional regression analysis with spatial effects. The paper finds that EU‐wide convergence actually conceals growing divergence across old member regions and within new members. Coming to the factors that lie at the heart of regional disparities, country factors lose importance for newcomers but become more important for older members, notwithstanding longstanding integration. Socio‐economic factors and innovation instead become increasingly important for all areas, socio‐economic factors lying at the heart of within‐country differences and innovation more of those between regions. Finally, specialisation appears to have a lower explanatory power.

Main description: Das europäische Privatrecht liegt zunehmend in einem Spannungsfeld zwischen nationalem Recht und Unionsrecht, das sich in einem Prozess der Konvergenz - also der Angleichung - befindet. Der vierte Band der Reihe "Konvergenz der Rechte" behandelt den modernisierten Zivilprozess in Europa.

The influence of the European Union (EU) on Ukraine can hardly be overestimated. Today, Ukraine's development directly depends on the country's integration into the EU and the adoption of European best practices. Of course, there are also imperfections in the EU. And where are they not? For countries like Ukraine (which are in their infancy), best practices are a chance for development. Such experience is invaluable. In order to adopt such a positive experience in the context of ensuring the safety of the transport system, it was decided to conduct additional research on this vector. The section discusses the main provisions for ensuring the safety of the EU transport system. A monographic review of research in the field of ensuring the safety of various modes of transport in the EU and in the world has been conducted. An assessment of safety indicators for different modes of transport in the EU has been realized. Impact indicators and safety measures for various modes of transport in the EU countries have been identified. Various safety management systems and EU programs, aimed at ensuring safety in rail, road, air and maritime transport have been described. New challenges to the security of the EU transport system through the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuring the competitiveness of different modes of transport, economic stability of market operators, compliance with environmental standards, etc. have been identified. The need to improve the infrastructure to ensure the safety of the transport system in the EU is pointed out. A combined safety management system for the EU transport system has been proposed and its key elements have been identified.

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic is a critical juncture for global development. Under the label of "Team Europe", the EU has sought to mobilize rapid development assistance to support partners in addressing the impacts of the crisis, while promoting joined-up approaches among European actors to assert itself in a changing and competitive geopolitical context. This article assesses how substantive and process-oriented EU development policy norms are reflected in the Union's global COVID-19 response. Focusing on the EU's response during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of 2020, the article shows that the EU's response to this extraordinary crisis consisted of a deepening of EU integration. In so doing, the EU emphasized process-oriented over substantive norms in its development policy.

The article refers to the controversial debate on the efficiency of German EU policy coordination. On the basis of a five-month participant observation in the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the hypothesis of the over-efficiency of EU coordination is developed. Over-efficiency is characterised by a functionally organised but purely technocratic preparation of EU policy without the participation of the general public, political parties, and national parliament. By having considerably increased the efficiency of EU policy coordination in recent years, German policy makers have therefore potentially undermined the acceptance of European integration as a whole. (German Politics / FUB)

En la pandemia del coronavirus Covid-19, Europa pasó a ser el epicentro, luego de Asia, y antes de que llegara a América. En este escenario, las fronteras nacionales reaparecieron y los ciudadanos se sintieron seguros al estar dentro de un Estado "cerrado", inclusive a expensas de sus derechos individuales. La Unión Europea (UE), con una función de acompañamiento y apoyo en temas de salud, debió "navegar" entre estas estructuras de multi-niveles. Aunque los ciudadanos europeos hayan criticado su lentitud e ineficacia, saben que sigue siendo un esquema de soporte necesario e imprescindible. En este trabajo, nos proponemos describir los efectos disruptivos de la pandemia en el proceso de integración europea. Para ello, identificamos tres aspectos: las tensiones entre el nivel nacional y el nivel europeo, el impacto sobre las instituciones democráticas de los Estados miembros, y las percepciones y actitudes de los ciudadanos respecto del manejo de la pandemia por parte de la UE. Es probable que la UE, por primera vez en mucho tiempo, pueda dar la respuesta que sus ciudadanos esperan y salir reforzada de esta crisis. ; In the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, Europe became the epicenter after Asia, and before it reached America. In this scenario, national borders reappeared and citizens felt safe being within their "closed" state, even at the expense of their individual rights. The European Union (EU), with a complement and support function on health issues, had to "navigate" between these multi-level structures. Moreover, even if European citizens have criticized EU's slowness and inefficiency, they know that it remains a necessary and essential support scheme. In this paper, we aim at describing the disruptive effects of the pandemic on the process of European integration, identifying three areas: the tensions between the national level and the European level, the impact on the democratic institutions of the Member States, and citizens' perceptions and attitudes about the EU's management of the pandemic. Possibly the ...

Europe Divided? Can Warsaw Become the Regional Leader of the Central and Eastern European Region?
This paper investigates the long-term problems of capital accumulation in the context of centre and periphery and dependency models, the systemic and geo-economic features of the integration of post-socialist transition countries in the context of dependent market economy (DME) model characterized by high dependency on foreign direct investment channelled by foreign MNCs into the CEE and the restructuring of the centres in Central and Eastern Europe. It argues that the global economic crisis has been exposed the systemic vulnerability of the post-socialist neo-liberal transition model characterized by foreign investment-led growth which is failed to generate domestic capital accumulation and decrease the relative development gap between the 'old' and 'new' EU members. We would like to use the principles of geoeconomics in order to analyse the Central and Eastern European region and the role of the Foregin Direct Investment and its special role in financial sector in transformation and the question of the problem of Central and Eastern European financial centres focusing on the position of Warsaw.

The article concentrates on the problem of quality of institutions in European Union countries in the context of their compatibility with the global knowledge-based economy. The main objective of the article is to evaluate the progress obtained in that field by New Member States of the European Union in the years 2000-2013. The empirical research is based on the following hypothesis: the integration process of Central European countries with the European Union has influenced the acceleration of changes leading to improvement in the quality of their institutional systems in the context of global knowledge-based economy. The first part of the paper presents the most important determinants of the ability of a country to utilize the potential of the knowledge-based economy. This analysis is conducted on the basis of institutional economics specifically transaction cost theory. In the empirical part multiple criteria decision analysis methodology (MCDA) (the modified TOPSIS method) is applied. Data from Fraser Institute data base for Economic Freedom of the World Report has been used. The empirical research is the source of significant arguments in favor of the hypothesis of the paper.

How approaches in elderly care should be structured to counteract processes of social marginalisation in old age is in the focus of this discussion paper. On a theoretical basis the paper draws on concepts of social exclusion developed in international comparative welfare state research. For the analysis of processes of social exclusion in old age, the ageing process is defined on a wide basis ranging from genetic, social, cultural to environmental components. The term inclusive care describes characteristics of approaches in elderly care, which enable processes of social exclusion to be counteracted. Approaches in elderly care have been re-structured in most member countries of the European Union since the beginning of the 1990s. With the background of the defined characteristics of inclusive care modes of financing, access criteria and procedures, diversification and integration of service facilities and offers as well as the combination with informal care are investigated. The characteristics decisive for inclusive care are defined such as universal accessibility related to social rights, a diversified and integrated care system, a social model of care delivery and the acknowledgement, support and cooperation with informal carers. The findings prove the difficulties and obstacles encountered by certain EU-member countries to fulfil the criteria. Furthermore, according to their risk of experiencing processes of social exclusion, inequalities among different groups of elderly people have become apparent. ; Im Zentrum des Discussion Papers steht die Frage nach adäquaten Ansätzen in der Alten-betreuung zur Verhinderung von sozialer Marginalisierung älterer Menschen. Konzeptionell wird auf Ansätze der international vergleichenden Wohlfahrtsstaatsforschung zur Debatte um soziale Ausgrenzung (social exclusion) zurückgegriffen, die auf die beiden Bereiche Altern und Betreuung älterer Menschen zugespitzt werden. Die Analyse sozialer Aus-grenzung erfordert eine Definition des Alterns-Prozesses, der neben genetischen insbesondere soziale, kulturelle und umweltbezogene Komponenten einschließt. Der Begriff Inclusive Care benennt Charakteristika der Altenbetreuung, die es ermöglichen, Prozessen sozialer Ausgrenzung im Alter entgegenzuwirken. Seit den 1990er Jahren wurden in den meisten Mitgliedsländern der Europäischen Union die Ansätze in der Altenbetreuung restrukturiert. Vor dem Hintergrund der Definition der Charakteristika von Inclusive Care werden Finanzierung, Zugangskriterien, Diversifikation und Integration von Dienstleistungen sowie die Verbindung zur informellen Pflege untersucht. Dabei erweisen sich ein universeller Zugang zu Dienstleistungen verbunden mit sozialen Rechten, ein ausdifferenziertes aber integriertes Versorgungssystem, ein soziales Modell der Versorgung und die Anerkennung, Unterstützung sowie die Kooperation mit informell Pflegenden als entscheidend. Die Ergebnisse zeigen aber auch die Schwierigkeiten in unterschiedlichen europäischen Ländern auf, die Anforderungen zu erfüllen. Deutlich werden zudem Ungleichheiten zwischen verschiedenen Gruppen älterer Menschen, die in unterschiedlicher Art und Weise und Ausmaß von dem Risiko sozialer Ausgrenzung bedroht sind.

Economic criteria have traditionally been taken into account as the most important factor for the selection of the most suitable feed in aquaculture. However, currently, management decisions have become increasingly complex, taking into account issues such as environmental sustainability and product quality. In this regard, there is growing recognition that the quality of the environment in which an organization operates has a direct effect on its financial results. Unfortunately, the complex integration of all these factors, which are sometimes opposing, limits the ability of aquaculture producers to adapt their production strategy to cleaner production systems. In this context, the aim of this work is to address this problem with the development of a novel, multiple-criteria decision-making optimization methodology that allows producers to include different preferences in the design of feeding strategies. Here, this methodology is applied to gilthead seabream production. The results obtained show the utility of this methodology for integrating numerous criteria in the evaluation of various alternatives and for carrying out an efficient sensitivity analysis which test the impact of different hypotheses on stakeholders' preferences. ; This research was undertaken under the MedAID project, which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement no 727315 (http://www.medaid-h2020.eu/). The authors wish to thank the Ibero-American Program for the Development of Science and Technology (CYTED) and the Red Iberoamericana BigDSSAgro (Ref. P515RT0123) for their support of this work, and Juan B. Cabral for the package scikit-criteria for MCDM.