Suchergebnisse

National minority language policy is an object of this master thesis. It aims at analyzing how minority language policy is being formed in Lithuania and Romania. Goals of the thesis are: to analyze types of language policy and models of language planning; concept of national minority in social sciences, international law and European countries – Lithuania and Romania; development and regulations of European minorities' linguistic rights as well as language policy of the European Union; to research minority language policy in Lithuania and Romania as well as reception of minority language policy in Lithuania and Romania and to compare implementation of minority language policy in these two countries. There is no single description neither for national minority nor for language policy. However, national minority is often understood as a group of people, who historically live in the territory of another country, and have unique linguistic, cultural, sometimes – religious identity. Therefore, language is a part and parcel of minority's identity. So, it is very important that language policy would ensure rights of minority language's users and help to preserve minority's linguistic identity. Language policies in Lithuania and Romania can be described as combining types of official language valuation policy and different judicial status policy. Romanian language policy also meets definition of bilingualism (territorialized personal rights), because it allows usage of minority language in local public administration and public inscriptions. In Lithuania main laws regulating minority language policy are law of national minorities (expired in 2010) and law of education. Current law of education will be replaced by new one in July, 2011. This law, which strengthens education of minorities in the State language, caused lots of discussions in the society and pretty negative evaluation of the biggest national minorities, especially Polish. Meanwhile Romania recently directed its minority language policy in different way. Here new law of education was also accepted in the beginning of 2011. It ensured teaching of all subjects in the language of national minority. The law was followed by various reactions and critics in society. However, it can be considered as a victory of national minorities. Another law, important for Romania's minorities, is law of local public administration, which grants right to regional bilingualism. Focus group research as well as content analysis in Lithuania and Romania helped to investigate reception of minority language policy in the society. It may be described as quite positive, especially in Lithuania. Even if in both countries respondents admitted that they didn't look for information about minority language policy on purpose, they were interested and sensitive towards focus groups' topics, especially regarding education and integration of national minorities. Respondents critically valued aims of biggest minorities (Polish and Hungarians) to gain more rights. However, at the moment of the research they didn't feel threat for the State language. Content analysis revealed that recently Lithuanian media allotted more attention to minority language policy than Romanian media. However, the most popular minority language policy issue in both countries' was education and new law of education. Variety of opinions and arguments (of both national majority and minorities) was presented here. At the moment main aim for Lithuanian legislators while forming minority language policy is to solve coalition between laws' regulations regarding bilingual inscriptions and approve new law of national minorities. Meanwhile Romania should approve one single law, dedicated to minorities and foreseeing their rights. Both countries should keep on improving minority language policy's legislation in order to satisfy interests and ensure rights of both state and minority languages users.

National minority language policy is an object of this master thesis. It aims at analyzing how minority language policy is being formed in Lithuania and Romania. Goals of the thesis are: to analyze types of language policy and models of language planning; concept of national minority in social sciences, international law and European countries – Lithuania and Romania; development and regulations of European minorities' linguistic rights as well as language policy of the European Union; to research minority language policy in Lithuania and Romania as well as reception of minority language policy in Lithuania and Romania and to compare implementation of minority language policy in these two countries. There is no single description neither for national minority nor for language policy. However, national minority is often understood as a group of people, who historically live in the territory of another country, and have unique linguistic, cultural, sometimes – religious identity. Therefore, language is a part and parcel of minority's identity. So, it is very important that language policy would ensure rights of minority language's users and help to preserve minority's linguistic identity. Language policies in Lithuania and Romania can be described as combining types of official language valuation policy and different judicial status policy. Romanian language policy also meets definition of bilingualism (territorialized personal rights), because it allows usage of minority language in local public administration and public inscriptions. In Lithuania main laws regulating minority language policy are law of national minorities (expired in 2010) and law of education. Current law of education will be replaced by new one in July, 2011. This law, which strengthens education of minorities in the State language, caused lots of discussions in the society and pretty negative evaluation of the biggest national minorities, especially Polish. Meanwhile Romania recently directed its minority language policy in different way. Here new law of education was also accepted in the beginning of 2011. It ensured teaching of all subjects in the language of national minority. The law was followed by various reactions and critics in society. However, it can be considered as a victory of national minorities. Another law, important for Romania's minorities, is law of local public administration, which grants right to regional bilingualism. Focus group research as well as content analysis in Lithuania and Romania helped to investigate reception of minority language policy in the society. It may be described as quite positive, especially in Lithuania. Even if in both countries respondents admitted that they didn't look for information about minority language policy on purpose, they were interested and sensitive towards focus groups' topics, especially regarding education and integration of national minorities. Respondents critically valued aims of biggest minorities (Polish and Hungarians) to gain more rights. However, at the moment of the research they didn't feel threat for the State language. Content analysis revealed that recently Lithuanian media allotted more attention to minority language policy than Romanian media. However, the most popular minority language policy issue in both countries' was education and new law of education. Variety of opinions and arguments (of both national majority and minorities) was presented here. At the moment main aim for Lithuanian legislators while forming minority language policy is to solve coalition between laws' regulations regarding bilingual inscriptions and approve new law of national minorities. Meanwhile Romania should approve one single law, dedicated to minorities and foreseeing their rights. Both countries should keep on improving minority language policy's legislation in order to satisfy interests and ensure rights of both state and minority languages users.

This study represents few issues related with innovations in European Union. At first the European Union documents and European scoreboard are analyzed. According to analysis, a huge innovational gap between European Union member-states is identified and EU authorities consider that innovation-friendly society is crucial element for its innovation policy. Second part of the article copes with methodological issues that arose around the research of innovations. The methods of the 4th generation of measuring innovation are implemented in the research, which aims to evaluate European Union policy according to population's perception of innovations in Lithuania and Romania. Comparative study between Lithuania and Romania is done. The research shows social attitudes towards innovations and its relation with life quality and financial situation. The study shows, that local consumption of innovative products and services not necessary leads to better innovativeness of country.

This study represents few issues related with innovations in European Union. At first the European Union documents and European scoreboard are analyzed. According to analysis, a huge innovational gap between European Union member-states is identified and EU authorities consider that innovation-friendly society is crucial element for its innovation policy. Second part of the article copes with methodological issues that arose around the research of innovations. The methods of the 4th generation of measuring innovation are implemented in the research, which aims to evaluate European Union policy according to population's perception of innovations in Lithuania and Romania. Comparative study between Lithuania and Romania is done. The research shows social attitudes towards innovations and its relation with life quality and financial situation. The study shows, that local consumption of innovative products and services not necessary leads to better innovativeness of country.

The aim of this doctoral thesis is to propose a definition of 'good practices' in the field of Structural Funds administration mechanisms (institutional framework, programming and project level administration and implementation) and to make a comparative analysis at the three implementation levels between Romania and Lithuania in order to identify what practices could represent good examples in terms of tools to absorb more efficiently the EU money.

The aim of this doctoral thesis is to propose a definition of 'good practices' in the field of Structural Funds administration mechanisms (institutional framework, programming and project level administration and implementation) and to make a comparative analysis at the three implementation levels between Romania and Lithuania in order to identify what practices could represent good examples in terms of tools to absorb more efficiently the EU money.

This paper deals with analyzing investment incentives for foreign direct investment (FDI) concentrating on new European Union countries' practices (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Romania). Firstly, the theoretical aspects of FDI incentives are described, then modern trends of FDI are examined and hypotheses about the range and attractiveness of investment incentives in selected countries are formulated. In order to confirm these hypotheses, the carried out research is divided into two stages, where quantity and variety of investment incentives is estimated and summary score of FDI incentives' attractiveness is attributed to each country, showing how much the incentives' system is well-favoured by investors. The results of the research identifies a wide range of investment incentives that are currently offered in new EU countries. Also, in conformity with the attributed summary score of FDI incentives, the most attractive countries are Hungary, Romania and Latvia. Finally, the limitations of this research and recommendations for further studies are presented.

This paper deals with analyzing investment incentives for foreign direct investment (FDI) concentrating on new European Union countries' practices (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Romania). Firstly, the theoretical aspects of FDI incentives are described, then modern trends of FDI are examined and hypotheses about the range and attractiveness of investment incentives in selected countries are formulated. In order to confirm these hypotheses, the carried out research is divided into two stages, where quantity and variety of investment incentives is estimated and summary score of FDI incentives' attractiveness is attributed to each country, showing how much the incentives' system is well-favoured by investors. The results of the research identifies a wide range of investment incentives that are currently offered in new EU countries. Also, in conformity with the attributed summary score of FDI incentives, the most attractive countries are Hungary, Romania and Latvia. Finally, the limitations of this research and recommendations for further studies are presented.

This paper deals with analyzing investment incentives for foreign direct investment (FDI) concentrating on new European Union countries' practices (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Romania). Firstly, the theoretical aspects of FDI incentives are described, then modern trends of FDI are examined and hypotheses about the range and attractiveness of investment incentives in selected countries are formulated. In order to confirm these hypotheses, the carried out research is divided into two stages, where quantity and variety of investment incentives is estimated and summary score of FDI incentives' attractiveness is attributed to each country, showing how much the incentives' system is well-favoured by investors. The results of the research identifies a wide range of investment incentives that are currently offered in new EU countries. Also, in conformity with the attributed summary score of FDI incentives, the most attractive countries are Hungary, Romania and Latvia. Finally, the limitations of this research and recommendations for further studies are presented.

The aim of this article is to analyse the differences of e-government development between a) member states of the Eastern Border of the European Union (EU-8) and member states of the old EU (EU-15); b) member states of EU-8 and the all countries of EU (EU-28); c) member states of EU-8 and countries, which became member states of EU after 2004 (EU- 5). Comparative analysis was used to determine and evaluate the tendencies of e-government development in EU-8 during the period of 2003-2012. Data of United Nations E-Government survey about e-government development was used in this article. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria compose EU-8. It was estimated that countries of EU-8 made significant progress in development of e-government. However the gap between member states of EU-8 and countries of EU-15, EU-5 and EU-28 still remains. Higher homogeneity in the area of e-government development in the countries of EU-8, EU- 15 and EU-5 compared to the countries of EU-28 was found.

The aim of this article is to analyse the differences of e-government development between a) member states of the Eastern Border of the European Union (EU-8) and member states of the old EU (EU-15); b) member states of EU-8 and the all countries of EU (EU-28); c) member states of EU-8 and countries, which became member states of EU after 2004 (EU- 5). Comparative analysis was used to determine and evaluate the tendencies of e-government development in EU-8 during the period of 2003-2012. Data of United Nations E-Government survey about e-government development was used in this article. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria compose EU-8. It was estimated that countries of EU-8 made significant progress in development of e-government. However the gap between member states of EU-8 and countries of EU-15, EU-5 and EU-28 still remains. Higher homogeneity in the area of e-government development in the countries of EU-8, EU- 15 and EU-5 compared to the countries of EU-28 was found.

The aim of this article is to analyse the differences of e-government development between a) member states of the Eastern Border of the European Union (EU-8) and member states of the old EU (EU-15); b) member states of EU-8 and the all countries of EU (EU-28); c) member states of EU-8 and countries, which became member states of EU after 2004 (EU- 5). Comparative analysis was used to determine and evaluate the tendencies of e-government development in EU-8 during the period of 2003-2012. Data of United Nations E-Government survey about e-government development was used in this article. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria compose EU-8. It was estimated that countries of EU-8 made significant progress in development of e-government. However the gap between member states of EU-8 and countries of EU-15, EU-5 and EU-28 still remains. Higher homogeneity in the area of e-government development in the countries of EU-8, EU- 15 and EU-5 compared to the countries of EU-28 was found.

The aim of this article is to analyse the differences of e-government development between a) member states of the Eastern Border of the European Union (EU-8) and member states of the old EU (EU-15); b) member states of EU-8 and the all countries of EU (EU-28); c) member states of EU-8 and countries, which became member states of EU after 2004 (EU- 5). Comparative analysis was used to determine and evaluate the tendencies of e-government development in EU-8 during the period of 2003-2012. Data of United Nations E-Government survey about e-government development was used in this article. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria compose EU-8. It was estimated that countries of EU-8 made significant progress in development of e-government. However the gap between member states of EU-8 and countries of EU-15, EU-5 and EU-28 still remains. Higher homogeneity in the area of e-government development in the countries of EU-8, EU- 15 and EU-5 compared to the countries of EU-28 was found.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the orientation towards climate change neutrality have fundamentally changed the way we look at competitiveness. Global challenges have increased interest in countries' competitiveness. Thus, in the final master's project the competitiveness of the European Union countries is evaluated according to the most important determinants, ecological footprint and the countries are clustered according to the obtained analysis results. In the literature review the latest concept of competitiveness is presented, 9 groups of competitiveness factors and 52 factors-indicators are identified. The missing values are filled in by MICE method, and after evaluating the correlation, 42 factors-indicators are further used in the study. Three methods are used for clustering - hierarchical Ward linkage method, K-means and machine learning method t-SNE. After the cluster analysis, the countries are clustered into four groups. Neighboring countries have been found to be most similar in terms of competitiveness. Country cluster profiles are interpreted using the results of the PCA method. According to the identified groups of factors, the competitiveness index developed by the author of the project revealed that the most competitive EU countries are Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands. The least competitive countries are Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. Assessing the link between the ecological footprint and competitiveness, positive progress is seen in the EU. In addition, EU countries are moving from low competitiveness and low ecological footprint to high competitiveness and low ecological footprint.

This article examines comovements between stock and government bond markets in the EU countries. Previous authors mostly indicated significant highly volatile comovements between the markets. In addition, it was proven in several markets that in times of financial crisis the comovements between financial markets are becoming stronger and negative correlations appear indicating flight-to-quality from stocks to government bonds. Despite of that, there exists a tendency to analyze only financial markets of Eurozone countries leaving the rest of the EU members behind. The aim of this research was to fill this gap by providing insights of co-movements between stocks and government bond markets of al thel EU countries together with recommendations for portfolio diversification. The first stage of the research was implemented by using Pearson's correlation coefficient. Logarithmic returns on 52 market indices were used for calculations of correlation coefficients in the period of 1993–2012. The second stage of the research included the estimation of correlations in the period of 2008–2013, commonly referred to as financial crisis. In addition, statistical significance of coefficients was evaluated by testing Fisher's null hypothesis. The results of the research show that majority of correlation coefficients between stock and government bond indices were rather small and not significant during the full sample period with the exception in financial markets of Greece, Hungary, Lithuania and Romania (weak-medium statistically significant correlations). The results indicate financial markets in the countries mentioned being more related than in the rest of the EU countries, not being suitable for diversification between asset classes. [.]