In: The Neoliberal World Order in Crisis, and Beyond, eds. Marko Hocevar, Tibor Rutar, Marko Lovec (eds.), publisher Zalozba FDV, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2023, pp. 391 - 416
The EU has adopted the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) as the key instrument help to ensure that the EU, its member states, regions and local communities emerge stronger and more resilient from the pandemic crisis. Its main goal is to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, and it sets Europe on a path of digital transition, creating jobs and spurring growth in the process. The EU recovery plans should be seen as an opportunity not merely to address the post-pandemic health, social, economic and financial crisis – further exacerbated by the ongoing war in Ukraine – but primarily to develop a more inclusive and innovative institutional framework for European economies with more resilient local communities, small and medium sized firms, and high-quality public services across the EU. New forms of participation, more policy space, tools and instruments to support local and regional development strategies are necessary to establish an overall environment more hospitable to sustainable and inclusive development. Diversity of European local communities and European regions at different levels of development require tailored-made approach to realize their development potential. Institutional innovations, such as the regional public venture funds, may be the key to overcome regional disparities and build regional knowledge economies. The positive experience with the recovery, sustainable transition and inclusive knowledge economy across the European Union may serve as an important experience and encouragement to many other parts of the world, coping with the post-pandemic recovery, implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and inclusive development.
A growing number of scholars, academics and policy-makers advocate substantial reforms of the existing European institutional architecture. Advocates of deepening the European integration recommend that the optimal development of the European Union (EU) would be to establish a fully developed banking union, an advanced form of fiscal union and to ultimately achieve a political union based on common economic governance. Accordingly, the ideal scenario for European integration would be to adopt, to the largest possible extent, a path toward the classical federal model. Leaving aside the practical feasibility of such a development, the purpose of this article is to explore whether a direction toward the model of classical federalism is the only possible way forward for European integration. Comparative constitutionalism has developed several substantially different models of federalism. Therefore, this article explores other possible trajectories for European integration while pointing to the limitations of classical federalism. In the face of the protracted social and economic crises in many European member states and their regions, article also examines the possibilities of establishing cooperative or even experimental federalism as a new model for European integration.
The purpose of this article is to show that the current European Union (EU) legal framework is unnecessarily restrictive and unduly suppresses economic and developmental initiatives in many stagnating regions across Europe. More innovative industrial policies, instruments and measures should be adopted in a highly decentralized manner across the EU. Between the 'laissez-faire' and 'dirigiste' approaches, there is significant room to maneuver for more pro-active industrial and development policies. New forms of industrial policies could and should be reinvented and implemented across the EU – not to harm or distort competition, but rather to further enhance it. More than one form and framework exist for a Single Market and for the competition policies.Modern industrial policy presupposes high-quality public institutions with highly competent administration. It requires autonomy and accountability of the public administration to counter the pressures of various interest groups. The proposal to revive and articulate modern types of industrial policies across the EU is a call for comprehensive economic and social restructuring. The task of modern industrial policy is to organize and strengthen capabilities of restructuring in the direction of high-productivity activities.
The purpose of this article is to show that, the current European Union (EU) legal framework is unnecessarily restrictive and unduly suppresses economic and developmental initiatives in many stagnating regions across Europe. More innovative industrial policies, instruments and measures should be adopted in a highly decentralized manner across the EU. Between the 'laissez-faire' and 'dirigiste' approaches, there is significant room to maneuver for more pro-active industrial and development policies. New forms of industrial policies could and should be reinvented and implemented across the EU -- not to harm or distort competition, but rather to further enhance it. More than one form and framework exist for a Single Market and for the competition policies. Modern industrial policy presupposes high-quality public institutions with highly competent administration. It requires autonomy and accountability of the public administration to counter the pressures of various interest groups. The proposal to revive and articulate modern types of industrial policies across the EU is a call for comprehensive economic and social restructuring. Adapted from the source document.
The ongoing European crisis has revealed many deficiencies in the existing European institutional architecture. One of the crucial deficiencies is the unsustainable European regional disparity between the most developed European regions and those regions that are falling behind—a gap that is growing. This pattern of development creates an unsustainable pattern for the future development of the EU. The gap between the advanced segments of society with access to up-to-date knowledge, skills, technology, capital, and other resources and the excluded segments of society is also growing within the advanced European regions. Such observations indicate the need for far stronger anti-dualist economic, social, and legal policy at all levels of European polity. The EU's response to the crisis has been inadequate as it has ignored the diversity of needs as well as opportunities for local and regional populations across the EU. Instead of focusing the economic, social, and legal reconstruction on a "one size fits all" model imposed from the top, the EU should spur local and regional innovations, initiatives, and development dynamics from below. Thus, in the EU, we need more policy space as well as more opportunities for economic, legal, social, and political innovations at the local, regional, and national levels. We need to create an EU that supports—not suppresses—diversity, sustainability, plurality, and the co-existence of institutional models. The idea of subsidiarity, diversity, and initiatives from below should be revived in order to create a more sustainable future for the EU.
In: Lex localis: revija za lokalno samoupravo ; journal of local self-government ; Zeitschrift für lokale Selbstverwaltung, Band 11, Heft 3, S. 601-614
The ongoing European crisis has revealed many deficiencies in the existing European institutional architecture. One of the crucial deficiencies is the unsustainable European regional disparity between the most developed European regions and those regions that are falling behind -- a gap that is growing. This pattern of development creates an unsustainable pattern for the future development of the EU. The gap between the advanced segments of society with access to up-to-date knowledge, skills, technology, capital, and other resources and the excluded segments of society is also growing within the advanced European regions. Such observations indicate the need for far stronger anti-dualist economic, social, and legal policy at all levels of European polity. Thus, in the EU, people need more policy space as well as more opportunities for economic, legal, social, and political innovations at the local, regional, and national levels. They need to create an EU that supports -- not suppresses -- diversity, sustainability, plurality, and the co-existence of institutional models. Adapted from the source document.