The aim of the current study is to present the regulation of leave in the economic sector during the examination of the Labour Code within the framework of the Hungarian labour law, with the exception of the provisions on sick leave. In European states where a uniform Labour Code is available, the rules on leave have been established, but in some countries they have been regulated by other codes or legal regulations. The purpose of normal annual leave is for the worker to regenerate properly, the intention of significantly extending this period being progressive. In addition to the basic leave, extra vacation and the rules on unpaid leave are also examined. The study seeks to point out that the current rules are too narrow and that labour market developments suggest that an extension of the normal annual leave period is needed.
In the recent decades, the Member States of the European Union have paid more and more attention to the environment and to a more efficient use of renewable energy sources to gain decent energy security. To tackle these problems, the European Union adopted the Europe 2020 strategy in March 2010, which wants to create more a resource-efficient, more competitive and greener Europe until 2020 on the basis of knowledge and innovation. In the strategy the EU undertake the obligation to fulfill the 20/20/20 goals in the field of energy policy. However, to do this multi-trillion forints and profitable investments are needed over several years, which neither the civil society nor the state cannot accomplish from their own resources, thus grants are necessary to fulfill the objectives. In the present article we intend to show that in the 2014-2020 period of EU development from which operative programs for which goals and what intensity of support will help to fulfill the main objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy. In this study we investigate whether EU funds and supplemental national co-financing are expected or not, and what kind of projects can be supported.
This study is a natural continuation of the author's earlier book on privatization in Hungary, covering the developments between 1989 and 2009 on 1700 pages. As it is well-known, the right wing FIDESZ government, which came to power with a 2/3 supermajority in Parliament, has embarked upon a totally new economic policy as from mid-2010. Within this setting, illiberal constitutional changes and unortodox economic policies were implemented. Renationalization was a significant (but not the most important) building block of this. As we analysed the individual transactions, it turned out that actually many of them were initiated by the previous, Socialist led government. In other words, there are interesting elements of continuity here, especially in the energy sector. Another interesting finding is, that almost without exceptions, the renationalization deals were not implemented by force, the Hungarian state paid quite generously to the sellers. In the case of the largest deals, there is even reason to speak of sweetheart deals through which the Hungarian government tried to make favour to German and US businesses. So far, the renationalization affected more than 200 firms (including banks) for which some HUF 1600 bn (≈ 5bn €) state money was used. This figure, just as the sums involved in the individual transactions are somewhat misleading, if compared to the privatization revenues generated by previous governments prior to 2010. However, if all transactions – i.e. asset sales and asset purchases – are expressed as a percentage of Hungary's annual GDP, it becomes clear that the post 2010 nationalization deals were much smaller than the 1990-2000 privatization deals.
This article considers the relationship between centralised, exogenous institutions and the embedded, endogenous institutions of rural governance in Europe through an examination of the evaluation procedures of the European LEADER programme. LEADER is presented in the literature as progressive in terms of innovation and stakeholder engagement. Yet, while the planning and management of LEADER embraces heterogeneity and participation, programmatic evaluation is centralised and is held at arms length from the delivery organisations. The article reviews previous efforts to improve evaluation in LEADER and considers alternative strategies for evaluation, contrasting LEADER practice with participatory evaluation methodologies in the wider international context. Can evaluation in itself be valuable as a mode of social learn-ing and hence a driver for endogenous development in rural communities in Europe? The article concludes by examining the challenges in producing a hybrid form of evaluation that accommodates both endogenous and exogenous values.
Valamennyi tagállamra azonos szabályok vonatkoztak az európai integráció Maastricht előtti unitárius szerkezetében. Többsebességű integráció lehetséges a Gazdasági és Monetáris Unió rendszerében: különféle kormányzási modellek, bonyolult intézményi feltételek állnak fenn. Milyen változásokat hozhatna az "európai gazdasági kormányzás", illetve a "teljes" gazdasági unió kiépítése az EU intézményi szerkezetében? Hogyan alakulna e körülmények között az euróövezetbe tartozó, illetve az abból kimaradó tagállamok helyzete? Milyen eltérések lehetnek az egyes tagállamok között az uniós szabályok alkalmazásában? Milyen szerepet tölthet be a megerősített együttműködés a tagállamok szűkebb csoportjának mélyebb integrációjában? Hogyan alakulhat a mediterrán periféria, illetve a közép- és kelet-európai "új tagállamok" pozíciója? Többek között a fenti kérdésekre is választ kapunk a kötetben. = All member states were subject to the same rules in the pre-Maastricht unitary structure of European integration. Multi-speed integration is possible in the Economic and Monetary Union system: different governance models, complex institutional conditions. What changes could the construction of a "European economic governance" or a " full" economic union bring to the institutional structure of the EU? How would the situation of Member States in and out of the euro area evolve under these circumstances? What differences might there be between Member States in the application of EU rules? What role could enhanced cooperation play in the deeper integration of a narrower group of Member States? How might the position of the Mediterranean periphery and the "new Member States" of Central and Eastern Europe evolve? Among other things, these questions are answered in this volume.
In 2004 the European Union accomplished an expansion of unprecedented scale in the scope of which ten new member states joined the 15 existing members of the community in one huge step. During the period leading up to and immediately following the expansion, a great number of analyses and reports saw the light of day that attempted to evaluate the further development potentials of the ten new member countries. These analyses and reports, however, considered the European Union as if it were a uniform and homogenous population or set and used it as a basis for comparison in their projections. They did so even though this assumption already fails to hold true for the EU15 and that the subsequent accessions and the global economic crisis exacerbated, and in fact, accentuated the differences in the member states' levels of development. Therefore, leaving these false assumptions behind, to gain a more reliable and workable evaluation of the convergence processes of the four Visegrad countries and to make an adequate comparison of the results, I find it highly advisable to consider the problem of catching-up from various aspects and to lay down different performance levels. My analysis only encompasses real convergence, which means that I only analyse the catching-up process and opportunities of the four Visegrad countries with a view to their GDP per capita figures, their main labour market indicators and productivity. In my paper, I present the results of the convergence calculations I did as well as the conclusions that may be drawn from them with the help of multi-level analyses that at the same time allow for describing both the functionality and the efficiency of the European Union. ; In 2004 the European Union accomplished an expansion of unprecedented scale in the scope of which ten new member states joined the 15 existing members of the community in one huge step. During the period leading up to and immediately following the expansion, a great number of analyses and reports saw the light of day that attempted to evaluate the further development potentials of the ten new member countries. These analyses and reports, however, considered the European Union as if it were a uniform and homogenous population or set and used it as a basis for comparison in their projections. They did so even though this assumption already fails to hold true for the EU15 and that the subsequent accessions and the global economic crisis exacerbated, and in fact, accentuated the differences in the member states' levels of development. Therefore, leaving these false assumptions behind, to gain a more reliable and workable evaluation of the convergence processes of the four Visegrad countries and to make an adequate comparison of the results, I find it highly advisable to consider the problem of catching-up from various aspects and to lay down different performance levels. My analysis only encompasses real convergence, which means that I only analyse the catching-up process and opportunities of the four Visegrad countries with a view to their GDP per capita figures, their main labour market indicators and productivity. In my paper, I present the results of the convergence calculations I did as well as the conclusions that may be drawn from them with the help of multi-level analyses that at the same time allow for describing both the functionality and the efficiency of the European Union.
The EU is the global frontrunner on sustainability and has introduced regulations under the Renewable Energy Directive and Fuel Quality Directive that lay down sustainability criteria that biofuels must meet before being eligible to contribute to the binding national targets that each Member State must achieve by 2020. In Europe, the revised EU Renewable Energy Directive for 2020-2030, approved in December 2018, sets a target for a 14% share of renewable energy in the transport sector by 2030, with a sub-target of at least 3.5% use of advanced biofuels and biomethane. The Directive also places a 7% cap on the share of the overall target that can be met by conventional biofuels based on feedstocks that also could be used as food, reflecting EU concerns about competition between food and fuel and about potential indirect land-use change impacts. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for the Renewable Fuel Standard program. This establishes specific annual volume requirements for renewable fuels, which rise to 36 billion gallons by 2022. These regulatory requirements apply to domestic and foreign producers and importers of renewable fuel used in the U.S. ; Az EU a fenntarthatóság globális éllovasa, és a megújuló energiáról szóló irányelv és az üzemanyag-minőségére vonatkozó irányelv értelmében meghatározzák azokat a fenntarthatósági kritériumokat, amelyeknek a bioüzemanyagoknak meg kell felelniük ahhoz, hogy beszámítható legyen a 2020-ig kötelezően vállalt nemzeti célok teljesítésébe. A 2018 decemberében jóváhagyott és a 2020–2030 közötti időszakra szóló megújuló energiáról szóló irányelv a megújuló energiaforrások 14%-os részesedését tűzi ki célul 2030-ra a közlekedési ágazatban, ebből legalább 3,5%-os részcélként a fejlett bioüzemanyagok és biometán arányát. Az irányelv emellett 7%-os felső határt ír elő az élelmiszernövényekből készült hagyományos bioüzemanyagok részarányára, ami tükrözi az EU aggodalmát az élelmiszerek és az üzemanyagok termőföldért folytatott versenye és a közvetett földhasználat-változás miatt. Az Egyesült Államokban a Környezetvédelmi Ügynökség felel a megújuló üzemanyag szabványra vonatkozó programért. Ez a program specifikus éves mennyiségi követelményeket határoz meg a megújuló üzemanyagokra, amelyek 2022-re 36 milliárd gallonra emelkednek. Ezek a szabályozási követelmények az Egyesült Államokban használt megújuló üzemanyagok hazai és külföldi gyártóira és importőreire vonatkoznak.
Nem kérdés, hogy Európa egy radikális átalakuláson megy keresztül. Egyszerre figyelhetjük meg Európában a kistérségi egységek és regionális mozgalmak reneszánszát. Az államok szubnacionális egységeiről való politikai, gazdasági és kulturális gondolkodás, valamint cselekvés túlnyomórészt Európában tört utat magának. A regionális mozgalmak nagyobb autonómiát követeltek hatalmi szférájuk és befolyási területük számára, részint erőszakkal, egészen egyes területek különválásáig. Földrajzi, etikai, nyelvi, vallási, kulturális, történelmi vagy gazdasági dimenziók különböző vonatkozási pontjait választották ki, hogy egy ily módon elhatárolt területet régióként jelöljenek. Azok a közös jellemzők, melyeknek egy régió lakói birtokában vannak, megteremtik a speciális egység érzését és a regionális identitást. Nagy jelentőséggel bír az Európai Unión belüli régiók rendkívül széles palettája a szubnacionális egységek jogi státuszát, kompetenciáit, valamint pénzügyi forrásait és ezáltal politikai minőségét illetően. Subnational mobilisation was one of the most outstanding features of the European internal policy of the 1990s. The phenomenon is reflected by two, mutually reinforcing factors. On the one hand, the 1988 reform of the Structural Funds and several provisions and principles of TEU created new opportunities for regions to become involved in the European politics; on the other hand, processes and theoretical debates towards the territorial decentralisation of power within Member States, as well as the openness and activism of regions in the area of structural and cohesion policy expressed more and more pronounced needs of enforcement of their rights. The opportunities and demands, the "Europe of the regions", the concept of a "Three-tier Europe" together with the EU becoming a multi-level governance system collectively constitute the conditionality of subnational mobilisation. The phenomenon can be summarised as follows: the regions within the state and at Community level, by the concurrent use of institutional and informal tools, are increasingly becoming involved and are increasingly becoming involved and are increasingly shaping the EU institutions and their decision-making processes.
During the past centuries many great philosophers and statesmen dreamt about the possible constitutional scope of exceeding Europe's political division and fulfilling the unified/united Europe. Most conceptions outlined the practical realization at a supranational level, although in the last decades there has been a greater emphasis on the sub-national (regional, micro-regional) level or else the "multi-level" Europe. Considering its scientific importance there has been less mention of the importance of the local, regional networks, however, their functionality –in the form of sister town connections –has been experienced by many towns in Hungary. In my thesis I intended to shed light on the fact that the sistertown connections –if being able to overstep the mayors and the local authorities' protocol meetings -and it can be the pledge of their viability, take a prominent part in framing the "bottom up" Europe. The personal, civil relationships, the common interests and the solutions to collective problems may all lead to a continuity in the increasingly "multigeared" European integration. In order to present the subject matter I selected the analysis of sister town connections related to the county town, Zalaegerszeg. My research questions were as follows: to what extent the sister town connection of Zalaegerszeg has changed in terms of geographical and content orientation, what elements of networking, independent from any political orientation, have been used, how the intensity fluctuation of the connections can be explained. The conclusion of my research is that the citizens, the civil organisations and the local authority of Zalaegerszeg, whose number of sister towns –fourteen –is greater than the Hungarian average, build their sister town connections in a conscious way, meanwhile integrating them functionally and successfully at a local level into the network of international connections.
