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German Abstract: Dieser Beitrag uber die Zukunft der Europaischen Union zeichnet die historische Entwicklung uber die Frage "Wo kommen wir her?" uber die Frage "Wo stehen wir?" nach. Anschliesend wird die Frage "Wo wollen wir hin?" anhand des Weisbuchprozess der Europaischen Kommission erortert. Der Autor skizziert kurz die verschiedenen Szenarien des Weisbuch, um abschliesend mogliche Bausteine fur die Zukunft der EU im Jahre 2025 zu identifizieren. English Abstract: This paper on the future of the European Union traces the historical development from the question "Where have we come from?" to the question "Where are we?". Then the question "Where do we want to go?" is discussed on the basis of the European Commission's White Paper process. The author briefly outlines the different scenarios of the White Paper to conclude by identifying possible building blocks for the future of the EU in 2025.

In light of the upcoming opportunity for Cyprus and other Member States to appoint by rotation an Advocate General (‘AG’) to the Court of Justice (‘ECJ’) in 2020-21, the objective of the present report taking the form of a discussion paper is to clarify the law and practice related to such appointments and set out recommendations accordingly. It does so by looking in particular into the relevant provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’), namely the Article 253 TFEU requirements themselves, the reports of the Article 255 TFEU Panel, and the selection processes carried out at the national levels. Article 253 TFEU requires only that such nominees are persons whose independence is beyond doubt and who either meet the requirements for highest national judicial office or who are jurisconsults of recognised competence. An Article 255 TFEU Panel was established with the Treaty of Lisbon and is responsible for advising the Council of the EU on the suitability of candidates appointed to the Court of Justice of the European Union. The Panel has elaborated upon the Article 253 TFEU requirements, taking six considerations into account in their assessment: i. legal capabilities; ii. professional experience; iii. ability to perform duties of a judge (or Advocate General); iv. language skills; v. ability to work in a team in an international environment in which several legal systems are represented; and vi. whether their independence, impartiality, probity and integrity are beyond doubt.1 In a 2018 report, the Panel stated that ‘[i]t considers all professional paths in the field of law to be equally legitimate to apply for the office of Judge or [AG]’, ‘in particular, those of judge, university professor, jurisconsult, lawyer or senior official specialised in the field of law.’2 The Panel is further elaborated upon in Part I, including through its latest report published in January 2020. To further assist in understanding the nature of Advocate General appointments in the EU, a study was undergone into the law and practice at the national level related to ECJ appointments (Part II and the Tables in the Annex), and also into the characteristics of the profiles of the AGs that have been successfully appointed to date (Part III).

The publication was issued within the project ‘Transfer of Know-How for Small and Mid-size Businesses in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine’ which aims to assist SMEs in those countries by providing support to stakeholders in their efforts to develop analytical and policy advocacy capabilities and by opening new channels of communication between SMEs and NGOs in the Visegrad Four countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) and the rest of the European Union.The objective of the study is to deliver the complete findings and outcomes of the project aimed at Ukraine. This White Paper serves as an authoritative document with action plans, budgets, and a tangible way for the beneficiary country stakeholders to move forward with the agenda of small and medium-sized business development.It presents an overview of the collected background information and contains basic data on the countries, including some key macroeconomic comparisons as well as rankings in major competitiveness reports (e.g. Doing Business report by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development), identifies the project stakeholders and provides an overview of the situation of small and medium-sized enterprises in Ukraine. It also includes the findings of two surveys implemented by the Slovak-Ukrainian team.Based on the findings, the “Discussion and Recommendations” section presents various perspectives on the problems of SMEs in Ukraine using the experience of the accession process of Slovakia, specific examples of key initiatives that led to the resolution of the problems, as well as case studies from various industries. It stresses the involvement of all parties including the EU, local governments, civil society, business associations, and the SMEs themselves.The key outcome of the paper is a road map – a very specific plan of actions including schedules, budgets, and other details within the scope of this project that will help the beneficiary country to cope with problems regarding the agenda of small and middle business development using the expertise and experience of institutions and stakeholders accumulated throughout the Slovak EU accession process. It includes a wide range of activities including a discussion of the project results with various Ukrainian stakeholders, workshops aimed at increasing knowledge about EU markets, legislation and standards, as well as strategic and institutional moves.

Government spending on bailing out banks and financing a variety of stimulus packages following the US real estate and financial crisis led to a sharp increase in the already very high level of public debt also of the member countries of the European Monetary Union (EMU). Countries such as Greece, Italy, Belgium, France and even Germany in particular depend on very low or at least low interest rates to stabilize their financial situation. Thus, the central reason for the European Central Bank's low interest rate policy, which has been in place for almost 10 years, is to provide the highly indebted countries of the EMU with a significant reduction in the interest burden in favor of a solution to the debt problem: giving time for a lot of necessary reforms to increase economic development. But none of this has succeeded in the last 10 years. Instead, the budgetary situation in the euro countries is getting worse, the disparities in economic development are increasing rather than diminishing, thereby endangering the stability of the euro and thus the future of the single currency. There is an urgent need for sustained higher net investments in nearly all sectors of all countries from Greece to Germany: instead, net investment in the countries of the EMU is clearly decreasing and Europe is in danger of being left behind not only by the two economic powers USA and China. This outlines a problem that is as pressing as it is topical: the question of how to restore Europes’ economic power. The key lies in the question of how can we be able to solve the crippling debt problem of European countries quickly and sustainably. The answer given by the discussion paper is a kind of debt relief, implemented as a conversion of a relevant amount of the government bonds held by the ECB. Conversion means extending the repayment to 80-100 years and the interest rate to be set very low. Of course a binding agreement is inevitable that net new debt can only be taken up to the maximum value of the GDP growth of a certain period. Only countries can participate in the debt conversion which commit themselves to making higher net investments to be specified more precisely, to carry out reforms especially concerning the efficiency of taxation, respectively set lower and upper limits for some taxes of the central government, and harmonize them within narrow ranges. Also it is necessary to reasonably reduce and largely deregulate bureaucracy and put an end to shadow economy and corruption. By regaining financial strength as a result of a debt conversion, which is only possible within a strong supranational framework, the advantages of membership in the European Monetary Union will once again become evident, and the European Union can again become a shining example of freedom and prosperity, the way that Robert Schuman did formulate as a vision in.

This article charts the period between 1985 and 2015 and looks at the impact that the European Union Merger Regulation has had during that time on the ways in which modern businesses can collaborate to innovate. Particular attention is paid to the car manufacturing industry. The car manufacturing industry affects millions of people around the world and the strategic business decisions of automakers can have deep political and economic consequences. This makes it prone to political intervention on both sides of the Atlantic, which can prove to be a burden by preventing rational actions and hindering the implementation of a group’s planned industrial strategy. The case study describes recent developments in the car industry from the perspective of the theories of harm which lawyers and economists have identified as being worthy of the attention of competition regulators.

The previous two papers in this volume identified and commented upon a turn in case law towards narrowing down social rights for EU citizens while giving more attention to (nationalist) protective reflexes of Member States. Both papers criticize the type of solidarity that results from this case law; it marginalizes the weakest members of society, and excludes them from free movement rights. The case law raises doubts on the relevance of the citizenship provisions in the EU Treaties and the fundamental nature of the status of EU citizenship, and accordingly on the role of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the debate on welfare tourism. This paper concentrates on the latter. It will rely on and refer to the previous two papers where relevant. The questions underlying this paper are: Is the Court sensitive to the political context of fear for benefit tourism?1 Is the Court giving up its role as an engine for further integration by following the lead of the EU legislator?2 The paper will take a closer look at the arguments of the Court in the cases Brey, Dano and Alimanovic3 with the purpose of finding out whether it is possible to detect arguments underscoring the Court’s sensitivity to the political climate.

This paper shows that the European Union (EU) courts' case-law and general principles of EU law place the European Commission (“Commission”) under a duty to apply the Guidance Communication on Enforcement Priorities (“Guidance Paper”) in abuse of dominance cases started after its adoption. This duty includes the obligation to test Article 102 TFEU cases under the As Efficient Competitor (“AEC”) framework, as set out in the 2009 Guidance Paper. The judgments handed down by the Union courts in Intel v Commission and Post Danmark II do not alter in any way the Commission’s “self binding” duty to apply the Guidance Paper. If the Commission wishes to depart from the AEC framework, it must officially withdraw its Guidance Paper.

Do Member States who oppose directives in the Council comply worse than those who don’t? Council level opposition is perceived to be a clear proxy for a national conflict with European legislation and subsequent poor compliance is dubbed “opposition through the back door”. However, previous research on this issue is predominantly quantitative and only deals with transposition timeliness or ensuing infringements from the Commission. This research undertakes a distinctly qualitative approach to compare compliance with the Patients’ rights Directive, in Austria (which blocked the Directive), Denmark and the Netherlands. Additionally, we also examine the impact of the misfit argument, since the Danish healthcare system’s misfit with the Directive is greater than that in Austria or the Netherlands. This study is based on expert interviews with representatives from the major institutions in Austria, and literature sources on compliance in Denmark and the Netherlands. Our findings indicate that Council level opposition does not predicate worse compliance. Furthermore, although Denmark’s system has greater difficulty implementing the Directive, compliance issues were limited to specific provisions. The study is informative of compliance with European Union action in healthcare policy and the impediments the Union faces, as it attempts to expand its role into this core national competence.

The general public in Northern Ireland has not been well served by the Brexit debate. The UK debate has been concerned with the implications of Brexit for the UK as a whole, and not on specific issues affecting Northern Ireland. This report focusses on how a Brexit might affect Irish and Northern Irish trade and travel, and the effects that it might have on peace and prosperity.

The twentieth century is commonly acknowledged as the "age of migration". During the last 100 years population movements have intensified and, more importantly, their structure changed significantly. In terms of the geographical distribution of immigrants the European Union and traditional immigration countries became the most important target regions. In these countries immigration is commonly presented as a threat to host economies and societies. Along with this the fiscal impact of immigration are ones of the most controversial topics in recent debates on migration. Against this background this paper aims at discussing and synthesizing both theoretical and empirical literature on the fiscal impact of immigration. We hypothesize that the fiscal impacts of immigration are complex and dynamic and thus a proper assessment demands a careful empirical strategy. There is no clear or coherent theoretical framework to explain the fiscal effects of migration. The outcomes of empirical studies are mixed and they are not unequivocal. Notwithstanding, they show that, generally speaking, the fiscal impact of immigration is small. Moreover, there is no clear impact of skill level on the fiscal position of foreigners. What really matters is, instead, the type of migration, labor market incorporation (absorption) and the institutional framework at destination (the structure of the welfare state). In terms of empirical strategies we would recommend dynamic approaches, which account for the effects resulting from demographic aging.

There remains a degree of uncertainty about the role of national parliaments in the European system of governance under the rules of the Treaty of Lisbon. The legion of 10,000 national parliamentarians should guard the principle of subsidiarity in EU legislation, which now constitutes about one quarter of all laws adopted in member states. Confusion arises over how many of the new post-Lisbon prerogatives belong to individual national chambers, and how many require a collective response. Until the ‘collective’ voice is organised effectively, national parliaments will remain ‘paper tigers’ in the EU decision-making process. The national chambers’ powers could have far-reaching consequences, however, as one of their roles is to contribute to the ‘good governance’ of the European Union. Even though the readiness of national chambers to engage actively in EU affairs is limited, it is on the increase, albeit disproportionately.

This paper sets out our comments to DG Competition's discussion paper on the application of Article 82 of the Treaty to exclusionary abuses (the "Discussion Paper," hereinafter). We have focused our comments on the implications that the analytical framework proposed in Section 5 and the antitrust rules described in Sections 6-10 of the Discussion Paper could have on the development and growth of the high-tech and innovation industries (the so-called "dynamically competitive" industries) in the European Union. The important contribution of these industries to the European economy has recently been acknowledged by the European Commission in its i2010 strategy. This strategy sees growth and employment in the information, communication and technology (ICT) industries as crucial for the achievement of the goals set out in the Lisbon agenda. It is widely accepted that the growth and development of these industries requires, among other things, a stable regulatory framework that does not penalize successful firms for its own sake and promotes creativity and innovation. According to the Kok Report, prepared in response to an initiative of the European Council, "companies will only invest in innovation and RD while (2) it has an ambiguous welfare effect in the short-term. Forced access may increase competition in the short term, but it may also (a) facilitate the entry of inefficient producers; (b) promote licensing arrangements that discourage potential entrants to develop products that are sufficiently different from those of the dominant company, thus reducing product variety in the marketplace; and (c) encourage licensing arrangements that help companies coordinate their respective commercial policies, leading to higher prices. The nature and magnitude of the impact of competition policy on investment and innovation in general, and on the ICT in particular, depends crucially on the precise rules applied to the assessment of the business practices of dominant firms. This is why the Discussion Paper is so important. It "sets out possible principles for the Commission's application of Article 82 of the Treaty to exclusionary abuses" and "presents the analytical approach that could be used by the Commission" in assessing the business practices of firms with market power. Whether the application of Article 82 of the Treaty in the years to come promotes R&D investment and innovation and thus contributes to the achievement of the ambitious goals of the Lisbon agenda will largely depend on the principles and analytic approach finally adopted by DG Competition and the Commission. The remainder of this paper is structured in five sections. In section 2, we provide an overview of the importance of the ICT sector for the European economy (employment, productivity and growth) and compare its performance with the ICT sectors of the United States and Japan. We conclude that a healthy ICT sector plays a key role for the growth of the economies of the Member States. Europe's comparatively poor growth and employment record over the last decade can be explained in part by its relatively weak commitment to the development of a strong ICT industry. In section 3, we briefly review the main economic characteristics of dynamically competitive industries, such as the ICT industry. We focus on those features that have significant implications for the analysis of competition. Subsequent implications are discussed in section 4. Section 5 presents the core contribution of this paper. In this section we evaluate the various statements contained in the Discussion Paper. In doing so, we take into consideration the special characteristics of the dynamically competitive industries and the implications of those characteristics for antitrust law. Section 6 presents a brief conclusion.

With Bitcoin, a new type of technology was born in 2008 when Satoshi Nakamoto released the white paper for a new cash payment system (Nakamoto 2008), which effectively invented blockchain technology. By 2015 the technology already gained a lot of interest among startups, financial institutions, and industrial enterprises. Besides Bitcoin, many other crypto assets emerged with various design approaches such as stablecoins, utility tokens, security tokens, decentralized finance (DeFi), and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Many of these tokens have an identifiable issuer to whom existing regulatory frameworks could potentially apply. However, other types of assets that are based on fully decentralized protocols are governed entirely by technology and either do not have an issuer (like in the case of Bitcoin) or the initiators designed the technology in an ‘issuerless’ way - and have no relation to any ‘real-world asset’. It is the latter class of assets that are truly new and that have recently attracted increasing attention from regulatory authorities, international organizations, standard-setting bodies, and the like. On the part of regulators and policymakers, interest in and the activity surrounding cryptocurrencies, crypto assets, and stablecoins peaked in 2019 so far. Of the several key regulators and policymakers at the supra-national level, nearly all issued a report, warning, study, or recommendations on some aspect of blockchain technology in financial markets. This spike in interest is related to the increasing business activity in this area and growing interest of investors and consumers. The exponential rise in the price of Bitcoin also attracted the interest of a wider audience (Edwards et al. 2019). The increasing business activity always preceded the actions of regulators and policymakers, thus rendering the activities of the latter a ‘reaction’ to the market developments. According to the Financial Stability Board (FSB), crypto assets reached an estimated total market capitalization of $830 billion on January 8, 2018, before falling sharply in subsequent months (Financial Stability Board 2018). While the global value of the crypto assets market is still relatively small compared to the entire financial system, its absolute value and daily transaction volume are substantial, and its rapid development continues, gaining increasing market acceptance (Basel Committee on Banking Supervision 2019). This paper seeks to analyze regulators’ and policymakers’ efforts to understand and develop an adequate regulatory approach to crypto assets, tokens, and the distributed ledger technology (DLT) in general. After several years of innovation in the space of decentralized technologies, several principles became clear on how to treat both issuer-based tokens and issuerless tokens. However, when regulators and policymakers tried at first to understand these new decentralized technologies and the assets they enable, it was not clear to them from the beginning how to treat assets based on this new technology. Only recently has it been possible to identify best regulatory practices and to disentangle good approaches to regulation from the ‘noise’ of warnings, recommendations, or studies. Liechtenstein has adopted a remarkable perspective on and vision for crypto assets and tokens by creating a set of abstract definitions and models and applying them in their bespoke regulatory approach. The Liechtenstein Token Act has therefore inspired other policymakers and subsequent regulatory actions. The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. First, we seek to present the history of ‘opinions’' on behalf of regulatory bodies and policymakers over the last years. These opinions often lacked clear definitions, understanding, and models but also included valuable contributions. In the next section, we present key definitions and models of the Liechtenstein Token Act and describe how these have been included in Liechtenstein’s national framework to build a solid basis for the emerging token economy. Thereafter, we describe how the European Union’s approach to regulate crypto assets - the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) - tackles crypto assets and tokens, and how it relates to the Liechtenstein Token Act. In the subsequent section, we review a variety of regulatory approaches and strategies. Finally, we offer concluding remarks.

During a lesson on Knowledge Day in September 2017, Russian President Vladimir said: “Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind. It comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict. Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world”. Technology seems to have the power to change our work, our society and our daily life. It has become almost indispensable in everyday activities, and it involves many aspects of our lives. According to many experts, academics and policymakers, we are in the middle of the 4th industrial revolution that will affect our societies in the next decades. The real actor in this process is Artificial Intelligence (AI), which has become more present and essential both in the private and public sector. AI is changing many aspects of people’s lives and bring important benefits to society and the economy thanks to better healthcare, an efficient public administration, and safer transport. Comprehending and analysing AI is fundamental in order to embrace the next challenges of the future, and to be competitive with other global leaders. How can AI be used by Europe as a whole? Which are the rules that would be considered in the following years? And how would the rest of the world react to such innovations? How the EU should we respond to such innovation and create a quality brand? Intending to respond to these questions, the present paper examines the AI framework in Europe, its legal and ethical implications. This paper is divided into three sections: the first one gives an overall vision on AI and on the state of the art worldwide; the second one analyses the efforts that EU is making and should make to become a relevant character in the AI race; and finally the conclusion focuses on what lacks to Europe to be a global leader in the AI field. The United States (US) and China are clearly the world’s leaders in such environment. On the other way round, the European Union (EU), is not in the game, despite the recent legislation developed by the Commission. In order to maximise the development of AI, new rules are necessary to guarantee principles, rights, and a fair use of it. To tackle the huge development carried out by the AI world’s leaders, Europe should respond by setting two objectives: on one hand, to create a positive environment to invest; on the other hand, to emerge as a quality brand for AI, as recently happened with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The paper argues that the EU is pointing to become a sort of referee in such field, spreading rules and guidelines in the digital environment. Nevertheless, leading in this field would not permit Europe to explore the opportunities that AI may give to European technological process.

This short paper puts forth the idea of a “new external equilibrium” between the different actors of the European Union and proposes to revisit the classic dualism of exit and voice as suggested by Albert Hirschman and applied to European integration by Joseph H. H. Weiler. By resorting to the idea of an internal equilibrium between European institutions and member states in the early times of European integration, the paper develops the concept of “new external equilibrium” as a necessary balance in the external integration of the EU. It is suggested that a shift has occurred and that the traditional internal clash between the CJEU and member states has now transformed into a more complex discussion between a broader range of actors with different power-relations being formed. One the one hand we have the CJEU which, through the use of the principle of “autonomy” of the EU, claims a new voice and curbs external integration. On the other hand, member states and the remaining institutions push for further external integration and a globalized Union of law. After examining this new distribution of the relative power between institutions, member states and the CJEU, this chapter attempts to explain some of the controversial decisions by the CJEU regarding external integration, such as Opinion 2/13 or Opinion 1/17.

This paper provides a summary survey of the policy approaches to artificial intelligence-based technologies in China, the European Union, and the United States. China has the most aggressive approach, launching major initiatives since 2015 such as ‘Made in China 2025’, the Internet Plus Plan, the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan, and the Artificial Intelligence Standardization White Paper. In 2018, the EU finalized both the European AI Strategy and ‘Made in Europe’ or the Coordinated Plan on the Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence. Despite a traditional reticence to adopt national strategies and perhaps pushed by growing concerns about China, the US Government announced the American AI Initiative and a National AI R&D Strategic Plan in 2019. The AI approaches in these three economies reflect their relative strengths—state control in China, citizen voice in Europe, and business practices in America. Unencumbered by privacy concerns, China’s strategy is geared to exploit the abundance of domestic data and to develop AI talent through central schemes and massive injections of money. The European Union’s regulations and spending priorities are guided by the objective of building citizen trust in AI-based technologies by safeguarding privacy and ameliorating disruptions in national labor markets. The mainstay of the US approach is to strengthen the linkages between business and AI-related research, and find ways to fund basic R&D. Despite efforts to indigenize AI innovations, all three economies face challenges. China’s AI strategy continues to rely disproportionately on just three tech giants: Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba, which have investments in more than a 100 AI-involved companies. Europe’s AI resources are unbalanced geographically—a quarter of Europe’s AI talent is in the UK and another quarter in Germany and France—and Brexit poses a serious risk. More than half of the AI talent in the US is foreign born, so immigration policies will inevitably be a central component of a national AI strategy.

The publication of the EU’s draft AI legal framework is a milestone in the regulatory debate on AI. It proposes a risk based approach to regulating and reporting. In this white paper, we provide a high-level overview of the risk tiers, which we take to be the kernel of the legislation, and follow this by offering our initial thoughts and feedback on strategic points of contention in the legislation. Our main takeaways are: (i) Innovation - the sandbox approach may not be enough to ensure innovation; (ii) Reporting - in the lead up to codification we would like to see reporting being used to accelerate dissemination of best practice and benchmarking; (iii) Green-flagging - there does not appear to be sufficient detail to derive a reasonable set of green-flagging conditions; and, (iv) Manipulation - addressing the ambiguity in the draft proposal of banning systems with ‘significant manipulation’. We conclude with notes on the legal status of algorithms, the status of GDPR in light of AI regulation and, the geopolitical ramifications of EU AI regulation.

The opportunity before the UK as a result of Brexit is a great one. But if the UK squanders it, the "new normal" of limited economic growth could prevail. The UK regulating its own economy will not render a deal with the EU impossible. As this paper will outline, it has the capacity to increase economic growth, let the UK do other trade deals, and create leverage to get positive results from EU negotiations. Political, trade, and regulatory independence is not just an ideological position, but what makes the bulk of the gains possible. This proposal will set these out and demonstrate what is likely to be lost if the UK government maintains a model similar to the approach adopted at the Chequers cabinet meeting in July 2018, further elaborated in the government White Paper, or one even more closely aligned to the EU. In the document that follows, these proposals can be understood as part of a possible spectrum of options, in which this contribution outlines our view. Meanwhile, the economic scale of the possibility suggests the opportunity to create prosperity when serious economic distortions are removed. This is a framework outlining how the UK can still attain the opportunity ahead.

The purpose of this working paper is to estimate the potential impact of the Made in China 2025 Green Paper on Technological Innovation in Key Areas: Technology Roadmap (2017) on integrated circuit (IC) producers in the United States (US), the European Union (EU), and Japan. We attempt to clearly fill in the gaps of projection and consumption data in the scenario presented by the 2017 Roadmap and using the Green Paper’s definition of consumption and production. In the first part of the analysis, we assume that the market growth, market share, and projections presented in the Green Paper as the baselines and compare them with other industry data. In part 2, we estimate integrated circuit (IC) production market shares for the U.S., EU, and Japan in both China and globally based on the assumptions made in part 1. In part 3, we estimate IC consumption shares in the US, EU, and Japan. We find that the goals imply a significant decrease in the competitiveness of the integrated circuit industries in the U.S., EU, and Japan, though this conclusion must take into account that the assumptions and logic of the Green Paper do not accurately reflect industry dynamics. Finally, we offer suggestions for future analysis.

This paper aims to analyze the determinants of cash usage in a selection of European Union (EU) countries over the 2003–2016 period, based on a set of technological, socioeconomic, and socio-cultural indicators and cost components. Our results reveal the existence of both common and region-specific determinants for the EU advanced and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. In both groups cash usage is determined by payment system characteristics. Additionally, in the EU advanced countries cash usage can also be explained by the level of economic development and income inequalities and proliferation of Internet. In contrast, cash usage in CEE countries is negatively associated with consumer confidence and is inversely related to the technological progress, expressed in terms of mobile users.

This work describes the practicability of utilizing the bentonite clay as a cheap and raw support for heterogeneous catalyst development. In current research, ammonium persulphate impregnated bentonite heterogeneous catalyst was designed for the conversion of waste cooking oil to biodiesel. The fabricated catalyst was analyzed by various instrumental techniques (FTIR, TGA, BET, SEM, XRD, and EDX) to study its various physiochemical properties. It was identified that the clay supported heterogeneous catalyst executed an excellent activity for waste cooking oil conversion as providing maximum 93% yield of biodiesel at optimal reaction conditions (reaction temperature 75 ◦C, oil/methanol molar ratio, 1:10; catalyst amount, 2.5 wt%; stirring rate, 600-rpm in 3.5 hr reaction time). GCMS analysis confirms the successful conversion to biodiesel. However, the various physiochemical characteristics of the synthesized biodiesel meet the international standard of American (ASTM6751) and European Union (EU-14214). Moreover, the designed acid catalyst showed catalytic activity upto eight consecutive runs demonstrate its good reusability.

Background: West African studies have suggested that national immunisation campaigns with oral polio vaccine (C-OPV) may non-specifically reduce all-cause child mortality rate by 15-25%. We investigated whether C-OPVs had similar non-specific effects in rural Bangladesh from 2004 to 2019. Methods: Chakaria, is a health and demographic surveillance system (HDSS) in Southern Bangladesh. From 2004-2011 the HDSS covered a random sample of households; from 2012-2019 it covered a random sample of villages. Using Cox proportional hazards models, we calculated hazard ratios (HR) comparing mortality for children under 3 years of age after campaigns with OPV-only (C-OPV) versus before C-OPV to assess the “intention-to-treat”-effect of C-OPV. We allowed for different baseline hazard function in the two periods (2004-2011, 2012-2019), with separate models for each period. In the main analysis children were only followed prospectively. Findings: In the main analysis, including 736 deaths (2.0%) among 36,155 children, the HR for after C-OPV was 0.68 (95% confidence interval: 0.51-0.90). No other type of health campaign had similar beneficial results. Each additional dose of C-OPV lowered the mortality rate by 8% (0 to 15%). The number needed to treat (NNT) with C-OPV to save one life between 0-35 months of age was only 109 (100-119) (data not shown). Interpretation: This is the fourth study to show that C-OPV has huge beneficial non-specific effects on child survival. No study has found the opposite. Stopping OPV as planned could have detrimental effects for overall child health in low-income countries. Funding Statement: This research study is funded by core donors who provide unrestricted support to icddr,b for its operations and research. icddr,b is grateful to the Government of Bangladesh, Canada, Sweden and the UK for providing core/unrestricted support. The work on non-specific effects of vaccines has been supported by the Danish Council for Development Research, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark [grant number 104.Dan.8.f.], Novo Nordisk Foundation and European Union FP7 support for OPTIMUNISE (grant: Health-F3-2011-261375). Declaration of Interests: Nothing to declare. Ethics Approval Statement: Ethical Review Committee of International Centre of Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh provided approval for the study.

Stimulated by the European Commission’s White Paper on the Future of Europe, this article engages critically with the Commission’s five scenarios. Driven by a normative ambition of equipping the EU with adequate constitutional, institutional and socio-political means for coping with its many crises, the article argues in favour of the reformist vision of the EU’s future. It claims that a new constitutional process for European integration should be launched. On its basis the EU would be reconstituted as a union, a special federal constitutional form, embedded in the normative spirit of pluralism. The article presents the arguments in favour of such a scenario and flashes out the reasons for which the many constitutional actors in the EU, as well as the latter as a whole, could benefit from it. It concludes that in the following few months there might emerge a historical window of opportunity for a qualitative reformist leap in the process of European integration. While the way back to the glorious days of the nation state is effectively closed off and the present status quo in the EU is plainly unsustainable, the article sketches a theoretical framework for the reformed European Union of tomorrow.

Recent estimates of the level of VAT fraud in the EU are commensurate with the EU budget. With the Green paper on the future of VAT, the European Commission stressed the urgency and necessity of comprehensive VAT reforms. This paper analyses the business and legal implications of the recently proposed split-payment mechanism, which, if implemented, would move VAT’s method of collection to real-time. The discussion is positioned in the context of two increasingly visible trends in the EU – the general shift towards greater reliance on indirect taxation and the growing popularity of electronic payment instruments. The potential implementation of VAT withholding would be a radical reform, given its shift of the taxation system from voluntary to forced compliance. We argue that, on the one hand, real-time VAT collection would constitute a potent preventive measure against VAT fraud, which could generate synergetic effects within SEPA, and further deepen integration through the harmonisation of VAT policies. On the other hand, real-time audit/refund would require tax authorities’ access to confidential business information that may be incompatible with EU privacy rules. The trade-off between efficient tax collection and privacy concerns mirrors the general debate on data protection in a cashless economy.

In December 2010, the European Commission published a Green Paper that proposes various actions to encourage the recognition of civil status documents across the EU and invited comments on its proposals. The Green Paper followed on from a public consultation on citizens' rights which sought to identify concrete actions that could be taken to tackle the challenges and obstacles faced by citizens when exercising their rights as citizens of the European Union. This response recommends the mutual recognition of civil status documents and identifies the practical steps which such recognition should entail. It also makes recommendations for the harmonisation of national procedures for the recognition of civil status documents issued by non-EU authorities through the incorporation of the Hague Convention on Apostille Certificates at the EU level.

In this paper we empirically assess the evolution for the EU regions of both employment and unemployment before and after the Global Crisis. After a review of the literature on the theories and key determinants of regional unemployment, we shall overview the main findings concerning the labour market impact of the Global Crisis. The empirical analysis will initially be carried out at the national level including all EU countries; subsequently, we shall focus on the EU regions (at the NUTS-2 level), in order to detect possible changes in the dispersion of regional unemployment rates after the crisis. Our econometric investigations aim to assess the effect, on labour market performance, of previous developments in regional labour markets time series, as well as the importance of structural characteristics of the labour markets, in terms of the sectoral specialization of the regional economies. In fact, the local industry mix may have played a crucial role in shaping labour market performance in response to the crisis. In addition, we consider further characteristics of the regional labour markets, by including indicators of the level of precarization of labour and of the share of long-term unemployed, as indicators of the efficiency of the local labour markets. From a methodological viewpoint, we exploit eigenvector decomposition-based spatial filtering techniques, which allow us to greatly reduce unobserved variable bias – a significant problem in cross-sectional models – by including indicators of latent unobserved spatial patterns. Finally, we render a geographical description of the heterogeneity influence of past labour market performance over the crisis period, showing that the past performance has a differentiated impact on recent labour market developments.

Will an optional instrument on contract law result in social dumping? In this paper it is argued that this is likely to occur especially with respect to b2b contracts. This educated guess is made on the basis of empirical research concerning the Societas Europea and a choice of law in international contracts. This issue has been raised by the publication of the European Commission’s Green Paper on ‘policy options for progress towards a European Contract Law for consumer and businesses’, in which the European Commission initiates a consultation with respect to the future of European contract law.

Governance as a concept has progressed from obscurity to widespread usage, particularly in the last two decades, due to the critical role it plays in determining welfare for nations, regions, communities. The paper aims to offer an overview on good governance and it’s principles, the way it evolved from the World Bank’s point of view in the ‘90’s, to European Commission’s White Paper on European Governance in 2001. The article also emphasizes on the impact good governance has on regional development, through multi-level European governance.

The need for a sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply has long been recognized within the Community, and has been addressed on numerous occasions, notably in the Green Papers elaborated by the Commission in 2000 and 2006. Recent supply crises and rapidly escalating fuel prices have focused the minds of leaders across the European Union, as well as those of businesses and individual energy consumers. Energy policy transcends a range of different policy areas, including competition, transport, environment and energy itself. Decisions relating to energy policy in Europe are primarily within the remit of individual Member State governments, with the European Commission’s powers limited to two specific areas (creation of the European single market and matters relating to nuclear safety and security under the EURATOM Treaty). The extent of the transfer of powers towards Europe is clearly a critical decision point and in practice a sensitive balance is likely to be required between those matters for which the Commission should have responsibility and those where Member State governments retain sole authority. European officials are putting into evidence their belief that Europe’s energy predicament is acute and mention energy security as a priority issue for the Common Foreign and Security Policy. Policy commitments say that energy strategy must move beyond the internal sphere and become systematically a part of EU external relations. The Commission’s 2006 Energy Green Paper promised “a better integration of energy objectives into broader relations with third countries”.

In December 2005 the European Commission published a Green Paper on Damages Actions for Breach of the EC Antitrust Rules. The Green Paper examines the conditions for bringing damages actions for breach of the EC antitrust rules and identifies obstacles to the current framework. Some of the options presented in the Green Paper that aim at facilitating private enforcement of EC competition law would require a certain level of harmonization of the national procedural rules governing EC antitrust damages actions. The objective of this working paper is to examine the competence of the EU to adopt such harmonizing measures. The paper will analyse, whether the Member States have a procedural autonomy when it comes to determining the procedural conditions governing rights conferred by Community law and the possible limitations to that autonomy. Moreover, it will examine possible legal bases for a harmonization, namely Articles 65, 83, 95 and 308 EC.

European consumer law is one of the parts of European law where the citizens of the European Union may experience the positive consequences of the European integration themselves. This is in part the reason why consumer law is in the renewed attention of the European Commission. Within the framework of the development of the Common Frame of Reference the emphasis is now on the improvement of (in particular) the consumer acquis, more precisely on the review of 8 directives that relate to the sale of goods and services. In this contribution these developments are looked into. The paper starts with comments on the Common Frame of Reference and the Green paper Review of the consumer acquis. The reactions to the Green paper are discussed in three parts, viz. the general parts of these reactions, and the specific reactions to consumer sales and unfair contract terms. Furthermore, reactions to the separate consultation on distance selling, and the intended review of the price indication directive and the doorstep selling directive are addressed. Further comments are made on the already submitted proposal on a new timeshare directive and on the only directive pertaining to services currently under revision, the package travel directive. Where relevant the provisional text of the academic draft for a Common Frame of Reference (hereafter also: draft-CFR) and the Principles of European Law on Sales (PELS) are discussed.

Australia's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and the recent release of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Green Paper affirm the Government's commitment toward carbon emissions reduction and the advancement of the environmental cause. Using a na?ve model which maximises the environmental cause at the expense of financial impact on the economy, this paper highlights how the failure of the first phase of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme can be attributed to the over-relaxation of parameters crucial to the success of the scheme as measured by verified reduction in emissions. The Government's preferred position as elucidated in the Green Paper is then contrasted in this context to illustrate the possible sources of failure that are currently engendered in the Scheme. The implementation of the Scheme will impose great compliance costs on the economy - we argue that the Government's over zealous protection of business interests may ultimately lead to failure of the Scheme, in which case the businesses and community would have incurred the financial burden over nothing.

Following the structure defined in the Review of the Consumer Acquis of 2004, the Commission adopted a Green Paper on 8 February 2007 and launched a consultation on some key issues on the future developments of EC consumer law. The Review of the Consumer Acquis (i.e. eight consumer directives) should, accordingly, focus on the level of harmonization of the Consumer Acquis and the relevant instruments. There seems to be a trend the Commission towards the need to shift from minimum to maximum harmonization, and the adoption of a horizontal instrument containing a set of "Principles" of European Consumer Contract Law. In this working paper I briefly discuss some ideas on the governance of EC Consumer Law, i.e. how responsibility for consumer protection is shared between the European Union and its member states, the actors involved in the field (particularly the national courts) and the (formal and informal) instruments of consumer protection. These questions are intimately interlinked, and the answers are of deep significance as they will map the future of European consumer protection policy.

This article reviews the legal and economic structure of the class action litigation model in the United States, as set forth by rule 23 of US civil procedure, exploring the requirements for obtaining class certification and maintaining a class action. I analyse a number of critical issues and inefficiencies connected to the adoption of class action as a tool for adjudicating controversies. The article, then, takes into consideration the issue of private antitrust litigation in the European Union, at the moment still underdeveloped. A Green Paper recently published by the EU Commission includes proposals for the adoption of private antitrust damages litigation in the EU, but, even suggesting the possible adoption of a collective action model, never mentions class action as a viable solution. I consider some of the questions raised by the EU Commission in the Green Paper. Relying on the fact that US courts have repeatedly stated that antitrust controversies are suitable for class action treatment, I consider whether the US model of class action litigation might provide, although in an amended version, a satisfactory answer to the problematic issues raised by the Green Paper and represent an efficient tool for the private enforcement of antitrust law in the European Union.

Since 1998, the World Health Organisation has recognised obesity as a problem of epidemic proportions. As none of the EU Member States is spared, the European Commission has recently published a Green Paper aimed at gathering evidence on how it could develop an obesity prevention strategy at European level. It is therefore the right moment to reflect on the principles which should guide EU policy in this field. This paper concentrates on one particular aspect of obesity prevention, namely the role that the European Union can play to curb the epidemic by regulating how food is marketed to consumers. That is not to say that the regulation of food advertising will, on its own, solve this public health issue. Obesity being by definition a multifactorial disease, the concerted action of all stakeholders is crucial to the successful outcome of the strategy which the Commission will choose to adopt.

This short paper (in French) structures some basic thoughts on the legitimacy of the European Union and the contribution of the (aborted) EU Constitution to close so-called legitimacy gaps in the EU governance process. It outlines the general context in which legitimacy issues arose in the EU and describes how the EU Constitution attempted to initiate a process of re-legitimization of the European Union. This paper served as an outline in preparing for the conference held in Brussels on February 16, 2005 at the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Olivaint Conference of Belgium.

The 'Open Method of Co-ordination' was first introduced in the European arena at the Lisbon Summit of March 2000. To reach the European Union's goal of becoming 'the world's most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy, capable of sustainable economic growth with better jobs and greater social cohesion', a new method of intervention was needed. The Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) was, thus, presented as the appropriate tool for an integrated approach toward achieving an economic and social renewal. This method is now applied in the employment field and in the fight against poverty and social exclusion. Other sensitive fields, such as pensions and immigration, have been identified as future areas where OMC could be applied. Social partners at the European level have also been called to develop their own experience of OMC. They are now in charge of benchmarking best practices as regard to life-long learning and the quality of industrial relations in Europe. As the Commission states in its European Governance White Paper, OMC is aimed at completing or reinforcing Community action, in particular when there is little scope for legislative solutions. This new form of intervention is not to replace traditional means. Rather, the European Union (EU) would play a role consistent with its supranational position. The objective is to organize a learning process to allow the exchange of experience and best practices. OMC is gaining ground in the European polity. Since its introduction, many areas that, until then, were considered falling under the sovereignty of Member States are now tackled at a European level. Some commentators even define OMC as a possible new way of Building Social Europe. For the time being, it seems that one of OMC's main interests remains in the new approach to legislation that about it allows. OMC shapes a form of supranational governance by mean of soft regulation, providing a dynamic that is interesting to look at, not only from aEuropean perspective but also from an international one. The purpose of this article is to analyse this new tool of intervention and underscore its potential to offer a model of supranational governance. The Open Method of Co-ordination is composed of different phases, each one deeply marked by a common feature: co-ordination. The very structure of OMC relies on the presence of a supranational actor able to co-ordinate. But in order to grasp its importance, one cannot consider OMC only from the Lisbon Summit. To have a fully-fledged comprehension of this new regulatory tool, it is necessary to look at the whole development of the European Employment Strategy. It is in the field of employment that this method finds its premises and was first developed. With this background, it is possible to see from where the different components of OMC come, and also to give a clearer picture of the fundamentals of this new form of governance. The reminder of this paper is organized as follows. Starting from the Delors White paper of 1993, it analyses the contributions that each European Summit has made to the framing of a strategy that was first confined to the employment field and, later, became a method applicable to any sensitive area. OMC is an interesting tool to look at, in particular, in considering new forms of supranational governance in a global context.

In the European Union, the most important labour market models that have been proposed for labour market reform are flexicurity and the transitional labour market. In this position paper, we conceptualise the models of flexicurity and the transitional labour market, and we outline potentially relevant research questions. These research questions focus on explaining the variations in labour market policies across EU countries and the impact of labour market institutions on labour market outcomes as well as innovation and the adoption of new technologies.

The Communications Commission of the Isle of Man has invited comments on three options for the future: the status quo, adoption of a European Union or a bespoke approach to regulation. The details provided are very limited, especially of the third option, with many issues omitted or glossed over. The EU approach would be likely to be regulatory overkill for a small island which, without justification, should never have been presented as a viable option. The bespoke option is insufficiently defined to make analysis possible. The government should consider issuing a white paper setting out its economic and social objectives from the communications sector and directing the Communications Commission to ensure that they are delivered, with monitoring by Tynwald (e.g., consideration of an annual report from the Communications Commission). It should not move the existing statutory competition law powers from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) as proposed, but instead create a memorandum of understanding between OFT and the Communications Commission on their use in telecommunications. It might also consider moving the Communications Commission powers into the OFT. The Communications Commission should create mechanisms to monitor markets, including the views of consumers and business users. The transparency of the Communications Commission should be greatly improved. A key decision for government is whether it wants the regulator to be independent and if so, how it is to be funded. Provision would have to be made for appeals on the merits of decisions. It is necessary to review the needs of financial sector for telecommunications services and to identify appropriate benchmarks for comparison with offshore financial centres in Europe and in the Caribbean. Given the apparent threat of disputes between operators, a system of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) seems to be necessary. Much stress has been placed on the early launch of 3G and the failure to repeat this for 4G. An analysis of the benefits of 3G would make this more convincing. It would be very beneficial to liaise with governments and regulatory authorities in the other Crown Dependencies, and in the overseas territories of Denmark, Netherlands, the UK and the USA, plus the French Departements d’outremer. There are many lessons to be shared on the regulation of communications in small markets. No convincing case has been made for a new statute, though secondary legislation may be necessary, if the powers available to the OFT can be shown to be insufficient.

Better regulation is intended to serve as a framework to increase economic competitiveness, ensuring that legislation and rules imposed by all levels of government are proportionate and will help deliver more jobs and economic growth. Legislation and regulations at all levels which might have a social or economic effect are tested thoroughly and systematically. This involves the generation of a range of options and their evaluation, including consultation with those likely to be affected: consumers, small businesses and enterprises, as well as operators and service providers. Final decisions are based on careful evaluation of the options, together with the views expressed and the data submitted. They are open to re-evaluation on appeal.The European Union has adopted formal procedures for impact assessment. These have been subject to review and re-assessment, based on experience across all economic sectors. They have been widely applied (e.g., to international mobile roaming and to energy efficiency of consumer electronics).The United Kingdom was an early mover in better regulation, implementing a framework and setting targets, then reviewing and renewing the initiatives. In telecommunications both its ministry and its regulator conduct impact assessments.In the Republic of Ireland the government adopted a white paper on better regulation and guidelines for regulatory impact assessments. Such assessments have been widely adopted across government, including by its telecommunications regulator.The OECD has coordinated work on better regulation and impact assessment across its member states and also has activities with developing countries.

The banking regulatory framework adopted by the European Union is both stern and unidimensional. Proportionality in banking regulation and supervision is mainly a theoretical reference, with little or no practical implementation. On the face of it, the fundamental choice to apply the Basel standards to every European bank, no matter the size, systemic relevance or complexity, would seem to provide certainty and hence stability for the benefit of the whole banking sector. However, the “one size fits all” approach hinders the development of smaller banks by creating competitive distortion. This papers purports to provide ideas that will relax the system and, based on an ad hoc, bespoke assessment, will provide for flexibility and proportionality for a key part of the banking sector, while maintaining stability. The paper contains a proposal for criteria to make a proper distinction between “small” (tier 2) and “large” (tier 1) banks in this context. It also provides the contours of the manner in which the rules applying to the tier 2 banks should be determined.

Energy efficiency investments are essential for transitioning to a carbon-neutral economy. Nevertheless, many energy efficiency investment opportunities do not materialise. The existing literature attributes this situation to financial and non-financial factors. Research suggests that many firms focus only on direct energy savings and neglect non-energy benefits that include increased labour productivity. Up to date, due to lack of high-quality data, few studies attempted to quantify the effects of the energy efficiency investments on firm-level outcomes other than the reductions in energy consumption. This paper overcomes this barrier by using novel data from a firm-level survey conducted by the European Investment Bank that covers more than 15,000 firms in 27 European Union member states and the UK during 2018-2019. It studies the relationship between the energy efficiency investment and the labour productivity of the European firms, utilising instrumental variables methodology to account for potential endogeneity. The results show a positive and causal relationship between energy efficiency investment and labour productivity. The findings of the paper suggest that firms can benefit much more from the energy efficiency investment than what is often assumed, and highlight a need for government policies that would increase firms’ awareness of the non-energy benefits.

The paper argues that the European Union’s (EU) policy of externalising migration management to transit states contradicts its founding values enshrined under Article 2 of the Treaty Establishing the EU. The values are intentionally interpreted in such a way to evade humanitarian responsibility arising from the arrival of asylum seekers. The paper examines the changing meanings of the principle of solidarity and argues that solidarity has been interpreted in all possible meanings expect as a humanitarian norm to keep an emphasis on the return of asylum seekers and to minimise responsibility. This encourages the transit states to evade international responsibility by constructing their asylum/migration control policies in line with the EU securitisation approach. The paper examines the influence of the EU securitisation approach on the development of the Turkish asylum policy. The paper concludes by arguing that the EU securitisation approach has become the main reason for falling humanitarian standards in the Mediterranean region.

This working paper examines what might loosely be termed a ‘twenty years crisis’ in the history of the transatlantic relationship since the turn of the new century. Like the death of Mark Twain the demise of the relationship has been announced many times before, but like Twain himself has managed to carry on, in large part because the interests of both Europe and the US have coincided. In what follows the author takes the continuation of the relationship as a given. What he then attempts to do is explain the many challenges it has faced and why Brexit and Trump taken together constitute the greatest combined challenge it has confronted thus far. President Biden has vowed to repair the damage done. But as the paper shows he faces an uphill struggle. Divorce is most unlikely. Yet until all the actors – the EU, the UK and the US – can come up with a new grand bargain, the way ahead looks fraught.

In the European Union, the algorithmic trading regime introduced by MiFID II requires firms to test and simulate their algorithms before deploying them on the market. While there have been important contributions to the overall scope of the EU algorithmic trading regime, the new testing requirements have remained largely untested by scholars. Against this background, the first half of this paper examines the algo testing framework from a legal perspective. This includes the way algorithms must be tested, the testing environments, the responsibilities of the market participants and the role of the supervisory authorities. It is showed that although being generally quite prescriptive, the crucial elements for the control of algorithms remain too vague. Subsequently, the paper seeks to evaluate whether testing can help to control algorithms in securities trading from a regulatory policy perspective. To do this, three issues are explored: firstly, the possibility of firms to choose the testing process themselves (including in-house testing), leading to questions regarding self-regulation; secondly, the overall effectiveness of the testing regime, in light of the interactions algorithms have with the market; finally, implications of the use of algorithmic trading systems based on AI or ML. The central findings suggest that clearer rules regarding (self-)testing are desirable and that only network-sensitive market simulations can help to control algorithms in securities trading.

This paper begins with the proposition that the EU faces a problem of politics or to put it another way is characterized by a politics trap and that trap is consequential. A trap, for the purpose of this paper, is defined as a position or situation from which it is difficult or impossible to escape. The idea of a trap draws on the seminal article by Scharpf on the joint-decision trap (Scharpf, 1988) which had a major impact on the study of the EU. The focus of this paper is an analysis the politics trap by examining the three components of political order-polity, policy and politics. The politics trap is significantly more complex and multifaceted than the decision trap, which is one mode of decision making whereas the politics trap is a product of the nature of the EU itself and the structuring of politics in Europe. The compound character of the EU polity (states and peoples) is identified as the root structural cause of the Union’s politics trap. There remains a deep tension but also multiple binding ties between the national and the European, between the new polity and the older order of Europe’s nation states.

This paper explores the question of how to judge the acceptability of “residual risks” in the European Union’s Proposal for a Regulation laying down harmonized rules on Artificial Intelligence (the Proposal). The Proposal is a risk-based regulation that prohibits certain uses of AI and imposes several layers of risk controls upon ‘high-risk’ AI systems. Much of the commentary on the Proposal has focused on the issue of what AI-systems should be prohibited, and which should be classified as high risk. This paper bypasses this threshold question, engaging instead with a key issue of implementation. The Proposal imposes a wide range of requirements on providers of high-risk AI systems (among others) but acknowledges that certain AI systems would still carry a level of “residual risk” to health, safety and fundamental rights. Art 9(4) provides that, in order for high-risk systems to be put into use, risk management measures must be such that residual risks are judged “acceptable”. Participants in the AI supply chain need certainty about what degree of care and precaution in AI development, and in risk management specifically, will satisfy the requirements of Art 9(4). This paper advocates for a cost-benefit approach to art 9(4). It argues that art 9(4), read in context, calls for proportionality between precautions against risks posed by high-risk AI systems and the risks themselves, but leaves those responsible for implementing art 9(4) in the dark about how to achieve such proportionality. This paper identifies potentially applicable mid-level principles both in European laws (such as medical devices regulation) and in laws about the acceptability of precaution in relation to risky activities from common law countries (particularly negligence and workplace health and safety). It demonstrates how these principles would apply to different kinds of systems with different risk and benefit profiles, with hypothetical and real -world examples. And it sets out some difficult questions that arise in weighing the costs and benefits of precautions, calling on European policy-makers to provide more clarity to stakeholders on how they should answer those questions.

The legal system in Brazil has long looked to European legislation for inspiration and guidance. When it comes to data-privacy laws today, Brazilian legislators again have been encouraged by European officials to look to European models, the European Union’s General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR). The Brazilian General Data Protection Law (Lei Geral de Protecao de Dados Pessoais, Law No. 13,709/2018, or "LGPD"), enacted in August 2020, specifically seeks to achieve the same level of restrictions and conform to the demands of the GDPR. Perhaps most importantly for our purposes, the Brazilian LGPD presents a significant compliance challenge for companies, forcing them to rethink how they collect, store, and use personal data throughout the data lifecycle. The practical scope of this paper assumes that the reader is already familiar with the EU data privacy laws and is seeking a good source of information about Brazilian data privacy laws. While many companies are already well advanced in assessing its data processing activities vis-a-vis the GDPR, they may also need to become LGPD compliant, which could mean instituting multiple new requirements. In broad strokes, this paper will explain, from a compliance and legal perspective, the existing differences between the GDPR and the LGPD regulations, the enforcement mechanisms, what companies need to know to become compliant with the Brazilian laws, as well as the effects of violations of the LGPD, its important definitions, and which entities have to comply.

Globalization is a process of interaction and integration that embodies a transformation in the organization of social relations and transactions, which generate a transcontinental or interregional flow of communication, technology, knowledge, and opportunities. Globalization has transformed several aspects of the global system and influenced almost all dimensions of human lives. We now not only have greater economic dependence and trade networks, but institutions like the UN, European Union, NATO, World Bank, WTO, and IMF have overstepped their authority by promoting universal standards for everything, which has thus changed the traditional perspective of sovereignty. Now the question arises of what traditional sovereignty is, the common notion states that sovereignty is the central attribute of a state as a form of political organization. The very core of sovereignty is the power of self-determination, the power to determine for and by oneself and not the command of others. No external body has the right to command or order a sovereign state to act in a given manner about matters of fundamental concern to it. Many people believe that the idea of state sovereignty is in imminent danger, the idea of an independent entity is being collapsed by the monetary union, global television, the internet, governmental and non-governmental organization. Though many have proclaimed the demise of sovereignty under the pressure of globalization yet few believe that sovereignty is the basis of state interaction, state laws are adaptive in nature and they evolve by the standardized norms of the global system. In this paper the researcher shall discuss the traditional perspective of sovereignty and does the Westphalian concept of sovereignty has ever existed. The primary focus of this paper shall be on the impacts of globalization on the state authority, their territorial control, and monopoly, and find out how the sovereignty of the state is affected by this global system. The researcher will critically analyze the transformation of sovereignty in response to globalization and its complexities.

The EU is developing closer ties with some of its neighbours, creating various forms of external differentiated integration (EDI). Since these relations are continuously asymmetrical in terms of power, scholars raise the issue of how power and dominance feature in such structures. The main aim of this research paper is to investigate how, in the context of EDI, the EU creates structures in the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), and specifically the Eastern Partnership (EaP), that allow more participation and increasing input and throughput legitimacy for partner countries and their societies. Secondly, the paper shows how political actors from partner countries perceive these structures and tools and what improvements they propose. This is done through analysis of the mechanisms and practices which the EU is employing to improve participation and external legitimacy within the ENP. The research paper consists of a theoretical section, in which we examine the EU’s interdependence and EDI structures in the neighbourhood as well as using the concept of dominance to unpack its characteristics. This is followed by an analysis of external EU legitimacy and its indicators treated as a means to improve relations with the neighbours. In the empirical section, we identify and analyse selected mechanisms through which the EU is trying to improve its external legitimacy in the neighbourhood. We mainly look at two institutional tools: (1) consultations on the ENP reform and (2) the ENP Interparliamentary Assemblies (EuroNEST).