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Abstract: This article explores the main determinants of youth unemployment in Europe in the period 2002 to 2014 by estimating panel data models for the 28 Member States of the European Union (EU). Heterogeneity is acknowledged by estimating models for subsamples of countries with “high” and “low” youth unemployment rates. The main results suggest that youth unemployment is more pronounced in countries with poor GDP growth, a low share of construction activity and high public debt. Reduced mobility (owing to homeownership), corruption, reception of a high level of remittances and a lack of possibilities for young people to live outside parental homes are also important factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is focused on how the "migration crisis" starting in 2015 in Europe have reshaped the attitude to the European level of border protection. The basic question is how different are the competences of European Border and Coast Guard Agency (EBCG) from the previous FRONTEX and what was the role sovereignty played in it. The paper has a character of a qualitative study where the authors compare the proposal for EBCG, mainly its Article 18 establishing the "right to intervene" in the proposal, with the final version of the document and analyzes the position of the Member states based on their posititions within the Council to the parts of the proposal that were most connected to sovereignty. The analysis is based on data collection from officials from various member states that were part of the negotiations. Apart from this "hidden agenda" the authors also analyze public statements by high-ranking government officials that often commented on the proposal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of integration and future developments within the European Union (EU) covers the issues of environmental protection, sustainable development and energy efficiency. These issues are becoming a significant part of economic and social development and appear as a factor for assessing the competitiveness of the EU countries. Therefore, this paper focuses on: the implementation of achieving the climate and energy objectives in line with the Europe 2020 Strategy, the environmental sustainability of EU countries under the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and the assessment of the competitiveness of the EU countries on the basis of ecological development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable management of aquatic ecosystems requires better coordination between policies span-ning freshwater, coastal and marine environments. Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has been promoted as a holistic and integrative approach for the safekeeping and protection of aquatic biodiversity. The paper assesses the degree to which key European environmental policies for the aquatic environment, namely the Birds and Habitats Directives, Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive, individually support EBM and can work synergistically to implement EBM. This assessment is based on a review of legal texts, EU guidance and implementation documents. The paper concludes that EBM can be made operational by implementing these key environmental directives. Opportunities for improving the integration of EU environmental policies are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses decarbonisation scenarios for the European passenger car fleet in 2050. The scenarios have been developed using the backcasting approach and aim to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of passenger cars to a level defined in the Transport White paper that is 60% below 1990 levels. Considering the emission levels of 2010, a yearly reduction of 1.7% is required in order to achieve the target. Car emissions were decomposed into the main emission factors of mobility, efficiency and carbon intensity. How these factors change over time depends on various external factors: the pace of technological improvements, the future role of cars in society’s mobility system and the priority given to decarbonising energy demand. The analysis showed that if car mobility and ownership continue to increase as expected in a ‘business as usual’ case, a share of 97% plug-in hybrid or battery electric vehicles might be required by 2050, together with a substantial decrease in greenhouse gas emission from electricity production. A transition to more advanced car technology such as automated driving, advanced batteries or lightweight materials in vehicle production would raise vehicle efficiency. Should car mobility continue at a high level, an early technology transition will be required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This paper aims to briefly review the literature on interest rate convergence and the European debt crisis with a special focus on the current fiscal problems of some governments in Europe.Design/methodology/approach Relevant empirical papers are identified and reviewed focusing on time series analysis techniques.Findings The introduction of the euro has caused interest rate convergence among European Monetary Union (EMU) government bond yields. However, now sovereign credit risk and possibly even redenomination risk have caused divergences in European bond markets.Research limitations/implications A major limitation is that a relatively new field of the literature is surveyed. However, there are enough papers of relevance. This review paper could therefore be helpful in finding new approaches for additional empirical research examining the EMU bond market.Originality/value The results of empirical studies in a relatively new field of the literature are summarized. There meanwhile are some relevant papers. A brief survey of the results of these papers is provided. Important empirical findings with regard to interest rate convergence, sovereign credit risk and redenomination risk in the EMU are discussed and evaluated. The review is especially helpful for researchers and practitioners in the field of managerial finance and risk managers in the financial services industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overeducation describes the situation whereby workers are located in jobs for which they are deemed overqualified. This paper examines patterns in overeducation between countries using a specifically designed panel data set constructed from the quarterly Labour Force Surveys of 28 EU countries over a 12- to 15-year period. It is not the case that overeducation has been rising rapidly over time in all countries, and where overeducation has grown, the trend has been very gradual. Furthermore, overeducation rates were found to be static or falling in approximately 50% of the 28 EU countries. The evidence points towards convergence in overeducation at a rate of 3.3% per annum. In terms of the determinants of overeducation we find evidence to support policies aimed at improving effective female participation, labour market flexibility and the practical aspects of educational provision as a means of reducing the incidence of overeducation within countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general absence of legal reserve requirements upon the reserves of non-U.S. banks offering dollar-denominated deposit facilities (hereafter Eurobanks) provides a unique opportunity for analysis of reserve determination by a fractional-reserve financial intermediary. This paper presents evidence that the reserve ratio in the Euro-dollar system is low and falling and is in fact determined by behavior which is consistent with the hypothesis that Euro-bank dollar deposits in U.S. commercial banks (excluding loans to home offices) are held as precautionary reserves. The demand for such loans to home offices largely determines their level. Since the theory of precautionary balances held by commercial banks is consistent only with the profit maximization principle of commercial banks' asset management, where commercial banks' responses to market forces determines portfolio behavior, we shall be concerned here primarily with the determination of Euro-banks demand deposit claims on U.S. commercial banks, exclusive of loans to home offices. Evidence reported below does in fact suggest that the behavior of liabilities to foreign branches of U.S. banks is not consistent with the profit maximization principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main focus of this paper is the study of common principles of flexicurity in the EU and the interrelationships in the Danish flexicurity system. The paper generates insights about the complexity of the interrelationship between flexibility and security, and the role of flexicurity labor market institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to assess the contribution of European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) programmes operating in the Mediterranean area as a supporting way to achieve the renewable energy objectives established in European Union Directive 2009/28/EC. It addresses a combination of impact and thematic assessment applied to projects tackling solar energy over the period 2007-13. Observations indicate that although not always measurable, ETC contributions to the use and promotion of solar energy in the Mediterranean represent a key step forward in higher deployment. The paper also suggest alternatives to improve projects' outputs to be delivered in the new cycle 2014-20. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the competitiveness of public transport plays an important role because through public transport, the transport of passengers to schools, public healthcare establishments and work is ensured. In addition, transportation for vulnerable groups of passengers (students, seniors) is provided. On the other hand, public transport constitutes a financial burden on public budgets. The aim of this paper is to point out that public transport does not have an equal status in the transport market within the European Union. In the states of Central and Eastern Europe, public transport had a dominant position in the transport market in the 90s. Nowadays, the market share is declining, particularly in the bus transport, with the rising costs for public budgets regarding an increase in individual motoring. The aim of this paper is to highlight the possibilities of increasing the competitiveness of public transport by integrating different components of public transport. Another aim is to define the possibilities of financing public transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides novel evidence on the role of the macroeconomic environment for households' choice between fixed-interest-rate and adjustable-interest-rate mortgages (ARMs) in the euro area. We find that relatively more ARMs are taken out when economic growth is strong, the interest rate spread is high, or unemployment shows low volatility. A simulation exercise shows that a reduction in mortgage rates as witnessed during the monetary easing in the course of the global financial crisis produces a substantial decline in debt burdens among mortgage-holding households, especially in countries where households have higher debt burdens and a larger share of ARMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present an optimizing-agent model for the euro area to emphasize how the existence of heterogeneity in inflation persistence across regions matters for the design of monetary policy. We find supporting evidence of the existence of such a heterogeneity in inflation dynamics across euro area countries. In particular, based on the estimation of New Keynesian Phillips Curves for five major countries of the euro area, we find that inflation in Germany has a dominant forward-looking component,while in the other group of countries inflation show a significant inertial (backward looking) behavior. Under this circumstance, we study the welfare implications of four monetary policy rules following terms-of-trade shocks: fully optimal, optimal inflation targeting, HICP targeting, and output gap stabilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic panel and cross-sectional regressions are used to estimate growth and profit equations for a sample of commercial, savings, and co-operative banks from five major European Union countries during the mid-1990s. Methodologically, the paper unifies the growth and profit strands in the previous empirical literature. The growth regressions reveal little or no evidence of mean-reversion in bank sizes. Profit is an important prerequisite for future growth. Banks that maintain a high capital-assets ratio tend to grow slowly, and growth is linked to macroeconomic conditions. Otherwise, there are few systematic influences on bank growth. The persistence of profit appears higher for savings and co-operative banks than for commercial banks. Banks that maintain high capital-assets or liquidity ratios tend to record relatively low profitability. There is some evidence of a positive association between concentration and profitability, but little evidence of a link between bank-level x-inefficiency and profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyse death and injury frequencies caused by road accidents in different regions of Ukraine. Types of road accidents and their degree of severity are analyzed, in addition to the level of road accidents in Ukraine compared to the same parameters in Europe. 2007 and 2013 death rates and injury rates due to car crashes or trafic accidents are considered as ratio per 1,000 inhabitants and 1,000 cars. An overall geographically featured assessment of road injuries has also been computed for each administrative region of the country. An evaluation of an integrated road safety index based on the statistical analysis of road accidents indicators has been developed (primarily making use of factor analysis such as principal component analysis and correlation analysis). Assessment of an integrated road safety index has been introduced since this enabled us to differentiate and identify a variety of regional categories related to traumatism and mortality rates due to road accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ekonomika is the property of Society of Economists 'Ekonomika' and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the actual context of economic globalization, tax havens represent a significant obstacle for global governments seeking to increase their fiscal incomes and a source of polarization of income and wealth. Statistics reports showed that tax havens hold at least $10 trillion in assets, money generally controlled and hidden by major players from the political and financial areas, as well as from criminal ones. The paper introduces the present situation of European tax havens, with the major poles of action. The conclusion finds the real efforts of international bodies such as OECD, to interdict opportunities to avoid taxation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Comparative Economic Research is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Comparative Economic Research is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper analyzes links between eco-innovation performance and selected competitiveness issues perceived by managers in the 26 EU member states. Different dimensions of eco-innovation performance in individual EU member states were examined based on the Eco-Innovation Scoreboard. The country-specific data on selected competitiveness issues were obtained from the survey of business leaders carried out by the IMD World Competitiveness Center. The data on the Summary Innovation Index applied in the European Innovation Scoreboard were also used. The results of the cross-country analysis indicated that overall eco-innovation performance is strongly correlated with ethical practices, social responsibility of business leaders, health, safety and environmental concerns, as well as with corporate values. Moreover, it was found that the lack of pollution problems affecting economy, credibility of managers in society, environmental laws that do not hinder competitiveness of businesses, positive attitudes toward globalization in society, sustainable development being a priority in companies, and need for economic and social reforms are of particular importance in achieving better eco-innovation performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite existing policies of regional development and cohesion at the national and the EU level, economic regional inequalities or disparities stay relatively high or decrease too slowly. In this context, policies to reduce economic regional disparities in the European Union are a constant concern both for policy-makers and for theoretical and empirical research because of the strong impact on sustainable development in general. In this study we combine elements of theoretical and policy discussions with the empirical assessment of economic regional development in the European Union in order to identify the state of regional disparities, what factors are favouring unbalanced growth in different regions of the EU and to find an appropriate theoretical setting to understand, explain and reduce with regional inequality in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to answer the question of what motivates governments to introduce and implement reforms in higher education (HE). The political and economic reasons why some governments in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), for the period 1990 and 2015, have invested resources in order to facilitate cooperation between employers and universities, and have introduced quality criteria in HE finance while others have not, are identified. Use of a comparative perspective on Poland and Hungary revealed important differences in HE regulations in these seemingly otherwise very similar cases, showing that what drives regulations, at least in part, is the governments’ responses to the labour market, i.e. the dynamic between students – future workers – and employers – largely multinational companies. Moreover, differences in HE regulations in the two countries are responsive to voters’ concerns. The paper thus contributes to the literature on skill formation in Central and Eastern Europe and to the literature on political economy focusing on this part of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of EU security actorness has been accompanied by a narrative on security nexuses (internal-external, security-development, civilian-military, public-private) associated with the so-called 'comprehensive approach'. The end of the Cold War enabled the explicitness of EU security actorness. The post 9/11 facilitated the reinforcement of previous trends (transnational threats, externalisation of 'internal security', interpillarisation) and the introduction of innovative tendencies (comprehensive approach, internalization of the Common Security and Defence Policy, interconnection of security nexuses). This paper focuses on the internal-external security nexus declared by the EU in the post-Cold War, and reflects about the rationale and effects of the European narrative and practices on the configuration of a post-Westphalian security actor. Based on the analysis of three expressions of the nexus, it is argued that the latter reflects a securitising move of the European actor explained by the convergence of opportunity (redefinition of security, prioritization of transnational threats in a globalized world, soft power enhancement in the post-Cold War), capacity (legal, organic and operational in the field of security, after the entry into force of the Treaty on European Union), and (ambition to have a) presence. The holistic approach underlying the logic of the nexuses is the result of a co-constitutive adequacy: appropriation of policies and instruments of a multifunctional actor for security purposes (security of the EU and of European citizens); securitization of issues in order to promote the policies and the actor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite differences between EU member countries, most experience demographic change characterised by a decrease in mortality and fertility rates leading to a growing proportion of older people with effects on the working population. This poses a range of economic challenges in terms of financing health care and retirement as well as maintaining the employment skills base. This paper is based on a research project with the aim of identifying what policies employers and employment related organisations need to adopt in order to extend the labour market participation of older workers. Between 2005 and 2007 the ESF Article 6 funded CAWA (Creative Approaches to Workforce Ageing). This project was carried out by four European partner institutions based in: Spain, Austria, Sweden and the UK with further input from Bulgaria. The project partners had strong links to trade unions, employers organisations and regional authorities, facilitating multilayred debates related to raising awareness of demographic change among policy makers and developing best practice guidelines. The findings presented relate to key employment areas and are explored from employers' and workers' perspectives. The organisational identities/commitment literature provides a conceptual framework to gain understanding of the push and pull factors associated with workforce ageing. The paper concludes by arguing that the debate on workforce ageing among trade unions, employers and policy makers needs to be focussed on deeper understanding of the work and non-work related identities of older workers and aim to facilitate flexible working arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses dierent versions of the monetary approach to the exchange rate in order to investigate how well this approach can explain the nominal exchange rate of the euro vis-á-vis six currencies during the recent past. It studies the period 1980-2003 and uses data on the euro for the period since the euro was launched and values for the synthetic euro for the period preceding European Monetary Union. The results of the estimation are mixed. While they suggest that a long-run relationship between the variables included in the monetary model exists for five out of six currencies, the individual countries studied seem to support different versions of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Comparative Economic Research is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of the paper is to establish the future intervention priorities in building a new programme that would target the economic development in the research area. The used methodology included an adapted A'WOT analysis - an initial SWOT analysis and a prioritization of the items through an expert questionnaire. In the present paper we analyze the experts' opinions and the areas where intervention is needed for the optimum strategies for the 2014-2020 financial frame. These should rely on the strengths in the Guidelines for Applicants, the rules for projects implementation and the institutional system, it should consider changes on the weak points concerning the programme objectives, the Guidelines for Applicants and the beneficiaries consultations, it should make use of opportunities coming from the crossborder status, European Union frame and economic opportunities and overcome the differences coming from crossborder status, membership of two different supranational structures and the economic gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Economics of Agriculture / Ekonomika Poljoprivrede is the property of Institute of Agricultural Economics (IAE) / Belgrade and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Institutional reforms in the countries of Central Eastern and South Eastern Europe (CESEE) brought about a redefinition of the role of the state, the market and the business sector. We assess the effects of various dimensions of the institutional environment on the labour productivity of manufacturing firms in selected CESEE countries by employing a multilevel model. Our findings reveal that the curbing of corruption and the provision of inter-industrial externalities through the development of a commercial and professional infrastructure have beneficial effects on firm productivity. At the same time, a stricter political and legal framework and the provision of R&D infrastructure have an adverse effect. Such a finding is typical for producers of standardised products in countries with low levels of legal framework development for which R&D and legal adjustments incur cost disadvantages. The implication is that institutional development should be accompanied by a strengthening of firms' absorptive capacity in order for businesses to benefit from such changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Labour market policy aims to fight against unemployment and to raise employment. With this study we attempt to contribute to the evidence of the effectiveness of active labour market policy. Objectives: In the empirical part of the paper we aim to research the relations between the labour market policies and macroeconomic variables. Methods/Approach: In order to distinguish the effects of expenditures for labour market policies on unemployment rate, we separately analysed the effects of expenditures for active labour market policies and the effects of expenditures for passive labour market policies on unemployment rate using panel regression analysis. Results: The expenditures for active labour market policies have negative and statistically significant effect on unemployment rate, whereas the expenditures for passive labour market policies have positive and statistically significant effect on unemployment rate. Conclusions: Not only the activation strategies with benefit conditioning, but also encouraging and enabling unemployed person to actively approach in searching for a job should be implemented. The implementation of activation strategies which create favourable conditions for unemployed people to develop their skills, fulfil their potential, continuously maintain contacts with the employers and actively participate in the society should be supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, a system of audit firm rotation has been implemented for the audits of listed companies conducted in the European Union (EU). In the U.S., in contrast, the regulator decided against such rotation. Whereas proponents argue that rotation would strengthen independence and decrease audit market concentration, opponents stress the importance of auditors' learning effects, which would be eliminated by a change in auditors. In extending the market matching model of Salop (1979), we provide an analysis that integrates these contradictory views. We assume that both auditors' industry expertise and their experience in auditing a client decrease audit costs. We investigate the bidding strategies applied to re-acquire clients that were lost due to rotation, auditors' profit contributions, the equilibrium number of auditors (i.e., audit market concentration), and the economic importance of specific clients. Our findings indicate that the regulators' goals of simultaneously decreasing client importance and audit market concentration are in direct conflict and, therefore, the rotation system might have unintended consequences. Our model, thus, suggests how different institutional parameters give rise to economic forces that can support diverging decisions regarding the implementation of MAR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past two millennia, Europe and more recent the European Union had significant interferences with the Muslim world. The first major contact date back to the 8th century, when the Muslim rulers subdued a part of the South-Western Europe, bringing on our continent their cultural, social, economic and technological values. Since then, the contact between the two civilisations has continued, being characterised by conflicts, temporary alliances, peaceful years, culminating recently with the highest wave of Islamic migration towards Europe in history. Our paper aims at unveiling the main features of the current relations between the two civilisations from three perspectives: historical, demographical and economic. We base our research on the literature, recent developments as presented in relevant journals and the available statistical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis and support structure of the beekeeping sector in the European Union countries was analyzed. The level of support for this sector of agriculture in the years to come increased and in the years 2017-2019 is 72 million EUR per year. The amount of support beekeeping depends mainly on the number of hives. The average value of support for bee colony in most countries ranges from 4.35 to 4.63 EUR per year. The amount of support expressed as the equivalent of beekeeping honey indicating little relevance of this action, since the value of the support is equal to the EU average of 0.65 kg multiflorous honey, that varies from 0.3 to 1.33 kg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores selected factors influencing the process of radicalisation leading to the use of political violence and terror by the Muslim minorities living in the European Union member states. Internal and external catalysts conditioning this process and methods of their analysis have been presented. The second section examines various counter-radicalisation and de-radicalisation efforts of the EU. The authors analysed the multidimensional European Union policy in the area of counteracting radicalisation for empowering the population and member states in preventing the radicalisation and recruitment to terrorism and emphasising the role of social partners and local authorities. Also, the promotion of good practices for combating radicalisation, developed under the auspices of the multidisciplinary Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roughly during the last decade, European Competition Policy has undergone a series of fundamental changes. All four areas - cartel policy, merger policy, abuse control, and state aid control - have been subject to a modernization process, which led to a focus on analysing the effects of individual cases and established a tendency towards deciding each case on its individual merits. These changes can be understood as a move away from rule-based competition policy towards a case-by-case approach. The case-by-case approach especially includes consensual arrangements, so-called 'deals' between the competition authority and business companies. Therefore, this paper will discuss the pros and cons of 'deals' as an instrument of (European) competition policy. The paper's central focus lies on the economic analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of using consensual arrangements as a relevant instrument of European competition policy. With respect to European competition policy, we conclude that we need to issue a note of caution. From an economic perspective, an expansion of consensual elements necessarily walks hand in hand with a continual weakening of the protection of competition. Consumer welfare will not benefit from expanding the role and importance of consensual arrangements as a means of European competition policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews some of the recent studies on international capital flows with a focus on the role of European global banks. It presents a revision to the commonly held "global saving glut" view that East Asian economies (along with oil-rich nations) were the dominant suppliers of capital that fueled the asset price boom in many parts of the world in the early 2000s. It argues that the role of funding costs and a "liberal" regulatory regime that allowed for an unprecedented expansion of the balance sheets of European banks was no less important. Finally, we describe the aftermath of the crisis in terms of some of the challenges faced by Europe as a whole and European banks in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European public procurement system has a major role in ensuring the efficient spending of the public money and in promoting economic competitiveness. The legislative bases of the system are represented by harmonized European regulations, which aim to facilitate the application of the principles and freedoms enshrined in the EU Treaties. This paper presents the main aspects of the reform of the European public procurement system, aiming to make the procedures for awarding public contracts more transparent and open to all European companies and to streamline public spending for the procurement of goods, services and works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent and historic high-impact events have demonstrated the flood risks faced by exposed coastal areas. These risks will increase due to climate change and economic development. This requires a re-evaluation of coastal disaster risk reduction DRR strategies and prevention, mitigation and preparedness PMP measures. To this end, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction formulated the Hyogo Framework for Action, and the EU has issued the Floods Directive. By their nature, neither is specific about the methods to be used to assess coastal risks, particularly those risks resulting from dune and structure overtopping, the non-stationarity of surge and flash flood events, and coastal morphodynamic response. This paper describes a set of open-source and open-access methods, tools and management approaches to fill this gap. A Coastal Risk Assessment Framework will assess coastal risk at a regional scale. Thus critical hotspots can be identified for which an impact-oriented Early Warning System/Decision Support System is developed. This can be applied in dual mode: as a forecast and warning system and as an ex-ante planning tool to evaluate the vulnerability. The tools are demonstrated on case study sites on a range of EU coasts with diverse geomorphic settings, land use, forcing, hazard types and socio-economic, cultural and environmental characteristics. Specific DRR plans will be developed for all sites. A management guide of PMP measures and management approaches is to be developed. The toolkit will benefit forecasting and civil protection agencies, coastal managers, local government, community members, NGOs, the general public and scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the current European economic landscape, plagued by financial, economic and national debt crises, a vivid debate has been sparked in the academic and professional environment regarding the way in which the European banking sector can contribute to the achievement of a long term sustainable economic growth. The debate is even more entailed since the financial crisis started in the banking sector and the main contagion happened through banks operating regionally and globally. Within this context, our paper aims at providing an overview of the main characteristics of the European banking sector and of the challenges that it will face in the post-crisis period. This represents a first necessary step in our opinion, for the better understanding of the way in which the European banking sector can contribute to the achievement of a long term sustainable economic growth. In order to achieve this we used a qualitative analysis combined with a series of empirical data and a series of own calculated indicators that underline some of the characteristics of the EU member states banking systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of Ireland was the first country in the eurozone to adopt a neoliberal infused ‘austerity budget’, and the ill-judged state bailing out of a number of reckless banks and associated financial institutions is costing billions of euros. In late 2010, as the crisis deepened, the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank provided a ‘bailout’ package that resulted in further punitive public spending cuts and the eradication of national sovereignty. This paper maintains that the present crisis is more than a mere economic crisis, but can be viewed as a series of interlinked ‘conjunctures’. Tracing the connection between the historical and the contemporary, the first part of the discussion will explore six thematic components relating to the structuring of the Irish state. These are identified as: a ‘class rule state’; an ‘authoritarian state’; a ‘confining state’; a ‘censoring state’; a ‘discriminatory state’; and a ‘state within the state’. These six dimensions provide a contextual underpinning for the second part of the paper, which focuses on the crisis in child welfare and child protection services and dwells on the shambolic performance of the Health Service Executive (HSE), deficits in the ‘care’ system and the HSE failure to furnish reliable data on the deaths of children in contact with social workers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduces series of articles regarding the European Economic and Monetary Union.

Summary The huge increases in debt-GDP ratios following the 2007-2009 global financial crisis, which are unprecedented except in times of war, has focused attention on the viability of the fiscal positions of EU countries and the US, how to assess this and the likely future evolution of these positions. This paper proposes an indicator of the fiscal stance which computes the fiscal adjustment required to reach a specific debt-GDP targeted given the forecasts of future deficit and interest rates obtained from an unrestricted (recursively-estimated) VAR model. The index is easy to compute and can be decomposed to disclose the different contribution of revenue, expenditure, nominal yields, inflation and growth to the fiscal stance. For this reason it provides a transparent and detailed measure of the fiscal stance, particularly suitable for multi-country surveillance. As a result, the index improves on the tax-gap indicators widely used by governments and international agencies, and is far more informative than formal econometric tests of fiscal sustainability. The time series of the indicator for individual EU countries and the US show that their fiscal position has fluctuated considerably over the last 40 years, and has particularly deteriorated since 2007. The index predicts that the adjustment required to restore pre-crisis debt-GDP levels are higher for high debt countries like Greece, Italy and Portugal. They become more severe the shorter is the time horizon for the adjustment. As a large degree of uncertainty surrounds the assessment of the fiscal stance in the medium and long run, we argue that policy makers should inform their policy based on the worst case scenario predicted by the indicator. - Vito Polito and Michael Wickens [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In several respects, the EU represents both a novel system of quasi-supranational governance and a novel form of political community or polity. But it is also a fragile construction for it remains a community still in the making with an ambiguous sense of identity and within which powerful forces are at work. This paper has three main aims: first, to stress the shifting nature of Europe's geographical frontiers and assess whether cultural frontiers have remained more stable throughout time. In particular, it examines the main criteria, which have traditionally been employed when having to decide who should be included and excluded from Europe. A different question concerns the requirements for EU membership and the monopoly of the adjective 'European' by the EU, which somehow has become to be identified with Europe. Second, to explore the prospects for the emergence of a European identity. Here, I argue that European identity stands as a 'non-emotional identity' in sharp contrast with traditional forms of national identity associated with intense nationalist feelings. Third, through the analysis of the most recent Eurobarometer (annual survey of EU's public opinion) to examine the views of Europeans regarding the EU at a time of a major global economic crisis. To conclude, the paper explores the main challenges to be faced by a still incipient European identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore government preferences and cleavages in the bargaining process on the European Constitution, across the range of 25 EU member states. The study focuses on preferences concerning socioeconomic policymaking and explores whether divisions can be discerned between preferences held by actors according to locations on the left-right policy scale, actors in older as compared to newer EU states, net EU budget positions, domestic rates of support for European integration, and smaller as compared to larger states. The analysis also controls for possible external effects, such as recent domestic macroeconomic developments. Negotiations on the European Constitution are found to be determined less by general transnational left-right divisions, but cleavages according to the length of EU membership and the size of EU member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sharp deceleration of credit growth to the private sector in the EU, after half a decade of exuberance, will inevitably squeeze households and enterprises and can only aggravate the worsening recession. The region experienced very rapid credit growth in recent years, which was generally viewed positively as supporting rapid convergence to the but at the same time it contributed to the emergence of sizable macroeconomic and financial vulnerabilities. European Governments should use monetary and fiscal policy and not only in order to stimulate domestic non-governmental credit growth because it is crucial for the recovery of the European economies. Within emerging markets, eastern European economies have been the hardest hit. The linkages between western Europe and emerging European banking systems make the region particularly vulnerable. The paper tries to present some financial policy measures regarding banking sector for stimulating credit growth in the Europe and especially, in the Central and Eastern European Countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the LEADER+ programme and on the work carried out supporting rural communities in EU countries under the LEADER+ programme. This is a programme that supports development in particularly vulnerable rural regions of the European countries that are members of the EU. It supports creative and innovative projects that can contribute to long-term and sustainable development in these regions. In this paper, we will focus on three specific areas: networking, facilitation of groups, and information and communication technologies. Some case studies are shortly described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]