Search

Democratic erosion in the EU's Central and Eastern European (CEE) member states has confounded EU policy-makers. In this paper, we investigate the assumptions behind the climate of optimism about CEE democratization that prevailed in EU decision-making before and after the 5th and 6th enlargements, and the extent to which political science participated in this intellectual climate. Based on a qualitative analysis of EU decision-making in the early twenty-first century and a quantitative analysis of 500 randomly sampled papers published between 2000 and 2015, we find that both policy makers and the most influential research in political science shared a bias towards optimism structured by common assumptions: A procedural understanding of democracy, a rational institutionalist belief in the EU's capacity to bring these procedures about with the use of incentives and the related assumption that sociocultural dimensions of democracy would eventually follow institutions. We argue that these common assumptions help to explain both the EU's failure to pre-empt and respond proportionately to democratic erosion, and the failure of our discipline to check that optimism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the evolution of the European Union's development policy in relation to civil society. Based on a review of overall policy trends, strategies and practices in Central Asia, it demonstrates how the EU's development policy has gradually moved from a focus on European NGOs towards civil society organisations, broadly defined and increasingly associated with the private sector and local authorities. While the EU's policy recognises the intrinsic value of civil society in all its diversity and promotes partnership, its operational practices show a pragmatic preference for working with professionalised organisations in service delivery roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practical implementation of a circular economy in the European Union poses significant challenges, notably for the EU-11 (Central and Eastern Europe) countries. The aim of this paper is to analyze the transition of the EU-11 countries toward a CE by examining existing circular strategies, national-level policies, as well as bottom-up initiatives, and on the other hand to explore the prevalent circularity discourses within the EU-11 countries. The study employs a discourse analysis method to comprehensively examine documents related to the CE aspects. This methodology integrates both quantitative categorization (codes and categories) and qualitative interpretation (reading and explanation) to support the understanding of circularity discourses. The results of this paper indicate that the countries within the EU-11 are actively advancing their efforts towards a CE. These countries are seen to be proactively developing a circular vision and setting ambitious objectives to facilitate a transition to a circular economic model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eastern European societies and their economies have experienced specific and/or asymmetrical developments over the last 70 years. The political regime changes at the end of the 80s led these countries on the path of market economy and opened the doors for foreign investors' presence, as privatizations of previously state-owned companies were considered beneficial for economic progress. Starting in the mid-90s and more so after the association of countries in the region to the European Union and NATO, foreign investors found interesting opportunities as greenfield projects or partnerships with local entities. However, the presence of foreign direct investments (FDI) in Eastern Europe was uneven across countries and regions, which may be due to a certain extent to corruption and organized crime groups. This paper aims to conduct a systematic review of the literature that has focused on analyzing the influence of corruption and organized crime in attracting foreign direct investment using quantitative methods, focusing on empirical studies conducted in Europe since 2000. Our main purpose is to summarize the different research approaches, to offer a discussion and suggestions for future research, and to provide some relevant and justified answers to the following question: To what extent are corruption, organized crime, and FDI analyzed in European countries?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores how the European Union expansion presents growth path for the paper industry, particularly for paper manufacturers in the region. Discussion on how the recent growth of the European Union into Eastern Europe will affect the pulp and paper industry; Analysis of the different approach of companies to the Eastern European market; Challenge of integrating pulp and paper standards in the new accession countries. INSET: CHALLENGES FOR MILLS AIMING TO MAKE THE GRADE..

This research paper analyses the opportunities for the possible implementation of the latest technological innovations in the Romanian manufacturing industry. The latest trends in technology can be summed up by the term "Industry 4.0", or the "Fourth Industrial Revolution", which brings unprecedented levels of automation, thanks to recent breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), robotics and much more. However, manufacturing sectors are not created equally and some are more susceptible to implementing new technologies than others. The industrial situation in Eastern and Central Europe is highly debated and complex. During the Cold War, most of the Warsaw Pact and COMECON countries were characterized, economically speaking, by rapid industrialization, be it heavy or light industry. This is also the case in Romania, as it saw an increase in industrial output during the communist era. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the collectivist ideology, some manufacturing sectors collapsed, while new ones appeared, the case of deindustrialization in Central and Eastern Europe still being under scrutiny, as the industrial output has been more stable than we tend to believe. However, a shift did occur, especially in Romania. Following the transition to a market economy, industrial output suffered a metamorphosis, exchanging some sectors (such as the textile one) for new ones (such as the automotive one, following an increase in foreign direct investments from the West). These shifts in the manufacturing sector have an advantage in the unfolding context, as the new industries (such as auto-manufacturing) are more inclined to adopt Industry 4.0. These factors, in combination with the recent trend of reshoring, are prone to positively influence the future economic environment of Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we review the regulations and research on the adoption of international accounting and audit standards in 11 Eastern European countries outside of the European Union. We find many regulatory commonalities among these jurisdictions related to their Communist bloc heritage. The state remains the most important stakeholder and tax accounting dominates financial reporting. The work of local auditors is considered less reliable than that of their Big 4 counterparts. International organizations and the Big 4 auditors provide stimuli for and assistance with international standards' adoption. Accounting and audit research is limited. The scarcity of data forces most authors to focus on the qualitative evaluation of accounting and audit reforms. Some opt for surveys. Few papers include empirical analyses. Our review covers jurisdictions, which have received limited attention in prior literature. We inform future empirical work and speak to the generalizability of previous research findings to this set of countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The arrival of the African swine fever (ASF) epizootic in the European continent has pushed public veterinary authorities to act immediately in order to contain its spread by applying the regulatory guidance of the current Animal Health Law of the European Union (Regulations EU 2016/429). Control and surveillance measures, in accordance with Regulations 2020/687 and 2023/594, have been implemented. Moreover, protection and surveillance areas have been created around the infected holdings and the wild boar cases. This paper analyzes the advantages and critical points of the legal framework for the control of ASF in wild boar, focusing on the role of official veterinary services in European Union Member States (EU MS). Recently, the African swine fever (ASF) epizootic has been reported in domestic pigs and wild boars in several European Union Member States (EU MS) and epidemiological evidence has accumulated which indicates that wild boar play a key role in maintaining and spreading the disease. Thanks to the experience gained when managing ASF outbreaks in Sardinia (Italy) and Eastern Europe, Directive 2002/60 CE was issued. This directive represented an important step forward in controlling the disease, particularly the risk of spreading the virus to wild animals. Since 2021, according to Regulation (EU) 2016/429, which is also called "Animal Health Law—AHL", when the MS competent authority suspects or confirms ASF (a cat. A listed disease) in wild animals, it is mandatory to conduct surveillance in the wild boar population and implement the necessary control measures. Within AHL, Regulations (EU) 2020/687 and 2023/594 established special ASF control measures in kept and wild porcine animals, and their products and by-products, focusing on and underlying old and new responsibilities that vets (both public and private ones) have to accomplish under the new regulations. The new change in the legal framework deals with specific measures to be applied in the wild and represents a great challenge for MS veterinary services. Some of these measures have been well established in the last two decades, particularly those related to application in the farming system, while other measures are still new to veterinary health management and require a holistic approach in terms of intensity, considering all geographical, ecological, productive, cultural and social features of the involved EU MS. In this contribution, the authors intend to focus on specific measures which have been issued in order to limit or stop the spread of ASF in a wild, "boundless" ecosystem. These measures expand the field of competence of the official veterinary service to wild areas in addition to farm activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart cities (SCs) became a key mission in the European Union’s biggest research programme (Horizon Europe). The urban transition to smartness, making smart decisions and strengthening capabilities for resilience are appreciating today, with such external shocks as the COVID-19 pandemic. Finding the way to become smart is more important than ever. Since literature is mostly engaged with excellent cases, in this paper we analyse the SC strategy of a less-well-performing city: Budapest in Hungary, Central Eastern Europe, using a case-study methodology. We reveal that in the case of Budapest the SC strategy uses a top-down approach that overweighs the deployment of technological solutions to manage urban sustainability issues rather than using a bottom-up and holistic approach. The framework conditions for implementing the SC strategy are rather neglected. In the case of the model for cooperation, Budapest adopts a double-helix model rather than a triple- or quadruple-helix model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impacts of climate change are unevenly distributed across territories. Less is known about the potential effects of climate policies aimed at mitigating the negative consequences of climate change while transitioning economies towards low-carbon standards. This paper presents an analytical framework for identifying and assessing the regional impacts of the green transition. We develop a Regional Green Transition Vulnerability Index, a composite measure of the regional vulnerability of European regions to the socio-economic reconfigurations prompted by the green transition. The index brings to light strong regional variations in vulnerability, with less developed, peri-urban and rural regions in Southern and Eastern Europe more exposed to the foreseeable changes brought about by the green transition. We also draw attention to the potential rise of pockets of growing 'green' discontent, especially if the green transition contributes, as is likely to be the case, to leaving already left-behind regions further behind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The down turning events from the beginning of the XXIst century, starting with the 2008 crisis and then the COVID-19 pandemic, shortly followed by Russia's invasion in Ukraine, exacerbated some preexisting vulnerabilities and created new risks. In this context, the financial stability in the Eastern European states (we will consider Eastern Europe in Winston Churchill's terms, namely those countries on the eastern flank of the Iron Curtain) represents an important debating issue for both policy-makers and researchers. Therefore, the present paper aims to quantify the financial stability and to determine the factors that can influence it. In doing so, we first have to establish what we consider to be financial stability: what it means at the microeconomic level (focusing on the behaviour of the citizens) and what it means at the macroeconomic level (looking at the role of states in ensuring financial stability). It is important to note that the analysis we wish to undertake will be at a regional rather than at an overall European level, focusing on the Eastern European countries that have joined the European structures. We will present, by means of statistical analysis, the importance that both economic freedom and education have in increasing the financial stability of Eastern European citizens, taking into account the evolution of the financial stability of Eastern European citizens over the last years. In order to perform an analysis for more countries and over a longer period of time, we will utilize panel data analysis. We will observe the role that both variables play in ensuring a greater level of financial stability for the people from these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural globalisation, made possible by the enhancement of digital infrastructure, has led some scholars to reconsider the dynamics of core-periphery transfers, stressing the immediacy with which popular culture crosses national and linguistic borders. This is the case of Theory in the 'Post' Era: A Vocabulary for the 21st-Century Conceptual Commons, which in its preface proposes an epidemiological model of the transfer of cultural capital. In my paper, I want to relate "the contagion theory" to the import of Posthumanism in Eastern Europe and contemporary Romanian literature. The links between Posthumanism and contemporary literature have provoked sometimes productive, sometimes controversial local debates. The way in which this philosophy/theory is naturalised calls into question the instantaneity with which ideas circulate, since there are cases in which its core meanings are hijacked in Romanian culture. This cultural dysmorphia (along with other cultural products considered self-colonial) demonstrates how the unequal relations between centre and periphery are not completely dissolved by the digital turn but generate a new paradox of asymmetrical instantaneity. The aim of my article is to see how the theory of posthumanism travels from the centre of Anglo-American cultural studies to the semi-periphery of the Romanian literary field, where several mutations can be noticed: first of all, the shift from SF literature to poetry, which has a greater symbolic capital in Romania. I will analyse the contexts of the "regimes of relevance," the transformations brought about by Romania's accession to the European Union, and the mechanisms of diffusion of posthuman theory in the local space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of studies have dealt with the effects of economic integration on foreign direct investment, yet without a comprehensive and simultaneous analysis of the overall positioning of the countries involved along the investment development path (IDP). In the current paper, a comparative analysis of IDPs of five Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, both members and nonmembers of the European Union (EU), is conducted. The purpose of the paper is to determine the effect of economic integration on foreign direct investment (FDI) flows and on the movement of these CEE economies through their IDP stages. An attempt is made to identify the positioning of the sample countries on the IDP, using trend estimation depicting the relationship between net outward investment (NOI) per capita and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, as well as detailed descriptive data on inward and outward FDI stocks and flows, subsequently complemented with econometric analysis. While the findings point to a generally positive effect of EU membership on FDI growth and IDP trajectories, integration tends to exert a stronger effect on inward FDI than on outward FDI of the investigated member countries. At the same time, the study's findings reveal the need to add new theoretical considerations to the interface between EU integration and the IDP model, as well as formulate certain policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Central European Political Studies / Środkowoeuropejskie Studia Polityczne is the property of Faculty of Political Science & Journalism, Adam Mickiewicz University 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.)

Purpose: The paper aims at examining wage developments among Eastern European immigrants vs UK natives before and after the 2004 enlargement by measuring the extent to which inter-group wage differentials are explainable by these groups' changing attributes or by differences in returns to these characteristics. The enlargement has been a defining moment in British recent history and may have contributed to the unfolding of the events that have culminated in Brexit. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses a quantitative analysis of the immigrant–native wage gap across the entire distribution by applying the methodology known as the unconditional quantile regression. The analysis is performed before and after the 2004 European Union enlargement to Eastern countries. The data used is the British Labour Force Survey (UK LFS) from 1998 to 2008. Findings: At all distribution points, a major role is played by occupational downgrading, which increases over time. The results further suggest that the decreased wage levels at the top of the distribution stem mainly from low transferability of skills acquired in the source country. Research limitations/implications: The UK LFS does not allow to follow individuals for a long period of time. For this reason, the main limitation of the study is the impossibility to measure for individual-level trajectories in their labour market integration and to account for return migration. Originality/value: The analysis provides a detailed picture of the wage differences between Eastern European immigrants and natives along the whole wage distribution. The paper also identifies possible causes of the wage gap decrease for EU8 immigrant workers after 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the effect of corruption in the Eastern European legal system as it implicates German-speaking jurisdictions in cases of international cooperation, especially pertaining to white-collar crimes and mutual legal assistance. This field report considers how during the course of the career of a prosecutor, corruption comes into play and creates a culture which prevents the execution of justice in the native country and in collaboration with the European Union. The invocation of compulsory measures in criminal case proceedings is examined carefully. Design/methodology/approach: The first author is an internationally active lawyer and provides an insight referring to the personal experience of Eastern European prosecutors and the wider impression he has gained of the system in which they operate. This is enforced by his teaching at the International Anti-Corruption Academy in Vienna, where he trains public prosecutors from Eastern Europe and through this collaboration, learns of their experience in the system. The impressions gained from real life are supported by an extensive understanding of the literature, often showing that a key problem is the lack of open discussion on the matter. Findings: German-speaking countries cannot make international proceedings dependent on the findings from Eastern European prosecutor offices. Although there are highly qualified prosecutors at work, there is a systemic corruption evident which threatens the reliability of investigative results. Corruption is evident from the inception of a prosecutor's career to the most senior positions, showing that bribes account for an adverse selection of prosecutors. Originality/value: This is a report based on first-hand sources. It elucidates the existing literature with testimony of the current culture and its tangible influence. The implications for international proceedings are paralleled with the history of possible corruption in a prosecutor's career, the juxtaposition of which depicts a striking reality. Above all, the cyclical nature of corruption in the legal system is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's cooperation approach demonstrated through the Belt and Road Initiative is quite different in comparison to regional integration in Europe. Geographical limits, differences in culture, value systems, social and political realities make such a comparison disputable. The aim of this paper is not to compare the European integration experience with the most significant Chinese cooperation project. The study is rather focused on briefly evaluating the cooperation model applied by China towards the region of Central and Eastern Europe and the way it interacts with and affects the EU integration model. It also gives consideration to the evolving geopolitical situation at the regional and global levels. Methodologically, the study builds on an interdisciplinary approach that allows for assessing the problem in historical, legal, economic, and diplomatic aspect. The methodological framework is supplemented by the application of some instruments of geopolitical analysis. The paper argues that China's approach towards the CEE region has the potential to exacerbate some of the divisions within the increasingly fragmented European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Policy Analysis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell 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.)

Small towns have long been overshadowed, but in recent years, there is a growing recognition of their territorial role, both on the research agenda and on the European Union level, simultaneously with an increasing awareness of their heterogeneity. In spite of this, studies focused on small towns in Eastern Europe are few in relation to the large numbers in the area and the role of this paper is to contribute at filling in this gap. In Romania, there are 225 small towns (under 20,000 inhabitants), which constitute 70% of the entire urban system. In order to measure their urban characteristics, a multi-dimensional (composite) index was developed, called Index of Urban Strength. For the index, 22 relevant indicators were selected and grouped in three dimensions under the form of secondary indexes (demographic, socio-economic, infrastructure and land-use). Then, a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) integrated with Geographic Information System (GIS) method was applied for each dimension, and the influential variables were identified. Finally, the index was computed allowing the assignment of different levels of urban strength (very low, low, medium and high) to Romanian small towns. The paper provides new insights related to the uneven development of small towns, allowing for comparative analyses and advocating the need to develop specific policies for each of the identified categories. The results indicate a spatial differentiation at the macro-region level, with the small towns with very low or low index of urban strength more prevalent in the East and South of the country than in the Centre and the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the impact that governance mechanisms have on European Union ‘banks income smoothing behavior.Design methodology/approach The authors examine the impact that corporate governance mechanisms included in European Commissions’ proposals regarding the improvement of corporate governance mechanisms (Green Paper) have upon European Union banks’ accounting policy decisions regarding the level of loan loss provisions (LLPs). In addition, the authors examine whether banks’ capital structure operates as an effective internal corporate governance practice. The authors investigate the association between certain corporate governance characteristics and the level of LLPs for a sample of 98 banks from 23 European Union countries for the period of 2010-2013, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. To test the hypotheses, a multivariate regression model is run. Similar to previous research, the authors use ordinary least squares analysis to test the results.Findings Empirical findings provide evidence that there is a positive association between LLPs and accounting income, implying the existence of an income-smoothing pattern of provisions. In addition, the results suggest that banks managers’ decision to smooth income may differ with regard to the board structure, the level of leverage and the provision of disclosure for remuneration for chief executive officer.Originality/value The findings of this study contribute to the existing literature concerning banks’ income smoothing behavior. These findings can be useful to regulators, as the authors provide some evidence regarding the effectiveness of the European Union corporate governance framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Central and Eastern European countries have made considerable economic progress since the capitalist transformation. This paper investigates whether there is a co-movement between two factors of well-being, improvement of economic and health status between 1995 and 2018 compared to the six founding European Union (EU) member states. Applying the Pedroni- and Fisher-type cointegration test and a panel vector error correction model, our estimations suggest that there is a mutual causal relationship between economic convergence measured in GDP per capita and health status convergence measured by life expectancy. The long-term bi-directional effects are also proved by impulse response functions. Using the same econometric methods, the examination of the relationship between government health expenditure and life expectancy indicates that governmental health expenditure promotes the health status convergence. This study concludes that the FDI-based, low-wage growth model of the Central and Eastern European countries has not impeded the convergence in both factors of well-being to the founding EU member states. The results demonstrate that the improvement of the healthcare system may be a channel for the acceleration of convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research background: The transformations induced by global challenges call for new approaches towards competitiveness and thus require a consistent rethinking of strategies and mechanisms so that they could be better adapted to the constantly changing context. Prior to the European Union (EU) accession, the Central and Eastern European (CEE) states began a broad process of economic reforms, including trade liberalization, mass privatization, exchange rate liberalization, all of which led to a wider opening to new markets, the creation of new opportunities for production and to ensuring the competitiveness of companies on foreign markets. By far, the most important step in the post-communist period was joining the EU, achieved after 2004. Over time, these states have faced, on the one hand, issues related to addressing systemic vulnerabilities, and on the other hand, finding the most appropriate measures to induce competitiveness. The influence of public policies on competitiveness is still an issue that needs to be debated, our study proposing to examine the reaction of external competitiveness to the increase of government spending and corruption. Purpose of the article: The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of fiscal policies and corruption on the external competitiveness of the eleven countries from Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) for the period 1995--2020. The choice of this time interval is to better capture the trinomial relationship between competitiveness, fiscal policy and corruption before and after the process of integration of the CEE states into the EU. Methods: The methodology chosen is based on ARDL (Autoregressive Distributed Lag) with structural breaks, the period taken into account being 1995--2020. The Unit root test of augmented Dickey--Fuller ADF (2016) was used to assess the time series stationarity. The test developed by Bai and Perron (2003) is applied to detect structural breaks, by resorting to the LM test. The tests for the cointegration between the considered variables, using the ARDL model, proposed by Pesaran et al. (2001), were also part of the research. The causality test of Granger et al. (2000) was used to assess the conditionality between the indicators. By applying these methods, it was highlighted that, especially after 2007, in the states under analysis, expansionary fiscal policies have led to internal devaluations of the currency, which ultimately increased external competitiveness, measured as real effective exchange rate. Instead, corruption has a negative impact on competitiveness. Findings & value added: The obtained results point out the relationship between competitiveness, fiscal policy and corruption in CEE countries. In the case of those that have a high competitiveness, even if there are large government expenditures, there is also an economic environment conducive to the implementation of measures that generate added value on a large scale. Conversely, in countries where corruption is high, the impact of government fiscal policies on competitiveness is reduced due to the negative effects caused by this phenomenon. Our study brings at least two contributions to the literature. First of all, the research shows how a growth in public spending affects the competitiveness of CEE economies through the real exchange rate. Secondly, it takes into account the phenomenon of corruption applied to Eastern countries, emphasizing a decrease in the external competitiveness of these economies in response to the manifestation of corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the educational experiences of Eastern European Roma undergraduates and analyses how the mobility process influences their access to university in different countries of the European Union. Drawing on 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews, the paper highlights the ability of students to (re)define their identity and to utilize the language skills acquired practicing mobility across several countries as well as the university degrees obtained, to combat Roma discrimination after finishing their studies. Findings suggest that education may become a tool to overcome the marginality and stigmatization of Roma. The paper concludes with observations about the new ways opened up by undergraduate Roma, which demand the reinterpretation of mobility and identity as a transformative experience and an essential strategy to fight the discrimination against and the exclusion of mobile Roma citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the literature on economic development, the upgrading of core state institutions is the sine qua non of promoting growth and development in lesser-developed countries. The European Union (EU) is the first transnational integration regime that has experimented with measures to upgrade core state institutions. It did so in the pre-accession period of the would-be member states in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In this paper, we empirically explore the developmental effects of the EU-induced upgrading of the judiciary, bureaucracy and competition authority in CEE countries. We base our analysis on two new datasets: one on the quality of foreign trade and the other on institutional reform measures of the judiciary, bureaucracy and competition authority. Our main finding is that EU-induced upgrading of core state institutions, especially the judiciary, significantly improves developmental outcomes. In the post-accession period, however, the European Commission has only a weak capacity to enforce EU-wide norms that can guarantee the quality of these core state institutions. The lack of enforceable standards on the quality of core state institutions undermines the effectiveness of EU policies aimed at achieving economic convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of two processes of convergence between European countries, in wage levels and wage distributions, and the extent to which they explain recent trends in wage inequality for the EU as a whole. The results show that wage convergence was the main driver behind wage inequality trends for the EU as a whole in the last decade, which was significantly reduced prior to the crisis as a result of wage catch-up growth mainly in Eastern Europe, a process which was interrupted during the crisis but reactivated again in the most recent period. On the other hand, the contribution of within-country wage developments to explain changes in wage inequality for the EU as whole over the last decade was much more limited, although it is interesting to note as well a process of convergence in wage distributions between European countries towards intermediate inequality levels. Policies directed at reducing wage disparities within countries offer the best prospect to tackle wage inequalities both at the national and EU-wide level, as illustrated by the introduction of the German statutory minimum wage in 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to advance the literature on policy mobility by decentring the primacy of mobility itself and focusing on understanding what cities do in order to 'arrive at' localized versions of urban policy in relation to globally circulating ideas around creativity. The paper explores the performance of a particular local 'creative economy' in terms of institutional and strategic adjustments, key drivers and individuals and events, and the role of long-term local, national and international influences on 'creative cityness'. It does this through an analysis of cultural and creativity policy and local stakeholders in the cultural policy scene in Gdańsk, Poland, focusing on the local performative aspects of mobile policies and arguing the need to understand the formation of a 'common local project' as a form of intra-urban connectedness alongside inter-urban connectedness. The paper extends the range of contexts in which the 'creative city' has been analysed to include post-socialist, post-European Union accession Central and Eastern Europe, thus making an original contribution by studying these issues in the context of the complex multi-scalar relations between the city, national government and the supranational European Union and the ideological conflict between national authoritarian neoliberalism and urban and supranational scale (neo-)liberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Union (EU) enlargement in 2004 produced a multi‐layered regulatory space structuring labour mobility between Central Eastern Europe and the United Kingdom. Building on a critical revaluation of the concept of labour mobility power as a phenomenon that cannot be reduced to earnings' maximisation, the paper contends that although post‐2004 migration was nested in the macro‐regulatory mechanism of EU freedom of movement of labour, kinship and ethnic networks constituted additional layers in regulating migrants' mobility trajectories. Drawing on migratory biographies, the analysis examines how these regulatory mechanisms shaped migrants' actions and intentions related to transnational exit, contributed in creating linkages through which migrants sought to actualise their labour power on a transnational scale, and provided directions for labour mobility power's use within the receiving country. By embedding labour mobility power within kinship (micro) and ethnic (meso) networks, this paper offers a complimentary understanding of labour mobility power that takes it beyond the homo economicus explanatory model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current European policies for agriculture are characterized by efficiency and economic performance. Their main objective is the stability of the environment. For any European country, European integration represent or must represent stability and economic growth, this two elements being essential to adapt to the current macroeconomic changes. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the evolution of the situation of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe regarding the influence of European funds for agriculture. Being members of the European Union, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe had to adopt the acquis communautaire regarding European agricultural policy and must use EU funds for rural development. The aspect that individualizes this paper is the analysis of regional specialization and concentration of European funds for agriculture using the Herfindahl-Hirschman index. The analysis will be based on data from international institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finance plays a major role in all economies by providing the necessary funds for economic activities and implicitly for all sustainable investments. Financing for sustainable development foregrounds directions for major investments in longer-term activities. In my opinion, one of the major problems of the sustainable development of the Romanian economy is closely related to the tendency and capacity to absorb European funds with a dominant investment and multiplier impact. The absorption rate of European funds can be an important factor in terms of economic growth. Effective use of these funds can stimulate investment, innovation and infrastructure development, which in turn can contribute to economic growth. These funds can also help create jobs and increase the economic competitiveness of a country or region. The study is based on the comparative analysis of Romania, as an emerging country of Central and Eastern Europe, with the other countries of the European Union in order to know the stage of sustainable development of our country and to emphasize the major role of European funds in this regard, in the countries of the Union European and we also used the theoretical research method and the method of reading the specialized bibliography, to outline the conceptual aspects addressed in the paper. This study emphasizes the fact that it is very important that the absorption of European funds is as high as possible to be a factor of economic growth and implicitly to support sustainable economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a necessity to combine the development of the European Union with a model of a sustainable economy, which is important to stimulate eco-innovation. The government of each member state is obliged to create support mechanisms that will encourage entrepreneurs to implement pro-environmental solutions. This requires the identification of determinants for eco-innovation. This paper identifies and compares conditions of eco-innovation in two sectors in Poland: ICT (information and communication technologies) and industry. Putting together many different types of conditions into one model (including government, science, industry, and ICT) allows us to explain what is more important when making a decision about implementing new eco-solutions. The study covered over 3000 enterprises. Stepwise logit regression was used to examine all relationships of interest. We discovered two separate (independent) paths of approach to eco-innovation for ICT and industry. This means that another condition should be fulfilled to reach any eco-innovation in each of the sectors. There are just a few factors supporting new environmental solutions in ICT with strong impact—cooperation with suppliers, journals as a source of new knowledge, or financial support by credit institutions with high materials and energy efficiency at the end of the process. Industry could be described more like a horizontal approach—a wide number of conditions with low impact on eco-innovation. Therefore, innovation policies in the catching-up country should be more sophisticated and take care of more relevant tools for both sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper we investigate differences in the skills mismatch in the new and old EU member states. We look at the influence of their different socio-economic characteristics, in particular age and educational attainment, on the level of skills mismatch and link these to the patterns of economic development, in particular the economic transition in Central and Eastern Europe. The results of our analysis show that workers in the NMS compared to the EU-15 have a higher risk of underskilling and a lower risk of overskilling in all age groups. The differences between the two sets of countries are larger for older workers and smaller for younger ones. This indicates that there may be a gradual convergence of the skills match patterns on the European labour market for younger generations and educational levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The publication of statistical data related to the last quarter of 2021 provides an excellent opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of Covid-19 crisis management. The paper shows four different success indicators. These are the employment rate increase, the difference in the slope of GDP growth prior to and during the Covid-19 pandemic to measure the depth of the crisis, the ratio between the depth of economic decline and the required time to recover the economic output of 2019 Q4. These success indicators are compared with the increase of gross public debt. Eleven Central and Eastern European countries are compared with the EU average. Since the Hungarian economy suffered the second largest decline among the Central and Eastern European countries, but Hungary had the second fastest recovery (with a significant public debt increase) and the highest increase in employment rate, the monetary and economic tools of this country are analysed in detail. If we consider the GDP growth difference, Estonia, Slovenia and Croatia performed better than the EU average, whereas Slovakia, Romania and the Czech Republic performed worse. However, this indicator did not consider the depth of the shock that fiscal and monetary policies had to face. If we consider the second indicator – which is called the “boost” indicator, the most successful countries are in descending order: Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, Hungary, and Slovenia. Generally, the countries that were successful were those which spent a significant amount of money to avoid the credit crunch (lowering interest rate, investment boost) and offer tax relief to dedicated sectors. The general welfare spending (wage support, family subsidies, and longer unemployment benefits, health care) seemed to be inadequate in boosting the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Transformations in Business & Economics is the property of Vilnius University 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 studies the evolution of regional income disparities in Europe. Besides using a more complete data set that offers a more detailed look at the evolution of regional incomes in Western Europe than previous studies, it is the first to shed empirical light on regional income differences and their evolution in Eastern Europe during the transition phase from communism towards EU membership by means of a (spatial) Markov chain analysis. Regional income disparities in Western Europe are found to be decreasing over time and less persistent than reported in earlier studies. In the case of Eastern Europe some regions are likely to fall behind in terms of GDP per capita whereas a substantial number of other regions will be able to (slowly) catch up with their Western neighbours. Moreover in Western Europe localized regional conditions appear to be a main determinant of the observed income differences, whereas in Eastern Europe country-specific factors are of bigger importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of TEME: Casopis za Društvene Nauke is the property of TEME: Casopis za Drustvene Nauke 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 Covid-19 pandemic broke out by the beginning of 2020 and became one of the most relevant political, economic and social challenges at global level. From the beginning there was a wide consensus between scholars and experts from various fields of medical expertise (biomedicine, genetics, etc.) that the transport vehicle of the virus were the vital economic branches of world economies: business environment, trade, transports and tourism. In fact, now when the virus has entered apparently in Europe and in most parts of the world endemicity, it still has a high degree of uncertainty, and continues to have significant impact on economies worsened by the ongoing geopolitical crisis. While most papers are dedicated to the so-called 'engine economies' of the world, and in particular of the European Union, we intend to present how policy actions have impacted the economy of developing economies of Central and Eastern Europe, with emphasis on the national Romanian perspective. The labor market is where the lingering effects are best seen, as it is the meeting point for employees from both public and private sector, and actually one of the main targets of the various policy actions and measures. We use a framework based on the strategic and operational level, respectively where policy-decisions are made regarding various Covid-19 outspread prevention measures, and the operational level - where the effects are identified, and possible improvements proposed. The results show that the risk of divergence and increasing disparities is higher, in particular for the New Member-States, and that next to economic policy decisions, the way in which non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) influenced strongly the outcomes in various economic sectors. At the same time, the economies that succeeded in making use of digitalized means in various economic, social and cultural sectors had better overall results in overcoming the impact of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fostering economic, social and territorial cohesion has represented a key principle since the foundation of the European Economic Community. Gradually, the gaps between countries and regions have become more prominent, the European Union reaffirming its commitment towards supporting convergence of the less developed Members. The main purpose of this paper was to study the regional convergence patterns, focusing on the key concepts β-and σ- convergence. Considering the interval 2000-2021, we have illustrated that the initially less developed NUTS 2 regions from Central and Eastern Europe experienced higher growth rates compared to the developed ones. Moreover, by estimating cross-sectional regressions, we have found evidence in favor of a universal speed of convergence, with an average catching-up rate among the European regions of 1.9% per year. Complementary, based on σ-convergence, we have illustrated that income disparities diminished between 2000 and 2021 both at the aggregate level and considering the regions from Central and Eastern Europe. However, the Covid-19 pandemic reversed the favorable trend, determining an increase of income gaps among regions, the most affected being the economies belonging to the Old Members. The study draws attention that economic cohesion is an objective difficult to achieve, the crises reversing the favorable trend identified in the first decade of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shows how the hierarchised nature of the EU mobility regime is underpinned by member states' policies in a major country of emigration such as Poland. Drawing on historical institutionalism, this paper documents the path-dependent approach regarding policies that have contributed to the outflow of Polish workers and simultaneously to meet the demand for labour at home. While concerns about the consequences of emigration were raised already in 2005, Polish governments have kept defending the EU policies that underpin this outflow and its hierarchised nature. Rather than to improve the rights of Polish mobile workers, Polish governments have defended companies' rights to use 'wage competitiveness' as a method of increasing mobility. In response to the increasing demand in the domestic labour market, governments first tried return campaigns, but they have since turned to importing labour, especially from Ukraine. In this way, the policies of the Polish state have helped reaffirm the hierarchised nature of the EU mobility regime by exporting workers to be subjected to poor conditions abroad while importing Ukrainian workers to experience poor conditions at home. Thus, Poland occupies an unusual place in the 'migration chain', being, simultaneously, a source of as well as a destination for migrant workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Populist parties are on the rise. But what happens when they are in government? In order to grasp the effect of populist parties in government systematically, the paper includes all 28 EU member states in an analysis which estimates the effect of populist parties in power on the increase of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The results show that depending on their ideological orientation populist government participation is clearly associated with increasing GHG emissions. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the effect is quick. This is above all true for right-wing populist parties in government. Furthermore, the analysis shows that populist parties have different impacts in various regions of the EU. While right-wing populist governments are associated with an increase of GHG emissions in North Western and Eastern Europe, left-wing populist governments in Southern Europe have the opposite effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the fundamental pillars of the European Union aims at the convergence of economic performances among its Member States. This objective has become increasingly challenging with the advancement of the integration process from the customs union to the economic and monetary union, from the six founding Members to twenty-seven European states. The aim of this paper is to study real convergence in the European Union between 2000 and 2019 and conducting also a comparative analysis between the New and the Old Members. The methodological tools imply absolute and conditional ß- and s-convergence. By using cross-sectional regressions, we have found evidence in favour of the absolute ß-convergence hypothesis, as the initially poorer Members experienced higher GDP per capita growth rates than the developed economies. The average catching-up speed in the European Union was 2.5%, while the Central and Eastern Members experienced a higher convergence rate, which reached 3.6%. Moreover, by applying panel regressions, we have found evidence supporting the conditional convergence hypothesis, the study emphasising the role of macroeconomic, social, and governance-related variables in promoting economic growth. Our research suggests that investment and trade had a major role in enhancing economic growth both at the aggregate and subgroup level. Finally, the paper illustrates that ß-convergence was accompanied by a reduction of disparities within the European Union. However, the global financial crisis hampered the convergence process among the Old Members. The paper suggests that although the Central and Eastern European countries made important progress in terms of catching-up, convergence of economic performance in the European Union has not been reached so far. By contrast, the modest growth rates and the exacerbation of income differentials between the Old Members might call into question the perspective to achieve this objective in the short term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to public health services is a cause that benefits the people and concerns the vital interests of the people. Everyone has access to basic health care services. The continuous improvement in people's health is an important indicator of the improvement in people's quality of life. This paper selects data from the European Union (EU) on aspects of public health expenditure, medical care resources, and government emergency coordination capacity from the period 2008 to 2017. Principal component analysis and factor analysis are used to measure their public health service capacity scores and conduct a comparative analysis. On this basis, the TOBIT model is adopted to explore the driving factors that lead to the spatial differentiation of public health service capabilities, and to combine it with the data of the COVID-19 epidemic as of 8 August 2020 from the official announcements of the World Health Organization and governments for further thinking. The results indicate that the public health service capacity of countries in the EU is showing a gradual increase. The capacity in Western Europe is, in turn, higher than that of Northern Europe, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe. In addition, the overall capacity in Western Europe is relatively high, but it is not balanced and stable, while Northern Europe has remained stable and balanced at a high level. Population density, degree of opening up, education level, economic development level, technological innovation level, and degree of aging have a positive effect on public health service capabilities. The level of urbanization has a negative effect on it. However, in countries with strong public health service capabilities, the epidemic of COVID-19 is more severe. The emergence of this paradox may be related to the detection capabilities of countries, the high probability of spreading thCOVID-19 epidemic, the inefficient implementation of government policy, the integrated system of the EU and the adverse selection of youth. This paper aims to improve the ability of the EU to respond to public health emergencies, improve the utilization of medical and health resources, and better protect people's health from the perspective of public health service capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the complex Jewish reality in Portugal in the first half of the twentieth century. Alongside the old Sephardic community that emerged in Portugal with the dissolution of the Inquisition, the early twentieth century witnessed the emergence of two new differentiated groups: crypto-Jews, who began to return to Judaism, and Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. These two groups changed the physiognomy of the Portuguese Jewish community to a pluralistic religious, ethnic, and cultural compound never seen before in Iberian lands. Later on, the increasing Nazi persecutions and the outbreak of World War brought to Portugal thousands of Jewish refugees who tried to emigrate to countries overseas. The historical and social complexity examined in this article lasted a few years. Before the end of the Second World War, the refugees had emigrated from the country, the return of the Marranos to Judaism had lost its vitality, and the Jewish community continued its course in the Sephardic setting prior to the convulsions of the pre-war years. By focusing on the unique characteristics of Jewish life in Portugal in the first half of the twentieth century and on the diversity that each group presented in social, cultural, economic, and political terms, this study sheds light on a topic that has not yet received the attention it deserves in the historiography of Iberian Jews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Support for democratisation and democracy has become one of the leading topics in a wide-ranging debate over the state of democracy in the contemporary world. The European Union became an important player in global politics, one with an ambitious programme for the spreading and supporting of democracy and the process of democratisation in Eastern Europe. Hence the author's attempt at addressing the following question: what actions and strategies have and are being undertaken by the EU to facilitate the above-mentioned processes? The aim of the paper is to describe and assess the strategies and actions of the European Union in the field of supporting democratisation and democracy in selected countries of the former USSR (e.g. Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine), additionally well-fitting to the concept of Eastern Partnership, in the last decade of XX and the first decade of XXI Century. The paper also aims to present which procedures and standards (that are supposed to guarantee their usefulness and effectiveness) are being used by the EU. The emphasis has been placed primarily on the processes of democratisation, their mileage, specificity and possible strategies for supporting democratic development, as well as its potential for consolidation, in the countries of the former Soviet Union. In order to conduct the research it is necessary to assess the political, social and economic conditions in the researched countries. It is to be stressed that one should be aware of the complexity and dynamics of the described processes whilst evaluating the EU's initiatives. The papers topic was chosen due to the importance and currentness of the researched EU actions and their results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reviews recent socio-economic changes in the 10 new EU member states of Central and Eastern Europe and the earlier and latest debates on the emergence of the post-communist welfare state regime. It asks two questions: are the new EU member states more similar to each other in their social problems encountered than to the rest of the EU world? Do they exhibit enough common socio-economic and institutional features to group them into the distinct/unified post-communist welfare regime that deviates from any well-known welfare state typology? The findings of this paper indicate that despite some slight variation within, the new EU countries exhibit lower indicators compared to the EU-15 as it comes to the minimum wage and social protection expenditure. The degree of material deprivation and the shadow economy is on average also higher if compared to the EU-15 or the EU-27. However, then it comes to at-risk-of-poverty rate after social transfers or Gini index, some Eastern European outliers especially the Check Republic, but also Slovenia, Slovakia and Hungary perform the same or even better than the old capitalist democracies. Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, however, show many similarities in their social indicators and performances and this group of countries never perform better than the EU-15 or the EU-27 averages. Nevertheless, the literature reviews on welfare state development in the CEE region reveal a number of important institutional features in support of identifying the distinct/unified post-communist welfare regime. Most resilient of it are: an insurance-based programs that played a major part in the social protection system; high take-up of social security; relatively low social security benefits; increasing signs of liberalization of social policy; and the experience of the Soviet/Communist type of welfare state, which implies still deeply embedded signs of solidarity and universalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the problems of institutional changes in governance and the framing of biodiversity conservation policy at the level of the enlarged European Union. The current development of European Union governance has become more complex and multilevel, partially usurping competences from the central state and relying on networks of interconnected actors rather than on a hierarchy dominated and defined by the state. This shift is particularly challenging for biodiversity governance in new member states, where current decision making is still affected by post-socialist relations and massive ongoing institutional changes, often resulting in inefficient institutional designs and over-exploitation of natural resources. The paper offers a cross-country analysis of five Central and Eastern European countries, characterized by different socialist regimes and different transition processes from hierarchical to democratic and market governance. The theoretical basis of the paper is institutional rebuilding in Central and Eastern Europe in the context of the emerging multilevel environmental governance of the EU. The data were collected from desk study research and interviews. The results show that some elements of multilevel governance existed in these countries prior to the transition, but that EU integration empowered lower levels of self-government. The mismatch between the old hierarchical institutions developed under socialism and the new decentralized institutions introduced during the transformation process still persists and is visible. The emergence of multilevel governance with multiple actors' participation is prone to create tensions, but evidence from the countries studied indicates that this is not necessarily a disadvantage. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many have claimed that in the dependent market economies of Central and Eastern Europe industrial policy has been reduced to incentives to foreign investors – a feature accentuated by their loss of policy space through integration into the European single market. In this paper, we offer an alternative view by arguing that the European Union (EU) has in fact made it possible for its members to recover a degree of policy space lost to economic and regulatory integration. The EU does this through transnational industrial policy, which is the combination of its competition and cohesion policies. The former limits cross-country competition for capital; the latter provides additional resources to support a more inclusive industrial policy benefiting small and medium enterprises (SMEs). However, effective utilization of transnational industrial policy depends on domestic state capacities. We demonstrate this by comparing the distribution of EU funds to automotive firms in Poland and Romania. In Poland, efforts to create institutions that promote SMEs have resulted in a more balanced distribution of EU resources, while in Romania a weak and unstable institutional environment led to their greater concentration, thereby reducing European funds to another source of rents for the most powerful firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]