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Trade is at the centre of Europe’s model of economic prosperity and competitiveness. As stated in the new Trade Policy Strategy set out by the European Commission (2021), the trade policy has a key role to play in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, this role was emphasised even better by the effects derived from the war in Ukraine. As the pandemic hit in 2020, the growth drivers of the EU’s economy relented, among which the external trade, putting million jobs at risk and leading to rise in unemployment and to depression of economic activity, while many companies had to close down. Competitiveness is a term which increased in significance in the last few decades. Trade competitiveness and, especially, export competitiveness is one of the most valuable variables a country must improve in order to increase its overall competitive position among nations and also the welfare of its citizens. The export statistics of many EU’s economies changed since the COVID-19 crisis and later, the war stroke. The research questions this paper addresses are: what is the extent of these changes in which sectors? Have they come to an end or the process of recovery has already started within the EU? What effects has the war in Ukraine onto the EU exports competitiveness? Are there any chances for the EU to maintain its exports competitiveness after these crises? What is to be one and what measures to be taken to recover? After introductory theoretical remarks and a brief literature review followed by a survey of various techniques to measure export competitiveness, the paper shifts its focus on statistical data and analyse how much damage has the pandemic and nowadays, the war caused to the EU’s export competitiveness, and which EU Member States were the most affected, based on statistical data analysis and other various indicators.

After the Second World War, Europe faced the question of what kind of political future to choose. Exactly five years after the end of the war, Robert Schuman proposed a declaration that opened the way for European integration: the European Community, later renamed the European Union, was created. This paper presents the circumstances of the creation of the Schuman Declaration and the vision that led him and other founding fathers to the realization of a completely new way of connecting European states. Three of the founding fathers of the European Community, Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer and Alcide de Gasperi, were devout Christians. In the paper, we show their understanding of the relationship between democracy, European integration and Christianity. According to Schuman, European institutions need a spirit, Europe needs a soul. What does this mean and how is it that only a few of the later European political leaders paid attention to this aspect? The last part of the article regards the efforts of Pope Francis to make Europe a place of peace and economic development, and furthermore, to strengthen the essence of its identity, encourage creativity and recognize its responsibility to its own nations and citizens, as well as responsibility to others in a globally connected world. The series of speeches by Pope Francis on Europe, including in the European Parliament, shows his closeness to the vision of Schuman and the founding fathers of the European Union on the one hand, and on the other hand, he directs attention to the present and the future.

The European Union macro-regional strategies represent a policy framework that aims to enable EU Member States and third countries sharing common interests to better coordinate their potentials in order to make the best possible use of available opportunities. This paper looks into the specificities of four EU macro-regional strategies covering 19 European Union Member States and nine non-EU countries. Given the challenging situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it also considers the future perspectives of EU macro-regional strategies as well as their adaptability to new circumstances. More specifically, it focuses on intergovernmental initiatives and their implementation, underlying the importance of the application of the principle of subsidiarity. In addition, the aim of the paper is to provide a critical overview of the subject by highlighting two pivotal elements. First, it assesses whether the EU macro-regional strategies could be genuinely successful, given the fact that they do not have their separate allocation but use the existing funding instead. Second, it explores the ability of the EU macro-regional strategies to bridge wider EU-level policies on the one hand and local policies on the other. Finally, the idea of the paper is to offer an overview of the state of affairs when macro-regions are concerned.

This paper analyses the importance of stakeholders’ actions on the effectiveness of the European competition policy. The national governments, European decision-makers, advisory institutions and civil society take the form of interest groups that have expectations, invest resources and advocate on competition policy. The paper follows the process of adopting a specific strategy (insider/outsider), depending on the type of the interest group and it divides the organizations in those with ”strong ties” and ”weak ties”. The goal of each interest group is to arrive at the main European competition law authority, the European Commission. As it has the full power to investigate cases and manage the process, as well as implementing decisions based on proposals, influencing this institution represents a real challenge for the stakeholders. In this process, some relevant aspects are the perfect timing for lobby, the dimension of the lobbying coalitions and also the capacity of attracting supporters of the cause. Interest groups do not have equal amount of influence power nor the resources but they do change the policy, according to their particular interests, by choosing the right strategies, partnerships and means to influence the decision-makers.

Investment in research and development (R&D) creates preconditions for the implementation of more advanced and better technologies. It enables the introduction of new products or production processes which can result in higher earnings and potential economic growth. Even though research and development is a catalyst for the genesis of aggregate economic activity, its importance is not widely researched at regional levels. The European Union has defined strategies which view innovation as an essential element in stimulating growth and job creation. The aim of this paper is to establish and measure the impact of investment in R&D on economic growth of port regions. The data used in this research were panel data of the European Union’s port regions for NUTS 2 classification for the period from 2005 to 2015. The results of the two-step Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) indicate that investment in R&D has a significant impact on the economic growth of the port regions in European Union. However, in order for innovations to be accepted and implemented, it is also necessary for regions to have specific economic structure which was further analyzed in this paper. Regions with high innovation capacity create greater economic benefits and are considered to grow faster than other regions.

The paper offers a short introduction into the legal framework of the Croatian and Italian labour law system with respect to agency work. The European Union legal framework, some of the most important cases of the Court of Justice of the European Union as well as common issues in both countries are also elaborated upon. More importantly, the paper also addresses some specificities which could be used de lege ferenda in both countries.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the article is to present the results of the analysis of the education level in the European Union countries and to verify the relationship between the education and the economic growth of the studied countries. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The basic problem of this publication is quantitative and comparative analysis of the level of education in the European Union countries (EU27). Research methods used in the paper are the analysis and synthesis of the literature on the subject as well as quantitative analysis of the education using statistical and taxonomic tools (descriptive statistics, cluster analysis, taxonomic measure of education [TME]). An analysis of regression and correlation is also conducted to investigate the relationship between education and economic growth. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The line of reasoning consists of three essential elements. The first part presents the issues of education and economic growth in the light of the theory. This is a selective review of literature. The second part contains a comprehensive description of the research tools and methods. Part three of the article presents the results of the investigation in the field of education and its relationship with economic growth. The level of education was determined on the basis of an aggregated measure constructed from diagnostics variables. GDP per capita was used to estimate economic growth. The papers ends with conclusion and recommendations for future research. RESEARCH RESULTS: On the basis of theoretical considerations, the influence of knowledge and education on economic growth has been confirmed, particularly in the models of endogenous growth. In empirical research, a great part of the research also indicates a positive relationship between education and economic growth. There are also elaborations that do not confirm this correlation. This study provides two important information on education and economic growth in the Member States of the European Union. Firstly, the area of the European Union is very differentiated taking into account the two criteria indicated. Over the years, a gradual reduction in disparities is observed both in GDP per capita and in TME. Secondly, quantitative analysis has confirmed the emerging relationship between education and economic growth. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The issue of relationship between education and economic growth is very important and timely. There is lack of papers in the literature that use taxonomic methods to evaluate education. These tools give great opportunity to present the problem in a multidimensional and comprehensive manner, taking into account a large number of variables. The research should be treated as a preliminary study in this field, which requires further in-depth investigation. It is recommended to include more diagnostic variables related to education, as well as, more advanced research techniques in the fields of statistics, econometrics and taxonomy.

This paper is about social crisis and sets to give a dimension for this non- effective current. The paper is addressed to all persons interested in this domain, especially for those that work in this sector (non-governmental sector, third sector) and that need to have a better perspective on the situation. The methodology was based on self documentation which involved a wide range of materials: reports, case studies, paper works, articles, specific sites, European Union guides. This paper underlines the bad influence of the social crisis on sustainable development. My research includes both quantitative and qualitative dates; the ideas are embraced by my own convictions on the topic and tend to express also my beliefs on the matter. The added value of the paper is provided by the elements brought together: the topic, which, as common as can be, has a critical importance for the economy, blended with new information related to European Union Funds abortion and statistic dates regarding the work market in our country. The paper starts with an introduction that offers general information about the topic, a short background on the next headlines. As follows, each headline surprises with punctual elements of social crisis: determinant causes, solutions found, institutions involved, conclusions. The results of the paper shows that institutions in Romania are concerned about this situation and fight to bring out the best solutions, even if community is not totally prepared to accept it. Besides Romanian institutions, we have the support of the European Commission, through the European Union Funds. The Commission brings also the know-how of the other European Union Countries that confronted with these situations and, in better conditions know, sets here good practices within the projects they finance. This paper should be read and acknowledged as a base for the social economy development and it aims to create an interest for more persons in contributing to the strategic growth of the country and people.

This article discusses the legal and political context regarding the origin of money in the Croatian political space. Namely, the paper presents a historical and legal review starting from the Ancient Times, e.g. the oldest Croatian money of king Andrew II to the present official Croatian currency. In addition to the legal and historical aspects of the official Croatian money, the paper also discusses fate of Croatian money after Croatia’s accession to the European Union and to the European Monetary Union, i.e. the Eurozone.

This paper presents a model aimed at measuring intellectual capital as the potential knowledge of a country and apply it to the European Union. The method consists of activating accountable expenses, assumed to generate knowledge. In order to do so, efficiency indicators are used, derived from a summary of variables of structural, human and technological capitals by means of factor analysis. The results of this study for the EU25 in 2006 explain why Northern Europe has greater intellectual capital potential. They are more productive, as they manage and apply new technologies better. In human capital, Eastern countries have strong potential. The paper concludes that, at the conceptual level, this information should be used to design convergence policies and balanced development strategies to ensure economic growth.

Services are the most important contributor to the GDP and also the most important job generator. Countries development, usually, is based on the services sector. The present paper is aiming to highlight the influence of the number of active enterprises in services on exports. The paper is based on a model generated using data provided by Eurostat, for 25 EU countries and for 4 services categories. Generated in Eviews 4.1, the model is correctly specified, with a R-squared value of 0.65, and revealed a validated influence of the number of enterprises active in Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles and personal and household goods and in Real estate, renting and business activities on exports.

In this paper we explore the effects of a diagonal cumulation of origin as the EU’s Common Commercial Policy (CCP) incentive mechanism that affects the intraregional trade and transaction cost structure of firms engaged in cross-border business operation. The research explores how firms should frame their crossborder physical flows of goods and the configuration of their value-adding processes for taking advantage of diagonal cumulation of origin. The empirical analysis is based on an in-depth case study of effects of the ‘SAP+ diagonal cumulation of origin’ on changes in the transaction cost structure of a selected Slovenian firm operating within the household-appliance sector in one of the Western Balkan Countries. Based on eligibility of local subsidiary for using origin of goods in its import/export transactions the cost calculations were made for its products and then three different business scenarios were developed for showing the effects of the mechanism on transaction cost changes of a firm. The paper concludes that, at the conceptual level, the mechanism of diagonal cumulation oforigin may serve as an effective institutional cross-border trade-promoting tool

This paper analyzes the Romanian absorption capacity of the funds allocated through the REGIO programme, which is part of ERDF programme. Within the paper are presented the concept of absorption capacity and several opinions regarding its main composing elements. Also the Regio programme, its main axis and its budget is briefly presented. In the last chapter of the analysis a thorough analysis of the implementation of REGIO in the Romanian North-West Region was carried out and several causes for the low absorption of European Founds have been identified.. The process of improving the absorption capacity of European Funds is still at the beginning in Romania and will certainly become an important issue over the following years at all levels of the Romanian society and at the level of the European Funding Authorities as well.

The paper is an evaluation of EU regional policy. It asks whether cohesion programmes contribute to the reduction of differences. In the first part of the study the results of three different methodological approaches are briefly examined to analyse effects. The answer to the question is not at all unambiguous, which is why the second half of the paper attempts to find those factors which may cause the regional policy of the EU to fail to achieve its desired objectives. According to the literature review these factors are (1) the crowding out effect, (2) the existence of rent-seeking and moral hazard, (3) the counterbalancing effect of national policies, (4) a concentration of economic activities (mainly industries representing high added value), and (5) the short time frame. Finally the study establishes those preconditions which, when present, can be considered necessary and sufficient for the redistributed funds to initiate growth.

The paper deals with a Document prepared by an expert group, chaired by the author, established by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) under the mandate of the European Commission. The action took place in the framework of the flagship EU Initiative of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018: “Cherishing heritage: developing quality standards for EU-funded projects that have the potential to impact on cultural heritage”. The main objective of the “Document on quality principles for EU-funded interventions on cultural heritage”, is to provide guidance for all stakeholders directly or indirectly engaged in EU-funded heritage conservation and management (European institutions, managing authorities, international organisations, civil society and local communities, private sector, and experts).

The competition policy represents one of the most important pillars of cooperation between EU Member States, it influenced the design of the European Single Market and it facilitates integration. Even though it shapes the distribution of capital and the investments all over the EU space, the policy is not well-known and even less understood, as it has been built through a complex process, the aim of this paper being to analyse its sinusoidal evolution. In order to better follow its goals, the present article is trying to frame each step of the evolution in one of the following theories of economic integration: neo-functionalism, intergovernmentalism or multi-level governance.

Utilizing an empirical approach, this paper lays out how journalistic functions differ from the perception of journalists working for the free and paid press in Austria. Analyses indicate that free press journalists appear to be significantly more inclined to generate discourse with their audience, but are also more influenced by commercialization than their colleagues working for the paid press. Both the free and paid press seem to fulfill diverging democratic functions that can be valuable to the public. Finally, the normative notion of journalistic functions as legislated by the European Union (EU) seems only partially represented within the journalists’ self-perception.

For stability and advance of the EU and prospective member countries, it is important to assess the best time for new enlargement. In this paper, we have tested a number of macroeconomic and macro-financial variables in order to check whether a number of countries were ready to join the EU, and whether the candidates are ready. Some variables present criteria of nominal convergence as defined in Maastricht Treaty, while the rest of variables indicate the level of real convergence. Univariate analysis has indicated that the membership in the EU is significantly affected by GDP per capita, general government final consumption expenditure, final consumption expenditure, gross capital formation, gross national expenditure, and inflation. Following the univariate binary logistic analysis and separation of variables that affect the individual membership in the EU, a multivariate regression analysis was applied. Multivariate binary logistic regression confirmed significance of general government final consumption expenditure and gross capital formation. The analysis indicated the importance of selecting the timing of accession in terms of the achieved economic development, expressed through the selected macroeconomic indicators. Moreover, it appears that the list of tested economic criteria was played at best a secondary importance in past European enlargements.

The paper analyses certain legal dilemmas that arise in relation to the provision of cross-border insurance services on the European union single market, particularly in the context of the Croatian legal framework. The analysis covers several issues arising in relation to the practical application of the EU rules on freedom to provide insurance services as implemented in the Croatian national law by the Croatian Insurance Act. Special consideration is given to certain specific legal issues that appear in practice as dubious when it comes to insurance of certain types of risk with a cross-border element, The aim is to point at the challenges that the liberalisation of the insurance market places in front of the Croatian insurance industry, and to make certain recommendations that could be useful to the Croatian insurers and other insurance service providers when deciding on the possibility of carrying on crossborder insurance business.

Pur senza definirne i caratteri, l’art. 2 TUE annovera la rule of law fra i principi fondanti l’UE, includendola altresì (art. 21 TUE) fra gli assi strategici fondamentali delle politiche e strategie messe a punto dalla Commissione (DG DEVCO e NEAR) e attuate in coordinamento con il Servizio di Azione Esterna della UE nei Paesi Candidati (attuali o potenziali) e negli altri Paesi partner. Questo scritto esplora la relazione fra le concezioni europee “interna” e “esterna” della rule of law. A seguito di una panoramica sulla rule of law come pilastro dell’ordinamento giuridico della UE e di quello degli Stati Membri, la prima parte analizzerà il rinnovato impegno delle istituzioni europee nella protezione della rule of law nell’Unione. La seconda parte si concentrerà sugli interventi esterni volti a promuovere e rafforzare la rule of law nei Paesi Candidati o del Vicinato, riservando particolare attenzione ai documenti strategici e ai rapporti-Paese annuali. La sezione conclusiva del paper offrirà alcuni spunti comparatistici con riferimento ai due profili sopra delineati, in cerca di sovrapposizioni e divergenze e ricordando le soluzioni proposte per interpretare e riconciliare le differenze, esistenti o potenziali. / 𝑇ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑓𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑢𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑎𝑤 𝑖𝑠 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑡. 2 𝑇𝐸𝑈 𝑎𝑠 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑘𝑒𝑦 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑢𝑝𝑜𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑈 𝑖𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑. 𝐴𝑑𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦, 𝑖𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑏𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑈 𝐸𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑙𝑜𝑦𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡/𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝐸𝑈 𝐶𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑛𝑒𝑟 𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑟𝑡. 21 𝑇𝐸𝑈. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑎𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛 “𝑑𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐” 𝑎𝑛𝑑 “𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙” 𝐸𝑈 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑢𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑎𝑤. 𝐹𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑢𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑎𝑤 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑈 𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎 𝑝𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑟 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑈 𝑀𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑤𝑒𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝐸𝑈 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑢𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑎𝑤 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑈𝑛𝑖𝑜𝑛. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑓𝑜𝑐𝑢𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝐸𝑈 𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑢𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑎𝑤 𝑖𝑛 𝐶𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑟 𝑁𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠, 𝑏𝑦 𝑝𝑎𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑐 𝑑𝑜𝑐𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝐷𝐺𝑠 𝐷𝐸𝑉𝐶𝑂 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑁𝐸𝐴𝑅. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑎𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑤𝑜 𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑙𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑠.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the article is to present the results of the analysis on diversity of the education attainment of women and men in the European Union countries. By implementing such a purpose, it is possible to present not only heterogeneity in education on the basis of gender but also disproportions between individual EU countries. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The article raises three important research problems: education, gender equality and diversification within the European Union countries. The analysis covers 28 EU countries and a period of 10 years: 2007 - 2016. The research method used in the paper is the analysis and criticism of the literature and taxonomic analysis using a set of diagnostic variables describing selected aspects of education. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The line of reasoning consists of three essential elements. The first part presents the problem of education with particular emphasis on gender gap according to international literature on the subject. The second part contains description of the research tools and methods. Part three of the article presents the results of the comparative study in the field of education of woman and man in the European Union members. RESEARCH RESULTS: The research results are consistent with previous studies indicating that the level of education of women is higher than that of men. The level of diversity of education of women and men in individual EU countries is moderate. Among the most educated economies, the Scandinavian countries should be indicated. On the other side are the countries of southern Europe. The most numerous group of countries are countries with a moderately high and medium-high level of education. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: This type of research can have significant useful value for shaping the education policy of women and men and other development policies. Considering the importance of education of women and men, there are definitely more possibilities of confronting the results of research with various areas of the economy. The lack of this is definitely disadvantage of the elaboration. On the other hand, this is a significant impulse and recommendation for continuing and deepening research in this area.

Europe’s higher education systems are struggling to respond to the established mass demand for higher education, especially given the proportional decline in available resources per student and, more generally the demand for an ever longer education and reduction of the population of working age due to demographic decline. In addition, growing student mobility puts pressure on admission systems to set up relevant procedures for applicants who wish to enter a country. Admission systems to higher education constitute one key element in the mitigation of these challenges. Admissions can regulate student flows, and play a key role in guaranteeing the acquisition of skills in higher education by matching student profiles to their desired courses of study. This article puts European admission systems in perspective. The issue of regulation of student mobility is topical, given the broader and salient discussion on migration flows in Europe. The article uses international comparisons with systems such as the US, Australia and Japan, to provide a critical overview of the role of admission systems in an often overlooked but yet fundamental part of the European Higher Education Area, namely student mobility. The paper also argues for the creation of an information-sharing EU registry on admissions practices for mobile students.

Abstract – It cannot be denied that Britain is normally seen as an awkward partner in EU affairs (George 1994), and in many ways the British have always been half-in: in the two-speed Europe slogan, Britain is seen as a slow traveller (Musolff 2004), as a member that makes slow progress, it if is at all on the European path. The purpose of this paper is to try and unveil, with evidence at hand, the sentiment of the British leaders with respect to the European Union. Interestingly, the current government includes both Conservatives and Lib-Dems leaders, and it is well known that the former have been, more often than not, against Europe whereas the latter are highly passionate about their pro-Europeanism. Interviews, statements and speeches proper are thus analysed and compared: first wordlists are generated, then keywords lists and finally key-clusters lists (Scott 2012), with the purpose of identifying "aboutgrams" (Warren 2010; Sinclair, Tognini Bonelli 2011), and see what the two governments have in common, but mostly what differentiates them with regard to the European Union, i.e. what is prioritized in one administration and was not in another, clearly signalling a change in priorities (Cheng 2004; Cheng et al. 2006; Cheng et al. 2009). The study is a diachronic analysis, in the attempt to see how previous discourses have been reinterpreted, given that forty years after joining the Union the British are still reluctant Europeans who still consider Europe "abroad", thus slowing the "ever-closer union" envisaged in the Treaty of Rome, and who still have been calling for referendums, even more so after the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.Keywords: European Union, UK, political speeches, opt out, aboutgrams.

Romania, as a country with a low R&D level, in order to converge to the living standards of western economies, is doomed to foster private investments in applied research and experimental development. Thus, it is critical to study what are the main objectives for innovation at organizational level. This paper investigates the most important objectives for innovation in Romania and in the European Union, aiming to find out what are the main challenges innovative enterprises have to face. The general approach is focused on the analysis of the frequency with which these objectives occur, both at general and structural levels. Therefore we have extracted the most important three highly important objectives for innovation, both in Romania and EU: improving the quality of goods or services, the need to increase the range of goods or services and the entering new markets or increase the market share. All these three are positively correlated with the size (number of employees) of the organization. One of our findings underlines that there are fewer objectives in EU then in Romania, both at general and structural levels. Such a situation suggesting that the differences derive from two main sources: Romania has more needs, thus the enterprises target more goals, and there is a lack of managerial know-how that leads to non-prioritized objectives for innovation. Also, we identified an asymmetry, consisting in the fact that in EU, medium sized enterprises are more likely to act as the small ones, as opposed to the Romanian context. R&D and innovation component should be in the center of the Romanian strategy for convergence and competitiveness strengthening, treating differently the SMEs in order to foster innovation in a sustainable manner, through the encouragement of private enterprises to engage in partnerships for R&D an innovation. Also there is a critical need for governmental intervention in building facilities for the modern business infrastructures (business incubators, industrial parks, clusters, and competitive poles), creating a viable VC market for innovative projects, stimulating the creation of new SMEs and fostering internationalization of the local enterprises.

Economic integration refers to trade unification between different states , and one of its most important aspects is liberalisation of capital movement. In this paper is presented a brief evolution of economic integration cases focusing on one of the most integrated economies European Union. We concentrate on the participation of foreign investors in different economies and their impact, taking the example of Central and Eastern European Countries and their markets. Also , the level of influence that direct investments in capital markets entails on the Stock Exchange evolution is presented for the case of Romania .

Paper focuses on preconditions, actual trade flows and growth potentials of the Free Trade Zone in Southeast Europe. Further trade liberalisation and implementation of all 21 bilateral trade agreementswould be important incentive for intra-regional trade, especially within SEE-5, where, according to gravity model results, there exist situations of “under-trade”. Bilateral trade between Croatia and S&MNrepresents such “under-trade” situation that gives large space for Croatian export growth to this market. On the other hand, trade with B&His already above the predicted level and it could even fall in the future because great part of B&H imports was triggered by Western assistance. According to the analysis, the establishment of the Free Trade Area in SEE gives potentials for an increase in intra-regional trade (especially SEE-5), but these benefits could be fully reached only by pursuing parallel trade integration towards the EU in order to avoid trade diversion effect.

The reason why it is so difficult to build some operational framework to sustainable development lies in the fact that sustainable development never happens out of the blue. This paper tries to figure out how such a framework can be imagined from three criteria: the type of governance, the type of sustainability and definition of the resources. It supposes abandoning the unique and universal sustainable development’s myth, and to replace it by plural sustainable developments. European Union is a good target to focus on in order to define those sustainable developments, since the EU proposes an European strategy for sustainable development that European countries, regions or local governments convert into heterogeneous policies.

The process of enlargement of the European Union is continuous, involving in 2004 ten Central or Oriental European Countries (PECO), and later some Mediterranean countries (PTM). But the EU still asks important questions: what are the candidate countries which will be included first? What will this process induce on European relationship? How high is the risk that some other countries may be evicted (in terms of trade) due to other countries integration? This paper aims to understand more precisely the global potential trade evolution between actual and future EU included oriental or Mediterranean countries. We try to enhance economical factors and geographical constraints which explain trade levels between (groups of) countries. We first model the trade flows for each aggregate of countries. Then, we simulate and assess the impact of including other (blocs of) countries to the UE model and both EU and PTM aggregates. Our study uses classical gravity modelling (designed by Bergstrand and Festoc) and compute data (obtained from the Chelem database) mainly from 1993 to 1997. We add to the model the foreign investments in each country, the contiguity levels between countries and the distance separating country centres. Our approach includes flow modelling, simulations of integration processes and a comparison of relative economical elasticities between the different models.