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The climate, energy, and health crises, alongside the conflict events in Eastern Europe, have generated new directions regarding the perspectives of global and national energy transition, by orienting it towards a decarbonized economy. The increased frequency of climate change-related weather events affects the availability of renewable energy sources (wind and solar) and energy supply security. The abandonment of fossil fuel-based electricity and heat due to commitments and objectives established in the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the 2015 Paris Agreement, and the adoption of policies aiming for climate neutrality, leads to both positive and negative consequences for the economy and population. The Romanian energy transition will require the reform of the current energy model by combining different classical, traditional sources with renewable ones, resulting in a specific energy mix, i.e., an energy hybridization, and implicitly a Hybrid Energy System. Currently, Romanian coal accounts for a maximum of 20% in electricity production, and Romania is rated as the fifth lignite consumer in Europe, given the increase in coal consumption worldwide in recent years, reaching record levels at the expense of the growing demand for clean energy sources. This paper aims, on one hand, to analyze the current situation of Romanian thermal coal extraction in the context of decarbonization, and on the other hand, to explore the perspectives of modernizing the system with clean energies and implementing energy hybridization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a flourishing period of time when Romanian State was successfully fighting against corruption and its multiple forms of manifestation, it appears that all the lights went out and we, Romanians, were facing a dark Era again. After the multiple achievements in the fight against corruption obtained with lots of efforts and implication of dedicated public servants and activists, open-minded politicians and hardly-working social organizations, the MCV (Mechanism for Verification and Control) instituted by EU was finally providing the best results ever. But, somehow, obscure groups of interests, in total contradiction with the declared anticorruption Romanian goals, have managed to destroy the work of so many difficult years. In the present article we aim to present the Romanian struggle in the fight against corruption in order to offer the other states a lesson of history, a lesson about morality, and a lesson about truth. We aim to present the MCV for Romania, the transformation of Romanian legal provisions in order to accomplish the standards imposed by the EU in the matter of fight against corruption and, of course, the later events that are to demonstrate that finally, the pure goals of a country are eventually going to get into the light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reactionof our societyagainst any harmful acts isa necessitydictated by the needto safeguard the social order, the fundamental valuesprotected by theRule of Law. New social phenomena such as massive migration, refugee crisis, terrorist attacks or organized crime call for proportional reactions by the State authorities, reactions which primarily aim to protect the security of the innocent population, and secondly, to ensure the proportional sanctioning of the harms against the social values protected by criminal means. The concrete ways to provide such organized reactions by the special bodies in the field of criminal repression generatefiercecontroversy both with respect to their doctrine and their social and public perception. In this complex and scary social context, the criminal law needs to adapt to the new forms of crime, needs to find new proper ways to react to the specific criminal deeds and needs to intervene from the very beginning of iter criminis, even in its preparatory phase. We need new principles and rules that can create the specific frame in order to achieve the desideratum of security since the old ones have proved to be insufficient or outdated. In this study we try to demonstrate that the new principles of criminal law have already been determined and in the next 10 to 20 years we shall attempt to make certain amendments in the national criminal law of every State, by inserting specific new principles, such as the principle of prevention and the principle of precaution. It is obvious that these principles shall apply both to the substantial and procedural criminal law. Thus, if a certainhuman activity is riskyor potentiallyharmfuland there is nocertainty about themagnitude of its effectsorcausality, aproactiveaction is needed in order toavoid any damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of pneumatic energy in industry as well as in the tertiary system is quite frequent representing 10% of the industrial electricity consumption in the European Union, the life span of compressors being relatively long, namely between 14 and 16 years depending on the installed power. Although the compressed air demand of a coal mine is covered by performant compressors manufactured by well-known producers there still are multiple possibilities to increase their energetic efficiency. The working method is constituted by the creation of hourly real and optimum exergy flow diagrams for the compressors being used. The paper brings forward numeric methods which use experimentally determined values as input data. Whereas the energetic efficiency of pneumatic systems is reduced the study highlights the possibilities to increase it considering the implementation of technical solutions which allow the achievement of 5 - 50% energetic economies. The present study also highlights that the technical measures destined to improve the energetic efficiency are feasible and economically efficient, the first steps being the implementation of measures which allow for the consumption to be measured and the cost of compressed air to be assessed, followed by the development of the structures which manage the consumption of energy as well as the investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we investigated the influence of foreign direct investment, trade openness, level of development and level of education on Gini index (as a measure of income inequality). The analysis was conducted over the period 2000-2012, using data for 27 European Union member states. After a short statistical analysis we applied a Hierarchical cluster analysis, obtaining two main groups based on their level of GDP per capita. For each cluster we estimated a robust fixed-effect panel data model. The econometric results for the group of countries with high GDP per capita show that trade openness has the greatest influence on the Gini index, while education has a much smaller contribution to income inequality. For the second group of countries education has the greatest influence on income inequality, but the FDI also contributes to higher income differentiation, while the influence of GDP is negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]