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To maintain the growth rate and insure the secure and sustainable development of economies, EU countries have to come up with and manage a new source of growth - intangible resources. The intangible resources are relatively a new concept analyzed in scientific literature. A diverse, multi-angle and complex nature of intangible resources can be treated as a new factor in production function. In the knowledge based economy, creativity, generation of knowledge and transmission of it must interact with each other and be combined with entrepreneurship skills. Only interaction between these three key intangible resources could ensure the transition of economy to a new stage of economic development. The purpose of the research paper is to reveal econometrical relationship between intangible resources and its impact on economy in the EU. As a result of analysis, the theoretical framework to evaluate intangible resources has been provided and the accumulation level of intangible resources in EU countries has been estimated. The econometrical relationship suggests the intangible resources have a very important impact on GDP accumulated level. The findings reveal that highest level of intangible resources is observed in Finland, Sweden, Germany, Denmark and Luxembourg. The lowest rate of intangible resources is observed in Cyprus, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia and Greece. The conducted research also revealed that there is a strong statistical relationship between input and output of intangible resources. The constructed econometrical model suggests that the modern economic growth much depends on the level of accumulated intangible resources in the country. The change of estimated composite indicator of intangible resources by 1% influences the change of GDP by 0.954% [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental issues have been one the most important for sustainable agricultural development in recent years. The EU common agricultural policy (CAP) direct payments (DP) system, which requires the most significant financial resources, should also promote environmental sustainability in agriculture. However, there is a lack of systematic approach and instruments to assess the impact of the DP system to environmental sustainability. This paper examines the linkages between DP system and environmental sustainability indicators. The underlying research question is: how 2004-2013 CAP DP system had impacted environmental sustainability. To answer this, the article uses a comparative analysis, a statistical analysis, theoretical modelling as a basis to determine, prove and evaluate the linkages between DP system and agricultural environment sustainability indicators. The article also provides empirical results of Lithuania and Puglia region (Italy). These regions were selected because of the similarity by area size and population, however with different DP systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the paper is to analyze the EU member states experience of social guarantees of public servants. There is no universal concept of social guaranties, but the analysis of practice of different states helps to explain it. In most cases, social guarantees cover the entire range of legislation identified by social rights (various holidays, medical insurance, a range of benefits, compensation and other support). Civil servants' wages usually consist of several components: basic salary, bonuses and benefits (of family, concessionary travel: home to office travel, relocation expenses, compensation for loss or damage to personal property, qualification-related allowances, functions-related allowances, performance-related pay, the premium for work in another country, special annual payments and so on). Typically, public servants shall be entitled to annual, maternity, paternity, disease and various special leaves. The duration and payment system of leaves vary depending on each country's specificities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]