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The increasing dominance of neoliberalism as the key steering mechanism of the European Union (EU) since the early 1990s has implied the competitiveness-oriented reshaping of cohesion policy. The aim of this paper is to initiate a debate from a critical political economic perspective on the implications of this shift for Central Eastern European (CEE) member states. To this end, the paper discusses the formation of EU centre-periphery relations from a CEE point of view and formulates some preliminary suggestions as to how cohesion policy would need to be rethought in order to ensure the better integration of lagging CEE regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Trust" is a versatile instrument which is suitable for a great variety of purposes. Many scholars believe, that the original form of this institution appeared in common law, while in the 20th century the process of globalization stipulated the "internationalization" of the trust mechanism. The starting point of this process was the conclusion of the Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Trusts and on their Recognition. Initially, the civil law jurisdictions were unable to adopt "trust" structure in which common-law power and equity power belonged to separate entities. Despite this fact, in the recent years, trust-like devices have been introduced in certain economic-juridical systems of Europe. Their rapid implementation raised the question of the establishment of innovative policies. This paper will discuss the latest achievements and existing challenges based on the example of the German juridical-economic system. The aim is to make useful proposals for the successful planning of the European entrusting processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies government reactions to large corporate merger attempts in the European Union during 1997 to 2006 using hand-collected data. We document widespread economic nationalism in which the government prefers that target companies remain domestically owned rather than foreign-owned. This preference is stronger in times and countries with strong far-right parties and weak governments. Nationalist government reactions have both direct and indirect economic impacts on mergers. In particular, these reactions not only affect the outcome of the mergers that they target but also deter foreign companies from bidding for other companies in that country in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the policy issues posed by the arms trade in the European Union countries. The arms trade is interesting because it is where foreign policy concerns of security, human rights and international order interact most directly with economic policy concerns of trade, jobs and profits. Governments then have to trade off these multiple objectives. The Foreign Office mission statement of the newly elected Great Britain government lists security, trade, the world environment and human rights among its missions; but gives little indication of how security is to be measured or how the trade-offs will be made when missions conflict. The arms trade problem is further complicated by the non-standard production technology of developing high-cost advanced weapons systems whose utility is dependent on the advantage they have over the systems that your competitors are developing. The model in the article considers the problem faced by fully informed, optimizing governments maximizing the economic well-being and security of their nation, given available income and the threat they face.

The article examines how the different coexistence policies among the European Union (EU) Member States affect the adoption of genetically modified (GM) crops. Trade-offs for different regulatory systems within the EU are analyzed. The model being used combines ex ante regulatory and ex post liability costs including irreversibility and uncertainty. Researchers found that the adoption dynamics of GM crops within the EU are likely to be very different across and within EU Member States. One element causing variability is the heterogeneity of farms, farm practices and landscape structure.