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Today the EU is being confronted with internal and external economic challenges. They may become a threat of European stability. Significant strategies must be implemented for the promotion of a sustainable development reflected in economic resilience. The paper deals with the question of boosting the competitiveness of the EU via a rapid implementation of the trust-like mechanisms- "analogues" of the common law trust. It is mainly oriented on the method of a comparative analysis and presents certain prorated fruitful ways of rapid implementation of the trust-like devices in civil law jurisdictions. The outcomes of the paper will be useful for the successful planning of the European entrusting processes, because they indicate to the necessity of the implementation of the American models of mutual funds and the beginning of the utilization of an express trust, which will serve a great variety of socio-economic purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of integration and future developments within the European Union (EU) covers the issues of environmental protection, sustainable development and energy efficiency. These issues are becoming a significant part of economic and social development and appear as a factor for assessing the competitiveness of the EU countries. Therefore, this paper focuses on: the implementation of achieving the climate and energy objectives in line with the Europe 2020 Strategy, the environmental sustainability of EU countries under the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and the assessment of the competitiveness of the EU countries on the basis of ecological development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study revisits knowledge about the post-EU accession intra-industry trade development in the Visegrad countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and the Slovak Republic). These countries--through trade liberalisation, European integration and EU accession--strengthened their position in the global value chains, part of which were located in Western Europe. This paper points out that during the global financial crisis, the changes in intra-industry specialisation were not coherent in the Visegrad countries. Moreover, in some cases, the specialisation even intensified. This paper also applies the Arellano-Bover/Blundell-Bond estimator to assess whether EU accession and the later global financial crisis were driving forces of the changing trade patterns of these countries. The results of the estimation proved the positive effect of European integration (before and after EU enlargement) and the negative effect of the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of the European Union’s (EU) economic governance framework as a key component and driver of the EU - Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Considerable measures to strengthen the EMU have been undertaken in recent years. In spite of this, its effectiveness in tackling challenges that might appear especially in times of crisis, is still called into question. The creation or reformation of institutions seems to be the most efficient manner in which the Eurozone can advance policies and mechanisms meant to stimulate economic growth. We have found that the major obstacles to more efficiency are two components: 1. the political dimension of the EU – or better said political interference of MS’s to protect their own interests; 2. weak EU leadership and vision – this, together with political interests, dilutes significantly the building of institutions, creation and enforcement of policies. Ultimately the question of improving effectiveness of EU economic governance lies in the EU’s ability to build a stronger foundation for its institutions. As a modern political and economic entity, subjugated to the MS’s, the EU must maintain a balance between state powers and institutional powers, a legal and democratically accountable system of governance, the enforcement and respect of law, whilst also protecting economic growth and the right for a better future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Eastern Partnership (EaP) launched in 2009 as the Eastern dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy introduced the civil society as a new strategic actor in the EU's relations with Eastern Partnership countries. The civil society's role is to participate in policy making, to suggest new initiatives and to promote shared values of partnership, such as: democracy, promoting better governance, state law, sustainable development, respect for human rights and for the fundamental freedoms. The paper is divided into two parts. In the first part, we analyse the role of the civil society in the EaP and we ask whether the increasing role of the civil society in the EaP will lead to the success of this project. In the second part, we analyse the perceptions and the attitudes of civil society towards European integration. [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]

The EU and Canada represent the largest market in the world for the sale of ecological products attracting exports from many third countries and recording a total sale of 95% of the worldwide total market. The European market for ecological products - also known as "bio" / "eco" - in absolute figures - is somewhere around 20 billiards euro/year, and in the case of Romania, the market for those products varies around 200 million euro/year. According to European legislation, there are harmonized provisions and procedures for the import of ecological products which can be implemented in two ways: either by complying with the EU legislation on ecologic products, or based on the equivalence between the existent standards and control systems. In many European countries, the operators on such a market obey the rules established by Legislation for ecologic productions strictly. In Romania, a sanctioning system against those economic operators who fraudulently use product labels suggesting they are organic products has just recently been considered. Taking into consideration all these aspects, the present paper relies on the most recent bibliographic and statistical references in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union has been attaching great importance to the values of democracy and human rights in its external policy, including to its relationship with candidate countries seeking membership in the Union. In accordance with the significance of the values stipulated by the Copenhagen political criteria, as well, it urges the countries in question, for example, to build or strengthen national oversight mechanisms that are tasked to promote the democratic governance of the state and protect human rights. This paper examines one of those oversight mechanisms - ombudsman institutions - in the candidate states conducting accession negotiations with the EU. It specifically scrutinises a fundamental characteristic for the effective functioning of these institutions - the jurisdiction and powers granted by their statutes. Relying on the findings to be noted, the paper also seeks an answer to the question of which ombudsman institution(s) score(s) better in terms of effectiveness and thus play(s) a more significant role in the improvement and consolidation of democracy and protection of human rights in its or their countries, and as a result, contribute(s) more to the fulfilment of Copenhagen political criteria during the EU accession processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public expenditure and collection of public resources generate interactions among different subjects of law, natural and legal persons, subjects of public law and private law. These interactions are the main object of the financial regulation, both at domestic and EU level. The legal relations are part of social relations and the companies legally formed are subject to the execution of the financial and fiscal liabilities, which is ensured by the state authority. Financial legal relations are distinguished from other legal relationships by the specific connection that occurs between the contributors and the state authority representative. The subjects involved and the position they have towards each other is subject to regulatory act and, if needed, court of law determination and control. In legal theory, the time of crises determine deep mutation in the legislation in force and the papers shows some of these changes and conclude on some aspects to be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims to analyze the impact the economic crisis bursted out in the United States at the end of 2007 and quasi spreaded all over the world had on the (re) orientation of trade flows (exports) among European Union member states in general, and Romania in particular. As observation and analysis data tool we chose groupings, tabular and graphical representation. The analysis will be conducted at individual and group of countries levels. The main findings will show that although the geographic network of member states trade has been seriously shaken by the crisis, export flows orientatio remained quite similar to the period previous to economic decline. As for Romania, its exports prove to be influenced by the economic situation of the main European partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze the evolution of the Romanian banking system after the 2007 financial crisis and the country`s accession to the European Union. The first part analyzes the main elements of the banking system: ownership structure, number of employees and banking units, loans and non-performing loans. The second part analyzes the level of financial intermediation of the banking system. The results showed that majority of the capital is private and foreign, the top five banks held over half of the bank assets, number of employees decreased due to the crisis and non-performing loans share had increased by over nine times. Romanian banking system have a low degree of financial intermediation, but the new developments of the EU banking systems proved that it can be a strong point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complexity of the monetary phenomenon as well as the effects that it induces in the social and economic life of the countries around the world have represented and still represent the subject of much controversy and dispute. The current forms of the monetary circulation organization in different countries, internationally as well, represent the result of a continuous process of changes and innovations in the monetary area. The purpose of this article is to present aspects of the monetary policy and its instruments which have evolved according to the historical conditions of each period. The paper is also a presentation of effectiveness and limits of the monetary policy instruments and their role in solving the current economic problems for which the governments seek solutions. As a consequence to the analysis, it can be seen that in most cases it uses a mixture of monetary policy instruments because, when acting in a complementary way, they have a higher efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of 'low-pay' as a relatively new social phenomenon in Europe has received considerable attention over the past 20 years. The analysis of the low-pay in low income countries, where the average earning is already low by international standards is more complex and represents a challenging task. The stylised facts show that earnings are not uniform across the population, but they vary according to a number of socio-economic and demographic characteristics. The aim of this paper is to assess the earning function of employed workers in Macedonia by paying attention to the difference between low-paid and highly-paid employees. For this purpose, we estimate Mincer type model that explains wage income as a function of education, experience and other employee- and job-specific characteristics. As a result, we come up with a clear picture of the earnings determinants and we formulate appropriate policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty has raised growing interest due to its various spatial aspects and implications. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the relationship between poverty and inequality, analysing the way in which a high degree of social and economic inequality influences the different forms of poverty manifestation. We made use of a three-dimension analysis: actual poverty (as expressed by absolute and relative thresholds), inequality of income distribution and regional distribution of these phenomena. Although poverty has diminished, the feeling of poverty remains strong both in relation to the income of other co-nationals and to that of other European countries, Romania continuing to be, unfortunately, one of the poorest countries in EU-28. The investigation carried out revealed the fact that the economic development of the country has been accompanied by a fast decrease in absolute poverty but also by a slight increase in relative poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CEFTA 2006 is an important cooperation platform providing the Western Balkan countries and the Republic of Moldova with the opportunity to share experience and build functional economic relations. It aims to improve the economic development of the states through assuring a favourable environment for trade and investments. Moreover, CEFTA is viewed as a preparatory instrument for the future European integration of the states. It has been 10 years since the formation of CEFTA. Over this period, numerous economists, politicians and researchers debated on whether the initiative proved its commitments and what the impact of CEFTA on regional economic development, and in particular, on regional trade and investments is. Therefore, to reach relevant conclusions about the researched subject, the present paper is focused on quantitative data analysis involving descriptive and econometric methods. The analysis reflects the CEFTA general economic, trade and investments performances by examining the respective indicators including GDP per capita, GDP growth rate, total trade, imports/exports and net foreign direct investments inflows. Also, several inferences based on the correlation analysis of individual countries and the average CEFTA indicators in terms of per capita GDP, exports/imports, net FDI inflows are provided. The results obtained show that the CEFTA's primordial achievement is the de-tensioning and improvement of the political-economic evolution in the Western Balkans, followed by some trade benefits and a modest rise in the countries' FDI performance. We have reached the conclusion that the agreement is primarily beneficial to the countries' economic relations with their neighbours and the EU, having a favourable, yet, not determinative impact on economic development, trade and investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims at analyzing the main problems of posted workers in the European Union, especially the elements linked to the relationship between national and European authorities, taking into consideration the European multilevel governance system. The research on which this article is based on is the result of a project that encompasses 9 national study cases, with the aim of understanding how the EU-regulation and national OSH systems affect the health and safety of (posted) workers in a transnational workplace. The data used are gathered through desk-research, as well as fieldwork. The study-case presented within the article is that of Spain. Muddling through the complicated and complex institutionalframework, we identified that the main vulnerabilities of the posted workers are related to the a) inequality of payment for the same work; b) poor living conditions; c) cultural and language barriers; d) lack of health insurance and different regulations on work accidents; e) poor representativeness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migrant’s crisis of 2015 affected the credibility of the social security system built and strengthened over the past three decades by the European Union. Adoption of the refugee quotas in order to be relocated by the Member States of the European Union is a current issue that requires at least two directions of analysis: increasing the efficiency of the European Union humanitarian aid addressed to destination countries and deepening the dimensions of the integrative process of social inclusion of migrants. This article proposes to review the state of implementation mechanisms for supporting measures addressed to migration flows developed by the European Union together with candidate states and the mechanisms developed by international institutions and organization in order to provide specific measures of humanitarian assistance to populations in affected areas war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite existing policies of regional development and cohesion at the national and the EU level, economic regional inequalities or disparities stay relatively high or decrease too slowly. In this context, policies to reduce economic regional disparities in the European Union are a constant concern both for policy-makers and for theoretical and empirical research because of the strong impact on sustainable development in general. In this study we combine elements of theoretical and policy discussions with the empirical assessment of economic regional development in the European Union in order to identify the state of regional disparities, what factors are favouring unbalanced growth in different regions of the EU and to find an appropriate theoretical setting to understand, explain and reduce with regional inequality in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of this research is to identify the evolution of the terrorist attacks that appeared in Europe lately. In the article are mentioned the main causes that led to the terrorist attacks from France and Germany, emphasizing their effects over the 2 countries. The article brings forward the main types of attacks used by terrorists but also the number of injured persons or deaths. An essential aspect that was highlighted in the article refers to the results obtained after applying the EU-Turkey Statement but also to those regarding the transfer and relocation of the migrants in different countries. In this way, the analysis implied the selection of EU member states which received Syrian refugees by relocation together with the highlighting of the numeric situation of the persons returned from Greece to Turkey. A last part of this study assumes the identification of the personal categories who have been brought by Frontex and EASO in Greece in order to handle efficiently the crisis, which provide the expertise in the migration field. The primary question of this research is: "Is EU capable to administer the changes regarding migration, assuring in the same time its safety?". To answer this question, I identified first the costs of EU securitizing its states. I consider that the approach of this matter has a high importance since it shows the necessity of some changes meant to help European states to face the events linked to migration and implicitly, security from the last years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Parliamentary Assembly of the European Communities was the precursory body of the European Parliament, but it lacked the legitimacy the latter would gain starting with 1979, the year when the first European elections were held. The two entities differ in many ways, such as the internal organization, the competences and the connections with other European institutions, but the fundamental difference is the one that also determined the rest of the previously mentioned aspects, specifically the way their members were appointed. Although this aspect may seem solved, it will not be so until the suffrage for the European Parliament will not only be direct, universal and secret, but also accessible, assuring all interested stakeholders the same fair conditions for participation, thus eliminating all formal and informal obstacles for independent or party candidates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union, in light of developments in the field of crisis-management concepts, is still in the phase of institutional building and foundation of its own concepts and doctrines. This does not mean that the EU has taken important steps towards the creation of a doctrine based on a crystallized concept of crisis management. It should be noted at this point that since 2004 the EU has defined a comprehensive approach to crisis management. However, although conceptually placed one step ahead of NATO's comprehensive approach, operational in concept, its actual implementation has proved to be a slow and difficult process for the EU because the EU does not have a military component of its own, being much more focused on the civilian crisis management component as part of its comprehensive approach and on the idea of cooperative security, where the EU has managed to become a major player in the area of strategic interest on the global scene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the legal steps (regulatory) taken at EU level as well as in each Member State, aimed to determine an ascent of sustainable growth, supported by a substantial degree of structural reforms. Obviously, Romania joined on the line, accounting as a responsibility of the state authorities to implement the European standards of the aforementioned nature, and also to develop and implement various (national) laws in an attempt to achieve faster the macro-stabilization and to strengthen the economic and business environment. In other words, lately, a certain enhancement of the intervention of the executive authority/government by legal means in the economic and business environment occurred, a situation determined, as we will show, by the increasing financial difficulties, to which, as we observe, were associated certain circumstances regarding the environment/sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]