Search

Research, development and innovation hold a prominent position in national economies and the public sector. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the role of public research in EU countries with focus on selected indicators of research and development (R&D). The area in focus is total R&D expenditures and public R&D expenditures in years 2010 and 2015. The author also strives to analyze other R&D indicators in EU countries, pointing out the similarities and differences in the particular countries. The analysis concentrates on not only the selected indicators of public R&D, but also a comprehensive evaluation and role of public research in EU countries. EU countries are evaluated on the basis of indicators of public R&D by means of factor analysis, cluster analysis and box-plot, divided into four clusters depending on internal similarity in 2015. The most marked differences were observed in indicators of public research (R&D public expenditures as % of total R&D expenditures, researchers in public sector as % of total researchers, number of publications per 1000 researchers in the public sector, number of citable publications per 1000 researchers in the public sector) in the first cluster in comparison to the third cluster. In case of the indicator H-index (per 1000 researchers in the public sector) the most marked differences were observed in most countries of the second cluster in comparison to countries of the fourth cluster. [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]

Examining the competitiveness of public transport plays an important role because through public transport, the transport of passengers to schools, public healthcare establishments and work is ensured. In addition, transportation for vulnerable groups of passengers (students, seniors) is provided. On the other hand, public transport constitutes a financial burden on public budgets. The aim of this paper is to point out that public transport does not have an equal status in the transport market within the European Union. In the states of Central and Eastern Europe, public transport had a dominant position in the transport market in the 90s. Nowadays, the market share is declining, particularly in the bus transport, with the rising costs for public budgets regarding an increase in individual motoring. The aim of this paper is to highlight the possibilities of increasing the competitiveness of public transport by integrating different components of public transport. Another aim is to define the possibilities of financing public transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the Digital Agenda 2020, the European Union is achieving various activities and projects such as DIGCOMP, New Skills Agenda for Europe. At the European level, in all sectors of the economic and social life, there are vacant jobs due to the lack of persons holding digital competences. As estimated by the European Commission, in 2020, almost 756,000 jobs in the ICT sector will not be occupied due to the lack of persons with digital competences. Thus, the digital transformation represents a great opportunity for job creation. The paper presents an analysis concerning the digital skills in information, communication, problem-solving, content-creation of the EU population. The paper concludes with the need to develop the digital competences in all the EU Member States, and especially in Romania by smart education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local Action Groups (LAGs) represent a dynamic platform for inter-municipal cooperation in Europe. Their principal advantages include EU funding and the capacity to generate economic returns and stimulate the development of local communities. The methodology used for the evaluation of the performance of LAGs is defined by the EU on the one hand and by national authorities on the other. Furthermore, there are an entire array of evaluation tools and academic experiments available. The present paper does not aim at a comprehensive evaluation of LAGs, but instead only examines the technical efficiency of LAGs. Using the Czech Republic as an example, the paper introduces an evaluation tool to measure the technical efficiency of LAGs and describes how it can be applied. The adoption of this tool is seen as a means of improving one of the parameters of the performance of LAGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 analyses the determinants of regional economic growth in the European Union adopting a non-parametric approach. Although the local-linear kernel estimator applied does not explicitly take into account the spatial dimension of the data, it is found to be consistent in our context. In addition, the geographically weighted regression turns out to be less efficient. We obtain evidence of a non-linear relationship between regional growth and its determinants in the form of parameter heterogeneity and threshold effects. These non-linearities mainly affect the initial productivity of labour, the human capital endowment and, as a novelty, the level of infrastructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labor, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is anywhere directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labor” is the opening sentence of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. According to Smith market dimension determines the level of specialization. Specialization implies more knowledge. The final result is higher growth. After Smith economists did not pay any more attention to human capital. Their attention was kept by population (Malthus) or by physical capital stock (neoclassic school). At the beginning of the sixties of the XX century Gary Backer published his fundamental contribution to the theory of human capital. This paper examines the basic features of Backer's model. The focus is on how a country can generate a competitive advantage in the production of human capital. Human capital has grown rapidly in both US and EU where represents a wide fraction of total capital. Investment in education is thus more and more the core engine of long run growth. Subsequently on the base of Backer's theory the paper examines the case of EU and “Europe 2020” strategy. Final considerations will deal with Turkey's economic development and the need for a quality education policy, based on investments and on market incentives, bound to guarantee growth sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the disparity in the performance of the agriculture and food industry sectors in EU countries during the period from 2002 to 2013, and identifies significant differences between countries as well as the dynamics of change. The individual countries are clustered according to the long-term average of the World Bank collection of development indicators such as agricultural raw materials exports, agricultural raw materials imports, crop production index, food production index, livestock production index, cereal yield, agriculture value added and agriculture value added per worker. The analysis reveals convergence in the given period and identifies significant differences in the indicator of agriculture value added per worker at the end of the analysed period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural R&D has been identified as an important determinant of economic output in the agricultural sector. Surprisingly, in previous studies, spatial spillover associated with R&D spending in the agricultural sector has not been taken into account. This paper investigates the effects of spatial spillover of agricultural R&D on regional economic growth across EU-28 NUTS-II regions in the period 1995-2014. In particular, we extend previous studies by considering spillover in all sectors of agricultural R&D performance including business enterprise, government and higher education. The spatial Durbin panel data model is employed to estimate brooders effect including direct and indirect effects. Empirical results show a positive effect of agricultural R&D and its spatial spillover on regional growth in all performance sectors. Moreover, the impact of spatial spillover of agricultural R&D on regional growth depends on the performance of the R&D sectors; positive spillovers are stronger in the business enterprise sector. Finally, the interaction effect between the economic output of the agricultural sector of each region with that of its neighbours is significantly positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research background: The processes of economic convergence observed in many developing countries are characterized by reduction of economic differences on the cross-country level, which are accompanied by growing internal economic inequalities. This may stem from the fact that in the catching-up countries, a more dynamic growth pattern is observed in the economically strongest regions, which is initially reflected in spatial polarization and increasing regional inequalities. However, just as the countries reach higher levels of development, the diffusion of growth-inducing impulses to less-developed areas should lead to the spatial equalizing of the development levels and reducing regional inequalities. Purpose of the article: The aim of the paper is to determine the relationship between the level of economic growth and observed economic inequalities in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The theoretical framework adopted to describe and explain those relations is the so-called Williamson's hypothesis in which the relationship between the scale of regional inequalities and economic growth is illustrated by a curve shaped like an inverted U. Methods: The research procedure was intended to verify Williamson's hypothesis by estimating parabolic econometric models. Indicators of economic growth along with measure of regional inequalities (Williamson's coefficient of variation) were used in the regression modeling. The research period spanned the years 1995-2014. Findings & Value added: In the light of the study of CEE countries, it was possible to observe both convergence symptoms as well as divergence tendencies. It can be thus stated that the analyzed CEE countries followed a similar path to the one observed earlier by Williamson in other developing countries. However, the analyses conducted by the authors at the national and regional levels of CEE countries were equivocal and did not fully support the theoretical assumptions of Williamson's hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the idea of analyzing the impact of the economic freedom on national economic development. In order to realize this, the analysis is focused on three steps. For the beginning, we determined the place of the EU28 in the global economic freedom approach using the Index of economic freedom and the comparative analysis. The second step of the analysis consists of a TwoStep cluster analysis, supported by SPSS19 software, which is realized in order to support the idea that the economic freedom, connected to the economic development, created three clusters from the Member States. The clustering criterion is BIC (Schwarz's Bayesian Criterion). Finally, the analysis is focused on a forecast of the index of economic freedom till the end of 2020, in order to observe if the disparities across the world economy. The dependent variables in this forecast are the economic freedom rates and the independent variable is time. The forecast method is ARIMA. Whole analysis process and all conclusions of the paper are supported by the latest official statistic data, pertinent tables and diagrams. The main conclusion of the paper is that the economic freedom supports the economic development. Its global trend was positive in 2013-2014. There is not global economic actor in world top 10 according index of the economic freedom. Only two Member States are ranked on the global top 10. Moreover, there are great disparities across the EU28 related to the economic freedom. As a result, the Member States can be grouped into three different clusters. Romania will have a positive trend of the economic freedom score until 2020, better than the global trend of this index. The disparities between EU Member States will not be fixed on short and medium term and the solutions seem to be found at national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the main rural tourism networks in France and the forms of rural tourism encountered in this country. In the data presented lies a bibliographic study on the development of rural tourism network "Bienvenue a la ferme" between 1996 and 2013. Data analysis presented highlights rural tourism forms with the most dynamic development in the period considered, given that France is the first European country where the level of organization, diversification and promotion of rural tourism took place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to establish the future intervention priorities in building a new programme that would target the economic development in the research area. The used methodology included an adapted A'WOT analysis - an initial SWOT analysis and a prioritization of the items through an expert questionnaire. In the present paper we analyze the experts' opinions and the areas where intervention is needed for the optimum strategies for the 2014-2020 financial frame. These should rely on the strengths in the Guidelines for Applicants, the rules for projects implementation and the institutional system, it should consider changes on the weak points concerning the programme objectives, the Guidelines for Applicants and the beneficiaries consultations, it should make use of opportunities coming from the crossborder status, European Union frame and economic opportunities and overcome the differences coming from crossborder status, membership of two different supranational structures and the economic gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been widely argued that the European Economic Community (EEC) was based on principles of economic integrity and growth through the creation of a common market; this is not far from reality. The Treaty of Rome was full of provisions that enhanced economic co-operation and increased the sense of liberalization in Europe, such as the four, now traditional, Community freedoms. Although all the above applied, there were articles within the EEC Treaty where fundamental rights were guaranteed; more than that, fundamental rights that occurred from the Community freedoms, even in a basic level. This is of highest importance since the interpretation of those provisions gave the initiative for further development in the field of fundamental rights protection within the Community legal order, throughout legislative procedure and case law. The aim of this paper is to present the fundamental rights as highlighted in the EEC Treaty and critically approach their concept under Community law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2010, EU adopted a new growth strategy which includes three growth priorities and five headline targets to be reached by 2020. The aim of this paper is to investigate the current performance of the EU member and candidate states in achieving these growth priorities and the overall strategy target by allocating the headline targets into the priorities and the priorities into the strategy by the use of a composite indicator methodology. The paper determines how far away each member and candidate state is from the targeted levels of the priorities and the strategy by making a distinction between EU 15 and relatively new member states as well. The developed composite indices enable the observation of the performances of the member and candidate states in a single indicator for the overall strategy and each growth priority. The results of the strategy index and three growth priority indices show that Nordic states possess the highest index scores already having reached many of the targets; many new member states performed as good as EU 15 and some EU 15 states are placed at the bottom of the ranking with quite poor performance in reaching the EU 2020 strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This paper provides new evidence of the impact of government spending on economic growth in the European Union countries. Governments can adjust their levels of spending in order to influence their economies, although the relationship between these variables can be positive or negative, depending on the countries included in the sample, the period of estimation and the variables which reflect the size of the public sector. The results obtained based on regression and panel techniques suggest that government expenditure is not clearly related with economic growth in the European Union countries over the period 1994-2012. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Th e paper assesses the competitiveness of agriculture of 27 countries of the European Union in the years 2009- 2011. Due to the complexity of the phenomenon of competitiveness, a wide range of variables was adopted to evaluate it - including the relationship between the production factors, productivity, and the importance of agriculture in the international trade. Based on the evaluation criteria chosen for the competitiveness assessment and using the TOPSIS method, a synthetic measure of the studied phenomenon was constructed and then divided into four groups of countries similar in terms of the level of competitiveness of agriculture. Th e diff erence between the value of the synthetic measure of the country with the highest level of competitiveness of agriculture (Netherlands) and the country least competitive in this regard (Slovenia) was 3.5-fold. In addition to the Netherlands, there were classified also France, Germany, Denmark and Belgium in the fi rst group, so the countries with high levels of the socio-economic development. In the second group, there were seven countries: Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, Cyprus, Austria, Ireland and Luxembourg. Th erefore, the fi rst two groups are formed by the countries belonging to the so-called "Old 15" (except Cyprus). Th e last two groups are formed primarily by the countries that joined the European Union in 2004 or later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the causal relation between the stock markets development and economic growth in the EU countries. In particular, the nature and causality direction is investigated. Panel data techniques including cointegration tests, vector error correction models and Granger causality tests were applied to indicate the nature and direction of causality. Long-run effects of the economic growth upon stock market development was detected in the sample of the Euro area member countries. In addition, the short-run mutual relations between growth and stock markets were indicated in that country-sample. In the non-Euro area countries, only short-run impact of the stock market development upon economic growth was found. The empirical findings bring up implications for macroeconomic stabilization and development policies. The indicated relations also play a role in predicting economic growth and stock markets' development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to explore the role of trade in aligning the synchronisation patterns between the South Eastern European (SEE) countries --Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, FYR of Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia -- and members of the euro area. More precisely, we investigate whether bilateral trade flows affect output synchronisation between the euro area countries and SEE countries and compare trade-synchronisation patterns between the SEE countries and new member states that have not yet introduced the euro (NMS). The results show that the levels of output similarities between the SEE countries and NMS are different and that the SEE countries exhibit lower output correlation with the euro area members than the NMS. Exploring the role of trade in aligning growth patterns has in some cases found positive effects, much stronger for the SEE countries, which have lower trade intensity levels. We argue that the reason for these results is related to the fact that other factors could be dominant in the NMS countries (policy measures alignment within the EU), while for the SEE countries only trade relationships had the opportunity to exert noticeable effects in the analysed period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aimed to evaluate the level of development of agriculture in 25 member states of the European Union (EU) in 2010-2013. The analysis was carried out using the development model proposed by Hellwig, which enabled the calculation of a single synthetic aggregate measure based on the characteristics of agriculture in respective countries. This made it possible to compare the analysed member states, thus providing the basis for allocating them to uniform groups characterised by a similar level of agricultural development. The results indicate that the Netherlands and Denmark are the countries with the highest level of agricultural development. The studies also show that the worst level of development in the ranking is presented primarily by the member states that acceded to the EU in 2004 and later, with agriculture in Slovakia and the Czech Republic being an exception. The diversification of the values of synthetic measure in respective member states points to a considerable diversification of agricultural development within the EU, which is determined both by the production potential and the effectiveness of its utilisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-efficiency links economic efficiency with environmental efficiency. The main purpose of the concept is to identify and implement activities to enable production that is both economically more efficient and cleaner. This means that parameters with a high indicative value have to be used. Since both the environmental and the economic performance of industries must be described concurrently, environmental intensity appears to be a good indicator of eco-efficiency. Environmental intensity is environmental impact per unit of economic performance. In this paper, the environmental impact of industry classes is derived from emission data, released by the European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER), and then aggregated and assessed using Eco-Indicator 99, a single-score life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method. The calculated ratio is thus an accurate description of the environmental–economic state of industry classes. The main advantage of this approach is the underlying consistent statistical framework, that permits, on a disaggregated level, economic data to be correlated with ecological data and to be frequently updated. This single indicator facilitates a comparison of environmental intensity of different industry classes. The paper shows that it is possible to deduce a disaggregated eco-efficiency indicator, which is exemplified using German data, however could be analysed for different European countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The concept of positive conditionality has been seen as 'the golden carrot' of the EU's external relations, enlargement and neighbourhood policies. Regarded as a mutually important and valuable method of partnership between the EU and its partner countries to develop social, political and economic progress with an effective motivation system, positive conditionality is nowadays used in areas ranging from development cooperation to neighbourhood policy, and most successfully in the enlargement agenda. The EU and its member states have characterised conditionality as a functional cooperation or pre-accession method of integration, where guidance and strict rules are needed to provide effective convergence with the EU and to support transitional societies in the modernisation process. The motivation of conditionality has been characterised as functional and in the mutual interests of both the target states and the EU. This paper will study the driving force behind the pre-accession conditionality from the first to fifth enlargements: has it been a neo-functional motive to support the fulfilment of accession criteria by candidates, or a neo-imperial motive to use the accession conditionality mainly in the interests of the existing member states to fix their advantages in economic and political affairs? This paper will offer a comparative analysis on the pre-accession situation, conditionality levels and argumentation of motivation for the first five EU enlargements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial integration contributes to the development of the financial system by increasing competition, increasing stability, and the efficiency of financial intermediation, resulting in lower intermediation costs and a more efficient capital allocation. Financial integration increases the depth and liquidity of financial markets and thus enhances the resilience of the European financial system. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of European financial integration on economic growth using the factors through which financial integration affects growth. Thus will be seen which of these factors had a significant impact on economic growth in the EU countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the Global Financial Crisis the frequency of reported losses of companies has increased significantly in countries of the European Union. Moreover, the fi nancial leverage of companies have increased and even exceeded 100% in several countries. The reason of this development is negative equity that companies find themselves to report. At first sight negative equities are caused by accumulated losses from prior periods. However, there are some other reasons that can result in increasing negative equities in companies. They remain adequate as long as a company is able to pay its bills. Nevertheless, a company with negative equity is exposed to risks. This paper investigates whether the corporate negative equity is a sign of the future failure of a company. We examine nonfi nancial manufactured companies from selected countries of the European Union within the period 2005-2012 from database Amadeus (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Germany). By the means of comparison between negative and positive equities we applied descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis. We find that in all surveyed countries the size positively influences the equity of companies. Other factors as profitability and growth opportunities do not influence the corporate equity. In addition the binary logistic regression analysis has been conducted based on the evidence from Czech companies. Our results indicate that negative equities are not a sign of bankruptcy or insolvency of a company. But the low profitability or low business activities (that are predictors of bankruptcy) might lead to negative equities in the balance sheet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses three sustainable development strategies -- the European Union's Sustainable Development Strategy in its revised version, the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development and Slovenia's Development Strategy -- according to the level of sustainability these strategies provide. Deriving from three diverse sustainable development regimes, selected strategies are scrutinised for the presence of the five general principles of effective sustainable development strategies promoted by the United Nations and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Building on George and Kirkpatrick's (2006) framework for analysis, we concentrate on principles of strategic planning and sustainable development, and a coordinated set of measures to ensure their implementation. The results reveal that the major differences between the assessed strategies are present in the sophistication of the theoretical bases and the integration of three main pillars of sustainable development (i.e. environmental, economic and social). In general, the assessed strategies reflect a high degree of inclusiveness of a variety of interests. However, there is a common weakness among them in terms of implementation, be it in the provision of adequate resources, the guarantee of adequate implementing capacity of the institutions designated for implementation or the precise definition of the institutional framework responsible for the implementation of the strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowdays, competitiveness has, more than ever, an economic meaning, based on its major influence on public and private institutions behavior, new jobs, long-term policyes and investments. In a global economy, market attractiveness makes the difference between evolution and economic stagnation and aware of this stakes, the European Union tries constantly to improve its general competitiveness. The main goal of this paper is to determinate the general competitiveness index of the entire European Unioin, how can it be improved by increasing the economic and political role of EU regions and if european policies encourage this bottom-up development of the competitivness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new index to quantify, measure and monitor the progress towards the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy. This index is based on a set of relevant, accepted, credible, easy to monitor and robust indicators presented by the European Commission at the time the strategy was launched. The internal analysis of the index shows that the Smart and the Inclusive growth dimensions of the strategy are strictly correlated and that the trade-offs between each of these two dimensions and the Sustainable one exist but are decreasing, suggesting that a change towards more sustainable models of development is occurring in Europe. The external analysis of the index shows that it can be a valid measure to assess the overall competitiveness of countries and that the most critical factors for this strategy to be successful are good governance and social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the authors document a growing divergence between current account imbalances in northern and southern euro area countries from 1992 to 2007. The imbalance occurred without a concomitant rise in productivity and growth in the southern (deficit) countries. The authors argue that systematic monitoring of external imbalances and implementation of better coordinated policies to prevent the emergence of unsustainably large imbalances in the euro area is advisable because (i) country heterogeneity and the absence of optimal currency area characteristics may lead to the emergence of large current account imbalances without automatic gains in productivity and economic growth to sustain these imbalances, (ii) the absence of sufficient market-based adjustment mechanisms substantially increases the costs of ultimate adjustment toward more sustainable current account positions, and (iii) large external imbalances--particularly through the major role of the banking system--potentially have strong negative consequences for fiscal policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Euroregions are administrative-territorial structures intended to promote cross-border cooperation between neighbouring local or regional authorities of different countries located along shared state borders. They are widely known tools of cooperation among the regions. Having integrated structures and their own financial resources, euroregions are able to address a variety of cross-border topics such as health, research and development, education and training, waste management, environmental protection, tourism and leisure, rescue and security, transport and communication infrastructure, mobility of people, and business cooperation. This paper explores the main characteristics and problems of euroregions as institutions in the Baltic Sea Region and especially in the regions bordering the Third countries. First, it describes euroregions; then it focuses on their compositions and roles and main issues confronting them with reference to the empirical research carried out among the thirty-five cross-border cooperating organisations. The new legal instrument for euroregions deserves special attention since it provides a basis under public law for decentralised trans-European cooperation between regional and/or local authorities. The article concludes with a discussion of the needs and associated development opportunities available to euroregions within the Baltic Sea Region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of public investments became a very challenging subject for public decisionmakers since it incorporates the question of state performance, the quality of public finance and their effects on growth. The quality of public finance is a multidimensional concept. It may be regarded as representing all the arrangements and operations regarding the financial politics that sustain the macroeconomic objectives, particularly the longterm economic growth. Financial policies at European level highlight the fact that a concentration of the public expenses in areas that stimulate the economic growth and a more efficient use of the public resources are key methods for sustaining the economic growth. The empirical proofs seem to support the assumption according to which certain types of public expenses can supply incentives and other can negatively influence the economic growth. The paper tries to reveal the effects of capital spending on economic growth (GDP per capita) for the European Union member states. The GDP per capita and the capital expenses (functional classification of public expenses - "COFOG") have been obtained by considering the Eurostat statistics, the measurement unit for both variables is Euro, while the period of analysis is of 7 years (2000-2006). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This papers aims to examine the experience of the four "Cohesion Countries" of the EU-15 -- Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Greece and to identify their best practices as well as a series of drawbacks in the implementation of the EU structural assistance. The resulted conclusions can be taken as useful lessons for the EU's New Member States with regard to their efforts to absorb the EU funds and to reduce the discrepancies between their development level at national and regional scale and the EU average (the so-called "catching-up" process). A special emphasis will be put on the case of Romania, considering the authors' research results in this field and their recent calculations focused on the absorption of the pre-accession funds, especially the Phare assistance. Their findings will be the source of several considerations and proposals for increasing Romania's absorption capacity in the 2007-2013 programming period. [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 European Economic Community (E.E.C) has, since its inception, pursued "common" policies in areas which have a strategic significance for the long term aims of the community. The most significant "common" policy is the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) but of real importance for E.E.C. goals of stimulating the economy and improving the conditions of cross-frontier freight movements is the Common Transport Policy (CTP) It is argued in this paper that while the CTP has made significant progress in the "regulation," "harmonization," "charging for infrastructure" and related areas it has failed to recognize the wider environment of transport and in particular the ways in which transport policies are inextricably linked with other policies of the E.E.C. Successive policy statements are examined to illustrate how the E.E.C.'s view of transport can be seen to be increasingly narrow and unrelated to the central issues of community development in the period immediately preceding Economic and Monetary Union. While very critical of E.E.C. policy the underlying assumption is that transport is a core policy through and with which one can advance the central issues, as long as the links between policies are understood and the administrative machinery reflects this. [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]

Currently with particular attention of small and medium enterprises, whose existence in the economic structure of a country is absolutely indispensable. We know that they always represent a special role in economic and social life of society, being out in the revival of many economies. With the emergence and assertion of small and medium business in economies that are in the process of developing a new phenomenon and a central component of any program of economic reform, accepting a global perspective on the phenomenon, represents an essential condition to achieve a relevant research. A central point of departure in research problems of small and medium enterprises presents how they are defined, comparing definitions, the role of this type of business and health policies in different countries and that type of business impact analysis macroeconomic structure. The fundamental purpose of this research is focused on the development of contributions to the foundation of small and middle business in the context of integration into the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Members of the European Union, Germany and Bulgaria are united by the same values and expectations. Both countries aim to closer relations in order to insure economic growth and a high competitiveness level. The objective of this article is to present, from a historical approach, the evolution of the economic and political relations between Bulgaria and Germany. The methodological process adopted in the present analyses is of both qualitative and quantitative nature. The article uses data from theoretical and empirical research on the economic and politic relations between Germany and Bulgaria and presents them from a historical perspective. Even though they were hit by the economic crisis, the two member states of the EU continued to maintain their economic relation on a positive trend. The recovering German economy continues to help Bulgaria, which has a hard time coming out of the crisis. The good economic relationship between the two partners will continue to be successful, the trade and investment flows being expected to double until 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capacity to absorb European funds is part of a state complex integrated admninistrative capacity, a component of a state as a whole. The analysis in this article starts from the theoretical development by studying the reports made by the Romanian Government, correlated with the European Union reports on funds and Romanian legislation. This analysis of the EU's structural funds, highlights the importance of accessing them and the degree to which Romania and member countries benefits of income support. European funds are meant to supplement a member of the Union funds to the extent that they are accessed through the projects. Money allocated on type of operation is distributed in amounts proportionate to that state needs. Money distributed will be justified by their realization of infrastructure projects, environment, transport, human resources development, rural and regional development. Theoretical research lay the foundation for determining administrative capacity in Romania from the first time of defining the concept until now. Empirical research reveals the degree of absorption of which is that Romania has in comparison with some EU countries, former socialist countries present democratic states. The absorption capacity of European funds determine the strength of a state administrative management issues in the management of monetary dated. Power in handling management administrative problems can be efficient in higher manner and it's represented by cost-benefit analysis and the degree of satisfaction of citizen interest. As public services are financially supported and developed, the degree of citizen satisfaction is greater in an implemented decentralized administrative system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The above article, published online on 4 December 2015 in Wiley Online Library (), has been retracted by agreement between the author, the journal Editor in Chief, Professor Roberta Capello, and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The retraction has been agreed due to overlap between this article and the following article published in Belgeo, 'Paradigm change in regional policy : towards smart specialisation? Lessons from Flanders (Belgium)' by Ties Vanthillo and Ann Verhetsel. Belgeo [Online], 1-2 | 2012, Online since 04 December 2012, connection on 29 January 2016. URL: . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]