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The purpose of this contribution is to discuss the extent of the Union's competence to adopt a comprehensive instrument of substantive contract law in light of the options set forth in the Commission's 2010 Green Paper on European contract law, with a view to exploring the limits of, and the relationship between, certain prominent Treaty provisions in the debate -- namely, Articles 114, 115, 81, 169 and 352 TFEU (ex Articles 95, 94, 65, 153 and 308 EC, respectively) -- and the roles played by the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality in guiding the exercise of Union competence inside, as well as outside, the EU decision-making process. Moreover, given the reference to certain American techniques in the Green Paper, this contribution seeks to facilitate discussion of the comparative dimensions of the constitutional assessment of contract law in the European Union and the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although based on academic background and literature, my answer to the questions posed by the European Commission turns out to be rather political as from my point of view it is impossible to address those questions in a purely technical way. Although there are other, probably more relevant, obstacles to the internal market, I consider that there is enough evidence to assume that different legislation is an obstacle well worth looking at. I begin with the discussion of goals, strictly connected to the scope of application, and move to the debate on formal/informal harmonisation of contract law. As on one side there is not enough evaluation to sustain solidly that harmonisation or unification is better that diversity that meets local preferences, and on the other side liberty, subsidiarity and proportionality claim for parties' freedom to opt for their better solution, I support the view that Member States must be able to maintain their internal law but at the same time must wide the parties' scope of options with the approval of a Regulation on European contract law. In any case, a lot of assessment should still take place. [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]

The sustainable management of aquatic ecosystems requires better coordination between policies span-ning freshwater, coastal and marine environments. Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has been promoted as a holistic and integrative approach for the safekeeping and protection of aquatic biodiversity. The paper assesses the degree to which key European environmental policies for the aquatic environment, namely the Birds and Habitats Directives, Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive, individually support EBM and can work synergistically to implement EBM. This assessment is based on a review of legal texts, EU guidance and implementation documents. The paper concludes that EBM can be made operational by implementing these key environmental directives. Opportunities for improving the integration of EU environmental policies are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses decarbonisation scenarios for the European passenger car fleet in 2050. The scenarios have been developed using the backcasting approach and aim to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of passenger cars to a level defined in the Transport White paper that is 60% below 1990 levels. Considering the emission levels of 2010, a yearly reduction of 1.7% is required in order to achieve the target. Car emissions were decomposed into the main emission factors of mobility, efficiency and carbon intensity. How these factors change over time depends on various external factors: the pace of technological improvements, the future role of cars in society’s mobility system and the priority given to decarbonising energy demand. The analysis showed that if car mobility and ownership continue to increase as expected in a ‘business as usual’ case, a share of 97% plug-in hybrid or battery electric vehicles might be required by 2050, together with a substantial decrease in greenhouse gas emission from electricity production. A transition to more advanced car technology such as automated driving, advanced batteries or lightweight materials in vehicle production would raise vehicle efficiency. Should car mobility continue at a high level, an early technology transition will be required. [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]

This paper focuses on Habermas's notion of cosmopolitan democracy. Reconfiguring the basic ideas of democracy in postnational terms is inevitable if social and political integration is to succeed on a supranational level. In exploring Habermas's ideas, we draw on Rancière, whose thought stands in a complex relationship to Habermas. On the one hand, Rancière largely shares Habermas's diagnosis of the present. Both bemoan the erosion of the political caused by post‐democracy and censure the rise of right‐wing extremism in Western societies. On the other hand, and in contrast to Habermas, Rancière holds that these problems should be addressed not primarily by strengthening political institutions and reaching a consensus between conflicting parties, but by rethinking conflict and resistance. We show that Habermas's and Rancière's propositions can be productively brought in dialogue by focusing on the paradigmatic types of political subjectivity involved in their accounts: the citizen (Habermas) and the plebeian (Rancière). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forms of foreign direct investments that represent the instrument of cross-border cooperation are Greenfield and Brownfield investments. On the territory of the Republic of Serbia, during the 2000-2016 period, there were established 151 Greenfield and 15 Brownfield companies. The sum of investments of these 166 companies was near € 7,000,000,000. the capital is from 18 European countries, then from United States, Taiwan, China, South Korea, Canada and India. The largest number of the investments is from Italy (30), Germany (29), Austria (17) and Slovenia (16). Most Greenfield and Brownfield companies belong to the secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy, while 22 companies belong to quaternary sector (real estate, tourism, finance, insurance and pension, telecommunication, film industry, software and ICT). The analysis, synthesis, comparative and mapping methods were used in this paper. The data were collected from domestic and foreign scientific papers, as well as from the official electronic database. Given data are connected to the traffic network of Serbia, and the goal was to realize its influence on choosing locations for foreign direct investments. Favourable geo- traffic position of the towns, where the company seats are located, has great significance in the work of these companies due to the reduction of transport costs. This paper analyzed the companies' selection of location and their position in relation to the main roads in the country - Corridor X. The zonation of companies and towns where they are located, depending on their distance from the corridor 10, were processed in GeoMedia program. Results showed that most of the companies (102) were located at a distance of 10 kilometres from the highway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the constructions and dynamics of subaltern migrant subjectivities in three arrival cities, Athens, Istanbul and Nicosia. The paper draws on empirical research in three cities geopolitically located in the most south-eastern part of the Mediterranean basin and the boundary triangle connecting Europe, Asia and Africa. This is essentially a process where the will, agency and praxis of subaltern migrants in the context of social struggles are interwoven with precarious spaces. Precarity is at the core of their daily existence: precarious labour, precarious stay and precarious lives. The generation, maintenance, evolution, even erosion of mobile commons are consequential of social processes and struggles driven by subaltern and precarious subjects, migrants and non-migrants alike. The article explores how the generation of claims to rights is restructuring Lefebvre’s ‘right to the city’, as new forms of commons through mobility, resistance and digital materialities are contesting the sovereign governance and surveillance technologies in Europe and beyond. The paper contends that such perspectives from the borders of Europe, that is, in and out of Europe, are not only crucial to the understanding of what is happening in Europe, but are an advanced glimpse into potentialities of the world ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is twofold, i.e. to discuss the migrant and refugee crisis in Europe/the EU as a key frame of reference for further considerations and to analyse what are, so far, the consequences of this crisis for the Eastern Partnership (EaP) and the EU cooperation with the EaP countries. Thus, the paper consists of two main parts. It starts with a brief overview of the migration and asylum landscape in Europe/the EU in times of the so-called 'crisis' of 2014+, some discussions about what kind of crisis we are talking about and what the crisis means in different contexts. This is followed by a general picture of the EU response to the migrant and refugee crisis in order to show where we are in mid-2017. The second part of the paper deals with the issue of the Eastern Partnership - the current state of play is presented and factors influencing this EU political initiative are highlighted in particular in the context of the migrant and refugee crisis in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic developments experienced within the countries of European Union (EU) in the recent years have reported impacts on road safety levels, especially in serious injuries and traffic fatalities. In order to support the road safety strategies of the EU countries, it is essential to investigate the association of road safety levels with economic, social and demographic factors and finally comparatively evaluate the performance of each country. This paper aims at analyzing the road safety performance of EU-23 countries over a decade (2005–2014) considering their socio-economic and demographic background. For doing so, two distinctive models were applied, in particular, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and DEA-Cross Efficiency Model (DEA-CEM), both suitably adapted to the road safety particularities. Moreover, the concept of road safety evaluation is performed by using comparable road safety indicators, namely, mortality rate and fatality risk. The results of this study contribute to the decision/policy making agenda from the perspective of evaluating road safety performance levels by using short-term and long-term road safety targets. Additionally, an unbiased ‘picture’ of the countries’ road safety performance over a period of 10 years is provided, accompanied with information on the intra-period countries’ efficiency of their road safety targets. The proposed intra-period analysis has useful practical and methodological implications since it is able to expose the evolution of road safety levels among the countries, besides a static overall picture. Finally, this study offers valuable insights on the cross-evaluation of road safety levels among the EU countries by considering a target-setting approach for each of them before and during a turbulent financial period for Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wave of privatisation is unfolding in Europe in the wake of the financial crisis, but it has yet to receive serious scholarly attention. This paper examines the case of Ireland, where an austerity strategy and European Union International Monetary Fund bailout conditionality have given impetus to the transfer of public assets to the private sector. Theoretically, the paper explains the roots of the phenomenon with reference to a reformulated concept of 'accumulation by dispossession' whose usefulness lies in emphasising the politico-economic drivers of privatisation, which have been neglected in the mainstream literature. A typology is presented that argues that accumulation by dispossession manifests itself, in practice, through four main processes: (1) private repossession of assets nationalised during the financial crisis; (2) restructuring of state-owned enterprises; (3) commodification of assets and services hitherto located outside the market; and (4) privatised stimulus through public-private partnerships. The paper's framework should be useful to conceptualise ongoing privatisation processes in other European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of the integration process into the European Union a continuous discourse has evolved about what characterizes 'Europe' and whether there is a common 'European identity'. Most recently, this discourse has tended to define the European 'Self' in contrast to a 'foreign' Muslim 'Other'. The debate is taking place against the background of new Muslim arrivals in Europe. However, the presence of Muslim citizens in Europe is not a recent phenomenon. This empirical research paper explores the effects this discourse has had on the perspective of Muslim youths in Kosovo on European identity. Kosovo is seen as a European country with a centuries-old Muslim presence. It seeks to further 'Europeanize' itself in order to connect with the EU. By means of qualitative in-depth interviews with young practicing Muslims in Prishtina the paper reveals that the participants have not started to view 'Europe' in any negative way. Instead, they use their positive understanding of European identity which they associate with diversity and freedom of religion for Muslims. The respondents heavily criticize their own government for misunderstanding the concept as denoting 'un-Muslim', which leads to an oppression of practicing Muslims in Kosovo in light of the country's attempt to 'be European'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU is clearly in the process of developing an external dimension to the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ). This paper focuses on ex. Police and Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters (PJCCM) provisions. These developments pose specific legal basis issues for the EU, given its complex EU–member state legal relationship, and the inter-institutional balance, all reflected in the treaty framework post-Lisbon. New Court of Justice rulings are now emerging which will assist in this issue. Equally the approach to be taken in developing these relationships will be crucial. This paper proposes the adoption of an Onuf style constructivism in order to best capture the reality of the process that is developing, and has developed for the ex. PJCCM measures internally. This then needs to be allied with a constitutionalism model to ensure a balanced development of all three aspects of the AFSJ. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper discusses the problem of the Southern European (SE) capitalism and its difficult path into the EMU (European Monetary Union), looking at the remote causes of the crisis that hit these economies. For this reason, we consider European countries as a set of asymmetrically integrated variety of capitalism. The institutional configuration chosen by Europe to aggregate the many varieties of capitalism not only reduced the political autonomy of the single states, but effectively hindered the specific coordination mechanism of Southern European (SE) capitalism which was importantly based on state intervention as a structural element and on inflationary policies. Despite the deep market-oriented reforms this change caused both structural and macroeconomic unbalances. The aim of the paper is to integrate some principles of the variety of capitalism and the dynamics of institutional change with some insights inspired by the work of Arrighi to supply a synthetic and ‘alternative’ perspective on the difficult role that Southern countries are experiencing in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to compare the evolution of inclusive education policy in the four countries of an EU-funded research project (QualiTYDES) operating under the shared policy environment of the UN, EU and European Commission. A shared policy cannot of course be assumed to result in common legislative or provisional outcomes at national level. The different sociocultural, political, historical and economic contexts in each country shape its journey towards ‘compliance’ with an international convention (both pre- and post-ratification), and neither the route nor the destination can be assumed to be shared, given the scope for different interpretations of the same texts. This paper places the implementation trajectories of four European countries side by side as they attempt to move towards ‘inclusive’ education systems. Following a brief overview of the international education policy environment relating to the education of people with disabilities, we describe the national education policy responses in Ireland, Austria, Spain and Czech Republic in recent decades, including both legislation pertaining to special educational need and implementation of policies in practice. The comparison highlights the different manifestations of inclusive education current in each country, and also explores the challenges which have arisen as individual countries attempt to align international policy with provision in existing education systems, each with their own legacy interests, pressures and priorities. Examples of ‘gaps’ in this alignment are where learners with disabilities/SEN are likely to be failed, and represent the critical points at which barriers to fully inclusive education arise and negatively impact opportunity over the life course. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The energy system is facing changes across Europe, motivated by CO 2 emission reduction targets and driven by the expansion of renewable energy sources (RES). Germany is carrying out efforts to reshape its future energy system to be mainly based on RES. Nonetheless, flexible generation capacities like natural gas (NG) power plants will still be needed in the coming decades. Recent developments in the NG market have been characterised by uncertainties on the supply side as plans have been put forth for new pipelines to facilitate Russian or Caspian NG towards Europe as well as increasing volumes of liquefied natural gas entering the market. This paper aims to show the interdependence between infrastructure developments and primary NG demand in the German energy system. The authors analyse impacts for the German ‘Energiewende’ on a time horizon from 2010 to 2050. Coupling a European NG model with a German energy system model, we develop six scenarios regarding climate policy in Germany and European diversification strategies in infrastructure expansion. The results show, that NG prices influence sectoral changes especially in the residential sector. Further strategies to reduce CO 2 emissions in the entire energy system should also consider NG as part of the solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy is a focal point of discussion in the European Union, as clean production technologies contribute to all three aims of energy policy (security, competitiveness, and sustainability). This paper focuses on an empirical assessment of feed-in tariff and quota obligation policies, as well as their policy design elements, applied to solar photovoltaic energy in the European Union over the period 2000–2014. The results indicate that only feed-in tariff policy has significant impacts in terms of installed photovoltaic capacity. However, its main policy design elements (tariff size and contract duration) have a positive but not significant influence on the development of this clean production technology. Policy-makers should consider the importance of reducing regulatory uncertainty about these parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population ageing, together with the negative effects of the recent economic and financial crisis that some European countries are still facing, have threatened the sustainability of public pension systems. In this context, voluntary private pensions have emerged as the most feasible alternative to supplement the minimum provided by Social Security Systems; however, this financial product does not enjoy its expected popularity. A potential explanation of this reality might be due to the fact that European countries are far from being homogeneous, nor their pensions systems. Therefore, any policy geared toward improving financial retirement planning should take into account these potential differences. As a first approach to their analysis, this paper proposes the existence of four different ‘social models’ in Europe -namely, Continental, Mediterranean, Nordic and Transitional-. Overall, empirical evidence confirmed the significant influence of country’ ‘social model’ on the decision to invest in retirement accounts on a sample of 31,468 individuals in 2013. It was also proved that this decision is positively related to age, household income and wealth, higher levels of formal education, job situation, good health status, and long-term planning horizons; and negatively related to age squared, household size or financial risk aversion. In short, future policies and reforms regarding private pensions should not only take into account the existence of individual differences among Europeans, but also the existence of differences depending on institutional and cultural country factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two mega-trends are rapidly emerging to reshape the European energy system: decarbonisation and digitalisation. Based on strong public policies, decarbonisation is already transforming the European energy mix, while industry-driven technological innovation is progressively opening-up new and potentially disruptive opportunities for evolving energy systems. These trends will transform the European energy system from a static, unidirectional and centralised model into a dynamic, multidimensional and more decentralised one. In this framework, the governance of the European energy system will also need to change. Traditional top-down energy and climate policy dynamics will need to be complemented by more bottom-up dynamics, and increasing interaction between local, national and EU policies will be essential. This paper provides an insight on these future developments, and suggests key policy coordinates to navigate these uncharted waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The right of children to be heard is acknowledged as a fundamental human right, as the European Court of Human Rights in the case Iglesias Casarrubios and Cantalapiedra Iglesias v Spain of 11 October 2016 emphasized. In the Brussels IIa Regulation this right plays a crucial role. On 30 June 2016, the European Union Commission issued a Recast Proposal of this Regulation, which suggests amending it in several aspects including the hearing of the child. This paper analyzes how the Brussels IIa Regulation addresses the right of the child to be heard and the amendments suggested by its Recast Proposal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Service of proceedings on the defendant must be effected in such a way that he is able to adequately defend his legal position and is therefore directly linked to Article 6(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights and to Article 47 of the Charter of the Fundamental Rights of the European Union (EU). The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has dealt with service-related issues on many occasions, and so has also the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), especially when dealing with difficulties detected by national courts facing the application of EU legislation. Indeed, the EU lawmaker has been aware of the relevance of first service of process and has afforded it a very significant attention: when regulating cross-border service of the claim; in the context of specific "EU" civil proceedings (like the EU order for payment procedure, the EU small claims procedure or the EU account preservation order); and in the framework of recognition and enforcement of foreign decisions. It is the aim of this paper to analyse the way in which first service of process has been addressed in European legislation, and also, from the point of view of case-law, the way in which the ECtHR and the CJEU have approached this issue. By analysing both Regulations and case-law it may be possible to extract minimum European standards regarding this procedural safeguard which, undoubtedly, can serve as a starting point for EU legislative implementation and, in a perhaps not-so-distant future, to standardize national codes of procedural law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes links between eco-innovation performance and selected competitiveness issues perceived by managers in the 26 EU member states. Different dimensions of eco-innovation performance in individual EU member states were examined based on the Eco-Innovation Scoreboard. The country-specific data on selected competitiveness issues were obtained from the survey of business leaders carried out by the IMD World Competitiveness Center. The data on the Summary Innovation Index applied in the European Innovation Scoreboard were also used. The results of the cross-country analysis indicated that overall eco-innovation performance is strongly correlated with ethical practices, social responsibility of business leaders, health, safety and environmental concerns, as well as with corporate values. Moreover, it was found that the lack of pollution problems affecting economy, credibility of managers in society, environmental laws that do not hinder competitiveness of businesses, positive attitudes toward globalization in society, sustainable development being a priority in companies, and need for economic and social reforms are of particular importance in achieving better eco-innovation performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper deals with the history of abolitionism in the main European states. This essay first introduces the course of abrogation of capital punishment in its Italian cradle, then it details the steps by which the status of this kind of sanction changed in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England and the Russian and Soviet Empires during the past centuries and, chiefly, the past decades. The present article covers both the early results of the abolitionist movement in the countries analysed, and the final cessation of this legal institution by which these states discontinued the practice of capital punishment for good and all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU may be asui generispolity but it has not escaped the challenge of establishing narratives that help define its territoriality. Political narratives about territoriality, especially political myths, are important instruments for political communities to develop ontological security. The article argues that the European Union faced a dilemma in the refugee crisis in balancing its foundational values with a narrative about a territory with managed external borders. The EU’s territorial myth is not entirely successful in that it lacks some key narrative forms that are essential for widely diffused myths. Territorial myths are not just about establishing borders but also about defining the community; so long as this remains ill-defined, the paper argues, territorial myths will contribute in a limited way to providing the ontological security to address pressing challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In his later writings Peter Mair expressed strong and ever more urgent concerns over the state of party politics and the future of representative politics itself. This paper uses Mair’s thesis to frame a discussion about the state of our representative system of democracy. It starts by setting out his arguments on party and democratic failure. It then considers the question of whether the evidence supports such a perspective, or whether in fact there are signs of adaptability and change. This in turn leads to a discussion about the reform agenda in established representative democracies, with particular attention to the potential of ‘mini-publics’ in enabling a role for ordinary citizens in debates over constitutional reform. The paper concludes by arguing that this reform agenda provides evidence of democracies being reconfigured rather than stripped down. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper aims to provide a practitioner's perspective on the enforcement of the remedy of "ineffectiveness" in EU procurement law. Needless to say, while the EU procurement Directives aim to establish harmonised rules throughout the EU, the application of these rules and the enforcement of remedies vary between the Member States, due to differences in the legal systems. This paper aims to provide a snapshot of the situation in the EU based on the authors' practical experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reflects on how ESDP (European Spatial Development Perspective) principles can be applied in territories with weak population patterns in quantitative terms. The ESDP defines a functional urban area (FUA) as the influence area of a city and sets a minimum threshold of 15,000 inhabitants for the city and 40,000 for the entire FUA. These thresholds are taken as guidelines to explore the concept of functional regions, adding more information from several sources. Hence the paper starts under the normative background given by EU spatial policy and proposes a methodology of analysis combining several techniques, including an application for the Castilla–La Mancha autonomous region (ES42 in NUTS 2). The approaches used in the method proposed include data from mobility, commuting, accessibility and qualitative analyses of services. The outcome shows how ESDP principles could be applied in practice in places with low-density settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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]

This paper aims at presenting the new constitution of Hungary, a member state of the EU which Croatia is to access. The mentioned Constitution came into force on 1 January 2012 causing since then numerous debates not only among the Hungarian public but the EU as well. It has also been discussed by those who heard of some constitutional solutions only from media or some political circles. Considering the importance of this legal act, the paper analyses it and points out to the recent constitutional amendments passed in shorter than a year. Passing the Constitution and its amendments in this short time span is possible only due to the two-thirds majority that current government has gained for the term of office from 2010-2014 so that it can independently pass all legal acts. In consistence therewith the law on privileged acquisition of citizenship for the Hungarians living abroad has been accepted providing dual citizenship possibility. The constitution comprises one of the longest preambles in Europe referring to the Christian roots, the meaning of the God and Christianity in preserving national awareness, indicating to a thousand-year history of the Hungarian statehood from the state founder St. Stephen until modern times. It also mentions the doctrine of the Hungarian Holy Crown, rejecting of the Nazi and Communist legacy, but it points out the importance of the family and nation constituting the foundation of social life. As for the governmental constitution and freedom and rights of the citizens, the Constitution is attached to earlier decisions with new regulations protecting the right to life from conception as well as amendments defining the marriage as a union for life between a man and a woman. The maker of the constitution has explained a need for a new constitution supported by the fact that Hungary as the only postcommunist (so called transitional) country did not pass a new constitution after the fall of communism but amended the one of 1949 in detail. Since it was not a unique fundamental act, final provisions of contemporary constitution mention the fact that it is the first ''unique consitution of Hungary''. Since the consitution partly refers to historical facts, the introductory part deals with the Hungarian legal past followed by current foundations of the constitutional system in the context of the mentioned constitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the paper is to analyse the issue of detention of asylum seekers, a common practice of many states today. Although states have the right to detain aliens due to illegal entry or stay, according to the international human right law, as well as to the European and national legislation no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile Analysis in the paper is based on the legal method of research and interpretation of legal acts and other sources of law, namely treaties, European legislation (acquis on asylum and related matters and legal acts of the Council of Europe on asylum, in particular the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights) and the Croatian legislation on asylum and aliens. The special attention is given to the analyses of the level of harmonization of Croatian legislation and practice with international and European standards. In line with the conclusion that Croatian legislation is not fully harmonised with these standards, the paper contains proposals de lege ferenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education reforms come in two general types: access and quality reforms. Access reforms provide more educational opportunities, while quality reforms improve educational effectiveness. This paper investigates empirically the factors affecting the enactment of these two kinds of reforms in public primary and secondary education. By using a novel dataset of U.S. state legislation from 2008 to 2013, we find that both access and quality reforms are more likely in times of bad educational outcomes. Moreover, this is the first study documenting that teachers' union strength correlates positively with access reforms and negatively with quality reforms. Our results also shed light on the way teachers' unions promote their political interests: both lobbying and contributions are effective at opposing undesired reforms, but contributions have an extra effect of influencing the enactment of desired reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings theoretical and empirical contributions to the scholarship on dimensions of politics in Europe. On the theoretical side it emphasizes the differences between Western and Eastern countries; we argue that while in Western Europe the main dimension of political conflict is the economic left-right, in Eastern Europe the main dimension is more likely to encompass cultural issues associated primarily with what in the Western literature is known as the secondary, social left-right. We trace the origin of the difference to the 1990s when parties in Eastern Europe chose to emphasize cultural issues to appeal to an electorate unfamiliar with capitalist economics and dissatisfied with the economic left associated with Communism and the economic right associated with painful reforms. To test this assertion we apply the Optimal Classification vote scaling method to an original dataset of over 24,000 votes from 22 European parliaments; the statistical tests support the hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarises the author’s remarks during a symposium held at Imperial College, London, UK, in honour of Erol Gelenbe. It provides a perspective for the future of the Telecommunications industry in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an institutional approach to accountability in representative democracies. Theorising accountability comprises both settled polities with well-entrenched institutions and unsettled polities with weak or contested institutions, and it is argued that agency theory and formal principal–agent models giving priority to compliance and control usually make assumptions that are unlikely to apply to the latter type of polity. An institutional approach challenges principal–agent assumptions regarding what accountability means and implies, what is involved in demanding, rendering, assessing and responding to accounts and assigning accountability, and how accountability institutions work and change. Accountability is related to fundamental issues in democratic politics and the paper treats distributions of information, normative standards of assessment, authority and power relations as endogenous to democratic politics. The paper also holds that institutions affect actors’ identities and roles through socialisation, internalisation and habitualisation, as well as through external incentives. An aspiration is to take a modest step towards understanding areas of application for competing approaches to democratic accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Will European companies investing abroad be transmitters of EU environmental policies or environmental dumpers? This article utilizes a most-differentcases approach to analyze transnational corporation (TNC) behavior in countries with less stringent environmental standards. Drawing on rational institutionalism, the article examines two significant European business investments in Mercosur countries: paper pulp mills in Uruguay and fishing off the coast of Argentina. These cases demonstrate that EU environmental standards will be diffused beyond Europe's borders if significant fixed assets are involved, high levels of public awareness and action in response to environmental degradation are possible, and if the environmental policy of an industry is successfully implemented in Europe. Paper pulp milling in Uruguay fulfilled these conditions and TNCs, in this case applied EU standards. This was not so with TNC fishing practices in Argentina. Also, with high citizen attention, local companies will adopt similar environmental practices to those of their European counterparts, improving environmental practices even without domestic government regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the actual context of economic globalization, tax havens represent a significant obstacle for global governments seeking to increase their fiscal incomes and a source of polarization of income and wealth. Statistics reports showed that tax havens hold at least $10 trillion in assets, money generally controlled and hidden by major players from the political and financial areas, as well as from criminal ones. The paper introduces the present situation of European tax havens, with the major poles of action. The conclusion finds the real efforts of international bodies such as OECD, to interdict opportunities to avoid taxation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Welfare-state regimes achieve different outcomes in dealing with social inequalities. For example, the social democratic or Scandinavian welfare-state regime is often considered as the most egalitarian with a high social transfer rate and a comparably low level of income inequality. While most research on welfare-state regimes focuses on objective indicators of quality of life and inequalities, we are interested in how citizens actually evaluate their lives, using subjective well-being (SWB) as an indicator. The paper deals with two research questions: (1) How does the welfare-state regime affect subjective well-being, and (2) does the welfare-state regime influence the effect of status on SWB? Status is an essential first-order goal to produce subjective well-being according to the social production theory of Lindenberg and colleagues (Ormel et al. 1999), but is also linked to many other instrumental goals such as comfort and stimulation. The study carries out a multilevel analysis using pooled European Social Survey data from the years 2002-2012, covering more than 30 European countries. While we first look at how status drives SWB levels in different welfare-state regimes as classified by Esping-Andersen 1990, 1999), our focus is mainly on cross-level interactions between welfare-state regime type and the relationship between status and SWB. Our results provide evidence that social-democratic welfare-state regimes not only provide for living standards that are associated with the highest SWB levels, but also compensate best for status differences in SWB compared to other welfare-state regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to define a set of smartness and sustainability indicators applicable to European cities and to assess their outcome in an ex ante perspective with regard to the implementation of Europe 2020 strategy. Following the DPSIR (Driving forces, Pressures, State, Impact, Response) model, we select a bundle of indicators for three relevant sustainability domains (environmental, social and cultural), which are proper to the smart city definition. Then we define groups of homogeneous cities for each domain by using a two-step cluster analysis. Results show the existence of heterogeneous groups of cities that are likely to become smart in the cultural domain, side by side with groups of more developed urban areas that have acquired a substantial advantage in the environmental and social dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fundamental thesis of this paper represents the fact that only the understanding between cultures could offer the path to peace. Today we are facing the pluralism as a very important issue of the human coexistence. Trying to surpass the analytical and conceptual thinking, the philosophers (F. Julien, R. Pannikar, etc.) present philosophical and (inter) cultural conclusions on the understanding between cultures and on changing the scale of values that could lead to peace. Today the philosophy and religion tend to become rather systems of faith than vital orthopraxis. The interculturality mission is to remember the revolutionary essential role of religions. In the case of cultures that don't have evident cultural contiguity, the development of stability will begin with intercultural and inter-religious dialogues which represent the main instrument of mutual knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a special section of Science and Public Policy on science in society in Europe. Based on extensive data collected for the Monitoring Policy and Research Activities on Science in Society in Europe (MASIS) project, contributions to this special section explore pertinent issues related to the location, role and responsibility of science across EU member states and associated countries. By developing analytical typologies and classifying countries, the collection of papers provides a novel and detailed picture of Europe. It reveals considerable variation regarding the interactions of science and society at the national level, and it offers a platform for international learning. The identification of patterns and trends concerning the place of science in society may also feed into emerging European discussions about 'responsible research and innovation'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]