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In the present paper, we consider the question of the effectiveness of the remedies imposed by the EC. Our fundamental analysis stems from the reciprocal influence between Competition Law and the Digital Economy. Nowadays, Competition Law has a profound role, affecting not only direct undertakings worldwide but also indirectly by having an impact on our daily life and protecting customers. In recent years, however, the idea of creating a culture of innovation among companies has prevailed. For more than 20 years, the Digital Economy is also part of our life characterizing markets by rapid innovation and technological sophistication. The digital era has introduced the global network of economic activities and commercial transactions enabled by information and communication technologies. Through innovative products/ideas, not only the companies themselves benefit by increasing their productivity and consequently constantly creating new jobs (Alibaba, Amazon), but also consumers having the opportunity to choose a plethora of products at the best possible price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes approaching the emergence and evolution of the Europeanization of national planning using conceptual frameworks from historical institutionalism in order to shed light on the mechanisms and trajectories of domestic change arising from the influence of EU strategic planning. It seeks in particular to examine Europeanization in terms of the extent to which EU spatial planning has become a driving force for institutional changes in very different national planning systems. Returning to the changes that occurred in the Italian and English planning systems in the last two decades, the author provides insight into the attempts to insert and transpose EU spatial planning concepts and instruments into domestic systems, dealing with path dependency and European influence. By reading these processes from a historical institutionalist perspective, the paper aims to enhance understanding of the relative influence of European spatial planning on national planning systems, identifying mechanisms and trajectories of domestic change in different planning systems. Key findings concern the diverse modes and degree of institutionalization of EU strategic spatial planning, examining tendencies to replace the status quo through displacements in England and to progress through a path-dependent trajectory in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a historical-institutionalist framework, this paper discusses the emergence and evolution of transnational cooperation initiatives in post-war Europe. A number of critical junctures can be identified at which different goals and approaches were introduced. Due to the path-dependent nature of institutional arrangements, this has resulted in increasingly fuzzy rationales and contradictory objectives for transnational regions in Europe today. The paper concludes with a reflection on the value of historical institutionalism to identify the malleability of such complex policy concepts and the key challenges that transnational regions are facing due to unresolved tensions in their policy design and evolution. [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]

Numerous scholars have argued that economic governance in the European Union (EU) has undergone an undemocratic shift as part of the crisis, with accountability moving from parliamentary to executive powers. This paper challenges this view, arguing that the crisis has led to a shift from economic to political accountability. I define economic accountability as the market-led accountability regime enshrined in EU Treaties and contrast it to the current political accountability regime, by which creditor states and monetary institutions have supplanted markets as a forum for rewarding and disciplining market actors. This 'substitution effect' has been sustained by European Court of Justice (CJEU) jurisprudence, with the CJEU positing a functional equivalence between market-driven pressures and political conditionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South-East European (SEE) countries, having signed Stabilisation and Association Agreements with the European Union, are required to establish an operationally independent state aid monitoring authority, to harmonise their legislative framework with that of the EU, and to demonstrate a credible enforcement record. This paper analyses whether these requirements for EU accession have been achieved so far. The authors conducted a comparative cross-country analysis and tried to identify common problems and enforcement trends. As the paper elucidates, the SEE countries have largely met the EU requirements by harmonising their national state aid acts and corresponding by-laws with EU law. However, these rules are applied in a different socio-economic context and by national authorities of dubious independence from the government, which results in a modest enforcement record. As may be derived from the pre-accession experience of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the effectiveness of state aid control mechanisms is conditioned by the credibility of the country's EU perspective. And the South-East European countries have only just started their European journey. [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]

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]

This paper evaluates the influence of online news consumption on attitudes toward the European Union in a context of protracted economic crisis. Using data from the 2011 Irish National Election Study, we combine location-specific information on broadband availability with respondent geo-location data, which facilitates causal inference about the effects of online news consumption via instrumental variable models. Results show that Irish citizens who source political information online are more prone to blame the EU for the poor state of the economy than those who do not. There is evidence of preference reinforcement among those with negative predispositions toward the EU, but not among pro-EU citizens. We complement this analysis with a study of voting behavior in the European Fiscal Compact Referendum, employing a similar methodological approach. The results from this second survey confirm the anti-EU influence of online news consumption among Irish citizens, although evidence suggests a pro-EU effect among voters who browsed the website of the politically neutral Irish Referendum Commission. Our paper contributes to the literature on public opinion, the EU, and political attitudes in times of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

The paper examines the over-indebtedness of European consumers in the wake of the economic crisis through the lenses of the latest findings over its nature and causes. It analyses the current policies and law of the EU in the area, questioning their effectiveness and suitability to address a complex multi-dimensional problem that impacts dearly on the lives of those who are affected and carries great social and economic costs for the EU. The private law relationship between lenders and borrowers is contextualised with the study of responsible lending and borrowing policies and their transposition into EU law under the Consumer Credit Directive and the Mortgage Credit Directive. The latest cases involving over-indebtedness are considered. The paper ends by advancing the critique that responsible lending and borrowing are inadequate and insufficient if the problem is to be taken seriously. Instead, it is argued that the time is ripe for hard EU law integrating personal insolvency law with responsible lending and borrowing measures, with the caveats of the political - more than the legal - difficulties of such a proposition, as well as the devils that will lie in the details of its design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cohesion policy belongs among the most important fields of EU interests. Its objectives are achieved by many ways with respect to diversity among the European regions at the level of NUTS 2. The aim of this paper is to analyse relevant indicators, and via the evaluation of EU regional policy effectiveness to rewiev difference in the production-consumption patterns of behaviour of European regions; focussing on convergence and variabiliness of these regions. With defined goal in mind, the regions have been classified. To classify the regions, the relational indicator has been created. The relational indicator has been developed as the relationship between the index of relative performance and index of relative consumption sources. The changes of relational indicator, as well as the GDP per capita criterion, have been evaluated in two periods. [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]

Recent turbulent times have spurred a response by policy-makers to engage in a number of labour market reforms to enhance economic resilience and flexibility. Amid discussions about the most efficient ways to conduct such reforms, whether individually or simultaneously, we still lack evidence on the cross-country interactions and international interdependencies that may strengthen or weaken economic responses within an economic union. This paper deals with three policy tools – unemployment benefits, activation policies and the tax wedge, and demonstrates that they dissipate across open economies. We document evidence of both positive and negative policy spillovers among European economies and carry out a counterfactual of coordinated policies which prove to be needed for some but not other policy variables. We find that coordination strengthens macroeconomic responses to labour market policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concepts of sustainability and sustainable development (SD) are often used by policy-makers, stakeholders and the private sector, as a ‘selling point’ for their agendas and goals. Thanks to the wide, but also self-interpretive definition, the concepts allow various actors to make related pledges without necessarily undertaking any significant changes to their existing policies, strategies and actions. The purpose of this paper is to critically analyse the meaning of and approaches to sustainability and SD, which are being adopted and/or reformulated in the newly emerging bioeconomy policy debate of the European Union (EU). Understanding these concepts is crucially important given the growing importance of and adherence to bioeconomy-based policies and strategies by both individual EU Member States and the EU as a whole. The way bioeconomy policies perceive sustainability and SD as concepts will have profound implications not only on a practical level for policy implementation, but also on a conceptual level and for theoretical discourses surrounding sustainability and SD. The policy and narrative analyses illustrate that the current EU bioeconomy policy leans strongly towards prudentially conservationist, utilitarian and instrumental approaches to SD, as well as towards weak sustainability. We argue that a balance between environmental, social and economic dimensions – as introduced in the Brundtland report – is missing within the EU bioeconomy policy framework, since economic dimensions and concerns prevail over environmental and social dimensions. In the light of possible negative consequences of biomass production, we foresee an urgent need to define and broaden the scope of bioeconomy, as well as to include environmental and social concerns and safeguards. To tackle the shared challenges and constraints modern societies face today, a broader definition of sustainability needs to be adopted within the EU bioeconomy policy framework. Issues such as social justice, fairness and equity, social and environmental safeguards and local traditional knowledge in various concerned sectors should be taken into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an interpretation of austerity that sheds light on the crisis in the Eurozone. It argues that austerity is a long-term policy rather than an ill-conceived short-term remedy. To go beyond the by now familiar criticisms of austerity, we need to examine the crisis in its totality. Especially important are the impediments to a strong recovery driven by market incentives. This might ultimately undermine the very existence of the common currency and the future of the European Union.JEL Classification: E2, O4, B5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The way a government should intervene in a market economy is and has always been, a most fierce debate addressing the core hypotheses of economics. Sometimes crisis emerge from lack of intervention from governments and other times they emerge from over intervention. Any economic crisis should be a strong indication for authorities that something went wrong with the regulating framework or with their economic decisions and operations that temporarily confused the markets and cripple their natural abilities to allocate resources in an optimum manner. In the last decade, many things have changed in EU and around the world because of the global economic and financial crisis that started in 2007 in US. This paper proposes a critical analysis of some of the main changes in the European Union macroeconomic framework driven by the recent crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to balance austerity with growth policies has put government efficiency high on the economic policy agenda in Europe. Administrative reforms that boost the internal efficiency of bureaucracy can alleviate the trade-off between consolidation and public service provision. Against such a backdrop, this paper constructs (and makes available) a novel reform indicator to explore the determinants of public administration reforms for a panel of EU countries. The findings support political-economic reasoning: An economic and fiscal crisis is a potent catalyst for reforms, but a powerful bureaucracy constrains the opportunities of a crisis to promote reform. Furthermore, there is some suggestive evidence for horizontal learning from other EU countries, and for vertical learning associated with a particular type of EU cohesion spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of implementing EU policy, Member States sometimes introduce new policy instruments in cases where this is not obligatory. To better understand this phenomenon, this paper reviews three cases in which new instruments emerged and develops a methodology to trace back the influence of EU Directives on instrument choice. The method is illustrated by a narrative of the emergence of new management planning instruments during the implementation of the EU Habitats Directive in three EU Member States: Finland, Hungary and the Netherlands. Three key features of a policy instrument are defined, namely, its authoritative force, action content and governance design. These are used to measure the contribution of the Habitats Directive compared to other potential explanatory causes for the emergence of the new policy instrument. In all three reviewed countries a nested causal relationship between the Habitats Directive and the introduction of the new policy instrument is identified. Based on the relative contribution of the Habitats Directive to the emergence of the new instrument a distinction is made whether the Directive acted as a cause, catalyst or if conjunction occurred. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ABSTRACT The economic impact of the Regional Policy of the European Union is still controversial. This paper exploits administrative boundaries as spatial discontinuity to estimate the causal effect of this policy on the Italian Objective 1 regions' employment. The analysis, developed both in a border strategy framework (municipalities contiguous to the policy-change boundary) and with more traditional RDD models balanced by spatial forcing variables (centroids' distance and coordinates), shows that the EU Regional Policy produced a positive impact on employment levels, without any displacement of economic activities away from nontreated regions and a concentration of the impact in key economic sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taxes are an integral part of human society, regardless of the economic, cultural and political disparities between the countries. Income taxes of legal entities represent significant part of the budget, what is the reason for their timeliness and public discussion. The aim of the paper is a classification of the EU countries into economic groups and an assessment of the grouping these EU member states based on common characteristics in the area of corporate income taxes. Common features are determined by the structure of selected macroeconomic indicators: public debt, government budget balance, the overall tax burden, economic performance, nominal and effective tax rate. The analysis compares a range of methodological approaches of hierarchical (Ward linkage and median linkage), and non-hierarchical clustering (k-means clustering and fuzzy cluster analysis). The results of cluster analysis grouped the monitored countries into five clusters based on common characteristics as the corporate income tax rate, economics performance and the level of public debt. The result of the analysis shows that despite of ongoing there are still differences present, which are present in the ratios of countries' development as well as in the economic policies of the particular countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the aims behind the incorporation of competition rules into the European project and studies how the development of the doctrine has been molded to the specific circumstances and outlooks encountered in postwar Europe. It argues that the objectives of competition law in the EU go beyond economic or legal standards that are applied in individual cases; rather, competition law and policy have been calibrated to contribute to allowing the EU project to harness the benefits of an open capitalist economy within the context of a democratic European society. The analysis aims to demonstrate that while Ordoliberal thinking played a role in the development of European competition law and policy, there were several other social, political, and macroeconomic influences at play as well. As such, the strain that competition policy has come under is a result of attempts to use competition policy to balance several public policy objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European crisis is the best case study for examining both the vulnerabilities of Europe's framework for economic governance and the very process of European integration itself. This statement is true for several reasons: first, because the European crisis is the most serious crisis the European Union has faced to date; second, because of the crisis, limits on the process of economic integration in Europe have been put to a real test; and third, because the main causes of the crisis are tied into the framework for economic governance that has been developed over the last few decades and therefore are connected to the very process of European unification itself. The primary aim of this paper is to demonstrate whether and to what extent the new framework for economic governance in Europe is largely a result of interstate bargaining and consequently whether national preferences continue to play an important role in the framework's general transformation. The economic crisis showed that important issues in economic policy concerning the change in economic governance and the role of the nation-state, which were ‘swept under the carpet’ in recent decades, must be resolved to make the European venture viable. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this paper was to understand in which direction policies change in periods of crisis. Do they lead to the hardening of norms or the introduction of softer rules governing public policies? Based on the study of policy change in two periods of economic governance-the 2003-2005 Stability and Growth Pact crisis, and the 2009-2013 economic governance crisis, this article explains why the policy change in the first case led to softer governance mechanisms, while during the second crisis, soft governance mechanisms were transformed into hard law. In applying the multiple streams framework to study these policy changes, we argue that the wider the window of opportunity and the more coherent the coalition of policy entrepreneurs, the higher the possibility for these actors to push in favour of legally constraining norms. Hence, it is not solely the power or capacity of one policy entrepreneur, in this case-the German government-that leads to hardening of soft law, but the coherence of the coalition the policy entrepreneur is able to build. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European crisis has many causes. Worse, the different causes are mutually reinforcing. National economies lost competitiveness within the single currency, governments and households lived beyond their means, banks and other financial firms moved capital across borders and then called it back home again in a fit of panic. Europe is suffering as a consequence. European policy-making is suffering as well. With so many ‘causes’, politicians are dividing their attention across different and at times competing remedies. Europe appears to be ‘muddling through’ rather than acting decisively as a result. This paper argues that European policymakers should focus their attention on financial causal mechanisms. Although there is some truth to claims about lost competitiveness and excessive borrowing, a close focus on financial markets promises to offer the greatest leverage over the largest number of national economies. A close focus on finance also offers a clear choice between competing policy agendas: Europe's politicians must choose either to accept a renationalization of finance or they must embrace reforms necessary to stabilize international financial market integration. Only once that choice is made, and the necessary policy agendas are put in place, should politicians again turn their focus to issues of second-order (if still significant) importance related to market structural reform, fiscal consolidation, or asset market regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation has been at the forefront of procurement policy in Denmark in recent years. The policy incentives emphasize public procurement of innovation as a way to accelerate the development and application of environmental and health technologies, but also as a way to achieve a competitive advantage, growth and job creation. This paper uses a single case study to illustrate the procurement of a chemical-free cleaning system by the local government in Denmark. It describes the public procurement of innovation project in the response to an unsolicited bid from the supplier, and highlights the importance of innovation-friendly procurement practice for supporting innovation. The study identified indirect innovation effects of public procurement and number of conditions that have supported success of public procurement of innovation project such as close and early engagement with supplier; role of supplier acting as a technology champion; competence for applying functional specification; political support; sufficient resource allocation and institutional match between involved organizations. These findings lend support to the idea that public procurement of innovation may have occurred as a result of innovation-friendly procurement practice regardless of the lack of an explicit intention to promote innovation and challenge assumptions on which emerging policy initiatives are based on. These findings also suggest that the local government procurement may have a role to play in supporting innovation that goes beyond current definition of public procurement as a mission-oriented instrument to be exploited for resolving social challenges. These understandings could contribute to further policy development that may lead to a situation where public procurement of innovation is utilized to a greater extent than it is today in Denmark. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The eurozone crisis suggests a significant reinforcement of executive dominance in EU policy-making. Opaque emergency decisions taken at European summits as well as treaties established outside of the EU legal framework facilitate the side-lining of democratically elected chambers. This development entails the risk of a new wave of de-parliamentarisation in EU policy-making. An effective scrutiny of crisis management by national parliaments is, however, indispensable for taking national ownership of the reforms in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). This paper investigates national parliaments’ involvement in the development of instruments to combat the crisis. Based on a quantitative dataset of crisis-related parliamentary activities in 2010–2012, the article observes a very uneven engagement in the scrutiny of crisis management. Institutional prerogatives in EU affairs as well as macro-economic factors can partly explain the observed variation. Surprisingly, however, crisis-related parliamentary activity is not a reaction to Eurosceptic attitudes either in parliament or among the public. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

After the global financial crisis, the European Union has adopted a new regulatory approach towards foreign countries by making use of equivalence rules in finance. Why? This paper argues that it is the EU’s attempt to restore financial stability in its territory and maintain the competitiveness of its financial industry. However, this ‘old’ dilemma between stability and competition in financial regulation is further complicated in a regional jurisdiction, such as the EU, because different regulatory paradigms play off in the dilemma. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper provides an alternative interpretation of the euro crisis to the dominant sovereign debt narrative. I argue that at the core of the euro crisis is a balance of payments disequilibrium—only this time the balance of payments crisis is taking place within a common currency. The frame of reference—sovereign debt crisis or balance of payments crisis—makes a significant difference not only for determining the causes of the euro crisis but also for the adequacy of policy measures to address the crisis. The sovereign debt crisis narrative has missed the interrelated nature of the macroeconomic imbalances within the eurozone. Despite the expectation of many observers at the time of the creation of the euro that the common currency would distribute the burden of adjustment more evenly across its member countries, the reverse is actually true. Compared to the European Monetary Union's predecessor regime, the European Monetary System (EMS), deficit countries are saddled with even higher adjustment costs in the common currency than before. In particular, they no longer have the tool of a nominal exchange rate change to address balance of payments disequilibria. This situation allows surplus countries—most importantly Germany—to exercise leverage over the key bargaining issues at stake in solving the eurozone crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The requirements of diminishing the energy use at European Union's level was highly emphasized when were adopted the 2020 targets in its development strategy. The economic, social and environmental implications represent the causes that were the basis for this decision. The agriculture represents an important sector in the EU's policies, because the member states must assure the food security and safety for the future in very uncertain conditions and with uncertain incomes for farmers. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the energy consumption and the emissions generated by it from agriculture at EU level. For better results, was made a comparative historical analysis for European Union on 11 years. The results show a reduction of EU's energy consumption from agriculture by 12.29% during 2000-2010 and the CO2 emissions generated by the energy use in agriculture have decreased by 15.02% during the analyzed period of time, meaning that the sustainable policies for reducing the energy consumption and emissions in agriculture started to be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the turn of the twentieth century, 191 countries agreed to realize the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The European Union (EU) has incorporated many of these goals into its development policies. However, the effect of the MDGs on the construction of EU development policy has not been achieved through a homogenous diffusion of global development norms, but through a heterogeneous process: some MDGs have had a greater impact on EU policy formation than others. By reconceptualizing the EU as a receiver of norms, this paper aims to locate the scope conditions of global norm convergence in EU development policy through a comparison of disaster risk reduction and urban development in slum dwellings. Informed through world society theory, the findings point to the importance of norm ‘theorization’ in explaining the scope conditions of norm diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focuses on the changing boundaries of welfare between EU and national levels by developing a dynamic and actor-centred approach, where different groups of actors compete to influence the social and economic dimensions of EU social policy. The success of ideas and policies around welfare-state reform changes over time in line with socio-economic conditions as well as shifting political-party governmental coalitions in the Council. We argue that in particular the economically oriented actors, including the European Central Bank, have been successful in the context of the Great Recession. More recently, social priorities around notions such as social investment are becoming more central in the EU debate on economic and social policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

From autumn 2009 onwards, the euro area has experienced a sustained economic crisis that has mutated into a social and political crisis. In ‘hard times’, existing paradigms come under strain and a high level of contestation concerning policy prescriptions is to be expected. Crises tend to act as focal points for institutional, policy and political change that leave significant legacies. European Union and euro area actors had to engage in a process of collectively decoding the crisis and the problems it engendered given the strong and sustained signals emanating from the financial markets, rating agencies and Europe's international partners. The crisis opened up a deep cleavage within the euro area between creditor and debtor states or Europe's core and periphery. The objective of this paper is to analyse how the crisis was decoded as this had a major impact on the choice of policy instruments and policy responses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper delineates the changing environment from a benevolent to a conditionality-oriented. It uses the case study of Portugal and the implementation of the austerity programme to show how a semi-peripheral country of the European Union (EU) reacted to this changed environment. The first section shows how the EU has become more divided due to the growing cleavage between rich and poor member states. This is followed by the section on the making of the growing tensions between the European partners and the International Monetary Fund. Subsequently, the semi-peripheral economy of Portugal is analysed, before the policy responses of the Portuguese government are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The notion of territorial governance has relatively recently emerged onto the European policy agenda, and often used in relation to the concept of territorial cohesion. To date, the notion has been understood and conceptualized in various ways and has been defined rather loosely when invoked. This paper examines how the notion is used and understood in European policy debates. It questions whether the notion is different to general concepts of governance and multi-level governance. Three specific characteristics are suggested that might distinguish territorial governance from other types of governance: (i) managing territorial dynamics, (ii) assessing territorial impacts and (iii) delineating policy boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the changes of trade composition in the Food Products, Beverages & Tobacco industry in the European Union (12 countries) from 1985 to 2007, using an empirical modeling framework based on the statistical support proposed by Márquez et al. The contribution of this study is mainly empirical. On the one hand, we investigate whether the interdependencies (complementary or substitutable) between trade types are significant and hence if they are able to affect trade composition. And on the other, we provide a ranking of the dynamic drivers of trade composition (such as market size, endowments, technology, and consumer tastes and preferences). The econometric analysis reveals evidence of significant interdependencies between some trade components. The results point to technological capital and market size as the most important drivers of Food Products, Beverages & Tobacco in European trade, and suggest some relevant economic policy recommendations to foster industries in the sector and positively influence its pattern of trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

The economic potential of a country is consistently a primary goal of existence and sustainable development. To achieve this major goal is necessary to undertake strict complex studies to formulate a correct diagnosis and real economic situation and the rationale, on this basis, decisions economic policy and legislative decisions aimed at both time horizons immediate and for longer periods of time. In this context the significance and importance of GDP per capita as synthetic macroeconomic indicator is developed a multifactorial econometric model that includes two exogenous variables, the employment rate over 55 and resource productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]