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Large proportions of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are family controlled and play an important role not only in the development of many national economies, but also have great potential to reduce negative effects of human activities on the natural environment and society. This important role of family SMEs has been recognized by the European Union (EU) which has integrated them in its legislative frameworks. The main question addressed in our research is whether family SMEs integrate sustainability concerns into their strategic and operative decisions as required by the EU legislative frameworks. We designed our research with the purpose to broaden our understanding of sustainability (re)orientation of family SMEs and fill the gap in the existing literature on family businesses' sustainability. We applied a qualitative case study research method where sustainability (re)orientation of 26 family SMEs was explored. The qualitative content analysis was used in the process of analysing data. Theoretically and empirically based cognitions on endogenous and exogenous drivers of the family businesses' sustainability (re)orientation were applied in interpretation of the research results. Our findings show the low level of sustainability (re)orientation of most of the investigated Slovenian family SMEs. The exogenous drivers have stronger effect on sustainability (re)orientation of family SMEs than endogenous drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cybersecurity regulation in the EU has long been implemented in a piecemeal fashion resulting in a fragmented regulatory landscape. Recent developments triggered the EU to review its approach which has not resulted in the envisaged high level of cyber resilience across the Union. The paper addresses the EUs limited mandate to regulate cybersecurity and outlines how the internal market rationale serves as a basis to harmonise cybersecurity legislation in the EU Member States. In that regard, the recent Proposal for a NIS 2.0 Directive (adopted by the European Parliament in November 2022) and the Proposal for a Cyber Resilience Act (published in September 2022) highlight how the EU seeks to align legislation and reduce complexity between different, often sectoral reg- ulatory approaches to cybersecurity, while at the same time extending regulation in a view to achieve a high level of cybersecurity across the EU. As regards the latter, the paper also outlines how the Cyber Resilience Act will complement the NIS 2.0 Directive in order to close existing regulatory gaps.

At the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, the EU adopted several new legislative acts aimed at improving the resilience and protection of network and information systems and critical entities across the Union. The objective of this research is to list these acts, show their mutual connections and focus specifically on analysing the potential weaknesses of two legislative acts, namely: the NIS2 Directive and the CER Directive. The NIS2 Directive is a significant piece of legislation that aims to improve the cybersecurity of the European Union, while the CER Directive is a crucial piece of legislation that aims to improve the physical security of critical entities in the Union. These two documents are applied in parallel and contain many mutual references, which means that weaknesses in one document may have significant consequences for the implementation of the other. Using standard desktop analysis of primary and secondary sources, this paper reviews results and challenges in the protection of the EU's critical infrastructures by primarily focusing on these two documents. The research identifies and explains certain weaknesses, concluding with suggestions for possible solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cybersecurity regulation in the EU has long been implemented in a piecemeal fashion resulting in a fragmented regulatory landscape. Recent developments triggered the EU to review its approach which has not resulted in the envisaged high level of cyber resilience across the Union. The paper addresses the EU's limited mandate to regulate cybersecurity and outlines how the internal market rationale serves as a basis to harmonise cybersecurity legislation in the EU Member States. In that regard, the recent Proposal for a NIS 2.0 Directive (adopted by the European Parliament in November 2022) and the Proposal for a Cyber Resilience Act (published in September 2022) highlight how the EU seeks to align legislation and reduce complexity between different, often sectoral regulatory approaches to cybersecurity, while at the same time extending regulation in a view to achieve a high level of cybersecurity across the EU. As regards the latter, the paper also outlines how the Cyber Resilience Act will complement the NIS 2.0 Directive in order to close existing regulatory gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agricultural use of good quality sludge represents a value-added route to ensure growth sustainability in Europe, where raw material availability, for example, for phosphorus, is insufficient to meet demand. However, the possible presence of pathogens, pharmaceuticals and heavy metals requires specific regulations to minimize sludge-related health issues and environmental risks. The current regulation on sludge agricultural use applied by many EU countries is here presented and compared, highlighting scarce harmonization of the legislative framework among Member States. Actual issues, such as the fate of emerging micropollutants and microplastics in sludge-amended soils, and public health concerns regarding sludge spreading during the COVID-19 epidemic, are considered, too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]