scholarly journals CE Marking of Construction Products—Evolution of the European Approach to Harmonisation of Construction Products in the Light of Environmental Sustainability Aspects

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6396
Author(s):  
Sebastian Wall
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
National Level ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Building Regulations ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Past ◽  
Construction Products ◽  
European Harmonisation ◽  
Sustainability Principles ◽  
The Eu

European harmonisation of construction products provides a uniform expression of performance aspects relevant for essential characteristics coming from notified technical building regulations of the EU Member States. Since the current regulation has been in force for over seven years, this study evaluates further possibilities of its evolution, including a more efficient approach to implementing environmental sustainability aspects. The provided research is based on qualitative analysis of the past and current legislation, official documents, related guidance, judgements, scientific articles and the author’s practical experience coming from participation in the European committees, organisations and standardisation activities. Various legislative techniques and regulatory tools that could be potentially used to review the Construction Products Regulation are analysed and compared with regards to their impact on the inclusion of environmental sustainability principles. Therefore, the objective of this research is to provide substantive grounds that can be directly or indirectly used in the policymaking processes on the European and national level.

Adapting the European System of Financial Supervision (ESFS) to the EEA Two-Pillar Structure – A Workable Solution?

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 557-591
Author(s):  
Andri Fannar Bergþórsson
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
National Level ◽  
Financial Supervision ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
European System ◽  
Pillar Structure ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis ◽  
The Eu

In response to the global financial crisis, the European System of Financial Supervision (ESFS) was created in 2010. Supranational bodies were established for different financial sectors to act as supervisors of sorts for national-level supervisors in EU Member States. This article focuses on how the system was adapted to three EFTA States that are not part of the EU but form the internal market along with EU Member States through the EEA Agreement – Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein (EEA EFTA States). The aim is to clarify how ESFS has been incorporated into the EEA agreement and to discuss whether this a workable solution for the EEA EFTA States that have not transferred their sovereignty by name in the same manner as the EU Member States. One issue is whether the adaptation has gone beyond the limits of the two-pillar structure, as all initiative and work stem from the EU supranational bodies and not the EFTA pillar.

scholarly journals Distribution of new cars – no longer an issue for EU competition law?

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-383
Author(s):  
Václav Šmejkal
Keyword(s):  
European Commission ◽  
National Level ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Automotive Sector ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Eu Competition Law ◽  
Car Sales ◽  
Year 2000 ◽  
Block Exemption ◽  
The Eu

Abstract Distribution cartels in the automotive sector used to be frequently dismantled and sanctioned by the European Commission and the EU Courts still some 15 years ago. In recent years, however, only a few cases have been reported at the national level of EU Member States. Is it because the distribution of new cars really ceased to be a competition problem as the European Commission declared when it removed this part of the automotive business from the specific Block Exemption Regulation for the automotive sector in 2010? The purpose of the present analysis is first to inspect the car distribution cases that emerged in the EU after the year 2000 and, second, to speculate somewhat whether new forms of distribution, brought by the digitalization of marketing and sales, cannot bring about also new risks to cartel agreements and other types of distortions of competition in car sales.

Using the International Integrated Reporting Framework to comply with EU Directive 2014/95/EU: can we afford another reporting façade?

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 889-914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucia Biondi ◽  
John Dumay ◽  
David Monciardini
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
National Level ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Integrated Reporting ◽  
Environmental Implications ◽  
Reporting Standard ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Eu Directive ◽  
Reporting Framework ◽  
The Eu

Purpose Motivated by claims that the International Integrated Reporting Framework (IRF) can be used to comply with Directive 2014/95/EU (the EU Directive) on non-financial and diversity disclosure, the purpose of this study is to examine whether companies can comply with corporate reporting laws using de facto standards or frameworks. Design/methodology/approach The authors adopted an interpretivist approach to research along with current regulatory studies that aim to investigate business compliance with the law using private sector standards. To support the authors’ arguments, publicly available secondary data sources were used, including newsletters, press releases and websites, reports from key players within the accounting profession, public documents issued by the European Commission and data from corporatergister.com. Findings To become a de facto standard or framework, a private standard-setter requires the support of corporate regulators to mandate it in a specific national jurisdiction. The de facto standard-setter requires a powerful coalition of actors who can influence the policymakers to allow its adoption and diffusion at a national level to become mandated. Without regulatory support, it is difficult for a private and voluntary reporting standard or framework to be adopted and diffused. Moreover, the authors report that the <IRF> preferences stock market capitalism over sustainability because it privileges organisational sustainability over social and environmental sustainability, emphasises value creation over holding organisations accountable for their impact on society and the environment and privileges the entitlements of providers of financial capital over other stakeholders. Research limitations/implications The authors question the suitability of the goals of both the <IRF> and the EU Directive during and after the COVID-19 crisis. The planned changes to both need rethinking as we head into uncharted waters. Moreover, the authors believe that the people cannot afford any more reporting façades. Originality/value The authors offer a critical analysis of the link between the <IRF> and the EU Directive and how the <IRF> can be used to comply with the EU Directive. By questioning the relevance of the compliance question, the authors advance a critique about the relevance of these and other legal and de facto frameworks, particularly considering the more pressing needs that must be met to address the economic, social and environmental implications of the COVID-19 crisis.

Falling numbers will not ease EU migration tension

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Burden Sharing ◽  
North African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Member States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Eu

Subject EU immigration division. Significance Immigration to Europe has fallen substantially over the past three years, largely because of stricter rules in EU member states and enhanced cooperation with the EU's neighbours. This downward trend, however, coincides with growing tensions between member states over how to tackle immigration once migrants and refugees enter European territory. Impacts Unable to agree on an effect asylum seekers reform, the EU will continue funding African countries to stop irregular migratory flows. Disengagement of EU search and rescue assets and more reliance on under-trained North African coast guards will make sea migration deadlier. Divergent views on immigration burden-sharing could worsen foreign relations between populists in Italy and those in Hungary and Poland.

scholarly journals Priorities for Social and Humanities Projects Based on Text Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ülle Must
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Text Analysis ◽  
National Level ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
Research Information ◽  
Member States ◽  
Auxiliary Verbs ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Funding Instruments

AbstractPurposeChanges in the world show that the role, importance, and coherence of SSH (social sciences and the humanities) will increase significantly in the coming years. This paper aims to monitor and analyze the evolution (or overlapping) of the SSH thematic pattern through three funding instruments since 2007.Design/methodology/approachThe goal of the paper is to check to what extent the EU Framework Program (FP) affects/does not affect research on national level, and to highlight hot topics from a given period with the help of text analysis. Funded project titles and abstracts derived from the EU FP, Slovenian, and Estonian RIS were used. The final analysis and comparisons between different datasets were made based on the 200 most frequent words. After removing punctuation marks, numeric values, articles, prepositions, conjunctions, and auxiliary verbs, 4,854 unique words in ETIS, 4,421 unique words in the Slovenian Research Information System (SICRIS), and 3,950 unique words in FP were identified.FindingsAcross all funding instruments, about a quarter of the top words constitute half of the word occurrences. The text analysis results show that in the majority of cases words do not overlap between FP and nationally funded projects. In some cases, it may be due to using different vocabulary. There is more overlapping between words in the case of Slovenia (SL) and Estonia (EE) and less in the case of Estonia and EU Framework Programmes (FP). At the same time, overlapping words indicate a wider reach (culture, education, social, history, human, innovation, etc.). In nationally funded projects (bottom-up), it was relatively difficult to observe the change in thematic trends over time. More specific results emerged from the comparison of the different programs throughout FP (top-down).Research limitationsOnly projects with English titles and abstracts were analyzed.Practical implicationsThe specifics of SSH have to take into account—the one-to-one meaning of terms/words is not as important as, for example, in the exact sciences. Thus, even in co-word analysis, the final content may go unnoticed.Originality/valueThis was the first attempt to monitor the trends of SSH projects using text analysis. The text analysis of the SSH projects of the two new EU Member States used in the study showed that SSH's thematic coverage is not much affected by the EU Framework Program. Whether this result is field-specific or country-specific should be shown in the following study, which targets SSH projects in the so-called old Member States.

scholarly journals The potentials and limitations of tax dispute prevention and alternative resolution mechanisms

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 1505-1528
Author(s):  
Polonca Kovač
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Dispute Resolution ◽  
National Level ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
National Tax ◽  
Financial Administration ◽  
The Eu

This paper deals with prevention and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in tax matters, particularly in the light of the specific nature of administrative relations, which also include tax procedures. Given the involvement of stakeholders, ADR benefits both the taxpayers and the tax authority, enabling greater legal certainty and speedier finalisation of procedures. Yet, ADR also poses an open threat to the public interest and equality as international and constitutional administrative principles, and must therefore be limited in tax procedures. This also derives from the legal acts of the EU and the Council of Europe. In addition to theoretical frameworks and types of dispute prevention and resolution mechanisms studied by means of scientific literature review, legal sources analysis and comparative insights, the paper presents the Slovenian regulation and practice of the Financial Administration (FURS) over the past years. The aim of this research is to examine the de iure and de facto situation at the national level. The analysis shows that, in tax matters, ADR is noticeably more intensive at the international level than within national tax systems. On the other hand, individual countries prefer to establish regulatory mechanisms for prevention, which should result in even more desired avoidance of disputes. It can be concluded that efficient tax procedures require an integrated approach, including both dispute prevention and ADR, in order to ensure the principles of tax justice and systemic inclusion of all stakeholders in its governance.

scholarly journals Italy grasped by US-China rivalry

2021 ◽  
pp. 23-31
Author(s):  
Elena Alekseenkova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Member States ◽  
New Developments ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Past ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Italian Government ◽  
The Eu

Cooperation of the EU members with China is now under increasing supervision of Washington and Brussels. The growing US-China confrontation direct impacts the relations between the EU and PRC, contributing to the adoption by Brussels of tighter control over investments in strategic sectors of economy. EU member states have to adapt their bilateral relations with China to these new developments. Formed in February 2021, the new Italian government of M. Draghi over the past eight months has nearly completed the reversal in relations with Beijing, questioning not only the memorandum of understanding signed in March 2019, but also tightening the mechanisms of control over investments coming from China.

The surrender of prosecuted persons under the EAW procedure: Issues of transposition of EU criminal policy to the national level

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-68
Author(s):  
Joanna Beata Banach-Gutierrez
Keyword(s):  
Mutual Recognition ◽  
National Level ◽  
Criminal Policy ◽  
Criminal Prosecution ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Polish Experience ◽  
European Arrest Warrant ◽  
National Citizenship ◽  
The Eu

This article deals with the transposition of European Union (EU) criminal policy to national justice systems, taking, as an example, the surrender of prosecuted persons under the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) procedure. In particular, attention is focused on the question about the limits of the application of mutual recognition in the event of executing the EAW that is also linked to the increasing role of punishment, as a measure for rehabilitation and reintegration of the offender into society. The author argues that national citizenship should be treated very carefully by judicial authorities in the EU Member States which are deciding on the surrender of the prosecuted person under the EAW procedure. This care should apply whether surrender is for the purposes of criminal prosecution, the execution of custodial sentences or in the case of the transfer of sentenced persons to their State of nationality under Council Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA. With this aim, the first section explains the possible functions of punishment in contemporary penology; the second section is devoted to the Court of Justice of the EU rulings which are crucial for the further developments of EU criminal policy; and the third section refers to the Polish experience in surrendering own nationals for the purposes of prosecution in the EAW issuing Member State.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Eleonora Rosati
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
The Other ◽  
Property Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Copyright Policy ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Past ◽  
The One ◽  
The Eu

Compared to other areas of intervention at the European Union (EU) level, copyright harmonization is a relatively recent phenomenon. Compared to other areas of intellectual property law, copyright harmonization has not been as complete as with other rights. Yet, two phenomena may be observed: one the one hand, copyright policy and legislative initiatives have intensified over the past few years; on the other hand, the large number of references to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has substantially shaped the EU copyright framework and, with it, also the copyright framework of individual EU Member States....

Can the European Union Force its Member States to Introduce the Euro?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus D.W. Stoffels
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Exchange Rate ◽  
Convergence Criterion ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Exchange Rate ◽  
New Eu Member States ◽  
The Eu

In this study, the author addresses the intriguing, topical but little-studied question of whether the (old and new) EU Member States should, upon accession to the EU, be obliged to introduce the euro. To begin with, he examines—while deliberately ignoring the problematic exchange rate convergence criterion—whether introducing the euro should in principle be obligatory. After having answered this question in the affirmative, he takes a closer look at the exchange rate convergence criterion. He concludes that a country’s formal participation in the ERM II is a necessary but insufficient requirement for that country to meet the exchange rate convergence criterion. However, since ERM II membership is, for its part, voluntary, this also makes a country’s decision to introduce the euro completely voluntary. Accordingly, a Member State like Sweden is entitled to simply circumvent introducing the euro by simply refraining from participating in the ERM II. The author continuously refers to how different groups of Member States have been treated in the past with regard to them introducing the euro.

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