Suchergebnisse

What can American policymakers learn from the experiences of European democracies in confronting our common policy challenges? We can look to our own history and to the ideas emanating from our own public sphere, but by looking abroad, we can learn how our European allies have dealt with such issues as rising healthcare and pension costs, large-scale immigration, childcare and work-life balance, and climate change. Simply put, we can learn lessons from European policies that have proven both successful and from approaches that have failed. The contributors in this volume ask whether such policies might prove effective in the U.S. context, as well as what pitfalls we might avoid. Chapters have been written by policy area experts and are geared for an upper-level undergraduate audience ...

In the 1980s and, in particular, in the 1990s the countries of the European Union experienced divergent developments of gross fixed capital formation. Estimating an investment function for a panel of ten countries and analyzing the paths of the determinants of investment in the countries under consideration reveals that the different development of final demand is the main factor responsible for the divergences in investment. Other factors are disparities in the decline of real interest rates and of relative prices for capital goods.

The aim of this paper is to analyse tax revenues and examine similarities of selected tax revenues (mainly VAT, CIT, PIT and excise duty) in the European Union countries. The analysis of the EU members concerns the period between 2003 (i.e. the year preceding the biggest enlargement of the EU) and 2012 (due to data completeness). Tax rates and the structure of tax revenues in the EU countries were compared and then the cluster analysis was applied to assess the similarity of tax revenues. The analysis suggests that the process of tax harmonization, which took place in the period considered, did not exert a significant impact on the similarity of the structure of tax revenues in the EU countries. The structure seems to be still determined by e.g. social, economic or historical factors, which influenced the tax systems creation in particular EU countries.

A fact pertinent to the current European Union's stand on democracy by many individuals is that it is highly contextualised as being separate from politics at a European level and thus, inaccessible by the ordinary European citizen; hence creating what is called a democratic deficit. Although the complex structure of the EU's institution is often the main contributing factor to such democratic deficit, there have been ways and means to reduce and ameliorate this, as evidenced by the Treaty of Lisbon. Nonetheless, these 'ways and means' may not always be effective when imposed by law, hence the central question to this essay. The opinions of renowned authors will be resorted to at particular instances in order to highlight the contrast which emanates from their writings, the current reality and any legislative references which have attempted to find a balance. Subsequently, an important remark highlighted by the author is made which questions whether there should be the complete elimination of democratic deficit, or if such deficit should remain present for the sake of adopting certain measures which promote the main objectives of the EU. In consideration of the central question, it is suggested that the European Parliament adopts a more flexible position which does not undermine any of its competences albeit making it more accessible. ; peer-reviewed

This volume brings together experienced Professors and PhD researchers from all over Europe to summarise the crucial dilemmas that the European Union has to confront during its current multilevel crisis. The chapters are organized into four parts. The first section deals with constitutional issues of the EU, namely multilevel democratic governance, gender equality, and participatory democracy, and the impact of the crisis on them. The second analyses public governance issues, with reference to urban planning as a new policy for the EU, state aid and privatization of public companies, corporate governance principles for public companies, and EU case law on freedom of establishment of companies. The third part discusses certain issues of the EU internal market and external trade, namely the Europeanisation of labour relations, the relation between EU environmental law and international agreements, the dilemma between regionalism and multilateralism in international trade law, and the Eurasian Economic Union. The fourth section explores the Eurozone crisis from different perspectives and areas, namely political philosophy, economics, political science, administrative science, and law

In the 1970s Islamic financial system based on religious belief emerged in some of Muslim countries. The purpose of the Islamic financial system is just like in the case of the conventional one, to facilitate the smooth flow of funds between savers and investors. However, what is distinguishable about the Islamic financial system is that it is based on principles of sharia, which is a religious law of Muslims. With the share of around 80% in total assets of Islamic financial institutions, Islamic banks play a dominant role in the Islamic financial industry. They operate in over 75 countries, not only Muslim ones, but also those, where Muslim minority live. The aim of the paper is to analyse the opportunities and challenges for development of Islamic banking in the European Union countries. The analysis should give an answer to the question whether Islamic banks can have more significant presence in the European financial market in the future, than they have today. The article consists of four parts, not counting introduction and concluding remarks. The first part of the paper is a descriptive analysis of the main principles of sharia, which have impact on operations of Islamic banks. They include: prohibition of interest (riba), avoidance of uncertainty (gharar) and prohibition of trading in illegal (haram) products. Because of the necessity to comply with those principles, the instruments offered by Islamic banks must be constructed differently than conventional ones. Islamic financial instruments are briefly described in the second part of the paper. In the third section of the article the evolution and the current state of Islamic banking in the EU countries is presented. The main focus is put on the United Kingdom, since in this country Islamic banking sector is the most developed. In the fourth part prospects for development of Islamic banking in the EU are discussed. First the factors that should contribute to the development are presented. Then challenges faced by Islamic banking industry in the EU are ...

An unprecedented inside view of the European Commission, and institution which substantially influences the legislative agenda of the European Union. Based on testimonies of 150 insiders, the authors show how the institution is significantly influenced by political power struggles that affect the rules that govern Europe.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine Okun's Law in European countries by distinguishing between the transitory and the permanent effects of output changes upon unemployment and by examining the effect of labor market protection policies upon Okun's coefficients.


Design/methodology/approach
– Quarterly data for 13 European Union countries, from the second quarter of 1993 until the first quarter of 2014, are used. Panel data techniques and Mundlak decomposition models are estimated.


Findings
– Okun's Law is robust to alternative specifications. The effect of output changes to unemployment rates is weaker for countries with increased labor market protection expenditures and it is more persistent for countries with low labor market protection.


Originality/value
– The paper provides evidence that the permanent effect of output changes upon unemployment rates is quantitatively larger than the transitory impact. In addition, it provides evidence that increased labor market protection mitigates the adverse effects of a decrease in output growth rate upon unemployment.

Defence date: 10 December 2012 ; Examining Board: Professor Stefano Guzzini, Uppsala University and Danish Institute for International Affairs; Professor Friedrich V. Kratochwil, formely EUI (Supervisor); Professor Ulrich Krotz, RSCA/EUI; Professor Antje Wiener, Hamburg University. ; First made available online on 24 November 2015. ; The European Union (EU) turns increasingly to negative sanctions - a classical tool of international relations and the sharpest expression of the EU's common foreign and security policy (CFSP) - in response to a variety of norm violations in world politics. This thesis investigates how the EU positions itself and receives a position on the world scene by using sanctions. Regardless of whether sanctions successfully induce target change or not, they signal distance to some actors and proximity to others. In recognition of sanctions' deeply relational character beyond the sender-target polarity, the thesis juxtaposes the EU's self-understandings with the perceptions of a significant bystander: the African Union (AU). The thesis exposes patterns of disagreement and consensus as concerns logics of action, autonomy and volume of the sanctions policy, as well as policy linkages between sanctions and other external actions. It combines qualitative and quantitative analysis of European Parliament debates on sanctions between 1999 and 2012 with scrutiny of official documents and semi-structured interviews at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa. The analysis reveals that self-oriented justifications dominate EU discourse on sanctions. Policymakers are concerned with how to successfully inflict harm on the targets, but mechanisms for making targets change are discussed only exceptionally. Instead, proponents and critics reason about sanctions in terms of the good or bad they do to the EU as a sender, and in particular to the Union's credibility as an international actor. This thesis disputes the artificial separation between material and symbolic types of sanctions, to instead demonstrate the need to distinguish between primarily self-oriented and primarily target-oriented sanctions. While the AU draws on the European experience in institution building and has high esteem of the EU's resource capacity, it favours ideational autonomy in its own sanctions doctrine against unconstitutional changes of government. AU perceptions show that the EU has a credibility deficit as an external sender of sanctions. Deep-rooted historical impressions of Europe subsist and are strongly associated with the former colonial powers. The EU's use of sanctions seems to add to these impressions rather than to challenge them.

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Purpose: The goal of the paper was to perform a literature study, to determine the state of the theory and practice of investment valuation in the countries of the European Union which should be the starting point for further research. Design/Methodology/Approach: In this paper, an analysis of literature sources was carried out about assessing the effectiveness of investments in European Union countries. The conducted review and description of the found scientific sources is aimed at determining the current state of investment valuation practice, a description of the research carried out so far, which will allow us to determine the starting point for a new study. Findings: During preliminary research found it profoundly surprising that despite the huge potential impact of better capital allocation, there are two main problems regarding investment appraisal practices in European companies. First and foremost, a large part of even the largest European corporations do not use advanced investment appraisal techniques or apply them only to a limited extent. Secondly, yet there has not been a research into practical applications of investment appraisal methodologies that would cover the entire Single Market, i.e., the European Economic Area and Switzerland. Practical Implications: Obtained conclusions allowed us to recommend a study of the relationship between investment appraisal practice and company performance for all the countries of the European Single Market. Originality/value: Further research should identify the differences regarding the use of investment appraisal methods between countries as well as sectors. It is expected that the conclusions from projected future research will considerably broaden the knowledge about a particularly important area of corporate activity – making decisions regarding resource allocation. ; peer-reviewed