Academic literature on the topic 'European tax consent'

International order is based on the consent of states and the principle pacta sunt servanda, thus making the treaty override a serious problem. When one party unilaterally overrules treaty provision(s), other party may undertake measures prescribed in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties: termination or suspension. It is also possible to apply mutual agreement procedure. Usually, states avoid entering into re-negotiation of the treaties because it is time-consuming. The author differentiates between treaty override in monist and dualist states, and within the European Union, then makes conclusion about the absence of pure solutions and proposes global action for solving treaty overriding problem, which could have further impact on economic activity and wealth on national and global level.

Joint audits have the potential to facilitate tax collection and at the same time enhance tax certainty for taxpayers. However, the several European Union (EU) pilot projects initiated by certain Member States made it evident that a better regulatory framework was urgently needed. The EU legislator therefore used the opportunity of the sixth amendment of the Directive on administrative cooperation, known as DAC 7, to devise a new legal framework for joint audits. In this contribution the authors discuss this latest development. They analyse some key clarifications and novelties to be found in the new Article 12a DAC regarding joint audits. The article furthermore highlights the remaining open issues and inadequacies of the joint audit provisions in DAC 7, with a particular focus on taxpayer rights. Among the issues that are analysed in depth in this article are the initiation of joint audits at the taxpayer’s request, the possibility to conduct a joint audit without the taxpayer’s consent, and the legal instruments at the disposal of the taxpayer against the initiation of a joint audit or certain audit activities. Further issues concerning the applicable law, data protection standards as well as legal instruments against the findings ensuing from a joint audit are also part of the analysis. Joint audits, DAC 7, taxpayer rights, tax secrecy, data protection, final report.

Local, disparate preferences are normally satisfied by variety in law, but in some circumstances, harmonization can bethe means by which a majority advances its members' local preferences. One unappreciated method involves the imposition of external costs by a majority on a minority. In its most common and extreme form, a majority imposes a tax on the population in order to finance a benefit that is limited to the majority. The asymmetry between burdens and benefits may be sufficiently great to generate inefficient expenditures. It is more difficult but not impossible to impose external costs through regulation. Commercial law is not free from this danger, because it reflects preferences about consumer protection, which is to say such things as wealth distribution and paternalism, and it pits interest groups against one another, as in the case of employees and tort claimants in the event of bankruptcy. Commercial law is therefore an area where groups might sometimes gain from diversity in legal rules, but might at other times find that harmonization allows a majority to benefit yet more. It is therefore difficult to know whether harmonization, which has many other causes, is beneficial or corrosive. When the majority of voters are relatively homogeneous, as is arguably the case among member countries in the European Union, the possibility of harmonization - or simply centralized decisionmaking - as a means of imposing external costs seems especially likely. There are means of reducing the danger, but harmonization itself should be expected to increase the influence of the central bureaucracy.

In this article, the author discusses the judgment of the CJEU in the case C-694/20 Orde van Vlaamse Balies and Others, which extends the protection of professional secrecy for lawyers. In the context of combating aggressive tax planning, the CJEU ruled that requiring licensed lawyers to inform other intermediaries involved in a tax scheme is unnecessary and violates the right to respectful communication with the client. The CJEU’s view that legal professional privilege takes precedence over tax objectives and obligations is the main novelty of the judgment under review. Individuals who consult a lawyer, as well as a tax advisor, have a reasonable expectation that their communications will remain private and confidential. Therefore, except in exceptional circumstances, they have a legitimate expectation that their lawyer will not, without their consent, disclose to anyone the fact that they are the subject of his or her advice. Following the judgment, the European Commission will legislate to amend the DAC6 Directive so that it meets the requirements of EU primary law as identified by the Court. The judgment is also important because it recognises that legal professional privilege is not limited to advice given in the context of litigation, which has been a restrictive view in antitrust cases. In Orde van Vlaamse Balies and Others, in which the Court held that the duty to inform other intermediaries imposed by Article 8ab(5) DAC 6 interfered with the right to respect for communications between lawyers and their clients guaranteed by Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the Court gave primacy to primary law (the Charter of Fundamental Rights) over secondary law (DAC 6). In this context, a new jurisprudential trend can be observed in which a substantive review of the Tax Directive was carried out on the basis of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. In general, the CJEU has been reluctant to get involved in substantively reviewing EU secondary legislation. More recently, however, the CJEU seems to be carefully analysing provisions of EU directives that are not in line with fundamental rights.

Buildings in industry, mining, transportation and for personal and commercial activities cover increasingly more valuable agricultural land. The increase of sub-urbanization and vehicular traffic and the spread of malls and other kinds of investments are causing serious harm for not only to human society, but to a whole national economy as well.The law on agricultural land (1994:LV) contains legal rules for the preservation, use and classification of agricultural land. These rules define the temporary or permanent use of land for agricultural and non-agricultural purposes; the scale of the land-protection fee and the rules of the process on cases in which land is used for non-agricultural purposes without the consent of the land registry. In the field of land classification, the law prescribes the regulations which are to be followed in order to define the net income of agricultural land in Golden Crowns.Hungarian land protection rules are unique in the European Union, because only few member-states have similar laws to ours. Community law does not regulate the member states, except in the case of land classification, because this is the basis of the tax paid on the agricultural lands, but even here, there are differences among the states.

In the era of globalization, the attraction of foreign investments has become an important factor in promoting the economic growth of countries. Investors are constantly looking for favorable conditions for investing their capital, which involves a combination of several important factors. The investor, who is focused on getting the maximum profit with the minimum cost, before making an investment decision, will study the investment environment of the host country, the proximity to large key markets, the barriers to entry from the host country to international markets, the availability of production and energy resources, the level of political and economic stability, the number of labor force, qualifications, etc. .sh. In terms of investments in the modern world, two types of trends have been identified: 1. High-tech investments, which are mainly located in developed countries, due to the developed country's intellectual resources, key market and good opportunities for business development, and 2. Investment, which is focused on obtaining maximum profit at the expense of cheap resources and labor force, and there is no or minimal technical innovation in it. It is important for the state to attract such direct foreign investments, which will not only be focused on making profits, but will also ensure the raising of the qualifications of local staff, the introduction of technological innovations, and the social protection of employees. Thanks to the economic reforms implemented after the post-Soviet upheavals, Georgia has become an attractive place for foreign investment, however, due to the shortage of labor force and low qualifications, investments focused on cheap resources and labor force are entering the country more than high-tech ones. The entry of relatively large, high-tech investments is hindered, in addition to the scarcity of the country's workforce and relatively low qualifications, the low level of energy independence, the territories occupied by the Russian Federation of Georgia, the generally politically and economically unstable region (Tskhinvali, Abkhazia, Karabakh regions), the aggressive state - the Russian Federation. Neighborhood and high probability of potential armed conflicts. The positive factors that make Georgia attractive for foreign investors are a favorable geopolitical location with land access, moderate natural and climatic conditions, low level of corruption, less bureaucratic and simple legislation compared to other countries, high level of harmonization of national legislation with international legislation, with the European Union in 2014 and in 2017 Free trade agreements signed with China, which allow a foreign investor to export products produced on behalf of Georgia to two of the world's largest markets without any problems. Due to the fact that one of the most important factors of production - "capital" - is needed to develop the economy, and the country does not have it at this stage, attracting foreign investments is a vitally important task for the economic growth of Georgia. In developing countries like Georgia, the level of domestic savings is relatively low. In addition to this, apart from the banking system, there is no stock market. In the period 1996-2021, a total of about 23.12 billion dollars of investment came into Georgia. The first and only investor country in 1996 was Ukraine with 3753.45 thousand US dollars. In the following years, significant investments were made in Georgia from the USA (1.81 billion USD), the European Union, CIS countries and Great Britain. According to the latest data, foreign investment has entered Georgia from 74 countries, which is almost 2 times less than the number of countries with which Georgia has trade relations (export-import). Since 2003, the growth of investments had an irreversible character, however, the 2008 world economic crisis and Russia's military attack on Georgia sharply reduced this figure, and it took 6 years to restore the pre-war figure. In addition, since 2017, foreign investments in Georgia have been characterized by a decreasing trend. Pandemic year 2020 was particularly notable in terms of investment decline. Despite the fact that after the signing of the Georgia-EU association in 2014, foreign investments should have increased due to the desire to access the EU market, until 2017, their volume was decreasing. In 2017, in the history of independent Georgia, the largest level of foreign investments - 1.98 billion USD was recorded. In the same year, the agreement on free trade between Georgia and China was signed, which should also increase foreign investments due to the desire to access the Chinese market, although the country has not returned to the level of foreign investments made in 2017. On December 31, 2013, the Organic Law of Georgia "On Economic Freedom" adopted in 2011 entered into force. The law, on the one hand, regulates the limit of the amount acceptable from taxpayers - in case of the desire to increase the tax rates of income, profit, VAT and import taxes, citizens' consent is required through a referendum, and on the other hand, the amount of spending of collected taxes is controlled by the limits of the established macroeconomic parameters. After the implementation of this law, the tax burden of taxpayers was not supposed to increase, but the government took advantage of the loophole in the law and in 2017 the excise duty rate was sharply increased on cars (the excise duty on right-hand drive cars was doubled), fuel and tobacco products. The property tax has also been increased, since it does not belong to the general state tax. Since January 1, 2017, when the Estonian model of profit tax came into force, the state budget received about 500 million GEL less. To make up the deficit, either government spending had to be cut, or debt had to be incurred, or taxes had to be raised. In 2017, the government's expenses increased by 800 million GEL, we took on a debt of 400 million GEL, and the excise and property tax rates were also increased, according to which if the family had an annual income of more than 40,000 GEL, they would have already paid property tax on the car. As of May 2021, the foreign debt has increased to 24.8 billion GEL and has already violated the macroeconomic parameter written in the Law on Economic Freedom, according to which the government's debt cannot exceed 60% of GDP. From 2011, when the law was adopted, until 2013, when the law entered into force, the volume of direct foreign investments did not increase, on the contrary - it even decreased, although this can be blamed on the caution caused by the change of government in 2012. - Investors are likely to observe the possibility of a change in the country's political vector. When the law came into force in December 2013, that is, in fact from 2014, the volume of investments increased by leaps and bounds, and this dynamic continued until 2017, when taxes were increased. Since 2018, the volume of direct foreign investments has dropped almost to the level of 2011. Based on all of the above, we believe that in order to attract foreign investments, Georgia should make maximum use of those competitive advantages that will attract the attention of foreign investors. The country, which has historically been a corridor of regional and world importance, has yet to fully utilize its transport function.

Vairākās Eiropas valstīs – Polijā, Portugālē un Lihtenšteinā – paredzēta kriminālatbildība ne tikai par pacientam nodarītu kaitējumu veselības aprūpē, bet arī tad, ja ārstniecība veikta bez pacienta piekrišanas situācijās, kad tā bija nepieciešama, jo tādējādi ir prettiesiski aizskartas cilvēka pamattiesības. Pētījums veikts, lai noskaidrotu, kādās Latvijas Republikas Satversmes VIII nodaļas tiesību normās tiek garantēta personas autonomija un integritāte kā cilvēka pamattiesību neatņemama vērtība, kā arī ielasāma pacienta informētā piekrišana kā pacienta galvenais līdzeklis šo aizsargājamo interešu nodrošināšanā. Several European countries, for instance, Poland, Portugal and Liechtenstein, provide for criminal liability not only for harm to a patient in healthcare but also for treatment without the patient’s consent in situations where it was necessary because of an unlawful violation of fundamental rights. The study was conducted to find out which legal norms of Chapter VIII of the Satversme (the Constitution) of the Republic of Latvia guarantee autonomy and integrity of a person, as an integral value of fundamental human rights, as well as the patient’s informed consent as the patient’s main means of ensuring these protected interests. Whether the protection of these interests is sufficiently effective or should also be provided for in a separate provision of the Criminal Law will be clarified in another study.

Abstract This publication is a part of a study of the French Code des juridictions financières in the field of the institutional aspects of the control of public finances. The main purpose is not only to describe the specificity of the French legal system in this field but also to focus on the solutions and type of support institutions that were developed by the French legislator. The general control exercised by the Court of Auditors (Cour des comptes) and regional and territorial audit chambers (Chambres régionales et territoriales des comptes) can be more effective thanks to the so-called supporting institutions, such as the Court for Budgetary and Financial Discipline (Cour de discipline budgétaire et financière), the Supreme Council of Public Finance (Haut Conseil des finances publiques), or the Tribunal for Compulsory Contributions (Conseil des prélèvements obligatoires). This study and analysis of the provisions of the Code des juridictions financières related to the three above-mentioned supporting institutions may also be considered as the first step towards further in-depth analysis and research, and thus the possible application of structures and solutions that are present in French tax law by the Polish legislator or that of any other European country.

El interés de construir una cultura democrática que sea cada vez más amplia y profunda se entiende como una tarea urgente. En este sentido, las instituciones educativas, el profesorado y, como tal los programas de formación inicial que se imparten em las universidades tienen un papel central em esta construcción. En la tarea de construcción de una cultura democrática, instituciones supranacionales como la Comisión Europea y la Unión Europea hacen esfuerzos permanentes por construir marcos de referencia orientados a esta tarea, como por ejemplo las Competencias de Cultura Democrática. Por esta razón, estudiar la incorporación de estas competencias en los grados de formación del profesorado es pertinente y necesario. El artículo es el resultado de una investigación cualitativa que analizó de qué manera las Competencias de Cultura Democrática (CDC), propuestas por la Unión Europea y el Consejo de Europa, se encuentran reflejadas en el Grado en Educación Primaria de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. El análisis se realizó siguiendo los lineamientos del análisis de contenido usando el software Nvivo. El análisis muestra la existencia de un marco general que favorece la incorporación de las CDC en el grado analizado, con una preponderancia del trabajo de las habilidades y los valores en comparación con otro tipo de competencias.

IntroductionGovernment policies on taxation and social security are important determinants of population health outcomes and health inequalities. However, there is a shortage of evidence to inform policymakers of the health consequences of such policies. The Health Equity and Its Economic Determinants project aims to assess the potential impacts of different taxation and social security policies across Europe on population health and health inequalities using a computer-based simulation that provides projections over multiple health domains.Methods and analysisIn the first phase, key input parameters for the model will be estimated using estimation techniques that control for the effects of prior exposure on time-varying confounders and mediators (g-methods). The second phase will involve developing and validating the microsimulation model for the UK. Policy proposals, developed with policymakers, will be simulated in the third phase to investigate the impacts of income tax and social security changes on population health and health inequalities. In the final phase, the microsimulation model will be extended across other European countries.Ethics and disseminationThis project will use deidentified secondary data for which ethical approval and consents were received by the original data collectors. No further ethical approval will be required for our main analytical datasets. Dissemination plans include academic publications, conference presentations, accessible policy briefings, mass media engagement and a project website. Both the syntax and the underlying synthetic data for the HEED microsimulation model will be made freely available through GitHub and the project website.

La protection européenne du contribuable national a une incidence sur la citoyenneté fiscale en tant que principe de légitimation de l’impôt. La conception nationale du devoir fiscal fondée sur la participation politique du citoyen à son consentement, par le biais de ses représentants, fait face à la conception européenne de l’obligation fiscale fondée sur la protection du contribuable, en tant que titulaire de libertés de circulation, et visant à favoriser la construction d’un espace économique sans frontières. Toutefois, l’étude de ces interactions démontre que les rapports entre l’intégration européenne et la citoyenneté fiscale ne doivent pas être appréciés comme un processus unilatéral dont la seule conséquence serait l’affaiblissement de cette dernière, mais comme un processus transversal dans lequel les effets de l’application du droit de l’Union européenne sur la citoyenneté fiscale rétroagissent sur le niveau de l’intégration fiscale européenne et au-delà sur l’organisation politique de l’Union européenne. Ce constat invite à étudier la manière dont ces rapports conflictuels pourraient, selon la logique fédérale, se résoudre autour de la création d’un impôt européen consenti par les citoyens européens eux-mêmes
The European protection of the national taxpayer has an impact on tax citizenship as a principle of tax legitimisation. The national conception of tax duty based on the political participation of the citizen in his consent, through his representatives, is confronted with the European conception of tax duty based on the protection of the taxpayer, as the holder of freedom of movement, and aimed at favouring the construction of an economic area without borders. However, the study of these interactions shows that the relationship between European integration and tax citizenship should not be seen as a unilateral process whose only consequence would be the weakening of the latter, but as a transversal process where the effects of the enforcement of EU law on tax citizenship have a retroactive effect on the degree of European tax integration and, beyond, on the political organisation of the European Union. This observation invites us to study how these conflicting relations could, following the federal logic, be solved through the creation of a European tax consented by the European citizens themselves

L’investissement national et étranger, privé et public, représente indubitablement l’un des axes les plus importants dans les politiques économiques des États développés et ceux en voie de développement. Le régime juridique de l’investissement étranger en Algérie n’a cessé d’être au centre des débats. D’essence économique, c’est pourquoi le législateur algérien a légiféré en masse sur le sujet notamment, à partir des années 1990, à l’occasion de l’adoption de la loi n° 90-10 du 14 avril 1990 relative à la monnaie et au crédit. Cette dernière était en effet le début d’un long processus de transition et d’orientation économique vers l’économie de marché. Actuellement le régime juridique de l’investissement étranger en Algérie est régi principalement par la loi 16-09 relative à la promotion de l’investissement, accompagné d’un ensemble de décrets d’application. Cette récente réforme du droit des investissements est une avancée importante dans la gestion, l’accueil et le traitement des investissements étrangers en Algérie, et ce au regard de tous les avantages qui sont consentis au profit des investisseurs, ainsi que l’assouplissement des procédures d’installations d’entreprises étrangères sur le territoire national
Domestic and foreign investment, private and public, is undoubtedly one of the most important axis in the economic policies of developed and developing countries. The legal regime for foreign investment in Algeria has continued to be the focus of debate. Mainly economic, this is why the Algerian legislator has legislated on the subject, especially from the 1990s, on the occasion of the adoption of Law No. 90-10 of 14 April 1990 on currency and credit. The latter was indeed the beginning of a long process of transition and economic orientation towards the adoption of the market economy. Currently the legal regime of foreign investment in Algeria is governed mainly by the law 16-09 on the promotion of investment, accompanied by a set of implementing decrees. This recent reform of investment law is an important step forward for the management, reception and processing of foreign investment in Algeria, with regard to all the advantages that are granted to investors' profits, as well as the relaxation of foreign companies installation procedures on Algerian soil

Despite significant efforts have been directed toward reducing waste generation and encouraging alternative waste management strategies, landfills still remain the main option for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal in many countries. Hence, landfills and related impacts on the surroundings are still current issues throughout the world. Actually, the major concerns are related to the potential emissions of leachate and landfill gas into the environment, that pose a threat to public health, surface and groundwater pollution, soil contamination and global warming effects. To ensure environmental protection and enhance landfill sustainability, modern sanitary landfills are equipped with several engineered systems with different functions. For instance, the installation of containment systems, such as bottom liner and multi-layers capping systems, is aimed at reducing leachate seepage and water infiltration into the landfill body as well as gas migration, while eventually mitigating methane emissions through the placement of active oxidation layers (biocovers). Leachate collection and removal systems are designed to minimize water head forming on the bottom section of the landfill and consequent seepages through the liner system. Finally, gas extraction and utilization systems, allow to recover energy from landfill gas while reducing explosion and fire risks associated with methane accumulation, even though much depends on gas collection efficiency achieved in the field (range: 60-90% Spokas et al., 2006; Huitric and Kong, 2006). Hence, impacts on the surrounding environment caused by the polluting substances released from the deposited waste through liquid and gas emissions can be potentially mitigated by a proper design of technical barriers and collection/extraction systems at the landfill site. Nevertheless, the long-term performance of containment systems to limit the landfill emissions is highly uncertain and is strongly dependent on site-specific conditions such as climate, vegetative covers, containment systems, leachate quality and applied stress. Furthermore, the design and operation of leachate collection and treatment systems, of landfill gas extraction and utilization projects, as well as the assessment of appropriate methane reduction strategies (biocovers), require reliable emission forecasts for the assessment of system feasibility and to ensure environmental compliance. To this end, landfill simulation models can represent an useful supporting tool for a better design of leachate/gas collection and treatment systems and can provide valuable information for the evaluation of best options for containment systems depending on their performances under the site-specific conditions. The capability in predicting future emissions levels at a landfill site can also be improved by combining simulation models with field observations at full-scale landfills and/or with experimental studies resembling landfill conditions. Indeed, this kind of data may allow to identify the main parameters and processes governing leachate and gas generation and can provide useful information for model refinement. In view of such need, the present research study was initially addressed to develop a new landfill screening model that, based on simplified mathematical and empirical equations, provides quantitative estimation of leachate and gas production over time, taking into account for site-specific conditions, waste properties and main landfill characteristics and processes. In order to evaluate the applicability of the developed model and the accuracy of emissions forecast, several simulations on four full-scale landfills, currently in operative management stage, were carried out. The results of these case studies showed a good correspondence of leachate estimations with monthly trend observed in the field and revealed that the reliability of model predictions is strongly influenced by the quality of input data. In particular, the initial waste moisture content and the waste compression index, which are usually data not available from a standard characterisation, were identified as the key unknown parameters affecting leachate production. Furthermore, the applicability of the model to closed landfills was evaluated by simulating different alternative capping systems and by comparing the results with those returned by the Hydrological Evaluation of Landfill Performance (HELP), which is the most worldwide used model for comparative analysis of composite liner systems. Despite the simplified approach of the developed model, simulated values of infiltration and leakage rates through the analysed cover systems were in line with those of HELP. However, it should be highlighted that the developed model provides an assessment of leachate and biogas production only from a quantitative point of view. The leachate and biogas composition was indeed not included in the forecast model, as strongly linked to the type of waste that makes the prediction in a screening phase poorly representative of what could be expected in the field. Hence, for a qualitative analysis of leachate and gas emissions over time, a laboratory methodology including different type of lab-scale tests was applied to a particular waste material. Specifically, the research was focused on mechanically biologically treated (MBT) wastes which, after the introduction of the European Landfill Directive 1999/31/EC (European Commission, 1999) that imposes member states to dispose of in landfills only wastes that have been preliminary subjected to treatment, are becoming the main flow waste landfilled in new Italian facilities. However, due to the relatively recent introduction of the MBT plants within the waste management system, very few data on leachate and gas emissions from MBT waste in landfills are available and, hence, the current knowledge mainly results from laboratory studies. Nevertheless, the assessment of the leaching characteristics of MBT materials and the evaluation of how the environmental conditions may affect the heavy metals mobility are still poorly investigated in literature. To gain deeper insight on the fundamental mechanisms governing the constituents release from MBT wastes, several leaching experiments were performed on MBT samples collected from an Italian MBT plant and the experimental results were modelled to obtain information on the long-term leachate emissions. Namely, a combination of experimental leaching tests were performed on fully-characterized MBT waste samples and the effect of different parameters, mainly pH and liquid to solid ratio (L/S,) on the compounds release was investigated by combining pH static-batch test, pH dependent tests and dynamic up-flow column percolation experiments. The obtained results showed that, even though MBT wastes were characterized by relatively high heavy metals content, only a limited amount was actually soluble and thus bioavailable. Furthermore, the information provided by the different tests highlighted the existence of a strong linear correlation between the release pattern of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and several metals (Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, V, Zn), suggesting that complexation to DOC is the leaching controlling mechanism of these elements. Thus, combining the results of batch and up-flow column percolation tests, partition coefficients between DOC and metals concentration were derived. These data, coupled with a simplified screening model for DOC release, allowed to get a very good prediction of metal release during the experiments and may provide useful indications for the evaluation of long-term emissions from this type of waste in a landfill disposal scenario. In order to complete the study on the MBT waste environmental behaviour, gas emissions from MBT waste were examined by performing different anaerobic tests. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential gas generation capacity of wastes and to assess possible implications on gas generation resulting from the different environmental conditions expected in the field. To this end, anaerobic batch tests were performed at a wide range of water contents (26-43 %w/w up to 75 %w/w on wet weight) and temperatures (from 20-25 °C up to 55 °C) in order to simulate different landfill management options (dry tomb or bioreactor landfills). In nearly all test conditions, a quite long lag-phase was observed (several months) due to the inhibition effects resulting from high concentrations of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and ammonia that highlighted a poor stability degree of the analysed material. Furthermore, experimental results showed that the initial waste water content is the key factor limiting the anaerobic biological process. Indeed, when the waste moisture was lower than 32 %w/w the methanogenic microbial activity was completely inhibited. Overall, the obtained results indicated that the operative conditions drastically affect the gas generation from MBT waste, in terms of both gas yield and generation rate. This suggests that particular caution should be paid when using the results of lab-scale tests for the evaluation of long-term behaviour expected in the field, where the boundary conditions change continuously and vary significantly depending on the climate, the landfill operative management strategies in place (e.g. leachate recirculation, waste disposal methods), the hydraulic characteristics of buried waste, the presence and type of temporary and final cover systems.

Historical accounts of democracy's rise tend to focus on ancient Greece and pre-Renaissance Europe. This book draws from global evidence to show that the story is much richer—democratic practices were present in many places, at many other times, from the Americas before European conquest, to ancient Mesopotamia, to precolonial Africa. Delving into the prevalence of early democracy throughout the world, the book makes the case that understanding how and where these democracies flourished—and when and why they declined—can provide crucial information not just about the history of governance, but also about the ways modern democracies work and where they could manifest in the future. Drawing from examples spanning several millennia, the book first considers why states developed either democratic or autocratic styles of governance and argues that early democracy tended to develop in small places with a weak state and, counterintuitively, simple technologies. When central state institutions (such as a tax bureaucracy) were absent—as in medieval Europe—rulers needed consent from their populace to govern. When central institutions were strong—as in China or the Middle East—consent was less necessary and autocracy more likely. The book then explores the transition from early to modern democracy, which first took shape in England and then the United States, illustrating that modern democracy arose as an effort to combine popular control with a strong state over a large territory. Democracy has been an experiment that has unfolded over time and across the world—and its transformation is ongoing. Amidst rising democratic anxieties, the book widens the historical lens on the growth of political institutions and offers surprising lessons for all who care about governance.

AbstractJurisdictions can engage in different types of aggressive tax policies to varying degrees. These policies can have negative spillover effects on other jurisdictions. In the realm of corporate taxation, these effects consist of base erosion and profit shifting and perceived pressures to reduce corporate taxes. Both direct and indirect effects undermine the efforts especially of developing countries at mobilising domestic resources to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. We analyse the intensity of corrosive tax policies by exploiting a new legal dataset compiled for the Corporate Tax Haven Index (CTHI). Relying on rigorously defined indicators, the dataset allows comparative analyses of negative and positive spillover pathways in the corporate income tax systems of 64 jurisdictions. Tax policies under review comprise, for example, preferential tax regimes, extremely low tax rates agreed through secretive tax rulings, economic zones and tax holidays. Comparing the 27 European Union (EU) member states with five African developing countries, we find important differences. Except for two indicators (loss utilisation and economic zones/tax holidays), the European Union members are found to consistently engage in more aggressive corporate tax policies than the African countries. These heightened risks for negative spillovers emanating from the EU27 corporate tax rules stand in conflict with the stated intentions by the European Union to support good governance in tax matters and its commitment to ensure policy coherence for development. The chapter provides recommendations on how to reduce the risks for negative spillovers in corporate taxation and to exit the race to the bottom in corporate taxation.

Polish Deal from the perspective of supporting innovation. Purpose: To present the construction of tax reliefs for innovations in companies and attempt to generally assess their effectiveness against the background of the degree of use of similar solutions in other countries. Design/methodology/approach: The study is of a literature and empirical character. The research consists of five stages. The first stage describes the degree of innovation in economies in the world. The second stage presents the system of public suport of innovation in OECD countries (direct subsidies and tax reliefs). In the third part the conception of a tax relief and its role in the public policy is explained. The next two parts present constraction of new tax reliefs in income taxes in Poland. Summary includes a general assessment of new tax instruments. Findings: The degree of innovation in economies varies, but the leading countries have been fairly stable for many years. They dominate, among others Western European countries, the United States, South Korea. OECD countries support the development of innovation with subsidies and tax allowances, mainly reliefs for R&D activity. The main beneficiaries of the support are SME. The share of the granted allowances in GDP is growing dynamically. This proves that tax reliefs are an important tool for stimulating innovative activity, mainly in smaller enterprises. The use of the concessions varies across individual countries, and this instrument is successfully used by both better and less developed countries. However, taking into account the size of the granted allowances in GDP, in 2019 selected countries of Western Europe, along with Canada and South Korea, dominated. Unfortunately, Poland fares very poorly compared to the EU countries and even the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in terms of the degree of innovation in the economy, as well as in terms of public support for innovation. The structure and rules of new tax reliefs are rather simple and transparent, and thus should not be a problem for entrepreneurs from a formal point of view. Consequently, the mere fact that the allowances in question were introduced into the tax system must be regarded as appropriate. On the other hand, another issue is the actual degree of interest and use of the reliefs by the entrepreneurs themselves. Reliefs usually consist in deducting the relevant expenses from the income from economic activity, so the real condition is first to achieve a sufficiently high income. In this context, non-returnable subsidies seem to be a more attractive solution than allowances for smaller entrepreneurs. So far, the interest of entrepreneurs in investment tax reliefs in Poland has been quite weak.

Abstract There are two good reasons why the desirable size of the public sector is a subject of constant, acute controversy. First, public expenditures—which by no means capture the full impact of the State on the economy—are a large proportion of national product, and the corresponding tax burden affects almost everybody in the community. This applies to every advanced country. As Table 3. I shows, the average share of public expenditures in gross domestic product (GDP) in the (then) ten member countries of the European Community, in 1984, was almost exactly 50 per cent. The British share, at 44.3 per cent, was lower than that of any of the other countries except Greece.

Without a university or parliament, Lyon became an important centre of book production and distribution over the last quarter of the fifteenth century. In the course of these years, favourable economic conditions with the development of a fourth annual fair and elaborate banking services, turned the provincial merchant town into a European marketplace. Constant movement of people, goods, and money, as well as a ten-year tax exemption for newcomers to the printing business, attracted printers and booksellers who placed Lyon at the heart of networks operating near and far. Contemporary material evidence from the buyers’ side documents the markets targeted by the Lyon book merchants during this key period, some of their strategies, and skills at time and distance management. It also suggests how, in their spheres of influence, the development of the book trade could have played a part in the evolution of urban and rural society. With little archival evidence at hand, we need to reassess the larger organisation of the Lyon book trade in the international landscape and the part played by the importation of books. A mapping of available data, and observations on bindings and provenance, is helping to define the role of the city in the circulation of books, printed locally or elsewhere, throughout France.

A sarcopenia é uma doença caracterizada pela redução da força e da massa muscular. A prevalência desta condição tem uma tendência de aumento entre a população idosa, com maior incidência em países subdesenvolvidos. Os instrumentos recomendados por consensos e consórcios internacionais para medir os componentes que identificam a sarcopenia envolvem alto custo e nem sempre estão muito disponíveis na prática clínica. Este capítulo tem por objetivo apresentar alternativas viáveis para identificar sarcopenia na atividade cotidiana dos profissionais da saúde. Para tal, foi realizada uma revisão narrativa da literatura. Foram identificados modelos antropométricos preditivos da força de preensão manual e da massa muscular apendicular, mensuradas por dinamometria manual e absorciometria radiológica de dupla energia (DXA), respectivamente. Esses instrumentos são recomendados internacionalmente como os mais indicados na literatura, para identificar sarcopenia. Além dessas medidas, o consenso europeu sobre sarcopenia também recomenda o teste de sentar e levantar da cadeira (força muscular) e perímetro da panturrilha (estimativa da massa muscular) como alternativas possíveis. Neste capítulo, são apresentados quadros e tabelas com os parâmetros de referência (pontos de corte) de cada uma dessas medidas para identificar a baixa força e massa muscular. Em conclusão, existem métodos que fazem uso de medições antropométricas e testes simples, com referenciais específicos na identificação de baixa força e massa muscular. O profissional da saúde tem condições de monitorar o risco de sarcopenia nos idosos mediante recursos simples e rotineiros de sua prática clínica. Como resultado, aumentam as chances de sucesso nas estratégias de intervenção preventivas da sarcopenia no idoso ou seu agravamento.

This article presents an interpretation of John Paul II’s Roman Triptych, which comprises three meditations written by him in Rome in the year 2002. At first sight, this work would seem to be a longer religious poem that has its roots in the author’s biography as well as in European art and philosophy — not unlike T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. Here, however, the main point of reference turns out to be the Bible. John Paul II’s Roman Triptych is essentially a biblical poem for our times. The poet’s musings have been written down in free verse, reflecting the rhythmic flow of normal speech and the babble of a mountain stream, which — in the first meditation — is his constant companion as he wanders in search of the source of life and creation, this being God — the Primordial Word. In the second meditation, the poet enters the Sistine Chapel and admires Michelangelo’s frescos, which illustrate the beginning and the end of “all that is seen”, in accordance with what is written in the Bible. It was in the presence of these very frescos that the author of the poem had been elected as the latest successor of St. Peter. In the third and last meditation, the poet ponders on the beginning of the Covenant and the meaning of the heroic ordeal undergone by Abraham — the father of our faith — as he makes his way to the top of the mysterious hill In the land of Moriah in order to sacrifice his son. From a semantic point of view, the poem has been written on several levels. The various meditations are woven around the inspired words of the Book of Genesis, the Gospel, the Acts of the Apostles and the Apostolic Letters, which together form a network of interconnections between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The poet’s reflections on what he sees are accompanied by dramatic tension, as at times his narrator’s monologue becomes either a dialogue or is interspersed with the utterances of others.

We will consider in this paper the legal issues associated to the use of avatars in service provision procedures. Namely, the service sector is constantly searching for process optimization and increasing efficiency, and avatars can be used to provide a wide range of services in both the public and private sectors. Their advantages are numerous and some of them are the increase in efficiency and internal process optimization, the elimination of human errors, corruption and fraud, the possibility of providing more accessible and inclusive services with a high degree of personalization. In the European Union, artificial intelligence and avatars are used in the provision of three levels of services in the public sector, namely those of an economic, non-economic and social nature. In Serbia, we already see avatars as service providers of customer services in the public sector in the form of so-called chatbots, e.g. to assist taxpayers with various tax matters, such as filing tax returns, paying taxes and obtaining tax forms through the IRS website or for information regarding enrollment, scholarships and other education-related matters through the Ministry of Education bot, of science and technological development of Serbia. Certainly, the benefits of using these systems were first noticed by the private sector in areas such as e-marketing and e-sales. Considering the technical characteristics and purpose, avatars whose functioning is based on reactive, weak VI with limited memory are on a legal level with slightly more advanced mediums for delivering pre- typed information or ordering goods whose function is thereby exhausted. Because of the above, general or special regulations that regulate the circulation of the services and goods in question are relevant for all related issues. In contrast to this, the legal situation arising from the use of avatars whose functioning is based on intelligent, strong, super VI is much more complex because it opens up numerous issues such as those related to privacy protection and informed consent, but also status issues of the VI itself, which is why the spectrum of authoritative of legal regulations is much wider here. After the introductory clarifications of the research subject and the current situation in the development of the regulatory framework, in the next part of the paper we will consider some of the general legal challenges of the use of VIs that are also transposed to avatars. In this part of the paper, we will also present the main regulatory frameworks that seek to legally regulate the issue of the use of VI. After defining the general challenges and regulatory frameworks, we make the discussion concrete by considering issues that are directly relevant to the legal aspects of the use of avatars. In this part of the paper, we proposed the definition of this entity and explained the legal significance of its elements. The potential risks of using avatars in the virtual space and metaverse are presented, while ways to overcome them are also discussed.

This article is devoted to the study of the formation and development of investment legislation in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The author identifies five stages of the formation of Kazakhstan’s investment legislation from 1990 to the present. The author describes each stage of the development of investment legislation, analyzes all the enacted legislative acts and reforms that have been implemented to attract investors to the country’s economy. It is noted that the Republic of Kazakhstan since its independence has taken serious steps to create a favorable investment climate, and certain results in this direction have been achieved, but there are also problems. It is emphasized that cardinal changes in the country’s investment policy, constant reforms in the public administration system, the creation of various state bodies to regulate investors’ activities have a negative impact on Kazakhstan’s investment attractiveness. In this regard, the author concludes that it is necessary to change the investment policy in the field of granting tax preferences, improve the investment and tax legislation of Kazakhstan to ensure proper protection of investors’ rights.

Group-velocity (GV) mismatch severely limits the efficiency of three-wave mixing processes with ullrashort pulses. Special conditions were found in the latest 80’s by Martinez, by Szabo' et al. and by Zhang et al. for obtaining GV matching in second-harmonic generation via achromatic or non-collinear phase-matching. More recently, we demonstrated that GV matching can be achieved in the more general case of tunable parametric generation by using suitable non-collinear phase-matching configurations [1,2]. Here we show that this can be obtained also in collinear parametric interactions, if the interacting pulses are made to propagate in the biréfringent nonlinear crystal with the pulse fronts suitably tilted respect to the phase fronts (Fig. 1). In fact, tilting the pump pulse by an angle γ modifies its collinear GV by the factor tan(ρ)tan(ργ), where ρ is the walkoff angle. Figure 2 shows the calculated γ values for which the GV of a 400 nm pump in type I BBO equals either the idler GV (dashed line) or the signal GV (dotted line); the full line gives the lilt angle γopt for which the signal- and idler-pulse GV's in the reference frame of the pump pulse are opposite, a condition that allows signal and idler to be amplified while staying locked to the pump, without broadening or gain saturation [3]. The relevant fact is that, since γopt is virtually constant over almost the entire tuning range, such a locked amplification can be obtained with a single set-up at any wavelengths.

For a long time, germinated seeds have been used in food as a healthy product with high nutritional value and as a decor for exquisite dishes today. However, there have been many foodborne outbreaks in Europe, the United States, and other parts of the world associated with pathogens contamination of sprouts. These outbreaks pose a constant challenge to the entire sprouts industry. The aim of this study was to determine the presence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), Salmonella spp., and potentially pathogenic bacteria in germinated grains and seeds intended for industrial food production and ready for use without further processing. In this study, grains of wheat (Triticum aestivum), seeds of broccoli (Brassica oleracea), alfalfa (Medicago sativa), radish (Raphanus sativus) and hemp (Cannabis sativa) were germinated for 72 hours and were evaluated compared with ungerminated grains and seeds. The presence of E.coli was assessed by the inoculation of enrichment broth to Tryptone Bile X-glucuronide (TBX) and Eosin methylene blue (EMB) agars, and colony characterization with MALDI-TOF. E.coli was carried out in accordance with LVS ISO 16649-2:2007. The presence of STEC was determined in accordance with ISO/TS 13136:2012. Salmonella spp. detection was in accordance with ISO 6579-1:2017. As a result, E.coli, Salmonella spp., and STEC were not found in any sample. However, environmental bacteria were detected in TBX dry seeds and 12 h – soaked seeds. The presence of Enterobacteriaceae was found in all samples by colony characterization on EMB by MALDI-TOF. The results show that the sprouts and edible seeds available in Latvia could be included as healthy and relatively safe food.

Along with the progress in micro- and nano-technologies, such as Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and μ-TAS (Micro-Total Analysis Systems), the Knudsen number, which is a non dimensional parameter for rarefaction, of the flow around and inside the systems becomes large. In such high Knudsen number flows, gas-surface interaction has become important for flow field analyses. To illustrate overall gas-surface interaction without any detailed processes, an accommodation coefficient, α, is the most widely used as an empirical parameter for a practical purpose. One of accommodation coefficients, the tangential momentum accommodation coefficient (TMAC) αt, is in closely related to the loss of the pressure through a micro channel. Therefore, TMAC is an important coefficient for flow inside micro/nano fluidic devices. To obtain TMAC from experiments, the mass flow rate measurements in a microtube were carried out using the constant volume method. The results obtained from the experiments were analyzed in frame of the Navier-Stokes equation associated with the second order velocity slip boundary condition. The mean Knudsen number was less than 0.3, where the velocity slip boundary condition is applicable. From the mass flow rates, the slip coefficient of the boundary condition was obtained, and then, TMAC was determined. The experimental apparatus showed very low leakage rate, and TMAC was determined with a high degree of accuracy. The TMACs of the same surface material with different dimensional parameters were compared for validation of the system.

Fuel cell is a power generator which directly converts chemical energy to electric energy through an electrochemical reaction instead of thermal combustion. The electrochemical reaction produces as much heat as electric energy. In transport applications where the specific power density of the fuel cell is relatively high a large amount of heat should be evacuated from the system. Therefore, heat exchangers integrated in the bipolar plates play an important role in the operation and life time of fuel cells. Conventional designs of the cooling system of the current bipolar plates consist of a net work of parallel straight channels of half of the bipolar plate’s thickness. These designs reach rapidly their limit of efficacy and new designs are needed. Reynolds number in the bipolar channel flow is around 200; therefore the flow regime is laminar which is known for its weak heat transfer efficiency. In this work we present a new geometry of the cooling channels of bipolar plates in which heat transfer efficiency in laminar regime is enhanced by generating chaotic trajectories. Here we characterize the heat transfer characteristics of a single channel. Firstly, hydrodynamic and heat transfer characteristics of several channel geometries are characterized by using the CFD code Fluent. Thermo-physical properties of the working fluid are those of water and the velocity profile at the channel entrance is that of a fully developed Poiseuile flow. Secondly, fluid mixing along the channels is evaluated using two different criteria. For these calculations, thermal boundary conditions on the channel walls are adiabatic and the entrance of the channel is divided in two (horizontal or vertical) parts. In one part water flows at 300K while in the other part water is at 320K. The first criteria is the ratio of (Tmin/Tmax-Ro)/(1-Ro) over cross-section surfaces calculated for Reynolds numbers 100 and 200 and for both horizontal and vertical positions of the dividing surface at the entrance.

Las dificultades en el acceso a los servicios bancarios por parte de determinados grupos de población, especialmente aquellos residentes en zonas rurales y/o de edad avanzada, suponen una fuente de vulnerabilidad ante el riesgo de exclusión financiera de dichos colectivos. Este trabajo ofrece un resumen de las actuaciones desplegadas al objeto de mitigar dichos riesgos en los diferentes países europeos, con especial énfasis en el caso español. Si bien estas iniciativas son de naturaleza diversa y dependen de factores idiosincráticos de cada país, una revisión sistemática de las mismas permite extraer las siguientes conclusiones principales desde una perspectiva comparada. Desde el ámbito de la iniciativa privada, cabe destacar el despliegue en varios países europeos de redes de puntos de acceso al efectivo compartidas por diferentes entidades bancarias, si bien su implantación es, por el momento, relativamente menor en el caso español. Respecto a las iniciativas de colaboración público-privada, tanto en España como en el resto de países europeos, destaca la utilización de los acuerdos entre las entidades bancarias y las empresas de correos, que cuentan con una gran capilaridad en su red de oficinas. Desde el ámbito público, las actuaciones más comúnmente utilizadas se refieren a ayudas para instalar cajeros automáticos en zonas rurales. Por su parte, la regulación de los niveles mínimos de provisión de puntos de acceso al efectivo mediante la acción legislativa solo está vigente en el caso de Suecia, donde el uso de efectivo es tan minoritario que su potencial desaparición supone una amenaza sobre la viabilidad de la infraestructura de efectivo. Difficulties in accessing banking services by certain population groups, in particular those living in rural areas and/or the elderly, are a source of potential vulnerability with regard to the risk of financial exclusion of these cohorts. This paper summarises the actions deployed, by public and private institutions, in order to mitigate these risks in European countries, with special emphasis on Spain. Although these initiatives are diverse in nature and depend on idiosyncratic factors in each country, a systematic review allows the following conclusions to be drawn from a comparative perspective. First, it is worth noting the deployment in several European countries of networks of cash access points shared by different banks, although their implementation is, for the time being, relatively lower in Spain. Second, regarding public-private collaboration initiatives, both in Spain and in other European countries, the use of agreements between banks and post offices, which have well-distributed networks of offices, stands out. Third, the most common public sector initiatives consist of aid for the instalment of ATMs in rural areas. However, legislation regulating minimum provision of cash access points is only in force in Sweden, where the use of cash is so low that its potential disappearance poses a threat to the viability of cash infrastructure.