Academic literature on the topic 'Public contracts – European Union countries'
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Journal articles on the topic "Public contracts – European Union countries"
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Nemec, Peter, and Peter Džupka. "DETERMINANTS OF SME ACCESS TO PUBLIC PROCUREMENT: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM THE VISEGRAD GROUP COUNTRIES." Proceedings of CBU in Economics and Business 2 (October 24, 2021): 75–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.12955/peb.v2.257.
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This article aims to investigate the factors influencing the success of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in public procurement in the Visegrad Group Countries. According to the European Union, tools such as the division of contracts into smaller lots or the evaluation of tenders based on the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) increase the chances of SME’s winning contracts in public procurement. In particular, the evaluation of tenders based on MEAT rather than the lowest price is a tool favoring SMEs, as it boosts their innovative potential, which creates the preconditions for achieving the best value for taxpayers' money. By analyzing more than 150,000 contract award notices published in the Tenders Electronic Daily in 2019, we found a positive effect on SMEs' chances of winning a contract when using framework agreements or dividing contracts into smaller lots. Moreover, the results of multinomial logit regression suggest that the evaluation of tenders based on MEAT rather than lowest prices increases the chances of SMEs to win the contract by more than 50%. However, the findings that the share of SMEs in the total financial value of contracts is less than 20%, with SMEs winning more than 60% of all contracts, suggest that some obstacles of SMEs' access to public contracts, such as financial, administrative or technical complexity of projects may persist and require further research.
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Saad, Youssef G. "Deliverable accountability, change management and breach in consultancy contracts: A comparative study of world bank versus europeaid funded projects." Journal of Public Procurement 17, no. 4 (April 1, 2017): 525–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jopp-17-04-2017-b003.
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A considerable proportion of donor aid is dedicated to technical assistance to support developing countries in their development initiatives. The majority of this aid comes from globally-operating international donors including the World Bank and the European Union. In spite of several harmonization attempts, there still exist major differences in their procurement regulations and standard contracts. Based on an extensive literature review on consulting services and an in-depth analysis of the standard forms of contract, it was found that divergence between both forms is not only clear but also paradigmatic owing mainly to market orientation paradigm differences. The findings and recommendations help advance research on and practice of various types of consultancy services in general.
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Natividade, Jorge, Carlos Oliveira Cruz, and Cristina Matos Silva. "Improving the Efficiency of Energy Consumption in Buildings: Simulation of Alternative EnPC Models." Sustainability 14, no. 7 (April 2, 2022): 4228. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su14074228.
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The construction sector and the operation and maintenance of buildings largely contribute to energy consumption and emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the European Union (EU). Therefore, it is of utmost importance to improve the energy performance of buildings. Yet, this frequently involves high short-term investments, which may not be compatible with owners’ budgetary constraints. In this research we analyze the importance of Energy Performance Contracting (EnPC) for the improvement of energy efficiency in buildings. These models allow bypassing budgetary restrictions of owners (public and private ones) and bring private capital to finance energy efficiency measures. The paper analyses different models of contracting Energy Service Companies (ESCOs), from traditional models to alternative models, and exposes the versatility of the new contracting models and the associated risks. Several applications of energy performance contracts implemented in European countries are presented to identify the main characteristics that lead to successful contracts. The paper also includes the discussion of energy performance contracts applied to a public building (a school) that seeks to reduce its annual energy consumption, by testing the use of three types of energy performance contracts. The results show that there is potential in the use of EnPC but it is critical to select the most adequate model, especially when defining the contract duration, to balance both owners’ and companies’ interests.
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Radwanowicz-Wanczewska, Joanna. "Implementation of New EU Directives Coordinating the Procedures for Awarding Public Contracts in European Union Member States: The Example of Poland." Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric 65, no. 1 (December 1, 2020): 133–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/slgr-2020-0052.
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Abstract This article concerns the implementation of new EU Directives coordinating the procedures for awarding public contracts in European Union Member States. In a number of countries, including Poland, the process of their implementation (Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on public procurement; Directive 2014/25/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on procurement by entities operating in the water, energy, transport, and postal services sectors; Directive 2014/23/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on the award of concession contracts) was delayed. In most cases, the modernization of EU regulations on public procurement required a thorough modification of national regulations in this respect. As a result of the introduction of the package of new Directives, the European Union public procurement market has undergone substantial changes. The need to adjust legal regulations to the changing political, social, and economic situations in a better way has resulted in the transposition of the modernized EU Directives concerning public procurement to the Polish legal system, affecting the final shape of the new Polish Public Procurement Law. The implementation of the package of new Directives has significantly affected the functioning of the Polish public procurement market. For the entities operating in this market, this means the necessity to expand their knowledge, so as to become familiar with the new legal solutions in this respect.
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Buccino, Giulia, Elisabetta Iossa, Biancamaria Raganelli, and Mate Vincze. "Competitive dialogue: an economic and legal assessment." Journal of Public Procurement 20, no. 2 (March 31, 2020): 163–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jopp-09-2019-0059.
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the economic and legal rationale for the use of the competitive dialogue in complex procurement. The authors use the data set of public contracts awarded by European Union (EU) member states between 2010 and 2017 to analyse its usage patterns. In particular, the authors identify the types of contracting authorities that mainly use the procedure, the sectors and contract characteristics and the role of institutional factors related to the country’s perceived corruption and level of innovativeness. Design/methodology/approach The authors discuss economic and legal issues in the use of the competitive dialogue. The authors use a data set of public contracts awarded by EU member states, published on the EU’s public procurement portal Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) to analyse usage patterns and explore the types of contracting authorities that use the procedure, the sectors and type of tenders. The data covers a sample of 1.242.090 observations, which relates to all the contract award notices published on TED in the period 2010-2017 for all the 28 European member states. A probit model is used as a methodology. Findings The empirical analysis reveals that the use of competitive value is greater for larger value contracts, for national rather than local authorities, for the supply of other manufactured products and machinery; for research and development and business, as well as information technology services; and for construction works. The level of perceived corruption and the gross domestic product/capita do not have explanatory power in the use of the procedure, whilst a country’s degree of innovativeness, as measured by the global innovation index, positively affects the probability of adopting the procedure. A decreasing trend in the use of competitive dialogue over time is observed. Research limitations/implications In conclusion, the countries examined benefited from a long tradition of public–private partnerships (PPPs) and from a transposition of the 2004 directive, able to provide an inclusive interpretation of complexity, and therefore, stimulate the adoption of the competitive dialogue in different sectors. Conversely, the countries, which postponed a concrete transposition and the overcoming of the confusing concept of complexity, limited the scope for the application of competitive dialogue, relying on the easier alternative: the negotiated procedure. Those circumstances lead to visible difficulties in stimulating the adoption of the procedure even in the traditional sectors; indeed, only with the new directive’s provisions a slight change in the trend can be seen. Practical implications To foster the use of the competitive dialogue in countries that have so far used it to a limited extent is important to improve upon the definition of complexity and learn from the experience of the top usage countries, as identified in the analysis. Social implications Helping the use of the procedure may facilitate the procurement of complex contracts such as PPPs, and thus, ease the building and management of public infrastructures for the provision of public services. Originality/value The authors are not aware of previous studies that have used the TED data set and studied the law in a number of European countries so as to understand the usage patterns for the competitive dialogue.
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Glushchenko, A. A. "Overview of international COVID-19 vaccines development and administration programs." Urgent Problems of Europe, no. 1 (2022): 58–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.31249/ape/2022.01.03.
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The pandemic caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus has presented challenges to the international community that it has never faced before. The high rate of spread of the infection and the economic, social and political challenges associated with it have pushed individual states and international organisations to the limit in proposing the most effective methods to combat the pandemic. The article examines various examples of government support for vaccine development programs in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, China and Russia, as well as the specifics of using COVID-19 vaccination programs in these countries. Based on the data presented in the article, it is concluded that government support for these programs become one of the most effective ways to increase the availability of vaccines for large-scale vaccination of citizens. Particular attention is paid to aspects of the regulatory environment for vaccine approval in a time of pandemic, the financing of vaccination programs, and international cooperation at WHO and UN level to counter the novel coronavirus pandemic. Additionally, the article analyzes contracts for the supply of vaccines in the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom. Based on the data presented in the article, a conclusion is drawn about the possible reasons for the delays in the supply of vaccines under contracts concluded by the countries of the European Union. The results of this study can be used in the future to plan other vaccine development programs and strengthen government policy in the field of combating infectious diseases, strengthening public and private partnerships in the health sector.
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Kornecki, Janusz. "Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises on the Public." Equilibrium 6, no. 2 (June 30, 2011): 23–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/equil2011.010.
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Small and medium-sized enterprises are believed to be a key driving force of economic vitality, innovation and new job creation. For a few years the European Union has been monitoring SME performance and the quality of public procurement procedures to make access of SMEs to the public procurement market easier and provide for their greater participation in this market. These activities have their origin in the assumption that having in mind the size of the public procurement market and public resources involved, suitable shaping of this area may improve effectiveness of selected policies at the EU level and in particular member countries. The directives concerning public procurement should ensure opening the market of public procurement for all enterprises irrespectively of their size. Recently the public procurement market in Poland has been continuously growing which doubtlessly resulted from Poland’s accession to the European Union. The aim of this paper is to give evidence of SME position on the public procurement market and to attempt to answer two basic research questions. Firstly, is the market potential fully used as far as applying for awarding public contracts by SMEs is concerned? And secondly, what are the main obstacles determining the access of SMEs to the public procurement market? This is done by reference to available statistical data and two studies that were carried out by the author.
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Ates, Leyla, Moran Harari, and Markus Meinzer. "Positive Spillovers in International Corporate Taxation and the European Union." Intertax 48, Issue 4 (April 1, 2020): 389–402. http://dx.doi.org/10.54648/taxi2020035.
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The international spillover effects of specific domestic policies and practices have been subjected to increasing scrutiny from a range of international organizations, academia, and civil institutions with tax policy and practice both central in this discussion. Nevertheless, the extant international tax spillover analyses explore a limited set of spillover pathways or indicators that have been criticized in the literature for not being sufficiently inclusive. The focus of this article is on a newly launched index that includes a comprehensive set of plausible pathways in which spillovers occur. The Corporate TaxHaven Index (CTHI) explores twenty key tax spillover indicators under five categories and assesses sixty-four countries’ tax systems in order to identify policies that should be considered for corporate tax reform to mitigate cross-border tax spillovers. This article particularly aims to highlight international corporate tax spillover pathways in the European Union Member States’ domestic tax laws, regulations and documented administrative practices but limits its scope to domestic tax rules that dispense with positive spillovers. Finally, it analyses Member States’ current performance and concludes with recommendations for future tax reforms in the European Union. Tax spillovers, Corporate Tax Haven Index, transparency rules, public accountability, country by country reporting, mandatory disclosure rules, tax rulings, extractive contracts, anti-avoidance rules, controlled foreign company rules, deduction limitation.
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Al-Enizi, Ziad Kh, and Waleed Fouad Mahameed. "Protection of employees in international employment contracts." Journal of Governance and Regulation 12, no. 1 (2023): 75–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.22495/jgrv12i1art7.
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This study investigated the level of labor protection as per the international labor contract. Thus, the way applicable law is applied to international labor relations in Jordan and other Arab countries such as Kuwait and Bahrain, and Rome I Regulation were discussed (Council of the European Union, 2008). This was done to evaluate labor protection in Jordan compared to the other countries. Attempts were made to raise the problem, delineate the ongoing situation in Jordan, and suggest suitable solutions. The analytical method, and the survey of judiciary literature and relevant legal documents showed labor protection in Jordan is not suitable. This is because the Jordanian judiciary is contradictory regarding the interpretation of occurrences related to determining the applicable law, for there are no clear, explicit legal provisions in this regard. It was also suggested that the Jordanian legislator intervenes to protect the labor and provides legal regulations on the application of law. This study has provided the fertile soil for beneficiaries to enhance labor protection to make it conform to international standards, and for future research to aim at this purpose, and deal with labor rights in remote work or work performed in more than one country.
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Dawar, Kamala. "The 2016 European Union International Procurement Instruments Amendments to the 2012 Buy European Proposal: A Retrospective Assessment of Its Prospects." Journal of World Trade 50, Issue 5 (October 1, 2016): 845–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.54648/trad2016034.
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This article assesses the European Commission’s 2016 Amended Proposal for ‘a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the access of third-country goods and services to the Union’s internal market in public procurement and procedures supporting negotiations on access of Union goods and services to the public procurement markets of third countries’.1 The proposed regulation aims to improve the conditions under which European Union (EU) businesses can compete for public contracts abroad. It provides the EU with leverage through imposing a price penalty on any tender for an EU procurement which is originating in a country that does not offer the EU ‘reciprocity’ in access to its procurement markets. After introducing the 2016 International Procurement Instrument (IPI) Amended Proposal, the article examines the legal framework of the Amended Proposal with reference to its evolution from the European Commission’s original 2012 proposed regulation. The analysis then turns to the concept of reciprocity, which serves as the justificatory basis of the Commission’s proposal before assessing the 2016 Amended Proposal’s compatibility with the EU’s commitments under the World Trade Organization (WTO), including most notably the World Trade Organization’s Government Procurement Agreement (WTO GPA), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM). This assessment concludes by questioning the compatibility of this proposed regulation with the EU’s obligations under the WTO as well as the objectives of the EU procurement rules, underpinned by Treaty principles.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic "Public contracts – European Union countries"
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DORIS, Martin. "Dealing with divergence dispute avoidance and detrimental reliance in European contract law." Doctoral thesis, European University Institute, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1814/7080.
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Defence date: 28 May 2007Examining board: Prof. Christian Joerges, European University Institute, Florence ; Prof. Jacques Ziller, European University Institute, Florence ; Prof. Horatia Muir Watt, Université Paris I ; Prof. Christoph Schmid, ZERP Bremen
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
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FERNANDES, Daniel. "Governments, public opinion, and social policy : change in Western Europe." Doctoral thesis, European University Institute, 2022. http://hdl.handle.net/1814/75046.
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Defence date: 21 November 2022Examining Board: Prof. Ellen Immergut (EUI, Supervisor); Prof. Anton Hemerijck (EUI); Prof. Christoffer Green-Pedersen (Aarhus University); Prof. Evelyne Hübscher (Central European University)
This dissertation investigates how public opinion and government partisanship affect social policy. It brings an innovative perspective that links the idea of democratic representation to debates about the welfare state. The general claim made here is that social policy is a function of public and government preferences. This claim hinges on two critical premises. The first relates to the general mechanisms that underlie government representation. Politicians have electoral incentives to align their actions with what citizens want. They may respond to public opinion indirectly by updating their party agendas, which can serve as the basis for social policy decisions in case they get elected. They may also respond directly by introducing welfare reforms that react to shifts in public opinion during their mandates. The second premise concerns how citizens and politicians structure their preferences over welfare. These preferences fall alongside two dimensions. First, general attitudes about how much should the state intervene in the economy to reduce inequality and promote economic well-being (how much policy). Second, the specific preferences about which social programmes should get better funding (what kind of policy). The empirical analysis is split into three empirical chapters. Each explores different aspects of government representation in Western European welfare states. The first empirical chapter (Chapter 4) asks how governments shape social policy when facing severe pressures to decrease spending. It argues that governments strategically reduce spending on programmes that offer less visible and indirect benefits, as they are less likely to trigger an electoral backlash. The experience of the Great Recession is consistent with this claim. Countries that faced the most challenging financial constraints cut down social investment and services. Except for Greece, they all preserved consumption schemes. The second empirical chapter (Chapter 5) explores how public opinion affects government spending priorities in different welfare programmes. It expects government responsiveness to depend on public mood for more or less government activity and the most salient social issues at the time. Empirical evidence from old-age, healthcare and education issue-policy areas supports these claims. Higher policy mood and issue saliency is positively associated with increasing spending efforts. Public opinion does not appear to affect unemployment policies. vii The third empirical chapter (Chapter 6) examines how party preferences affect spending priorities in unemployment programmes. It claims that preferences on economic intervention in the economy and welfare recalibration affect different components of unemployment policy. Evidence from the past 20 years bodes well with these expectations. The generosity of compensatory schemes depends on economic preferences. The left invests more than the right. The funding of active labour-market policies depends on both preference dimensions. Among conventional parties, their funding follows the same patterns as compensatory schemes. Among recalibration parties, parties across the economic spectrum present comparable spending patterns.
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Carey, Sean D. (Sean Damien). "A Political and Macroeconomic Explanation of Public Support for European Integration." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1997. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc278919/.
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This study develops a model of macroeconomic and political determinants of public support for European integration. The research is conducted on pooled cross-sectional time-series data from five European Union member states between 1978 and 1994. The method used in this analysis is a Generalized Least Squares - Autoregressive Moving Average approach. The factors hypothesized to determine a macroeconomic explanation of public support for integration are inflation, unemployment, and economic growth. The effect of the major economic reform in the 1980s, the Single European Act, is hypothesized to act as a positive permanent intervention. The other determinants of public support are the temporary interventions of European Parliament elections and the permanent intervention of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. These are hypothesized to exert a negative effect. In a fully specified model all variables except economic growth and European Parliament elections demonstrate statistical significance at the 0.10 level or better.
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Michailidou, Asimina. "The European Union online the role of the internet in the European Union's public communication strategy and the emerging European public sphere." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2007. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/3055.
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The focus of this thesis is on the vertical Europeanisation of the online public debate and more specifically on the EU's online public communication strategy, i.e. the top-down process of the unmediated, direct, online communication between the EU and the general public. The empirical data has been collected in four stages, namely public communication policy-making; public communication policy implementation online; online public communication policy impact on key Internet audiences; and interviews with key senior Commission officials. The review of the EU public communication documents has shown that the Commission has unambiguously committed to facilitate direct communication with the EU public as part of the process of building the EU citizens' trust towards its institutions and in addressing the issues of transparency and democratic legitimation of the EU's decision-making process, while the Internet is seen as a key tool in facilitating direct communication. However, after monitoring three of the EU's official websites for a year and analyzing the views of 221 Internet users on the EU's Information and Communication strategy online, it has become evident that the Commission has not yet fulfilled these commitments. The interviews with key Commission officials have revealed that behind this gap between policy and online implementation lie: a) an institutional culture which conflicts with the aims of the Commission's public communication strategy; and b) constant institutional restructuring in the last six years. Very recently the Commission has begun to address some of the shortfalls in the online implementation of its public communication strategy, yet there is no indication that the results of the online debate regarding the EU's future will be incorporated in the decision-making process, while further study is required in the future in order to assess any change in the institutional culture in relation to its public communication strategy.
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Noordijk, Peter Andrew. "Building Bridges with Social Capital in the European Union." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1091.
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A culture of accommodation and tolerance is a necessary part of establishing and preserving a functional multi-national and multi-ethnic European Union. Civil society organizations and their associated social capital have been shown to foster civic capacity and achievement of public policy goals. However, social capital that is based on group identity can also contribute to a sense of intolerance towards out-groups, undermining the stated tolerance objectives of the social pillar of the European Union. States with a strong presence alongside civil society are expected to be curb the development of the exclusionary bonding form of social capital in favor of bridging social capital which will improve progress toward policy goals.
This study tests the link between government capacity, social capital and tolerance using data from the 1990-2009 waves of the World Values Survey and European Values Study. Using path analysis and multi-level models of the relationships between political capacity, social capital and intolerance, the model establishes that government capacity enhances bridging social capital and which increases social tolerance. The study fills a gap in understanding how government capacity and policy can result in improved social capital even with greater diversity. A proposed relationship between political capacity and bonding forms of social capital was not supported.
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Corbillon-Gulin, Ramon. "A study of how European Union IPRA practitioners viewed ethical issues : values, standards, social responsibility, and control." Virtual Press, 1996. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1014808.
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The lack of studies relating to the ethical needs and values of public relations professionals in the European Union indicated the need for a research study to ascertain: 1. the experience of European Union public relations professionals in confronting and resolving ethical issues, 2. what the needs are in charting an ethical course for individual professional conduct, 3.what the needs are to guide organizations in the ethical performance of public relations, and 4. the social responsibility of public relations.Nearly all of the quantitative studies have been devoted to an examination of the views of members of American public relations associations. Numerous authors have pointed out the value of ethical standards and of a means of enforcement of the standards for professions. In spite of an ongoing professional dialogue as to the need, little progress has been made in defining sanctions against those who violate ethical principles while defining themselves as public relations counselors.This study was based on a mail survey created and distributed by Sharpe in the Fall of 1993. Three questions from the 1972 Newsom's research study were added. Threehundred and fifty-five public relations practitioner members of the International Public Relations Association within the European Union in 1995 were identified as the population for this study. A 35.2% response rate was attained after two mailings.The typical respondent was male, had been in the profession from 10 to 30 years, held an accreditation, was a specialist and identified himself as a counselor. He related that he confronted ethical issues with frequency particularly in relation to relationships with clients, the news media, and customers. The majority of the ethical issues, which would have or had transgressed the organizational policies and personal/religious principles, consisted of: misleading information, promising more than could and was delivered, supporting a program with which he disagreed in principle, withholding information, and failure to accept responsibilities. He said that he resolved the last ethical issue encountered, which involved their organization's management performance, by pointing out the ethical issue and influencing an ethical action. He placed some value on both IPRA Codes. He saw all ethical issues as ethically wrong, especially those relating to sexual harassment, the sale of unsafe products and services, discrimination, establishing different pay scales for men and women doing the same work, withholding information for gain at expense of others, and promotion and sale of products in other countries that are unacceptable in the EU that place people at risk. He viewed the public relations profession as having a leading role in improving relationships between peoples of different races within a country and between countries. He saw public opinion as an effective control over public relations performance. Finally, he would recommend the establishment and communication of the organization's ethics code and performance policies so organizational management would be recognized for public relations performance. The employment of public relations officials with professional memberships obligating them to uphold a code of ethical conduct was viewed as a criteria that organizations should establish as evidence of the organization's commitment to ethical public relations.Department of Journalism
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Meyer, Martin Federico. "The Europeanization of the public sphere in the foreign policy domain : political action and public discourse in Germany and the United Kingdom." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.608997.
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Adolfsson, Maja, and Anneli Lundmark. "FIXED-TERM CONTRACTS, TRADE UNION REPRESENTATION AND EMPLOYER-PAID TRAINING : A Comparative Multilevel Analysis Across 35 European Countries." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Sociologiska institutionen, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-163117.
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This thesis examines the moderating role of trade union representation in addressing the gap in employer-provided training between permanent workers and workers with fixed-term contracts (FTCs) from a cross-country, comparative perspective. The impact of trade union representation is measured on two different levels: (1) access to trade union representation at the workplace at the individual-level (2) average trade union representation at the country-level, measured as trade union power. The statistical analyses are performed using data from the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) and multilevel modelling. Our result suggests that, across the European countries, workers with FTCs receive less employer-paid training than permanent workers. Regarding the impact of trade union representation, statistically significant result is found only at the individual-level, where access to trade union representation increases employer-paid training regardless of employment contract. For the interaction between access to trade union representation at the individual-level and FTC, no significant relationship is found. However, the models with the cross-level interaction between trade union power and FTC indicate that employer-paid training increases for permanent workers only. Our findings suggest that trade union representation at the workplace could operate as an equalizer between permanent workers and FTC workers, while at the country-level, their lobbying effect is beneficial for permanent workers only
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RUIZ, SOLER Javier. "Is Twitter the new coffee house? : the contribution of the European political Twittersphere to the European public sphere and European demos." Doctoral thesis, European University Institute, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/1814/63305.
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Defence date: 12 June 2019Examining Board: Prof. Alexander Trechsel, University of Lucerne (Supervisor); Prof. Giovanni Sartor, European University Institute; Prof. Luigi Curini, University of Milan; Prof. Anamaria Dutceac Segesten, Lund University
A Public Sphere and a demos are intrinsic key elements of any democratic society. The literature has pointed out that social media platforms can play an important role in developing direct interactions between users and creating a sense of community. Can Twitter contribute to the emergence of a transnational networked European Public Sphere and European demos? This thesis examines the contribution of the European Political Twittersphere to this question. I divide the question into three articles. In each I use a different theoretical framework and methodological approach to two datasets of two issue publics (the Schengen agreement and the transatlantic trade partnership, TTIP) collected through the public Twitter Streaming API from August 2016 to April 2017. In the first article I explore the actor level of the networks created from the Twitter data. I investigate whether these Twitter networks constitute networked publics where non-elite actors receive attention and play an important role by the number of mentions and retweets. In the second article I explore the question of the constitution of European transnational networks. To do so, I geolocate the accounts involved in the two networks to identify the type of interactions the users establish, whether national or transnational. In the third article I analyse the content of these networks by extracting what sentiments the users express for the topics, and whether they see themselves and the topics as national or European. The three articles capture three features of the European Political Twittersphere. First, the results indicate the presence of transnational European networks. Second, built from the bottom-up where non-elite actors receive most of the attention. And third, composed of a multilingual demoi where the users see themselves and the topics as European. However, although these mapped Twitter networks contribute to some extent to transnational interaction and a sense of community, the deliberative quality of these networks is low.
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Kuok, Lai Ieng. "Do the employment policies of the Lisbon Strategy promote EU economic growth?" Thesis, University of Macau, 2010. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b2555547.
Full textBooks on the topic "Public contracts – European Union countries"
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Der Grundsatz der Unabänderbarkeit der Pauschalvergütung beim VOB-Vertrag und seine Durchbrechungen. Frankfurt am Main: P. Lang, 1994.
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Fairgrieve, Duncan, and François Lichère. Public procurement law: Damages as an effective remedy. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2011.
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Kontrollen der EG-Kommission bei Wirtschaftsbeteiligten zum Schutz der finanziellen Interessen der Gemeinschaft: Rahmen, Kompetenzen und verfahrensrechtliche Bindungen bei Kontrollen vor Ort nach der VO (Euratom, EG) Nr. 2185/96. Frankfurt am Main: P. Lang, 1999.
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Bovis, Christopher. Public procurement in the European Union. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
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Commission, European. Eurobarometer 2002.2: Public opinion in the candidate countries. Brussels: European Commission, 2002.
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(Netherlands), Adviesraad Internationale Vraagstukken. The finances of the European Union. The Hague: Advisory Council on International Affairs, 2007.
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Feliú, José María Gimeno. La nueva contratación pública europea y su incidencia en la legislación española: La necesaria adopción de una nueva ley de contratos públicos y propuestas de reforma. Cizur Menor (Navarra): Thomson Civitas, 2006.
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Salvatore, Vincenzo. Diritto comunitario degli appalti pubblici: Incidenza nell'ordinamento italiano delle direttive sulle procedure di aggiudicazione. Milano: Giuffrè, 2003.
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F, Elliott R., Lucifora Claudio, and Meurs Dominique, eds. Public sector pay determination in the European Union. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.
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Ruth, Sefton-Green, ed. Mistake, fraud and duties to inform in European contract law. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Find full textBook chapters on the topic "Public contracts – European Union countries"
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Sissenich, Beate. "European Union Policies toward Accession Countries." In Public Opinion, Party Competition, and the European Union in Post-Communist Europe, 19–39. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2006. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-11500-3_2.
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Jędrzejek, Czesław. "VAT Fraud in Selected European Union Countries and Its Possible Macroeconomic Implications." In Risk Management in Public Administration, 411–32. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30877-7_14.
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Vogel, Lars. "Illiberal and Anti-EU Politics in the Name of the People? Euroscepticism in East Central Europe 2004–2019 in Comparative Perspective." In Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics, 29–55. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54674-8_2.
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Abstract This chapter describes patterns, trends and determinants of public Euroscepticism in East Central Europe (ECE). It investigates whether public opinion on European integration in this region is connected to the contestation of both the immigration policies and the constitutional principles of the EU by the respective national governments. By applying longitudinal and comparative analyses based on European Election Studies from 2004 to 2019, it shows public support for European integration in ECE as more closely linked to instrumental performance assessments than in the EU average and as structured by country-specific rather than region-specific patterns. Cultural issues, like immigration and conceptions of democracy, which dominate ECE governmental politics, are only related to public Euroscepticism in some of those countries. Based on these results, the chapter suggests that the connection between the illiberal and anti-EU politics of ECE national governments and public Euroscepticism is loose and conditional upon the national context.
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Beger, Paula. "Party Rhetoric and Action Compared: Examining Politicisation and Compliance in the Field of Asylum and Migration Policy in the Czech Republic and Hungary." In Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics, 137–56. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54674-8_6.
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Abstract Since the European refugee crisis 2015, the rather bureaucratic asylum and migration policy has become a highly politicised issue in ECE countries. The politicisation process started while political parties were involved with the policy. However, many studies have ignored the practice of executives’ and administrations’ action in this domain and knowledge of whether this public anti-EU rhetoric really resulted in non-compliance, therefore, remains limited. This chapter interlinks politicisation and non-compliance research in a comparative case study of Hungary and the Czech Republic. While combining findings of expert interviews, data on party manifestos and infringement procedures, it concludes that the partial politicisation did not lead to broader non-compliance in the Czech case, whereas the governmental-led politicisation in Hungary resulted in non-compliance. This difference is explained by the fact that in Hungary, the asylum-related administration, like other bureaucratic fields, has become increasingly re-politicised during the last decade.
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Brosig, Magnus, and Karl Hinrichs. "The “Great Recession” and Pension Policy Change in European Countries." In International Impacts on Social Policy, 385–98. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86645-7_30.
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AbstractIn the wake of the “Great Recession” and its severe fiscal implications, many European countries enacted significant pension reforms aimed at reducing public spending and limiting contribution rates. Unlike most changes carried out before, they were implemented swiftly and without building a broad political and social consensus, usually being suggested or even mandated by inter- and supranational organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the European Union (EU). While some of these cuts were at least partly revoked during the following years of economic recovery, European welfare states still tend to face lower “pension burdens” in the upcoming decades than had been expected during the 2000s. Financial sustainability, however, puts adequacy at risk for present and future retirees, many of whom no longer achieve sufficient working careers anyway.
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Anomaly, Jonathan. "Antibiotics and Animal Agriculture: The Need for Global Collective Action." In Ethics and Drug Resistance: Collective Responsibility for Global Public Health, 297–308. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27874-8_18.
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Abstract The use of antibiotics in animal agriculture is steadily increasing, especially in developing countries. The European Union and a handful of developed countries have implemented policies to scale back the use of antibiotics, recognizing its role in the global rise of antibiotic resistance. But many farmers who raise animals live in poor countries without public health regulations, or work for large corporate entities that can move their operations to places with weak regulations. To minimize the careless use of antibiotics around the world, we need multi-lateral coordination between states on some common standards for the use of antibiotics in animals.
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Wollmann, Hellmut. "Transformation of Public Administration in East Germany Following Unification." In Public Administration in Germany, 253–69. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53697-8_15.
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AbstractAfter 1990, the rupture of the politico-administrative system and transformation of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was essentially shaped by the process of German unification and the GDR’s integration into the ‘old’ Federal Republic. Thus, basic constitutional and institutional issues, such as legal rule (Rechtsstaat)-based administration, inclusion in the European Union, were (‘exogenously’) pre-determined by the GDR’s accession to the ‘old’ Federal Republic. The chapter highlights East Germany’s politico-administrative transformation after 1990 by addressing the organisational and personnel dimensions of the remoulding and rebuilding of the administrative structures at the new Länder and local levels. Finally, notwithstanding the particularities of the ‘East German case’, it raises question whether there are lessons which other countries facing transition or transformation can draw from East Germany’s experience.
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Cebriá, Luis Hernando. "Introduction to the Law of Benefit Corporations and Other Public Purpose-Driven Companies." In The International Handbook of Social Enterprise Law, 301–17. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14216-1_14.
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AbstractIn recent years, the benefit corporation phenomenon has extended from many US jurisdictions to other countries. Benefit corporations are an expression of the principles of corporate social responsibility in company law through the creation of companies aiming at an enlightened value, for not only the shareholders but the stakeholders. However, different forms of corporations serve this purpose in the United States and in European and Latin American countries. Some are more proximate to non-profit entities, while others, more recently, to the North American model of the benefit corporation. This chapter reviews the current trends in company law that refer to these special legal forms, along with the regime of “public-interest entities” in the European Union and the institutional perspective maintained in some of its jurisdictions. To this end, this chapter analyzes the different legal forms of adaptation of the basic features of benefit corporations and other public purpose-driven companies to the regulatory environment in each jurisdiction.
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Tepandi, Jaak, Carmen Rotuna, Giovanni Paolo Sellitto, Sander Fieten, and Andriana Prentza. "The Technical Challenges in OOP Application Across the European Union and the TOOP OOP Architecture." In The Once-Only Principle, 141–63. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79851-2_8.
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AbstractThe Once-Only Principle requires the public administrations to ensure that citizens and businesses supply the same information only once to the Public Administration as a whole. Widespread use of the Once-Only Principle has the potential to simplify citizens’ life, make businesses more efficient, and reduce administrative burden in the European Union. The Once-Only Principle project (TOOP) is an initiative, financed by the EU Program Horizon 2020, to explore the possibility to enable the cross-border application of the Once-Only Principle by demonstrating it in practice, through the development of selected piloting applications for specific real-world use cases, enabling the connection of different registries and architectures in different countries for better exchange of information across public administrations. These piloting ICT systems are designed as a result of a pan-European collaboration and they adopt a federated model, to allow for a high degree of independence between the participating parties in the development of their own solutions. The main challenge in the implementation of an OOP solution is the diversity of organizations, procedures, data, and services on all four main levels of interoperability: legal, organizational, semantic, and technical. To address this challenge, TOOP is developing and testing the TOOP Reference Architecture (TOOPRA) to assist organizations in the cross-border implementation of the OOP. The paper outlines the TOOPRA users, principles, and requirements, presents an overview of the architecture development, describes the main views of TOOPRA, discusses architecture profiling, and analyses the TOOPRA sustainability issues.
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Baccianti, Claudio. "8. The Public Spending Needs of Reaching the EU’s Climate Targets." In Greening Europe, 107–28. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/obp.0328.08.
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In Chapter 8, C. Baccianti argues that the 2020s are a crucial decade for steering the European Union towards climate neutrality and decreasing dependence on imported fossil fuels. In the period from 2021–2030, public expenditure on climate investment across the EU should increase by 1.8% of GDP (1.1% excluding investment in public transport) compared to the previous decade. The bottom-up analysis of the chapter reveals that almost three quarters of that spending will go to the construction and transport sectors. Filling such a significant public green investment gap will be challenging for EU countries with little fiscal space, especially once the Recovery and Resilience Facility comes to an end.
Conference papers on the topic "Public contracts – European Union countries"
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Seroka-Stolka, Oksana, and Justyna Lukomska-Szarek. "PUBLIC DEBT MANAGEMENT IN POLAND COMPARED TO OTHER COUNTRIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION." In 3rd Business & Management Conference, Lisbon. International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.20472/bmc.2016.003.021.
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PODSIADLO, Piotr. "State aid for employment and competitiveness of the European Union countries - a legal and finance approach." In Current Trends in Public Sector Research. Brno: Masaryk University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.5817/cz.muni.p210-9646-2020-11.
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Due to the imperfect functioning of labour markets in certain cases, State aid may be an appropriate instrument for creating new jobs and preserving existing ones. Legal regulation of the issue of State aid is an element of the competition mechanism protection, which was recognized in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). This paper discusses guidelines for implementation of art. 107–109 of the TFEU, from the point of view of State aid for employment. Statistical analysis was carried out on State aid granted by EU Member States in the period 2001–2018 – from the perspective of its impact on competitiveness of these countries. This should lead to verify the thesis that the amount of State aid granted by EU Member States for employment should be positively correlated with the size of the GDP per capita of these countries.
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Ballı, Esra, and Gülçin Güreşçi Pehlivan. "Economic Effects of European Neighborhood Policy on Countries." In International Conference on Eurasian Economies. Eurasian Economists Association, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.36880/c04.00777.
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After the fifth enlargement of European Union in 2004 and with the expansion of European Unions borders and new neighbors, it became one of the important policies to provide security, stability and prosperity, and develop relationship between neighborhood countries. Although, enlargement process provide some opportunities to the member states of European Union, it brings about some difficulties. The differences at the life standards, environment, public health, prevention and combating organized crime between European Union and neighbor countries caused to create new policies. European Neighborhood Policy was launched in 2004, and consists of 16 countries, namely: Israel, Jordan, Moldova, Morocco, The Palestinian Authority, Tunisia, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Georgia, Lebanon, Algeria, Syria, Libya and Belarus. European Union and the partner country sign the Partnership and Cooperation Agreements or Association Agreements, and then the Agreement Action Plans are mutually adapted. Action Plans include privileged relationship, mutual commitment to common values, democracy and human rights, legal and market economy principles, good governance, sustainable development, energy and transportation policies. Within the framework of European Neighborhood Policy, the main aim is to arrange the relationship between the neighbors of European Union. In this study, economic effects of the European Neighborhood Policy will be examined for the relevant countries.
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Teneta-Skwiercz, Dorota, and Małgorzata Sobińska. "International Student Mobility – Poland in Comparison with Selected European Union Countries." In 6th International Scientific Conference – EMAN 2022 – Economics and Management: How to Cope With Disrupted Times. Association of Economists and Managers of the Balkans, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.31410/eman.s.p.2022.101.
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The paper aimed to diagnose Poland’s position in terms of students’ mobility abroad compared with selected European Union countries and to identify the opinions of students from Polish public universities of economics on the benefits and barriers of international exchange. The research used a multimethod approach (desk research method and survey method), with data triangulation (secondary data – UNESCO statistical data and primary data, obtained in surveys). The research shows that Poland has the lowest outbound mobility rate and the most significant imbalance between incoming and outgoing exchange students of all the countries surveyed. The top three benefits of international exchange include improved language skills, getting to know another culture and the opportunity to find out if a student wants to live and work abroad. The authors found the main barrier to be the cost of studying abroad.
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Ghita, Bogdan, Octavian Rinciog, and Vlad Posea. "Processing incoherent open government data: A case-study about Romanian public contracts funded by the European Union." In 2018 17th RoEduNet Conference: Networking in Education and Research (RoEduNet). IEEE, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/roedunet.2018.8514151.
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Gao, Yu, Yuchen Liu, and Wenhui Yu. "National Interest or Climate Change Issues: A Discussion with References to the International Relation Theories and European Union Countries." In 2021 International Conference on Public Relations and Social Sciences (ICPRSS 2021). Paris, France: Atlantis Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211020.180.
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Tashevska, Biljana, Marija Trpkova – Nestorovska, and Suzana Makreshanska – Mladenovska. "IS THERE A DOMINANCE OF SOCIAL PROTECTION EXPENDITURE IN THE EUROPEAN UNION?" In Economic and Business Trends Shaping the Future. Ss Cyril and Methodius University, Faculty of Economics-Skopje, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.47063/ebtsf.2020.0003.
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European welfare states, with their comprehensive and generous welfare model, create the largest part of general government expenditures in the European Union member countries. Given the rising trend of social expenditure and the long-run challenges coming from population ageing, this paper addresses the issue of social dominance, a situation in which, particularly when facing limited fiscal space, social expenditure could crowd-out other productive public expenditures, thus undermining growth potentials and possibly threatening fiscal sustainability. Using a panel regression analysis, the aim of the paper is to test whether social protection expenditure has crowded-out expenditures on other purposes in the European Union in the period 1995-2018. The results provide some evidence of crowding-out of infrastructure spending and education spending. Additionally, deficit financing and rising government debt have a significant adverse effect on spending on infrastructure, education and core public services, confirming that they are more prone to cutbacks in times of deteriorating public finance. These findings, along with the long-run fiscal pressure from the ‘greying population’ and the high political costs of welfare reforms suggest significant future risks of social dominance.
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Niyazova, Anara, and Aksana Askarbekova. "Legal Nature of Smart Contracts." In The XX International Scientific Conference "Functioning of Investments Financed from State Resources and from Other Sources in The Countries of Central And Eastern Europe". Temida 2, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.15290/ipf.2022.13.
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Lately, more and more attention has been paid to the phenomenon of smart-contracts (SC) in legal research. The SCs have already found their application in many aspects of society life and are particularly common in the regulation of legal relations in the area of automated financial services, which may include lending, mortgages, insurance, etc., as well as in public services, including various types of voting, elections, document management, supply and storage. The practical dissemination of SCs is carried out without a conceptual approach in the legal regulation of this object, but also without a unified terminology. The science begins developing approaches to study of the legal nature of SCs and offers options for their legal regulation have been proposed, each of those, of course, has its benefits and disadvantages, which is explained by the multifaceted nature of this phenomenon. First of all, it means a qualitatively new level of functioning of a smart-contract where the technical component overlays on traditional types of legal relations. Both authors of the article used scientific methods such as analysis, synthesis, comparison, induction and deduction. Special attention is paid to different options for understanding the legal nature of smart contracts, proposed by European and domestic scientists.
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ÖZTÜRK, YUSUF KEMAL, and Selami Sedat Akgöz. "European Union’s Expansion and Globalization Strategies: A Special Investigation on Poland." In International Conference on Eurasian Economies. Eurasian Economists Association, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.36880/c03.00503.
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During the development process, particularly Middle and Eastern European Countries have increasingly integrated into the Union economy while parliaments, governments, public and private sectors have put forth significant effort to prepare for membership to European Union. European Union, on the other hand, prepared a financial framework in 1989 to actively support such efforts. Thus the Union financial and institutional regulations were realized to finance the process of transition to market economy. In this regard, Poland has quickly completed the necessary steps for harmonization and accelerated its efforts towards this goal. Following the radical change Poland experienced after 1989, the process of democratization and transition to open market economy. In our study we compared and investigated Poland economic and political situation before joining European Union, with the developments during the harmonization process and its economic structure today. In this process, it will be appropriate to take a look at Poland recent political and economic life as well as the reasons as to why Poland is an important state for Europe.
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Vitez Pandžić, Marijeta, and Jasmin Kovačević. "REGULATORY SYSTEMS OF SELECTED EUROPEAN UNION MEMBER STATES IN COVID-19 PANDEMIC MANAGEMENT AND LESSONS FOR THE FUTURE." In EU 2021 – The future of the EU in and after the pandemic. Faculty of Law, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.25234/eclic/18360.
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The European Union (EU) actively responded to the pandemic and the consequences of the pandemic in different areas of human activity (health, economic, social, etc.) adopting a series of regulations, measures and guidelines in different fields. EU member states acted in accordance with EU regulations and within their own legal system and the management structures. The aim of this paper was to analyze ten selected EU member states and their regulatory responses in the approach to pandemic control in relation to the mortality rate per million inhabitants on January 15, 2021. The following hypothesis was set: The regulatory systems and management structures of selected EU member states in the framework of the management of the COVID-19 pandemic have been successfully set up and implemented and have contributed to the lower mortality rate per million inhabitants until January 15, 2021. Ten EU countries were selected for the study according to their mortality rate per million inhabitants on January 15, 2021. Besides Croatia (average mortality), research included three member states with high (Belgium, Slovenia, Czechia), three with average (Hungary, Austria, Slovakia) and three with low mortality rate per million inhabitants (Ireland, Denmark, Finland). All available data from EU and ten selected countries were collected and analysed: about legal framework for crisis management, regulatory powers, level of decentralization in the health care system and whether the timeline of the pandemic control criteria according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) was adequately set. Data were analysed in Microsoft Office Excel. Given the obtained results, hypothesis can be considered only partially proven. The legal framework used by studied EU countries for adopting pandemic control measures was not consistently associated with morality rate in this research. All studied EU countries used legal framework that existed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, four of them had states of emergency provided in the Constitution (Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia and Finland), four of them effectively declared statutory regimes (Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia), and Belgium adopted pandemic control measures using special legislative powers. Three studied countries (Austria, Denmark, Finland) had high level of decentralised decision making in health sector and lower COVID-19 mortality rate. In the first pandemic wave (start in March, 2020) all studied countries respected the timeline in adopting pandemic control measures according to the IHME criteria. In the second pandemic wave (start in October, 2020) only four countries (Czechia, Ireland, Denmark, Finland) respected the timeline in adopting pandemic control measures and three (Ireland, Denmark, Finland) were in low mortality group. Within the concluding considerations of the studied countries and in their pandemic management models, Finland and Denmark were recognised as the most successful with lowest COVID-19 mortality rates. Long tradition of Public Health, decentralized health care decision-making, high level of preparedness in crisis management and adequate timeline in implementation of the pandemic control measures led to lower mortality in COVID-19 pandemic. In the future EU could take even more active role within its legal powers and propose scientific based approach in crisis management to help countries implement measures to preserve lives of EU citizens.
Reports on the topic "Public contracts – European Union countries"
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Bourrier, Mathilde, Michael Deml, and Farnaz Mahdavian. Comparative report of the COVID-19 Pandemic Responses in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. University of Stavanger, November 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.31265/usps.254.
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The purpose of this report is to compare the risk communication strategies and public health mitigation measures implemented by Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom (UK) in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic based on publicly available documents. The report compares the country responses both in relation to one another and to the recommendations and guidance of the World Health Organization where available. The comparative report is an output of Work Package 1 from the research project PAN-FIGHT (Fighting pandemics with enhanced risk communication: Messages, compliance and vulnerability during the COVID-19 outbreak), which is financially supported by the Norwegian Research Council's extraordinary programme for corona research. PAN-FIGHT adopts a comparative approach which follows a “most different systems” variation as a logic of comparison guiding the research (Przeworski & Teune, 1970). The countries in this study include two EU member States (Sweden, Germany), one which was engaged in an exit process from the EU membership (the UK), and two non-European Union states, but both members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA): Norway and Switzerland. Furthermore, Germany and Switzerland govern by the Continental European Federal administrative model, with a relatively weak central bureaucracy and strong subnational, decentralised institutions. Norway and Sweden adhere to the Scandinavian model—a unitary but fairly decentralised system with power bestowed to the local authorities. The United Kingdom applies the Anglo-Saxon model, characterized by New Public Management (NPM) and decentralised managerial practices (Einhorn & Logue, 2003; Kuhlmann & Wollmann, 2014; Petridou et al., 2019). In total, PAN-FIGHT is comprised of 5 Work Packages (WPs), which are research-, recommendation-, and practice-oriented. The WPs seek to respond to the following research questions and accomplish the following: WP1: What are the characteristics of governmental and public health authorities’ risk communication strategies in five European countries, both in comparison to each other and in relation to the official strategies proposed by WHO? WP2: To what extent and how does the general public’s understanding, induced by national risk communication, vary across five countries, in relation to factors such as social capital, age, gender, socio-economic status and household composition? WP3: Based on data generated in WP1 and WP2, what is the significance of being male or female in terms of individual susceptibility to risk communication and subsequent vulnerability during the COVID-19 outbreak? WP4: Based on insight and knowledge generated in WPs 1 and 2, what recommendations can we offer national and local governments and health institutions on enhancing their risk communication strategies to curb pandemic outbreaks? WP5: Enhance health risk communication strategies across five European countries based upon the knowledge and recommendations generated by WPs 1-4. Pre-pandemic preparedness characteristics All five countries had pandemic plans developed prior to 2020, which generally were specific to influenza pandemics but not to coronaviruses. All plans had been updated following the H1N1 pandemic (2009-2010). During the SARS (2003) and MERS (2012) outbreaks, both of which are coronaviruses, all five countries experienced few cases, with notably smaller impacts than the H1N1 epidemic (2009-2010). The UK had conducted several exercises (Exercise Cygnet in 2016, Exercise Cygnus in 2016, and Exercise Iris in 2018) to check their preparedness plans; the reports from these exercises concluded that there were gaps in preparedness for epidemic outbreaks. Germany also simulated an influenza pandemic exercise in 2007 called LÜKEX 07, to train cross-state and cross-department crisis management (Bundesanstalt Technisches Hilfswerk, 2007). In 2017 within the context of the G20, Germany ran a health emergency simulation exercise with WHO and World Bank representatives to prepare for potential future pandemics (Federal Ministry of Health et al., 2017). Prior to COVID-19, only the UK had expert groups, notably the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), that was tasked with providing advice during emergencies. It had been used in previous emergency events (not exclusively limited to health). In contrast, none of the other countries had a similar expert advisory group in place prior to the pandemic. COVID-19 waves in 2020 All five countries experienced two waves of infection in 2020. The first wave occurred during the first half of the year and peaked after March 2020. The second wave arrived during the final quarter. Norway consistently had the lowest number of SARS-CoV-2 infections per million. Germany’s counts were neither the lowest nor the highest. Sweden, Switzerland and the UK alternated in having the highest numbers per million throughout 2020. Implementation of measures to control the spread of infection In Germany, Switzerland and the UK, health policy is the responsibility of regional states, (Länders, cantons and nations, respectively). However, there was a strong initial centralized response in all five countries to mitigate the spread of infection. Later on, country responses varied in the degree to which they were centralized or decentralized. Risk communication In all countries, a large variety of communication channels were used (press briefings, websites, social media, interviews). Digital communication channels were used extensively. Artificial intelligence was used, for example chatbots and decision support systems. Dashboards were used to provide access to and communicate data.
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Domínguez, Roberto. Perceptions of the European Union in Latin America. Fundación Carolina, January 2023. http://dx.doi.org/10.33960/issn-e.1885-9119.dt76en.
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This working paper examines the puzzle of the gaps between the images that the EU projects, voluntarily and involuntarily, and the perceptions of the EU in Latin America. After reviewing some of the debates related to the role of perceptions in public policy and EU Public Diplomacy (EUPD), the paper analyzes some critical developments in global perceptions of the EU based on the study Update of the 2015 Analysis of the Perception of the EU and EU Policies Abroad (2021 Update Study), which assessed the attitudes of the EU in 13 countries. The third section examines some studies on the attitudes of the EU in Latin America, including some contributions from Latinobarometer. The fourth section offers comparative cases of EU perception in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia based on the findings of the 2021 Update Study. The analysis of each country relies on the interpretation of surveys with some references to the press analysis and interview methods provided in the 2021 Update Study. Each case discusses specific trends in the following areas: visibility, primary descriptors, global economics, and international leadership. Also, it identifies some patterns in perceptions of the EU in social development, climate change, research/technology, development assistance, culture, the case of the critical juncture in the survey (pandemic), and the EU as a normative setter. The final section offers some general trends in the perceptions of the EU in Latin America.
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Jones, Emily, Beatriz Kira, Anna Sands, and Danilo B. Garrido Alves. The UK and Digital Trade: Which way forward? Blavatnik School of Government, February 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.35489/bsg-wp-2021/038.
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The internet and digital technologies are upending global trade. Industries and supply chains are being transformed, and the movement of data across borders is now central to the operation of the global economy. Provisions in trade agreements address many aspects of the digital economy – from cross-border data flows, to the protection of citizens’ personal data, and the regulation of the internet and new technologies like artificial intelligence and algorithmic decision-making. The UK government has identified digital trade as a priority in its Global Britain strategy and one of the main sources of economic growth to recover from the pandemic. It wants the UK to play a leading role in setting the international standards and regulations that govern the global digital economy. The regulation of digital trade is a fast-evolving and contentious issue, and the US, European Union (EU), and China have adopted different approaches. Now that the UK has left the EU, it will need to navigate across multiple and often conflicting digital realms. The UK needs to decide which policy objectives it will prioritise, how to regulate the digital economy domestically, and how best to achieve its priorities when negotiating international trade agreements. There is an urgent need to develop a robust, evidence-based approach to the UK’s digital trade strategy that takes into account the perspectives of businesses, workers, and citizens, as well as the approaches of other countries in the global economy. This working paper aims to inform UK policy debates by assessing the state of play in digital trade globally. The authors present a detailed analysis of five policy areas that are central to discussions on digital trade for the UK: cross-border data flows and privacy; internet access and content regulation; intellectual property and innovation; e-commerce (including trade facilitation and consumer protection); and taxation (customs duties on e-commerce and digital services taxes). In each of these areas the authors compare and contrast the approaches taken by the US, EU and China, discuss the public policy implications, and examine the choices facing the UK.
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Morsy, Ahmed. Towards a renewed local social and political covenant in Libya, Syria and Yemen. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, December 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.55163/ofgn2229.
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This SIPRI Insights Paper examines the domestic and external factors at play in Libya, Syria and Yemen and their impact on negotiating post-war peaceful settlements and shaping prospective social contracts.The paper’s argument is two-fold. Firstly, policymaking must move beyond a static approach to understanding these conflicts. Despite apparent stalemates, the three countries should be approached as ever-evolving simmering conflicts. Secondly, policymakers have to move below the national level in order to achieve various forms of localized social peace. Given the nature of these conflicts and the varied sub-national segmentation, the analysis concludes that community-level social and political covenants may offer a first building block towards nationwide social contracts and sustainable conflict resolution.The role of external actors, particularly the European Union (EU), is critical in paving the way for these local-level dialogues and negotiations in Libya, Syria and Yemen. In short, external powers, including the EU, should adopt policies that push for long-term resolution to achieve post-conflict stabilization rather than the opportunistic taking of sides.
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Martin, Matthew. The Crisis of Extreme Inequality in SADC: Fighting austerity and the pandemic. Oxfam, Development Finance International, Norwegian Church Aid, May 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.21201/2022.8793.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the extreme inequality in Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, and pushed millions into poverty. The economic crisis continues due to the obscene global vaccine inequality. As of end March 2022, a dismal 14% of SADC citizens had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, compared with 65.5% in the United States and 73% in the European Union. In 2021, with infections rising in SADC, the critical health, social protection and economic programmes put in place by most governments in 2020 were rolled back and replaced with austerity, in the context of growing debt burdens and lack of external support for country budgets. Such austerity has been built into IMF programmes in the region. Recovering from the pandemic, however, offers SADC governments a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do what their citizens want: increase taxes on the wealthy and large corporations, boost public spending (especially on healthcare, education and social protection), and increase workers’ rights as well as tackling joblessness and precarious work. With external support, including through debt relief and aid, they could reduce inequality drastically and eliminate extreme poverty by 2030.
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Martin, Matthew. The Crisis of Extreme Inequality in SADC: Fighting austerity and the pandemic. Oxfam, Development Finance International, Norwegian Church Aid, May 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.21201/2022.8793.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the extreme inequality in Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, and pushed millions into poverty. The economic crisis continues due to the obscene global vaccine inequality. As of end March 2022, a dismal 14% of SADC citizens had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, compared with 65.5% in the United States and 73% in the European Union. In 2021, with infections rising in SADC, the critical health, social protection and economic programmes put in place by most governments in 2020 were rolled back and replaced with austerity, in the context of growing debt burdens and lack of external support for country budgets. Such austerity has been built into IMF programmes in the region. Recovering from the pandemic, however, offers SADC governments a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do what their citizens want: increase taxes on the wealthy and large corporations, boost public spending (especially on healthcare, education and social protection), and increase workers’ rights as well as tackling joblessness and precarious work. With external support, including through debt relief and aid, they could reduce inequality drastically and eliminate extreme poverty by 2030.
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Máñez Costa, Maria, Amy M. P. Oen, Tina-Simone Schmid Neset, Loius Celliers, Mirko Suhari, Jo-Ting Huang-Lachmann, Rafael Pimentel, et al. Co-production of Climate Services : A diversity of approaches and good practice from the ERA4CS projects (2017–2021). Linköping Univeristy Electronic Press, February 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/9789179291990.
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This guide presents a joint effort of projects funded under the European Research Area for Climate Services (ERA4CS) (http://www.jpi-climate.eu/ERA4CS), a co- funded action initiated by JPI Climate with co-funding by the European Union (Grant 690462), 15 national public Research Funding Organisations (RFOs), and 30 Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) from 18 European countries. This guide sets out to increase the understanding of different pathways, methods, and approaches to improve knowledge co-production of climate services with users as a value-added activity of the ERA4CS Programme. Reflecting on the experiences of 16 of the 26 projects funded under ERA4CS, this guide aims to define and recommend good practices for transdisciplinary knowledge co-production of climate services to researchers, users, funding agencies, and private sector service providers. Drawing on responses from ERA4CS project teams to a questionnaire and interviews, this guide maps the diversity of methods for stakeholder identification, involvement, and engagement. It also conducts an analysis of methods, tools, and mechanisms for engagement as well as evaluation of co-production processes. This guide presents and discusses good practice examples based on the review of the ERA4CS projects, identifying enablers and barriers for key elements in climate service co-production processes. These were: namely (i) Forms of Engagement; (ii) Entry Points for Engagement; and, (iii) Intensity of Involvement. It further outlines key ingredients to enhance the quality of co-producing climate services with users and stakeholders. Based on the analysis of the lessons learned from ERA4CS projects, as well as a review of key concepts in the recent literature on climate service co-production, we provide a set of recommendations for researchers, users, funders and private sector providers of climate services.
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Monetary Policy Report - July 2022. Banco de la República, October 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.32468/inf-pol-mont-eng.tr3-2022.
Full textAbstract:
In the second quarter, annual inflation (9.67%), the technical staff’s projections and its expectations continued to increase, remaining above the target. International cost shocks, accentuated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, have been more persistent than projected, thus contributing to higher inflation. The effects of indexation, higher than estimated excess demand, a tighter labor market, inflation expectations that continue to rise and currently exceed 3%, and the exchange rate pressures add to those described above. High core inflation measures as well as in the producer price index (PPI) across all baskets confirm a significant spread in price increases. Compared to estimates presented in April, the new forecast trajectory for headline and core inflation increased. This was partly the result of greater exchange rate pressure on prices, and a larger output gap, which is expected to remain positive for the remainder of 2022 and which is estimated to close towards yearend 2023. In addition, these trends take into account higher inflation rate indexation, more persistent above-target inflation expectations, a quickening of domestic fuel price increases due to the correction of lags versus the parity price and higher international oil price forecasts. The forecast supposes a good domestic supply of perishable foods, although it also considers that international prices of processed foods will remain high. In terms of the goods sub-basket, the end of the national health emergency implies a reversal of the value-added tax (VAT) refund applied to health and personal hygiene products, resulting in increases in the prices of these goods. Alternatively, the monetary policy adjustment process and the moderation of external shocks would help inflation and its expectations to begin to decrease over time and resume their alignment with the target. Thus, the new projection suggests that inflation could remain high for the second half of 2022, closing at 9.7%. However, it would begin to fall during 2023, closing the year at 5.7%. These forecasts are subject to significant uncertainty, especially regarding the future behavior of external cost shocks, the degree of indexation of nominal contracts and decisions made regarding the domestic price of fuels. Economic activity continues to outperform expectations, and the technical staff’s growth projections for 2022 have been revised upwards from 5% to 6.9%. The new forecasts suggest higher output levels that would continue to exceed the economy’s productive capacity for the remainder of 2022. Economic growth during the first quarter was above that estimated in April, while economic activity indicators for the second quarter suggest that the GDP could be expected to remain high, potentially above that of the first quarter. Domestic demand is expected to maintain a positive dynamic, in particular, due to the household consumption quarterly growth, as suggested by vehicle registrations, retail sales, credit card purchases and consumer loan disbursement figures. A slowdown in the machinery and equipment imports from the levels observed in March contrasts with the positive performance of sales and housing construction licenses, which indicates an investment level similar to that registered for the first three months of the year. International trade data suggests the trade deficit would be reduced as a consequence of import levels that would be lesser than those observed in the first quarter, and stable export levels. For the remainder of the year and 2023, a deceleration in consumption is expected from the high levels seen during the first half of the year, partially as a result of lower repressed demand, tighter domestic financial conditions and household available income deterioration due to increased inflation. Investment is expected to continue its slow recovery while remaining below pre-pandemic levels. The trade deficit is expected to tighten due to projected lower domestic demand dynamics, and high prices of oil and other basic goods exported by the country. Given the above, economic growth in the second quarter of 2022 would be 11.5%, and for 2022 and 2023 an annual growth of 6.9% and 1.1% is expected, respectively. Currently, and for the remainder of 2022, the output gap would be positive and greater than that estimated in April, and prices would be affected by demand pressures. These projections continue to be affected by significant uncertainty associated with global political tensions, the expected adjustment of monetary policy in developed countries, external demand behavior, changes in country risk outlook, and the future developments in domestic fiscal policy, among others. The high inflation levels and respective expectations, which exceed the target of the world's main central banks, largely explain the observed and anticipated increase in their monetary policy interest rates. This environment has tempered the growth forecast for external demand. Disruptions in value chains, rising international food and energy prices, and expansionary monetary and fiscal policies have contributed to the rise in inflation and above-target expectations seen by several of Colombia’s main trading partners. These cost and price shocks, heightened by the effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, have been more prevalent than expected and have taken place within a set of output and employment recovery, variables that in some countries currently equal or exceed their projected long-term levels. In response, the U.S. Federal Reserve accelerated the pace of the benchmark interest rate increase and rapidly reduced liquidity levels in the money market. Financial market actors expect this behavior to continue and, consequently, significantly increase their expectations of the average path of the Fed's benchmark interest rate. In this setting, the U.S. dollar appreciated versus the peso in the second quarter and emerging market risk measures increased, a behavior that intensified for Colombia. Given the aforementioned, for the remainder of 2022 and 2023, the Bank's technical staff increased the forecast trajectory for the Fed's interest rate and reduced the country's external demand growth forecast. The projected oil price was revised upward over the forecast horizon, specifically due to greater supply restrictions and the interruption of hydrocarbon trade between the European Union and Russia. Global geopolitical tensions, a tightening of monetary policy in developed economies, the increase in risk perception for emerging markets and the macroeconomic imbalances in the country explain the increase in the projected trajectory of the risk premium, its trend level and the neutral real interest rate1. Uncertainty about external forecasts and their consequent impact on the country's macroeconomic scenario remains high, given the unpredictable evolution of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, geopolitical tensions, the degree of the global economic slowdown and the effect the response to recent outbreaks of the pandemic in some Asian countries may have on the world economy. This macroeconomic scenario that includes high inflation, inflation forecasts, and expectations above 3% and a positive output gap suggests the need for a contractionary monetary policy that mitigates the risk of the persistent unanchoring of inflation expectations. In contrast to the forecasts of the April report, the increase in the risk premium trend implies a higher neutral real interest rate and a greater prevailing monetary stimulus than previously estimated. For its part, domestic demand has been more dynamic, with a higher observed and expected output level that exceeds the economy’s productive capacity. The surprising accelerations in the headline and core inflation reflect stronger and more persistent external shocks, which, in combination with the strength of aggregate demand, indexation, higher inflation expectations and exchange rate pressures, explain the upward projected inflation trajectory at levels that exceed the target over the next two years. This is corroborated by the inflation expectations of economic analysts and those derived from the public debt market, which continued to climb and currently exceed 3%. All of the above increase the risk of unanchoring inflation expectations and could generate widespread indexation processes that may push inflation away from the target for longer. This new macroeconomic scenario suggests that the interest rate adjustment should continue towards a contractionary monetary policy landscape. 1.2. Monetary policy decision Banco de la República’s Board of Directors (BDBR), at its meetings in June and July 2022, decided to continue adjusting its monetary policy. At its June meeting, the BDBR decided to increase the monetary policy rate by 150 basis points (b.p.) and its July meeting by majority vote, on a 150 b.p. increase thereof at its July meeting. Consequently, the monetary policy interest rate currently stands at 9.0% . 1 The neutral real interest rate refers to the real interest rate level that is neither stimulative nor contractionary for aggregate demand and, therefore, does not generate pressures that lead to the close of the output gap. In a small, open economy like Colombia, this rate depends on the external neutral real interest rate, medium-term components of the country risk premium, and expected depreciation. Box 1: A Weekly Indicator of Economic Activity for Colombia Juan Pablo Cote Carlos Daniel Rojas Nicol Rodriguez Box 2: Common Inflationary Trends in Colombia Carlos D. Rojas-Martínez Nicolás Martínez-Cortés Franky Juliano Galeano-Ramírez Box 3: Shock Decomposition of 2021 Forecast Errors Nicolás Moreno Arias
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Payment Systems Report - June of 2021. Banco de la República, February 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.32468/rept-sist-pag.eng.2021.
Full textAbstract:
Banco de la República provides a comprehensive overview of Colombia’s finan¬cial infrastructure in its Payment Systems Report, which is an important product of the work it does to oversee that infrastructure. The figures published in this edition of the report are for the year 2020, a pandemic period in which the con¬tainment measures designed and adopted to alleviate the strain on the health system led to a sharp reduction in economic activity and consumption in Colom¬bia, as was the case in most countries. At the start of the pandemic, the Board of Directors of Banco de la República adopted decisions that were necessary to supply the market with ample liquid¬ity in pesos and US dollars to guarantee market stability, protect the payment system and preserve the supply of credit. The pronounced growth in mone¬tary aggregates reflected an increased preference for liquidity, which Banco de la República addressed at the right time. These decisions were implemented through operations that were cleared and settled via the financial infrastructure. The second section of this report, following the introduction, offers an analysis of how the various financial infrastructures in Colombia have evolved and per¬formed. One of the highlights is the large-value payment system (CUD), which registered more momentum in 2020 than during the previous year, mainly be¬cause of an increase in average daily remunerated deposits made with Banco de la República by the General Directorate of Public Credit and the National Treasury (DGCPTN), as well as more activity in the sell/buy-back market with sovereign debt. Consequently, with more activity in the CUD, the Central Securi¬ties Depository (DCV) experienced an added impetus sparked by an increase in the money market for bonds and securities placed on the primary market by the national government. The value of operations cleared and settled through the Colombian Central Counterparty (CRCC) continues to grow, propelled largely by peso/dollar non-deliverable forward (NDF) contracts. With respect to the CRCC, it is important to note this clearing house has been in charge of managing risks and clearing and settling operations in the peso/dollar spot market since the end of last year, following its merger with the Foreign Exchange Clearing House of Colombia (CCDC). Since the final quarter of 2020, the CRCC has also been re¬sponsible for clearing and settlement in the equities market, which was former¬ly done by the Colombian Stock Exchange (BVC). The third section of this report provides an all-inclusive view of payments in the market for goods and services; namely, transactions carried out by members of the public and non-financial institutions. During the pandemic, inter- and intra-bank electronic funds transfers, which originate mostly with companies, increased in both the number and value of transactions with respect to 2019. However, debit and credit card payments, which are made largely by private citizens, declined compared to 2019. The incidence of payment by check contin¬ue to drop, exhibiting quite a pronounced downward trend during the past last year. To supplement to the information on electronic funds transfers, section three includes a segment (Box 4) characterizing the population with savings and checking accounts, based on data from a survey by Banco de la República con-cerning the perception of the use of payment instruments in 2019. There also is segment (Box 2) on the growth in transactions with a mobile wallet provided by a company specialized in electronic deposits and payments (Sedpe). It shows the number of users and the value of their transactions have increased since the wallet was introduced in late 2017, particularly during the pandemic. In addition, there is a diagnosis of the effects of the pandemic on the payment patterns of the population, based on data related to the use of cash in circu¬lation, payments with electronic instruments, and consumption and consumer confidence. The conclusion is that the collapse in the consumer confidence in¬dex and the drop in private consumption led to changes in the public’s pay¬ment patterns. Credit and debit card purchases were down, while payments for goods and services through electronic funds transfers increased. These findings, coupled with the considerable increase in cash in circulation, might indicate a possible precautionary cash hoarding by individuals and more use of cash as a payment instrument. There is also a segment (in Focus 3) on the major changes introduced in regulations on the retail-value payment system in Colombia, as provided for in Decree 1692 of December 2020. The fourth section of this report refers to the important innovations and tech¬nological changes that have occurred in the retail-value payment system. Four themes are highlighted in this respect. The first is a key point in building the financial infrastructure for instant payments. It involves of the design and im¬plementation of overlay schemes, a technological development that allows the various participants in the payment chain to communicate openly. The result is a high degree of interoperability among the different payment service providers. The second topic explores developments in the international debate on central bank digital currency (CBDC). The purpose is to understand how it could impact the retail-value payment system and the use of cash if it were to be issued. The third topic is related to new forms of payment initiation, such as QR codes, bio¬metrics or near field communication (NFC) technology. These seemingly small changes can have a major impact on the user’s experience with the retail-value payment system. The fourth theme is the growth in payments via mobile tele¬phone and the internet. The report ends in section five with a review of two papers on applied research done at Banco de la República in 2020. The first analyzes the extent of the CRCC’s capital, acknowledging the relevant role this infrastructure has acquired in pro¬viding clearing and settlement services for various financial markets in Colom¬bia. The capital requirements defined for central counterparties in some jurisdic¬tions are explored, and the risks to be hedged are identified from the standpoint of the service these type of institutions offer to the market and those associated with their corporate activity. The CRCC’s capital levels are analyzed in light of what has been observed in the European Union’s regulations, and the conclusion is that the CRCC has a scheme of security rings very similar to those applied internationally and the extent of its capital exceeds what is stipulated in Colombian regulations, being sufficient to hedge other risks. The second study presents an algorithm used to identify and quantify the liquidity sources that CUD’s participants use under normal conditions to meet their daily obligations in the local financial market. This algorithm can be used as a tool to monitor intraday liquidity. Leonardo Villar Gómez Governor