scholarly journals Failed Expectations: Does the Establishment of Judicial Councils Enhance Confidence in Courts?

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 2105-2136
Author(s):  
Marína Urbániková ◽  
Katarína Šipulová

AbstractJudicial councils are often presented as a panacea for many disorders of judicial systems, including low public confidence in the judiciary. Nevertheless, the assessment of their impact has so far been neglected. The article offers a unique view on the relationship between judicial councils and the level of public confidence in courts. It draws a novel conceptual map of factors influencing public confidence in the judiciary, stressing its complex and multifaceted character. Situating the judicial councils on the map, it explores how they can help to potentially increase the level of public confidence in the judiciary, and assesses to what extent this has been true in the countries that have adopted them. The results reveal a considerable gap between the promises, expectations, and practice, and raise doubts about the ability of judicial councils to enhance confidence in courts. Judicial councils rarely manage to substantially improve institutional performance: they can enhance the quality of judicial systems which have already functioned quite well, but they do not tend to bring about change in the judicial systems that have been previously significantly flawed. The analysis of the longitudinal Eurobarometer data showed that, on average, the EU countries without judicial councils are better off in terms of public confidence. Although the existence of judicial councils does not make a difference regarding public confidence in the judiciary in the new EU member states, in the old EU member states, judicial systems with judicial councils enjoy lower levels of public confidence than the ones without them.

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-42
Author(s):  
Matúš Mišík

Abstract This paper tries to shed some light on factors influencing the positions of the new member states of the EU on Eastern Partnership in its initial phase. It utilises an analytical approach developed by Copsey and Haughton (2009) and argues that the two most important factors affecting positioning of newcomers towards the initiative are: perceived size and geography. While the new members were especially keen to support their immediate neighbours, they were using a common policy towards these countries to increase their presence and influence in the region since the initiative helped them to deal with neighbourhood issues they were not able to solve on their own. The paper suggests an amendment to the theoretical approach and proposes an assumption explaining positioning of the member states towards the third countries that better reflect the empirical evidence than the original framework. Moreover, the research showed that Poland differed from the rest of the new EU countries, was much more active and influential and rather resembled the old members. However, due to its not very positive image (caused by its assertive approach and strong effort to play a prominent role within the EU) its influence within the EU was limited and, therefore it proposed the Eastern Partnership together with Sweden that held a much better image.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-44
Author(s):  
Bogusława Dobrowolska ◽  
Tomasz Dorożyński ◽  
Anetta Kuna‑Marszałek

The aim of the article is to assess institutional quality in 28 EU Member States and to examine the relationship between the quality of institutions and FDI inward stock as % of GDP. This study is structured as follows. Firstly, we reviewed studies dedicated to the relationship between institutional quality and investment attractiveness. Then, we discussed FDI inflow into the EU countries and selected diagnostic variables that later served as the basis for our research in which we used categories of the Global Competitiveness Index. Based on rankings and using statistical methods, in the next stage, we divided the EU Member States into groups representing similar institutional quality. Then we investigated the relationships between groups of countries similar to one another when it comes to institutional quality and groups of countries ranked in ascending order by the value of foreign direct investment inflow measured as FDI inward stock as % of GDP. The study demonstrated that the EU Member States differ with respect to institutional quality. The results of the statistical analysis have provided grounds to positively verify the hypothesis about a positive relationship between the level of institutional quality and investment attractiveness.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (341) ◽  
pp. 69-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iwona Markowicz ◽  
Paweł Baran

The Intrastat system is used for gathering statistical data on trade in goods between the EU Member States. Data from all the Member States are aggregated by Eurostat. Specifics of the data collection process are different in different countries and that is why mirror data (regarding by default the same transactions revealed in statistics of both the acquirer and supplier country) often do not match. The goal of the analysis conducted was to assess the quality of data on intra‑Community trade in goods between the ‘old’ fifteen and the ‘new’ EU Member States as well as to point out these directions that influenced the observed differences in mirror data the most. The paper is a follow‑up of previous research on the quality of foreign trade data.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 83-98
Author(s):  
Janina Witkowska

The aim of this paper is to discuss new trends that have occurred in the policies of the EU and China towards foreign direct investment (FDI), to examine some implications of the EU‑China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) – which is currently being negotiated – for their bilateral relations, and to assess the role which China’s “One Belt One Road’ (OBOR) initiative might play in its relations with the new EU Member States. The EU established freedom of capital movement with third countries; however, the introduction of the common investment policy has encountered some obstacles. These are related to investor protection and ISDS issues. In turn, China is carrying out an independent state policy towards foreign investment with limited liberalization of FDI flows. The negotiated EU‑China CAI is expected to create conditions conducive to bilateral foreign investment flows, and it might bring positive effects for their economies in the future. However, the progress made thus far in the negotiations is still limited. The relations between China and the new EU Member states (CEE countries) are characterized by common interests in the field of FDI flows. The new EU countries are interested in attracting Chinese FDI and seem not to show the fears that have arisen in the old EU countries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-13
Author(s):  
ALENA ANDREJOVSKÁ ◽  
VERONIKA KONEČNÁ ◽  
JANA HAKALOVÁ

VAT is one of the most decisive tax revenues sources in the EU Member States. Due to financial frauds and insufficient tax system, there is a billion loss of EUR every year in the European budget. The article deals with the impact of the tax evasion on economies of the EU Member States. By applying the top-down approach, we observed tax gaps as a quantifier of tax evasion from 2004 to 2017. The period around the economic crisis in 2009 was examined in more detail, as there was a sharp change in the evolution of tax gaps. We constructed a regression model, which examined the relationship of the tax gap and VAT tax revenues to selected determinants of tax evasion. The results showed that tax gaps in the Member States have been growing every year. We also found that there is an increase in tax revenues, but tax liabilities increase to greater extent.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-154
Author(s):  
Zdenka Obuljen Zoričić ◽  
Boris Cota ◽  
Nataša Erjavec

AbstractDue to negotiations on accession to the EU, the new EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe went through the financial opening. In the pre-crisis period followed by high liquidity in global markets, most of the EU new member states experienced rapid credit growth, which conditioned the appreciation of the exchange rate. External imbalances and vulnerabilities built up. Countries experienced deterioration in their current accounts. This paper investigates the link between financial openness, real effective exchange rate, financial crisis and current account balance within the Panel Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) framework for 11 new European Union members during the period from 1999 to 2016. The results obtained by the use of pooled mean group estimator (PMG) show that in the long run, financial openness has a significant negative impact on the current account balance. In the short run, crisis significantly influences the current account balance having a positive sign.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-90
Author(s):  
Milan Viturka ◽  
Vladimír Žítek ◽  
Viktorie Klímová ◽  
Petr Tonev

Regional Analysis of New EU Member States in the Context of Cohesion Policy The paper concentrates on the new European Union member states, i.e. the states of central and eastern Europe which entered the Union in 2004 (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Slovenia) and 2007 (Bulgaria and Romania). The basis of the paper is the evaluation of the cohesion policy in the countries in question, which are then analysed at the level of NUTS 2 regions (cohesion regions). The aim of the socioeconomic analysis is to assess the economic level of the regions and to use the results to form their typology. Ten characteristic indicators were chosen so that the study was as complex as possible. For each indicator in the examined countries the average was calculated, which allowed for a considerable increase of the information relevance of the study conclusions. For the cartographic representation of the regional differentiation intervals based on this average and the standard deviation were used. The final part of the study presents a concluding synthesis together with the above-mentioned typology of the regions. The results are interpreted in the context of the optimal strategy selection for the regional policy determined by the EU cohesion policy.


2020 ◽  
Vol XXIII (Issue 4) ◽  
pp. 1136-1156
Author(s):  
Teresa Famulska ◽  
Jan Kaczmarzyk ◽  
Malgorzata Grzaba

Subject Alleged discrepancies between the quality of foods on sale in the western and eastern EU. Significance Governments in eastern EU member states are recycling long-heard rumours that multinational food brands sold there are of poorer quality than in western states. Tests by some national authorities appear to confirm these fears. Such practices would not be illegal, but they exacerbate broader worries about second-class citizenship in Central-Eastern Europe (CEE), compounded by uncertainty over the direction the EU will take in coming months. Impacts The east-west divide will deepen as a new front is opened ahead of a likely EU reform push later this year. CEE’s political significance will receive a momentary boost as countries show a united front on one of only a handful of issues. A reaction against multinationals from within the EU could make protectionism more respectable elsewhere in the world.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Özlem Terzi

Summary This article analyses how the changes brought about by the Lisbon Treaty have influenced the performance of the eu Delegation in Ankara and the relationship between the eu Delegation, member states’ embassies and Turkish government during times of crisis. Based on numerous interviews, the article analyses how European diplomacy conducted by the eu Delegation and eu member states’ embassies functions in three categorically different situations: 1) a political crisis in the host country; 2) an international crisis involving a neighbouring region to the host country; and 3) negotiations between the host government and the eu on an issue important for eu member states, against the background of a stalled accession process. Based on an investigation of the relationship of the eu Delegation, eu member states’ embassies and Turkey in those three distinct contexts, the article sheds light on the opportunities and constraints of the new way of European diplomatic representation.


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