26. Future Trends

Author(s):  
Justine Pila ◽  
Paul L.C. Torremans

This chapter offers an outlook to the future of IP at the European level. The EU and its legal instruments primarily approach IP from a utilitarian free market perspective and that applies also to the way they look at the future. The chapter focuses primarily on that angle when it looks at how the European IP system could and should function in the future and which direction it is taking. In a sense it offers an opportunity for reflection and attempts to enhance the reader's insight in and understanding of IP by wrapping the critical analysis of its technical rules up in a more theoretical analysis.

Author(s):  
Michael Dougan

Following a national referendum on 23 June 2016, the UK announced its intention to end its decades-long membership of the EU. That decision initiated a process of complex negotiations, governed by Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, with a view to making the arrangements required for an ‘orderly Brexit’. This book explores the UK’s departure from the EU from a legal perspective. As well as analysing the various constitutional principles relevant to ‘EU withdrawal law’, and detailing the main issues and problems arising during the Brexit process itself, the book provides a critical analysis of the final EU–UK Withdrawal Agreement—including dedicated chapters on the future protection of citizens’ rights, the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and the prospects for future EU–UK relations in fields such as trade and security.


Author(s):  
Giaime Ginesu ◽  
Mirko Luca Lobina ◽  
Daniele D. Giusto

Authentication is the way of identifying an individual. The techniques used to accomplish such practice strongly depend on the involved parties, their interconnection, and the required level of security. In all cases, authentication is used to enforce property protection, and may be specifically intended for the copyright protection of digital contents published on the Internet. This chapter introduces the basic concepts of authentication, explaining their relationship with property protection. The basic functionalities of challenge-response frameworks are presented, together with several applications and the future trends.


Author(s):  
J. Shahin

The European Union (EU) has been one of the leading lights concerning Internet use in dealing with other public administrations and citizens. This article will argue that e-government has meant that the European Commission has been able to promote a virtual arena for pan-European activity, which has promoted action at the national and local levels in the EU. In the first instance, this article will deal with how the European Commission uses the Internet to attempt to improve its own relationship with both national public administrations and citizens in terms of the European policy-making process. Although the Internet is perceived as aiding public administrations in information and service provision, which helps to deliver better governance from an institutional governance perspective, a focus on this would only tell one half of the story. Increasing democratic participation and regaining trust in the political system at large is also an important issue for public bodies such as the European Commission to address, and this is not merely a technical process. These technical (efficiency, etc.) and democratic stages are two key parts in the process of developing an information and communication technology (ICT)-based governance agenda in the EU. In order to outline the process, this article deals with four different aspects of the European Commission’s e-policies. It makes reference to the following: 1. The Commission’s information provision, through the EU’s Europa (II) Web server; 2. The way in which the Commission has tried to interact with citizens, using interactive policy making (IPM); 3. The e Commission initiative; and 4. The way in which the Commission links member-state public administrations together, through the IDA(BC) programme. This article reveals the increasing coherence of the European Commission’s approach to using the Internet in institutional affairs. Although the Commission’s approach to using the Internet for governance was initially unstable and ad hoc, by the turn of the century, all efforts had converged around the political issues of institutional reform and better governance. This has been further enhanced by the application of the open method of coordination as one of the tools of EU governance, which has enabled the Commission to take a more informal role in implementing e-government strategies at the pan-European level. This article does not attempt to define e-government at the European level nor does it go into policy areas concerning e-government (such as research, socioeconomic inclusion, improving competitiveness, or specific e-government policy developed by the European Commission), but will contribute to a greater understanding of how the EU itself has used the Internet to promote an e-government agenda that is affecting all public administrations.


ERA Forum ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 655-665
Author(s):  
Colin T. Reid

AbstractThe UK’s withdrawal from the EU will not bring about immediate changes to the substance of environmental law in the UK, but that law will become easier to change. The future position is complicated by devolution within the UK, where differing policy objectives on continuing alignment with the EU and weaknesses in the inter-governmental structures are causing problems. Environmental principles are being given legal recognition and new structures for environmental governance being created for each nation. These include environmental watchdogs that go some of the way to making up for the loss of the oversight provided by the EU institutions.


Subject Prospects for Europe in the third quarter. Significance For the rest of June and the third quarter, the EU will grapple with the future positions within the bloc of two member states, the United Kingdom and Greece. The period will see the resolution, one way or another, of the immediate crisis in Greece's relations with its international creditors. The way in which this takes place will have profound implications for the future of the single currency.


The risks of Italy's withdrawal from the European Union (Italexit) are analyzed. Italy has one of the most powerful economies in the European Union and a great political influence on the processes in the EU. Therefore, the possible exit of this country from the Union could have catastrophic economic and political consequences for the future of European integration. The probability of the threat of the so-called Italexit, which has been discussed by the Italian politicians for a long time, is researched. In addition, the ways and possibilities of avoiding the threat of Italexit, as well as strengthening European solidarity despite the development of disintegration processes in Europe in general and in Italy in particular, are discovered. The probability of Italexit is defined as low, but some negative trends that may increase the risks of Italy's exit from the EU in the future are outlined. The growing sentiments of euroscepticism in Italy and their impact on the country's foreign policy and on relations between Italy and the EU's central institutions in Brussels are observed. The most influential parties of Eurosceptics and right-wing populists and their activities in the Italian parliament and government are considered. The prospects for further activities of Eurosceptic parties and their potential impact on the policy of Italy and the EU are forecasted. It is proved that Italian Eurosceptics are potentially the most dangerous in Europe because of their popularity not only at the national but also at the European level, their ability to unite right-wing radical parties from other European countries, their ambitions to occupy key positions in the European Commission and their active ties with Russia. The possible ways to avoid the most catastrophic scenarios of Italy's exit from the EU are analyzed.


Author(s):  
DAMIR ČRNČEC ◽  
JANEZ URBANC

Just like every other organisation, NATO and the EU are more or less constantly changing and organisationally adapting to new challenges and related new priorities and tasks. The intelligence and security structures of both organisations are no exception and although radical or major organisational changes, mainly due to the consensus mode, are not very frequent and require more time, minor changes and adjustments occur constantly. In recent years, the field of intelligence and security in both organisations has not witnessed any major organisational changes. Nevertheless, especially within NATO, the intelligence structure has significantly increased in quality due to the extra effort to include, in addition to military and defence, civil intelligence and security structures of Member States to play a more active role in the exchange of intelligence with the Alliance. Similarly, although less obviously, a similar trend took place in the context of the intelligence and security structures within the EU. In parallel with the termination of operations in Afghanistan, with a slow stabilisation of the situation in the Western Balkans, and mainly as a result of the new/old challenges posed by the situation in relation to Ukraine, there is no doubt that the intelligence and security structures of both organisations, especially NATO, will be further modified and upgraded over the coming years. The aim of this paper is thus, in addition to outlining the current organisation of the intelligence and security structures in both organisations, to indicate the future trends in the field of intelligence and security. Kot vsaka organizacija se tudi zveza Nato in EU bolj ali manj stalno spreminjata ter organizacijsko prilagajata novim izzivom in posledično novim prednostim ter nalogam. Obveščevalno-varnostni deli obeh organizacij niso izjema in čeprav radikalne oziroma večje organizacijske spremembe, predvsem zaradi konsenzualnega načina delovanja, niso zelo pogoste ter zahtevajo več časa, se manjše spremembe nenehno dogajajo. V zadnjem času se sicer na obveščevalno-varnostnem področju v obeh organizacijah niso zgodile večje organizacijske spremembe, kljub temu pa se je predvsem znotraj Nata struktura na obveščevalnem področju pomembno kvalitativno dopolnila. Dopolnitev se je zgodila zato, da se k bolj aktivni vlogi pri izmenjavi obveščevalnih podatkov z zavezništvom (še močneje kot v preteklosti) vključijo poleg vojaških oziroma obrambnih tudi civilne obveščevalno-varnostne strukture držav članic. Podoben, čeprav manj očiten, trend je potekal tudi v okviru obveščevalno-varnostnih struktur EU. Vzporedno z zaključevanjem operacij v Afganistanu, s počasnim stabiliziranjem razmer na Zahodnem Balkanu, predvsem pa kot posledica novih/starih izzivov, ki jih povzročajo razmere v povezavi z Ukrajino, postane jasno, da se bo obveščevalno-varnostna struktura v obeh organizacijah, zlasti pa v Natu, v naslednjih letih dodatno spreminjala in izpopolnjevala. Cilj prispevka je poleg prikaza trenutne organiziranosti obveščevalno-varnostne strukture v obeh organizacijah napovedati prihodnje usmeritve na obveščevalno-varnostnem področju.


Author(s):  
Giaime Ginesu ◽  
Mirko Luca Lobina ◽  
Daniele D. Giusto

Authentication is the way of identifying an individual. The techniques used to accomplish such practice strongly depend on the involved parties, their interconnection, and the required level of security. In all cases, authentication is used to enforce property protection, and may be specifically intended for the copyright protection of digital contents published on the Internet. This work introduces the basic concepts of authentication explaining their relationship with property protection. The basic functionalities of Challenge-Response frameworks are presented, together with several applications and the future trends.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Helen Wallace

· Changing rationales for European integration. The initial rationales for integration seem less cogent and less resonant. Are they still at the core of the ‘project’? Which newer rationales need to be taken into account? Because of their cogency? Because of their resonance? · Facing up to both internal and external challenges: a huge agenda across political, economic, societal, and security concerns. · Differing narratives. Growth of Euroscepticism and Eurocriticism, though in differing manifestations. How far do these phenomena reflect transversal European factors? How far are they the product of different country characteristics and cultures? Is there a space to construct a shared European narrative? How does the new ‘Conference on the Future of Europe’ fit into this set of issues? · Diverse needs and aspirations. From 6 to 27(8) members with a variety of features political, economic, and societal—and geographic. Is differentiated integration the way forward or are other approaches needed to strike an accepted balance between the country level and the European level of practice? The old discussion of subsidiarity seems no longer to offer potential solutions. The capability to absorb yet more member states is contested. · Can political, economic, and societal concerns be aligned? Initial successes of the EC were very much tied to clever ways in which these different concerns were taken into the process. Can a successor version of pluri-dimensional integration be achieved based on diffuse reciprocity—cross-temporal and cross-sectoral? Or will the EU shift towards a more fragmented version of specific reciprocity based on sector by sector cost–benefit analyses?


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