Introduction, 1 An Introduction to European Antitrust Criminalization and Its Theoretical, Legal, and Practical Challenges

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Whelan Peter
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Current Literature ◽  
National Level ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Criminal Punishment ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Criminal Sanctions ◽  
National Competition ◽  
The Eu

This chapter provides an overview of the European antitrust criminalization debate. Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) contains, inter alia, the EU's prohibition on cartel activity, which is enforced by the European Commission and the national competition authorities (NCAs) and courts of the EU Member States. Traditionally, within Europe, cartel law enforcement at national level has tended to avoid the employment of personal criminal punishment. This tradition notwithstanding, over the last decade or so there has been increasing debate within Europe concerning the imposition of the sanction of imprisonment on individuals who have engaged in cartel activity contrary to Article 101 TFEU. There are at least three categories of deficiencies in the current literature on the employment within the EU of personal criminal sanctions for cartel activity: theoretical, legal, and practical.

scholarly journals Are the EU Member States Ready for the New Union Customs Code: Emerging Legal Issues On the National Level

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-75
Author(s):  
Gediminas Valantiejus
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
International Trade ◽  
National Level ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Eu

AbstractIn 2016, the European Union has launched a new and ambitious project for the future regulation of international trade in the European Union and the rules of its taxation: since the 1 May 2016, the new Union Customs Code (UCC) has entered into force. It revokes the old Community Customs Code (CCC), which was applied since 1992, and passed in the form of EU regulation sets brand-new rules for the application of Common Customs Tariff and calculation of customs duties (tariffs) in all the EU Member States. It is oriented to the creation of the paperless environment for the formalisation of international trade operations (full electronic declaration of customs procedures) and ensuring of a more uniform administration of customs duties in the tax and customs authorities of the Member States in the European Union. Therefore, the article raises and seeks to answer the problematic question whether the Member States of the European Union themselves are ready to implement these ambitious goals and does the actual practice of the Member States support that (considering the practice of the Republic of Lithuania). The research, which is based on the analysis of case law in the Republic of Lithuania (case study of recent tax disputes between the taxpayers and customs authorities that arose immediately before and after the entry into force of the UCC), leads to the conclusion that many problematic areas that may negatively impact the functioning of the new Customs Code remain and must be improved, including an adoption of new legislative solutions.

scholarly journals RISK-BASED APPROACH IN THE EUROPEAN UNION LEGISLATION TO PREVENT MONEY LAUNDERING AND FINANCING OF TERRORISM

2020 ◽  
pp. 43-52
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Money Laundering ◽  
National Level ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Specific Situation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Financial Flows ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Eu

Money laundering and terrorism financing are serious and internationally emerging issues that must be approached and confronted at European Union level. The latest terrorist attacks and periodic banking scandals highlight the necessity for additional attention in this particular direction. In regard to the internal EU market, financial flows are integrated and trans-border by nature, thus funds can circulate rapidly, from one country to another, offering the possibility to perpetrators and terrorists to transfer money across Member State avoiding detection by authorities. This specific situation generates the necessity to identify and understand the particular ML/TF risks generated by services and products offered within the EU economic and financial ecosystem. In order to ensure an efficient mechanism for identifying the ML/TF risks associated with the products and services provided on the territory of European Union, the 4AMLD provides the obligation of the EU Commission to perform once in two years the so-called European Union Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Supranational Risk Assessment. Since 2017 two supra-national risk assessments were carried out and the final results are used by Member States to monitor the evolution of risks at Union level and to implement the necessary recommendation for ensuring a proper minimization of threats and vulnerabilities at the national level. This paper aims to analyze, understand and compare the main outcomes of the two assessments, namely the identified risks and their links with vulnerable sectors, as well as the evolution or devolution of certain risks as a result of mitigation measures applied by EU Member States. Another task of this article is to provide additional recommendations in terms of mitigating measures and efforts, which must be taken into account by Member States

scholarly journals Enhancing Civilisational Dialogue between Malaysia and the European Union

ICR Journal ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 186-189
Author(s):  
Christoph Marcinkowski
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Business Community ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Preferential Treatment ◽  
Trade Surplus ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Important Trading Partner ◽  
The Eu

Cooperation between the European Union (EU) and Malaysia started with the 1980 European Commission-ASEAN Agreement which has made it possible for Malaysia to benefit from a number of ASEAN and Asia-wide cooperation programmes. The EU Delegation to Malaysia was opened in 2003 and since then dialogue, policy interaction and cooperation with both federal and state authorities, the Malaysian and EU business community as well as the civil society has increased progressively. Moreover, Malaysia is also the EU’s second most important trading partner in ASEAN. No bilateral preferential trade arrangements exist between Malaysia and the EU, but under the new Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), in force since January 2006, the share of Malaysia’s merchandise exports to the EU eligible for preferential treatment rose from 16 per cent to 81 per cent. Over 70 per cent of Malaysia’s exports to the EU now enter duty-free. Malaysia records a trade surplus with most EU Member States.

scholarly journals Is competitiveness in the European Union converging?

2016 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 1835-1842 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavlína Balcarová
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
National Level ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Professional Literature ◽  
Important Indicator ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
National Competitiveness ◽  
Convergence Process ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Eu

The convergence process has for many decades captured the attention of economists and its importance has especially increased with deepening economic integration. A wide range of indicators is used in the professional literature to establish real and nominal convergence in the European Union, but national competitiveness is usually not among them, despite the fact that national competitiveness has in recent years been an important indicator of economic performance at the national level. Furthermore, converging competitiveness is a necessary precondition for further common development of the European Union. The aim of this contribution is to demonstrate whether the competitiveness of the EU countries is converging or not. Competitiveness is defined as the ability of a country to deliver beyond‑GDP goals to its inhabitants and the indicator of outcome competitiveness is used for its evaluation. We apply methods of beta and sigma convergence and the results of both methods show that while the differences in competitiveness among the EU member states decreased in the period 2003–2012, it did so very slowly.

scholarly journals Skills building seminar: How to improve vaccination coverage in the European Union?

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Vaccination Coverage ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Policy Options ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Eu

Abstract In recent years, the European Union (EU) has been facing several serious outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, including measles. Vaccination coverage rates for the first dose of the vaccine against measles vary from 85% in Italy to 99% in Luxembourg and Hungary, with the average for the EU (93.6%) falling below what is required to ensure herd immunity. Similar variations can be seen for other vaccinations, including influenza immunization programmes targeting older adults who are at greater risk of severe complications. Of particular concern is that in a number of EU countries anti-vaccine groups, aided by social and mainstream media, and sometimes populist politicians, are gaining traction and have started to influence public and health worker attitudes towards the safety and effectiveness of vaccinations. The EU has started to respond to these developments in a number of ways. In his 2017 State of the Union address, Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, has called for action to increase vaccination coverage and to ensure that everyone in the EU has access to vaccines. This was followed by a number of new policy and research activities initiated by the European Commission. The workshop provides an overview of some of these activities. It starts with an introductory presentation on recent initiatives of the European Commission to support national vaccination efforts. This is followed by a presentation on the work of the Expert Panel on effective ways of investing in Health and their report on vaccination programmes and health systems in EU countries. A third presentation presents EU-funded research on vaccine hesitancy in EU member states, based on the largest ever study on attitudes to vaccines and vaccination in the EU. A final presentation explores a study undertaken for the European Commission by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies on the organization and delivery of vaccination programmes in EU member states, based on detailed country fiches. The workshop will provide opportunity for the audience to comment on and discuss presentations and to consider current policy options in Europe to address vaccine hesitancy and improve vaccination coverage through health system interventions. It will be of interest to public health researchers, practitioners and policy-makers from across Europe. Key messages The workshop provides a forum for discussing European initiatives to overcome vaccine hesitancy and improve vaccination coverage. It explores policy options at the European and national level.

The Role of National Parliaments in Governing the European Union

2015 ◽  
pp. 52-62
Author(s):  
M. Strezhneva
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
European Union ◽  
European Commission ◽  
National Level ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Lisbon Treaty ◽  
The European Union ◽  
National Parliaments ◽  
Subsidiarity Principle ◽  
The Eu

Institutional structures and decision-making processes, which have been established in the European Union, fall beyond the scope of national rules for the functioning of parliamentary government. National parliaments of the EU member states have not succeeded in acquiring solid positions in the multilevel constellation within the Union. Yet nowadays they are assigned an important mission in their efforts to overcome, alongside the European Parliament (EP), the growing democratic deficit at both the European and national levels. The article is meant to assess the potential of national parliaments in capitalizing on the Lisbon Treaty provisions and on new forms of their engagement with supranational institutions (the European Council, the European Commission and the EP in particular), aimed at enhancing their legitimizing influence. General paradigm for the analysis is determined by the multilevel governance concept (MLG). It allows for a picture of European decision-making, which is shared by actors placed at different levels of the governance structure. National parliaments are supposed to be provided with multiple access points to the political process in the European Union as well. But the MLG vision doesn't contradict the fact that the key role within the EU belongs to those who occupy the highest executive power positions at the national level. Three directions for the national parliaments to intensify their involvement are put into spotlight: parliamentary control over national executives; control of compliance with the subsidiarity principle in European legislative proposals and supranational decisions; political dialogue with the European Commission and interparliamentary cooperation. The analysis proves that conditions are ripe for more active stance of national parliaments in the EU affairs. The “system of early warning” of the subsidiarity principle violations, provided for in the Lisbon Treaty, seems most promising. But national parliaments themselves will still have to demonstrate more persistence when using new instruments. Acknowledgment. The article has been supported by a grant of the Russian Foundation for Humanities (RFH). Project № 14-07-00050.

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION AS THE GUARDIAN OF THE TREATIES

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (05) ◽  
pp. 160-163
Author(s):  
Sevil Aliheydar Damirli ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Member State ◽  
European Commission ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Community Law ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Guardian ◽  
Eu Commission ◽  
The Eu

As in any community, coexistence and cooperation only works if it is well organized. In the EU, there are EU bodies for this purpose. We all know that living together of different members can often lead to a dispute. In the European Union, the subject of dispute can not only be the violation of primary law, but also the violation of secondary community law. In order to better understand the important role of the Commission in the EU, we examine in this paper its composition and Tasks. We know that the European Union is based on the rule of law. This means that every EU activity is based on treaties that have been accepted by all EU Member States on a voluntary and democratic basis. A contract is a binding agreement between the EU member states. It sets out the objectives of the EU, the rules governing the EU institutions, the decision-making process and relations between the EU and its Member States. Therefore it is important to adhere to these treaties to carry out community policy. According to Art. 258 and 259 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, actions for breach of contract can be filed against a Member State by the EU Commission or another Member State (1, Art.258-259). For the European Commission, as the «Guardian of the Treaties», this option is a particularly important instrument of power politics that it can use against member states' governments that do not recognize or do not comply with the norms of Community law. In practice, the infringement procedures requested by the Commission are of particular importance for ensuring compliance with Community law by the Member States. In no other area does the Commission have so much power and independence against the Member States. Now we should take a closer look at the EU institution and especially the EU Commission.

scholarly journals WHEN THE EU HITS HOME: NATIONAL DETERMINANTS OF NON-COMPLIANCE WITH THE EUROPEAN UNION LAW

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-48
Author(s):  
Aleksei Sorbale ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Party System ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
National Level ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Union Law ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Regional Strategies ◽  
The Eu

This study analyzes 25,516 cases of violation of the European Union law by 28 Member States from 1993 to 2018. I strive to outline the national level determinants of differentiation in the pool of member countries by the total number of the EU law violations. As a key method of analysis, logistic regression is used, where factors of GDP per capita (PPP), polarization of the parliament, fragmentation of the party system, regional strategies and quality of governance are used as country attributes. The analysis demonstrates that all country attributes are significantly related to all four quartiles of the outcome, which rank member states depending on the number of violations during the period under review: from the smallest share of violated directives (Q1) to the largest share of violated directives (Q4). The results of the study demonstrate the empirical relevance of the theoretical perspective of “worlds of compliance” formulated by G. Falkner et al. (2007) for the categorization of EU member states in their reactions to the compliance efforts of the EU.

scholarly journals Sygnalizacja problematyki związanej z optymalizacją podatkową pojmowaną jako pomoc publiczna na przykładzie decyzji Komisji Europejskiej w sprawie Apple

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 11-20
Author(s):  
Damian Dobosz ◽  
Anna Niziołek
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Commission ◽  
State Aid ◽  
The Other ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Basic Concepts ◽  
The Eu

The notification of the issues connected with tax optimization perceived as state aid on the example of the decision of the European Commission in the case of the Apple groupThis article will attempt to indagate the decision of the European Commision EU 2017/1283 of the 30th of August 2016 on state aid implemented by Ireland to Apple. According to the statement of the European Commission, whilst issuing tax ruling practice which allowed the companies Apple Operations Europe hereinafter referred to as „AOE” and Apple Sales International hereinafter referred to as „ASI” to determine their corporate tax liability in the years when they were in force, Ireland has unlawfully granted state aid to AOE, ASI and the Apple group. Consequently, Ireland was required to recover the receivables. This study will be concerned with the basic concepts related to tax optimization. The discussion also delves into the most significant thesis of the aforementioned decision of the European Commission as well as to the other investigations referring to the issue of the unlawful state aid. In this essay an examination will be made to outline that the tax practices of the global concerns might have a strong impact on the stabilization of the internal market, especially whilst the competition and consumer protection law is concerned. Further analysis devotes to the negative outcomes for the EU member states and the European Union itself.

scholarly journals Public policymaking and its analysis at National and European Levels

2015 ◽  
pp. 9-40
Author(s):  
Giandomenico Majone
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Monetary Union ◽  
National Level ◽  
Feasibility Studies ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
European Union Level ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Public Policy Process ◽  
The Eu

The author describes the specific features of public policy process at the European Unionlevel and its differences related to policy-making at national level. He underlines, amongother things that the policy agenda in the European Union is being shaped differently.At the national level the agenda is under greater influence of politicians who are closelyinterconnected with voters. At the European Union level the technocratic (not directlyelected) European Commission has a monopoly of legislative initiative. Furthermore, atthe European level feasibility studies – as an element of the pre-decision stage in publicpolicy-making – tend to be ignored. In nation-states we can see such analyses as a resultof competition taking place between those who rule and their political opposition. Atthe European Union level it is not the case. The author points out that these mechanisms would have been beneficial for the EU member states. They would have haltedthe implementation of decisions which ran the excessive risk. He has also in mind thedecision related to the introduction of the monetary union. In his opinion, this decisionwas made without a proper feasibility analysis (costs and profits). Basically, the decisionon a common currency was made on political rather than substantive grounds. A largenumber of experts were against the idea as they perceived serious risks involved in it.The supporters of greater European integration ignored the fact that the monetary uniondeprived nation-states of many factors that affected the economic development in a positive way. The point is that they were under influence of “total optimism” expecting only good results of the monetary union. The mechanisms of crisis management, including exitscenario from the monetary union, or methods of supporting those members who needfinancial aid, have not been even created. Furthermore, the evaluation of the monetaryunion was not properly carried out as it was based on the assessment of the process (forexample, smooth introduction of euro notes and coins or phasing out of the nationalcurrencies in 2002) and not of its results

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