Internal migrants in EU may face tougher benefit rules

Significance The EU is built around the 'four freedoms', which together form the core of the internal market. Economically, freedom of movement is meant to smooth out asymmetrical labour market shocks by allocating labour where it is needed most. In the past, intra-EU mobility has been relatively low and mostly reflected a widening welfare gap between older member states and those that joined after 2004. As a result, fears of 'welfare tourism' have risen, despite the fact that empirical evidence for it is scarce. Impacts The issue of welfare tourism will continue to dominate the debate. Who is eligible for what welfare payments in other member states will, therefore, continue to occupy courts across Europe. Because of the current refugee crisis, the rules on third-country nationals will come under scrutiny again.

Significance A rift has opened between the eleven former communist EU member states (EU-11), and such older members as Germany and Sweden, over attitudes towards immigrants and refugees, who are making for the EU in ever-greater numbers. The rift, which is based on different histories, levels of multi-culturalism, experiences in integrating minorities and histories of emigration rather than immigration, is driving policy in different directions within the EU. Impacts Several of the EU-11 bloc will continue to oppose mandatory quotas for accepting refugees. The issue may have long-lasting effects on further EU integration, and Euro-scepticism will rise in the EU-11. The refugee crisis may result in further, long-lasting limitations to the free flow of people within the Schengen zone.


Subject EU immigration division. Significance Immigration to Europe has fallen substantially over the past three years, largely because of stricter rules in EU member states and enhanced cooperation with the EU's neighbours. This downward trend, however, coincides with growing tensions between member states over how to tackle immigration once migrants and refugees enter European territory. Impacts Unable to agree on an effect asylum seekers reform, the EU will continue funding African countries to stop irregular migratory flows. Disengagement of EU search and rescue assets and more reliance on under-trained North African coast guards will make sea migration deadlier. Divergent views on immigration burden-sharing could worsen foreign relations between populists in Italy and those in Hungary and Poland.


2017 ◽  
pp. 82-107
Author(s):  
Michał Skorzycki

The article comprises the overview of the essential legal, administrative and financial means that the EU has at its disposal in case of rapid influx of immigrants, as well as a selection of major obstacles to the use of these tools, based on observation of the activities of the EU and its member states taken up to deal with the aforementioned situation which took place in 2015. Using the abovementioned observation and an analysis of relevant documents, it is argued that the refugee crisis of 2015 has revealed the necessity of a profound institutionalisation of the European immigration policy as the most effective way to overcome difficulties in response to such situations. The analysis leads also to the conclusion that the EU is caught in a dilemma of either suspending the Dublin system in crisis situations or creating a new system of intensive support for border member states.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmytro S. Melnyk ◽  
Oleg A. Parfylo ◽  
Oleksii V. Butenko ◽  
Olena V. Tykhonova ◽  
Volodymyr O. Zarosylo

Purpose The experience of most European Union (EU) Member States has demonstrated effective anti-corruption practices, making the EU one of the leaders in this field, which can be used as an example to learn from in the field of anti-corruption. The purpose of this study is to analyze and identify the main features of anti-corruption legislation and strategies to prevent corruption at the national and supranational levels of the EU. Design/methodology/approach The following methods were used in the work: discourse and content analysis, method of system analysis, method of induction and deduction, historical-legal method, formal-legal method, comparative-legal method and others. Using the historical and legal method, the evolution of the formation of anti-corruption regulation at the supranational level was revealed. The comparative law method helped to compare the practices of the Member States of the EU in the field of anti-corruption regulation. The formal-legal method is used for generalization, classification and systematization of research results, as well as for the correct presentation of these results. Findings The main results, prospects for further research and the value of the material. The paper offers a critical review of key EU legal instruments on corruption, from the first initiatives taken in the mid-1990s to recent years. Originality/value In addition, the article analyzes the relevant anti-corruption legislation in the EU member states that are in the top 10 countries with the lowest level of corruption, namely: Denmark, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marijke Welisch ◽  
Gustav Resch ◽  
André Ortner

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to provide estimation results for feasibility of renewable energy source (RES) deployment in Turkey, the Western Balkans and North Africa. From these results, the potential for cooperation in renewables production between the countries and the European Union (EU) is assessed and evaluated, in a mid- (2030) and long-term (up to 2040) perspective. Design/methodology/approach The authors focus on the quantitative assessments undertaken on the extent to which RES cooperation can create mutual benefits, identifying costs and benefits for both sides, but in particular with respect to RES target achievement (2020 and 2030) at EU level. The potentials for RES generation in Turkey, North Africa and the Western Balkans are calculated under different policy pathways, taking into account different levels of economic and non-economic barriers that could occur. Findings Overall, the authors found that increasing RES deployment in the three analysed regions and initiating or intensifying cooperation with EU28 Member States leads to mutual benefits. Concretely, these benefits become apparent in terms of the EU Member States importing renewable energy sources for electricity with a good resource quality and adding on to their targets for RES deployment. At the same time, substantial savings occur for the EU, in turn leading to income and investments in the cooperating regions. Originality/value The assessment underlying this paper is the first of its kind to the authors’ knowledge that opens up the geographical spread in comparison to merely assessing cooperation between Europe and the Middle East and North Africa. Furthermore, the multitude of policy parameters analysed provides detailed and robust insights concerning a broad variety of different possible scenarios.


2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 295-311
Author(s):  
Matilde Lafuente-Lechuga ◽  
Úrsula Faura-Martínez ◽  
Olga García-Luque

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to show evidence of the divergence of welfare outcomes in the European Union (EU) during the economic crisis, which made the European social model fail, and the convergence among European countries halt. This study reviews Sapir’s model for classifying European welfare state systems and adapts it to the new reality, taking into account Europe 2020 targets on poverty reduction and employment growth. Design/methodology/approach Two variables are used in the application of Sapir’s graphical analysis to European social models: the employment rate as efficiency indicator, and the people At Risk Of Poverty and/or Exclusion rate as equity indicator. Both efficiency and equity are present in Europe 2020 targets. In addition, a cluster analysis is applied. Findings The division of EU member states into four geopolitical social models has proved to be dynamic, changing in the period under analysis. As a consequence of the economic crisis and the fiscal consolidation, efficiency and equity levels across the EU are polarised between the Mediterranean and the Nordic models. Originality/value This paper shows the effects of the economic crisis in the EU, analysing the evolution between 2008 and 2014, and incorporating Eastern Europe new member states into the analysis.


Significance After accentuated rule-of-law erosion during 2017-19, the new government encouraged hopes that such violations would become a thing of the past. However, last month, the government sacked the ombudsman, while the Constitutional Court declared void a judgement of the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) defending judicial independence. Impacts Recent developments erode hopes that last month’s positive CVM report will lead to Romania’s Schengen zone accession later this year. Failure to replace the ombudsman will not affect the coalition parties electorally, given the politicisation of rule-of-law issues. Subnational courts will be left confused whether to apply the Constitutional Court or the CJEU ruling to legal disciplinary cases.


Author(s):  
Sacha Garben

Title XII deals with EU competences in the fields of education, vocational training, youth, and sport. According to Article 6 TFEU, these four areas qualify among those where the EU has the power to ‘support, coordinate or supplement the actions of the Member States’, meaning that the EU’s role is limited to a secondary one and that harmonization of national laws and regulations is excluded. As we shall see, however, this has not prevented a significant amount of European integration taking place in these very areas that are often considered to belong to the core tasks of the nation state.


Author(s):  
Robert Schütze

This chapter explores the scope and nature of the European Union's legislative competences. Based on the principle of conferral, the EU must act within the scope of competences conferred upon it by the Member States. Three legal developments have significantly undermined the principle of conferral in the past. First, there has been a rise of teleological interpretation. The EU's competences are here interpreted in such a way that they potentially ‘spill over’ into other policy areas. The second development is the rise of the EU's general competences. The EU enjoys two very general legislative competences that horizontally cut across the various policy titles within the EU Treaties: Articles 114 and 352 TFEU, which concern internal market competence and residual competence, respectively. The third development is the doctrine of implied external powers. The chapter then studies the different categories of EU competences: exclusive, shared, coordinating, and complementary.


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