scholarly journals Limits to the European Commission – Managing Services of General Interests

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerzy Ząbkowicz
Keyword(s):  
European Commission ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Shared Responsibility ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Regulatory Regime ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Services Of General Interest ◽  
The Eu

Services of general interest form an essential element of the European model of society as a way to increase quality of life and to overcome social exclusion and isolation. They are also at the core of the public debate touching the central question of the role public authorities and the institutions of the European Union play in a market economy. The competencies and responsibilities conferred by the Treaty, the EU regulations and directives lay emphasis on the essential role and the wide discretion of national, regional and local authorities in defining, organizing, financing and monitoring services of general interest. The same time the EU Law provide the European Commission with a wide range of means of action to ensure the compliance of the process of organizing and financing such services according to a comprehensive regulatory regime at Community level to make them compatible with the internal market and to prevent a distortion of the competition rules. The paper indicates divergences of the points of view of public authorities and the Commission on their role, shared responsibility and powers in that process.

Building a European Community: social service provision between inclusion and economic interests

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 406-415
Author(s):  
Katinka Kraus
Keyword(s):  
European Commission ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
General Interest ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Services Of General Interest

Inclusion and the associated provision of social services is a central fundamental right in the European Union. Social services of general interest are based on the principles of an inclusive welfare state enshrined in EU primary law. However, the European Commission tends to interpret these social services rather economically. This paper shows that the way in which these services are provided in the Member States is decisive for the categorization of an economic or non-economic activity by the European Commission. Whether social services are to be classified as being related to economic activities and, therefore, subject to the competition and internal market rules depends on their organization and structure.

Services of General Interest (EU) as Indicators of Public Functions in the Sense of Public Administrative Law

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-43
Author(s):  
Margrét Vala Kristjánsdóttir
Keyword(s):  
Public Services ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Service Contracts ◽  
Services Of General Interest ◽  
The Eu

The article concerns the EU concept of 'Services of General Interest' (SGIs) which, due to their characteristics, are given special status in EU law. It connects these characteristics with public services that are carried out by private entities under service contracts, as well as the question of applicability of general principles of public administrative law to the relations between the providers and users of such services. The objective is to examine whether the definitions and examples of SGIs can help identify public functions in the sense of Icelandic administrative law. It examines whether they provide guidelines as to how services, carried out by private entities under service contracts with public authorities, may be singled out and so help identify public functions in the sense of Icelandic administrative law.

Austrian Veto against European Union Membership Negotiations with Turkey

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-122
Author(s):  
Ewa Kaczan-Winiarska
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Negotiation Process ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Strategic Partner ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
European Standards ◽  
The Eu

The Austrian government is extremely sceptical about the accession negotiations which are conducted by the European Commission on behalf of the European Union with Turkey and calls for the negotiation process to end. Serious reservations of Vienna have been raised by the current political situation in Turkey under the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as by the standards of democracy in Turkey, which differ greatly from European standards. Serious deficiencies in rule of law, freedom of speech and independence of the judiciary, confirmed in the latest European Commission report on Turkey, do not justify, from Vienna’s point of view, the continuation of talks with Ankara on EU membership. In fact, Austria’s scepticism about the European perspective for Turkey has a longer tradition. This was marked previously in 2005 when the accession negotiations began. Until now, Austria’s position has not had enough clout within the European arena. Pragmatic cooperation with Turkey as a strategic partner of the EU, both in the context of the migration crisis and security policy, proved to be a key factor. The question is whether Austria, which took over the EU presidency from 1.7.2018, will be able to more strongly accentuate its reservations about Turkey and even build an alliance of Member States strong enough to block Turkey’s accession process.

scholarly journals Sustainability in the European Union: Analyzing the Discourse of the European Green Deal

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
Eva Eckert ◽  
Oleksandra Kovalevska
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Main Question ◽  
The European Union ◽  
International Media ◽  
Institutional Power ◽  
The One ◽  
The Eu

In the European Union, the concern for sustainability has been legitimized by its politically and ecologically motivated discourse disseminated through recent policies of the European Commission and the local as well as international media. In the article, we question the very meaning of sustainability and examine the European Green Deal, the major political document issued by the EC in 2019. The main question pursued in the study is whether expectations verbalized in the Green Deal’s plans, programs, strategies, and developments hold up to the scrutiny of critical discourse analysis. We compare the Green Deal’s treatment of sustainability to how sustainability is presented in environmental and social science scholarship and point out that research, on the one hand, and the politically motivated discourse, on the other, do not correlate and often actually contradict each other. We conclude that sustainability discourse and its keywords, lexicon, and phraseology have become a channel through which political institutions in the EU such as the European Commission sideline crucial environmental issues and endorse their own presence. The Green Deal discourse shapes political and institutional power of the Commission and the EU.

scholarly journals Member States’ social security agreements with India

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-187
Author(s):  
Pauline Melin
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Current Approach ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Bilateral Agreements ◽  
Country Case Study ◽  
The Eu

In a 2012 Communication, the European Commission described the current approach to social security coordination with third countries as ‘patchy’. The European Commission proposed to address that patchiness by developing a common EU approach to social security coordination with third countries whereby the Member States would cooperate more with each other when concluding bilateral agreements with third countries. This article aims to explore the policy agenda of the European Commission in that field by conducting a comparative legal analysis of the Member States’ bilateral agreements with India. The idea behind the comparative legal analysis is to determine whether (1) there are common grounds between the Member States’ approaches, and (2) based on these common grounds, it is possible to suggest a common EU approach. India is taken as a third-country case study due to its labour migration and investment potential for the European Union. In addition, there are currently 12 Member State bilateral agreements with India and no instrument at the EU level on social security coordination with India. Therefore, there is a potential need for a common EU approach to social security coordination with India. Based on the comparative legal analysis of the Member States’ bilateral agreements with India, this article ends by outlining the content of a potential future common EU approach.

scholarly journals The Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of Hepatitis C Screening for Migrants in the EU/EEA: A Systematic Review

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (9) ◽  
pp. 2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Greenaway ◽  
Iuliia Makarenko ◽  
Claire Abou Chakra ◽  
Balqis Alabdulkarim ◽  
Robin Christensen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Hepatitis C ◽  
Lower Risk ◽  
Linkage To Care ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Screening Tests ◽  
European Economic Area ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Eu

Chronic hepatitis C (HCV) is a public health priority in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) and is a leading cause of chronic liver disease and liver cancer. Migrants account for a disproportionate number of HCV cases in the EU/EEA (mean 14% of cases and >50% of cases in some countries). We conducted two systematic reviews (SR) to estimate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of HCV screening for migrants living in the EU/EEA. We found that screening tests for HCV are highly sensitive and specific. Clinical trials report direct acting antiviral (DAA) therapies are well-tolerated in a wide range of populations and cure almost all cases (>95%) and lead to an 85% lower risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma and an 80% lower risk of all-cause mortality. At 2015 costs, DAA based regimens were only moderately cost-effective and as a result less than 30% of people with HCV had been screened and less 5% of all HCV cases had been treated in the EU/EEA in 2015. Migrants face additional barriers in linkage to care and treatment due to several patient, practitioner, and health system barriers. Although decreasing HCV costs have made treatment more accessible in the EU/EEA, HCV elimination will only be possible in the region if health systems include and treat migrants for HCV.

scholarly journals Training and Employability: What are the LSPs looking for and what can the graduates offer?

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valero Garces Carmen
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Shared Responsibility ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Job Market ◽  
Directorate General ◽  
Market Trends ◽  
Translator Education ◽  
And Training ◽  
The Eu

Training and employability are two terms that frequently appear in the speeches both in those in charge of designing educational policies as well as in reports of economics or market trends. Training is necessary for integration into the job market. The aim of this article is to provide data extracted from several studies on university – language service providers (LSP) relations in the European Union for the period 2010-2017. The EU DGT (Directorate - General for Translation) through the European Master´s in Translation network (EMT network) and EUATC (European Union of Associations of Translation Companies), developed those studies. The first and last studies focused on language service providers’ companies (LSP) while the second offers information on graduates and their training. In this way we aim to show both sides of the situation, which can be summed up in the following way: What are employers looking for and what can the graduates offer?. The results of the research presented seem to indicate that translator education and training is a shared responsibility of universities and LSP in a highly competitive market

scholarly journals Support Schemes in Renewable Energy: Commentary to Judgment of the Court (Fifth Chamber) of 13 September 2017, ENEA S.A. v. Prezes Urzędu Regulacji Energetyki

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-183
Author(s):  
Nevin Alija
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Environmentally Friendly ◽  
Preliminary Ruling ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Financial Penalty ◽  
The Eu

In its September 13th 2017 decision,1 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) decided on a request for a preliminary ruling by the Supreme Court of Poland (Sąd Najwyższy) in proceedings between ENEA S.A. (ENEA) and the president of the Urzędu Regulacji Energetyki (Office for the regulation of energy, URE) on the imposition by the latter of a financial penalty on ENEA for breach of its obligation to supply electricity produced by cogeneration. The judgment of the Court of Justice follows many decisions of the European Commission and judgments of the EU courts assessing the involvement of State resources in support schemes in energy, particularly with the aim of switching towards more environmentally friendly sources. This case reaffirms that support schemes may, in certain circumstances, fall outside the scope of the EU State aid rules.

scholarly journals The EU after Brexit: Key Geopolitical and Geo-Economic Challenges

2020 ◽  
pp. 30-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petr YAKOVLEV
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Commission ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
European Council ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Union History ◽  
The Eu

The decision on Britain’s secession from the European Union, taken by the British Parliament and agreed by London and Brussels, divided the Union history into “before” and “after”. Not only will the remaining member states have to “digest” the political, commercial, economic and mental consequences of parting with one of the largest partners. They will also have to create a substantially new algorithm for the functioning of United Europe. On this path, the EU is confronted with many geopolitical and geo-economic challenges, which should be answered by the new leaders of the European Commission, European Council, and European Parliament.

scholarly journals Wpływ regulacji rynku na funkcjonowanie sektora cukrowniczego w Polsce

2014 ◽  
pp. 127-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Pietrzak ◽  
Marcin Mucha
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Sugar Industry ◽  
Free Market ◽  
World Market ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Market Conditions ◽  
The World ◽  
Sugar Market ◽  
The Eu

In the period 1990–2013 sugar industry in Poland faced numerous legal transformations, shifting from nearly free-market conditions into a strongly regulated sector. Changes of the sugar industry regulations had a significant impact on the structure of the sugar market, companies’ actions and, as a result, on their performance. Accession to the European Union and the reform of the sugar regime conducted from 2006 to 2010 on the initiative of the European Commission involved deep restructuring and modernization of the factories, which caused growth of their productivity. However, prices of sugar in the EU and in Poland are much higher than prices on the world market.

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