EUROPEAN UNION´S SUGAR MARKET CONCENTRATION UNDER THE SUGAR QUOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM

Author(s):  
Ľuboš SMUTKA ◽  
Helena ŘEZBOVÁ ◽  
Patrik ROVNÝ

The European sugar beet quota system is in very high dynamic process in recent years. The number of sugar companies involved in this system has been constantly decreasing. The aim of this paper is to define subjects (companies/alliances), which possess the current production capacities working under the production quotas system. The paper is determining especially the level of beet sugar production quota holder system concentration using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. The paper provides the following findings. The European quota holder system is extremely concentrated and it is becoming more and more dominated by fewer players. Sugar quota is distributed among 19 EU-Member States. In this regard, the quota is generous, especially in relation to France, Germany, Poland and United Kingdom. In Finland, Lithuania, Hungary, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Slovakia and the United Kingdom controlled by two or even one subject (companies, alliances). There is a large discrepancy between political efforts to distribute equitable R 1308/2013-sugar quotas among states and the actual reality of those distributions. While the EU-quota holder system does not indicate an extreme concentration, an analysis according to the headquarters´ location and allocated quotas to owners of production capacities provides the evidence of extreme concentration.

Author(s):  
Lubos SMUTKA ◽  
Irena BENEŠOVÁ ◽  
Patrik ROVNÝ ◽  
Renata MATYSIK-PEJAS

Sugar is one of the most important elements in human nutrition. The Common Market Organisation for sugar has been a subject of considerable debate since its establishment in 1968. The European agricultural market has been criticized for its heavy regulations and subsidization. The sugar market is one of the most regulated ones; however, this will change radically in 2017 when the current system of production quotas will end. The current EU sugar market changed is structure during the last several decades. The significant number of companies left the market and EU internal sugar market became more concentrated. The aim of this paper is presentation characteristics of sugar market with respect to the supposed market failure – reduction in competition. The analysis also identifies the main drivers and determinants of the EU especially quota sugar market. In relation to paper’s aim the following results are important. The present conditions of the European sugar market have led to market failure when nearly 75 % (10 million tonnes) of the quota is controlled by five multinational companies only. These multinational alliances (especially German and French one) are also taking control over the production capacities of their subsidiaries. In most countries, this causes serious problems as the given quota is controlled by one or two producers only. This is a significant indicator of market imperfection. The quota system cannot overcome the problem of production quotas on the one hand and the demand on the other; furthermore, it also leads to economic inefficiency. The current EU sugar market is under the control of only Sudzucker, Nordzucker, Pfeifer and Langen, Tereos and ABF.


Author(s):  
Olha Ovechkina

In connection with the decision to withdraw the UK from the EU a number of companies will need to take into account that from 1 January 2021 EU law will no longer apply to the United Kingdom and will become a "third country" for EU Member States, unless the provisions of bilateral agreements or multilateral trade agreements. This means that the four European freedoms (movement of goods, services, labor and capital) will no longer apply to UK companies to the same extent as they did during the UK's EU membership. The purpose of the article is to study, first of all, the peculiarities of the influence of Great Britain's withdrawal from the European Union on the legal regulation of the status of European legal entities. Brexit results in the inability to register European companies and European economic interest groups in the UK. Such companies already registered before 01.01.2021 have the opportunity to move their place of registration to an EU Member State. These provisions are defined in Regulations 2018 (2018/1298) and Regulations 2018 (2018/1299).British companies with branches in EU Member States will now be subject to the rules applicable to third-country companies, which provide additional information on their activities. In the EU, many countries apply the criterion of actual location, which causes, among other things, the problem of non-recognition of legal entities established in the country where the criterion of incorporation is used (including the United Kingdom), at the same time as the governing bodies of such legal entities the state where the settlement criterion is applied. Therefore, to reduce the likelihood of possible non-recognition of British companies, given the location of the board of such a legal entity in the state where the residency criterion applies, it seems appropriate to consider reincarnation at the actual location of such a company. Reducing the risks of these negative consequences in connection with Brexit on cross-border activities of legal entities is possible by concluding interstate bilateral and multilateral agreements that would contain unified rules on conflict of law regulation of the status of legal entities.


Significance However, member states have the dominant foreign policy role in the EU. After Brexit, that will be France and Germany despite the United Kingdom insisting that it wants to maintain as close a relationship with the EU as possible. Impacts EU reformers will light on foreign policy as an area to drive forwarded integration. However, the EEAS lacks the competencies and institutional horsepower to be a force for integration. The strategic needs of the 27 post-Brexit EU members will be various, thus acting as a drag on integration. Smaller EU member states will see more advantage than larger ones in collectively pursuing foreign policy goals through Brussels. Larger member states will be unwilling to submit their national defence policies to greater EU authority.


Subject The Bratislava summit. Significance Leaders of the EU-27 -- all EU member states except the United Kingdom -- held an 'informal' summit in Bratislava on September 16, aiming to demonstrate their shared resolve to move forward with the integration process in the wake of the Brexit vote. While leaders agreed to a roadmap of policy plans, they skirted around the most divisive issues facing the EU and did not agree on any significant new initiatives. Impacts EU governments again failed to agree to a workable plan to address the migrant crisis, rendering an EU-wide solution increasingly unlikely. Significant agreements on improved security cooperation may not be reached until well into 2017. The EU is likely to block any UK efforts to maintain its current access to the single market without allowing for free movement of workers.


2003 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Meenan

This article examines the Employment Directive from the age perspective and endorses a life course approach to ageing. It explores the permitted exclusions on grounds of age and especially the exceptional justification for direct age discrimination, contained in Article 6. In the end, EU Member States may find it more difficult to successfully transpose Article 6 than they imagine. The article reveals special challenges for age and refers to age laws in Ireland and the USA, in particular. It also refers to preparations for transposition in a number of Member States, including the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Whether and to what extent age will ultimately receive the least protection of all the new grounds, remains to be seen and will depend largely on the individual approaches of the Member States. The ultimate consequence of the additional opportunities for excluding or justifying age discrimination may well be different protected areas throughout the EU.


European View ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-64
Author(s):  
Asteris Huliaras

The increasing number of agreements between the EU and African states reveals a trend toward a ‘One Europe, One Africa’ policy. The EU has gained from the Lisbon Treaty new competencies for independent external action, and coordination on Africa policy has increased in the Council, mainly due to convergence between France, Germany and the United Kingdom. However, EU policy towards Africa still lacks coherence and direction and many EU Member States still privilege bilateral links with African countries. There is still an opportunity for the EU to increase its ‘actorness’ in Africa. First, the EU should take advantage of the economic crisis to create new institutional links between the EU and Africa. Second, the EU should focus on its visibility and act to strengthen private and civil society ties. Despite weaknesses, there are clear indications that the coherence of the EU's Africa policy is improving.


Significance European leaders are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst as they await negotiations on the United Kingdom's departure from the EU. A chaotic exit has not been ruled out, although cooler heads are likely to prevail eventually. Impacts The first months after Article 50 is invoked will be dominated by technical aspects; political negotiations may not begin before 2018. UK failure to take sufficient account of domestic politics in other EU member states is likely to be an obstacle in the negotiations. Governments under pressure from populist parties will be keen to ensure that the United Kingdom is not seen as better off after it leaves.


Subject Brexit and international security. Significance Brexit in any form will make defence and security cooperation between the United Kingdom and the EU more difficult. While intelligence-sharing and security cooperation are likely to continue, even if in a more cumbersome form, there is a high likelihood of declining defence cooperation and a divergence of UK and EU defence efforts. Impacts Brexit will force EU member states to build up their military. The United Kingdom and Ireland will strengthen security cooperation over fears of a return to violence in Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom may be excluded from security arrangements between the EU and external actors such as China and the United States.


2006 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 467-475
Author(s):  
Stephen Weatherill ◽  
Michael Cardwell

Agriculture continues to maintain a very high profile in the Community, notwithstanding calls that the sector should occupy a place commensurate with its overall contribution to the economy. Such calls grew yet stronger during the United Kingdom Presidency from July to December 2005. Indeed, shortly before the United Kingdom assumed the Presidency, Tony Blair stated that [i]t simply does not make sense, in this new world, for Europe to spend over 40 per cent of its budget on the common agricultural policy, representing 5 per cent. of the EU population producing less than 2 percent. of Europe's output.’1 In similar vein, there has been trenchant criticism of the extent to which agriculture has dominated the Doha Development Round negotiations under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (‘WTO’). For example, Commissioner Mandelson has expressed ‘a real fear that a continuing overnegotiation and overbidding in agriculture will stymite the progress we urgently need to demonstrate across the range of the talks’.2


2021 ◽  
pp. 17-28
Author(s):  
D. A. Lanko

The article discusses the Northern Dimension — the four-lateral policy of the Russian Federation, the European Union, Norway and Iceland — in two instances. On one hand, the Northern Dimension has established itself as an effective instrument of meeting specifc challenges of the northern part of the European continent. On other hand, the article discusses the Northern Dimension as a model of relationship between the EU and its potent neighbours, comparable with Russia in terms of their military power, size of the economy and the scale of political ambitions. The United Kingdom, which is fnishing its exit from the European Union, and which is starting building a new system of relationship with it, has recently emerged as such potent neighbour of the European Union. The article presents the results of analysis based on a dialogue between major theories of European integration: namely neo-functionalism and liberal intergovernmentalism. Combining the two theories allows analysing the roles of individual EU member states — the article focuses on Finland in that context — and of European supranational institutions in the formation of the Norther Dimension; among supranational institutions, the article focuses on the European Commission. The article concludes that Ireland can play a crucial role in the building of future relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom. The Irish role is comparable with the role that Finland has played in the building of the relationship between the EU and Russia and in developing of the Northern Dimension into an effective and promising model of relationship between the integration union and its great power neighbours.


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