IS THE EU A KEY PLAYER IN ADDRESSING SOCIAL ISSUES?

2022 ◽  
pp. 29-44
Keyword(s):  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 1369-1375

In the present-day world, dominated by technological progress, humanity is beginning to realize the real danger of an environmental disaster, which can become a threat to the existence of contemporary civilization. This realization marked the beginning of the development of new types of economic activities that involve not only economic growth, but also positive impact on the environment and society. The use of environmental technologies in construction can serve an example of such activities and has significant development prospects because it simultaneously solves both social issues of increasing housing security and environmental issues, primarily the energy conservation issue. Based on an expert survey, the key drivers of supply and demand for investments in environmental technologies in the construction sector, as well as the benefits of implementing and using environmental investments, were identified. The article presents the investment experience of the EU countries in the housing development sector.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Joseph Straus

As one of the building blocks of the fourth industrial revolution, artificial intelligence has attracted much public attention and sparked protracted discussions about its impact on future technological, economic and social developments. This contribution conveys insights into artificial intelligence’s basic methods and tools, its main achievements, its economic environment and the surrounding ethical and social issues. Based on the announced and taken measures of the EU organs in the area of artificial intelligence, the contribution analyses the position of Europe in the global context.


2019 ◽  
pp. 90-96
Author(s):  
Valerii Rieznikov

The purpose of the article is to identify the problems and contradictions of the state policy in the sphere of European integration of Ukraine and to justify the ways of overcoming them in the current conditions. The main internal problem that hinders the European integration course of Ukraine, experts consider, first of all, inefficiency of the public administration system – insufficient level of competence of civil servants, excessive bureaucracy, unreformed and corrupt public administration system. The top five major internal problems also include: the situation in the Donbas (including both armed conflict and public sentiment), high levels of corruption in Ukrainian society, ineffective policy of informing the population about European integration, lack of consensus in the political and social issues. The opinion that aggression, pressure and all-out hindrance from Russia will be a major external challenge for Ukraine’s European course, is shared by all experts interviewed. Among the major external obstacles, experts also cite internal problems of the EU itself, opposition or waiting position on the part of some EU members who do not want to break their ties with Russia, as well as the lack of a unified position in the European Union regarding the European perspective of Ukraine and the EU enlargement in general. Experts consider that the most effective factor contributing to the increase of the support of European integration in Ukrainian society is the successful implementation of internal reforms and the positive effect of ordinary citizens on them. In today’s context, Ukraine’s accession to the EU remains a goal for which it is active in political, legal, economic and other spheres. Conclusions from this research and perspectives of future development in current area. At the present stage of social development the process of forming and implementing effective and effective state policy in the field of European integration is of particular importance. Ukraine’s accession to the EU is a long-term issue, which depends on both the effectiveness of internal reforms and the transformation processes in the EU. However, Ukraine already needs to insist on giving it a formal EU membership perspective.


Significance Months of negotiations between the government, parliament and EU member states on the Netherlands’ approval of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement -- which Dutch voters rejected in a referendum last April -- damaged the electoral prospects of Rutte's Liberal Party (VVD). However, he reached a provisional deal in December. His success in temporarily parking this contentious issue comes amid the unfolding of a two-party race between the VVD and the PVV in the final weeks before the elections on March 15. Impacts If the VVD stays in power for another term, a referendum on EU membership is highly unlikely. The VVD’s tougher stance on immigration and integration could attract right-wing voters and make it a more tempered alternative to the PVV. The Labour Party may shift its focus from economic to social issues to differentiate itself from the VVD and attract left-wing voters.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 2115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Boeri ◽  
Valentina Gianfrate ◽  
Saveria Olga Murielle Boulanger ◽  
Martina Massari

Analyzing data from the Energy Poverty Observatory in Europe, it emerges that more than 50 million households in the EU live in energy poverty (people that cannot heat their homes during winter; cannot make their homes comfortable during the summer; pay their energy bills late). Research studies realized in the last 20 years highlight that making energy demand efficient and effective is the more significant and socially important the more it is able to involve users who are unable to sustain energy demand. The evolution of the research sees a narrowing of the field of investigation by focusing on the user dimension of energy poverty, stressing the role of citizens not only as consumer but also as producers of solutions to tackle energy poverty, real energy communities of agents. The paper aims to provide a systematic literature review highlighting the major findings of the topic, investigating the relationship between spatial and social issues, and looking at the state of energy poverty by addressing the profiling of users and consequently of services useful to overcome their current vulnerable condition. The paper is structured in two core sections. The first one gives the results of a systematic literature review on the energy/fuel poverty topic, the second one deepens the role of communities and individuals need, crucial in defining new design approaches for supportive solutions to tackle energy poverty.


Author(s):  
V. Mikheev ◽  
S. Lukonin ◽  
Y. Safronova

The article deals with the development of China. Forward-looking assessments are made on the basis of an analysis of the country’s new concept of national development. The authors specify five areas that demand for new conceptual solutions: ideology, domestic policy, economy, social issues and foreign policy. As for Russia and its positions in the hierarchic and polycentric world, the authors point out that the ongoing change of China’s social development model is no less important than the dynamics of development of the United States and the EU.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ane Aranguiz

Implementing fiscal consolidation measures without first considering social stabilisers has led to turn what originally was an economic recession into a social crisis too. The economic and social divergences in Europe have increased to a point where the future of the social dimension of the EU has been put into question. There is however, a provision in the Treaties that obliges the EU to take into account social issues in all its policies and activities, namely, the so-called horizontal social clause enshrined in Article 9 TFEU. The potential of this clause to mainstream the social dimension of the EU and foster balance between social and economic policies has, however, not yet been untapped. The recently launched European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR), which aims at achieving a highly competitive social market economy, brings to the table a number of rights-based objectives along with a number of indicators that might shed some light over the constraints faced by the horizontal social clause. This article aims at unravelling the potential of the horizontal social clause in envisioning parity between the social and the economic and providing a social pillar to the EU. This contribution provides first a legal analysis of Article 9 TFEU and it briefly discusses the problematic behind its poor implementation. Later, the potential of the horizontal social clause is discussed in the light of the current developments in the framework of economic governance. This article also suggests a number of scenarios where social mainstreaming should be duly implemented. It suggests that Article 9 TFEU may have an important role, in particular, with regard to austerity measures when envisioning it together with the EPSR.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-123
Author(s):  
Tomáš Gábriš ◽  
Ondrej Hamuľák

Abstract Traditionally, the idea of a sovereign is being connected either with an absolutist ruler (later replaced by “the people”) at the national level, or the nation-state at the international level – at least in the conditions of the Westphalian system created in 1648. Today, on the contrary, we are witnessing a “post-” situation in many respects – post-modernism, post-positivism, but also post-statism – basically being a sort of return to the pre-Westphalian system (see Ondrej Hamuľák, “Lessons from the ‘Constitutional Mythology’ or How to Reconcile the Concept of State Sovereignty with European Integration,” DANUBE: Law, Economics and Social Issues Review Vol. 6, No. 2 (2015); or Danuta Kabat-Rudnicka, “Autonomy or Sovereignty: the Case of the European Union,” International and Comparative Law Review Vol. 20, No. 2 (2020)). However, paternalistic views, prevailing especially in times of crisis and uncertainty, desperately search for a sovereign to lead us from the crises. With regard to cyberattacks and insecurity in the cyberspace this means an effort to subordinate cyberspace to state sovereignty. Still, given the limitations of traditional state-based monopolies of power and legislation, the state as an “analogue sovereign” shrinks in the digital cyberspace rather to a co-sovereign, co-ordinator, or in feudal terms a “senior” vis-à-vis their vassals. The actual ensuring of the tasks of state as a “digital sovereign” is namely often being entrusted to non-state (essentially private-owned) entities, under the threat of legal sanctions. The current situation of constructing “digital sovereignty” of traditional states or of the EU is thus marked by the necessity of cooperation between the state power and those non-state entities which are falling under its analogue jurisdiction.


Management ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-250
Author(s):  
Andrzej Czyżewski ◽  
Anna Matuszczak

Abstract The aim of the article was to present changes which took place in the financing of the agricultural sector in Poland after 2015, i.e. from the moment when a new economic option started to emerge in the national economic policy. A transition from the pro-liberal to the pro-social option is noticeable, which is reflected in the restrictions on expenditures in the national agricultural budget. Similar trends can be observed in the expenditures from the European funds budget, which are also increasingly lower. Symptoms of the renationalisation of the agricultural budget can also be observed, consisting in an initial increase in national expenditures and a relative decrease in the expenditures from the European funds budget, but to a different extent in the years under study. The article analyses the level, then the share of expenditures on the agricultural sector in the budget altogether and in GDP, taking into consideration both the expenditures on the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund (ASIF) and funds from the EU budget. Next, it concentrates more closely on relations in the financing of domestic agriculture from national and EU funds, and finally, points to the social issues related to the agricultural sector through the prism of expenditures on ASIF.


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