scholarly journals The EU Practice of Horizontal Agreement Assessment in Accordance with the Rule of Providing De Minimis Exemption

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-80
Author(s):  
Andrius Puksas

ABSTRACT This article analyses the practice of horizontal agreement assessment in accordance with its impact on competition. The following research is based on analysis of scientific literature, current provisions of European Union and national legal acts, as well as official positions of the European Commission (hereinafter - EC) and national authorities. The current inconsistent practice of horizontal agreement assessment within the EU creates space for multiple interpretations. It is important to emphasize that the assessment rules provided in legal acts are, by their nature, only guidelines. More flexibility, but also more obscurity, in the assessment process bring with it the possibility for institutions to independently set priorities (for instance ‘priority rule’ in Lithuanian legislation, i.e. in the Articles 18.2.3. and 24.2.8 of the Law on Competition of the Republic of Lithuania, Official Gazette, 2012, no. 42-2041). The article analyses current regulation of horizontal agreement assessments in accordance with minor impact on competition.

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vesco Paskalev

On 2 March 2010 the European Commission authorised the cultivation of a BASF's genetically modified potato “Amflora” throughout the European Union. This came after a tortuous process commenced in 1996 and so far it is the only authorisation of a GMO for cultivation in EU since the current regulation was established. On 3 March 2010, President Barroso announced that the Commission intends to propose amendments to the current regulation to allow the Member States to prohibit the cultivation of GMO authorised for cultivation in the EU and it did so on June 13, 2010. This is one of the very few cases where decision-making power is effectively devolved back from Union to state level; it is even more impressive that this is happening on the initiative of the Commission and despite the obvious negative consequences for the internal market. In the meantime BASF botched the 2011 growing season for Amflora in Sweden and in 2012 announced that it withdraws its GM crops from the EU. This article follows the saga purports to find the reasons why it entailed an immediate change.


ZBORNIK MES ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Plazinić ◽  
Mitar Božić

The paper aims to explore different outlooks of the future of the European Union, taking into the account EU enlargement project and current negotiations process with Serbia. The analysis focuses on the perspectives from the officials of the European Commission and the Republic of Serbia, as the key actors in the negotiations process of EU memberships of Serbia, as well as the perceptions of the Serbian citizens. Therefore, the purpose of the paper is to identify the motives and currents key topics in the negotiations process, which could affect the future image of Europe.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-122
Author(s):  
Ewa Kaczan-Winiarska

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
Eva Eckert ◽  
Oleksandra Kovalevska

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.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inga Daukšienė ◽  
Arvydas Budnikas

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the purpose of the action for failure to act under article 265 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The statements are derived from the analysis of scientific literature, relevant legislation, practice of the European Union Court of Justice (CJEU) and the European Union General Court (EUGC). Useful information has also been obtained from the opinions of general advocates of the CJEU. The article of TFEU 265, which governs the action for failure to act, is very abstract. For this reason, a whole procedure under the article 265 TFEU was developed by the EU courts. The original purpose of the action for failure to act was to constitute whether European Union (EU) institution properly fulfilled its obligations under the EU legislation. However, in the course of case-law, a mere EU institution’s express refusal to fulfill its duties became sufficient to constitute that the EU institution acted and therefore action for failure to act became devoid of purpose. This article analyzes whether the action for failure to act has lost its purpose and become an ineffective legal remedy in the system of judicial review in the EU. Additionally, the action for failure to act is compared to similar national actions.


Author(s):  
Ivan Yakovyuk ◽  
Suzanna Asiryan ◽  
Anastasiya Lazurenko

Problem setting. On October 7, 2021, the Constitutional Tribunal of the Republic of Poland ruled in favor of Polish law over European Union law, which in the long run may violate the principles according to which the Union operates and the rights enjoyed by citizens of the state. Such a precedent can further serve as a basis for identical decisions of the bodies of constitutional jurisdiction of those states that have problems in fulfilling their obligations in the European community. Analysis of recent researches and publications. The problems of the functioning of the bodies of the European Union, the implementation of their decisions and the general status in EU law are widely studied in national science. In particular, many scholars have studied the legal nature of the EU, including: TM Anakina, VI Muravyov, NM Ushakov, A. Ya. Kapustina, NA Korolyova, Yu. Yumashev, BN Topornin, OYa Tragniuk, SS Seliverstov, IV Yakovyuk and others. Target of research is to establish the foundations of EU law in the functioning of Union bodies, especially the Court, as well as to determine the hierarchy of national law and EU law. Article’s main body. Over the years, the Court has, within its jurisdiction, issued a large number of judgments which have become the source of the Union’s Constituent Treaties and of EU law in general. Over the last two decades, the powers of the Court of Justice have changed significantly. In particular, this is due to the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, which amended the EU’s founding treaties on the powers of the Court, then the reform of the European Court took place in 2015-2016, which concerned a change in the organizational structure of the Court. Despite the generally well-established case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the unification of the observance by the Member States of the basic principles of the European Union, the Constitutional Tribunal of the Republic of Poland adopted a decision on 7 October. Conclusions and prospects for the development. Following the decision of the Constitutional Court, the Polish authorities found themselves in a situation that significantly complicated its internal and external situation. The way out of which requires answers to fundamental questions about the legal nature of the EU. Undoubtedly, this is an issue not only between Poland and the EU, but also between other member states.


2006 ◽  
Vol 51 (168) ◽  
pp. 49-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Besim Culahovic

The European Union (EU) trade policy towards Western Balkan's countries (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro and the Republic of Macedonia) is one of the important tools of EU's integration strategy. The exports from the Western Balkan?s countries to the European Union(15) are preferred within special autonomous trade measures for the Western Balkan?s countries which were introduced by the EU in September 2000 (the 2000TM). The 2000TM are a far-ranging set of preferences which provide the Western Balkan?s countries with unparalleled market access to the EU, and hence with the potential both to develop the existing exports and to generate new exports. However, the Western Balkan?s countries exports to the EU are far below the level which could reasonably be expected. In all Western Balkan?s countries a number of supply-side and domestic policy reasons are identified for this under-performance, which suggests that the 2000TM are likely in part to rectify the situation. The economic regeneration of the Western Balkan?s countries will depend on the success of internal economic reform and on the adoption of economic and trade policies which specifically identify and address some serious supply-side constraints.


Author(s):  
Serhii Horopakha

On 1st July 2013, the Republic of Croatia officially became the 28th member of the European Union. This event marked the fulfillment of a foreign policy goal, along with joining NATO in 2009, as a major step forward in the country’s long-term consolidation process. The article therefore analyzes the key events of the Croatia – EU relations in 2007-2008, which moved this Balkan country closer to implementing its Euro-integration course. Particular attention is paid to the peculiarities of the pre-accession negotiations with the European Union, as well as to internal and foreign policy factors that had a direct impact on the Euro-integration dialogue between Croatia and the European Union. In this context, emphasis is placed on problem issues that slowed down the dynamics of the negotiation process to a certain extent, in particular the unilateral application by Croatia of the Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone, and measures taken by the Croatian authorities to settle them. Significant achievements of Croatia in the negotiation process with the European Union are highlighted, in particular, progress of the country in meeting the European Union criteria as well as a date determination the of pre-accession negotiations completion as an important political sign of the European Union readiness to accept a new member in future.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-183
Author(s):  
Nevin Alija

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.


Author(s):  
Halyna Melnychuk

This article presents important steps and achievements accomplished by the Republic of Moldova towards integration, by analysing its collaboration with the European Union.  The development of relations with the EU is the priority goal that Moldova strives for, which means not only economic, but also political and cultural integration.  The first steps of the Republic of Moldova towards the EU were encouraging.  After years of isolation, this process was difficult and required a lot of efforts.  This is due to many reasons, the most important of which are Russia's political and economic pressure, theunresolved issue in Transnistria, the ideological and geopolitical schisms of the population, some of which see their future with Russia, and the other part with Europe.  Despite the existing problems, cooperation with the EU has yielded tangible results: the EU-Moldova Association Agreement has been signed, the visa regime has been abolished and financial support for the socioeconomic and public sectors is provided.  Moldova, for its part, is making great efforts to form a single political, economic and cultural educational space with the EU, which supports its efforts in the process of European integration.  Its speed and success largely depend on the country itself, its economic and political development.  A strong statepolicymaking aimed at strengthening reforms and stimulating the transition to a market economy in accordance with the international principles is inherent in the future development of Moldova. Keywords: Republic of Moldova, European Union,European Integration, foreign policy, Transniestrian conflict


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