scholarly journals Towards Circular Economy—A Comparative Analysis of the Countries of the European Union

Resources ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Ewa Mazur-Wierzbicka

There are many studies which implement and assess existing measurement manners and document the progress of entities towards the circular economy (CE) at various levels, or present or propose new possibilities of measurement. The majority of them refer to the micro level. The aim of this paper is to conduct a multidimensional comparative analysis of the implementation of circular economy by EU countries. After an in-depth critical analysis of the literature, CE indicators which were proposed by the European Commission were adopted as a basis. Owing to the research population-Member States of the European Union (EU-28), focusing on the said indicators was declared reasonable in all aspects. The classification of EU countries according to the level of their advancement in the concept of CE was adopted as a main research task. In order to do so, a relevant index of development of circular economy was created (IDCE). This will allow us, inter alia, to trace changes in the spatial differentiation of advancement of the EU countries in implementing CE over the years, to identify CE implementation leaders as well as countries particularly delayed in this regard. The comparative analysis was conducted by means of statistical methods. On the basis of the analyses, it was concluded that among all EU countries, those of the old EU are the most advanced in terms of CE. The analysis confirmed significant rising trends for IDCE only in the case of Belgium and The Netherlands.

2020 ◽  
pp. 92-97
Author(s):  
A. V. Kuznetsov

The article examines the norms of international law and the legislation of the EU countries. The list of main provisions of constitutional and legal restrictions in the European Union countries is presented. The application of the norms is described Human rights conventions. The principle of implementing legal acts in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is considered. A comparative analysis of legal restrictive measures in the States of the European Union is carried out.


Mathematics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 646
Author(s):  
Álvaro Labella ◽  
Juan Carlos Rodríguez-Cohard ◽  
José Domingo Sánchez-Martínez ◽  
Luis Martínez

Nowadays, sustainability is an omnipresent concept in our society, which encompasses several challenges related to poverty, inequality, climate change and so on. The United Nations adopted the Agenda 2030, a plan of action formed of universal Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) and targets, which countries have to face in order to shift the world toward a sustainable future. One of the most relevant SDGs since the onset of the financial crisis in 2007 has been the so-called reduced inequalities, which consists of dealing with the inequality of opportunities and wealth between and within countries. However, reducing inequalities depends on many heterogeneous aspects, making it difficult to make a proper analysis that evaluates the European Union (EU) countries performance of this goal. In this study, we introduce a novel approach to evaluate the inequalities in EU countries based on a sorting a multi-criteria decision-making method called AHPSort II. This approach allows to obtain a classification of the EU countries according to their achievements in reducing inequalities to subsequently carry out a deep performance analysis with the aim of drawing conclusions as to the evolution of inequality in them along the years. The results are consistent with the main international organizations’ reports and academic literature, as shown in the Discussion Section.


2021 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 01012
Author(s):  
Konstantin G. Gomonov

This article reveals the importance of implementing eco-innovation for the circular economy and sustainable development. The author provides different approaches to measuring the level of development of eco-innovation in the countries of the European Union. The two main indices for measuring eco-innovation are revealed in more detail. Described the pillars of each of the indices. Clustering of EU countries was carried out using the k-means method and groups of countries were identified by the level of implementation of eco-innovation. The clear leaders are Denmark, Sweden. Bulgaria, Cyprus, Poland are catching-up countries.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 4407
Author(s):  
Tomasz Rokicki ◽  
Aleksandra Perkowska ◽  
Bogdan Klepacki ◽  
Hubert Szczepaniuk ◽  
Edyta Karolina Szczepaniuk ◽  
...  

The main purpose of the article was to identify and present the current situation and changes in higher education in the field of electricity and energy studies in the European Union countries. The specific objectives include determining the degree of concentration of education in the fields of electricity and energy in the EU countries, showing the directions of their changes, types of dominant education in this field, establishing the correlation between education in the fields of electricity and energy and the parameters assessing the achievement of circular economy assumptions in the energy sector. All Member States of the European Union were deliberately selected for research. The research period covered the years 2013–2018. The source of the materials is a literature review on the subject and Eurostat data. For the analysis and presentation of materials, methods such as descriptive, tabular, graphical, dynamics indicators with a constant basis, Gini concentration coefficient, concentration analysis using the Lorenz curve, coefficient of variation, Pearson’s linear correlation coefficient were used. A high concentration of education in the fields of electricity and energy was found in several EU countries, the largest in countries with the highest energy consumption, i.e., in France and Poland. Changes in the level of concentration practically did not take place, only in the case of master’s studies, there was an increase in concentration. However, the EU countries did not differ significantly in terms of the structure of the number of students studying electricity and energy.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3792
Author(s):  
Iwona Bąk ◽  
Anna Barwińska-Małajowicz ◽  
Grażyna Wolska ◽  
Paweł Walawender ◽  
Paweł Hydzik

Three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions come from burning fossil fuels for energy. To confront climate change, the world must move away from fossil fuels and decarbonise its energy systems. In the light of European Union documents, decarbonisation signifies the elimination of CO2 emissions on account of their harmfulness to the environment. The European Union is planning that by 2030, these emissions will be 40% lower in comparison to 1990. A fundamental query arises here: do the achievements of EU countries give cause for optimism in this regard? The aim of the study is an attempt to determine the tendency of changes concerning energy decarbonisation as well as to distinguish typological groups of bodies (EU countries) with similar dynamics in the researched phenomenon. Trend functions and the distance matrices of the growth rate of the researched phenomenon were used for the dynamic classification. The conducted research confirmed that EU countries indicate spatial differentiation in terms of CO2 emissions. It is related to the general socio-economic development of countries, their level of industrialisation, the quality of their natural environment, their degree of urbanisation, etc. The most favourable situation, in terms of the analysed phenomenon, i.e., the largest average decrease in CO2 per capita in the analysed period, was characteristic of Ireland, Greece, and Cyprus. On the other hand, an adverse situation relating to an increase in the indicator occurred in five EU countries, specifically in Luxembourg and Lithuania.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 487-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Cheba ◽  
Katarzyna Szopik-Depczyńska

Research background: The basic question we ask is whether is it possible to talk in today’s globalizing world about the uniform of the competitiveness of the economies? Posing such questions is particularly important in the case of political and economic structures such as the European Union. The competitiveness of the economies is now one of the most frequently discussed topics. In this work, due to the context of the conducted research (international comparisons of the EU countries’ economies) the competitiveness of international economies will be considered in terms of international competitive capacity. In addition to the problems associated with defining this concept, there are also important dilemmas concerned with the measurement of the competitiveness. In the performed comparative analyses of European economies the research results presented within reports of „Global Competitiveness Index” will be used. Purpose of the article: The main purpose of the paper is to conduct a multidimensional comparative analysis of the competitive capacity of the European Union countries and geo-graphical regions of Europe. Methods: In the paper, to study the spatial differentiation of the EU countries and geograph-ical regions of Europe in the context of their competitive capacity, the taxonomic measure of development based on median vector Weber was used. Findings & Value added: As a result, the classification and the typological groups of EU countries and geographical regions of Europe calculated on the basis of the features describing their competitive capacity arises. The value added of these research is the analysis of competitive capacity conducted not only for EU countries, but also for geographical regions of Europe. In the paper, the verification of criteria using by World Economic Forum to assess the competitive capacity of EU economies was also conducted. In this area of the research, because of high level of correlation, many features from initial database were deleted.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 170-181
Author(s):  
Elena B. Bedrina ◽  
Elena V. Lazareva

Currently, the Russian Federation is experiencing a transformation of migration flows from temporary to permanent. The largest share of migrants comes from the countries of Central Asia, where the demographic and economic situation stimulates a long-term increase in flows of labour migrants. In these conditions, it is necessary to examine issues of adaptation and integration of migrants. We review scientific literature on the adaptation practises of labour migrants. We applied the method of comparative analysis due to the importance the accumulated experience of European countries, which chose a policy of active integration. We analysed scientific publicactions, which are indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, E-library databases, and focused on the factors and models of adaptation of labour migrants from Central Asia in Russia and the countries of the European Union (EU). The study revealed the growing interest in the research topic, increased publication activity and joint research by representatives of different countries. In most cases, researchers note the role of social capital in the adaptation of migrants, the length of the acculturation process of migrants and the importance of participation of the host community in the process. We proposed to consider the experience of bilateral adaptation in the EU countries. As the flow of migrants to the EU countries from Central Asia increases, the interest in this topic on the part of Western researchers will grow. The research results can be used to improve efficiency in the research of migration processes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewa Mazur-Wierzbicka

Abstract Background Circular economy (CE) is a development priority of the European Union and it is part of the EU industrial strategy. The transition to a more circular economy is an essential contribution to the EU’s efforts to develop a sustainable, low carbon, resource-efficient and competitive economy. The author focuses her CE-related reflections and research in this paper on the macro-level (research subjects: 28 EU countries), the level which is least represented in scholarly publications addressing CE (as follows from the analysis of literature in the Scopus database). This study aims to fill this gap partially. The aim of this paper is to identify and group the EU-28 countries according to their advancement towards circular economy. CE indicators proposed by the European Commission were used for the analysis. Given the research subjects and after an analysis of the literature they were concluded to be the most adequate. The theoretical part was based on an analysis of the literature, whereas the empirical work used the principal components analysis, hierarchical and k-means clustering and a grade correspondence-cluster analysis. Results On the basis of the research, the existence of a “two-speed Europe” was identified in terms of EU countries’ advancement towards CE. Leading countries, those most advanced in pursuing operation according to CE principles, include Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The second pole accommodates EU countries in which transformation towards CE is happening at the slowest pace. This group includes mainly countries of the Central and Eastern Europe and the countries of the south of Europe. Conclusions Differentiated levels of advancement of individual countries towards CE result inter alia from the adoption by some of the latter of different development strategies for their economies’ transitioning to circular economy (according to recommendations of EU ministers at the Environment Council in June 2016) and also from the differences occurring in social and economic development (it is mostly noticeable between the EU-15 and the EU-13 countries). Unfortunately, as can be concluded from the effects obtained so far, only a few of the adopted development strategies may be considered effective in meeting the challenges of circular economy according to the European Union’s standards.


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