scholarly journals The Performance of European Union Countries in Decoupling Socio-Economic Progress from Environmental Impacts

Dela ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 105-123
Author(s):  
Katja Vintar Mally

Over the last few decades, the European Union has intensified its commitments to decouple socio-economic progress from resource use and environmental impacts. This article examines the performance of countries in implementing selected aspects of these commitments in the period 1990–2016. To this end, it focuses on the relationships between progress in human development, in particular in raising people’s incomes, and pressures on natural resources and ecosystem services, as incorporated in the concept of ecological footprint. The results show a certain measure of success in decoupling the two among the countries of the European Union, but the same cannot be said of the world’s countries more generally.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6003
Author(s):  
Manuel Carlos Nogueira ◽  
Mara Madaleno

Every year, news about the publication of rankings and scores of important international indexes are highlighted, with some of the most prestigious being the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), the Human Development Index (HDI), the Ease of Doing Business (EDB), the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and the Global Entrepreneurship (GEI). A country’s progression in these indices is associated with economic growth, especially since several empirical studies have found evidence to reinforce these beliefs, the indices having been built based on the scientific literature on economic growth. Building a database on these indices for European Union countries between 2007 and 2017 and using panel data methodologies and then 2SLS (Two-Stage Least Squares) to solve the problem of endogeneity, we verify empirically through panel data estimates, what is the relationship between the mentioned indices and the European Union countries’ economic growth for the period. However, as the European Union is made up of diverse countries with different economic and social realities, we divided the countries into six clusters and made an individual interpretation for each one. We found that human development and competitiveness play an important role in economic growth, and entrepreneurship also impacts this growth. Regarding income distribution, applying the Gini index, we found that only human development mitigates inequalities.


Author(s):  
Aneta Masternak-Janus

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to measure and evaluate the efficiency of materials management in the European Union countries (EU-28) during the period of 2008–2017. Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted using the method of data envelopment analysis (DEA) and variables applied to determine the resource productivity indicator. Therefore, the components of domestic material consumption constituted inputs in the DEA method, while gross domestic product (GDP) was applied as an output. Findings The results of the analysis showed that the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Latvia and the UK are the efficiency leaders among all the member states of the European Union. One of the least efficient countries is Poland, which uses too much natural resources in the process of generating goods and services. However, this consumption is growing at a slower rate than the value of GDP, which is beneficial from the point of view of sustainable development. Poland, like other inefficient countries, should reduce its consumption of natural resources in line with the best international practices. Practical implications The obtained research results can be a valuable source of information for decision-makers, and contribute to the adoption of more effective policies in order to improve the relationship between materials consumption and economic growth. Originality/value The application of the DEA method for calculating the efficiency of materials management represents a new approach, and it is the first attempt of its kind in the European Union countries.


2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdaléna Drastichová

Abstract Recent production and consumption activities impose a heavy burden on the Earth's current and future capacity. Therefore, it is inevitable to deal with the impacts of the economic activities on the natural resources which determine our future well-being and the survival by itself. The indicators reflecting impacts of regions and countries on the available resources are used in this Paper to operationalize the sustainable development concept. The Ecological Footprint, Total Biocapacity and their components are investigated in the European Union (EU) and its countries and the EU region is compared with the other regions of the world. The additional three developed countries – Norway, Switzerland and the United States (US), were included in the sample together with the EU countries to enable extended comparisons. The aim of the Paper is to evaluate sustainability in the EU and its countries by means of the Ecological Footprint and the available biocapacity and to detect the relations between the countries’ EF and their standard of living and human development level. Concerning the regions, the highest Ecological Footprint per capita is typical of North America followed by the EU region. The Northern countries show largest biocapacities and are thus the largest resource creditors. The worst results in the Ecological Footprint – biocapacity relations analysis are typical of Cyprus, Belgium, Netherlands and Italy. The cross-section regression models confirmed that, at least, in the sample of the developed countries the positive relations between the Ecological Footprint on the one hand and the standard of living / state of the human development on the other hand exist.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Latife Sinem Sarul ◽  
Özge Eren

Gender Inequality Index is a major indicator presenting level of development of the countries as Human Development Index, which is calculated regularly every year by UN. In this study, an alternative calculation has been proposed for measuring gender inequality index which is an important barrier for the human development. Each indicator in the index integrated as MAUT- AHP and also AHP-TOPSIS and these methods carried out again for the alternative ranking member and candidate countries of the European Union. The main objective here is to represent that the indicators form gender inequality index can be reclassified with different weights for each indicator.


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.


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