Towards progressive regulatory approaches for agricultural applications of animal biotechnology

Traditional breeding techniques, applied incrementally over thousands of years, have yielded huge benefits in the characteristics of agricultural animals. This is a result of significant, measurable changes to the genomes of those animal species and breeds. Genome editing techniques may now be applied to achieve targeted DNA sequence alterations, with the potential to affect traits of interest to production of agricultural animals in just one generation. New opportunities arise to improve characteristics difficult to achieve or not amenable to traditional breeding, including disease resistance, and traits that can improve animal welfare, reduce environmental impact, or mitigate impacts of climate change. Countries and supranational institutions are in the process of defining regulatory approaches for genome edited animals and can benefit from sharing approaches and experiences to institute progressive policies in which regulatory oversight is scaled to the particular level of risk involved. To facilitate information sharing and discussion on animal biotechnology, an international community of researchers, developers, breeders, regulators, and communicators recently held a series of seven virtual workshop sessions on applications of biotechnology for animal agriculture, food and environmental safety assessment, regulatory approaches, and market and consumer acceptance. In this report, we summarize the topics presented in the workshop sessions, as well as discussions coming out of the breakout sessions. This is framed within the context of past and recent scientific and regulatory developments. This is a pivotal moment for determination of regulatory approaches and establishment of trust across the innovation through-chain, from researchers, developers, regulators, breeders, farmers through to consumers.

Religion and Law in the European Union

All three major European supranational institutions—the European Union (EU), the Council of Europe (CoE), and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)—acknowledge the importance of religion within European history and culture and give special recognition to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. As has been argued elsewhere, the attitude of both the EU and the CoE to ‘religion’ is characterized by seven principles—the value of religion and of non-religion; subsidiarity; religious freedom; religious equality and non-discrimination; the autonomy of religious associations; cooperation with religion; and the special protection of religion by means of privileges and exemptions—principles that may be induced from their laws and other regulatory instruments. In doing so, they seek to maintain a balance between Europe’s religious, humanist, and cultural elements. How that balance and recognition operate in practice, however, is far from clear-cut and is highly sensitive to individual circumstances.

The Northern Dimension as a Promising Model of Interaction between the European Union and Great Powers in Times of Aggravation of Disintegration Processes in the European Space

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.

The imf Conditionality in the Age of Post-National Governance

The paper focuses on conditionality in imf programs for member states of monetary unions in light of the decision of the imf’s Executive Board on Program Design in Currency Unions (2018). Despite the growing importance of supranational institutions, the imf lacked until 2018 any explicit framework for imposing conditions on currency union bodies in cases where a member state of such a union requested an imf program. The aim of this paper is to assess the newly adopted imf approach to conditionality for currency union institutions based on the concept of “policy assurances” and to answer the question of whether the imf had authority to impose conditions on supranational institutions prior to the 2018 Board decision and whether the imf should in principle have such authority.

МИХАЙЛО САВЧИН (РЕД.) Конституційний та міжнародний правовий механізм передачі частини суверенних повноважень держави наднаціональним інститутам

The monography provides an analysis of the importance and complexity of state sovereignty’s nature changing and its implementation in the process of transferring authority to supranational institutions. It deals with the complex description of the Ukraine’s participation in supranational organizations, the problems of transfer mechanisms, evolution of the national legislation. In this context the authors justify the development of practical procedures to legitimize the process of authority transfer in order to guarantee the all participants’ balance of interests and strengthen their political stability. This work integrates the unique classification and research materials. By the reflection of this type the authors lay the base for continuing further researches of the integrational tendencies of post-Soviet states and the degree of their sovereign powers’ transfer to supranational institutions.

Prospects for the formation and development of the EAEU educational services market

In the theoretical block of the article, the directions of application by countries of specific features of one country in the educational space of another are viewed through the prism of an agreed educational policy, complementarity of national educational systems, synchronization of actions achieved on the basis of regulation by supranational institutions. The article adapted foreign experience, including new trends in the field of education: decentralization and democratization of management, modification of educational programs and standards, the creation of non-state educational institutions, updating of the regulatory framework and the financial and economic mechanism in the field of education. Cooperation between the EAEU member states in the field of education was considered as a mechanism for the most effective development and solution of global problems. International academic mobility is analysed as one of the most important co-sponsoring processes for the internationalization of higher education and the integration of universities into the world educational space. The practical block is devoted to the problems of the formation and evolution of the educational services market in the conditions of innovative development of Russia and Belarus as members of the Eurasian Economic Union. The peculiarities of integration of education systems of Russia and Belarus in the market of educational services of the EAEU are considered. Factors leading to integration of member countries at the level of individual educational institutions are being investigated. Trends of gradual development of national educational systems of their state framework and emergence of foundations of unified educational space of the Eurasian Economic Union are analyzed. Trends are highlighted that hinder the development of the export of educational services of the Eurasian Economic Union.

Prospects for Development of the Eurasian Economic Union at the Modern Stage of Integration

This article analyzes the current state of affairs of the Eurasian Economic Union.The EAEU is viewed as a form of integration determined by time and conditions, aimed at strengthening the regional development of the participating countries. The relevance of the article is due to the fact that in the modern world, regional integration of neighbors in economic, political and other aspects is necessary to maintain a high level of competitiveness in the international arena. The article examines the developing and already formed supranational institutions of the union.The article also examines the economic aspect that is the dynamics of changes in GDP and the growth rate of investments in fixed assets of the EAEU member states. Here are given assessments in the field of changes in these indicators.In the context of the prospects for the development of the EAEU,several options and types of regional integration were proposed. Or rather, the prospects for the development of the EAEU were outlined through strengthening the existing form of integration and through expanding integration by involving other countries of the Eurasian space in this process. The conclusion made through the analysis obtained in assessing the dynamics of economic indicators confirmed the need to deepen the further integration of the EAEU. In the process of analyzing, the following research methods were used: systems approach, structured approach, integration approach, normative approach.

Emergency Politics After Globalization

Exceptional times call for exceptional measures—this formula is all too familiar in the domestic setting. Governments have often played loose with their state's constitution in the name of warding off an urgent threat. But after decades of increasing interconnectedness and emerging transnational governance, today one sees new forms of emergency politics that are cross-border in range. From the European Union to the World Health Organization, from supranational institutions to state governments acting in concert, the logic of emergency is embraced in international contexts, with Covid-19 the latest occasion. This Forum offers an entry-point into this emerging phenomenon. Taking as its point of departure two recent books, it examines the origins, forms, effects and normative stakes of emergency politics beyond the state. Among the matters discussed are the concept of emergency politics, the historical context of its contemporary forms, the patterns of decision-making associated with it, the implications for the legitimacy of transnational institutions, and the constitutional and political ways in which it might be contained. Transnational emergency politics seems likely to remain a central feature of the coming years, and our aim is to further its study in international relations.

The management of the Eurozone in crisis times: Actors, institutions and the case of bailout packages

The adjustment to the financial crisis was particularly brutal for Eurozone countries targeted by private bondholders. Financial assistance through the newly created Eurozone governance system was conditional on the implementation of austerity measures and the introduction of structural reforms in industrial relations (decentralization of collective bargaining and liberalization of employment protection). Our analysis focuses on the formation process and the structural features of Eurozone supranational institutions. Building from the insights of actor-centred institutionalism, we illustrate the importance of coalitions among some, but not all, important actors based on the overlapping of their non-monolithic preferences in the process of institutional innovation. The structural features of Eurozone institutions curtailed member states’ ability to effectively resist the imposition of internal devaluation policies. A contested outcome, these institutional features were secured by a specific coalition of important actors – most notably, the German government and the European Central Bank – based on their overlapping interests around internal devaluation policies.