Services of General Interest (EU) as Indicators of Public Functions in the Sense of Public Administrative Law

The article concerns the EU concept of 'Services of General Interest' (SGIs) which, due to their characteristics, are given special status in EU law. It connects these characteristics with public services that are carried out by private entities under service contracts, as well as the question of applicability of general principles of public administrative law to the relations between the providers and users of such services. The objective is to examine whether the definitions and examples of SGIs can help identify public functions in the sense of Icelandic administrative law. It examines whether they provide guidelines as to how services, carried out by private entities under service contracts with public authorities, may be singled out and so help identify public functions in the sense of Icelandic administrative law.

PRAVOSUĐE (KRIVIČNO) KAO VID JAVNE SLUŽBE

The author gives an overview of the judicial system through the prism of the French legal theory of public services, according to which the state is a set of public services, namely legislative, administrative and judicial public services. The paper contains a theoretical analysis of the notion of state power and then the notion of public service, services of general interest and French legal theory. Within the concept of public service, the author gives an overview of the history of the emergence of public services. Furthermore, the notion of the judicial system is defined as a type of judicial power and as a type of judicial public service on the other hand for the purpose of their mutual comparison and more detailed analysis. Emphasis is also placed on criminal justice as a part of the judiciary that also provides services of general interest. The aim of the paper is to point out that the judiciary is not only a power, a syntagm that most often appears in the legal literature and practice, but that it also contains elements of public service and represents a kind of "citizen service".

The Current Challenges and Future Alternatives of Supplying Remote Areas with Basic Goods: The Case Study of Idrijsko-Cerkljansko Region, Slovenia

The accessibility of services of general interest (shops, post offices, banks etc.) in rural hinterlands is decreasing and villages that once supplied areas with services are losing their functions in the central settlements’ network. According to the current analytical framework the key challenges of supply are people’s dependence on car transportation, lack of village shops and other basic services, and e-services replacing location-based services. This paper examines the current dynamics of the supply of basic goods in the Idrijsko-Cerkljansko region of Slovenia. Using mixed methods approach, the paper covers a historical overview of service provision by a field survey and historical analysis, as well as an analysis of demand and supply, done via an online questionnaire. The aim of the paper is to combine the findings into a proposal for an optimized alternative supply network integrating good practices such as linking providers, promoting local products and reopening of village shops.

Der apollinisch-dionysische Geist der Sozialpolitik und der Gemeinwirtschaft

In this book, the historical dynamics of social policy, common welfare economics and the politics of social services of general interest, justified by personalist ethics, are understood as endogenous, dialectical mechanisms of the polarity between the principles of Apollonian order and Dionysian transgression; as a logical form of the philosophy of history on the ontological pathway to the concrete utopia of the truth of socially caring communities comprised of free people living according to their belief in reciprocal responsibility; and as a system of solidarity based on love.

Comparison of Selected Subjects of the Non-profit Sector in the Conditions of the Slovak Republic

Non-profit organizations are a specific type of entities in the national economy that significantly helps to improve the living standards of the country’s population. The article focuses on the financial performance of entities in the non-profit sector of the Slovak Republic depending on the financial instrument of tax allocation, taking into account the time factor during which the entities operate in the non-profit sector. The aim of the article is to analyse the financial performance of non-profit organizations providing services of general interest and foundations with the subsequent specification of the results of the issue. We work with the hypothesis that in terms of financial performance, foundations will perform better compared to non-profit organizations. Segmentation, comparison and descriptive methods were used in the solved issue. Only in one of the analysed groups did we come to the result that the non-profit organization was able to obtain more funds than the foundation through the tax allocation tool in 2019. In the case of the other groups analysed, foundations were more financially efficient, whose performance significantly exceeded that of non-profit organizations. In terms of market life, based on the analysis, the most efficient organizations were organizations with a market life of 1-5 years and with a longer market life, their financial performance decreased. In the case of foundations, we found that the highest performance is achieved by foundations with a market existence of 15 - 20 years. We can therefore state that the established hypothesis was only partially confirmed, although in most cases foundations were more financially efficient.

Social entrepreneurship in rural areas as illustrated by social cooperatives in Poland’s Masovian Voivodeship

This paper aims to present the social cooperative movement in Poland’s rural areas as illustrated by social cooperatives operating in rural communes of the Masovian Voivodeship. Of the 32 units operating at least since 2014, only 10 have remained on the market. Based on the National Court Register data, the study examined activity profiles, employment levels, activity periods, founding entities and financial situations by using the method of indicators of dynamics and return on sales (ROS). Cooperatives were selected with regard to the legal nature of their founders in order to indicate any differences. The cooperatives established by legal persons had a stable financial situation in the case of 80% of the analysed entities. All of them recorded an increase in revenues in comparison to the year before and 80% of them reported a profit and a positive ROS. 80% of the entities established by natural persons generated a loss from conducted activities and a negative ROS in the last three years of conducted activities. The research results showed that the greatest chances for development were found in cooperatives that were established by legal persons and which rendered services of general interest.

MODELING CRITERIA FOR SERVICES OF GENERAL INTEREST ORGANIZED BY TRAIN OPERATORS

The definition and conclusion of the Public service obligation contract for rail (PSO contract) is between the national passenger railway carrier and the competent transport Ministry. The PSO contract represents an optimal mode of transport arrangement as a unified and unique traffic model with traffic criteria such as timetable, type of vehicle, quality requirements, user behaviour and expected revenues. To conclude a PSO contract, it is necessary to provide a methodology for modelling criteria for transport services of general interest respectively for making the role of a train operator sustainable and satisfying for public needs. AHP method was used for criteria valuation among twenty experts. Encouraging rail passengers transport based on users’ requirements leads to a different way of conducting business operations for the carrier. Research results based on experts’ opinions shows that most important sub-criteria for providing quality transport service is a state of infrastructure while evaluating timetable parameters. To keep the service on a satisfactory level, experts consider that diesel train costs and maintenance costs needs to be reduced. Experts also concluded that quality requirements sub-criteria such as availability and safety should be provided before and during the journey. Offering numerous and useful amenities at stations such as bars, kiosks and ticket offices will help to retain service users. Last and the most important expert’s opinion conclusion is that public passenger transport is depending on state funds and budget. The current practice of awarding PSO contracts is based solely on the scoring of tenders received through published tenders and therefore requires a model that will include all relevant parameters and their corresponding sub-criteria.

An extension of exemptions: systemic shifts in European Union law and policies

Rules on services of general interest allow exceptions to the internal market law of the European Union. Do these exceptions really remain within the limits of free competition? Nowadays, this question seems not to be independent from the risk of direct political considerations influencing the market of public services. This tendency may result in national legislative or administrative measures that may run counter to the spirit of the original objectives of European Union integration. European Union substantive and procedural law does not seem to raise unavoidable obstacles to such efforts. In the context of the European Union regulatory framework for services of general interest, our research focuses on the results of an analysis of a database of European Union court cases that highlights the challenges and threats of recent national instruments of public sector organization to the operation of the European Union internal market and competition rules.