Distributing the European structural and investment funds from a conflicting claims approach

In order to support economic development across all European Union regions, €351.8 billion –almost a third of the total EU budget– has been set aside for the Cohesion Policy during the 2014–2020 period. The distribution of this budget is made through five main structural and investment funds, after long and difficult negotiations among the EU member states. This paper analyzes the problem of allocating the limited resources of the European Regional Development Fund as a conflicting claims problem. Specifically, we attempt to show how the conflicting claims approach fits this actual problem, and we propose alternative ways of distributing the budget via (i) claims solutions or (ii) the imposition of bounds (guarantees) to each of the regions. By applying this approach we also show that there is a claims solution that performs better than the others by reducing inequality and promoting convergence to a greater degree. It is clear that political bargaining will always be part of the allocation process. However, having an intuitive initial proposal may help politicians to find the best agreement. To that effect, we propose the use of a claims solution as a way to find an initial proposal for future policy changes concerning the allocations of the EU structural funds.

The Influence of Public Support for Innovations on the Economic Performance of Enterprises

The paper aims to assess how public support for innovation activities influences the economic performance of Czech companies. In the framework of the research, attention was paid to more than 600 Czech companies that received support to start their innovation activities. The analysis was performed on the case of the Innovation Program, which was co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund. The Innovation Program is the largest Czech program for innovation support and mainly supports the launching of technological innovations in practice. The detailed analysis included 214 defined enterprises, for which all necessary information was available. The research analyzed the turnover of companies before obtaining support and after the implementation of the project. The research results show how the grant affects different size categories of enterprises and how the effect of the aid varies across sectors of the national economy. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

State of progress of industry 4.0 in the maquiladora: effects on employment in Mexicali, Mexico

The maquiladora industry in Mexico especially in the north of the country represents an important source of employment and social security, therefore, this article addresses the question of what would happen if new technologies displaced workforce in this economical sector? The objective of this research is to determine the maturity level of Industry 4.0 in the electronic maquiladora of Mexicali, in Baja California and its possible repercussions on the employment for operators and engineers. To understand and know the nature of this phenomenon, a case study was carried out on five of the most important companies in the region, the methodology used was quantitative and qualitative. Three surveys were designed based on the research of the Sectorial Model Reference Industry 4.0 made by the Valencian Institute of Business Competitiveness (IVACE) and the European Regional Development Fund and were applied to engineers in the department of investigation and development, operators, and to a Human Resources worker. In this regard was designed an interview that was applied to a key expert that gave us the point of view about the actual status of the developing of the industry 4.0 in the city of Mexicali. The overall conclusion is that the state of advancement of Industry 4.0 in the electronic maquiladora in Mexicali has an intermediate digital maturity (level 2-3), that is, in many cases the technology is known and used, but only by specific processes. Regarding the digital skills of engineers, it was found that they are highly trained to face the challenges of the new digital era, while the operator positions report a level of digital competence between low and medium, which places this profile of worker in a vulnerable situation for keep their position.

Consumption trends of milk and dairy products in Slovakia and its comparison with other V4 countries

Milk consumption is a very important part of consumers’ daily diet due to its positive health effect. The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the market of milk and dairy products. The paper analyzes the development of milk consumption in V4 countries, which was described by using regression functions. The data were obtained from the statistical offices of chosen countries. Based on the achieved results it was found that in Slovakia and Hungary milk consumption is very low, but in the Czech Republic and Poland consumption is recorded in the range of recommended doses and is sufficient. Looking to the future, based on the described trend of consumption, it is possible to assume that the situation in the Slovak Republic will be accompanied by unfavorable developments and in comparison with other V4 countries, Slovakia will consume the least milk and dairy products per capita. Moreover, a questionnaire survey orientated on the level of milk consumption and consumer behavior was conducted on the sample of 518 respondents. Average Slovak consumers consume daily 1 glass of milk, 20 g of cheese, 70 g of curds, and 250 g of sour-milk or other dairy product. Depending on the level of consumption, 3 consumer segments were defined for which different consumer behavior was identified, especially in the issue of factor assessment. In general, however, it is concluded that the quality and price of milk and dairy products are crucial for consumers to make their choice. AcknowledgmentThis paper is supported by the Operational Program Integrated Infrastructure within the project: Demand-driven research for the sustainable and innovative food, Drive4SIFood 313011V336, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.

The European Economic Community's regional policy during the ‘age of disorder'. From ‘harmonious development' to market-oriented policies (1972-1987)

This article examines the transformation of the European Economic Community's (EEC) regional policy paradigms from the early 1970s, when negotiations for the creation of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) began, until the approval of the Single European Act. The article identifies this period as the beginning of a deep transition from demand-side "interventionist" and "neo-mercantilist" models — typical of certain regional policies used up to that time by member states (primarily by Italy) — towards more openly neoliberal models. My analysis of the harsh conflicts within the Regional Policy Committee (the national technocracies' representative body in charge of managing the ERDF) and between the committee and the European Commission demonstrate that this outcome was not at all taken for granted. It was determined, above all, by the overload of objectives of EEC regional policy in a context of scarce resources, and by the progressive lack of trust in the role of public intervention.

Analiza ryzyka a skuteczność realizacji gazowniczych projektów inwestycyjnych finansowanych przy udziale funduszy UE

Managing a gas investment project is a very complicated process, both from the technical and organizational side. The technical and technological preparation and implementation of such a project is the domain of engineers who use the available methods, tools and materials as well as technology and are able to prepare and carry out the investment process. This aspect should be complemented by the entire organization and management of the process, i.e. organizing and directing each of the listed elements so that the project is carried out in accordance with the assumed schedule and there are no collisions of tasks, bottlenecks or unnecessary downtime. To this end, appropriate planning is needed, and within it, a risk analysis of the investment project implementation. The aim of the article is to demonstrate the significance of the ex-ante analysis of all premises for the occurrence of risk and the risk itself in the activities of a company implementing a project with the participation of European Union (EU) funds for the success of such an investment. The significance is so high, that before starting the investment process itself, it is necessary to anticipate and establish mechanisms preventing the occurrence or eliminating the effects of risk fulfillment at every stage of the process: planning, review, implementation monitoring and evaluation. The very awareness of decision-makers of the existence of various threats over time allows them to make decisions whether or not to undertake investments, even with access to non-refundable EU funding. The analysis was carried out on the basis of investment projects in the gas sector submitted for co-financing from the European Regional Development Fund under the Infrastructure and Environment Programme 2014–2020.

Effect of Novel Alcohol-Free Beer Recipes Enriched With Isomaltulose and a Resistant Dextrin on the Metabolic Postprandial Response in Healthy Subjects

Objectives We investigated the postprandial effects of alcohol-free beers in which carbohydrate composition have been modified, compared to regular alcohol-free beer. Methods Two cross-over studies were conducted. Firstly, 10 healthy volunteers received 25 g of carbohydrates coming from: regular alcohol-free beer (RB), alcohol-free beer with almost completely eliminated maltose and enriched with isomaltulose (2.5 g/100 mL) and a resistant maltodextrin (0.8 g/100 mL) (IMB), alcohol-free beer with the same maltose removal enriched with resistant maltodextrin (2.0 g/100 mL) (MB) and glucose solution. In the second study, 20 healthy volunteers were provided with 50 g of carbohydrates from white bread and water and the same meal plus 14.3 g of carbohydrates coming from: RB, IMB, MB and extra white bread. Blood was sampled after ingestion every 15 min for 2 h. Glucose, insulin, GIP and GLP-1 were determined in all samples. Results Clinical and anthropometric characteristics remained constant in all subjects throughout the studies. Importantly, in the first study, the increase of glucose, insulin and GIP after the consumption of IMB and MB was significantly lower than after RB (P = 0.005, P = 0.012 and P < 0.001, respectively). In the second study, the consumption of white bread with IMB and MB showed significantly less increase in glucose levels than just consuming white bread and white bread with RB (P = 0.002). Conclusions The consumption of an alcohol-free beer with modified carbohydrates composition led to a better postprandial response compared to RB and it could attenuate hyperglycemia after ingestion with white bread. Funding Sources This work was supported by grants from Gobierno de Aragón, B14–7R, Spain, and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness PI15/01,983, PI18/01,777 and CIBERCV. These projects are co-financed by Instituto de Salud Carlos III and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Union “A way to make Europe”. CIBERCV is a project of Instituto de Salud Carlos III.

Resilient Rural Areas and Tourism Development Paths: A Comparison of Case Studies

In the settlement network of Italian small towns (the so-called “borghi”, with a population ceiling lower than 5000 inhabitants), not lacking in discontinuities and patches, a “common thread” is increasingly noticeable, which allows to look optimistically beyond several weaknesses (economy depending on a relatively unprofitable or declining agriculture, social and economic stasis, demographic decline and consequent contraction of public and private services, hydrogeological instability, etc.): we are talking of the firm, pigheaded determination of an increasing number of local communities to become sustainable and responsible realities, get involved, and undertake a process of “hot authentication” of their milieu. Since 2013, such resilient attitude is at the heart of the National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI, Strategia Nazionale per le Aree Interne) aimed at promoting coordinated, multi-scalar projects of self-enhancement; in April 2019, the above innovative form of territorial planning was selected by the European Parliament as a model for the 2021–2027 programming period of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).This paper reviews the original and creative bottom-up enhancement process being implemented in several towns of the “Monti Dauni” sub-region, a pilot marginal area identified by Apulian regional authorities within the SNAI. In these small towns, local players aim at maximizing the opportunities of sustainable, experiential tourism by offering an uncontaminated environment, ancient knowledge, genuine flavours and deep emotions to all visitors who wish to achieve a deeper knowledge of the territorial identity instead of being mere spectators, by adopting an active and engaged attitude.

ADATools for Persistent Scatterer Interferometry based displacement maps analysis: an example in Granada Province (Spain)

<p>The Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) technique is being more and more used at all scale’s applications. Several regional and national Ground Motions Services based on PSI are nowadays active and operational. The European Ground Motion Service project is going to generate a displacement map over the whole Europe once per year. This context makes indispensable tools and methodologies that facilitate the management and analysis of huge amount of data and information. The ADATools are a set of tools that can be considered a first step in this direction, they are simple and fast tools to firstly extract and make a preliminary interpretation of the main detected Active Deformation Areas (ADA). The ADATools includes: i. the ADAFinder, detecting the main ADA and giving information for each polygon as well as a Quality Index (representing the noise of time series of deformation); ii. the LOS2hv, that is used in case we have datasets from both ascending and descending geometries to derive the horizontal (east-west) and vertical components of the movement; and iii. the ADAClassifier, that makes a preliminary classification of the ADA between landslide, subsidence, settlement, and sinkholes, based on available external data (i.e., DEM, geology, inventories, infrastructures). In this presentation, the algorithm, and performances of the ADATools are presented and some results of their application are showed. Specifically, some results over an area of the Granada Province (S Spain), achieved in the framework of the Project RISKCOAST (funded by the IV Interreg Sudoe Programme through the European Regional Development Fund), will be used to illustrate ADATools performance.</p>