The Polish Experience in the Development of Smart Cities

In recent years, Poland has seen an increased migration of people to cities, which translates into significant urban population growth. This, in turn, raises new challenges in the performance of cities’ tasks and responsibilities. Additionally, climate changes and the depletion of natural resources necessitate the modification of existing urban practices. Polish cities seek solutions which would enable social, economic and environmental demands to be reconciled so that urban spaces become friendly for the city’s inhabitants and investors. Some Polish cities have applied the smart city concept to solve their problems. Despite the fact that the concept has been the subject of scientific research for many years, no universal definition of the smart city has been agreed upon. Analyzed assumptions of the smart city concept as well as the Polish experiences in the implementation indicate that the concept is dynamic and changes over time. It should be considered as a perpetual process unrestricted by a specific timeframe. This impedes the formulation of uniform, generally accepted assumptions of the concept since its existence is inscribed in the change related to urban development. This article claims that this would be a beneficial approach for formulating the general characteristics of the smart city that could be applicable to any city, and that could be employed regardless of the present challenges cities may face.

Enhanced Digitalisation and Competition Law Enforcement in Slovakia

Digitalisation is a challenge from the regulatory point of view. Competition law, as a special type of regulation, is no exception to this. The article explores the risks of digitalisation, especially the ones related to the enhanced use of pricing algorithms. In theory, pricing algorithms are not easily assessed from the perspective of competition law, let alone its application in practice. The prohibition of anticompetitive agreements (pursuant to Article 101 of the Treaty on Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)) is applied with certain difficulty to agreements created by using pricing algorithms. This is an unfortunate situation, as horizontal agreements represent one of the worst infringements of EU competition law, including price cartels or bid rigging. Apart from presenting a theoretical background, the article dives into the practice of the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic (AMO) in order to assess which practical issues the AMO might face when applying the theoretical concepts. In sum, the article asks from a theoretical perspective which issues of competition law have been introduced (or deepened) by the enhanced digitalisation, looking in particular to pricing algorithms. On top of that, the article explores the issues which may be encountered in practice, taking the Slovak jurisdiction as the example. The willingness and feasibility of the AMO to enforce digital issues such as pricing algorithms is assessed based on the previous acts of the AMO as well as the new Act on Protection of Competition, adopted by the Slovak parliament on 11 May 2021.

The Legal Implications of Public Support Policies Targeting Research, Development and Innovation in the European Union

The research problem of this article focuses on how the public support system in Estonia can help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to acquire and commercialise their intellectual property rights (IPR) in a sustainable and legally permissible manner. The study aims to analyse and determine which specific public support measures are needed by SMEs for acquiring and commercialising IPR and how to design such public support within the legal boundaries set under European Union (EU) laws. The theoretical framework used in this study is built around the social system as defined by Parsons. The 4S Model (based on scope, scale, skill and social networking) derived by researchers from the said social system is considered. Further, 19 key attributes were devised by the authors in conjunction with the role of motivation to form a revised framework. The analysis employs qualitative research methods. To apply the framework of social systems theory, the authors used semi-structured interviews as a method to study the public support measures required by Estonian stakeholders. This was also analysed in the framework of EU State aid law, which poses both restrictions and exemptions. This research presents several desired support measures. Although the public support systems for acquiring and commercialising IPR by SMEs are restrained by legal frameworks within the EU, the analysis of the relevant laws and cases shows that State aid for RDI purposes is legally permissible within the EU, depending on the state’s willingness and availability of funds.

Personal Data Protection in the Decision-Making of the CJEU Before and After the Lisbon Treaty

Personal data protection is one of the important areas of the EU’s operation and the general public is especially aware of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). However, personal data protection has been an issue in the EU for a long time. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) plays a major role in personal data protection as their function is to interpret EU law and thus also EU legislation related to personal data protection. Until now, research papers have tackled specific issues related to interpreting EU legislation or analyses of specific decisions made by the CJEU. However, no comprehensive empirical legal study has been published so far which would evaluate the decision-making of the CJEU in the area of personal data protection using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Therefore, no analysis has been carried out to determine how many decisions of the CJEU have been related to personal data protection, how their number has increased, or which participants and from which areas have participated in the proceedings. The results of the analysis presented here can be used as a basis for studying the future development of the CJEU’s decision-making in the area of personal data protection in relation to digitization and especially to the COVID-19 pandemic, which undoubtedly has contributed to a significant increase in online communication, posing new challenges towards a more efficient personal data protection in the online world.

Those Who Shall Be Identified: The Data Protection Aspects of the Legal Framework for Electronic Identification in the European Union

The article focuses on the intersections of the regulation of electronic identification as provided in the eIDAS Regulation and data protection rules in the European Union. The first part of the article is devoted to the explanation of the basic notions and framework related to the electronic identity in the European Union— the eIDAS Regulation. The second part of the article discusses specific intersections of the eIDAS Regulation with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), specifically scope, the general data protection clause and mainly personal data processing in the context of mutual recognition of electronic identification means. The article aims to discuss the overlapping issues of the regulation of the GDPR and the eIDAS Regulation and provides a further guide for interpretation and implementation of the outcomes in practice.

5G and Digital Sovereignty of the EU: The Slovak Way

Some recent views question the concept of sovereignty (especially the sovereignty of states), arguing that sovereignty is to be abandoned as a historical concept, because it existed in the world of the Westphalian system (created after 1648), where states were the major players, centers of power and objects of interest. Instead, we suggest that sovereignty should be perceived again as a “supreme power” (summa potestas), meaning a return to the pre-Bodinian concept of sovereignty and perceive it as a “power to exert control”. With regard to cyberspace, this does not mean direct control of all entities in the cyberspace, but only those that provide services which are perceived as “essential” or “critical” for the security and interests of the state. That is actually the approach taken with regard to ensuring the safety of 5G networks—through control imposed on the network operators, as required by the respective EU legislation and the EU Toolbox on 5G Networks specifically.

Data Protection in Law Enforcement and Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters

The redesign of data protection in the police and judicial area is intended to create uniformity at the European level for the citizens of EU Member States. This scientific article analyses the subject of data protection in law enforcement and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. The focus is primarily on the existing provisions and the latest developments of the EU with regard to Directive (EU) 2016/680 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Council Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA. The international level with regard to data protection in the police and judicial area and possible changes due to the developments in data protection under European law are also examined in more detail.

Legal Engineering of the Anti-Abuse Rule in ATAD: Architecture of the Regression Tree Model

Every taxable arrangement is subject to an anti-abuse test. Abusive arrangements are treated as not valid for tax purposes, which is similar to the treatment of artificial arrangements in civil law. The European Union has introduced in its Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive a general anti-abuse test which must be transposed into the domestic laws of Member States. Such a test has its inner structure, consisting of an elimination and requalification stage, while the elimination stage entails genuineness and a tax benefit test. The general anti-abuse test has a great potential (or scalability when speaking in the language of start-ups) of being automated and integrated into different legal application processes (such as taxpayer self-assessment systems, transactions certified by public notary or merger and acquisition deals) to discover debt push down abuses or other arrangement structures which may have abusive content. While the best method for create a reliable algorithm is a decision tree type model, the inner ambiguity of the general anti-abuse test prevents using the full benefits of automation of tax laws. The purpose of this article is to design a decision tree type model for the test and address the main challenges of such a model, both from the perspective of the clarity of concepts and the quality of input information such an engine would use.

A Different Approach to the Evaluation of Smart Cities’ Indicators

The article aims to propose a different approach to assessing smart cities which combines some commonly used indicators with several new ones in line with the concept of sustainability. The aspect of sustainable development as an essential driver for the smart city and the combination of indicators for sustainable and smart city concepts have been analysed fragmentarily so far. There are many different approaches to evaluate the indicators of city smartness; however, very little attention is paid to the analysis of the reciprocal importance of the indicators. Ten indicators representing a smart city were selected that would be keep in line all the three pillars of sustainability—environmental, social, and economic. An expert survey was conducted to assign the weights of indicators using the pairwise comparison approach. The results were processed by utilising the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which reduces the subjectivity in the experts’ answers. The presented approach differs from the ones commonly used and while it does not cover a wide range of usual indicators, it proposes some new ideas for further research. Some represent cities to attract young and intelligent citizens, others relate to comfortable and safe living conditions and the environmental situation. The results revealed that the most vital smartness indicators are foreign direct investments, pollutant emission, and the share of people registered as unemployed among the working-age population. These indicators cannot be easily identified as ones representing a smart city, but rather as indicators representing investment and environmental, sustainable aspects. Hence, finding a balance between the indicators related to sustainable and smart city is what highlights the need for further research.

Normativity in the EU’s Approach towards Disinformation

With the rapid growth of disinformation, two major steps were taken to battle the phenomenon in the online environment—first on the global level, and second on the European Union level. The first step is the Joint Declaration on Freedom of Expression and “Fake News”, Disinformation and Propaganda, which provides a general overview of possible actions to be taken to fight disinformation, and how “things should be”. The steps are connected to following human rights standards, promoting the diversity of media, and paying special attention to intermediaries and media outlets. The second one is the Code of Practice on Disinformation, which is a self-regulatory document that can be voluntarily signed by major social media platforms and advertising bodies, and its main focus is making political advertising coherent and clear, preventing the creation of fake accounts, providing users with tools to report disinformation, and promote further research. Nevertheless, based on the reports and criticism from stakeholders, the Code of Practice has not reached a common ground regarding definitions, it has provided no mechanism to access the development, and has had several other drawbacks which need additional attention and discussion. The article is devoted to identifying gaps in the Code of Practice on Disinformation based on the reports and criticism provided by the stakeholders and elaborating on possible practices to regulate the legal issues raised by disinformation on the European Union level. We use doctrinal and comparative methods in the work. The doctrinal method targets the cluster that was identified in order to analyze the Code of Practice, identifies weak spots and inconsistencies, and offers solutions from different areas of law. The comparative method was selected since in several areas of law, such as human rights and consumer protection law, the previously identified approaches will be addressed to find the best outcomes. This combination of methods allows an in-depth understanding of legal documents and identifying successful solutions, which can influence further development based on efficient examples.