Commission’s working plan for 2023: confirming integration process

Views: 47On 18 October 2022, the Commission adopted its work program for the next year to deal with modern challenges and looming crises and with a due attention to the ongoing EU-wide green and digital transformations. Making the member states more resilient, the Commission will support both people and businesses by reducing energy prices, securing […]

EU integration through the EU’s “Skills year-2023”

Views: 33New Commission’s skills-initiative for 2023 seems to be too complicated to deliver within just a year: it is involving all three existing “division of competence” between the EU and the member states. Some, as the education policy, is almost fully in the states’ competence shared; however, the initiative touches upon important issues vital for […]

Minimum wage: perspective European socialist agenda

Views: 38Securing adequate minimum wages for workers in the EU has been a long-standing theme in the EU-wide social agenda. This September was a pivotal moment: the draft directive was endorsed by the European Parliament to confirm an agreement between the Parliament and the Council in June while providing hope for a successful adoption of […]

European Interreg: programs for sub-regional recovery and resilience

Views: 29Priorities in the EU’s Interreg program – concerning the Baltic Sea region (BSR) – include three main directions: save the sea, connect the region and prosperity. Already there are 48 projects’ applications contributing to such activities as innovation, energy, transport, bio-economy, spatial planning, etc.  

EUSBSR in successful cooperation: the ways forward

Views: 151The set of articles on the EU’s macro-regional strategies (and the EUSBSR, in particular), was aimed at: first, informing the readers about present Baltic Sea countries’ issues; second, showing the role of numerous organizations involved in the progressive strategy’s implementation; and third, to visualise the strategy’s ways forward… 

Sustainability as a new facet in European integration

Views: 47Seven years in the EU’s sustainability efforts, which is about half the way to a final goal, have been marked by extensive actions towards reaching sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the member states. The whole picture seems quite optimistic: out of 17 SDGs, significant progress has been noticed in 5 and moderate progress in […]

Global and European way to sustainability: recent achievements

Views: 51Universal sustainability agenda has provided vital stimuli for transforming contemporary national governance by imposing fundamental changes in traditional political-economy’s patterns. Besides, some urgent challenges, e.g. digital and climate, coped with the post-covid recovery, are having additional pressures for decision-makers. The EU has elaborated cross-sectoral and multi-faceted approaches to deal with sustainability, particularly during last […]

Energy-intensive companies in EU are having compensations

Views: 36Compensating national expenses for energy-intensive companies (within the state-aid rules) for higher electricity prices resulting from indirect emission costs is allowed under the EU Emission Trading System. The rules also prevent these companies from relocating their production to countries outside the EU with less ambitious climate policies. The EU measures will facilitate a cost-effective […]

European recovery and resilience: new levels of managing socio-economic integration

Views: 41European integration is not only most important aspect of the Union’s development: it is also a very difficult and complicated process. The EU institutions have at stake legal, managerial and organizational means to “govern integration”; suffice it to say that there are already over 40 thousand various types of laws adopted during last seventy […]

Fintech and blockchain: new directions in European integration

Views: 37During last decade, the blockchain industry (as well as that of crypto) has experiences a rapid growth; the speed of development has increased notably over the past few years. The industry and its growth are often analysed through market capitalization, trading volume and other financial metrics (there are already over a hundred different crypto-currencies); […]