In recent years, the third or voluntary sector has become more important for ‘Europe’, as indicated by the 1997 Communication of the European Commission and various Declarations attached to the EU Treaties. These official statements not only suggest greater political interest in the third sector, they also seem to indicate that the European Union is taking a more active role in policy-making in...

OBJECTIVES To quantify the implementation of tobacco control policies at country level using a new Tobacco Control Scale and to report initial results using the scale. METHOD A questionnaire sent to correspondents in 30 European countries, using a scoring system designed with the help of a panel of international tobacco control experts. RESULTS The 30 countries are ranked by their total sco...

Since the end of the Cold War, Russia has retained special attention as a Eurasian country with a defining role in the evolution of the former-soviet space. We argue here that the issue of Russian evolution under Putin’s leadership has raised specific questions in the security realm, potentially affecting the entire post-soviet space and the European security architecture. This paper aims at, f...

In recent decades there has been a significant increase in non-standard forms of employment in Germany, and the significance of this development for the employment system needs to be examined. This paper looks at the development, extent and patterns of this type of employment and also at regulation problems. It starts by differentiating between standard and atypical employment and then examines...

The work to improve bank crisis management and resolution frameworks is ongoing in several jurisdictions worldwide after the fi nancial crisis revealed serious shortcomings in the respective regimes. The development of an effective framework is particularly challenging in the EU. This complexity arises owing to the objective of achieving stability in a highly integrated fi nancial system, where...

The EU Intelligence Analysis Centre (INTCEN) is the most recent name for an institution that has existed in a number of forms since 1999. It monitors events both inside and outside the EU in order to provide “intelligence analyses, early warning and situational awareness” to EU institutions and Member States in the fields of security, defence and counter-terrorism. While it remains relatively s...

Ever since Turkey and the EU began membership negotiations in 2005, the process has been riddled with difficulties which have impacted on broader Turkey-EU ties. Relations took a further blow last week following the publication of the European Commission’s 2012 Progress Report. Out of the fifteen reports that Turkey has received to date, this was one of the hardest-hitting in recent times, crit...

environment, environmental protection and sustainability policies play a key role in social development and in the economic competitiveness of industrialized countries. most european citizens are aware of the importance of environmental issues, both as a priority for the socio-economic system as a whole, and as a relevant factor in influencing quality of life. at the same time individual enviro...

This paper investigates the competitiveness of Hungarian agriculture in relation to that of the EU employing four indices of revealed comparative advantage, for the period 1992 to 1998. Consistency tests implies that the indices are less satisfactory as cardinal measures, but are useful in identifying whether or not Hungary has a comparative advantage in a particular product group. The results ...