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EU Countries (eu + country)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting38%
Humanities and Social Sciences35%
Medical Sciences17%
3 Other Domains10%

Kinds of EU Countries

  • other eu country
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    Selected Abstracts

    The Institutional Requirements Of Apprenticeship: Evidence From Smaller EU Countries

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2000
    Paul Ryan
    To what extent does the experience of other European econom-ies in which apprenticeship has proved successful suggest scope for reviving apprenticeship in the UK without requiring institutional regulation along German lines? The institutional attributes of apprenticeship in four smaller European economies (Austria, Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands) are shown to be closer to Germany's social partnership than to the UK's deregulated market, in terms of: statutory governance; formal educational requirements; administration at sec-toral and local levels through social partnership; and funding based upon a clear separation of responsibilities between government and employers, though not between employers and apprentices. At the same time, the introduction of statu-tory apprenticeship into Irish industry in recent years, in an institutional environment that has traditionally had much in common with that of the UK, suggests that the scope for institutional development in support of apprenticeship has been obscured by the widespread tendency to limit the choice of international comparisons to the Anglo-Germanic. [source]

    Why are Europeans so tough on migrants?

    ECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 44 2005
    Tito Boeri
    SUMMARY European migration International migration can significantly increase income per capita in Europe. We estimate that at the given wage and productivity gap between Western and Eastern Europe, migration of 3% of the Eastern population to the West could increase total EU GDP by up to 0.5%. Yet on 1 May 2004, 14 EU countries out of 15 adopted transitional arrangements vis-à-vis the new member states and national migration restrictions vis-à-vis third country nationals are getting stricter and stricter. In this paper we offer two explanations for this paradox and document their empirical relevance in the case of the EU enlargement. The first explanation is that immigration to rigid labour markets involves a number of negative externalities on the native population. The second explanation is that there are important cross-country spillovers in the effects of migration policies, inducing a race-to-the top in border restrictions with high costs in terms of foregone European output. In light of our results, we discuss, in the final section, the key features of a desirable migration policy to be coordinated at the EU level. ,Tito Boeri and Herbert Brücker [source]

    Labour market implications of EU product market integration

    ECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 30 2000
    Torben M. Andersen
    European labour markets are in a state of flux due to the changing market situation induced by international integration. This process affects wage formation through more fierce product market competition and increased mobility of jobs. This development is by some observers taken to enforce labour market flexibility, while for others it signals an erosion of social standards and in turn possibly the welfare society. Since labour is not very mobile in Europe, the effects of international integration on labour markets are mostly indirect via product market integration. We review the channels through which product market integration affects labour markets and perform an empirical analysis of the convergence and interdependencies in wage formation among EU countries. We find that integration is changing labour market structures and inducing wage convergences as well as stronger wage interdependencies, but it is a gradual process. Moreover, the present study does not support the view that international integration will lead to a ,race to the bottom' and rapidly erode domestic labour markets standards, nor that it will relieve politicians of the need to consider labour market reforms to improve labour market performance. [source]

    Relative Price Variability and Inflation in Europe

    ECONOMICA, Issue 265 2000
    David Fielding
    The relationship between inflation and the relative variability of prices has been the subject of careful investigation in the United States using data for product groups at the city level. Yet in Europe, where the relationship could have profound effects on the viability of monetary integration, no attempt has been made to study the relationship. This paper fills the gap by examining data disaggregated to the commodity level across 10 EU countries. Evidence is found for logistic smooth transitions in the relative price variability measures within countries and within product groups. When this deterministic component isremoved, the stochastic element is not persistent and does not always have the positive relationship with inflation commonly found in US city data. [source]

    Can Russia be Competitive in Agriculture?

    EUROCHOICES, Issue 3 2003
    William M. Liefert
    Summary Can Russia be competitive inAgriculture? Russian agriculture currently is not internationally cost competitive. Since the mid-1990s Russia has imported large volumes of meat, while the grain trade has fluctuated in most years between small net imports and exports. Russia has, however, exported large quantities of key agricultural inputs, including 80 per cent of fertilizer output, mainly to EU countries. Research indicates that Russia has a comparative advantage in producing grain compared to meat, but also a comparative advantage in producing agricultural inputs compared to agricultural outputs. The expected real appreciation of the Russian rouble vis-à-vis Western currencies should further damage Russia's cost competitiveness in meat and grain, but this should be offset by modest productivity growth. An expected rise in consumer income, deriving from relatively high annual GDP growth of about 4,5 per cent, should also stimulate demand for meat imports. In spring 2003, Russia imposed tariff rate quotas on its imports of beef and pork, and a pure quota on imports of poultry. For other agricultural commodities, Russia is pushing in its WTO accession negotiations for allowable agricultural import tariffs that are higher than current levels. Taking these changes together, it is likely that Russia will continue as a big meat importer for about the next ten years,with tariff rate quotas probably determining the level of meat imports,and will become a moderate grain exporter. L'agriculture russepourrait-elle être compétitive ? Actuellement, l'agriculture russe n'est pas compétitive. La Russie a importé de gros volumes de viande depuis le milieu des années 90, tandis que la balance des échanges de céréales oscillait entre les faibles excédents et les faibles déficits. Cependant, la Russie est grande exportatrice d'agro-fournitures dont, en particulier, 80% de sa production d'engrais, principalement vers l'Europe. On montre ici que l'avantage comparatif de la Russie se situe dans les céréales plutôt que dans la viande et, surtout, dans les agro-fournitures plutôt que dans les denrées agricoles. La remontée, à laquelle il faut s'attendre, du rouble vis à vis des devises occidentales, devrait encore diminuer la compétitivité de la Russie en matière de viandes et de céréales, ce qui devrait être compensé par des gains de productivité même faibles. La hausse attendue des revenus des consommateurs, engenderée par une croissance élevée du revenu national, de l'ordre de 4 à 5% par an, devrait aussi stimuler la demande de viande importée. Au printemps 2003, la Russie s'est dotée d'un système de droits sur ses importations hors quotas de viande de bæuf et de pore, ainsi que d'un quota d'importation pour les produits avicoles. En ce qui conceme les autres produits agricoles, dans le cadre des négociations relatives à son entrée dans l'OMC, la Russie s'efforce d'obtenir l'autorisation d'augmenter les taxes à l'importation par rapport à leur niveau actuel. Au total done, à un horizon de l'ordre de dix ans, il est probable que la Russie reste un gros importateur de viandes - le niveau des taxes sur le hors quotas déterminant les niveaux d'importation -, et un modeste exportateur de céréales. Kann Russland auf dem Agrarsektorwettbewerbsfähig sein? Die russische Landwirtschaft ist hinsichtlich der Kosten momentan nicht international wettbewerbsfähig. Seit Mitte der 1990er importiert Russland große Mengen an Fleisch, während der Getreidehandel in den meisten Jahren zwischen geringen Nettoimporten und -exporten schwankte. Russland hat jedoch große Mengen an wichtigen landwirtschaftlichen Vorieistungen, unter anderem 80% seiner Düngerproduktion, hauptsächlich in EU-Länder exportiert. Forschungsergebnisse weisen darauf hin, dass Russland in der Produktion von Getreide verglichen mit Fleisch einen komparativen Vorteil besitzt; dies trifft jedoch ebenfalls auf die Produktion von landwirtschaftlichen Vorieistungen verglichen mit landwirtschaftlichen Endprodukten zu. Es ist anzunehmen, dass die erwartete reale Aufwertung des russischen Rubel gegenüber den westlichen Währungen eine zusätzliche Verschlechterung der russischen Wettbewerbsfähigkeit hinsichtlich der Kosten im Bereich Fleisch und Getreide nach sich zieht; dies sollte sich jedoch durch ein moderates Produktivitätswachstum ausgleichen. Der erwartete Anstieg der Verbrauchereinkommen, der sich aus dem relativ hohen jährlichen Bruttoin-landsproduktzuwachs von ca. 4,5 Prozent ableitet, sollte sich ebenfalls stimulierend auf die Nachfrage nach Fleischimporten auswirken. Im Frühjahr 2003 führte Russland Zolltarifkontingente für seine Schweine- und Rindfleischimporte ein und belegte seine Geflügelfleischimporte mit einem Importkontingent. Im Hinblick auf weitere Agrarerzeugnisse drängt Russland in den WTO-Beitrittsverhandlungen darauf, höhere Einfuhrzölle als die gegenwärtig geltenden zuzulassen. In Anbetracht all dieser Veränderungen ist es wahrscheinlich, dass Russland auch für die kommenden zehn Jahre große Mengen an Fleisch importieren,wobei möglicherweise Zolltarifkontingente die Menge bestimmen werden,und sich zu einem mäßigen Getreideexporteur entwickeln wird. [source]

    Effects of Market Segmentation and Bank Concentration on Mutual Fund Expenses and Returns: Evidence from Finland

    EUROPEAN FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2004
    Timo P. Korkeamaki
    G15; G18; G20 Abstract A tremendous amount of research examines US mutual funds, but fund markets also thrive in other countries. However, research about these fast growing markets is lacking. This study addresses Finnish funds. Fast growth of the Finnish fund industry, strong bank dominance in the industry and recent EU membership make it an interesting market to examine. The Finnish fund market is also of particular interest since it had the fastest growth among the EU countries during 1996,2000. We find evidence that bank-managed and older funds charge higher expenses but investors are not compensated for paying higher expenses with higher risk-adjusted returns, suggesting a potential agency problem. Overall, Finnish fund expenses have decreased over time, consistent with EU membership reducing market segmentation and generating competition. [source]

    Alcohol and mortality: methodological and analytical issues in aggregate analyses

    ADDICTION, Issue 1s1 2001
    Thor Norström
    This supplement includes a collection of papers that aim at estimating the relationship between per capita alcohol consumption and various forms of mortality, including mortality from liver cirrhosis, accidents, suicide, homicide, ischaemic heart disease, and total mortality. The papers apply a uniform methodological protocol, and they are all based on time series data covering the post-war period in the present EU countries and Norway. In this paper we discuss various methodological and analytical issues that are common to these papers. We argue that analysis of time series data is the most feasible approach for assessing the aggregate health consequences of changes in population drinking. We further discuss how aggregate data may also be useful for judging the plausibility of individual-level relationships, particularly those prone to be confounded by selection effects. The aggregation of linear and curvilinear risk curves is treated as well as various methods for dealing with the time-lag problem. With regard to estimation techniques we find country specific analyses preferable to pooled cross-sectional/time series models since the latter incorporate the dubious element of geographical co-variation, and conceal potentially interesting variations in alcohol effects. The approach taken in the papers at hand is instead to pool the country specific results into three groups of countries that represent different drinking cultures; traditional wine countries of southern Europe, beer countries of central Europe and the British Isles and spirits countries of northern Europe. The findings of the papers reinforce the central tenet of the public health perspective that overall consumption is an important determinant of alcohol-related harm rates. However, there is a variation across country groups in alcohol effects, particularly those on violent deaths, that indicates the potential importance of drinking patterns. There is no support for the notion that increases in per capita consumption have any cardioprotective effects at the population level. [source]

    Doctoral and Postdoctoral Education in Science and Engineering: Europe in the international competition

    EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, Issue 4 2005
    PHILIPPE MOGUÉROU
    In this article, we discuss the recent evolutions of science and engineering doctoral and postdoctoral education in Europe. Indeed, Ph.Ds are crucial to the conduct of research and innovation in the national innovation systems, as they provide a large amount of input into creating the competitive advantage, notably through basic research. First, we show that Asia, and notably China, is producing more Ph.Ds than the United States and Europe. In many EU countries, the number of Ph.Ds has levelled off or even declined recently in many natural sciences and engineering fields. Second, we discuss the European situation in the international competition for talents. We study the European brain drain question, mainly at the doctoral and postdoctoral level. We find that there is an asymmetry in the flows of Ph.D students and postdoctorates between Europe and the United States, at the advantage of this latter country. These two points , production of Ph.Ds, international flows of doctorates and postdoctorates , lead us to be concerned about the future growth and innovation in Europe. In conclusion, we outline some European policy responses in the perspective of building the European Research Area and the European Higher Education Area. [source]

    Awareness of potential valvulopathy risk with pergolide and changes in clinical practice after label change: a survey among European neurologists

    EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 6 2007
    A. LLedó
    In response to concern about the reported frequency of ergot-associated valvulopathy in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), Eli Lilly and Company updated the Risk Minimization Program for pergolide, changing the Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC) and distributing a Dear Doctor Letter (DDL) highlighting the new label changes. A survey was conducted subsequently to assess neurologists' awareness of the revised SmPC and their resulting changes in practice. A random sample of 20.3% of neurologists (n = 4056) from 12 eligible EU countries were invited to participate. Of the target population of 247 neurologists who treated patients with PD, used pergolide in 2005, and were willing to participate, 244 (99%) responded. Overall awareness of the DDL and the SmPC changes was 94.2%. Over half (58.3%) of neurologists indicated that they prescribe pergolide exclusively as second-line treatment, although some (21.9%) used pergolide exclusively as first-line treatment. In response to the DDL, most neurologists perform echocardiograms before treatment (67.5%) and during treatment (76.7%), and over half (55%) avoid prescribing doses >5 mg/day. Overall, use of a DDL to communicate an SmPC change was effective in increasing the awareness of pergolide-associated valvulopathy and in modifying neurologists' clinical practice to minimize this risk. [source]

    Immigration and the new politics of inclusion and exclusion in the European Union: The effect of elites and the EU on individual,level opinions regarding European and non,European immigrants

    EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2001
    LAUREN M. MCLAREN
    Within European politics, a distinction is currently being made at the elite level between internal and external immigration, with individuals from EU countries being given special rights and privileges when they migrate within the EU. This paper addresses the question of whether individual EU citizens also view the two types of immigrants differently and what structures their beliefs regarding these two sources of migration. The findings indicate that (a) the vast majority of EU citizens view internal and external migration as identical and (b) elite cues and debates regarding immigration within each of the countries are helping individuals form their opinions regarding the two different types of immigration. These findings and their implications are discussed in the body of the paper. [source]

    EMU and the Shift in the European Labour Law Agenda: From ,Social Policy' to ,Employment Policy'

    EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 3 2001
    Diamond Ashiagbor
    This article examines the interaction between EMU and the European Union (EU) employment strategy and its implications for law. It focuses on the importance of EMU as a catalyst in the development of the EU's social and employment policy in the years following the Treaty on European Union in 1992, up to the inauguration of a new employment policy in the Treaty of Amsterdam. In analysing the EU's discourse on labour market regulation, it is arguable that a shift has occurred in the EU's position on the ,labour market flexibility' debate: that the EU institutions are more readily accepting of the orthodoxy that labour market regulation and labour market institutions are a major cause of unemployment within EU countries and that a deregulatory approach, which emphasises greater ,flexibility' in labour markets, is the key to solving Europe's unemployment ills, along with macroeconomic stability, restrictive fiscal policy and wage restraint. As the EU's employment strategy has matured, this increased emphasis on employment policy has come to displace discourses around social policy. This change in emphasis has important implications for EMU since it signals a re-orientation from an approach to labour market regulation which had as its core a strong concept of employment protection and high labour standards, to an approach which prioritises employment creation, and minimises the role of social policy, since social policy is seen as potentially increasing the regulatory burden. [source]

    EU Enlargement, Migration, and Lessons from German Unification

    GERMAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 3 2000
    Hans-Werner Sinn
    The paper studies the role of international implications after EU enlargement. Based on a formal model with migration costs for both capital and labor, it predicts a two-sided migration from the new to the old EU countries which is later reversed. As the migration pattern chosen by market forces turns out to be efficient, migration should not be artificially reduced by means of legal constraints or subsidies to the new member countries. The paper draws the parallel with German unification and points out the lessons to be learned by Europe. The analysis concludes with a brief discussion of the second-best problem posed by the existence of welfare states in the old member countries. [source]

    Swedish healthcare under pressure

    HEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue S1 2005
    Anders Anell
    Abstract Swedish healthcare, run by local governments at both the regional (county) and the municipal levels, has been under pressure during the last 15 years, following increased scrutiny of performance and demand for cost-containment. Health-care expenditures per capita and levels of resource inputs have grown, but more slowly than in other EU countries. At the same time, the number of elderly people has increased, as have options for medical treatment. In the late 1980s, several local governments referred to long waiting-lists for elective treatment and anecdotal evidence of inefficiency and poor responsiveness when arguing for market-oriented reforms. A purchaser,provider split followed, and so did changes in the payment systems for health-care providers. According to the available evidence, these reforms yielded an increased volume of services in the short run; but traditional hierarchical management soon replaced the new incentives. Moreover, evidence suggests that changes introduced by the national government, and the deteriorating funding conditions together with a continued use of new medical technology, have had more far-reaching effects on health-care output and outcome than local-government reforms. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

    Britain, EMU and the European economy

    INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 4 2000
    Steve Bradley
    In January 1999, 11 member countries of the European Union ,irrevocably' locked the foreign exchange values of their currencies to the euro, and they committed themselves to abandon their currencies in favour of the euro in 2002. As a result, these countries ceased to operate independent monetary policies. Monetary policy for the whole euro-zone became the responsibility of the European Central Bank (ECB), whose primary objective is to maintain a low and stable rate of price inflation for the euro currency. The rules governing Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) were laid down in the treaty of Maastricht in 1992. As conditions for entry to EMU, the treaty specified ,convergence criteria' which consisted of upper limits for several macroeconomic aggregates including, notably, a 3 per cent maximum for the ratio of the public sector deficit to GDP and 60 per cent for the ratio of public debt to GDP.1 In February 1998 the 11 applicant countries submitted statistical analyses relating to their satisfaction of these conditions. Despite doubts as to whether some of them had strictly met the conditions, the European Commission deemed them all eligible, and the euro was launched.2 The British government, though more clearly eligible than most other EU countries on the basis of the convergence criteria, decided to defer its decision on entry. In this paper we consider the arguments for and against Economic and Monetary Union, and in particular whether it would be in Britain's interest to join. We begin with a brief review of the state of the European economy and an analysis of the first year performance of the new Euro currency. [source]

    The perspectives of energy production from coal-fired power plants in an enlarged EU

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH, Issue 9 2004
    P. Grammelis
    Abstract The aim of this paper is to present the current status of the coal-fired power sector in an enlarged EU (EU-15 plus EU member candidate states) in relation with the main topics of the European Strategy for the energy production and supply. It is estimated that 731 thermoelectric units, larger than 100 MWe, are operating nowadays, and their total installed capacity equals to 200.7 GWe. Coal contribution to the total electricity generation with reference to other fuel sources, is by far more intensive in the non-EU part (EU member candidate states), compared to the EU member states. It is expected that even after the enlargement, the European Union will strongly being related to coal. Enlargement will bring additional factors into play in order to meet the requirements of rising consumption, growing demand for conventional fuels and increasing dependence on imports. Besides the technology, boiler size, efficiency, age and environmental performance will determine the necessities of the coal-fired power sector in each country. Depending on the case, lifetime extension measures in operating coal-fired power plants or clean coal technologies can play an important role towards the energy sector restructuring. Low efficiency values in the non-EU coal-fired units and heavily aged power plants in EU countries will certainly affect decisions in favour of upgrading or reconstruction. The overall increase of efficiency, the reduction of harmful emissions from generating processes and the co-combustion of coal with biomass and wastes for generating purposes indicate that coal can be cleaner and more efficient. Additionally, plenty of rehabilitation projects based on CCT applications, have already been carried out or are under progress in the EU energy sector. The proclamations of the countries' energy policies in the coming decades, includes integrated renovation concepts of the coal-fired power sector. Further to the natural gas penetration in the electricity generation and CO2 sequestration and underground storage, the implementation of CCT projects will strongly contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions in the European Union, according to the targets set in the Kyoto protocol. In consequence, clean coal technologies can open up new markets not only in the EU member candidate states, but also in other parts of the world. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

    Contagion in banking due to BCCI's failure: evidence from national equity indices

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FINANCE & ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2004
    Angelos Kanas
    Abstract We examine whether the failure of the multinational banking group BCCI caused contagion effects in the banking sectors of four countries where BCCI had established operations, namely the UK, the US, Spain and Switzerland. We find evidence of contagion effects in the UK and Spain which appear to have registered several months before the eventual closure announcement. There is no evidence of contagion effects in the US and Switzerland. Our results have implications for the stability of the European banking sector, as banks licensed anywhere in the EU will be able to set up branches in other EU countries without needing to obtain further authorization. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

    Go for it , life is full of opportunities.

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE, Issue 3 2008
    Promising results of the YARi working model with young people
    This article describes a framework of the YARi model, developed as part of the European Union's (EU) Leonardo da Vinci project, called Youth at Risk, international (2003,2006). In the article we present the results of the implementation of the YARi working model. The research was conducted as a comparative case study and applied a qualitative inductive analysis of the content. The YARi working model was implemented simultaneously in four EU countries , Finland (Espoo and Vihti), Italy (Palermo and Naples), Holland (Nijmegen) and the UK (Bradford) , between November 2004 and April 2005. [source]

    The Lusophone Migratory System: Patterns and Trends

    INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 3 2009
    Maria I. Baganha
    Portugal, like all the other EU countries, belongs to several migratory systems. This paper describes and characterizes one of the migratory systems to which Portugal belongs, the Lusophone migratory system. The system approach was chosen because it implies a dynamic perspective which is the most adequate to capture the changing trends and patterns of international migration between a group of countries. The author argument is that historically, this migratory system has existed for a very long time, although at the beginning it was formed by only two countries, Portugal and Brazil. The system was enlarged to the PALOP in the aftermath of the Portuguese Revolution of 1974 and the subsequent independence of the Portuguese colonies in Africa. [source]

    Europe and the Immigration of Highly Skilled Labour

    INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 5 2001
    Sami Mahroum
    The competition for highly skilled labour continues to be fierce and is taking a more institutionalized pattern across most of the developed world. This article sketches the changes in policies, legislations, and procedures across various EU countries and compares these with those of other developed countries. The article shows that EU member states not only compete with non-EU countries and regions but also among themselves in order to attract and maintain sufficient flows of highly skilled labour. [source]

    Labor Force Trends and Immigration in Europe,

    INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW, Issue 3 2005
    Serge Feld
    Labor force trends up to 2025 for the fifteen countries (before May 1, 2004) of the European Community are examined. Will demographic decline have an early effect on manpower volume? An estimation is made to determine whether present migratory flow levels in these countries will be sufficient to counter labor force stagnation. Manpower trend scenarios are proposed for each country. They show highly contrasting situations. These countries favor different policies for mobilizing and increasing their manpower volume. There is wide divergence between the various EU countries as concerns their demogra hic situation and labor force partici ation rate as well as their social security systems. labor force partici ation rate as well as their social security systems. Considering these highly diverse national characteristics, the difficulty in arrivin at a consensus on EU migratory policy harmonization is stressed [source]

    The Causes and Consequences of Albanian Emigration during Transition: Evidence from Micro Data,

    INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW, Issue 1 2002
    Dhori Kule
    This note reports the results of a field survey of individuals and firms in Albania, carried out during 1998. The surveys were designed to analyze the size, causes and consequences of emigration from Albania during the 1990s. Our results show that emigrants are motivated mainly by the ease of access of neighboring countries and by the prospect of high financial returns. Although most emigrants worked illegally and had part-time, low-skilled jobs, the majority found the overall experience positive, and the skills and earnings abroad have contributed to setting up businesses on return. These results have important policy implications for both EU countries and other transition countries in the region. [source]

    Nursing and public health in Europe , a new continuous education programme

    INTERNATIONAL NURSING REVIEW, Issue 1 2005
    E. Danielson rn
    The aim of this paper is to describe the development of a new education programme in public health for nurses in the European Union (EU). The project, ,Development of a Continuous Professional Education Programme for Nurses in Public Health', is described together with its background and aim, which is to contribute to the development of new competencies of nurses in nursing and public health. For the development of these competencies, the framework for the programme's guidelines is organized around core modules common for all EU countries and elective modules, based on national health needs and policies proposed by each country. An example of the implementation of the programme from Sweden, where the programme has already been offered, is also presented. In addition to the educational programme itself, the opportunities for networking for nurses and teachers from different countries resulting from this effort are discussed. Finally, the evolving nature of public health in nursing is presented in relation to the roles that nurses/midwives already perform in various countries and situations, in order to point out the potential of this programme's contribution to the promotion of health of all European citizens. [source]

    Portability of Supplementary Pension Rights in the European Union

    INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 1 2001
    Vincenzo Andrietti
    European Union (EU) legislation on portability of supplementary pension rights accrued by private-sector migrant workers is at an early stage. The recent directive on this topic, aiming to preserve accrued pension rights at least at the level guaranteed in the case of within-borders mobility, emphasizes the role of country-specific legislation on pension portability issues. This paper analyses EU as well as national pension portability regulation for a representative sample of EU countries, in the light of recent empirical evidence outlining the role of occupational pensions in individual job mobility choices in these countries. [source]

    How to Cut the Seigniorage Cake into Fair Shares in an Enlarged EMU

    JCMS: JOURNAL OF COMMON MARKET STUDIES, Issue 5 2007
    JØRGEN DRUD HANSEN
    The European Central Bank redistributes each year seigniorage from issuing euro notes to the National Central Banks of the euro countries. The key for this redistribution is, from 2008, based on the respective GDP and population proportions of the euro countries. Applying the distribution formula to the new EU countries from central and eastern Europe seems to give these countries a large net benefit compared with the seigniorage they bring in, i.e. their share of currency in circulation. However, as argued in this article, currency demand in the new EU member countries is expected to increase relative to the present group of euro countries , especially after gaining membership in the EMU because of integration of the financial markets and, in the longer term, catching-up growth. Hence, it is doubtful whether a large unintended redistribution of seigniorage to the benefit of acceding EMU countries will materialize in the future. [source]

    A Single EU Seat in the IMF?

    JCMS: JOURNAL OF COMMON MARKET STUDIES, Issue 2 2004
    Lorenzo Bini Smaghi
    This article examines the rationale for consolidating EU Member States' position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Although a substantial amount of co-ordination already takes place, particularly on issues related to the euro area and the single monetary and exchange rate policy, co-operation between EU countries in the IMF remains a relatively new phenomenon and divergences still prevail. The current institutional set-up, whereby the 15 EU countries are spread in nine constituencies, undermines effectiveness. Al though there is scope for further improving co-operation, there are natural limits to what can be achieved within the existing co-operation frame work. A single EU constituency would enable EU Member States to have a strong impact on IMF policies, potentially as strong as that of the US. However, this may not be an objective for all EU countries in the current conjuncture. [source]

    Periodontology as a recognized dental speciality in Europe

    JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PERIODONTOLOGY, Issue 6 2006
    Mariano Sanz
    Abstract The impetus of the Bologna Process under the auspices of European Union governments has raised enormous expectations. It is the major educational change in Europe within the last 50 years and all the focus from university institutions, learned societies and thematic networks has shifted to this process, with the aim of developing consensus schemes in order to arrive at the expected European Convergence in Higher Education (to be completed by 2010). Dentistry as one of the health professions with clear Educational Standards, as defined by the European Dental Directives, is also reviewing its educational processes within this Bachelor,Master,Doctorate scheme and evaluating how the current and future dental specialities should be accommodated within this framework. Among these specialities, Periodontology is currently considered a formal dental speciality in 11 countries belonging to the EU however it lacks this legal status in the rest of the 14 EU countries. The purpose of this position paper is to provide evidence for the need for a recognized specialty in Periodontology at European level focusing on both the educational and professional perspective, with the hope of providing discussions that may contribute to facilitate its legal establishment as a new dental speciality in Europe. [source]

    MIND THE GAP: UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE NEW EU REGIONS

    JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 1 2008
    Anna Maria Ferragina
    Abstract The paper surveys the theoretical and empirical literature on regional unemployment during transition in Central and Eastern Europe. The focus is on optimal speed of transition (OST) models and on comparison of them with the neo-classical tradition. In the typical neo-classical models, spatial differences essentially arise as a consequence of supply side constraints and institutional rigidities. Slow-growth, high-unemployment regions are those with backward economic structures and constraints on factors mobility contribute to making differences persistent. However, such explanations leave the question unanswered of how unemployment differences arise in the first place. Economic transition provides an excellent testing ground to answer this question. Pre-figuring an empirical law, the OST literature finds that the high degree of labour turnover of high unemployment regions is associated with a high rate of industrial restructuring and, consequently, that low unemployment may be achieved by implementing transition more gradually. Moreover, international trade, foreign direct investment and various agglomeration factors help explain the success of capital cities compared to peripheral towns and rural areas in achieving low unemployment. The evidence of the empirical literature on supply side factors suggests that wage flexibility in Central and Eastern Europe is not lower than in other EU countries, while labour mobility seems to reinforce rather than change the spatial pattern of unemployment. [source]

    The Size and Composition of Government Spending in Europe and Its Impact on Well-Being

    KYKLOS INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, Issue 3 2010
    Zohal Hessami
    SUMMARY This paper empirically analyzes whether large governments in Europe reflect efficient responses to a changing social and economic environment (,welfare economic view') as opposed to wasteful spending (,public choice view'). To this end, the effect of government size on subjective well-being is estimated in a combined survey and country-level dataset covering 153,268 respondents from twelve EU countries over the 1990,2000 period. The first finding is an inversely U-shaped relationship between government size and well-being. In addition, the analysis suggests that given the high institutional quality as compared to other parts of the world there might be scope for a further enlargement of governments in the EU from a well-being perspective. However, one must acknowledge that the effect on well-being may be quite small and that democratic societies in Europe have no experience with even larger governments. The investigation also reveals that the impact of government size on well-being depends negatively on levels of corruption and positively on the extent of decentralization. Moreover, left-wing voters and low-income earners are the main beneficiaries of a large public sector. Finally, in all twelve EU countries included in the sample higher levels of well-being could have been achieved by allocating a higher share of public resources to education, while Finland and Germany could have given an additional boost to well-being by cutting expenditures on social protection. [source]

    Labour force participation rates at the regional and national levels of the European Union: An integrated analysis*

    PAPERS IN REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 4 2007
    J. Paul Elhorst
    Space-time data; multilevel analysis; spatial autocorrelation; labour force participation; labour market policy Abstract., This study investigates the causes of variation in regional labour force participation rates in a cross-country perspective. A microeconomic framework of the labour force participation decision is aggregated across individuals to obtain an explanatory model of regional participation rates in which both regional-level and national-level variables serve as explanatory variables. An appropriate econometric model of random coefficients for the regional variables and fixed coefficients for the national variables is developed, further taking into account that observations may be correlated over time and in space and that some of the explanatory variables are not strictly exogenous. This model is estimated for men and for women, using annual 1983,1997 Eurostat data from 157 regions across 13 EU countries. The hypotheses that regional participation rates in the EU are determined by a common structure and that labour force participation can be encouraged by a common policy must be strongly rejected. [source]

    Calorie intake and income elasticities in EU countries: A convergence analysis using cointegration,

    PAPERS IN REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2001
    Ana M. Angulo
    European food demand; calorie intake; cointegration; convergence Abstract. We want to determine here whether the trans-European consumer reacts to changes in total food consumption or changes in income equalise in the long run. Do total calorie intake elasticities and income elasticities converge in the long-run? A demand system is estimated for each European country. The proportional caloric intakes of the various food groups are analyzed as endogenous variables, and two exogenous variables (total calorie intake and income), are both defined in log terms. As all variables are I(1) and non-cointegrated, demand systems are specified in first differences. Finally, we use Johansen and Juselius's multivariate cointegration tests to test for the convergence of calorie intake and income elasticities. Empirical results indicate a very limited convergence between certain products and countries considered, suggesting that country idiosyncrasies still play an important role in consumer behavior. [source]