Search results for "European Union."

Yksilöstä yhteisöön : uusliberalistinen ihannekansalainen maaseutupoliittisessa ohjelmassa

2019

Factors explaining the interest margin in the banking sectors of the European Union

2003

Abstract This study analyses the interest margin in the principal European banking sectors (Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain) in the period 1993–2000 using a panel of 15,888 observations, identifying the fundamental elements affecting this margin. Our starting point is the methodology developed in the original study by Ho and Saunders [Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis XVI (1981) 581–600] and later extensions, but widened to take banks' operating costs explicitly into account. Also, unlike the usual practice in the literature, a direct measure of the degree of competition (Lerner index) in the different markets is used. The results show that the fall of marg…

The Security–Development Nexus in European Union Foreign Relations after Lisbon: Policy Coherence at Last?

2016

One of the 2009 Lisbon Treaty's objectives was to enhance the coherence of EU-level foreign relations by improving collective action. Policy-level innovations included ‘comprehensive’ and ‘joined-up’ approaches linking EU instruments and actors, especially the Commission and the new European External Action Service. Have these reforms improved policy coherence? We focus on a key EU policy domain illustrating Europe's engagement with the changing global context: the security–development nexus. Although we find that collective action has improved somewhat since 2010, decision-making is affected by bureaucratic actors catering to specific constituencies. Accordingly, the coherence of security …

Linguistic Diversity as a Problem and a Resource – Multilingualism in European and Finnish Policy Documents

2012

Societies in Europe and across the world are under constant pressure to cope with increasing multilingualism and multiculturalism. This development has its roots in different global and local societal and economic processes. On the one hand, globalization is putting pressure on the economy in that more varied language resources are needed in society. On the other hand, immigration is constantly on the increase, giving rise to what Vertovec (2006) has termed super-diversity, a ‘condition distinguished by a dynamic interplay of variables among an increased number of new, small and scattered, multiple-origin, transnationally connected, socio-economically differentiated and legally stratified i…

Political Advertising on Facebook

2021

Parties have limited opportunities to determine the audiences of their organic communication. However, Facebook offers sophisticated advertising possibilities which enable parties to sponsor their organic messages in order to target them at selected and narrow segments of the electorate. Information on advertising activity was not available in Europe until Facebook has launched its ‘Ad Library’ right before the 2019 European Parliamentary election which provided access to all political ads and its metadata. By drawing on this data, our chapter will advance on the previous country chapters and investigate parties’ advertising activity in the 12 analysed countries with a specific focus on spo…

Immigrants’ Networks, Distance, and Trade Creation Effects: An Study Employing Province-Level Data for Italy, Spain and Portugal

2014

Neoclassical trade theory assumed international flows of goods (commodities) to be substituting for people (factor) flows under certain circumstances. However, recent empirical evidence shows a complementary relationship between these two types of flows, with migration creating new trade exchanges. Immigrants tend to form networks across borders, reducing fixed trade costs. They also retain some preference for their home-produced goods. These two channels provide the rationale of the immigration trade-enhancing linkage. In this study we investigate that issue for the cases of Italy, Spain and Portugal, employing province-level data for the period 2002–2010. Results show that the first chann…

Ideology, Nationalism and Law: Legal Tools for an Ideological Machinery in Latvia

2016

For around 25 years Latvia has moved further and further away from Soviet Marxism-Leninist state ideology and has successfully re-integrated with European legal culture. It is obvious that the term ‘ideology’, due to its historical Soviet context, has a mostly negative colouring even nowadays. Integration within the European Union and the implementation of social and political programs and concepts have led to questions raised about leading contemporary ideology (ies) and its (their) role in the development of Latvia’s legal system. The issue of ideologies becomes more complicated and unclear when regarding specific legal reforms or Parliament`s drafts of laws. The article will explore the …

From ‘Awkward Partner’ to ‘Awkward Partnership’? Explaining Norway’s Paradoxical Relations with the European Union

2017

Norway is the only Nordic state to have rejected membership of the European Union four times. Applying the conceptual lens of ‘awkwardness’, as developed by Murray et al. (2014), it seems fair to consider the country as an awkward partner in the process of European integration. As a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), however, Norway has been tightly associated with the European Union ever since 1994, actively participating in a large number of EU policies and programs and effectively forging a close partnership that has in itself become increasingly ‘awkward’. This holds true despite the fact that successive Norwegian governments have recently started to embrace a generally more re…

European Union Crisis: An Introduction

2020

What is the impact of crisis on European Union (EU) integration? This chapter unpacks the concept of crisis and ways to conceptualize it. We outline three conceptual scenarios on the EU’s putative response to crisis and subsequently apply them in all chapters of the volume. The chapter sums up the key findings from different parts of the Handbook on the impact of crisis on EU policies and institutions, as well as the applicability of existing theories. The volume finds overall that the EU has been surprisingly resilient in the face of crises due to its ability to adapt and absorb, and if necessary, change, in response to crisis. The chapter also discusses the EU’s responses to democratic ch…

Sexual Exploitation from Origin Countries to Destination Countries

2020

Human trafficking tends to follow a pattern of phases, such as recruitment, transfer, exploitation, protection, and sometimes re-trafficking. This chapter gives the opportunity for the reader to understand the influence of several factors within human trafficking at a geographical level, from the origin and transit country to the destination country, as well as at a cultural, social, and criminological level. All factors are considered according to victim nationality, in this case Romanian and Nigerian, including the vulnerable factors created by the criminal groups. In this chapter, the difference of citizenship between Nigerian women, who are third-country nationals, and Romanian women, w…