Energy issues are the most important items in national political economy. With enormous pressure and challenges, global and European energy problems require new and resolute approaches on energy security, pollution reduction, sustainable growth and climate mitigation. Discussions on achieving fair green and digital transition, energy efficiency and reducing fossil fuels dependency are in agendas of […]
Category: Baltic States’ issues
Social partners in recovery plans: Eurofund findings
National recovery plans in the EU states are aimed at making their socio-economic development sustainable and resilient. Social partners in the member states were obliged to take an active part in preparing these plans in order to better prepare the states for tackling modern challenges and facilitate EU’s green and digital transition. However, social partners’ […]
Regional development in the member states through EU’s assistance
Reducing disparities in socio-economic development among the EU states and regions is an important issue in European integration. Therefore, the EU regional strategies form a vital part in the national recovery and resilience plans through the use of numerous funds supporting regional growth patterns. However, most often the local authorities do not have adequate information […]
Recovery perspectives and “smart specialization” in the Baltic States
In modern national development paradigm there are two main components: recovery and resilience; however, “smart specialisation” also helps to catch-up with the competitive European and global markets. Therefore these smart strategies serve as a vital element in national recovery and resilient plans towards socio-economic modernisation. Examples from the three Baltic States reveal similar and specific […]
Happiness in Europe and the world: lessons to learn
Global attention to “happiness” has already a decade’s history: analytics assemble data on peoples’ lives in most of the countries around the world. Some trends are somehow quite remarkable recently: i.e. importance of income and GDP has been decreasing in the pools, while happiness was more often associated with the general aspects of wellbeing in […]
Towards European “education union”: strategy for universities (part IV)
The process of a newly forming European “education union” is full of resolute efforts aimed at coordinating and supplementing member states’ education policies. Among these efforts there is a focal one: creating a “unified” European Education Area (expected for completion by 2025) to serve as a vital driver in harnessing socio-economic progress and employment in […]
Perspective “federalism” in the member states’ recovery and resilience
European integration is proceeding presently along certain “federal lines”: i.e. new division of competence between the EU institutions and the member states has been fixed in the EU basic law (in effect for already a couple of decades) is slowly but decisively entering the states’ socio-economic sectors. These “federal lines” have to be in the […]
European financial support for the member states: Latvian example
Assistance of the EU’s institutions to the member states during Covid-pandemic takes various forms. Thus, European Investment Fund, backed by the Investment Plan for Europe, in association with the national financial services, provides favourable lending to students and learners in the EU states to cover their study and housing costs. Now Latvian students and learners […]
Modern trends in European integration: “smart specialization” in the Baltic States
The ideas of a so-called “smart growth” and member states’ “specialization” have been introduced into the EU integration perspectives about a decade ago. It was regarded both as one of the strongest facets of modern EU’s political economy, and a specific economic modernisation tool in the member states’ growth patterns; both shall be within the […]
Modern trends in European integration: “smart specialization” in the Baltic Sea region
The article is addressing only some though quite vital changes concerning EU’s single market perspectives in line with the contemporary division of labour and more coordinated political economies in the member states. The idea of a so-called “smart growth” and member states’ “specialization” coined into the EU integration sphere a decade ago is not only […]