Effective Competition and EU Competition Law
The notion of workable or effective competition is at the centre of EU competition law and policy, as it strives to achieve and maintain it. Some scholars do not mention it at all. Those who refer to it either do not explain it in any way or explicate it very shortly. In fact, the concept is too important to be ignored totally or elucidated briefly. The objective of this article is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the concept by focusing on the theory of workable or effective competition. It is argued that effective competition is the key for an in-depth study of the political economy (i.e. real policy goals, economic rationale behind individual competition rules, institutional requirements, and implications for distribution of wealth) of EU competition law and policy. Full text available at:https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v1i1.161
Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies; 2005: RERA V1:1 Inaugural Issue (backfile abstracts)
Centre for European Studies, Carleton University
L’apport du règlement 1/2003 : décentralisation et homogénéisation du droit européen de la concurrence
pas disponible Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v1i1.160
Convergence toward the European Social Model? Impact of EU accession on Polish social policy
In order to join the European Union (EU) Poland had to meet a wide range of conditions including adoption of acquis communautaire, significant administrative reforms and economic restructuring. This article deals with all these EU-membership commitments which directly influenced the Polish social policy, spanning such areas as free movement of persons (mainly workers), labour law, social dialogue, labour market and social inclusion policies and pensions. These changes - even if incremental and evolutionary - made the Polish welfare state more compatible with the European Social Model. Judging from the experience of Poland, the European Social Model (ESM) is far from vague and meaningless ideology. The ESM has had a significant impact on national social policies which is discernible at four general levels: values and general rules, which engender a welfare state philosophy shared by all Member States; Community-enforced social minimum standards; European-level institutional co-operative procedures; and monetary transfers in the framework of cohesion policy. The impact of the EU is visible to a varying degree – ranging from substantial in the peripheral areas such as gender equality or health and safety at work to purely theoretical in fiscal and monetary matters. The Polish welfare state has been heavily influenced by practical day-to-day administrative and institutional co-operation of Poland with the UE. Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v1i1.159
Elites in Transition: The Case of Privatization in Veliky Novgorod, Russia
This paper is an attempt to develop a critical reflection on the social, political, and economic transformation that Russia experienced in the last couple of decades. I argue that the continuity of elites in Russia is one of the major features of its transition. This paper attempts to illuminate the continuity of elites as a general trend by using the case study of the privatization process in Veliky Novgord, Russia. This project looks at privatization as an avenue or means of resource allocation by elites during the transition. The data were obtained from 16 structured and unstructured interviews conducted in Veliky Novgorod in the summer 2004 among the representatives of the business and political elites. This paper deals with one group of the nomenklatura elite – top enterprise managers. Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v1i1.158
Harmonisation through Neglect: The Federal Nature of European Employment Policy
This paper proposes using the methodological perspective of critical federalism, constructed by merging the theoretical framework of critical political economy with the analytical approach of co-operative federalism, to understand the harmonisation and operation of employment policy within the EU. By choosing to not actively integrate employment policy, the ad hoc approach pursued by the member - states has led to a sharing of competency between the member - states and the EU that mimics the relationship found between central and regional governments in a federal system. In the first section, this paper outlines how the emphasis on national competence has shaped the integration of national employment policies into a nascent federal system. In the second section, this paper constructs the methodological perspective of critical federalism and in the final section, this paper concludes by identifying the federal characteristics of the current operation of European employment policy. Full article available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v1i1.157