Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for close to 70 per cent of employment in the EU. However, as they are still heavily dependent on traditional bank financing, especially in comparison with their US counterparts, the European Commission recently launched a plan for a Capital Markets Union (CMU), aiming to diversify the funding channels available to European SMEs.
The European Court of Justice plays a central role in the EU, but its importance as a political arena for conflicts regarding how to interpret the EU´s legislation is less known. In this report, based on unique material, the authors analyse how the Member States position themselves within the framework of preliminary Court rulings.
The Lisbon Treaty granted the EU with legislative power in the area of criminal law, which is a development that SIEPS has paid attention to in several previous publications. In the current report, the author sheds new light on the area by comparing the evolving EU criminal justice law with US federal criminal justice law.
Since the Treaty of Lisbon, the EU has had an express competence in humanitarian aid. This development entails numerous legal and institutional challenges, which this timely report analyses, while identifying ways to address them.
Russia’s intervention in eastern Ukraine and annexation of Crimea in 2014 sent shock waves through Europe. It also exposed the inadequacies of the EU’s relationship with its most powerful neighbour, Russia.
Numerous bilateral investment treaties (BITs) were signed between the incumbent Member States and the Central and Eastern European Member States prior to the latter becoming full Union members. While motivated at the time, the compatibility of these BITs with the internal market is in question.
This European policy analysis provides an overview of how smuggling has been framed over time in the European Union, and questions what the effects are of criminalising human smuggling for the protection of international migrants. The author finds that policies that effectively aim at reducing human smuggling must consider the push and pull factors for migration.
While there are many benefits to free mobility, it may also facilitate cross-border criminality. Human trafficking is today the third biggest international criminal activity and it is also one of the most profitable.
Unauthorized immigration is on the rise again in the EU. This European policy analysis surveys economic aspects of irregular immigration to the EU and draws on important lessons from the US.
The consequences of the Eurozone crisis has spurred increased coordination of member state public finances at European level. This also entails the scrutiny of socio-economic issues within the framework of the European semester.