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What are the main drivers in the energy policies of Russia and the EU and how do the recent developments in Ukraine influence these two key European energy actors and their approaches to their neighbours? Energy is discussed in a broader strategic context, in which it can be viewed as either the goal of a strategy, as with the EU, or as both a tool and a means of a strategy, as in the case of Russia.
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Energy is the major challenge of the 21st century and the world’s energy mix will change in the future, predominantly to renewables, followed by natural gas. The European Union will be the foremost gas importer by 2030 and the rate of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) imports will double by 2020. The UK, France, Spain and Italy are the main entry points for EU LNG imports, with approximately 80% of the regional terminals located in these countries and amounting to 87% of the Union’s LNG needs. Diversification of LNG routes and suppliers in the coming competitive LNG market is an important objective of EU energy policy. It seems that the low-cost, high-risk Persian Gulf gas-rich area could be influential to the Union’s security of energy supply in the future. The current research, furthermore, aims to analyse the role of actual Qatari LNG and potential Iranian LNG on imports by the UK, France, Spain and Italy in the coming years. This multiple case study centres on a comparison of the EU’s actual and potential LNG suppliers against the four indicators of energy security—acceptability, availability, affordability and accessibility. It attempts to determine the position of the Persian Gulf and its main regional LNG suppliers amongst the main global exporters to the EU.
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A large chunk of the “energy security” debate has dealt with problems of access to resources and, most recently, the degradation of ecosystems as a direct result of the socio-economic activities of humans; less focus has been on the sources of security/insecurity perceptions and misperceptions and ways to explain them. This article seeks to evaluate the origins and practices of energy security perceptions in Poland and Turkey, and within their respective regional contexts—Central and Eastern Europe and the Wider Black Sea Region. With the global energy security paradigm now encapsulating the rise of new powers, epitomised by BRICS, developments at the regional level have been playing profound roles, grouping states around key regional actors. Drawing on case study material, the evaluation serves the purpose of assessing possible axes of convergence and divergence between the two regions represented by the two countries.
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The standard quality assessment system is a comprehensive quality management tool created for the public sector. From now on, the Common Assessment Framework model (such as CAF) assumes that effective management in public administration organizations can achieve exceptional results in organizational performance. The CAF model scheme consists of nine criteria that fall under the categories of organizational enablers and results. Within the “leadership” criterion, the paper explores the aspect of motivation and support of human resources in the organization by focusing on assessing the current state of implementation of the CAF model using a case study of the municipality of Nitra, Slovakia. As a part of the research, we focused on several aspects: the way the municipality deals with human resources of the self-evaluation process, the way the CAF team’s training is implemented, the self-evaluation process and the interpretation of the results of the self-evaluation concerning the municipality office, as well as about the level of public involvement in the process of increasing quality. The paper also evaluates the questionnaire survey carried out by the municipal office of Nitra, thanks to which we were able to find out the view of the residents on the functioning of the researched municipality. In order to process the paper – to interpret results and outcomes and formulate conclusions, we applied a base of primary sources (qualitative research method of unstructured interview) and a base of secondary information sources (available results of the questionnaire survey published by Nitra municipality).
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The article discusses the theoretical principles of statistical research with regard to the national market of logistics services during wartime. The system of statistical indicators of the research of the logistics services market is structured through the allocation of separate blocks of indicators by priority of their estimation in war conditions. The market of logistics services of Ukraine is characterised by selected blocks of indicators. The paper identifies the main structural changes that occurred due to the hostilities faced by the country. Moreover, the authors determine the main factors influencing the functioning of the analysed market during war, as the statistical study of these factors is considered necessary for the transformation and development of logistics services. It is substantiated that taking into account such statistical indicators as the level and availability of logistics infrastructure, security, the human factor and changes in legislation are likely to result in a new alternative direction of logistics routes and contribute to the development of the logistics services market in general. The authors proposed the construction of a centralised electronic service (or several services) with the purpose of consolidating information about the logistics infrastructure. The software system should offer the option of an operational interactive visualisation.
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Today, Georgia strives to maintain a worthy place in the world, to develop its economy, to establish close contacts with other states, to attract investors and tourists to the country. In this regard, we think it would be relevant to find and publish archival materials that tell us how manganese mining began in the Georgian city Chiatura, in the early 20th century and the role of Georgian entrepreneurs and foreign firms in this process. In numerous archives of Georgia there are several funds of documents related to it. For ideological reasons, Soviet historiography neglected research on the subject. Based on this, we can say that finding and publishing in a single format of historical materials about the turnover of foreign capital in Georgia in this historical period, as well about the foreign concessions and investments, credits, trade relations and other issues, will help us to better understand the situation that then existed in the country. It also will enable us to learn more about the relevant legislation that regulated Georgian industry at that time.
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The current article is an attempt to historically track the essential moments in the introduction of banking regulations in Bulgaria1. The different periods are successively examined – from the implementation of the first regulatory documents during the wars and the Great Depression to the current regulatory requirements imposed by globalization in all areas of public life, particularly in the banking sector. Emphasis is placed on the main changes brought about by Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union, which require the synchronization of Bulgarian and European legislation, especially in the field of assessment and management of banking risks.
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Research background: Agency theory refers to the conflict of interests between different groups involved in the business. One aspect of the agency theory is conflict among shareholders. One of the areas of potential conflict is dividend payment. Purpose: The goal of our paper was to identify the impact of voting behaviour of shareholders during Annual General Meetings on dividend decisions. We make a comparison between big and small companies. Research methodology: We included the 20 biggest and the 20 smallest companies from the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) in our sample over the 2010–2022 period. We collected 413 observations (shareholders’ presence, voting results from annual general meetings, and financial data). We use statistical tests, a correlation analysis, and a regression analysis. Results: We found that in small companies there is conflict among large shareholders on dividend payout decisions, while in big companies small shareholders show their disappointment by voting against or abstaining from voting for financial statement acceptance (but not dividend payout decisions). Additionally, we found that the higher presence of large shareholders at the AGM the lower the dividend payout is. Novelty: The originality of the paper is that instead of ownership structure we took into account shareholders’ presence at AGM’s. We deal with a unique set of hand-collected data on voting results. We present new evidence on interests of conflict among shareholders (not only on dividend decisions). Although the problem of the conflict between minority and majority shareholders was identified, there is a scarcity of research on its background and implication.
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Research background: The evolution of technologies nowadays gives a higher impact on all sectors, including accounting. With rapidly growing volumes of data available, coding can be a valuable skillset for accountants to derive insight and value for organizations from accounting data. Purpose: The objective of this paper is to identify the benefits of coding skills among accounting professionals, especially in the area of the automation of processes. In addition, the paper discusses some barriers to developing coding abilities. Research methodology: The research study analyzed a sample of 160 respondents from around the world. The study used a questionnaire. A principal axis factor analysis with the Promax rotation was conducted to assess the underlying structure for the points of the questionnaire. Results: The results showed that accountants should possess at least some basic skills in coding. The top benefit of coding skills by accountants, as perceived by the respondents, was the possibility to automate repetitive tasks, data reporting, and visualization. The top barrier to coding skills by accountants, as perceived by the respondents, was a lack of time and knowledge of what software skills to acquire and how. Novelty: This research contributes to the literature by exploring the benefits of and barriers to coding in the accounting field. The findings can be useful for financial professionals and adepts to understand the benefits of coding skills in accounting.
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Research background: Corporate ideology is perceived as a set of fundamental beliefs held by company members about how the company and its members should behave in relation to one another and the outside world. In this paper, corporate ideology is treated as the basis for creating an organization’s identity and as an extremely important factor in its success. Purpose: The aim of this paper is to analyze the corporate ideologies of banks operating in the Republic of Croatia, to classify different ideologies, and finally, to determine what kind of identity the surveyed banks communicate through their corporate ideologies. Research methodology: A comparative and content analysis are applied as qualitative methods of research of an interpretative character. Results: The corporate ideologies of two of the analyzed banks (ZABA and Erste) are described as social institutionalism, and PBZ’s ideology is labeled as social corporatism. Detected corporate ideologies do not serve to build the authenticity of banks’ identities. Novelty: The main novelty of this research is in the methodology of reaching corporate ideologies. Unlike previous works on corporate ideology, in this paper public messages communicated in (digital) media were the main sources for the analysis of an organization’s core values and ideologies resulting from it. Also, a simple framework for the possible classification of different corporate ideologies was provided.
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Research background: with the introduction of the euro as the domestic currency, economies have faced inflationary pressures caused by price convergence towards higher levels. During the last period of significant negative shocks from the environment, by entering the euro area, the negative effects of the likelihood of inflation caused by the introduction of the euro may be absent. Purpose: the aim of this paper is to prove that inflation caused by joining the euro area will not materialize due to the negative effects of external shocks. Research methodology: A panel analysis with a fixed effects model was conducted for two models. Model 1 represents the countries that introduced the euro before the escalation of the global financial crisis and Model 2 represents the countries that introduced the euro after the development of the global financial crisis. Results: the research confirmed that due to current negative external shocks and rising long-term interest rates in financial markets, the effect of inflation due to the introduction of the euro will be absent among EU members that will adopt the euro as a common currency in the next few years. Novelty: The results of the research contribute to the scientific prediction of business and financial trends. The creators of macroeconomic models and monetary policy can use the results to define measures, instruments and activities more precisely for achieving and maintaining macroeconomic balance.
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While current climate and environmental efforts are mostly focused on the necessary and urgent CO2 emissions cuts, energy transition and climate adaptation, other not least pressing issues such as air quality start reaching the political agenda (European Commission, 2019). In this paper, we address air pollution from the social welfare perspective and bring together two strings of literature on the productivity of green urban infrastructure for ambient air quality and the monetisation of air quality improvements. Based on the EU air quality data by country and city, we identify those regions, which would benefit most from improved urban green infrastructure to improve air quality performance in Europe. We review a set of academic literature on the impact of urban green combating urban air pollution, and provide a synthesis review of social externality costs connected to urban air pollution. We extrapolate, in a stylized manner, the effect of increasing urban vegetation throughout the EU and in a selection of EU cities. Our estimates show that additional 1m2 of green cover throughout the EU cities would lead to 65,9 mln EUR of benefit per year, split about equally between the benefits of improved air quality and carbon sequestration, equivalent to 976 euros per ha per year for air pollutants and 1024 euros per ha per year for carbon abatement.
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Not rarely, economy has been transformed into an autonomous science in relation to the individual, aiming to improve certain abstract indicators, often different or even divergent from their expectations. In this sense, there is a mistaken but quite widespread belief that there is no direct implication between the economic and political domains, that they are completely separate entities. In other words, individual freedom is a political matter, while material well-being is an economic one. Rejecting such a dichotomy, the “classical” liberals of the 20th century (neoliberals) adapted economic discourse to social explanation. Furthermore, they emphasised the neutral nature of the economic science and understood reason only as capable of discovering and explaining the connection between means and ends. Therefore, there is no liberal purpose of man (the individual, humanity), as liberalism offers the path to a plurality of purposes, each of them having a particular character and being the subjective, rationally unprovable action of each individual. Based on these premises, this study argues that if the economy continues to be the instantiation of human action, then only freedom can foster performance and maximise the way in which the economy itself becomes a component of a world that places the individual at its centre. From such a perspective, it becomes useful and necessary to investigate how Ludwig von Mises (re)writes economics as human action, and how his successor, Friedrich Hayek, (re)defines rationalism to distance it from its illicit use within totalitarian systems. What the two philosophers and economists actually reveal is the fundamental and founding connection between freedom and economic performance. Moreover, identifying several arguments against state intervention in the economy highlights once again the validity of the necessary relationship between economy and freedom.
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The Innovation.bg report provides an annual assessment of the innovation potential of the Bulgarian economy in Europe and of the status and opportunities for development of the Bulgarian innovation system. It makes recommendations for improving public policy on innovation in Bulgaria and in the EU, drawing on the latest theoretical and empirical research and taking into account the specific economic, political, cultural and institutional framework within which the country’s innovation system is developing. As in its previous editions, Innovation.bg 2022 analyses the state and opportunities for development of the national innovation system on the basis of four groups of indicators: • gross innovation product; • entrepreneurship and innovation networks; • investment and financing of innovation; • human capital for innovation; • information and communication technologies.
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The Innovation.bg report provides an annual assessment of the innovation potential of the Bulgarian economy in Europe and of the status and opportunities for development of the Bulgarian innovation system. It makes recommendations for improving public policy on innovation in Bulgaria and in the EU, drawing on the latest theoretical and empirical research and taking into account the specific economic, political, cultural and institutional framework within which the country’s innovation system is developing. As in its previous editions, Innovation.bg 2022 analyses the state and opportunities for development of the national innovation system on the basis of four groups of indicators: • gross innovation product; • entrepreneurship and innovation networks; • investment and financing of innovation; • human capital for innovation; • information and communication technologies.
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The Innovation.bg report provides an annual assessment of the innovation potential of the Bulgarian economy in Europe and of the status and opportunities for development of the Bulgarian innovation system. It makes recommendations for improving public policy on innovation in Bulgaria and in the EU, drawing on the latest theoretical and empirical research and taking into account the specific economic, political, cultural and institutional framework within which the country’s innovation system is developing. As in its previous editions, Innovation.bg 2021 analyses the state and opportunities for development of the national innovation system on the basis of four groups of indicators: • gross innovation product; • entrepreneurship and innovation networks; • investment and financing of innovation; • human capital for innovation; • information and communication technologies.
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A large category of problems that arise in physics require an efficient and robust implementation of a three-dimensional model that is specific and cannot be found in the existing software systems. Such models rely on 3D geometric objects representation to perform various simulations of different physical phenomena. Divers applications are based on 3D geometric objects, among which material deformation under certain conditions, heat propagation in a given environment, and as in our case, wave propagation simulation. Of course, the variety of examples that can be given is vast. In this paper we present an implementation of a 3D model as part of our solution of a 3D elastodynamic problem for wave propagation in continuously inhomogenous half-space. The model is optimized to serve as basis of boundary integral equation method (BIEM), but the approach can be applied in various applications that require 3D geometric objects representation.
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Academic systems are working in a complex environment and faced problems to analyze the performance of students using their current systems. Therefore, they use data mining tools to analyze an enormous set of data, get hidden and useful knowledge, and extract meaningful information. The aim of this study is to develop new learning techniques to predict students’ academic results. Five classifiers of the tree family used for the experiments are J48, BF Tree, NB Tree, Random Forest, Random Tree and REP Tree. The results indicated that Random Forest outperformed all the other tree family classifiers in all three datasets. Hence, it is a superior classification technique among the classifiers used for the educational datasets.
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This article discusses an approach to facilitate the design of digital devices of increasing complexity by using the Python language. In this way, both synthesizable designs and non-synthesizable testbench modules can be created. Some practical examples used in the training of students are considered, including the design of a series of frames for control of matrix indicator, a binary multiplier, implemented both as a memory and by using a recursive algorithm. The capabilities of programming languages are increasingly used to create verification environments, as they provide convenience in describing the behavior in the submission of test vectors and making comparisons with the expected response despite the requirement for parallelism in the design. Also, in the verification process, the need for low-level hardware knowledge is not as great as when creating synthesizable designs. In this sense, the software approach, including the concept of object-oriented programming, turns out to be very appropriate. This makes working with complex designs more accessible, particularly for university students, saving them time and allowing them to concentrate on tasks with a higher level of difficulty.
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John Conway’s Circle Theorem is a gem of plane geometry: the six points formed by continuing the sides of a triangle beyond every vertex by the length of its opposite side, are concyclic. The theorem has attracted several proofs, even adorned Mathcamp T-shirts. We present a short proof that views the extended sides as equal tangents of the incircle, a perspective that enables generalization to polygons.
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