In the countries of the European Union a manufacturer, an importer, and an authorized representative have to meet the requirements for the type of goods. An action which allows to provide the same level of quality for all products is harmonization. As a rule harmonization is achieved by implementation of EU directives, which should by placed in the legal system of the Member States. But focus only on product quality may lead to generating large costs restraining economic development. Normalization should prevent this phenomenon. Normalization is a deliberate action adjusted to achieve saving, users interests and protection of life and health. Uniform rules concerning the placing on the market in every Member States directly provides the growth potential of the market and invites manufacturers and importers to act on the European market. By engaging in one-off activities they will gain access to a great and differentiated market. Additionally, the same requirements for the products promote technology development. Thus the interests of consumers are protected.
The provision of Article 40 paragraph 1 of the Polish Construction Law provides that the authority which issued the decision granting a building permit shall transfer the decision to another entity if it accepts all the conditions set out in this decision and make a statement of its right to use the property for construction purposes. The architectural and construction authority is obliged to transfer the decision when these conditions are met. The interpretation of Article 40 paragraph 1 of the Polish Construction Law seems to fully explain how the authority should transfer a decision granting a building permit. However, this rule refers only to a situation in which an existing investor voluntarily wants to transfer powers possessed by them to any other entity. Problems in the application of the provision arise when an existing investor cannot express their will. In the article I would like to present two such cases, which often become the subject of decisions of the authorities and in respect of which settlement is not uniform.
With the Audio-Visual Media Services (AVMS) Directive the explicit regulation of product placement is introduced into the framework of European media law. The product placement is today one of most debated issue for the media law experts in Europe. What is the “product placement”? In what kind of programmes the product placement is allowed? What are the conditions these programmes have to fulfill in order to contain the product placement? The AVMS Directive states even the programmes during which is not allowed the product placement. How are reflected into the new Albanian draft-law on audiovisual media services the AVMS Directive obligations? These are some of the questions that the following article tries to answers.
An important instrument of the fiscal policy is the real estate transfer tax. The approach of EU member states to it has been growing different and departing from the USA model. The comparative study of these heterogeneously different approaches presented in the article is illustrative. The real estate transfer tax system does not belong to the conferred competencies, but a touch of harmonization for states struggling with it, such as the Czech Republic, could help. Hence, the hypotheses to be confirmed or rejected are: (i) real estate transfer tax is inherently particular and harmonization resistant and (ii) real estate transfer tax is not indispensable per se. These hypotheses are addressed while using scientific methods and national statistics. The conclusions confirm both hypotheses and offer thoughts and issues for further research on the (in)capacity of the EU harmonization of the real estate transfer tax and on the (in)effectiveness of the real estate tax, as such.
This paper focuses on the civil liability of asset managers in Polish law. Following the transformation of the economic system and the development of the capital market in Poland, the importance of asset management has been gradually increasing, though it remains disproportionally lower when compared to the role of collective asset management in the form of investment funds. The chief purpose of both MiFID directives is to harmonize the rules applicable to investment firms providing brokerage services in Europe, and to protect the interests of investors using brokerage services. Although the civil liability of investment firms offering brokerage services is part of what is broadly construed as investor protection, the regulations on this matter have been left to the member states’ discretion. There is no doubt that discrepancies between member states in this respect diminish the harmonizing effect of both directives. This paper sets out todetermine the basic rules of civil liability of asset managers in Polish law, and present suggestions for the most common problems in this field.
Research background: Modern European integration focuses on competition in the internal single market, embracing both competitiveness and consumer protection, and it aims at full harmonization in this arena. The hallmark, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive from 2005, aims to overcome diverse social, political, legal and economic traditions. Is the implied protection against misleading practices an opportunity or a threat for Central European Regions? Purpose of the article: The primary purpose is to comparatively describe and critically assess the transposed legal frameworks. The secondary purpose is to study and evaluate their coherence in the light of the case law and their impact in Central Europe, in particular whether it represents an opportunity or a threat for the smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, i.e. boosting competitiveness and innovation along with consumer welfare. Methods: The cross-disciplinary and multi-jurisdictional nature of this paper, and its dual purposes, implies the use of Meta-Analysis, of various interpretation techniques suitable for legal texts and judicial decisions, of the critical comparison and of a holistic assessment of approaches and impacts. Legislation and case law are explored and the yielded knowledge and data are confronted with a field search and case studies. The dominating qualitative research and data are complemented by the quantitative research and data. Findings & Value added: For over one decade, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive has required full harmonization of the protection against, among other items, misleading commercial practices, by legislatures and judges in the EU. The exploration pursuant to the two purposes suggests that this ambitious legislative and case law project entails a number of transposition approaches with varying levels of coherence, importance and impacts on the competitiveness and innovation of business and consumer welfare in Central Europe. Therefore, full harmonization should be either readjusted or relaxed.
Research background: The Post-Lisbon EU aims at smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth on the single internal market, as indicated by the Europe 2020. The interplay of the competition and consumer protection on such a market is subject to harmonization. The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive has been made in order to achieve a full harmonization in this respect in 2007. However, EU member states share different social, political, legal and economic traditions and their approaches to unfair competition, in particular if committed via parasitic commercial practices, are dramatically diverse. In such a context, is it feasible, effective and efficient to install a full harmonization? Purpose of the article: The primary purpose of this article is to describe and assess approaches to unfair competition, in particular if committed via parasitic commercial practices, by the EU law and EU member states law. The secondary purpose is to study and evaluate possibilities for the feasible, effective and efficient harmonization, or their lack. Methods: The cross-disciplinary and multi-jurisdictional nature of this article, and its dual purposes, implies the use of Meta-Analysis, of the critical comparison of laws and the impact of their application, to the holistic perception of historical and national contexts, and to case studies. The primary and secondary sources are explored and the yield knowledge and data are confronted with the status quo. The dominating qualitative research and data are complemented by the quantitative research and data. Findings & Value added: The EU opted for an ambitious challenge to install via the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive a full harmonization of the regime against unfair commercial practices, including parasitic ones. The exploration pursuant to the duo of purposes suggests that the challenge is perhaps too ambitious and that the EU underestimated the dramatic diversity of approaches to unfair commercial practices, especially parasitic ones.
Environmental degradation in the world in general, and in Africa in particular, is occurring on a scale of increasing concern. The challenge for public policy is to change the relationship between people and their environment in order to reverse this trend. To this end, in an internal and an international context characterized by, on the one hand, the establishment of democracy and the rule of law and, on the other, by the globalization of environmental law following the Rio Conference (1992) in particular, the rule of law has naturally emerged as the key tool for these transformations. The aim of this article is to identify and analyze the African legal instruments and the actions of transformation in the relationship between the regional legal framework and international environment law, with the goal of the sustainability of natural resources and sustainable living environment as the key environmental issues in a fragile region. Africa is in the processes of decision making and adopting environmental protection methods as it embarks on a normative production process, with the aim of producing a law combining international standards and local norms and practices. The contemporary issues of environmental protection in Africa are analyzed in an interdisciplinary approach.
Globalization and Ukraine association with EU imply including Ukrainian universities into the world scientific space. The aim of this article is to analyze the problem of drawing standards teaching, based on the experience of Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas (Ukraine) and to summarize the experience of post Soviet states in a field of the new technical standards implementation. Experience of post Soviet states showed necessity to gradual transition to new standards. Based on this experience, main fundamental principles for new standards and technical regulations harmonization have been presented. The main directions of improving the system of personnel training and retraining in this field are: changing the educational institutions syllabuses to in-depth study of new standards and regulations and the skills to apply them in practice, monitoring the quality of educational programs of secondary and higher educational institutions; development of training programs for engineers and other technical personnel of basic new standards and regulations; compliance training programs and syllabuses for engineers, relevant to international training programs and syllabuses (taking into account the laws and traditions of the technical education in Ukraine); development of the national standards of education and certification on the basis of international standards.
The article describes the evolutionary stages of Polish GAAP from the early 1990s to the present day in the context of basic harmonization trends. It explains that the developments have been shaped by two groups of international regulation, IFRS and the European Union directives. As a result, Polish GAAP represents an example of a mixed model accounting including features of both Anglo-American and Continental regulation.
PL
W artykule opisano rozwój polskiej rachunkowości od początku lat 90. XX w. do dnia dzisiejszego w kontekście harmonizacji. Wyjaśniono, że zmiany były kształtowane przez dwa źródła międzynarodowych regulacji: MSSF i dyrektywy Unii Europejskiej. W efekcie polska rachunkowość reprezentuje model mieszany, łącząc w sobie cechy zarówno rozwiązań anglo-amerykańskich, jak i kontynentalnych.
This paper emphasises that Europeanisation of law contributes greatly to the phenomenon of decodification. The impact of European legislation on the position of the civil code as the main source of private law is clearly visible in the case of directly effective regulations. Also, implementation of directives can (and often does) lead to the creation of legislation regulating civil law matters, yet separate from the civil code. The Polish experience with implementation of directives concerning consumers protection makes for a good example. Regulation of timeshare contracts completely outside the civil code is – according to the Polish doctrine – a result of difficulties with integrating this particular provision into the codification of private law. If such difficulties are inevitable, so is also progressing decodification of civil law due to its advancing harmonization on the European level.
The article deals with the situation of entrepreneurs – users and manufactur-ers of measuring instruments in Poland according to the harmonization of the Polish measurement law with the EU law after Polish accession to the European Union . The essence of the free movement of goods is presented as a determinant of technical harmonization of measuring instruments in the Single Internal Market of the EU . The article depicts furthermore the valid legal procedures such as the legal metrological control and the conformity assessment . These procedures are applied to the measuring instruments introduced into the market and being used in the context of the obligations of producers and users of measuring instruments
In this research work, the author focuses on the analysis of the problem of specificity the regulatory protectionism in contemporary foreign trade policy. It has been emphasized that the talks between EU and USA will make reducing regulatory barriers. New agreements to remove trade barriers aim at reducing dead-weight costs and at increasing net social gains from international trade. The article examined the impact of investor-state dispute resolution mechanisms in reducing the power of national governments to regulate and elimination of market inequality. The article offers examples of successful regulatory cooperation efforts in the hope that it will shed light on possible approaches to addressing regulatory divergences. Ideally, the best way to address problems arising from regulatory divergence would be on a multilateral basis. The main aim of the article is the presentation of the specificity of the regulatory protectionism in contemporary foreign trade policy.
The article is devoted to the description of the methods of correction of the semantic fields of words. We defined its main tasks, linguistic material and conditions of its use, substantiated the principles of the division of material into educational directions, specified the aims of this choice, defined the criteria for selecting the material (thematic principle, linguistic, morphological, frequency, hierarchical, etc.). These principles enabled us to form pivotal vocabulary groups for secondary school children, taking into account their linguistic experience and the curricula requirements for children with severe speech disorders. We described three main stages of the implementation of the remedial program, their purpose and directions of work, namely, the actualization of the existing knowledge of the child, the expansion of the lexical meaning through the accumulation of new words and the use of semantic ties to integrate them into existing semantic fields. The most critical and most important was the stage of harmonization, structuring and repolarization of semantic fields, in which conditions for independent construction and modification of semantic fields were created, as it provided for independent, competent work of children in selecting, processing and using the information obtained from different sources and branches of knowledge, as well as acquiring skills by one’s own choice or instruction to transform existing semantic fields. The article gives a list of practical tasks offered to children at different stages of remedy for individual and group work. Students worked with ready-made graphic structures of expressions and dynamic models. In order to visualize the process of forming semantic fields, in addition to the generally accepted models (associative chains), we proposed some projective models (“the snowball tree cluster", “the sundial", “the associative bush", and the “ multi-stage pyramid", which allowed to study quantitative and qualitative characteristics of semantic fields.
The paper will focus on requirements and thresholds set for the judiciary by the Damages Directive. Answered will also be questions on the specialization of courts and its application in Central and Eastern European (CEE) Member States of the EU, as well as on the involvement of national competition authorities (NCAs) in court proceedings. The paper provides also general thoughts regarding the specialization of courts and confronts them with the judiciary structure in CEE Member States in the context of private enforcement of competition law. While there is no uniform model of a judicial system, the paper provides a critical analysis of the centralization, specialization and decentralization of private enforcement models, taking into account also the importance of the training of judges. The relationship between NCAs and courts will be discussed whereby the role of NCAs in private enforcement defines the responsibility of the given public authority in private enforcement as a country’s policymaker.
Podatek dochodowy od osób fizycznych (z ang. PIT - personal income tax) jest stosunkowo młodą konstrukcją w europejskich systemach podatkowych. Jest on formą daniny publicznej realizującej najczęściej pozafiskalne funkcje opodatkowania. Jako bezpośrednia forma podatku od dochodów wzbudza silne emocje polityczne pozostając najbardziej „rozpoznawalną” przez obywateli formą obciążeń publiczno - prawnych. W systemach podatkowych krajów Unii Europejskiej (UE) podatek dochodowy od osób fizycznych jest zarówno ważnym źródłem dochodów budżetowych, jak i instrumentem realizacji funkcji socjalnych, społecznych, stymulacyjnych oraz redystrybucyjnych. Mimo, iż opodatkowanie dochodów osobistych leży w kompetencji każdego z państw członkowskich, w wielu sytuacjach potrzebna jest koordynacja na poziomie unijnym regulacji podatkowych, mająca na celu zapewnienie swobód określonych w Traktacie ustanawiającym Wspólnotę Europejską oraz wyeliminowanie barier podatkowych w ponadgranicznej działalności obywateli państw – członków UE.
EN
Personal income tax (hereinafter referred to as PIT) has a short history, as it appeared in tax systems of EU countries as late as at the end of the 18th century. As a specific universal construction it performs two economic functions: providing financial means for covering some public expenses (fiscal function), leveling off – through its construction – inequalities in population incomes (redistribution function) and implements social functions of taxation through various tax reliefs and exemptions or the construction of the tax scale.
RU
Подоходный налог с физических лиц (далее - ПНП) имеет короткую историю, так как это было в налоговых системах стран ЕС уже в конце 18 века. В качестве конкретной универсальной конструкции он выполняет две экономические функции: предоставление финансовых средств для покрытия некоторых государственных расходов (фискальная функция), выравнивание – благодаря его составным элементам - неравенства в доходах населения (функция перераспределения) и осуществление социальных функций налогообложения посредством различных налоговых льгот, а также освобождения от налогов или конструкции налоговой шкалы.
Parlament Europejski jest jedyną instytucją systemu politycznego Unii Europejskiej, której skład wybierany jest bezpośrednio przez wszystkich dorosłych obywateli państw członkowskich. Od czterech dekad nie udało się wypracować jednolitego systemu wyborczego, a wybory do PE organizowane są od samego początku, czyli od 1979 roku, na podstawie ordynacji narodowych. Przedmiotem analizy są wysuwane propozycje reform systemu wyborczego Unii Europejskiej, wychodząc od przedstawienia modelowych rozwiązań systemów wyborczych stosowanych w demokracjach sfragmentaryzowanych. Wskazane są różnice w obecnie obowiązujących krajowych ordynacjach wyborczych do PE oraz przeanalizowane trudności w zakresie ujednolicania unijnego systemu wyborczego.
EN
The European Parliament is the only institution of European Union’ political system, which is elected directly by the adult citizens of the Member States. After four decades from the first direct elections (1979) the EP elections are organized on the basis of national law. The article examines proposals of the EU electoral system’ reforms starting from the analysis of the model solutions used in fragmented democracies. Author indicated differences in the current national EP’ electoral laws and examined difficulties of the convergence and harmonization of the EU voting system.
The current taxation of personal incomes is a very complex phenomenon which should be analyzed not only from the legal point of view, but also taking into account into social, cultural, economic and political and system aspects. We cannot isolate the economic sphere from the tax sphere, as income taxes directly affect the way taxpayers function, their purchasing power, they determine labor costs for entrepreneurs and thus significantly influence the GDP growth rate. The issues of harmonizing taxation of incomes obtained by individuals who do not act as economic operators is practically absent in scientific literature. The only issues that are analyzed are those related to taxation of incomes from savings, transfers, capital gains, mergers and divisions. This is so because it is required by the nature of conducting economic operations within the common market.
PL
Aktualnie opodatkowanie dochodów osób fizycznych to bardzo złożone zjawisko, które należy rozpatrywać nie tylko przez pryzmat prawny, ale i społeczny, kulturowy, gospodarczy oraz polityczno-ustrojowy. Nie można izolować sfery ekonomiczniej od sfery podatkowej, ponieważ podatki dochodowe w sposób bezpośredni wpływają na funkcjonowanie podatników, ich siłę nabywczą, stanowią o kosztach pracy z perspektywy przedsiębiorców i przez to w istotny sposób wpływają na tempo wzrostu PKB. Problematyka harmonizacji opodatkowania dochodów osób fizycznych nieprowadzących działalności gospodarczej jest praktycznie nieobecna w literaturze naukowej. Jedynie kwestie opodatkowania dochodów z oszczędności, transferów, dochodów kapitałowych, fuzji, podziałów itp. jest przedmiotem opracowań i analiz. Wynika to faktu, iż wymaga tego istota prowadzenia działalności gospodarczej w ramach wspólnego rynku.
In the absence of EU legislation prescribing sanctions for its own enforcement, the member states are free to impose appropriate sanctions within their own legal systems. However, the EU attempts to harmonize national sanctions in a growing number of fields of EU law. A number of difficult questions arise in this context, regarding particularly the means of the harmonization (laying down minimum levels for the upper limit of penalties, harmonizing some elements of general part of substantive criminal law…), compatibility of EU harmonized penalties with national criminal and administrative systems etc. The aim of this article is to identify, on the example of the Directive (EU) 2017/1371 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2017 on the fight against fraud to the Union’s financial interests by means of criminal law, the difficulties relating to the compatibility of EU harmonized sanctions with national legal orders. Finally, the article brings forward suggestions on how to improve the harmonization efforts of the EU in the field of penalties intended to enforce EU law.
CS
Právo Evropské unie v čím dál větší míře harmonizuje vnitrostátní sankce, které mají zajišťovat dodržování práva Unie. V této souvislosti se objevuje řada otázek, týkajících se zejména zvoleného způsobu harmonizace (stanovování minimálních horních hranic trestních sazeb, harmonizování některých institutů obecné části trestního práva hmotného…), slučitelnosti sankcí harmonizovaných prostřednictvím unijního práva s vnitrostátními systémy trestního práva apod. Předkládaný článek si na příkladu směrnice Evropského parlamentu a Rady (EU) 2017/1371 ze dne 5. července 2017 o boji vedeném trestněprávní cestou proti podvodům poškozujícím finanční zájmy Unie klade za cíl poukázat na problematickou kompatibilitu unijně harmonizovaných sankcí s vnitrostátními právními řády a upozornit na spornou účinnost unijních opatření. Závěr článku obsahuje doporučení pro harmonizační úsilí Unie v oblasti sankcí zajišťujících dodržování unijního práva.
This article is part of a bigger paper that was published in the previous volume and the current one. Its purpose is to analyze the current situation of Ukraine after entering into force of the association agreement. The idea of its author is to juxtapose the legal system of EU single internal market and its rules with the set of obligations regarding introduction of free movement of goods, persons, services and capital in the coming years stemming from this agreement. The reason to concentrate on this particular part of EU-Ukraine relations is the fundamental meaning of the above rules both for the modernization and future development of Ukraine and its future capability to apply for real membership. In order to evaluate this, the first article analyzed the legal construction of the association agreement itself. The second one is concerned with the convergence between the regulatory frameworks of Ukraine and the EU seen as a way to its integration into the European economic legal space.
UK
Метою даної статті є аналіз процесів гармонізації у сфері законодавства внутрішнього ринку, які повинні бути зреалізовані у українській нормативній системі на основі договору про асоціацію, який створює глибоку і всеосяжну зону вільної торгівлі. Він визначає принципи глибокої економічної інтеграції, а також регуляційної конвергенції у широкому розумінні, яка здається бути ключовою для модернізації і розвитку цієї держави, а також забезпечення їй гідного майбутнього. Звідси підпорядкування України законодавству ЄС, практично повністю у сфері економічного членства, яке виникає з політики і дій ЄС, які є пріоритетними. Слід пам’ятати, що це буде стосуватися як положень, які були чинні в процесі переговорів над договором, так і тих, які виникли пізніше, що має забезпечити своєрідне наслідування розвитку, який буде елементом ЄС. З очевидних причин на жаль, незалежно від того наскільки серйозне фінансове і адміністративне навантаження це може породжувати, воно не супроводжується можливість впливу України на форму цього законодавства. Крім аналізу загальних викликів, які можуть бути пов’язані з цим процесом, у статті представлена спроба аналізу принципів пристосування у конкретних сферах, починаючи від товарообороту в рамках Європейського Союзу, так і по відношенню до торгівлі з третіми державами. У цій сфері зобов’язання охоплюють величезну кількість матеріалу у сфері технічних вимог, вимог, які стосуються техніки безпеки і охорони навколишнього середовища, особливо по відношенню до споживчих товарів. Беручи до уваги рівень складності, а також необхідні структурні зміни винятковим викликом може виявитись необхідність достосування законодавства пов’язаного з державними закупівлями і системою нарахування ПДВ. Уже в цьому контексті можна згадати питання пов’язані з захистом конкуренції, а також інтелектуальної власності, хоча вони і виходять за межі сфери торгівлі товарами. Наступною проаналізованою областю є свобода міграції людей, де виступає необхідність врахування соціальних стандартів у сфері трудового законодавства, доробку політики працевлаштування ЄС, а також можливості участі у системі координування суспільного забезпечення. Беручи до уваги хоча б польський досвід можна припустити, що складності будуть виступати при впровадженні системи визнання професійних кваліфікацій. У свою чергу з точки зору суспільних проблем найбільшим викликом може бути впровадження в українській системі принципів, які будуть гарантувати рівні шанси на ринку праці, відповідно до антидискримінаційних принципів ЄС. Натомість беручи до уваги рівень недозрілості українського ринку, а також недопрацювання у юридично-інституціональній сфері слід звернути увагу на величезну кількість зобов’язань у широкому сенсі господарській діяльності — хоча б у сфері законодавства пов’язаного з функціонування корпорацій, а також малих і середніх підприємств чи відмивання грошей. По відношенню до сектора послуг це передусім стосується фінансових послуг, інформаційного суспільства, а також частини яка відноситься до транспортних послуг, де перетинаються водночас технічні і соціальні проблеми. Однак, слід звернути увагу також на специфіку енергетичного сектора, разом з сектором атомної енергетики, який є надзвичайно важливим для української економіки. Справді, у кожній з обговорюваних сфер часто виникає необхідність створення цілком нової української юридичної системи. Це звичайно повинно слугувати доступу до ринку цієї країни суб’єктів з ЄС, відкриваючи національну економіку для зовнішньої конкуренції і співпраці. Проте одночасно йде мова про правові розв’язання, які повсякденно є обов’язковими для дотримання усіма учасниками товарообороту, також це стосується чисто внутрішньодержавного обороту, забезпечуючи реальну модернізацію України і перетворюючи її у сучасну, європейську країну.
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