Mental Illness and Intellectual Disability

[Excerpt] Both, people with intellectual disability and people with mental illness, suffer from prejudices, negative attitudes, degrading treatment, abuse and discrimination in society. They are often discriminated against by employers, social and health services, or housing societies and in the access to goods or to financial services. They experience painful emotions, being out of control, or loosing all they have

The European Union Against Social Exclusion

[Excerpt] Social inclusion means that people who are poor or have other problems take part in the life of society. Social inclusion is the opposite of social exclusion

Discrimination Hurts Deep Down Inside! : Fighting Discrimination in Europe

[Excerpt] Everybody has the right to be protected from discriminatio

Achieving Quality: Consumer Involvement in Quality Evaluation of Services

[Excerpt] The aim of this paper is to raise awareness of the fact that changes in the approach towards the “clients” or “consumers” of services for people with intellectual disability do have an important impact on the way the quality evaluation systems of these services should be designed and organised

The need for ‘Diamond Engagement’ around open access to high quality research output

This paper advocates for a co-ordinated cultural shift in their engagement with access to resources in order to make peer-reviewed articles available to a wider audience. This Paper addresses two audiences: scientists, especially those who have been traditionally more resistant to the OA approach, and policy makers. The Scientific Committee is well aware of the difficulties that some research communities face in engaging with the OA approach and would like to offer a way forward to address the current status quo. Social scientists in particular have been struggling with the discussion on OA, given the length of time that the current quality standards and good practice for publication took to set up. The community of researchers perceives that these standards are now guarded by the peer-reviewed ranked journals which do not offer OA for either articles or books, a situation that is certain to persist for some time.   The other important aspect is that payment of Article Processing Charges (APCs) to journals for OA publication is often unaffordable given the limited resources available to the social sciences disciplines. In this context, this paper illustrates how the deposition of articles in public repositories can be beneficial to the research community. At the same time, this Paper encourages policy makers to better invest in the harmonisation of research information metadata standards across Europe using existing public infrastructures, and to ensure good quality of records, interoperability and discoverability. It also links the discussion of OA with an issue that is crucial in both research and policy agendas: demonstration of the impact of publicly-funded research

Whither growth in central and eastern Europe? Policy lessons for an integrated Europe

In this Blueprint, Bruegel Resident Fellows Zsolt Darvas, Jean Pisani-Ferry, André Sapir and their co-authors Torbjörn Becker, Daniel Daianu, Vladimir Gligorov, Michael A Landesmann, Pavle Petrovic, Dariusz K. Rosati and Beatrice Weder di Mauro argue that in view of the depth of integration in Europe, the development model of the central, eastern and south-eastern Europe (CESEE) region, despite its shortcomings, should be preserved. But it should be reformed, with major implications for policymaking both at national and EU levels. If so, what are the required changes? Bruegel and The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw) cooperated to form this expert group of economists from various European countries to research these issues.

Welcome to Europe

Bruegel Fellow Jakob von Weizsäcker argues that Europe needs more high-skilled migration and the debate on low-skilled migration should not be an excuse to slow this process down. Rather, the EU should use a couple of tools to encourage high-skilled migration: a skill-based points system with a â??Blue Card" granting access to its entire labour market and a â??Blue Diploma" for students graduating with a Masters degree (or equivalent) from selected universities to allow them access to the entire EU labour market. In order to manage migration from the new member states he recommends an â??External Minimum Wage".

The new corporation in Europe

This Policy Brief examines how Europeâ??s corporations are changing the way they do business since the 2004 EU Enlargement. Dalia Marin argues that firms are adapting to heightening global competition by shifting decision-making processes. The author gives policy recommendations in the areas of EU neighbourhood and trade policies.

Organic in Europe: Prospects and Developments

In 2016/2017 the European organic food and farming sector continued to excel both in terms of organic production and market growth as well as the latest developments in European Union (EU) food and farming policy. Data for 2016 shows the European organic food market recording significant growth – increasing by 11.4 percent (EU: 12.0 percent). At the same time, the organic sector faces a number of challenges, notably that the growth rates in organic production continue to lag behind the dynamic growth seen within the organic food market. In the public policy arena at the EU level, there are some opportunities for the organic sector to capitalise on the growing awareness and interest in tackling sustainability concerns in the agri-food sector amongst policymakers, but there are also challenges. These prospects and developments for organic in Europe are explored in this chapter

Europe should stop taxing innovation

In this Policy Brief, Bruegel Senior Fellow Bruno van Pottelsberghe makes the argument in favour of a single EU patent system. The author explains that the absence of a one-stop-shop for EU-wide patents hampers innovation and will pose serious challenges to small and medium-sized companies in the face of global competition. This paper analyses how a uniform patent system can sustain long-term competitiveness and boost growth and thereby achieve EU2020 targets. It makes policy recommendations in four key areas of a single patent system - language, complexity, affordability and governance.