Improving accessibility at airports

Analyse and evaluate the accessibility at airports to improve the role of this infrastructure at regional level

A Consumption-Based Approach to Carbon Emission Accounting – Sectoral Differences and Environmental Benefits

In recent years there has been growing concern about the emission trade balances of countries. This is due to the fact that countries with an open economy are active players in international trade. Trade is not only a major factor in forging a country’s economic structure, but contributes to the movement of embodied emissions beyond country borders. This issue is especially relevant from the carbon accounting policy and domestic production perspective, as it is known that the production-based principle is employed in the Kyoto agreement. The research described herein was designed to reveal the interdependence of countries on international trade and the corresponding embodied emissions both on national and on sectoral level and to illustrate the significance of the consumption-based emission accounting. It is presented here to what extent a consumption-based accounting would change the present system based on production-based accounting and allocation. The relationship of CO2 emission embodied in exports and embodied in imports is analysed here. International trade can blur the responsibility for the ecological effects of production and consumption and it can lengthen the link between consumption and its consequences. Input-output models are used in the methodology as they provide an appropriate framework for climate change accounting. The analysis comprises an international comparative study of four European countries (Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Hungary) with extended trading activities and carbon emissions. Moving from a production-based approach in climate policy to a consumption-based principle and allocation approach would help to increase the efficiency of emission reductions and would force countries to rethink their trading activities in order to decrease the environmental load of production activities. The results of this study show that it is important to distinguish between the two emission accounting approaches, both on the global and the local level

European Regional Science: Between Economy of Culture and Economy of Catastrophes (Review of the ERSA 2005 Amsterdam Congress Reports)

ERSA Congress can be seen as laboratory of ideas with broad representation not only European, but also scientists from US, Japan, Korea, Brazil, African and Asian countries. With very high speed new thoughts and phenomena from the European regional scientific community appear on the stages of the ERSA annual Congresses. Three new features were characteristic for the 2005 ERSA Congress in comparison with the previous ones. First, special focus on the factors of density in the regional development. That was not surprising as the meeting was held in the city of Amsterdam with the highest density in Europe where land and space are scarce goods. Second, integrative tendencies in attempt to use natural factors to explain traditional phenomena of the regional science. Issues of land and water management coincide with economic growth and regional development in many reports. Third, for the first time theme of networks and network society was embedded in many sections of the Congress and in the very title of the Congress itself. All these aspects as participants demonstrated could be positive creative factors increasing cultural assets of the European regions, efficiency of the knowledge transfer, leisure activities; or negative as the source of disaster and risk for human beings. Density factors (lack of people or lack of space?) divide European regional science into two sciences – urban for the populated regions and regional for the territories scarcely populated with very different themes, methods and tools of research. Housing markets, urban sprawl and commuting patterns are popular topics in the first case; labour markets and human capital in the second case. New Economic Geography models work smoothly in the first regions but are inappropriate in the second. Competition is harder in the labour markets of the populated regions but is softer in the regions with scattered population where it is substituted by the forces of cooperation. Contemporary regional society can be sustainable only as network society. In the reports networks were examined on different levels: a) as transportation networks in the investment national or interregional projects; b) as policentricity urban structures replacing Cristaller’s hierarchy of central places; c) as public-public, public-private partnerships combining public and private stakeholders in the decision-making process. Transition of the European regions from the industrial to network/service has begun 25 years ago. Position of the concrete region on this route determines clearly the type and intensity of its problem and research agenda. The more advanced is the region or nation on this route the more often terms like “reinventâ€, “rethinkâ€, “revisited†are used in the scientific community. Rediscovery of the old concepts, definitions, essence (as Amsterdam Congress demonstrated) is very creative and challenging process of the post-industrial regional science.

Deep Integration and Its Impacts on Nonmembers: EU Enlargement and East Asia

Ten countries-most completing their transition from socialist-based economies to market economies-became the EU members in 2004, two additional countries are slated to join the Union in 2007, and a few others are expected to become members at some future dates. Despite a relatively small economic size of the new member, acceding and candidate countries, this type of deep integration can have non-negligible effects on countries outside of the preferential zone as the reduction in barriers across partners leads to a re-orientation of trade. In this study, we evaluate the extent of trade adjustments and the economic impacts it will have on the East Asian economies using a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The overall macroeconomic effects on East Asia are small. There is some trade diversion, but there may be an opportunity to increase market penetration in some sectors of the expanding EU for which East Asia has a marked comparative advantage. This paper also assesses the relative importance of linking trade openness to productivity and lowering trade costs between the new member, acceding and candidate countries and the EU-15.EU enlargement, East Asia, CGE model

Love thy neighbour? Coronavirus politics and their impact on EU freedoms and rule of law in the Schengen Area. CEPS Paper in Liberty and Security in Europe No. 2020-04, April 2020

Restrictions on international and intra-EU traffic of persons have been at the heart of the political responses to the coronavirus pandemic. Border controls and suspensions of entry and exist have been presented as key policy priorities to prevent the spread of the virus in the EU. These measures pose however fundamental questions as to the raison d’être of the Union, and the foundations of the Single Market, the Schengen system and European citizenship. They are also profoundly intrusive regarding the fundamental rights of individuals and in many cases derogate domestic and EU rule of law checks and balances over executive decisions. This Paper examines the legality of cross-border mobility restrictions introduced in the name of COVID-19. It provides an in-depth typology and comprehensive assessment of measures including the reintroduction of internal border controls, restrictions of specific international traffic modes and intra-EU and international ‘travel bans’. Many of these have been adopted in combination with declarations of a ‘state of emergency’

Design Challenges for Innovation Management on Agro-Food Sector

Current status of research indicates that we assist to location-specific factor supremacy as determinants in regional attractiveness and sustainability being territorial driven, we offer strong arguments for policy makers in order to enable this long term strategy. We also address another issue heavily disputed between academics-that is the return to local and regional offerings as complementary to global assumption. Assisting today to a hybrid innovation process, relying upon territorial marketing-an umbrella for too many issues cvasi- exploited: eco-clusters, local and regional offerings; traditional products/services exploiting, regional clusters competing for funds; we are focusing on complex industrial -rural system reconfiguration relying upon dynamic evolution of territorial branding into competitive identity, as the disruptive behavior we need in sustainable development. Successful development strategies are based on the ability to build an institutional territorial coherence-social and environmental sustainability being inextricably interdependent, such a complex coordination structure relies on territorial knowledge sharing through expertise polls consultation- as key concept of good governance. This model of innovational resource allocation coordination on agro food chains, relying upon clusterisation through patterns of innovational management deficit, offers a relevant solution for synergic orientation of assistance and mentoring efforts on the sector, enable the capitalization of relevant capabilities and increase the addressability from innovation demand side. Based upon auditing 500 SME’s from agro food sector in Europe and 51 in SE region, the paper is fully documented on there years of data analyzing from Agro Food sector on 10 European countries in the framework on FP6 SPAS European Project.territorial knowledge sharing, innovation resource allocation, disruptive territorial solution, community supported agro food chains

Modeling Economic, Social and Environmental Implications of a Free Trade Agreement Between the European Union and The Russian Federation

The EU-Russia Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which entered into force in 1997 foresees the possible establishment of a free trade area (FTA) between the parties. The aim of our study is to evaluate the possible economic, social and environmental impact of such a free trade agreement between the European Union and Russia. The results of the analysis indicate that an EU-Russia FTA will be beneficial to the Russian Federation and the EU27. Some sectors are expected to contract in the medium term, but their importance in total output is small. Over the long run, the majority of sectors in Russia are expected to expand, while only a few sectors in the EU27 are expected to register negligible decreases in output. We estimate that welfare losses from the environmental damages would be very small for Russia (possibly even smaller due to the implementation of greener technologies), and negligible for the EU. Despite some significant negative medium-term social implications in selected sectors in Russia, the overall increase in economic activity and wages, coupled with likely domestic policies aiming at easing the impact of transitional unemployment, are expected to allow for the overall reduction in poverty rates. Overall, the results show that significant welfare gains (2.24% of GDP for Russia) would accrue from the deep FTA scenario involving a significant reduction of NTBs along with additional flanking measures, particularly on competition, IPR protection and corruption, which would help re-branding of Russia as a safe and attractive investment location. Also a number of countries such as Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Denmark, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden are expected to see their welfare increase by around 0.5% of GDP.free trade agreement, WTO accession, European Union, Russian Federation, labor market, environment, NTBs, CGE

Nitrogen deposition onto the United States and Western Europe: A synthesis of observations and models.

The documented acceleration of NH3 and NOx (NO + NO2) emissions over the last 150 years has accelerated N deposition, compromising air and water quality and altering the functioning of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems worldwide. To construct continental-scale N budgets, we produced maps of N deposition fluxes from site-network observations for the United States and Western Europe. Increases in the rates of N cycling for these two regions of the world are large, and they have undergone profound modification of biospheric–atmospheric N exchanges, and ecosystem function. The maps are necessarily restricted to the network measured quantities and consist of statistically interpolated fields of aqueous NO3− and NH4+, gaseous HNO3 and NO2 (in Europe), and particulate NO3− and NH4+. There remain a number of gaps in the budgets, including organic N and NH3 deposition. The interpolated spatially continuous fields allow estimation of regionally integrated budget terms. Dry-deposition fluxes were the most problematic because of low station density and uncertainties associated with exchange mechanisms. We estimated dry N deposition fluxes by multiplying interpolated surface-air concentrations for each chemical species by model-calculated, spatially explicit deposition velocities. Deposition of the oxidized N species, by-products of fossil-fuel combustion, dominate the U.S. N deposition budget with 2.5 Tg of NOy-N out of a total of 3.7–4.5 Tg of N deposited annually onto the conterminous United States. Deposition of the reduced species, which are by-products of farming and animal husbandry, dominate the Western European N-deposition budget with a total of 4.3–6.3 Tg N deposited each year out of a total of 8.4–10.8 Tg N. Western Europe receives five times more N in precipitation than does the conterminous United States. Estimated N emissions exceed measured deposition in the United States by 5.3– 7.81 Tg N, suggesting significant N export or under-sampling of urban influence. In Europe, estimated emissions better balance measured deposition, with an imbalance of between −0.63 and 2.88 Tg N, suggesting that much of the N emitted in Europe is deposited there, with possible N import from the United States. The sampling network in Europe includes urban influences because of the greater population density of Western Europe. Our analysis of N deposition for both regions was limited by sampling density. The framework we present for quantification of patterns of N deposition provides a constraint on our understanding of continental biospheric–atmospheric N cycles. These spatially explicit wet and dry N fluxes also provide a tool for verifying regional and global models of atmospheric chemistry and transport, and they represent critical inputs into terrestrial models of biogeochemistry

Trade-off Between Cost and Effectiveness of Control of Nutrient Loading into a Water Body

A system consisting of a watershed and a water body is considered, and a methodology is presented for selecting the alternative scheme offering the best compromise between economic activity in the watershed and quality of the water body. The general problem is specified for the system of a watershed and a lake endangered by eutrophication. Both economic activity and eutrophication can be characterized by several criteria. The method is applied to actual data from a subwatershed of Lake Balaton, Hungary, where the economic objective is to minimize the sum of costs and losses for the various control measures and the environmental objective is to minimize the amount of P available for algal growth. Both of these objectives are decomposed into several criteria. The action space consists of six pure strategies, namely, the control of (1) point-source pollution, (2) fertilizer, (3) erosion, (4) land use, (5) runoff control, and (6) sediment yield. These six pure actions lead to the definition of eight mixed alternatives. The phosphorus-loading portion of the model is run repeatedly with different stochastic input sequences to account for hydrologic uncertainty and the corresponding environmental objective is expressed as the probability "uj" that alternative "j" results in the largest decrease of P-loading. Model parameters are estimated using available data or published tables and graphs. Compromise programming is used to find a trade-off (or satisfactum solution) that balances the two conflicting objectives. In order to facilitate further application of the methodology, several points are discussed such as the relationship between the lake and its catchment, the error in stochastic simulation, the consideration of various uncertainties, the effect of snowmelt, and possible coupling with detailed lake eutrophication models. Finally, a step-by-step summary of the methodology is given to facilitate application of the model to other cases. Multicriterion decision-making techniques are briefly reviewed in the appendix so that cases with more than two objectives may also be approached