European Union

The \"green mechanism\", which will become actually effective on 1 January 2016, should work. No sooner than next year we shall see, though, whether it will function effectively and meet the expectations of the majority of players.

No-fee regulation will have its limits (they should prevent abusing of the cheap prices of cross-border calls), first proposals are very restrictive – the maximum 40 minutes of calls and 100 text messages per year from abroad. However, it is definitely one of the biggest intervention to the entrepreneurial freedom the European Union has seen.

Slovakia is experiencing situation common to many European economies. The price of electric energy on the market is falling, so is the overall consumption of electricity. And yet, the final price for consumers, especially in the industrial sector, remains high.

After years of being ignorant to the ICT and the digital economy in general, the Czech Republic has now changed its position and declares its full support to the digital agenda as well as the EU Digital Single Market Strategy. The problem, however, is that the actual implementation of these promises has been lagging behind for a long time.

Security is the biggest challenge for our economy. To counteract a similar challenge, Israel, for example, is entirely militarized, regardless of the fact that numerous international lobbyist groups assist it, including financially. A country facing such security challenges might have armed forces three or four times stronger than Georgia and a defense budget 10 times larger.

The objective of this paper is to comment on the “Better regulation for better results - An EU agenda” from May 19, 2015 (hereinafter – EU BR Agenda) in a broader context. The EU BR Agenda confirms the existing schemes and frameworks of EU Better Regulation policy, expresses a firm political commitment to continue efforts in this regard, and embraces evolutional – not revolutionary – novelties.

A common EU cyberspace market is expected to transform cyberspace into a favourable environment for new businesses and provide even the smallest digital companies with access to 500 million consumers across the EU. It is indeed an excellent intention, but what are the steps to a successful implementation?

Republikon Institute proposes to introduce in Hungary primary elections. We believe that this instrument of narrowing the field of candidates helps also to enhance media attention and involve citizens, thus increase the trust in the democratic opposition.

Estonia has set itself the goal of making better use of digital opportunities in teaching and developing students’ digital competence - the ability to use digital technology in order to better cope with studying and working, communicating within communities and simply as citizens in a rapidly changing information society.

The short natural gas supply cut to Ukraine during the 2006 gas crisis and the 2009 dispute, in which Gazprom again decided to halt all gas supplies via Ukraine, not only contributes to a growing perception of the politicisation of EU-Russian gas trade but the reliability of Russia as an energy provider in general.