From a total of 34 OECD countries, 29 of them have a minister for regulatory reform – Slovakia is not one of them. 33 OECD countries have a permanent institution for overseeing regulatory policy – Slovakia is not one of them.
The more powers, functions and mechanisms concentrated in the hands of a government, the more etatistic its policy with the people more restricted by, and subordinated to, the government. And vice versa, in a country where the government has very few functions, people live, act, study and work more freely.
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.
Despite the likely win of the PiS, the Polish election is going to open large space of uncertainty. Minority government of the Law and Justice might be the outcome. However, such government would not be able to rule the country for long and the next early elections could be expected as early as in 2016.
At least 70% of all drafts of normative acts submitted to the Bulgarian Parliament are with no justification and assessment of expected costs and benefits. This leads to wrong policies, costly policy mistakes, burdened businesses, unpredictable business environment and opportunities for lobbyist to act in favour of specific groups.
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?
Cuba needs a comprehensive structural reform of the constitution, legal system, economy and within its society. It needs to open up to dialogue, interchange and cooperation with today’s key international players: the United States, Europe, Latin America and the international institutions.
In the most recent ranking of the World Economic forum, which compares the competitiveness of 140 countries around the world, Slovakia ranked 67th. Since we ranked 8 places higher the year before, the media presented this as positive news.
This is the sad history of price regulation of wages, venerated by the politicians, voters but also various organizations trying to help minorities. Although its current defenders do not have the same reasons as its supporters from the previous century, their agendas, unfortunately, still bring the same consequences.
The ongoing civil war in Syria and the war of the West with ISIS that invovles Iraq, Syria and several other countries in the region, is the fourth time during the last fifty years that the West has used the Kurds for its security policy interests. Estonian MP, former adviser to the Iraqi government and Middle East expert, Eerik-Niiles Kross says that the US and the West need to support Kurdish independence.
