Economy

Taxation of tobacco products raises severe economic and social concerns which should be taken into account when formulating further tobacco taxation policies, including on novel tobacco products. Increased education rather than higher excise duties should be the main policy.

Apart from modern enterprises competing in international markets, there are more small enterprises of very low productivity in Poland than in developed countries. FOR estimates that half of Polish GDP is produced by at most 5.6 million people.

The tax and social security system operating in Poland, based on the traditional employer-employee relationship, does not fit into the world of online platforms combining the service providers of the sharing economy directly with their clients.

The current legal system governing the interface between business and state administration is far too complicated, and interpretation of the law often depends on individual decisions of the tax authorities and courts. In order to function in this thicket of regulations, highly paid advisors are needed.

Estonia, Finland, and the Tallinn-Helsinki tunnel together with Rail Baltic have a potentially important role in the new global connection between Europe and Asia. The Norwegian experts have calculated that the distance between Shanghai and Hamburg is 12 277 nautical miles, a voyage time of 39 days.

Regional economic differences are not the exclusive preserve of Germany. They exist in almost all economies. However, the inequality between east and west Germany, can also be explained by means of a different divide: the economic gap between urban and rural areas.

The most important figure of the Slovak economy in the last 5 years has been the trend in unemployment. This rate had been decreasing since the first quarter of 2013 and had dropped to almost a half in the first quarter of 2018. The unemployment rate fell from more than 14% to nearly 7%.

With a sample of 4,000 Slovak students, the Economics Olympiad revealed the most serious weaknesses in economic education of young people. Memorizing is believed to be a long-term problem, but knowledge useful only as a part of quiz shows remains a crucial element of the Slovak education system.

The European Commission has presented a new proposal on the System of Own Resources of the European Union. If agreed on, the provisions of this proposal shall apply from January 1, 2021 - except the provisions regarding the CCCTB.

The definition of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is an important issue, regarding not only a number of European policies that have been set up to ensure these SMEs benefit from financial support, fee reduction, reduced administrative burden, etc.