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Lithuania’s new Labor Code that was supposed to be flexible in balancing employee-employer interests is to take effect as of 1 July 2017. It was already approved by the previous government, but vetoed by the President. Therefore, its entry into force was postponed and so began the process of its improvement.

What exactly does Ukraine sell to the EU? Has the trade structure changed during last three years taking into account multiple factors such as improved access to the EU market, lower global commodity prices, and economic crisis of 2014-2015?

Governments spend financial resources on various functions ranging from healthcare to social protection to education to defence and others. Inevitably, a part of public finance is allocated to the functioning of the bureaucratic system because general public services are necessary for other public services to exist.

As far as gender equality, gender roles, and stereotypes are concerned, the Hungarian society is not as traditional as it might seem in the light of the communication of the current government. Contrary to expectations, it considers women to be far more competent to be politicians than the current leaders of the country.

Chinese steel is a typical strawman for U.S. politicians. Employment in the U.S. steel industry fell dramatically indeed. There were around 780,000 employees in the sector in the late 1960s and the industry was producing 115 million tons of steel. Today, there are less than 100,000 employees.

According to the results of a representative population survey carried out by “Spinter Research” on behalf of the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, 48% of Lithuanians wish their children pursued a career in entrepreneurship. Yet, the same group associates entrepreneurship with risk, innovation, and hard work.

In recent weeks, Prague City councillors have found a new hobby – they verbally attack the popular Airbnb sharing platform, which brings annually more than 700,000 foreigners to the Czech Republic. However, the arguments used to support an immediate regulation of Airbnb are definitely not based on rational analysis of the topic.

Lithuanians seem to have gotten used to governmental promises just as to the changing seasons. The only difference is that spring is bound to come eventually, while the government fails to deliver.

At first glance, the beginning of 2017 did not bring any significant changes in the Hungarian politics. Fidesz still leads confidently, having almost an absolute majority. Moreover, power relations between the liberal-left parties are stable. However, we may also notice a number of new tendencies.

Forced solidarity creates a contradiction – the working class taking care of themselves seems to oppose the interests of the pensioners, while helping the pensioners more would result in a greater burden on the workers. The pursuit of solidarity leads to a conflict of interests.