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Cohesion and competitiveness of the European Union at strategic level
29-33Views:109After the relaunchment of the Lisbon strategy, the cohesion policy of the EU concentrates even stronger on the establishment of the knowledge based economy, on R&D activities and innovations. In the first chapter I demonstrate the funds division of the convergence and regional competitiveness targets in the financial perspective between 2007–2013. The first sheet shows unambiguously that the new member states from Middle-Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean countries spend their funds on convergence and cohesion issues. The situation is contrary in the highly developed Western-European countries, in the core regions, where decisive part of the funds are spent on competitiveness issues. In the second chapter of the study I present the Europe 2020 strategy of the EU, that is a crucial paradigm change in the European strategy-making. While the Lisbon strategy focused on the social cohesion of the European Union, the Europe 2020 strategy strives the fostering of the European competitiveness. In the third part of the study I make a comparison how the funds-allocation altered during the two financial perspectives.
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The ain impacts of the Lisbon Strategy on tobacco growing
80-87Views:81The Lisbon Strategy of the EU promises a more competitive Europe with more and better workplaces, in addition to sustainability.
Tobacco production is one of the most controversial industries of the agricultural sphere in the European Union. This crop is a „leader” of the world’s economic growth, a promoter of globalisation and has been an economic channel between America and Europe for more than 500 years. It is also a motor of technical development, due to its inducing effect on profitability and work efficiency. The tax competition of the states and the increase in consumption have become such a self-inducing system in which the increase of production created an increasing number of jobs, especially in tobacco growing, where the replacement of manual labour was much slower than the increase of the demand for raw material. The fact that smoking is becoming general should be handled as a social demand, though its health risks cannot be denied. However, the extreme objection to smoking cannot be accepted, especially not when it evokes social strains and concludes that people smoke because of tobacco production, al though the real situation is the opposite: People smoke in Europe, so the tobacco should be grown here, as is in our economic interest.
There is a contradiction between the strategic objectives and the roles of the industry which should be ceased urgently. Al thong aim is the creation of jobs, stopping tobacco growing could result in unexpected agro-social disadvantages. Rejection of the industry’s sustainability questions the realization of the keystones of the strategy. Competitiveness, sustainability and social cohesion should be implemented as a unit of the strategy also in tobacco growing. -
Regional innovation: State of the art in the Észak-alföld region
139-143Views:91Innovation and innovation performance is gaining increasing importance in European policy, as the targets determined by the Lisbon priorities related to innovation seem to be still far away from the reality in some European countries and at EU level as well. Although the economic crisis determined the priorities of economic development and made it more complicated to dedicate more budget of Research and Development, one of the five ambitious objectives of the EU’s growth strategy for the coming decade: Europe 2020: A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth is still focusing on innovation. As the Lisbon Strategy determined the paths for national targets in the given areas, Europe 2020 will be adopted as well by the Member States.
In this context, the current work would like to give a short overview how Lisbon Strategy effected the national and regional innovation system in Hungary and will analyze its impact on Észak-Alföld’s region Research, Development and Innovation performance in the recent years and the transition of regional innovation governance system. -
Greenhouse gas emissions and Europe 2020 strategy
241-244Views:89Common Agricultural Policy has identified three priority areas for action to protect and enhance rural heritage: (i) the preservation and development of natural farming and traditional agricultural landscapes; (ii) water management and sustainable use and (iii) dealing with climate change. Measures of Rural Development Plan in EU countries promote the development of agricultural practices for preserving the environment and safeguarding the countryside. This is achieved by targeting rural development and promoting environmental friendly, sustainable practices, like agri-environment schemes. Farmers are encouraged to continue playing a positive role in the maintenance of the countryside and the environment. Changes in total emission between 1990
and 2007 do not show any correlation with the total GHG emission. GHG emission was reduced in Hungary, Slovakia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Estonia and Bulgaria, where GHG efficiency is low. -
Integrated development strategy of the catchment area of the Tisza river
31-36Views:202The main challenge for mankind has always been to eliminate the borders of its living space, as well as to explore and discover its new faces. Contemporary literature strengthens this postulate. It is the preference of the experts of various fields in spatial analysis is to consider space to be repairable, changeable and organisable. In accordance with this axiom, the five affected countries in the catchment area of the Tisza river (Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Slovakia and Serbia) worked out an integrated, mutual standpoint to support the problems of the catchment area and to exploit its opportunities with the aim to support transnational cooperation. They laid great emphasis on the existing resources which could become the driving force behind regional development directions. This study contains the summarised outcomes of the TICAD project (SEE/A 638/4.2./X) which was drawn up as a result of cooperation between renowned institutions of the five affected countries within the South East Europe Transnational Cooperation Programme (lead partner: VÁTI, Hungary).
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The European Union and competitiveness
15-19Views:136I define first of all the competitiveness in my study „Analysing the competitiveness of the European Union”. After that I turn to the analysis of the competitiveness of the EU. The European competitiveness index and its concept were of great assistance during the analyses. The concept of the European competitiveness index has three main components: creative economy, economic performance, access to infrastructure. It is unambiguous that the European Union can only sustain and increase its position reached in the world economy, when its member states commit themselves for the completion of the knowledge based economic policy striving for competitiveness. The Europe 2020 strategy and the budget period 2007–2013 emphasize the outstanding role of competitiveness and urge to take the necessary measures.
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The Possibilities of Futures and Option Hedge in Price Risk Management for GrainProduction
72-80Views:95The greataest risk tograin production is fluctuation in market prices, which is over 50% over the course of a year; and year by year, as well. There are real market circumstances in the grain market, instead of state guaranteed fix prices, which was the norm under the former political system.
According to the general opinion of producers, losses come from their defencelessness against buyers. The real situation is that price risk can be managed by suitable market strategy, and loss production can be avoided.
Hungary has a futures market (which is organized according to the CBOT system) in the grain sector, which is an unique institute in Europe. This organisation is suitable for hedge businesses and it has convenient technical and institutional background.
There are two possibilities to make hedge business. One of them is the short hedge with futures contract when the producer sells his product for long term if an acceptable profit is included in market price. In this case seller can protect himself against low market prices.
This technique can be considered as professional for price risk management, but possibly has financial cost because of the weak financial situation of Hungarian producers this solution seems expensive for them.
There is an other possibility in the Commodity Exchange for manage price risk, that is the option technique. This solution is suitable for insure prices as well, and has an other additional advantage, namely: there is no financial costs in this case. -
Biofuel regulations in the USA and the EU
25-31Views:134Climate change, the increasing dependency on crude oil and other fossile fuels, the expanding import and the increasing energy costs make the world’s societies and its economies vulnerable.
The development of effective renewable energy resources has been a priority for the US since the first oil embargo. While there was only little progress for around two decades, biofuel use and production has been showing a rapidly increasing tendency since the mid 90’s.
The EU’s objective of renewable energy resources is one of the main priorities of the Europe 2020 strategy. The European Union aims to increase the share of energy produced from renewable resources in the whole energy supply and by 10% in the transport-related energy supply by 20% until 2020.
The renewable energy sector is the only one which is able to reduce GHG emission and pollution while utilising local energy resources and stimulating cutting edge industrial sectors; therefore, it is indispensable to develop a proper framework and regulation for supporting renewable energies.
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Impact of the integration of lupine (Lupinus albus) into crop rotation on the extent of soil compaction in the Westsik longterm field trial
529-537Views:121In order to reduce or eliminate soil compaction, rational crop rotation and appropriate sequence of crops have an increasingly important role in addition to mechanical and tillage solutions. In this respect, introduction of greening in recent years has been a major step, which focuses on aspects of environmentally conscious, soil conserving farming and the improvement of biodiversity. The cornerstone of this strategy is the cultivation of crops that have a beneficial effect on soil properties, such as the use of nitrogen-fixing plants and green manure plants in the cultivation system that have a beneficial effect on soil structure. In our examinations, penetrometer measurements were carried out in the second longest crop rotation-based field experiment in Europe in order to quantify the effects of green crops and crop rotation strategies on soil resistance. Our aim was to evaluate and compare the impact of lupine (Lupinus albus) on the penetration resistance of soil on sour sandy soils. At the time of the penetration resistance measurement, different crop rotations had a significant effect on the development of the parameter in the examined soil layer. The most favourable penetration resistance values were found in the crop rotation, which included lupine as a green manure. The favourable effect is dominant below the cultivated layer (0–40 cm), which is statistically verified. The values of penetration resistance of the cultivated soil layer of lupine sown as primary green manure did not differ significantly from the values measured in the case of the fallowing-based crop rotation. Therefore, the use of lupine green manure instead of fallowing could be worth considering by practical application due to its favourable effects on soil penetration resistance. The use of lupine green manure after the production of rye cultivation resulted in penetration parameters similar to fallowing, irrespective of the green crop and the applied amount of nitrogen fertilizer, which justifies the cultivation of the crop as green manure. In the case of potato cultivating, recorded compaction within the cultivated layer is an obvious consequence of mechanical compaction during harvest; therefore, machinery operations are decisive for the development of penetration resistance values of the cultivated layer. In addition to the beneficial effect of lupine as a green manure crop on soil condition, its nitrogen-fixing ability is also important; it stresses the utilisation of the crop of sour sandy soils for the sake of proper soil management.
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Development alternatives of rural economy
187-191Views:112Environmental, natural, social and economic processes undergoing both in Europe and in the world predict such a 21st century that is characterised by increasing resource-crisis from both economic and ecological aspects. Therefore, it is very important for Hungary to see what happens to its natural resources, epecially to its agricultural land, water reserves as well as the biodiversity of the local unique flora and fauna. One of the most significant issues of the rural areas of Hungary is whether we can preserve the natural habitats and the various biodiversity of the related species, the favourable biological background of agriculture. In addition, whether we are able to provide high quality food for the country as well as for the broader reagion, whether we are able to produce energy from the resources available as well as to provide sufficient opportunities for the population to live and work. These can be considered as the most significant issuesof the coming decades which determine the strategy of the Hungarian rural economies in long term.