Browsing by Subject "sisämarkkinat"

Health related issues are largely regulated at EU Member State level, whereas areas such as internal market and competition fall mainly under the remit of European Union competence. This creates tension not only between legislation governing health and that concerning internal market but also between national and EU legislation. Here the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) plays a key role in developing case-law through its judgments, defining further interpretation both on European and national level. An example of a sector operating at the interphase between public health and internal market interests is community pharmacy, which was chosen as the focus area of the study. The aim of this master's thesis was, through the case-study example of the regulation of pharmacy establishment, ownership and distribution in EU Member States, to perform a documentary analysis on related CJEU judgments, focusing on statements present in them referring to public health and internal market, discussing potential impacts on the community pharmacy sector as well as relating the outcomes to the broader context of European health policy with reference to existing literature. The study material consisted of publicly available documentation related to four judgments (Case C-531/06, Joined Cases C-171/07 and C-172/07, Joined Cases C-570/07 and C-571/07 and Case C-367/12) that were made between the years 2009 and 2014, the first proceedings initiating in 2006. The prevalence and variety of statements related to public health were found to be much higher in the documents analysed compared to those relating to internal market. The most common argumentation present in the judgments was related to the statement that regulation of ownership of community pharmacies can be justified by public health reasons, deriving from the professionalism inherent to pharmacists as well as ensuring balance between public health and economic interests. This transmits a clear message of the importance of public health and indeed the Court has been perceived as a balancing force to the union's liberalisation agenda. Following this it seems unlikely that the interpretation for national regulation would change in the near future, meaning that Member States should be able to maintain community pharmacy regulation, to the extent that it is implemented in a consistent manner. However, there has been indication of other routes being used to push for the liberalisation agenda and therefore it continues being a part of the debate both at European and national level. The findings of this study support literature suggesting that spillover is taking place in relation to the Court of Justice and health. Furthermore, it has been clearly demonstrated that even though officially the EU has very limited competence (authority) in health, its influence on European health policy is in fact highly significant, taking place to a large extent via routes other than those officially assigned to it in relation to health in particular. Whether this is intentional or unintentional, it does not change the fact that health policy is being influenced. When it happens without explicit intention, the processes lose transparency and are driven by other, potentially competing agendas. Therefore it would be important to assess whether the decision making processes and other processes currently shaping the European healthcare policy are in line with what was originally intended and re-evaluate whether this dynamic is the preferred way to proceed in the future.

This is an analysis of the evolution of the policy process concerning the eastward expansion of 2004 into the Central and Eastern European countries and the potential implications this has for the Finnish labour market. Through a method of policy analysis using the policy process specifically, key documents that shaped the debate and issues around the topic are used. Labour market organisation reports and governmental reports, government drafts, parliamentary committee reports and parliamentary debates from 2004 and 2006 were used as the key primary sources. The two time periods studied are the 2004 process for imposing the restrictions in and the subsequent lifting of restrictions in 2006. Also relevant and crucial to the discussion is the 2002 SAK report that details many of their key predictions and positions towards the issue. Crucial background information concerning the topic of intra-EU labour migration in general, the Finnish context of intra-EU labour migration and the neo-corporatist nature of Finnish policy making is also given in order to usher the reader through an understanding of the important topics of concern before considering the analysis. lmportantly, throughout the policy analysis, specific issues are constantly discussed and debated that become reoccurring themes for the nature of the entire debate for both the imposition of restrictions and their subsequent lifting. Through the policy analysis, the framework of Europeanisation in Finnish labour market policy ushers through to documents and the key issues and debates discussed throughout the policy process. The most important results lie in the presentation of key issues that reoccur throughout the policy process. These issues shaped the core affects of the transition period onto the Finnish labour market, which had both positive and negative affects. Certain issues such as free movement of services not being limited in the initial transition period ultimately cause significant affects on the characteristics of the Finnish labour market. Furthermore, Europeanisation of Finnish labour market policy can be found as the focus of the policy has also moved in line with Finlands ties with the European Union and is not only based on negotiations with important labour market organisations.

Venäjän hyökkäys Ukrainaan nosti parrasvaloihin pitkään kyteneet heikkoudet eurooppalaisessa puolustuskyvykkyydessä. Budjettileikkauksista, päällekkäisyyksistä ja yleisestä tehottomuudesta kärsinyt eurooppalainen puolustus on muodostunut heterogeeniseksi ja osiensa summaa heikommaksi kokonaisuudeksi. EU:n pyrkimys kehittää vapaalle kilpailulle perustuvia yhteiseurooppalaisia puolustusmarkkinoita on nojannut vuodesta 2011 lähtien puolustus- ja turvallisuushankintoja säätelevään ”PUTU-direktiiviin” 2009/81/EY, jonka soveltamista jäsenvaltiot ovat kuitenkin tehokkaasti kiertäneet vetoamalla perussopimusten määräykset ohittavaan SEUT 346 artiklan turvallisuuspoikkeukseen. Tutkielmassa analysoidaankin lainopillisesti ja sisämarkkinaintegraation teleologiset tavoitteet huomioiden EU:n puolustusmateriaalimarkkinoiden sisäistä jännitettä selvittämällä SEUT 346 artiklan soveltamisalaa puolustushankinnoissa. Tutkielman alussa SEUT 346 artiklan tulkintataustaa pohjustetaan perehtymällä yleisen järjestyksen ja turvallisuuden oikeuttamisperusteisiin sisämarkkinoilla. EUT:n tulkintalinjan kehitystä jatketaan analysoimalla SEUT 346 artiklan rajallinen oikeuskäytäntö, jonka jälkeen kriittinen huomio kiinnitetään PUTU-direktiivin relevantteihin säännöksiin sekä erityisesti sen puutteisiin suomalaisen huoltovarmuusajattelun näkökulmasta. Lopuksi analyysi tuodaan menneisyydestä nykyisyyteen ja teoriasta käytäntöön käsittelemällä Puolustusvoimien strategisia suorituskykyhankkeita SEUT 346 artiklan soveltamiskäytännön näkökulmasta. Tutkielman johtopäätöksenä SEUT 346 artiklan soveltamisala todetaan de jure varsin suppeaksi, mutta jäsenvaltiot voivat de facto vedota siihen yhä jatkuvalla menestyksellä. EUT:n voidaankin olettaa puuttuvan ainoastaan jäsenvaltioiden selkeästi suhteettomiin toimenpiteisiin, mistä syystä PUTU-direktiivin vaikutus yhteiseurooppalaisten puolustusmarkkinoiden avaamisessa on jäänyt torsoksi. PUTU-direktiivin epäonnistuminen sekä SEUT 346 artiklan kestosuosio on moderni ilmentymä Euroopassa vuosikymmeniä kuiskitun puolustusintegraation perusongelmasta, jossa omien kansalaistensa turvallisuuden priorisoivat jäsenvaltiot eivät ole valmiita tätä perusvelvoitetta uhkaaville integraatiomyönnytyksille. Ilman epätodennäköistä vastuunvaihtoa kansallisen turvallisuuden järjestämisvelvoitteessa jäsenvaltioiden ja hypoteettisen EU-liittovaltion välillä SEUT 346 artiklan rooli puolustushankinnoissa tulee pysymään siis olennaisena myös tulevaisuudessa.

This thesis explores state aid’s role in the EU’s political economy. The central research question is: should the EU foster its state aid approach? The thesis focuses on an in-depth analysis of the debate within the EU on the possible relaxation of the state aid framework and its potential impact on fair competition in the single market. The theoretical framework deals with neoclassical economics, Keynesian economics, and geopolitics from a realist perspective assessing states’ power relations. This combination provides a basis for comparing the research problem within the EU and globally. The research methodology is based on qualitative content analysis in an attempt to explain the state aid critique, the motives, and the profitability. Lastly, I apply Mariana Mazzucato’s moonshot-like approach to policy formulation in the light of state aid and harmonise Keynesian thinking into the argument. The findings show the need for the EU to reframe its state aid policy. State aid resources vary across EU Member States and empirical evidence suggests that attitudes towards state aid differ. The clear upward trend in the use of state aid over the last decade suggests an opportunity to move from a ‘temporary’ to a more permanent approach. Such a change should include the creation of a separate body to harmonise state aid and monitor its effective targeting, allaying concerns about possible Single Market violations imposed on the Single Market. The thesis concludes by seeing from a heterodox perspective that there is a strong implication that state aid will continue to be used when situating the EU within great power politics between West and East: USA and China. Hence, the solutions needed are in reframing the approach to how the EU currently considers state aid. It is important to recognize the global challenges that the EU faces when assessing what is normatively worth pursuing. State aid could be a double-edged sword hurting its Single Market while boosting EU’s competitiveness in the global markets, hence the task is to focus on keeping the blade directed to the global markets and silencing the worry of state aid hurting EU internally if it ought to be continued to use.