European Policy

"The professional development and the improvement of the quality of adult learning staff have been recognised as a priority at European level. However, at European and national levels there is not always a clear view of the competences needed to fulfill the professional tasks in adult learning, partly due to the diversity of the field. In several European countries, competence profiles and standards for adult learning staff (referred to hereafter as adult learning professionals) have been developed and implemented, although their scope of application differs considerably between institutional and regional levels. Therefore, the European Commission decided to finance a study on key competences for adult learning staff. The aim of this study is to come up with a set of key competences which can functions as a reference for Europe and which can be used by Member States on a voluntary basis.
The study has been carried out by Research voor Beleid in partnership with the University of Glasgow, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and the University of Leiden. During the last year the research team has studied a large number of documents on the duties, tasks, responsibilities, roles, competences and work environments of adult learning professionals, described them in a narrative, organised an expert meeting for modeling the key competences and discussed the outcomes of this modeling exercise with a broad group of stakeholders all over Europe. Overall the research team’s opinion is that this study has triggered an intensive and stimulating professional debate, and we are confident that the set of key competences could play an important role in structuring future debates and developing policies for improving the quality of adult learning.
This report contains the outcomes of this study:
- Chapter 1 presents as an executive summary the set for key competences of adult learning professionals.
- Chapters 2 to 6 contain the report on the study on key competences of adult learning professionals.
- Chapter 7 and 8 provides information about the sources and literature used in this study.
- In the last chapter a short description is given of the educational programmes and job descriptions used to ground the set of key competences in empirical reality. These educational programmes and job descriptions have been taken up as case-studies in the report."

"What is actually meant by health and environment? There are many possible answers, depending on which academic discipline or interest group is engaged in discussing the topic. Scientific and public discourses, examined through space and time, provide us with diverging perspectives on what health and environment may mean.
Public discourse in the twenty-first century embraces thoughts, feelings and aspirations of all people for whom health and environment are not merely an intellectual debate, but an everyday experience. Unlike social scientists, known for their (claims of) detachment and attempted neutrality, the public (which includes social scientists with their ‘academic hats off’) may feel passionate about health and/or environmental issues. Social scientists contributing to this volume have been as ‘engaged’ with the issues of health and environment as their (natural and medical) scientific colleagues, policy-makers, interest groups and the media. Throughout this book, the contributors illustrate how social scientists’ engagement with socially and environmentally significant issues could be more fruitful"

This analysis aims to examine the perception and assessment of efficiency of Polish European policy by British representatives of public administration, scientists and opinion-forming publicists, as well as representatives of Polish public administration. The research perspective of this study combines elements of the intergovernmental and constructivist approach. The survey reveals similarities and differences in the perception of the efficiency of Polish European policy by Poles and Britons, while pointing at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that are visible in Polish European politics from the British and Polish perspectives. Five main policy dimensions are examined: 1) activity and reactivity, 2) vision strategy, tactics, operationalization, implementation, 3) efficiency understood in many ways and in different contexts, 4) significance of Poland and its  European policy from the perspective of other countries, including regional integration, 5) Poles abroad during the period of membership as one of the factors of the European policy. The analysis leads to the conclusion that both in Poland and the United Kingdom, Polish European policy is similarly evaluated due to a similar paradigm of its implementation (intergovernmental, based on pragmatic implementation  of national interests), with differences mainly related to issues important  from the British perspective, i.e. the number of immigrants from Poland in the United Kingdom.

The professional development and the improvement of the quality of adult learning staff have been recognised as priorities at European level. However, at European and national levels there is not always a clear view of the competences needed to fulfil the professional tasks in ...

RJ movement in Criminology provides a critical and innovative reflection on the question of justice in abstracto and of criminal policies in concreto, in order to balance the needs of victims, of offenders and of modern societies. RJ advocates currently seek to collaborate with agencies of conventional justice systems towards a more humane way of dealing with crimes and, thus, the propositions of the RJ movement figure in all international and national agendas oriented towards the modernisation of criminal policies. In Europe, the emergence of RJ-related legislation and practices (mostly in the form of mediation) started mainly in the 1980s and 1990s, influenced by different perspectives: either with the aim to rehabilitate and to reintegrate the offenders or to strengthen victims’ rights and their role in criminal proceedings.
Following the increasing development of RJ theory and practice worldwide, the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe (CoE) adopted relevant legislative policies over the last twenty years. In 2015, a comparative study on RJ in criminal cases in Europe was published, drawing on developments the experience of 36 European countries. This study made it clear that the development of RJ on the European continent differs from country to country. Even before binding legal provisions in the EU took effect, advanced RJ legislation could be found in some European countries. Later, when the abovementioned recommendations from the CoE as well as the binding legal initiatives of the EU took effect, there was a remarkable impact on national legislation. The present article aims to provide an overview of the current image of RJ in Europe and to reflect on some of the challenges regarding its further development

The professional development and the improvement of the quality of adult learning staff have been recognised as priorities at European level. However, at European and national levels there is not always a clear view of the competences needed to fulfil the professional tasks in ...

El artículo expone la necesidad de acometer el modo en que la Unión Europea viene planteando su modelo de desarrollo cultural en la última década y de cara a un futuro próximo. Partiendo del análisis de los modelos culturales de masas imperantes en las democracias posmodernas, proponemos que las formas de cultura disidentes (minoritarias o minorizadas), precisamente por su condición refractaria al modelo estandarizado de cultura generado por la actual lógica político-económica comunitaria, constituyen una garantía para la posibilidad misma, tras la modernidad, de otra cultura en Europa. En este sentido, hemos ejemplarizado en la producción audiovisual danesa una alternativa a la errática política cultural de la Unión Europea: aunque procedente de un pequeño territorio y soportada por una lengua de implantación geográfica reducida, evidencia una significativa producción fílmica de calidad, cuyas señas inequívocas de identidad la erigen en hecho cultural reconocible e irrenunciable. En contraposición, se analizan algunos de los aspectos más ilustrativos del Plan Europa Creativa, cuyo carácter refractario a la diversidad cultural como modelo denunciamos abiertamente: entre otros, desaparecen los propósitos de planes anteriores con respecto a la VO y el multilingüismo, las pequeñas cinematografías dejan de ser interlocutoras válidas desde el punto de vista comunitario, etc.

Niniejsza analiza ma na celu zbadanie sposobu postrzegania oraz oceny efektywności polskiej polityki europejskiej przez brytyjskich przedstawicieli administracji publicznej, środowiska naukowego oraz opiniotwórczego, a także przedstawicieli polskiej administracji publicznej. Perspektywa badawcza niniejszego opracowania łączy elementy ujęcia międzyrządowego oraz konstruktywi­stycznego. Badanie ujawnia podobieństwa i różnice w postrzeganiu efektywności polskiej polityki europejskiej przez Polaków i Brytyjczyków, wskazując jednocześnie na mocne, słabe strony, szanse i zagrożenia, jakie są widoczne w polskiej polityce europejskiej z perspektywy brytyjskiej i polskiej. Badanych jest pięć głównych wymiarów polityki: 1) aktywność i reaktywność; 2) wizja strategia, taktyka, operacjonalizacja, wdrożenie; 3) efektywność rozumiana wielorako i w różnych kontekstach; 4) znaczenie  Polski i jej polityki europejskiej z perspektywy innych państw, w tym integracja regionalna; 5) Polacy za granicą w okresie członkostwa jako jeden z czynników polityki europejskiej. Analiza prowadzi do wniosku, iż w Polsce i w Wielkiej Brytanii w podobny sposób oceniana jest polska polityka europejska z racji na podobny paradygmat jej realizacji (międzyrządowy, oparty na pragmatycznej realizacji interesu narodowego), przy czym różnice dotyczą głównie kwestii istotnych z perspektywy brytyjskiej, czyli dużej liczby imigrantów z Polski w Zjednoczonym Królestwie.

Smart cities are the most popular version of the city in European policymaking, strongly related to Europe's current strategy and essential for European governance. This paper interrogates the discursive construction of smart cities within European policymaking documents in an attempt to understand the articulatory practices implied within. Using discourse theory as a method of articulation this paper argues that, following a strictly capitalist logic, smart cities are currently imagined as a governance structure that will better coordinate everyday life with the use of icts and data. Technology is perceived as the solution to any problem, thus smart cities are the solution to urban problems and within this context citizenship is slowly transformed into mere 'prosumerism'. At last, this paper argues that Lefebvre's 'right to urban life' remains one of the most relevant political acts in contemporary capitalism.

In this article the author looks at the extent to which European Union (EU) suggestions for Vocational Education and Training (VET) policy development for young people, are translated in the context of convergence, as the result of an international trend for adaptation of common policies towards integration. The article traces issues that describe the relation of VET to convergence and integration, and questions the feasibility of socioeconomic integration in the EU, by presenting a short thematic analysis of issues and trends in three Member States, that have conformed to a large extent to the EU policy framework for VET. It is suggested that integration, as a multidimensional process, relates more to the pressure exerted by adults on young people to conform to predetermined standards, whether in working or social life, and argues that if there is to be a change, there will be a need for new methods of integration into a society which is not fixed and immutable, but in fact in the process of upheaval and of being constantly restructured.

Badanie dotyczy bardzo istotnej w badaniach integracji europejskiej kwestii – efektywności realizacji polskiej polityki europejskiej, w szczególności w jej konkretnym aspekcie, mianowicie w obszarze sprawowania prezydencji w Radzie Unii Europejskiej. Celem badania jest przeanalizowanie znaczenia polskiej prezydencji w Radzie Unii Europejskiej w warunkach polizbońskich i ocena tej efektywności z perspektywy polskiej i europejskiej (ujmowanej jako instytucje Unii Europejskiej oraz państwa członkowskie). Hipoteza badawcza niniejszej analizy jest stwierdzeniem, iż prezydencja Polski w Radzie Unii Europejskiej, choć nie była momentem przełomowym dla żadnej istotnej inicjatywy w ramach integracji europejskiej, została uznana za duży sukces polskiej polityki europejskiej i istotne potwierdzenie jej dużej efektywności zarówno w Polsce, jak i przez przedstawicieli innych państw Unii Europejskiej, a także europejskich instytucji. Co ważne, mimo generalnie niezbyt wysokiej faktycznej oceny efektywności polskiej polityki europejskiej w świetle różnych kryteriów takiej oceny, ewaluacja prezydencji Polski w Radzie UE daje podstawy do znacznie wyższej jej oceny niż całości systemu koordynacji polityki europejskiej w Polsce, mimo trudniejszych warunków wpływu na agendę prezydencji i jej przebieg z racji na uwarunkowania Traktatu z Lizbony. Dość wysoka efektywność realizacji polskiej prezydencji (w zakresie wdrażania jej priorytetów, umacniania dobrego wizerunku Polski – w tym jako godnego zaufania partnera, wzmacniania zdolności administracyjnych) dotyczy wszystkich funkcji, jakie prezydencja formalnie spełnia, pomimo kilku istotnych jej porażek, jak choćby brak sukcesu w kwestii przypieczętowania perspektywy wejścia Ukrainy do Unii Europejskiej, brak wpływu na decyzje dotyczące strefy euro, ale mające wpływ na całą UE, brak istotnej siły przebicia w kwestii polityki energetycznej i klimatycznej. W tym kontekście nie należy jednak zapominać, iż polska prezydencja przypadła na okres trwania wielu istotnych kryzysów w UE, co łagodzi nieco gorycz jej porażek i daje większe pole dla docenienia sukcesów.

The introduction aims to develop a wider framework in which the regulatory issues raised by convergence - and discussed in the following chapters - can be identified and analysed from a historical and comparative perspective. Moreover there is a widespread belief - which underpins this book - that television (the dominant audiovisual medium) is of crucial importance within these developments. For the great majority of Europeans, it is and will remain the major source of information, of entertainment and of culture. Furthermore the audiovisual industry is one of the major growth markets and industrial sectors, and has significant potential for job creation. Convergence issues within a television setting are therefore still debated within this traditional ‘culture versus commodity’ paradigm. However the developments currently underway in the broad communications field represent a fundamental paradigm shift away from these conventional policy modes. The aim of this introduction is then to highlight the fundamental shift in attitudes and assumptions concerning the approaches of regulation and the definition of the public interest in communications, largely driven by the globalization of trade, and the economic and social benefits fostered by convergence.