What societal factors affect the rate of compliance with EU directives by EU member states? This paper aims to answer the question by investigating Finland’s and Denmark’s compliance with the EU Directive 2016/2284. There is a clear difference between them, in that Finland complied with the directive while Denmark did not. In order to understand why, three hypotheses have been produced based on extensive previous research on Europeanisation theory which is a prolific theoretical avenue to understanding the harmonisation of EU law. The hypotheses are differences in legal framework, the strong presence of Green parties in the national governments, and economic pressure set by the directive. By using a comparative method based on Mill’s “Most Similar System Design” I find that Green parties and the economic pressure set on specific national industries do seem to affect the rate at which Denmark and Finland implemented the Directive. The hope is that this paper contributes to the literature concerning Europeanization theory and its views on compliance with EU Directives.

The European Union (EU), in 1992, issued the Temporary or Mobile Construction Sites (TMCS) Directive, which requires EU members to introduce specific law to improve health and safety (H&S) performance outcomes by placing specific duties on key stakeholders. This Directive led to the introduction of the first Construction (Design and Management) (CDM) Regulations in the UK construction industry on 31 March 1995 and since their introduction, the overall performance of construction H&S has improved gradually. However, despite this positive outlook, there are still significant concerns surrounding the implementation of the CDM Regulations, a subject on which empirical research has been very scanty. It is against such a background that this study investigates the practical implementation of the CDM Regulations and extends current knowledge and understanding, and develops a framework for appropriate remedial action by industry. The research method involved a thorough critical review of literature, semi-structured interviews, and two postal questionnaire surveys, using as research informants, practitioners with experience of the Designer, CDM Coordinator (CDM-C), and Principal Contractor (PC) roles under the CDM Regulations. Primary data were collected and analysed from in-depth interviews with six organisations purposively selected based on their construction design expertise and 122 questionnaires returned in total. The finding regarding lack of collaborative working amongst duty holders is a significant outcome of this study; a requirement expressed explicitly within the CDM Regulations, yet questionable in terms of its implementation. Further, the study reveals a number of statistically significant correlations between the extent of discharge of duties and their perceived degree of importance. However, the strength of the majority of these correlations is weak. In particular, the evidence indicates that 50% of the duties of the CDM-C are misaligned in terms of extent of discharge and perceived degree of importance, whereas 25% of the PC duties are also misaligned. This signals a lack of understanding regarding the importance of duties, towards achieving improved H&S management. Surprisingly, a comparison between extent of discharge of duties and their perceived degree of difficulty reveals that all the duties of the PC are statistically significant, meaning that the perceived degree of difficulty does not impede their extent of discharge. While 90% of the CDM-C duties are also statistically significant, again the same interpretation applies. Further, a consensus reached by Designers supports the view that CDM-Cs provide insufficient input throughout the planning and construction phase, raising doubt as to whether the duty holder is fit for purpose. Overall, the results confirm that interdependent working of duty holders is still a challenge, demonstrated by the Designer duty to ensure appointment of the CDM-C (Regulation 18(1)), the CDM-C duty to ensure Designers comply with their duties (Regulation 20(2)(c)), and the PC duty to liaise with the CDM-C and Designer (Regulation 22(1)(b)). Three recurring themes emerge from the results, that is: (i) collaboration, (ii) accountability and compliance, and (iii) facilitation, which in turn inform the remedial action framework comprising 13 remedial actions and 8 change drivers. Validation of the remedial action framework by 15 study participants reveals that, at least 10 remedial actions and 7 change drivers are considered likely to improve CDM implementation. The top three remedial actions are: (i) ensuring adequate arrangements for coordination of H&S measures; (ii) including provisions within the regulations specifying the stages for the appointment of duty holders; and (iii) amending the ACoP to provide guidance on determining what resources are adequate for a particular project. Whereas, the top three change drivers are: (i) management leadership; (ii) the proactive participation of duty holders; and (iii) training to equip duty holders with sufficient knowledge on provision of timely and adequate preconstruction information. Based on these outcomes, conclusions, recommendations, and further areas of research are drawn.

The European Union has since the 1970s shifted their focus towards environmental policies and today they aim at the adequate implementation of environmental sustainability initiatives across all member states. The process of the implementation of sustainability reporting and corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the achievement of the SDGs require a multilevel governance paradigm-shift, provides a framework for all involved parties to act and perform accordingly. The Directive 2014/95/EU on non-financial and diversity reporting is an incentive to achieve higher environmental, social and economic sustainability and transparency amongst European corporations. However, deriving from the nature of a directive, it does not offer a clear guideline to follow nor actual legislative guidance. Even though directives are mandatory to be implemented in national legislation, the way and form of it may vary to a great extent due to the fact that it is sufficient for the EU if the directive is translated into the countries’ law. This, however, results in different levels of efficiency and performance in different countries.This research contributes to the understanding of the implementation of environmental EU directives with the goal of achieving sustainable development within the EU member states. Throughout a multilevel governance and deductive approach, the comparative case study highlights the differences and identifies leverage points for policy makers and future research to develop common best practices for such purposes.In order to answer the research question Why do countries perform in significantly different ways within the field of sustainability, given they are all following the same directives issued by the EU?, the comparison of the two selected countries, Hungary and Sweden was conducted through two sub-questions, which aimed at identifying the differences and similarities in their governance framework to reach the SDGs and legislation following the Directive 2014/94/EU. In conclusion, clear differences can be identified between the countries’ political commitment, integrational and holistic approach of sustainability into policy-making and; and the “extra mile” and commitment that Sweden manifested to improving the sustainability and transparency level of corporations in applying stricter measures in national legislation following the Directive 2014/95/EU and handling sustainability as a concept as a crucial, essential and integrated part of life.

The thesis focuses on the impact of the EU Directive (2002/14/EC), which was incorporated into UK employment law, with its phased implementation starting on 6th April 2005. The empirical evidence is based on a survey and predominantly on case-study research that involved interviews with: managers, employees and trade union representatives, together with the collection of relevant documentary evidence. The empirical findings, especially for the non-unionised sector, indicate that the reflexive nature of the Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) Regulations has mainly stimulated the development of organisation-specific or tailor-made information and consultation arrangements, which minimally comply with the legislative provisions. Moreover, the development of such arrangements is primarily based on the ad hoc momentum that is generated by business pressures (i.e. collective redundancies, transfer of undertakings etc) and can be viewed as reflecting the conceptual framework of legislatively prompted voluntarism. The ICE Directive is aimed at bringing a consistency to the establishment of basic and standard information and consultation arrangements across the workplaces in Great Britain. Subsequently, it should promote the harmonisation of employee participation practices amongst the UK and other EU countries, as it has the goal of ensuring that there is a minimum floor of rights in relation to information sharing and consultation with employees. Nevertheless, the Europeanisation of British industrial relations cannot instantly take place through the adoption of such EU directives. With regard to this research endeavour, it emerges that the extant national idiosyncrasies cannot be substantially altered, whilst business pressures and employers’ goodwill continue to be key drivers in the development of employee participation and consultation arrangements in Great Britain, albeit within the newly adopted legislative and statutory framework.

The risk of food insecurity in the form of higher food prices has prompted policymakers in the United States (US) and European Union (EU) to revise their approach to biofuel development. The US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and EU Directive 2009/28/EC require long term use of renewable energy in transportation, subject to sustainability. This thesis examines the implications of the US RFS and EU Directive 2009/28/EC in a trade context using a partial equilibrium/comparative static framework. The focus is on the effect of the revised biofuels policies on opportunities for developing countries to supply the US and/or EU markets. For the US, the implications when the volume produced and/or required under the RFS is technologically infeasible with imports of ethanol as a potential policy alternative are explored. For the EU, the impact of the sustainability criteria on foreign biodiesel suppliers in terms of compliance cost is examined. In general, the US policy may enhance opportunities for trade while the EU policy will likely inhibit trade. A discussion of the implications of the mandates for developing countries and WTO is included.

The risk of food insecurity in the form of higher food prices has prompted policymakers in the United States (US) and European Union (EU) to revise their approach to biofuel development. The US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and EU Directive 2009/28/EC require long term use of renewable energy in transportation, subject to sustainability. This thesis examines the implications of the US RFS and EU Directive 2009/28/EC in a trade context using a partial equilibrium/comparative static framework. The focus is on the effect of the revised biofuels policies on opportunities for developing countries to supply the US and/or EU markets. For the US, the implications when the volume produced and/or required under the RFS is technologically infeasible with imports of ethanol as a potential policy alternative are explored. For the EU, the impact of the sustainability criteria on foreign biodiesel suppliers in terms of compliance cost is examined. In general, the US policy may enhance opportunities for trade while the EU policy will likely inhibit trade. A discussion of the implications of the mandates for developing countries and WTO is included.

Working with sustainability is becoming more and more important for companies, since thedemands in this area are constantly increasing. To communicate this work through reports, isbecoming a mandatory activity that companies are expected to do. The existing research withinthe area of CSR is broad and much is happening in a short time, which makes this an area thatalways has the need for further investigation. Therefore, it is of interest to explore how thecompanies are viewing the concept CSR and their thoughts about this more including proposal.The purpose of this study is to investigate how SMEs today interpret the concept CSR. Further,this study will consider how SMEs communicate their CSR work and their view on the new EUdirective, regarding the CSR reporting, its impact and necessity.To give an understanding of the concept CSR, its definition and what it can mean for companies,are presented by previous research. Also, how CSR work can be communicated. This study hasconducted semi-structured interviews with six different companies to be able to get a picture ofhow companies today view the concept of CSR, sustainability, and its reporting requirements.The findings show that companies work with several perspectives on sustainability to meet theirstakeholders’ requirements. Also, the perspectives are prioritized in different orders.Conclusions are drawn that CSR is not a widespread concept in Sweden. The term sustainabilityis more commonly used. The overall view of sustainability is to give back to the society in oneway or another. It was raised several times during the interviews that it often could be hard tovisualize the social sustainability. Which contribute to an interesting part to further researchhow this could be made.It is also stated that companies always want to do more, but the majority of companies miss theresources, people, and competence for this. This opens the question of how this competencegap can be minimized. The respondents turned out to have different thoughts about if the newEU directive regarding CSR reporting is necessary or not. 50% was not even aware of thedirective, but all agreed that it is of importance to report their CSR work.

This report is a comparative study of ground water and surface water quality protection of a developing country India and a developed country Sweden. It covers the basic water policies, laws, rules, regulations and human right to water provisions in both the countries. The main aim of this report is to compare water quality approaches in India and Sweden and find out the best possible practices in each country and assess the need & feasibility of their application in the other. It describes the present water laws in both the countries and discusses about the present scenario of ground water and surface water quality, problems in ground water and surface water and how to deal with the problems in an efficient and sustainable way. It includes role of EU Water Framework Directive (EU WFD) in water quality protection in Sweden. Some interviews with stakeholders who are working in the water sector in Sweden are also included here. The main focus of this report is to analyse comparatively the present situation of water quality protection approaches and make recommendation for improvement of water quality. It focuses on “What can a developing country like India can learn from a developed country like Sweden for water quality protection?” and “Which things Sweden can adopt from India for water quality protection?” In this study India is found in worse environmental condition than Sweden. Indian ground water and surface water is more polluted than Swedish surface and ground water. Sweden is in much better condition than India and this country has more environmental concern too. In India, the basic reason for deterioration of water quality is lack of environment friendly attitude among the public, religious activities in water, corruption, loss of traditional methods of water conservation and protection, useless and unnecessary westernisation etc. In Sweden the basic cause of water quality deterioration is eutrophication in lakes, climate change, morphological changes, presence of metals and connectivity changes due to construction works, acidification etc. Sweden is an advanced country having the foresight for environmental concerns. They are doing research for betterment of water quality. India can learn some technological advancement and proper implementation of community participation in order to establish decentralised wastewater treatment plants and beneficial production and monitoring of energy resources from wastewater. Maintenance of online database for water is also a good thing to learn from Sweden.

In 2019 the European Union presented a new directive, Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and the council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law. An EU-directive needs to be implemented into the national law of every member state, which for Sweden resulted in a new law regarding whistle-blowing: Law (2021:819) about protection for persons reporting misconduct, or in Swedish, Lag (2021:819) om skydd för personer som rapporterar om missförhållanden. The directive is a minimum directive, which means that all of its content needs to be implemented into national law, but there is no stopping member states from giving further protection than the directive. This paper aims to analyse the new Swedish law, how it differs from the directive and earlier Swedish law regarding whistleblowing, how it interacts with other Swedish regulations and most importantly if and how the new law strengthens the protection of whistleblowers. Our focus will be on the perspective of the employee and what the new law can mean for them, along with discussing differences in protection between the public and private sector.  In order to fulfil our purpose we will in our legal investigation first present some background information surrounding whistleblowing to create an understanding of the concept and its importance. Then we will follow the legal hierarchy and firstly present information surrounding international and EU-law, then present relevant Swedish regulations that are of importance to whistleblowing. Furthermore there will be a presentation of both the old Swedish law regarding whistleblowing and the new Swedish law and how it is based off of the directive. During the legal investigation some case law, both from the European Court of Human Rights and the Swedish court, will be presented to explain some background to the origin of the EU-directive and to analyse if and how the new Swedish law could be of help in the Swedish case. Finally there will be an analysis based on our legal investigation where we answer and discuss our research question.

Neracionaliai naudojant paplūdimių ir jų maudyklų pajūrio bei vidaus vandenis, iškyla grėsmė žmonių sveikatai ir vandens išteklių naudingumui. Siekiant išvengti vandens telkinių devastacijos ir besimaudančiųjų susirgimų rizikos, būtina gerinti vandens telkinių stebėseną, kuri atitiktų ES direktyvų keliamus reikalavimus, darnaus vystimosi aspektus. Šiuo principu Aplinkosauginis švietimo fondas Europoje ir už jos ribų yra pristatęs Mėlynosios vėliavos programą. Darbo tikslas − įvertinti įteisintų Kauno miesto paplūdimių ir jų maudyklų atitikimą Mėlynosios vėliavos programos reikalavimams. Darbo tikslui pasiekti išanalizuota paplūdimių ir jų maudyklų teisinė bazė Europos Sąjungoje ir Lietuvoje, nustatyta įteisintų Kauno miesto paplūdimių ir jų maudyklų mikrobiologinė tarša, atliktas įteisintų paplūdimių galimybių vertinimas pagal privalomus Mėlynosios vėliavos programos paplūdimių kriterijus (aplinkosauginio švietimo ir informavimo, vandens kokybės, aplinkosauginio valdymo, saugumo ir paslaugų). Nustatant įteisintų Kauno miesto paplūdimių ir jų maudyklų mikrobiologinę taršą, naudojami Kauno visuomenės sveikatos centro 2000-2006 m. ir Lietuvos Higienos instituto 2007-2008 m. mikrobiologiniai maudyklų vandens kokybės tyrimų duomenys. Apibendrinus tyrimų rezultatus nustatyta, kad Europos Parlamento ir Tarybos Direktyvos 2006/7/EB dėl maudyklų vandens kokybės valdymo nuostatos perkeltos į LR higienos normą HN 92:2007 „Paplūdimiai ir jų maudyklų vandens kokybė“ bei Maudyklų vandens... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Unreasonable using of inland water recourses for recreation may cause a risk for human health and ecosystems’ stability. In order to avoid the devastation of ponds and the risk of infectious diseases, it is necessary to improve the water ponds monitoring, that should fulfil the requirements of European Union (EU) directives of sustainable development. For this reason the Foundation for Environmental Education has created the Blue Flag program, that is applied both for European and other countries. The aim of this work is to evaluate the possibilities of valid Kaunas town beaches to get the certificate of the Blue Flag program. For this reason, it was analyzed the bathing-places juridical basis in EU and Lithuania and determined the microbiological pollution of valid Kaunas town beaches. Evaluation of beaches was done according to the Blue Flag program compulsory criteria for water ponds: environmental education and information, water quality, environmental management, security and services. The water monitoring data of Kaunas public health centre and Lithuanian Institute of Hygiene were used for the assessment of water microbiological pollution. It was found out that the statements of the European Parliament and of the Council directive 2006/7/EB for bathing water quality were transferred to the LR Hygiene Norm HN 92:2007 “Beaches and Bathing water quality“ and to the bathing water quality monitoring project for the years of 2009-2011. The highest microbiological pollution... [to full text]