Think Tank Library

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the various challenges facing European integration and the EU institutional architecture as result of the global financial crisis. The European integration process is not yet complete, both in terms of its content and geographical coverage. It can be viewed as a kind of intermediate hybrid between an international organization and a federation, subject to further evolution. This is also true of the Single European Market and the Economic and Monetary Union, which form the core of the EU economic architecture. Certain policy prerogatives (such as external trade, competition, and the Common Agriculture Policy) are delegated to the supranational level while others (such as financial supervision or fiscal policy) remain largely in the hands of national authorities.

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Even when backed by clear evidence, new technologies and practices inch their way too slowly through the vast web of structures that make up the National Health Service. This is one of the reasons our standards often fall below those of comparable countries. Data collected by the World Health Organisation shows that premature deaths from causes that are preventable with prompt and effective healthcare are higher in the UK than Germany, Canada, Australia and France. A lack of MRI and CT scanners can lead to long waits for diagnostic tests, while shortages in radiotherapy equipment are a factor in our comparatively poor cancer treatment. Among European countries, the UK is consistently below average in the adoption of new drugs for the treatment of certain common cancers. And within Britain, too, there is an unjustifiably wide variation in outcomes of care.

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Credible Energy Policy sets out why current energy policy is no longer fit for purpose, and provides a comprehensive overview of what is now required to address our ambitious climate change objectives, whilst maintaining security of supply.

Professor Helm examines the precarious position of our global gas supplies and draw out the implications for Britain in strategic gas storage, generation capacity and networks. It will also propose how government should set the overarching energy policy framework and explain why existing energy policy institutions need reform, and in particularly why Ofgem should be rolled up into an integrated single energy agency, charged with delivery.

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The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) links up to a third of general practice income to achievement against a series of quality indicators. While it has delivered benefits in the treatment of conditions included, the net benefit is unclear. There is evidence that the financial incentive is diverting attention away from other conditions and harming the relationship between GPs and patients.

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Open Europe has produced the first independent estimate of the cost and wider effects of the EU`s new package of climate change measures, currently under negotiation. The outcome of the package is of particular concern at a time when Europe stands on the brink of an economic slowdown, and in some member states, recession.

The plan is the most ambitious EU programme since the launch of the euro. We estimate that the cost of the package as a whole will be huge: more than 73 billion euro per year by 2020 for the EU 25, and £9bn per year for the UK.

Importantly, the study concludes that the EU`s proposals are an overpriced solution to climate change, largely because they artificially drive investment towards very high-cost methods of cutting carbon. This means we will pay far more than necessary in fighting climate change; or put another way, we could spend the same amount of money and reduce emissions far more.

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In tackling climate change, policy makers often overlook the role of the natural world in regulating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere: specifically, the unique role that forests and peatlands have to play in the battle against rising emissions. Changing approach would significantly reduce the cost of tackling climate change and deliver a variety of other benefits.

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The general objective of the paper is to examine a specific reform policy toward real sector enterprise restructuring in Serbia after 2000 from the perspective of political economy. The specific objective of this paper is to examine the links between political support to real sector enterprise restructuring in Serbia and a government decision regarding the policy of their restructuring. There is no evidence that relative employment in the firms slated for restructuring influences the election results. Enterprise restructuring did not result in a decline in support for pro-reform parties. It was demonstrated that demographic factors have a crucial effect on the behavior of voters in Serbia.

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The UK is missing the opportunity to be a world leader in tackling climate change due to Government inaction.
This report argues that Carbon Capture and Storage is essential to meet UK CO2 targets and deliver clean electricity and that the UK is ideally placed to spearhead a new movement to cutting carbon emissions internationally. This however is not happening: The UK CCS effort is slowing down, whilst other countries are speeding up, innovation by industry is stifled by over-management of a £1.5bn white elephant project. The UK can use electricity market finance to deliver new technology to slow climate change.

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All types of postal items are set under EU impetus to be opened to competition not later than 2011. However, the potential benefits to consumers and to employment from this liberalisation are threatened by new social legislation such as the institution in December 2007 of a legal minimum wage in Germany’s postal market.

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Green Dreams looks at the Government’s “green” targets over the last ten years highlighting a worrying high failure rate with little to show for hundreds of targets set. Examining the issue in more detail the report looks at exactly what has gone wrong over the last decade. Based on the lessons learnt the report suggests ways to ensure that targets be an effective tool of government, deployed simply and clearly to motivate change, rather than as a political tool that can hinder good governance as much as promote it.

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