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261. Five Years To The Euro For The CEE-3?

Author:
Daniel Gros
Publication Date:
04-1999
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:
In terms of meeting the fiscal Maastricht criteria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland are better placed today than were some of the current euro area members from the “Club Med” (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) at a comparable point in time leading up to their joining EMU. The CEE-3 should thus be able to qualify for full membership by early 2006, following a decision by the EU as early as 2005.
Topic:
International Relations
Political Geography:
Europe, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Spain, Italy, and Portugal

262. The Cost-Effectiveness Evaluation of Minority Language Policies: Case Studies on Wales, Ireland and the Basque Country

Author:
François Grin and Francois Vaillancourt
Publication Date:
01-1999
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)
Abstract:
The main contribution of the monograph is to demonstrate that it is possible to assess the output and costs of various language policies in such a way as to allow an explicit evaluation and ranking in terms of their effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. To our knowledge, this study is the first of its kind, because it stresses the role of common units of measurement in order to make it possible to compare policies. We have therefore attempted to develop an approach different from that adopted in many existing discussions of the implementation of language policies. Such discussions often focus on the targets chosen (sometimes elaborating on targets put forward in earlier policy documents), and on the specific measures adopted to meet these targets; sometimes they offer a descriptive presentation of the effects of such measures. For example, a language planning office may set, as a target, the increase in the level of minority language skills of all teachers and school administrators in a particular region, whether they do or do not work in an establishment which uses the minority language as a medium of instruction. The authorities can then adopt corresponding measures, such as the legal requirement that all schoolteachers meet certain proficiency levels in the minority language. If some survey, five years on, confirms that the average competence level of schoolteachers in the minority language has risen, this will be a satisfactory result, but a moderately surprising one; at most, it would suggest that the “technical effectiveness condition” (condition No. 4, Section 6.2) has been met. Such an observation would, however, be of limited help in assessing whether this particular measure is effective or cost-effective with respect to a broader end-goal, such as the revitalisation of the minority language.
Topic:
Minorities, Ethnicity, Language, and Identity
Political Geography:
Europe, Spain, Ireland, and Wales

263. The Race for the Pax Germanica: Spain versus Central & Eastern Europe

Author:
Hans Slomp
Publication Date:
01-1993
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:
Most Central and Eastern European countries are experimenting with forms of tripartism, i.e., trade union/employer/government contacts at all-industry level. This form of bargaining and consultation is patterned after the tripartite councils in Northern Europe. Spain has also had a number of tripartite agreements in the early 1980s, and its transition toward democracy is sometimes compared to that in (Central and) Eastern Europe. In this paper, Spanish and Eastern European labor relations are compared on the basis of the basic features of Northern European labor relations, in which tripartism has a longer tradition: the nature of the labor movement, the pacification of the enterprise by a shift of conflict to the branch level, and the depoliticization of labor relations. Eastern Europe's trade union density and trade union structure seem to be better adapted to tripartism than the Spanish labor movement. The major hindrance to a system of branch bargaining is the absence of employers organizations. It could be overcome to some extent by regional collective bargaining, with the local government as an active participant.
Topic:
Industry, Trade Unions, Democratic Transitions, Labor Movement, and Tripartism
Political Geography:
Europe, Eastern Europe, Spain, and Central Europe