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The goal of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is to secure the rights of persons with disabilities as full and equal members of society. Achieving these objectives requires appropriate and high-quality data for identifying disability gaps and areas of exclusion. Such data can be then used to develop policies and programmes to address that exclusion, and then to monitor and evaluate their effectiveness. However, researchers and policy makers face a number of challenges when collecting this data. This chapter reviews the various approaches to collecting data on disability, identifying potential sources of relevant data, including through surveys and repurposing of data collated for administrative means. It discusses at length the legal and ethical issues involved in their collection and use for alternative purposes, providing a comprehensive exploration of issues relating to participation, privacy, big data and rights of access. It concludes by suggesting ways forward for creating disability data systems that can fully support efforts to achieve a fully inclusive society.

Introduction: The notion of job losses during energy transition phases and their influences on fossil fuel economies have been debated in various aspects. Meanwhile, unemployment and poverty have been critical economic challenges for many developing countries, even the resource-rich countries in the Middle East. Concurrently, no country so far is poverty-free and has not entirely fulfilled Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Nos. 1 and 8, as many resource-rich countries account for the significant global poverty and unemployment, such as Nigeria, Iraq, Yemen, and Venezuela.

Purpose: The issue of green transition has created new fears for the job market in the fossil fuel economies, where the lives of many people could be mainly affected. This study investigates the macroeconomic challenges of green transition and the macroeconomic consequences that fossil fuel economies will deal with.

Methodology: This study follows content analysis and a desk-search review of job loss during the green transition in the context of fossil fuel economies. In addition, the descriptive analysis is just a clear understanding of the fundamental review of the topic that will lead to another cross-country analysis study based on in-depth knowledge and analysing data.

Findings: The European Green Deal (EGD) will have profound economic, social, and political implications for fossil fuel-dependent economies for various reasons. First, fossil fuel economies are less diversified; the economy depends on a single commodity; the systems must be developed and people must prepare for a quick economic transition.

The Recast Energy Efficiency Directive 2023 has defined the concept of “split incentive,” also known as “tenant-owner dilemma.” This dilemma refers to the situation where neither landlords nor tenants have incentives to invest in energy efficiency upgrades. Although the Energy Efficiency Directive calls Member States to overcome legal barriers to remove split incentives and to encourage retrofits, the list of possible measures is too vague. This paper aims to discuss tenancy law measures designed to increase the energy efficiency of residential housing and to detect which Member States have already addressed this phenomenon.

This paper analyses, from a civil legal perspective, the possible private law barriers arising from the tenant-owner dilemma when performing energy efficiency works in selected countries and proposes legal reforms in tenancy law and related policies to overcome them. To do so, this paper follows a legal-dogmatic and comparative law methodology.

This paper concludes that some tenancy law provisions, such as the possibility to increase the rent after energy efficiency renovations and long-term leases, may challenge the tenant-owner dilemma in private rented markets, thus promoting renovations and retrofitting for energy efficiency purposes. It also proposes other policies intended to increase parties’ willingness to undertake works.

More research on the economic and legal efficiency to regulate some of the civil law measures to challenge the tenant-owner dilemma should be necessary.

The civil law measures included in this paper may help national policymakers meet the energy efficiency targets, according to what is established in the Recast Energy Efficiency Directive 2023.

Based on the economic theory of the tenant-owner dilemma, this paper investigates the elements of tenancy law that may contribute to less energy-efficient homes, proposing policies for those countries interested in addressing the energy-efficiency challenge from a private law point of view.

Recent developments in the EU’s anti-corruption strategy have brought the EU closer to meeting the UNCAC’s objectives, i.e. the Proposal for a Directive on combating corruption (2023) and the Proposal for a Directive on Asset Recovery and Confiscation (2022). This paper aims to discuss these developments from the perspective of the UNCAC, to identify missing elements in the EU’s asset recovery mechanisms.

Critical approach towards EU anti-corruption policy (discussing the problems and solutions). Review of EU developments in asset recovery law.

There is a political will on the part of the EU to fight corruption through the rules enshrined in the UNCAC. However, improving EU law by introducing a new type of confiscation of unexplained wealth and criminalising illicit enrichment, without establishing convergent rules for the return of corrupt assets from EU territory to the countries of origin, cannot be seen as sufficient action to achieve the UNCAC’s objectives. In modelling mechanisms of the return of assets, the EU should search for solutions to overcome the difficulties resulting from the ordre public clause remaining a significant factor conditioning mutual legal assistance.

This paper discusses the possible input of the EU, as a non-State Party to the UNCAC, to advance implementing the UNCAC solutions on asset recovery by establishing convergent rules for the return of corrupt assets from EU territory to countries of origin.

This trigger article explores established European gender-mainstreaming urban planning frameworks of urban parks to analyze and identify ways that could be applied or adapted for Arabian Gulf cities. It aims to accelerate the mainstreaming process, increasing women’s participation and inclusion in urban spaces, paving the way for future research.

Analytical frameworks are created by reviewing legal and policy evolution, city-issued guidelines and European cities’ case studies (Barcelona, Berlin, Paris and Vienna) engaged in gender mainstreaming in urban planning. These analytical tools are then applied to assess two Arabian Gulf parks (Al Azaiba Wadi Park, Muscat, Oman, and Dahl Al-Hamam Park, Doha, Qatar), suggesting a possible future research methodology.

Success factors in European cities include integrating female perspectives, detailed user analysis, specific planning solutions and political will. Despite differing social and cultural contexts, commonalities exist for female park users in Europe and the Arabian Gulf. This trigger article proposes a methodology for assessing the potential effective application or adaptation of European established frameworks in the Gulf context to accelerate gender mainstreaming.

The paper proposes a methodology for future research, noting limitations such as limited input on design preparation processes in Gulf City park case studies, a lack of feedback from park users and only a brief overview of sociocultural differences. Future research should explore nuanced cultural contexts, including historical processes and gender dynamics, thorough literature review, expanded case study analysis and participatory approaches. The proposed methodology aims to demonstrate how European frameworks can guide gender-mainstreaming efforts in diverse contexts, facilitating collaborative solutions for inclusive urban planning.

Drawing from decades of European gender-mainstreaming activities, the paper distills urban planning principles and best practices for application or adaptation in the Arab Gulf.

Enhancing the park experience for women through planning and design boosts gender equality in cities, benefiting their physical and social well-being.

An original methodology is suggested for adapting well-developed European gender-mainstreaming frameworks to Arabian Gulf parks. Authored by a male, this paper aims to advance gender issues in planning while exploring the role men can play in contributing to such.

This paper aims to examine the effects of the 2014 European regulatory reform on auditors’ activity, the audit outcome and the audit market, with a focus on the Spanish market.

The research is based on in-depth, semistructured interviews with partners of the main audit firms operating in the Spanish market. This qualitative approach provides a precise identification of the cause-effect relationships of the new measures introduced by the European audit regulation.

The findings indicate that, based on auditors’ opinions, the costs of the main regulatory changes outweigh the benefits. The European Union (EU) Audit Regulation imposes more demanding provisions, such as an extended auditor’s report, mandatory audit firm rotation, more banned nonaudit services and stricter quality controls, resulting in substantial side effects on audit activity and the audit market. This could undermine the objective of enhancing the quality of audit services.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to analyze the effect of the 2014 EU regulatory reform on audit activity, audit market and audit outcome based on auditors’ perceptions. The findings may be of interest to academics, professionals and regulators alike, as they offer valuable insights for assessing the effectiveness of the new audit provisions. Additionally, the qualitative methodology used facilitates a causal analysis of the key elements introduced by the regulations, potentially paving the way for future research avenues.

The European Commission has established the reference value of the social discount rate (SDR) to be used in the cost-benefit analysis according to the subdivision of the states relating to the beneficiaries of the Cohesion Fund. This criterion does not allow to adequately consider the economic, social and environmental conditions of each European states for ensuring an equitable and inclusive growth. The aimof the work is to provide an innovative methodology for assessing the “adjusted” SDR according to the socioeconomic and environmental conditions that differently affect the sustainable development of each European state.

Through the implementation of a methodological approach that consists of ordered and sequential phases and the synergic adoption of the Multi-Criteria Techniques with the Data Envelopment Analysis, a corrective coefficient of the SDR established by the European Commission is determined.

The results obtained for the 27 European states highlight how the different conditions of each of them could affect the correct choice of the SDR to be used in the Cost-Benefit Analysis.

The proposed research represents a useful reference for identifying national reference SDR values for each European state, consistent with its specificities and with the goals of inclusive growth of the countries and of social and territorial cohesion. Furthermore, the traceability of the methodology in its phases will allow to adapt the SDR to sudden events or exogenous shocks.

This study illustrates the economic and financial dynamics of the sector, analysing the evolution of the main ratios of profitability and financial structure of 1,559 Italian real estate companies divided into the three macro-regions: North, Centre and South, in the period 2011–2020. In this way, it is also possible to verify the responsiveness to the 2020 pandemic crisis.

The analysis uses descriptive statistics tools and the ANOVA method of analysis of variance, supplemented by the Tukey–Kramer test, to identify significant differences between the three Italian macro-regions.

The study shows the increase in profitability after the 2008 crisis, despite its reverberation in the years 2012–2013. The financial structure of companies improved almost everywhere. The pandemic had modest effects on performance.

In the future, other indices should be considered to gain a more comprehensive view. This is a quantitative study based on financial statements data that neglects other important economic and social factors.

Public policies could use this study for better interventions to support the sector. In addition, internal management can compare their company's performance with the industry average to identify possible improvements.

The research analyses an economic field that employs a large number of people, especially when considering the construction and real estate services covered by this analysis.

The study contributes to the literature by providing a quantitative analysis of industry dynamics, with comparative information that can be deduced from financial statements over the years.