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Nurturing resilience of states and societies in its neighbourhood has become a strategic priority for the European Union (EU). This chapter reviews the concept of resilience across different European External Action Service's (EEAS) strategic documents, investigates the means and the ends that accompany it and explores the potential of fostering resilience through entrepreneurship. The latter is becoming a multi-dimensional tool associated not only with economic development but also with peace fostering, responsible citizenship, social innovation, opportunities management, risk-taking, decision-making, problem-solving, creativity, adaptability etc. We examine how entrepreneurship deals with the EU's approach to resilience and whether the EEAS harnesses entrepreneurship potential. This is an interdisciplinary research project bringing together insights from EU studies, diplomatic studies and entrepreneurship. In terms of methodology we use a content analysis approach of primary resources combined with semi-structured interviews with EEAS staff and secondary sources review. Our findings indicate that EEAS could meet resilience goals through entrepreneurship; yet the use of entrepreneurship as a tool for EEAS′ purposes is sporadic, scattered and unidimensional. We suggest that the EEAS should adopt a cohesive strategy for entrepreneurship promotion connecting internal with external policies. Acting this way would also serve the purpose of a more ‘joined-up union’ and reinforce the EU's power of attraction.

This article explores two gaps in the literature on European Union (EU) crises: firstly, the external effects of the crises on EU actorness and its relations with other countries and regions and, secondly, the uniqueness of the EU crises when compared to other world regions. The article explores these questions and argues that the crises did affect external views on the EU and its role in the world due to the influence of third country perspectives on its actorness and its “intermestic nature,” but that the EU is not the only regional organization in crisis. As the case of Latin American regionalism shows, other regions have suffered from common systemic factors at the global level as well as from the decreased EU support of regionalism abroad.

The paper aims to provide an insight into the psychic of working people in the immediate aftermath of the 1989 changes, especially with regards to their perception of the new free trade unions, how this perception changed and the role that education and training has played in helping them develop free and effective trade unions capable of operating in Market Societies.

The paper has used extensively the archives of the GPMU and UEG to piece together 15 years experience of a international trade union federation's efforts to assist its new affiliates in Central and Eastern Europe adapt to operating in a market economy.

The paper suggests that attitudes, perceptions and aspirations have changed, both amongst the newly democratised trade unions of the CEEC countries, and the trade unions in the West. Trade union education and training over the past 15 years has created confident and capable trade union organisations who now stand on equal terms with their Western European counterparts.

The authors access to the primary materials in the archives of the British Print Union and the European Federation for graphical workers provides a unique insight which demonstrates that the help and assistance given after 1989 was systematic, well planned, adequately funded and has provided tangible outcomes.

The world's energy markets remain uncertain, with no accurate, optimistic forecasts. The authors of the research note that the energy crisis has a cumulative effect; its beginning has changed the rules of energy cooperation in the market. This contributed to increased demand, prices and competition. The European Union (EU) is a major market participant whose policies affect all energy connections. Russia is an energy core that offers its energy sources to balance the market. This is the economy; there is no talk of ‘political pressure.’ As a result, the authors conclude that the project ‘Nord Stream-2’ is not a political project but a purely commercial one, which will help reduce even spot prices in the European gas market because all other countries that extract gas cannot meet the growing energy needs of European countries.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the simultaneous effect of the regulation (non-financial information (NFI)- 254/2016) and the factors driving in (no)environmental disclosure (ED) and the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG) of Italian companies.

The study is supported by the theory of legitimacy. The level of ED regarding GHG was measured for 125 Italian companies in 2018, the companies were selected from Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa di Itália, because those included in the list of companies in the Dichiarazione Non Finanziaria all date back to December 31, 2019. Using a scoring system and content analysis of their annual reports, through 20 criteria supported by the literature. The study explores variables of the current legislation, the effect of disclosure and no disclosure, and the influence of the shareholding structure, managerial shareholding, economic power and industry classification at the ED level. The analyses were carried out using structural equation modeling because the authors seek to understand the cause-effect relationship between aspects of legitimacy with dissemination on GHG emissions.

This study finds that NFI.

The study is limited to understanding the effect of legislation on the level of mandatory disclosure in non-financial reports, and the Paris Agreement (voluntary) disclosure on GHG, so the choice of companies analyzed and the study variables are limited to companies that are required to publish non-financial reports, and the variables considered in the study take into account normative aspects and voluntary guidelines of the Paris Agreement. As implications, the results show that adherence to the Paris Agreement contributes more to the quality and comprehensiveness of the information than adherence to the European and Italian legislation (mandatory), which reinforces the understanding that even if the legislation has advanced, it is still soft regarding the quality of information on companies' practices regarding the reduction of GHG emissions.

The findings suggest that non-financial reports are being adopted by listed Italian companies, however, there is variation in the scope of the reports, especially on GHG. For companies listed in Italy, non-financial reports comply with Italian Legislative Decree 254/2016 (mandatory), however, the quality of information on GHG is improved when companies' reports have greater adherence to the Paris Agreement (voluntary).

The results can encourage companies listed in Italy to incorporate NFI in annual reports based on the Paris Agreement, the global pact to reduce GHG emissions, thus building confidence in the capital market and society in general.

The findings contribute to the literature on non-financial reporting, the level of compliance with legal basis and international best practices, such as the Paris Agreement, providing empirical analyzes of non-financial disclosures in publicly available reports in Italy.

This paper aims to investigate the non-financial reporting (NFR) practices of Hungarian listed public interest entities for 2016–2018 in terms of the required disclosure content based on the 2014/95/EU Directive (ED).

The authors apply content analysis methodology on Hungarian firms subject to mandatory reporting under the ED. The target variable in the multivariate model is the reporting quality (Q_i) measured by a combined index.

The authors find that the ED had a moderate impact on Hungary's reporting quality because the overall disclosure of the sample only increased from low to medium level. The authors found that the value of intangible assets is a determinant of the reporting quality before and after the implementation of the ED. The findings support the effect of coercive isomorphism on Hungarian NFR practices.

The limitation of the research is the number of firms examined. However, the authors covered the entire (non-bank) community of the Hungarian firms subject to the ED.

The authors suggest that reporting entities build upon the synergy between intellectual capital disclosure and NFR when elaborating their reporting strategies. The authors recommend the integration of ethical matters into corporate strategies and policies. Policymakers may consider the revision of the Hungarian regulations. The authors suggest academics embrace these topics in teaching.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the impact of ED in the context of Hungary. The authors contribute to the existing literature by adding the results of the ridge regression model, highlighting the importance of intangible assets.