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To compare the key EU regimes regulating direct lending by private funds.

Provides a summary of the key factors to be examined when looking at the provision of direct loans by private funds in the key jurisdictions, followed by a summary of existing pan-European regulations, followed by a focus regulations in on the UK, Germany, France and Italy.

The liberalisation of the national regimes for loan origination by funds in many European Union jurisdictions is a welcome development for both credit fund sponsors wishing to access investment opportunities in these jurisdictions and the borrowers unable to secure adequate financing from traditional sources such as banks. At the same time, the creation of a pan-European regulatory regime, with a passport for lending activities, would further facilitate market access by loan originating funds, as long as such regime does not impose onerous burdens or unnecessary restrictions on the funds and their managers.

The article gives an insight on the relative opportunities for direct lending funds in the EU, and how best to structure to take advantage of them.

Practical guidance from experienced financial services lawyers

In March this year the European Coalition for Community Living published Wasted Time, Wasted Money, Wasted Lives… A Wasted Opportunity? This reported on how the current use of European Union Structural Funds perpetuates the social exclusion of disabled people in central and eastern Europe by failing to support the transition from institutional care to community‐based alternatives. This paper summarises its key findings and recommendations.

This article aims to trace current developments in the treatment of the venture capital industry in the European Union (EU), including recently proposed legislation.

This article provides an analysis of current EU venture capital industry trends by detailing some of the important aspects of the newly proposed EU marketing regimes for venture capital and social entrepreneurship funds, noting the impact on venture capital of the UK's discussion paper on AIFMD implementation and examining a recent EU Parliament study on the potential of venture capital in the EU.

There appears growing recognition in the EU that the venture capital industry requires specialist legislation that balances the compliance burden with a constructive facility for marketing venture capital funds cross‐border.

This article provides an expert view of recent European trends in the venture capital industry by specialist lawyers.

The European Union (EU) faces numerous political and socio-economic challenges, both of an external and domestic nature, which must be tackled by this international organization. Universities also have to respond to these challenges by proposing new curricula, including ones related to EU subjects, and new ways of transferring knowledge. This also means that the adopted approach toward teaching about the EU should be modernized and go beyond simple and straightforward teaching about EU institutions and policies. The objective of this chapter is to present an approach toward teaching EU-related subjects concerning entrepreneurship and management of EU funds in Poland based on the example of the University of Economics in Katowice. The following research questions were elaborated: How to boost the acquisition of skills related to entrepreneurship? What are the best practices that can be promoted? How can the discussed university expands its educational offer? Also with the use of EU funds that can be adjusted to the needs of the region and the expectations of the young people.

European spatial governance underwent substantial changes over the past two decades with the expansion of European territorial cooperation programmes, the introduction of new instruments for cooperation and an increasing role of financial and regulatory framework in sector policies. Against this background the paper develops the argument that today’s European spatial governance has become more diversified and fragmented, leading to an increasing role for sector policies, and that the cumulative effect of these diverse activities on domestic planning processes are under researched.

This paper summarises the legal recognition of spatial planning and categorises European spatial governance as being composed of spatial policies, financial instruments and governance frameworks. This paper then presents three explorative case studies: the Common Transport policy as one European Union (EU) sector policy, a cross-border cooperation supported by the European Regional Development Fund and macro-regional cooperation.

This paper concludes that the increasing regulatory impact of European spatial governance on domestic spatial planning goes far beyond the pure Europeanisation of narratives and agendas or “ways of doing things”. Furthermore, this paper illustrates that European spatial governance is characterised by a process of sectoralisation, supported by the EU’s regional policy and the provision of governance tools. The paper calls for further investigation of the interrelatedness of these processes and their reciprocal influences on planning practices.

The value lies in recognising the incremental changes that have come alongside European integration, and highlighting the importance of these processes for domestic planning processes. This paper highlights the hidden process of sectoralisation that leads to an increase in planning competences at the European level.

This chapter summarises the role of EU actions in supporting healthcare policies in the EU Member States, both looking at implemented actions and describing current priorities for the future. It argues that these coordinated actions can be beneficial for EU Member States by helping them to avoid duplication of effort and to attain economies of scale. Moreover, data sharing with proper safeguards can unleash vast amount of ‘learning what works’ both for medical treatments and for healthcare sustainability measures. The need for this common learning appears ever more urgent while facing the health and economic consequences of the present pandemic.

Examines in depth the practical realities and difficulties of initiating and sustaining a major tourism development project which is intended to further economic regeneration and job‐creation and is funded in partnership with the European Union. The financial framework of the scheme, the “Hotties” in St Helens (Merseyside), is provided by the European Structural Funds including the RECHAR Initiative. The contribution of the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund are also evaluated. In addition the purportedly complementary role of central government is addressed, through the Urban Programme and City Challenge schemes. Two fundamental issues emerge as crucially governing outcomes: the precise structure and nature of the complex public/private partnerships involved; and vexed problem of “additionality”, which remains an unresolved matter. Clearly demonstrates the urgent need for far greater integration and co‐ordination of public policy and the rationalization of the application and implementation procedures.

Economic difficulties facing the countries of the former Soviet Union and Mongolia as a result of recent political changes are constraining funding for education. However, there is a growing provision of facilities afforded by the electronic library in these countries. Evidence afforded by three European Union funded projects at Yaroslavl’ State Pedagogical University (Russia), Tashkent State University (Uzbekistan) and the Mongolian State Pedagogical University, shows that the Internet is already firmly established in such countries and that users are poised to maximise the benefits. These are not all dependent on western information sources. World Wide Web sites, for example, are rapidly developing in the former Soviet Union bringing an unparalleled window on Russian resources. Difficulties in the introduction of the electronic library in these countries include reliability and performance of systems, sceptical attitudes of many academics, and cost. The latter is the most serious long‐term factor as externally funded projects come to an end and institutions struggle to meet even their salary bills. Economic development especially in Mongolia and Uzbekistan may overcome this problem before very long, endorsing the global nature of the electronic library.

The aim of this article is to investigate how the use of financial instruments influences the development of Regional Development Funds (RFR) in Poland and to assess the maturity and coherence of the regional development financing system in this country.

The methodology is based on the multilevel governance literature and on data collected during 26 in-depth interviews in regional, national and international institutions.

The authors demonstrate that the use of financial instruments stimulates new kinds of cooperation between several institutions and contributes to the establishment of RFR. The authors also show that the Polish regional financing system is still developing and formulate recommendations about necessary improvements.

The main contribution of this article, in addition to taking up a new, relevant topic for the regional development policy in countries benefiting from European Union (EU) cohesion policy, is the application of the multilevel governance (MLG) concept to explain the development of the Polish regional development financing system. Moreover, the significant added value of this study comes from the use of data collected during 26 in-depth interviews (IDI) in regional, national and international institutions on the use of repayable instruments in regional development policy.

EU countries, including those in Central and Eastern Europe, seem to have increasingly similar economies, allowing for the study of real convergence as a process of equalising income levels (measured by GDP per capita). Studies of income convergence in the European Union also have a regional dimension and often focus on convergence at the NUTS2 or NUTS3 regional level. The level of development and income in Polish regions differ significantly. The regional policy implemented at the national and EU level focuses on reducing these differences.

The main aim of the chapter is to analyse the income convergence process among regions in Poland and verify the effectiveness of regional policy implemented at the national and EU level.

The study uses Barro type regression for panel data, log t convergence test, and club clustering algorithm introduced by Phillips and Sul to identify patterns of club convergence in Polish regions. The data used for the study is the Local Data Bank provided by Statistics Poland, which includes gross domestic product per capita at the NUTS-3 level for 73 Polish regions over the period of 2000–2020.

The results of the study indicate a very weak convergence process for all Polish NUTS-3 regions and suggest a club convergence. The club convergence is characterised by regions with similar income levels clustering together. The regional distribution of clubs is similar to the regional distribution of income. The study's findings provide important insights into the effectiveness of regional policy in Poland and suggest that policymakers need to focus on policies that promote catch-up growth in less developed regions. The study also highlights the importance of supporting the most developed regions in the country as they can play a crucial role in driving the country's economic growth and prosperity.