The focus of this essay is to enquire as to what role UNECE can play in conflict prevention and peacebuilding. The historic role of the UNECE in bridging the East-West divide and guiding the transition process of the former planned economies is testimony to the importance of this type of...

The eurozone is in political and economic crisis. This is due to the inadequate design of the institutional structure of the eurozone and to the current poor implementation of macroeconomic policy. In designing the eurozone, well established principles of economics were ignored and major...

The EU transfers provided to the New Member States and candidate countries are generally viewed as having been efficiently used in promoting development in these economies. This paper examines the conditionality and institutional arrangements used to manage these transfers, and asks if there are...

This essay addresses two major challenges confronting the road tranportation sector: reducing emissions and improving road safety. After energy production, the transportation sector is the second largest source of carbon emissions, accounting for about one quarter of all fossil fuel emissions....

Central to the goals of competitiveness and sustainable development is the issue of energy. Is there enough? Where will it come from? What will it costs? Is its production and use environmentally sustainable? Many of these questions are now discussed under the general topic commonly referred to...

This paper addresses a set of conflicting national objectives, that between economic competitiveness and environmental quality. In lower-income economies, the perceived benefits of improved environmental quality may be valued less than in richer economies while the perceived opportunity costs of...

This paper examines the two-way interaction between transport systems and several mega-trends that have been and are likely to continue to characterize the world. These trends include globalization, technological change, increased intergovernmental cooperation, the changing role of the public...

The issue as to what degree there is a trade-off between economic growth and environmental quality was one of the topics discussed at the recent “Environment for Europe” Ministerial Conference held in Belgrade in mid-October 2007. This paper provides an overall assessment of that conference...

An importance source of finance for poorer economies, is foreign aid; this paper examines some controversies surrounding its provision. The advanced economies have provided hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to the developing world over the last several decades; although this has done much...

The Pan-European Region made significant progress from 1995 to 2007 in improving the economic, social, environmental and health indicators incorporated into the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, given the huge set-backs associated with the transition recession in the early 1990s and...