Search Results (938)

The research explores the application of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) within the context of Greek public administration to see whether its legislative transposition has had real impacts on enhancing good governance, accountability, and the protection of data subjects’ rights. Following a doctrinal and comparative approach to law, based on principles of public and administrative law, it analyses the rules governing data protection both at the EU level, as well as the corresponding national implementing legislation (Law 4624/2019), and the practices of supervision authorities, focusing especially on the procedural aspect of GDPR transposition, supported by an empirical examination of selected decisions of the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (HDPA) (2025–2026). Within such a framework, compliance with GDPR becomes one of the main aspects of the European administrative governance system, being associated not with mere legislative requirements, but also with other important elements, such as transparency, proportionality, institutional trust, and efficiency of public services. Greece provides a relevant context for examining the implementation of the GDPR through the high standards of HDPA within public administration. The findings indicate that GDPR compliance in public administration is primarily a matter of governance rather than merely legal alignment. The comparative analysis with recent European Data Protection Board (EDPB) opinions and coordinated supervisory activities further demonstrates that the governance challenges identified in Greece are broadly consistent with those observed across the European Union. The findings suggest that the Greek supervisory framework operates within the wider European system of GDPR governance and exhibits a level of institutional maturity and regulatory alignment comparable to contemporary European supervisory practice. Full article

Introduction: The discharge of treated wastewater into coastal and marine environments represents a continuous source of pollutants, including pharmaceuticals and plastic additives with endocrine-disrupting (ED) potential. These compounds are of increasing concern for the European Union due to their capacity to interfere with hormonal systems and their inclusion in current environmental monitoring priorities. ED compounds may induce sublethal effects in aquatic organisms, particularly in vertebrates, where endocrine pathways are highly conserved. In this context, the use of Cyprinodon variegatus, a euryhaline fish species, provides a suitable model to assess potential risks in marine ecosystems. Despite advances in wastewater treatment technologies, the persistence of biologically active substances in treated effluents remains a concern. Objective: This study aims to evaluate whether treated effluent water still contains compounds with endocrine-disrupting activity and to assess their potential effects on marine organisms. Methodology: Larvae of C. variegatus from a laboratory stock maintained at ECIMAT (University of Vigo), one of the few available stocks of this species in Europe, were exposed for 48 h to environmentally relevant dilutions (1:10, 1:30, and 1:100) of wastewater treatment plant effluent collected after UV disinfection as the final treatment step. Pools of 10 larvae were used for each condition. Sublethal effects were assessed through gene expression analysis using quantitative PCR (qPCR), targeting biomarkers involved in endocrine regulation. Two housekeeping genes (tbp and hprt) were used for normalization. Estrogenic responses were evaluated through vtgab and zp2, while androgenic responses were assessed using 17hsd and 11hsd. Results: Preliminary results indicate significant alterations in estrogen-related gene expression, particularly in vitellogenin (vtgab) and zona pellucida (zp2), highlighting the activation of estrogenic pathways and supporting the presence of endocrine-disrupting activity in treated effluent water. Conclusions: This study highlights the relevance of assessing endocrine disrupting activity in treated effluents and supports the use of molecular biomarkers as sensitive tools for evaluating their potential impact on marine ecosystems, contributing to the improvement of wastewater monitoring and management strategies. Full article

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), adopted by the European Union in 2018, aims to enhance consumer trust and market efficiency by strengthening data protection. The concurrent stringent compliance requirements raise operational costs and could reshape competition by favoring larger firms with greater regulatory capacity. While the GDPR reduces data-related risks and promotes global digital trade through its extraterritorial reach, the potential advantage to larger firms could incentivize strategic responses such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to consolidate market power. Given the rapid expansion of Chinese digital firms in e-commerce, social media, and cloud services across the EU, this study examines how the GDPR has affected their cross-border M&A activities between 2014 and 2021. Based on difference-in-difference analysis, the study finds that the GDPR did not have a statistically significant impact on the number or value of mergers and acquisitions by Chinese digital firms in the EU in the short term. This suggests that firms may enhance their institutional adaptability by strengthening their compliance capabilities. However, institutional and cultural differences pose long-term entry barriers for the firms. The study contributes by highlighting how firms adjust internationalization strategies under stringent regulatory regimes, offering policy-relevant insights for governments and regulatory authorities. Full article

Background/Objectives: With the increasing incidence of drug counterfeiting and the emergence of personalized medicine, the need for unique marking of solid dosage forms, e.g., tablets, has attracted considerable interest in the current research and development landscape. Besides traditional printing methods, laser marking offers several advantages, as it eliminates the need for organic solvents and enables the generation of precise patterns. However, laser exposure may raise safety concerns regarding the stability of photosensitive drugs in the irradiated dosage forms. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to test the photoprotective effect of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) and its various alternatives, e.g., talc, calcium carbonate (CaCO₃), zinc oxide (ZnO), and black iron oxide (Fe₃O₄), alongside a ready-to-use reference formulation, Opadry^® Brown, which contains TiO₂ (titanium-containing, TC) on nifedipine, a light-sensitive model drug. Methods: Laser marking or short-term laser ablation at different wavelengths (193 nm, 248 nm, 532 nm, and 781 nm) was applied to different coating formulations. As a positive control, prolonged exposure to daylight was applied. The properties and photostability of these formulations were evaluated using several analytical methods (i.e., surface profilometry, Raman spectroscopy, and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)). Results: The TiO₂, ZnO, Fe₃O₄, and Opadry^® TC Brown coatings maintained their color during the long-term study under all conditions. Furthermore, the prepared formulations exhibited different ablation depths and morphological changes depending on the coating and laser type. HPLC measurements confirmed significant differences in the protective ability of various pigments against sunlight and different types of lasers. Nevertheless, the obtained Raman spectra were not in complete agreement with HPLC results, which can be attributed to spectral overlap between key nifedipine degradation markers and excipient signals in the tablet core. Conclusions: Overall, laser treatment of tablets containing photosensitive drugs may induce API decomposition; however, this effect can be minimized or avoided by careful selection of the appropriate combination of laser type and photoprotective pigment. Under the applied experimental conditions, Ti:Sa laser treatment was associated with the lowest degree of nifedipine degradation among all formulations, while ZnO-containing coatings demonstrated the most consistent photoprotective performance against the majority of the tested laser types, while Fe₃O₄-containing coatings provided superior protection during prolonged sunlight exposure and Nd:YAG laser irradiation. Full article

Road transport is one of the most significant sources of environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions; therefore, the development of sustainable mobility is becoming an important direction of urban transport policy. The objectives of the European Union’s transport policy encourage cities to plan and implement measures that reduce the environmental impact of transport, improve transport conditions, and increase the availability of mobility alternatives. The aim of this study is to evaluate the planning of sustainable mobility development in Lithuanian cities by analysing sustainable urban mobility plans, the measures proposed in them, and their links to the needs of urban transport systems. The study applied descriptive statistics, comparative analysis, and document content analysis methods. The urban plans of Lithuanian cities were evaluated according to the following criteria: the time scope and relevance of the plan, the completeness of the analysis of the existing transport system, the assessment of the environment and quality of life in cities, and the compliance of the planned sustainable mobility measures with the needs of the city. The results of the study show that only a portion of Lithuanian cities have prepared sustainable urban mobility plans, and their contents and analytical bases differ. Some of the plans do not provide a sufficiently detailed and relevant analysis of the current situation; therefore, the need for the selected measures is not always clearly justified. The cities analysed generally envisage or apply measures to improve public transport, develop pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, regulate traffic, create electric vehicle infrastructure, and promote multimodality. It was concluded that sustainable mobility planning in Lithuanian cities is uneven, and its assessment depends not only on the diversity of the envisaged measures but also on the analytical quality of planning documents, the justification of measures, and the consistency of envisaged implementation measures. The study highlights the need to strengthen data-based sustainable mobility planning and to more clearly link the measures envisaged in the plans with the specific challenges of urban transport systems. Full article

The paper presents AI Sentinel, a closed-loop socio-technical approach to monitoring, analyzing, and responding to negative hotel reviews through a combination of big data analytics, natural language processing, and machine learning predictive modeling. A total of 85,178 reviews were analyzed for 80 European hotel properties, with 5665 (mean = 6.54) classified as negative and 79,513 (mean = 9.22) classified as positive. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) was used to discover topics; Gradient Boosting was used to classify high-risk reviews (AUC = 0.919); and a rule-based engine was employed for routing recovery/delivery of service. This analysis identified ten major complaint areas in guest reviews, with Cleanliness, staff behavior, and room quality accounting for 47.0% of negative comments about hotels and forming the Critical tier of intervention. There are three key theoretical contributions made by this study: (1) establishing operationalization of joint socio-technical optimization in AI-augmented service management; (2) introducing algorithmic service sensing as a time-compression mechanism for recovery workflow; and (3) demonstrating that the integration of unsupervised topic modeling with supervised risk classifications can provide a compounded analytical approach. Managerial consequences include risk prioritization at the portfolio level, the design of specific services to target certain traveler segments, nationality-based recovery threshold levels, and an appropriate governance structure that meets the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation and the new European Union Artificial Intelligence Act. Full article

The global regulatory landscape is shifting from voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting to mandatory Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure, yet whether this transition drives substantive corporate environmental change or merely symbolic compliance remains empirically contested. This study investigates the causal impact of mandatory ESG disclosure on firm value and operational carbon intensity, drawing on an unbalanced panel of 9682 firm-year observations for 1626 listed firms from the European Union (EU-27) and Japan covering the period 2018 to 2024. The EU serves as the treatment group, where mandatory disclosure requirements escalated substantially from 2021 onward through the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive proposal. Japan serves as the control group, representing a developed economy with sophisticated capital markets and high ESG awareness that maintained a voluntary disclosure environment throughout the study period. A Difference-in-Differences framework with firm- and year-fixed effects is employed, and causal identification is validated through a dynamic event study analysis. Three principal findings emerge. First, mandatory ESG disclosure is not associated with a statistically significant improvement in firm value in the EU–Japan comparative context, a result that is interpreted as descriptive rather than causal given evidence of pre-existing valuation divergence between the two groups. Second, mandatory disclosure is associated with a significant and progressive reduction in Scope 1 and 2 carbon intensity, indicating substantive operational decarbonization rather than symbolic compliance. Third, this emissions-reducing effect is significantly amplified among firms with dedicated CSR sustainability committees, while the board independence policy indicator yields no significant moderating effect, a finding attributed to data limitations. These results carry direct implications for policymakers designing climate-related disclosure frameworks and for scholars examining the boundary conditions under which mandatory transparency translates into genuine environmental performance. Full article

The European Union (EU) and national governments have set clear targets to reduce agricultural emissions, including ammonia from manure spreading practice, with regulations such as the Ambient Air Quality (AQ) and Clean Air Directives, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and the Green Deal, with implication for ecosystem services and landscape planning, reflecting broader environmental sustainability objectives including those addressed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Informative Inventory Reports (IIRs) are critical tools within the EMEP/EEA framework for monitoring long-range transboundary air pollution. They utilize three distinct methodological tiers (Tiers 1, 2, and 3) to estimate emission data across Europe. Despite the availability of Earth Observation (EO) data and products from the Copernicus Programme current estimation methods still rarely integrate EO information to produce spatially explicit estimates. This paper reviews current methodologies for estimating ammonia in IIRs and in scientific literature, including advanced methods not yet implemented in official inventories but potentially capable of supporting more spatially explicit and process-oriented estimation. A Medium Effort Methodology (MEM) is identified among those reviewed as a representative methodological pathway for integrating EO information with Tier 3 approaches. Building on this, the paper explores the association between specific EO data and Copernicus products, and input variables required by MEM, identifying opportunities and barriers for environmental monitoring with potential relevance to sustainable agriculture. Full article

Digital resilience has become an increasingly important concept in information systems research due to growing dependence on digital infrastructures, escalating cyber threats, and the emergence of regulatory frameworks that formalize resilience obligations. This study provides a systematic literature review of how digital resilience is conceptualized, operationalized, and aligned with emerging European Union (EU) regulatory frameworks. Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, a systematic search was conducted across Scopus, Web of Science, and IEEE Xplore databases. Fifty-three peer-reviewed studies published between 2006 and 2026 were analyzed using a structured analytical coding framework capturing conceptual clarity, dimensional structure, methodological maturity, and regulatory alignment. The results reveal significant conceptual fragmentation across the literature. While governance, ICT risk management, incident response, and third-party risk management emerge as recurring resilience dimensions, definitional and structural convergence remains limited. Measurement approaches are dominated by maturity models and qualitative assessment frameworks, with relatively few studies proposing validated indicator-based models. Regulatory alignment with EU frameworks such as the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and the Network and Information Security Directive (NIS2) remains partial and inconsistent. The study identifies a structural alignment gap between regulatory resilience requirements, conceptual resilience models, and operational measurement approaches, providing a foundation for developing regulator-compatible digital resilience assessment frameworks. Full article

Edible insects have emerged as a promising alternative to conventional livestock as the global demand for sustainable protein sources rises. Ensuring the safety of insect-based foods is crucial for consumer acceptance and regulatory approval. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the primary chemical and microbiological contaminants associated with edible insects, including heavy metals, pesticides, veterinary drugs, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), mycotoxins, microbiological hazards, and allergenic risks. Current evidence indicates that, when insects are farmed and processed under controlled conditions and in compliance with existing European Union regulations, contaminant levels are generally low and within the range of those found in traditional animal-derived foods. Most studies report that current risks are primarily linked to substrate quality and storage practices. Allergenic risks, particularly cross-reactivity with crustacean and mite allergens, remain a crucial consideration for individuals with sensitivities. Despite these reassuring findings, knowledge gaps persist regarding insect-specific contaminant limits, the metabolic fate of toxins, and the long-term safety of consuming novel insect-derived products. Continued research, targeted monitoring, and regulatory adaptation will be essential to ensure the safe and sustainable integration of insect-based foods into the human diet. Full article

The digital transformation of agriculture is rapidly turning the sector into a highly data-intensive domain. The European Union has responded with a broad horizontal framework encompassing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Governance Act (DGA), the Data Act, the PSI Directive and the AI Act. However, this framework remains sector-neutral: it does not define ‘agricultural data’ as a legal category, nor does it explicitly recognize the specific position of farmers as data providers. This article pursues three objectives: (i) to map the EU legal and policy framework on data and AI as it applies to agriculture and identify regulatory gaps; (ii) to synthesize key concerns from the literature on agricultural data governance, with particular attention to the position of farmers and data spaces; and (iii) to develop an outline of a Spanish ‘Law on Agricultural Data and Digital Agricultural Services’ as an example of sectoral data legislation. The proposed Act—structured around a Preliminary Title and seven substantive Titles—would define agricultural data, recognize farmers as data providers, establish mandatory contractual protections, govern agricultural data spaces and cooperatives, introduce sector-adapted AI rules, address data sovereignty, and set up an institutional framework and graduated sanctions. The analysis argues that sectoral data law can complement EU horizontal rules, enhance legal certainty, and empower farmers without fragmenting the internal market. The article employs a doctrinal legal analysis and normative design-oriented methodology, drawing on secondary literature, policy documents, and EU and Spanish law; it does not rely on original empirical fieldwork. Full article

Background: The rapid development of edible insect research and the growing use of insect-based ingredients in food technology, human nutrition, and the food industry have not yet been accompanied by harmonized terminology. In the scientific literature, regulatory documents, and expert materials, the terms “insect flour” and “insect powder” are used interchangeably. In Polish-language sources, additional terms such as “mąka z owadów”, “mączka z owadów”, and “sproszkowana postać” are also used. Objective: This study aimed to analyze the use and contextual meaning of the terms “insect flour”, “insect powder”, and “insect meal” in scientific literature, European Union regulations, and Polish-language sources. Methods: The study combined bibliometric, regulatory, and linguistic analysis. Bibliometric analyses were performed using the Web of Science and Scopus databases for the years 2015–2025. Keyword co-occurrence networks and temporal trends were analyzed using VOSviewer. In addition, European Union legal acts and selected Polish-language scientific, institutional, and implementation-oriented sources were evaluated. Results: The results showed clear differences in the use of the analyzed terms. “Insect powder” appeared mainly in regulatory and formal product-description contexts, whereas “insect flour” was more common in food technology and food formulation studies. In contrast, “insect meal” was strongly associated with feed applications, aquaculture, and animal nutrition. The analysis also showed that the terms powder and flour frequently co-occurred in the same publications, suggesting that their use depends primarily on context rather than on strict terminological differences. Conclusions: The study indicates that complete terminology unification may not be necessary. Instead, clearer, more consistent use of terms that depend on the scientific, technological, regulatory, and communication context appears to be more practical. Full article

The present Brief Report examines the role of data governance and regulatory complexity in shaping the integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors in asset management and corporate reporting within the European Union. As sustainable finance expands, ensuring the transparency, comparability, and reliability of ESG information remains a key challenge. The study adopts a qualitative and analytical approach, drawing on academic literature, institutional reports, and EU regulatory frameworks, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), the EU Taxonomy, and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). Through a documentary and comparative analysis, it assesses the consistency and interoperability of European and international sustainability frameworks. The findings highlight persistent challenges such as data fragmentation, lack of standardization, and regulatory complexity, while emphasizing the role of ESRS and robust data governance in enhancing data quality and transparency. The present Brief Report therefore provides potentially useful insights for stakeholders such as policymakers and regulators, managers and institutional investors, corporate issuers and academicians. Strengthening governance structures and regulatory alignment is hence essential not only to foster investor trust and improve access to sustainable finance, but also to support evidence-based policy reform and long-term creation across European capital markets. Full article

Regulatory sandboxes have evolved from specialised FinTech tools into broader mechanisms of regulatory experimentation. As artificial intelligence (AI) applications become embedded in credit decisioning, payment-fraud detection, identity verification, crypto-asset compliance, customer-facing advice and supervisory analytics, sandbox design increasingly affects how legal and institutional responsibility is allocated among regulators, participating firms, technology vendors and users. This article provides a comparative doctrinal and institutional analysis of accountability and liability in AI-related financial regulatory sandboxes. It clarifies the relevant AI modalities, distinguishes accountability (answerability and enforceability during sandbox participation) from liability (contractual, tort/product and regulatory/public law responsibility after harm), and maps framework-level safeguards across the European Union, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Norway and Hungary. The analysis does not seek to measure sandbox effectiveness empirically. Instead, it examines how publicly available legal and regulatory materials structure the allocation of duties before, during and after sandbox testing. The article shows that sandboxes generally do not operate as liability shields. Their legal significance lies in reallocating ex ante accountability duties—documentation, disclosure, monitoring, human oversight and exit planning—while preserving baseline liability rules. An Accountability and Liability Protocol is proposed to clarify roles, protect baseline consumer rights, support evidentiary traceability and connect sandbox learning to enforceable post-sandbox obligations. Full article

The foreseen implementation of the recast European Union Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (EU) 2024/3019 will extend the previous regulation’s purpose to cover agglomerations from 1000 population equivalent upwards, and impose more stringent requirements on larger plants. Member States’ local authorities will be responsible for carrying out a range of organizational and infrastructural tasks, including the expansion of sewerage networks and the construction/modernization of wastewater treatment plants. This study presents an analysis aimed at assessing the readiness of small and medium-sized wastewater treatment plants in Poland to meet the new forthcoming requirements. The study examines the extent to which the present performance of small and medium-sized treatment plants in Poland complies with current regulations, and their readiness to comply with future environmental standards set by the new Directive. The structure of the national sewerage system is taken into account with the case study analysis of the present situation in the Opolskie Voivodeship. The novelty and methodological contribution of the study lies in bridging the regulatory analysis with local-scale operational data from selected facilities, as well as statistical data on the national wastewater treatment system published by Statistics Poland (GUS), linking local-scale WWTP performance with broader systemic conditions at the national level. Full article