When it was discovered that the perpetrator of a hit and run accident that sent two severely injured victims to the author's hospital was the father of one of the victims who allegedly tried to kill her for dishonoring the family, a 15 day siege ensued. In the article, the author describes the problems involved in keeping two warring families apart without denigrating their culture and the lessons learned for dealing with such complex situations.

When cultures collide.

International marketing management

Soils perform more functions than primary productivity. Examples of these functions are the recycling of nutrients, the regulation and purification of water, the regulation of the climate, and supporting biodiversity. These abilities are generally referred to as the soil quality. Soil management that favors primary productivity may have positive and negative impacts on the other functions, and vice versa, depending on soil and climatic conditions. All these functions are under pressure, particularly in intensive agriculture. In the absence of mandatory regulations, most European farmers give limited attention to other functions than primary productivity in spite of recommendations by scientists, society and policy makers to acknowledge the ecosystem services provided by soils. The present paper analyses the underlying causes of this limited attention for the multi-functionality of soils by farmers. It is concluded that their focus on primary productivity may stem from (1) insufficient visible proof for soil degradation and benefits of preventive measures over curative measures, (2) limited awareness or conviction of long-term synergies, (3) insufficient remuneration of ecosystem services by society or compensation of yield penalties in favor of these services, (4) lacking trustworthy knowledge about and support for multi-functional soil management, and (5) absence of incentives and regulations on soil management and their enforcement. All these shortcomings need to be addressed by advisors, scientists, and policy makers, whilst acknowledging the need for underpinning and differentiation of incentives and regulations.

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Multi-functional land use is not self-evident for European farmers: a critical review.

The hill and mountain areas in Europe are multi-faceted and places of differing and often conflicting land activities. Scotland provides a good example of a well-described history of land uses with conflicting provision and management objectives. Using Scotland's hill areas as a case study, the article argues that using a dual interacting dichotomy of ‘use' of the land versus ‘delight' from the land, and of management for ‘a few' towards management for ‘the many', could be used to describe and analyse the past and present conflicts over land activities. This article explores the political influences and historic evolution of hill farming and other associated hill land activities or interests, as well as the underlying conflicts that affect them. Most of these conflicts are grounded in historical, political and economic priorities, divergent management objectives and conflicting stakeholders’ views. The article further argues that these conflicts could be better understood by an appreciation of the...

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Use or Delight? History of Conflicting Hill Land Uses in Scotland – A Review

Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform in the European Union introduced a new element: greening The aim of greening is to support the environment and create non-productive value in agriculture The main element of greening is the Ecological Focus Area (EFA) meaning that a portion of farmland area has to be designed for environmental purposes This article consists of an evaluatation of greening and its elements in the first year CAP reform has come into force Surveys were used as a tool to gather information about farm characteristics, ways to meet greening requirements as well as the opinions of farmers as to changes in direct subsidies and greening obligations The research was conducted in 2015 directly interviewing 290 farmers from the whole of Poland The farmers interviewed lived in different parts of the country and had different size farms Data was prepared with the use of spreadsheets and were analysed using the R statistical program and the “gmodel” and “vcd” statistical packages were used during the calculations Polish farmers are against greening Greening does not significantly change the way farmers run their farms They choose the cheapest options of EFA which are usually not the best for the environment Furthermore, farmers have to bear the cost of introducing the new elements themselves Despite a high number of environmental and agricultural advantages offered by new farming methods, crop rotation and after-crop sowing duty, CAP reform is assessed in a negative light As a result of negative opinions held by farmers due to the lack of subsidies, farmers may not continue greening practices in the future

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Farmer rationality and the adoption of greening practices in Poland

Poljopriveda je uz transport jedino podrucje koje je regulirano uvođenjem zajednickih politika u Rimskom sporazumu. Ciljevi su agrarne politike predviđeni tim Sporazumom visestruki, a najvažniji je smanjenje uvoza i zadovoljavanje potreba stanovnistva. Za realizaciju tih ciljeva Europska unija izdvajala je iz komunitarnog budžeta vise od 70% sredstava, sto je opterecivalo realizaciju drugih politika i ukupne ciljeve Europske unije. Ocito je da se namece potreba reforme poljoprivrede radi usmjeravanja sredstava na realizaciju drugih ciljeva Europske unije, a i za potrebe prikljucivanja novih zemalja u europski prostor. Na tom je putu, u Agendi 2000, Europska unija trasirala ciljeve prilagodbe agrarne politike novim međunarodnim uvjetima koji zahtijevaju ukljucivanje poljoprivrede u međunarodne multilateralne pregovore i njezinu potpunu liberalizaciju.

Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union

This paper explores the connection between business and culture and discusses in which way the extended, in-depth understanding of the target market culture can improve the economic success of an internationally active company. The purpose of the paper is to show that achieving success in the international arena can be increased through cross-cultural training. The paper stresses the need of understanding how to negotiate a global cross-cultural business environment as one of the factors influencing economic success, and it attempts to set the framework for further research into the cost of cultural influence.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2238971_code2006403.pdf?abstractid=2238971&mirid=5&type=2

Economic Impact of Cross – Cultural Understanding

The common commercial policy has played an important role since the establishment of the European Union. It was introduced into the relations with non-member trade partners simultaneously with the establishment of the common and later on the single market within the Union. The policy is based on liberal trade between member countries and the common commercial policy for non-members. The common commercial policy regulates the exchange between the EU and non-members through its instruments. It has been conducted differently for particular economic branches, particular partners and competitors on the world market. The basic pillars of the common commercial policy are: common customs policy, common agricultural policy and the system of relating with the third countries. The importance of common commercial policy grew with the development of economic globalization and successful expansion of the European Union. During that period, the EU common commercial policy has been intentionally unified. Such an occurrence is logical because the customs union itself implies that the member countries define their common foreign policy, especially because of the economic and monetary unification of demands for the member countries to hold the same competitive position amongst the non-members. The European Union controls 1/5 of the world trade and plays an important role in the globalization of the world economy. Its common commercial policy protects commercial interests of the Union and aspires to introduce multilateral principles of globalization to as many participants in the world trade as possible, especially within the WTO. The European Union has maintained privileged commercial relations with many countries. Its integrated commercial policy eroded and was replaced by numerous preferential agreements.

Common commercial policy of the European Union

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Frano Ljubić

Papers

Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union

Economic Impact of Cross – Cultural Understanding

Common commercial policy of the European Union

Zajednička agrarna politika europske unije