The drive to reduce child poverty is of particular interest in southern Europe, where the subsidiary role of the State in matters of family policy has implied that programmes of public assistance to ...poor families with children are often meagre or not available at all. The paper examines the effect of family transfers (used broadly to include contributory family allowances, non-contributory child benefits and tax credits or allowances) on child poverty in Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Using the European microsimulation model EUROMOD, the paper first assesses the distributional impact of existing family transfers and then explores the scope for policy reforms. By way of illustration, the effects of universal child benefit schemes similar to those in Britain, Denmark and Sweden are simulated. The paper concludes with a discussion of key findings and policy implications.
The article discusses the new American role in South Europe and consequences of the NATO enlargement for the regional and global security situation. It can be expected that the US involvement in the ...South European region will increase and remain high in the near future. Such new US involvement is based on American strategic and political interests, i. e. the position of Southern Europe as strategic link to relevant Southern destinations; conflict potential in the region, the role of the Russian strategic interest as well as a potential clash between Islam and Christian religions. Further analysed are positions and prospects of the South-European countries and their foreign policy and strategic priorities. The main conclusion is that American presence and interest in this region are firm and established through political, military and economic instruments which include strengthening of NATO’s role in the region and enabling the continuing US influence.
Chromosome numbers of taxa belonging to the Myosotis alpestris group are provided and/or confirmed. A chromosome count is reported for the first time for M. olympica. A new ploidy level (2n = 24) was ...revealed within M. stenophylla for which previously only tetraploid cytotypes are reported. Myosotis stenophylla is identified for the first time from Greece. Previous chromosome counts for M. ambigens, M. alpestris, M. atlantica, M. corsicana, M. lithospermifolia, and M. suaveolens are confirmed based on plants originating from karyologically poorly investigated parts of the distribution areas of this polyploid complex.
