Browsing by Author "Varia, Gabriela"

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Green Initiative and Mineral Governance: The Interplay of EU Policies and Romania’s Regulatory Framework
(MDPI, 2025) Alexandru, Dana-Georgeta; Bălan, Emil; Berceanu, Ionuț Bogdan; Iftene, Cristi; Varia, Gabriela
The global shift toward green technologies presents a dual challenge: surging demand for clean technology products and an increasing reliance on critical raw materials (CRMs). While the existing literature has largely concentrated on economic, geopolitical, or general governance perspectives, scant attention has been devoted to the legal, institutional, and justice dimensions of mineral resource governance. This article addresses this gap by examining the European Union’s evolving policy framework—particularly the Critical Raw Materials (CRM) Act—and its implications for Romania’s national regulatory landscape. Employing a mixed-method approach that combines a systematic literature review and a SWOT analysis, this study assesses Romania’s capacity to align its mineral governance with the EU’s objectives for supply security, environmental sustainability, and strategic autonomy. Its findings underscore the urgent need for Romania to streamline its regulatory frameworks, enhance institutional coherence, clarify property rights, and reform licensing and fiscal regimes to attract investment and ensure legal predictability. Advancing green mining technologies, recycling initiatives, and sustainability-focused innovations is also vital for aligning national practices with the EU’s environmental and economic goals. By foregrounding issues of transparency, good governance, and procedural justice, this article offers new insights into how national and supranational governance structures intersect in the context of the green transition. This study provides valuable recommendations for policymakers, industry actors, and scholars seeking to strengthen Romania’s position within the EU’s broader resource security and sustainable development strategies.
Local Collectivity v. Administrative-Territorial Unit–a Legal-Semantic Perspective
(T&T Academic Publishing, 2021) Bălan, Emil; Varia, Gabriela
The paper topic is placed in the general context of implementing democracy at the local level by means of decentralization of public administration (PA). This interest requires the need of theoretical grounds for a series of new concepts, such as local power and subjects entitled to detain and exercise this power. The study is looking for an answer to the following research question: which is the scientific concept that describes the subject of local autonomy: the territorial-administrative unit or the local collectivity?
The Semi-Presidential Republic: French Origin and Different Perspectives in Europe
(T&T Academic Publishing, 2022) Varia, Gabriela
The present article examines the concept of semi-presidentialism since its conception by the scholar Maurice Duverger and presents the evolution and the features of the French semi- presidential system, which served as a model for many of the post-communist presidencies in Europe. The last section of the paper is focused on intra-executive conflicts that arise in the semi- presidential systems, conflicts which are usually regarded in the field literature as negative, but also have the potential for leading to solutions when there is not the same majority supporting both the president and prime minister.