The circular economy is a major challenge for any national economy. It is a modern model of an economy that focuses on a new model of production and consumption that requires less use of limited resources, minimizing waste (products after their lifetime) in landfills, more efficient management of waste as raw material, minimizing pollution, and all that with the aim of protecting the environment and improving the living standards of the population. In the transition to the circular economy, the state and its bodies, economic entities and the population should be of equal importance. The aim of this paper is to point out the role and importance of the circular economy as a new economic system with special emphasis on the principles of the circular economy, drivers of the circular economy, strategies for establishing and maintaining the circular economy and goals achieved by the circular economy.

The transition to a circular economy has become an important topic in thinking about the sustainable future of humanity. An important and often disputed point in the academic debate on this topic is the relationship between the need to achieve constant economic growth on the one hand and the preservation and protection of the environment on the other. This paper contributes to that debate by assessing the causality of the circular and economic performances of selected countries. The analysis is based on panel data from the EU Monitoring Framework database and World Bank DataBank covering 27 European Union (EU) countries during the period 2000 to 2021. The goal is to examine the impact of circular economy indicators on gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in the EU. The research is conducted through descriptive statistics and correlation and regression analysis. The obtained results indicate a strong positive correlation between circular economy indicators and GDP per capita. Also, results revealed a positive and statistically significant impact of Resource Productivity (RP), Generation of municipal waste per capita (MWpc), and Recycling rate of municipal waste (RRMW) on economic growth (GDPpc). The conclusions can be useful to EU policymakers in formulating a strategy for improving the performance of the circular economy, but also for harmonizing that improvement with the economic performance of the member states. This particularly refers to taking measures to improve resource productivity and encouraging both producers and consumers to increase waste recycling capacity, as significant factors of economic growth.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the insufficient capacities and capabilities of countries around the world to deal with global infectious diseases and stressed the need to improve the international health security framework. An efficient and comprehensive health system that is able to cope with public health emergencies is an essential prerequisite for strengthening health security. The paper analyzes the efficiency of health systems in the European Union (EU) countries and their responsiveness to the COVID-19 pandemic. The research covers 27 EU countries and it is based on the secondary data contained in the 2019 Global Health Security Index Report. The aim of the paper is to identify key determinants for improving the efficiency of health systems in the EU, as well as to examine the interdependence between health expenditures and the efficiency of health system in this sample of countries. The research is conducted through descriptive statistics and correlation and regression analysis. The conclusions can be useful for the EU policy makers in formulating a strategy to improve the efficiency of Member States’ health systems and preparedness for possible new pandemics.

The paper serves to discuss the evolution of platform business models in tourism, the dynamics of market concentration, and regulatory interventions. We present the historical timeline of digitalization in tourism distribution models, starting from the Global Distribution Systems (GDS), and continuing with Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) and their market concentration in the duopoly of Expedia Group versus Booking Holdings Group. We continue to discuss the slow, yet uncertain, breaking of the global duopoly in the travel platforms market. On the one hand, the duopoly is challenged from the “bottom up”, where Airbnb is the most successful example, riding on the wave of popularity of the ideals of the “sharing economy” and the aftermaths of the 2008 global financial crisis. On the other hand, the duopoly is challenged from the “top down”—the most powerful digital players have started to extend their operations to tourism. The second section of the paper identifies three current areas of platformization in tourism operations—distribution, promotion and HRM. We analyze available industry and public statistics indicators in Europe for each of the three dimensions. Finally, we discuss the regulatory responses to the market concentration of travel distribution platforms. Although the challenge of market concentration is a global issue, and the threats are the same in many countries, we limit the discussion of regulation to the European context. In conclusion we discuss the possibilities of future development, and point to the threat of the further acceleration and interconnection of platformization and market concentration in the travel business.

Human resources are one of the driving forces and main determinants of agricultural competitiveness, contributing to its improvement through properly formed and constantly renewed knowledge and skill enhancement of agricultural workers. In the context of scarce natural resources, demographic changes, need for more intensive agricultural production based on modern technology, human resource development in agriculture becomes imperative. The aim of the research is to assess the human resources in agriculture of Serbia through the prism of data available in the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia and World Bank. The research results show fluctuations in the rural population and employees in agriculture in the analysed period, confirming their negative trend and predicting further decrease based on the forecast method. In order to overcome limitations related to the number and qualifications of agricultural employees, the special focus has been given to the formal and informal education of workers in agriculture, ensuring their capability to respond to market needs and future challenges.