The socio-economic environment of the outermost regions of the European Union was severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Due to their geographical and historical specificities, the outermost regions were significantly lagging behind the rest of the European Union in terms of economic indicators even in the pre-pandemic period. Expectedly, COVID-19-induced shocks additionally potentiated their development gap. The purpose of this paper is to summarise the multiple impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Réunion, Martinique, Mayotte, and Saint Martin (France), the Azores and Madeira (Portugal), and the Canary Islands (Spain), and the related legislative responses of the European Union aiming at eliminating adverse effects of the crisis and building more resilient societies. The factual assessment is carried out primarily through the prism of the European Commission’s 2021 Study on the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Outermost Regions, which underlines the health, economic and social repercussions of the crisis as well as a recommended set of recovery and resilience-building measures in the outermost regions. The legal analysis focuses on the ongoing codification of the rules and measures regulating the governance of the outermost regions as integral parts of the European Union. Pursuant to Article 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the European Union shall adopt specific measures for laying down the conditions for the development of the outermost regions, such as those in the area of fiscal policy, European Structural and Investment Funds, State-aid, agriculture and fisheries policies, and others. In that regard, the paper looks into the recently adopted regulations facilitating the use of EU funds and particular benefits (e.g. tax exemptions) in the outermost regions. Special emphasis is put on the currently tabled initiatives for an updated regulatory framework enabling the outermost regions to improve and strengthen their overall socio-economic position. That mainly refers to the forthcoming European strategy for the outermost regions, to be adopted in 2022. The respective strategy shall lay the foundations for a new strategic approach of the European Union to shaping a sustainable and resilient future for the outermost regions apt to face the challenges of the 21st century, notably those related to green, digital, and demographic transition.

The question of (multiple) citizenship of national minorities has been omnipresent in the intellectual and public discourse of the Republic of Croatia since the very beginnings of its independence in the course of early 90s of the 20th century. The transition period of the post-socialism era marked the effort of political elites to establish a balance among the democratic and nationalist concepts of the Croatian statehood, whereat the repercussions of this clash reflected on both the definition of citizenship and the fate of national minorities. With its ethnocentric approach, the Croatian citizenship regime comes out of standard frameworks which define citizenship as a legal bond between the state and an individual, also adding a cultural and political dimension to the nexus in which citizenship frequently becomes an instrument of self-identification with ethnic Croats. The paper aims to shed light on the positioning of national minorities in such social constellations, accentuating the issue of their access to (multiple) citizenship and challenges they face thereof, as well as the inconsistent and selective nature of the Croatian citizenship policy towards different parts of its multi-ethnic corpus. This is primarily done through a concise analysis and interpretation of the Law on Croatian Citizenship -its evolution

The large-scale COVID-19 pandemic is a severe public health emergency which poses distressing social and economic challenges to the international community as a whole. In order to provide immediate and effective support to affected welfare and healthcare systems as well as to build their lasting, inclusive and sustainable recovery, both the European Union and the United Nations have introduced a number of urgent measures aiming to help and protect citizens and economies. This paper looks into the specificities of urgent procedures launched and carried out by the two most influential international organisations with a view to rapidly respond to the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. More specifically, it focuses on the involved institutions and steps of urgent procedures as well as on their most remarkable outcomes. In the case of the European Union, the emphasis is put primarily on two Coronavirus Response Investment Initiatives (CRIIs), adopted during the Croatian Presidency of the Council in one of the fastest legal procedures in the history of the European Union, and the Recovery Assistance for Cohesion and the Territories of Europe (REACT-EU) as an extension of the CRIIs’ crisis repair measures. The overarching United Nations’ response is assessed through an analysis of its urgent policy agenda developed on the premise that the COVID-19 pandemic is not only a health and socio-economic emergency but also a global humanitarian, security and human rights crisis. This particularly includes procedures foreseen by the Global Humanitarian Response Plan (GHRP) and the Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP). In addition, the aim of the paper is to provide a critical overview of the subject by highlighting three pivotal elements. First, the paper sheds light on the financial aspects of the urgent fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, necessary for turning words into action. Notably, this refers to funds secured by the Multiannual Financial Frameworks 2014-2020 and 2021-2027, and the Next Generation EU recovery instrument, on the one hand, and the UN COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund, the UN Central Emergency Response Fund and the Solidarity Response Fund, on the other hand. Second, it offers a comparative evaluation of the end results of the European and global emergency procedures in mitigating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, it summarises the underlying elements of measures governing the aftermath of the ongoing crisis, i.e. those promoting a human-centred, green, sustainable, inclusive and digital approach to future life.