Prof. Dr. Vitalina Babenko.
Full Professor of International E-commerce and Hotel & Restaurant Business Department, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (Ukraine)

ABSTRACT: 

Given the current difficult socio-economic and political conditions associated with the war in Ukraine, the consideration of food security issues in the EU countries is important and relevant. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a clear example of the vulnerability of both the national and global economies to the consequences of armed conflicts. These impacts include reduced grain production in the agricultural sector, crop failures, disruptions to global food supplies and rising world food prices. Known as the “breadbasket of Europe”, Ukraine boasts a significant 25% of the world’s black soil, fueling a highly developed agricultural sector that contributed over 10% of its GDP in 2021. Both Ukraine and Russia are major global grain exporters. which together account for 40% of world grain exports. The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, lasting more than a year and a half since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, has raised concerns around the world about international trade and food security. The UN has warned that the combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian crisis has led to the biggest food crisis since World War II. The war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine has clearly demonstrated the vulnerability of national and world economic systems to armed conflicts and their consequences: slowdown in agricultural grain production, crop failures, disruption of world food supplies and rising world food prices. Ukraine and Russia account for about 30% of world wheat exports and 15% of corn, as well as about 80% of trade in sunflower products. Currently, about 1/3 of Ukrainian fields remain unsuitable for sowing due to hostilities. As a result, the continued war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine will lead to deep economic shocks that will affect the liquidity of agricultural producers, the growth of world demand for agricultural products, the reduction of food stocks in many countries, rising food prices and accelerating inflation. As a consequence, this conflict has led to a significant increase in world food prices, with far-reaching consequences. For a possible solution to the problem of the negative impact of the war in Ukraine on the food security of European countries, the structure of exports from Ukraine to European countries is analyzed. Based on the dominant commodity positions in the overall structure of Ukraine’s exports, the supplies of wheat, corn and sunflower oil are considered. On the basis of multivariate regression analysis, the impact of Ukrainian food exports on the corresponding world prices, as well as on the food security of European countries, was studied. Strategic measures have been developed to reduce the impact of the war in Ukraine on the food security of European countries.

Prof. María del Pilar Casado Belmente,
Department of Economics and Business. Universidad de Almería

ABSTRACT: 

Environment, social, and governance (ESG) reporting, or more broadly known as sustainability reporting, must achieve the goal of satisfying the needs of investors, capital markets and stakeholders. Nevertheless, while financial information is based on international and well-stablished accounting standards, ESG reporting practices remain less well defined (Erkens et al., 2015). In addition, though ESG disclosure is evolving from voluntary to mandatory requirements, it is still deemed to be voluntary. In this vein, institutional rules and guidelines have been published in order to help firms to meet high-quality and accuracy information when reporting sustainability. Over the last years, many studies has tried to analyze the sustainability reporting, namely the indicators that lead a firm to disclose ESG information, the quality of the information, the impact of ESG information on firm performance, and the assurance on sustainability reporting. Thus, there exist a need to show the global trends and current market practice on sustainability disclosure and assurance. This study aims to review and summarize the sustainability disclosure and assurance literature so as to (1) develop a holistic framework of sustainability reporting; (2) review the evolution of disclosure standards used by accounting researchers; (3) describe the antecedents to sustainability reporting; (4) describe the outcomes of disclosure and assurance; and (5) identify the most significant research tendencies enabling the proposal of several future research directions