Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues

The study includes an analysis of the functioning of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises during the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of financial security management of these entities. The article covers the identification of threats in the area of finances of the discussed enterprises that arose during the pandemic, as well as the assessment and approach to financial risk management in these entities. As a result, the key categories of threats to the financial security of enterprises, arising during the COVID-19 pandemic, were presented, as well as the assessment of the effectiveness of state services responsible for ensuring financial security. The study focuses on multidimensional data analysis in terms of their grouping and unraveling in terms of comparing the considered variables in terms of dynamics. Initial studies were performed by comparing several variables, and the data were analyzed not only during the COVID-19 pandemic, but also in the pre-pandemic period in terms of observing their fluctuations in dynamic terms, and the relationships between them were also examined.

The energy security of the Visegrad Group countries is a derivative of their energy potential resulting from the lack of strategic natural gas and crude oil resources, limited fuel storage capacity and limited access to the transmission network. This causes a dependence on supplies of raw materials from Russia, which is not even, but applies to each of these countries. The Czech Republic and Slovakia have small deposits of natural gas and crude oil. Hungary and Poland have greater potential, but it is still not enough to achieve energy independence. The energy market of the V4 countries is of interest to the Russian Federation, but it is not a priority for it as it accounts for a small part of Russian transmissions. Russia aims to keep the market for crude oil and natural gas at a uniform level, but the actions of the V4 countries in terms of diversification of supplies, aimed at increasing the level of energy security, effectively hinder the implementation of this goal. The threat to the energy security of the V4 countries is related to their dependence on gas supplies from Gazprom. The terms of the contracts contain unfavorable clauses that negatively affect the sale of surplus Russian gas, as it is necessary to pay fees for the ordered gas regardless of the scale of its use. The differentiation in the energy policy of the Member States is also worth noting. An example is the lack of clear opposition from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia to the plans to expand the Nord Stream and Turkish Stream gas pipelines. These states show interest in participating in projects, which, in fact, constitute the implementation of the Russian concept of building new transmission routes. Poland takes a different position, consistently preventing the implementation of Russian energy projects.

Mediation is an example of one of the alternative methods of resolving legal disputes. Its use is becoming more and more common, and the very idea of using mediation institutions to resolve legal disputes brings many benefits to conflicting parties, which include speed of proceedings or its cheaper costs. On the basis of national legislation, mediation has become a universal institution because it has been regulated in both public and private law. The next step of the legislator was to equip the mediator in civil matters with various methods through which he can conduct mediation proceedings. Therefore, the mediator conducts mediation using various methods aimed at amicable settlement of the dispute, including by supporting the parties in formulating their settlement submissions or at the mutual request of the parties, it may also indicate ways of resolving the dispute which are not binding for the parties. However, the success of mediation is determined not only by the will of the parties, but also by the way the mediator conducts this procedure, which is characteristic of the conflict management formula. In turn, the instruments at the disposal of the mediator in civil matters, in addition to their real impact on increasing the number of mediation proceedings and settlements concluded before the mediator, which is an example of the desired solution, also imply other legal consequences, including optimization of the costs of the process. Therefore, in addition to financial benefits for parties benefiting from mediation by the society, it is worth considering the methods of conducting this procedure in civil matters, which are examples of tools for managing legal security.

Security of societies has become one of urgent issues in contemporary world. Too frequently we started encountering one or another form of malicious behavior, criminal activities or terrorism. New and complex threats highlight the need for further synergies and closer cooperation at all levels. Awareness, preparedness and resilience of societies emerge as key preconditions of further secure and sustainable economic development and general well-being. A special attention in those conditions has to be paid to development of theoretically grounded approach to protection of critical infrastructure (CIP), damage or disruption of which can be immensely harmful to unprepared and therefore vulnerable institutions and society. The aim of this paper is to lay theoretical foundations for theoretically grounded approach towards research in CIP area, in order to formulate, ultimately, an approach towards action, which, employing leadership societal stakeholders would allow to enhance awareness of society actors about the threats, i.e, to develop ability to recognize, prevent, and, in case of disaster, to resist to consequences of critical infrastructure infringement. Hence, enhanced resilience of society to critical infrastructure infringement is and ultimate goal of fostering of leadership for critical infrastructure protection.

The alternative methods of dispute resolution are new field of study in Latvia. In most cases procedurial issues of these methods and their real practical application are outside any legal regulation. One of these alternative dispute resolution methods is called mediation. Person, who is responsible for the management of this process, is called mediator. The meaning of this term is known from the ancient civilization times. It is useful to understand the initial comprehension of mediation in order to sucessfully implement this process in the legal system of modern society. Nevertheless the elaboration of mediation procedure asks serious evalution of possibilites in order to completely evolve basic principles of alternative dispute resolution methods in the legal system of any country. Answering on question whether it is possible to completely realize the concept of mediation, it is necessary clearly understand, what it is and how you can use the advantages of this process in real life.