The WHO encourages countries to conduct national dietary surveys (NDS) to inform preventative policies targeting malnutrition and noncommunicable diseases. Previous reviews have found inadequate nutrient intakes and survey provision across Europe. This research is the first to provide an updated review of NDS provision within the whole WHO European Region, across the lifecourse, with reference to disadvantaged groups, obesity and nutrients of concern. Over a third of WHO European countries, mainly Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC), had no identifiable NDS. Where countries reported nutrient intakes, poor WHO recommended nutrient intake attainment was Europe-wide across the lifecourse, particularly in CEEC. Lower educated individuals had poorer diet quality. However, heterogeneity in age group sampled, dietary assessment method, nutrient composition database and under-reporting hindered inter-country comparisons. Average population trans fatty acid intakes below WHO recommended limits may hide inequalities in disadvantaged groups; legislative bans may help alleviate this. There were few associations between NDS-derived consumed food portion size (FPS) and BMI. However, consumed FPS was greater than on-pack serving-size in the majority of foods studied. This review illustrates how NDS can generate information on diet, nutrient intakes and the food environment. However, to enable valid inter-country comparisons, countries should be encouraged to conduct and report harmonised NDS, particularly in the age groups sampled, dietary assessment methodology, nutrient range, underpinning food composition database and treatment of under-reporters. This will aid effective, coordinated policy development that can have a real impact on dietary improvement, on a population and subgroup level, throughout Europe.

Using individual-level data from three Lithuanian legislative elections (2008, 2012, 2016), this article investigates voter bias in an open-list proportional representation system in which parties rank candidates but voters are able to fully influence the rank order through preferential voting. This study examines the average effects of and variation in gender bias among voters of different parties. Most importantly, it also investigates how party cues interact with gender cues—that is, whether discriminatory tendencies vary by a candidate's party-determined viability. After establishing that there is no evidence of elite bias in favor of or against women candidates, with the exception of the Social Democrats and a few other parties, I demonstrate that, on average, female Lithuanian politicians receive approximately 7% fewer preferential votes than their male counterparts. In addition, the models predict that gender bias is most pronounced against the female candidates who are best placed to enter parliament. Finally, I demonstrate that Social Democratic voters are, on average, the most undisposed toward female candidates, correcting for positive elite bias toward female candidates from the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party, while voters of the Homeland Union party (conservatives) strongly prefer women politicians.

The WHO encourages national diet survey (NDS) implementation to obtain relevant data to inform policies addressing all forms of malnutrition, which remains a pressing issue throughout Europe. This paper provides an up-to-date review on energy, macro- and selected micronutrient intakes in children across WHO Europe using the latest available NDS intakes. It assesses these against WHO recommended nutrient intakes (RNI) to highlight vulnerable groups and areas of concern. Dietary survey information was gathered by Internet searches, contacting survey authors and nutrition experts. Survey characteristics, energy and nutrient intakes were extracted and weighted means calculated and presented by region. Child energy and nutrient intakes were extracted from twenty-one NDS across a third (n 18) of the fifty-three WHO Europe countries. Of these, 38 % (n 6) reported intakes by socio-economic group, but by various indicators. Energy and macronutrients, where boys and older children had higher intakes, were more widely reported than micronutrients. Most countries met under half of the WHO RNI for nutrients reported in their NDS. Micronutrient attainment was higher than macronutrients, but worst in girls and older children. Only a third, mainly Western, WHO European member states provided published data on child nutrient intakes. Gaps in provision mean that dietary inadequacies may go unidentified, preventing evidence-based policy formation. WHO RNI attainment was poor, particularly in girls and older children. Inconsistent age groups, dietary methodologies, nutrient composition databases and under-reporting hinder inter-country comparisons. Future efforts should encourage countries to conduct NDS in a standardised format by age and sociodemographic variables.

We investigate the effects of monetary policy shocks in the new European Union (EU) member states the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. In contrast to existing studies, we explicitly account for external developments in European Monetary Union (EMU) countries and in other acceding countries. We do so by using factor-augmented vector autoregressive models that employ information from nonstationary factor time series. One set of VAR models includes factors obtained from a large cross section of time series from EMU countries, whereas another set includes factors obtained from other acceding countries. We find that including EMU factors does change impulse response patterns in some but not all acceding countries. In contrast, including factors from other acceding countries leads to substantial changes in impulse responses and to economically more plausible results. Overall, our analysis highlights that taking external economic developments properly into account is crucial for the analysis of monetary policy in the new EU member states.