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European Level (european + level)
Selected AbstractsIs the Open Method of Coordination Appropriate for Organising Activities at European Level in Sensitive Policy Areas?EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 1 2002Caroline de la Porte This article addresses the question of the relevance of the most recent soft policy instrument of the EU, the open method of coordination (OMC), for organising actions at European level in politically sensitive areas. In addition to describing its origins and operational principles, we will compare its application to the areas of employment and social inclusion. Two hypotheses make up the structure of the text. The first is that the discourses produced in the framework of OMC in the areas of employment and social inclusion are broad enough to cater to the different welfare models, but that the changes to be made by the Member States to be in line with the European discourses differ considerably, depending on their welfare state family and their initial situation. The second is that the form of OMC is variable, depending on policy area. Our conclusions confirm both of these hypotheses. [source] Where can social learning be improved in international river basin management in Europe?ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2008Ilke Borowski Abstract In recent years, collaborative planning and processes of social learning (SL) have gained increasingly in interest in river basin management. In this paper, we first summarize the prerequisites for SL to take place in collaborative management processes. These are openness, gains and incentives, and a perceived pressure to learn. We then study the European situation subsequent to the introduction of the European Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC; WFD) as an example. Based on an analysis of policy documents, a case study of the Elbe river basin and an elaboration of concepts related to theories of international regimes, we conclude that the conditions for SL are often not met if management processes are highly formalised. Considering SL that is necessary for innovation and change, this can best be supported through the establishment of parallel "learning processes", such as the Common Implementation Strategy that accompanies implementation of the WFD at European level. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Educators at Work in two Sectors of Adult and Vocational Education: an overview of two European Research projectsEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, Issue 2 2009BERT-JAN BUISKOOL Adult learning staff play a key role in making lifelong learning a reality. It is they who facilitate learners to develop knowledge, skills and attributes. At the European level there is a lack of information about various aspects of the profession, such as who they are, how they are recruited, what their specific roles and tasks are, what competences and qualifications they are expected or required to possess, what their employment status is, how their professional development is organised, how they are assessed, and how attractive their profession is. This article is meant to bridge this gap and describes the variety of contexts in which adult learning staff are working. Furthermore, it seeks to reveal the factors that promote or affect the quality of the work provided by these practitioners and will address a number of issues that should be on the agenda of policy makers. This article is based on the outcomes of a study that have been carried out by an international research group in the period 2007 -2008, under guidance of Research voor Beleid and PLATO University Leiden under contract of the European Commission (DG Education and Culture). [source] Referendums and the Political Constitutionalisation of the EUEUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 4 2008Min Shu One is the revision of national constitutions to accommodate the integration project at the national level. The other is the construction of transnational rules to regulate novel inter-state relationships at the European level. EU referendums are contextualised in such a duel constitutionalisation process. At the domestic level, EU referendums handle the debates on national constitutional revision. At the transnational level, these popular votes ratify supranational constitutional documents. The article comparatively analyses three types of EU referendums,membership, policy and treaty referendums,according to this analytical framework, exploring the campaign mobilisation of voters, national governments, and transnational institutions, and examining the legal and political interaction between referendums and European integration. A key finding is that, as the dual constitutionalisation process deepens and widens, entrenched domestic players and restrained transnational actors are under increasing pressure to ,voice' themselves in EU referendums. [source] Is the Open Method of Coordination Appropriate for Organising Activities at European Level in Sensitive Policy Areas?EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 1 2002Caroline de la Porte This article addresses the question of the relevance of the most recent soft policy instrument of the EU, the open method of coordination (OMC), for organising actions at European level in politically sensitive areas. In addition to describing its origins and operational principles, we will compare its application to the areas of employment and social inclusion. Two hypotheses make up the structure of the text. The first is that the discourses produced in the framework of OMC in the areas of employment and social inclusion are broad enough to cater to the different welfare models, but that the changes to be made by the Member States to be in line with the European discourses differ considerably, depending on their welfare state family and their initial situation. The second is that the form of OMC is variable, depending on policy area. Our conclusions confirm both of these hypotheses. [source] Liquid,vapour partition of ethanol in bakery productsFLAVOUR AND FRAGRANCE JOURNAL, Issue 1 2006Paola Pittia Abstract Ethanol is a common ingredient in formulated foods, naturally present or added in liquid form in order to achieve the desired sensorial properties. In many complex foods this volatile compound could also serve interesting technological functions, as well as extending their shelf-lives, owing to its capacity to inhibit or reduce the rate of microbial growth. At the European level there are no known restrictions regarding the use of ethanol in foods as a preservative, while in Italy, current regulations allow its addition as an anti-moulding agent in pre-packed bread, at a maximum concentration of 2% on a dry weight basis. This research studied the effect of water activity (aw) and water content on the ethanol vapour pressure of sliced white bread, previously equilibrated at various aw values and with 2% ethanol added. Different aw values were obtained by both rehydration from previously freeze-dried bread, and dehydration from the fresh product. The results showed that both aw and moisture affected the vapour pressure of ethanol as a consequence of water,solute and ethanol,solute interactions in the matrix. These interactions varied according to the modality of equilibration (desorption or absorption) at a given aw. The results are discussed in terms of ethanol activity (ae), computed as the ratio between the ethanol vapour pressure in bread and the vapour pressure of pure ethanol at the same temperature. This index, analogous to aw, proved to be useful in evaluating the ,freedom' of the ethanol present in a food matrix to be released in the vapour phase. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Internationalization of regulatory requirementsFUNDAMENTAL & CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY, Issue 1 2003Y. Juillet Abstract The aim of harmonisation of medicines regulatory requirements is to allow the patient quicker access to new drugs and to avoid animal and human duplications. Harmonisation in the European Union (EU) is now completed, and has led to the submission of one dossier in one language study leading to European marketing authorizations, thanks in particular to efficacy guidelines published at the European level. With the benefit of the European experience since 1989, more than 40 guidelines have been harmonised amongst the EU, Japan and the USA through the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH). ICH is a unique process gathering regulators and industry experts from the three regions. Its activity is built on expertise and trust. The Common Technical Document (CTD), an agreed common format for application in the three regions, is a logical follow-up to the ICH first phase harmonising the content of the dossier. The CTD final implementation in July 2003 will have considerable influence on the review process and on the exchange of information in the three regions. [source] INTRA-REGIONAL EMPLOYMENT GROWTH IN LUXEMBOURG (1994,2005)GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 1 2010Olivier Walther ABSTRACT. The specialization of city-centres towards more advanced service activities has mostly been studied in the largest city-regions, the case of smaller urban centres being less well documented. In that context, the objective of this article is to analyse the role of sectoral and regional factors in employment growth in Luxembourg between 1994 and 2005. Using statistical data from the Luxembourg General Inspection of Social Security, this contribution distinguishes 12 categories of manufacturing industries and services according to an OECD-Eurostat knowledge-based classification. Five intra-regional areas are distinguished based on morphological and functional criteria in the Luxembourg Metropolitan Area. Using several indexes, this article first analyses the sectoral specialization and geographical concentration of employment. A model of intra-regional employment growth, initially developed by Marimon and Zilibotti and applied at the European level, is then shown to account for 40 per cent of employment growth. An estimation of the contributions of sectoral and geographical factors highlights the primacy of the latter over the former. Finally, the construction of virtual economies confirms the City's overall lower performance as compared to its close periphery. Results underscore a process of functional integration in the Luxembourg metropolitan area: as the core of the city undergoes a specialization process, the urban area benefits from a relocation of activities less sensitive to distance and transaction costs, while the periphery becomes increasingly diversified, notably in the South where traditional industrial activities are being replaced by service activities. These results suggest that the evolution pattern of employment growth in Luxembourg is very similar to that of some larger metropolitan centres, owing to its exceptional financial service activities. [source] Brussels between Bern and Berlin: Comparative Federalism Meets the European UnionGOVERNANCE, Issue 2 2003Tanja A. Börzel In the current debate on the future European order, the European Union (EU) is often described as an "emerging federation." This article claims that federalism is not exclusively useful in deliberating about the future of the EU. Non-statecentric conceptions of federalism provide a better understanding of the current structure and functioning of the European system of multilevel governance than most theories of European integration and international relations do. We combine political and economic perspectives of federalism to analyze the "balancing act" between effective political representation and efficient policy-making in the EU. Drawing on the examples of Germany and Switzerland in particular, we argue that the increasing delegation of powers to the central EU level needs to be paralleled by strengthened patterns of fiscal federalism and an empowered representation of functional interests at the European level. Without such "rebalancing," the current legitimacy problems of the EU are likely to intensify. [source] Prescription practices of diagnostic imaging in dementia: a survey of 47 Alzheimer's Centres in Northern ItalyINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY, Issue 7 2003R. Riello Abstract Background To date, there are no data at the national or European level on the prescription practices of imaging (CT, MR, and SPET) in the diagnosis of cognitively impaired elderly patients. Methods We addressed prescription practices of diagnostic imaging in 47 Alzheimer's Centres in Northern Italy, with an ad-hoc questionnaire. Results The use of imaging in new cases was relatively intensive: 62% of the Alzheimer's Centres prescribed CT to more than 95% of cases, 24% prescribed MR to more than 33% of cases, and 33% prescribed SPET to more than 5% of cases. A minority of Alzheimer's Centres (n,=,3, 6%) prescribed imaging to less than 100% of new cases. The association between onsite scanner availability and frequency of prescription increased from CT (Odds ratio (OR),=,1.8) through MR (OR,=,2.4) to SPET (OR,=,4.6), although only the latter was significant (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2,17.7, p,=,0.003). Patient-related factors (age, severity of cognitive impairment, and clinical suspicion of cerebrovascular disease) influenced prescription of structural imaging in 30,53% of Alzheimer's Centres and organizational factors (onsite scanner availability, and waiting list) in a similar proportion (32 and 43% respectively). Conclusions Organizational factors play a relevant role in the prescription of imaging exams in patients with cognitive impairment and, at least for CT, the perceived diagnostic added value is rather low, suggesting a high degree of uncertainty in the clinical use of imaging techniques. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Social Dialogue Over Vocational Training In Market-Led SystemsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2000Jonathan Winterton The involvement of social partners is central to the rhetoric of the European Commission approach to vocational training. This paper explores the development of social dialogue over vocational training at the European level and in Italy and Britain, two member states characterised as having market-led systems. The contrasting experience of the two member states suggests factors that are conducive to promoting greater social partner involvement in vocational training and demonstrates the complexity of developing a European approach. [source] The Choices for Europe: National Preferences in New and Old Member States,JCMS: JOURNAL OF COMMON MARKET STUDIES, Issue 2 2009NATHANIEL COPSEY Drawing on the existing body of literature that deals with national preference formation and building on the role played by vulnerability and deficits in shaping policy choices at the European level, this article provides a synthetic framework to explain the stances of the Older Member States (OMS) and New Member States (NMS). We subsequently apply the model to NMS, focusing largely, although not exclusively, on Poland. We argue that although many of the policy preferences can be explained by the framework, the size of states, especially with regard to ambition and capacity, and the nature of the country's post-communist transition appear significant for the NMS and need to be incorporated into future theory-building. We conclude by highlighting areas in need of further empirical research. [source] The Effect of International Terrorism on EU Intelligence Co-operationJCMS: JOURNAL OF COMMON MARKET STUDIES, Issue 1 2008BJÖRN MÜLLER-WILLE While the US has revamped its intelligence community by creating the Department of Homeland Security, little seems to have happened at the European level. The article seeks to explain why some intelligence co-operation takes place within the EU and why the bulk does not. It uses a new model, the ,intelligence cube', to develop a discussion on co-operation in distinct areas. Following a functionalist approach, suggesting that collaboration is utility driven, it proposes that efficiency considerations offer the most convincing explanation why no new European Intelligence Agency has been created and why so little co-operation takes place within EU structures. [source] European Integration and the Transnational Restructuring of Social Relations: The Emergence of Labour as a Regional Actor?,JCMS: JOURNAL OF COMMON MARKET STUDIES, Issue 3 2005ANDREAS BIELER Informed by a neo-Gramscian perspective able to conceptualize transnational class formation, this article assesses whether European trade union organizations have developed into independent supranational actors, or whether they are merely secretariats in charge of organizing the co-operation of their national member associations. The first hypothesis is that those trade unions which organize workers in transnational production sectors, are likely to co-operate at the European level, because they have lost control over capital at the national level. Trade unions, organizing workers in domestic production sectors, may be more reluctant because their sectors still depend on national protection. The second hypothesis is that trade unions are more likely to co-operate at the European level if they perceive such an engagement as furthering their influence on policy-making in comparison with structural possibilities at the national level. Additionally, in line with the critical dimension of neo-Gramscian perspectives, it will be assessed whether European co-operation implies acceptance of neo-liberal economics, or whether unions continue to resist restructuring. [source] The European Union and the Securitization of MigrationJCMS: JOURNAL OF COMMON MARKET STUDIES, Issue 5 2000Jef Huysmans This article deals with the question of how migration has developed into a security issue in western Europe and how the European integration process is implicated in it. Since the 1980s, the political construction of migration increasingly referred to the destabilizing effects of migration on domestic integration and to the dangers for public order it implied. The spillover of the internal market into a European internal security question mirrors these domestic developments at the European level. The Third Pillar on Justice and Home Affairs, the Schengen Agreements, and the Dublin Convention most visibly indicate that the European integration process is implicated in the development of a restrictive migration policy and the social construction of migration into a security question. However, the political process of connecting migration to criminal and terrorist abuses of the internal market does not take place in isolation. It is related to a wider politicization in which immigrants and asylum-seekers are portrayed as a challenge to the protection of national identity and welfare provisions. Moreover, supporting the political construction of migration as a security issue impinges on and is embedded in the politics of belonging in western Europe. It is an integral part of the wider technocratic and political process in which professional agencies , such as the police and customs , and political agents , such as social movements and political parties , debate and decide the criteria for legitimate membership of west European societies. [source] Periodontology as a recognized dental speciality in EuropeJOURNAL OF CLINICAL PERIODONTOLOGY, Issue 6 2006Mariano Sanz Abstract The impetus of the Bologna Process under the auspices of European Union governments has raised enormous expectations. It is the major educational change in Europe within the last 50 years and all the focus from university institutions, learned societies and thematic networks has shifted to this process, with the aim of developing consensus schemes in order to arrive at the expected European Convergence in Higher Education (to be completed by 2010). Dentistry as one of the health professions with clear Educational Standards, as defined by the European Dental Directives, is also reviewing its educational processes within this Bachelor,Master,Doctorate scheme and evaluating how the current and future dental specialities should be accommodated within this framework. Among these specialities, Periodontology is currently considered a formal dental speciality in 11 countries belonging to the EU however it lacks this legal status in the rest of the 14 EU countries. The purpose of this position paper is to provide evidence for the need for a recognized specialty in Periodontology at European level focusing on both the educational and professional perspective, with the hope of providing discussions that may contribute to facilitate its legal establishment as a new dental speciality in Europe. [source] Affirmative Action in Women's Employment: Lessons from CanadaJOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY, Issue 1 2006Nicole Busby The use of affirmative action to increase women's representation in employment is recognized under European Community law. The European Court of Justice has identified affirmative action permissible under EC law and what constitutes reverse discrimination, deemed incompatible with the equal treatment principle. Despite these developments, gendered occupational segregation , vertical and horizontal , persists in all member states as evidenced by enduring pay gaps. It is widely argued that we now need national measures which take advantage of the appropriate framework and requisite political will which exists at the European level. Faced with a similar challenge, the Canadian government passed the Employment Equity Act 1986 which places an obligation on federal employers to implement employment equity (affirmative action) by proactive means. Although subject to some criticism, there have been some improvements in women's representation since its introduction. This article assesses what lessons might be learned from Canada's experience. [source] Genetic structure of the European polecat (Mustela putorius) and its implication for conservation strategiesJOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY, Issue 1 2006C. Pertoldi Abstract During the last century, the European polecat Mustela putorius populations in most of Europe declined and survived in fragmented patches, because of habitat alterations and direct persecution. To assess the genetic consequences of the demographic decline and to describe the spatial pattern of genetic diversity, 250 polecats sampled at seven localities from five European countries , Poland, Denmark (southern Denmark and northern Denmark), Spain, Belgium (eastern and western) and the Netherlands , were screened by means of nine microsatellite loci. Genetic diversity estimated by mean expected heterozygosity (HE) and allelic richness (AR) were moderately high within populations [range: 0.50 (northern Denmark) ,HE,0.64 (Poland) and 1.33,AR,7.80] as compared with other carnivores and mustelids. Bottleneck tests suggested that polecat populations in southern Denmark and Poland have declined recently and populations from northern Denmark and the Netherlands have expanded recently, whereas the remaining populations did not show any sign of demographic change. Recent demographic changes could suggest that some of the populations are still not in equilibrium, which could partly explain the relatively high genetic variability observed in polecat populations despite the drastic decline in population size observed in several European countries. A significant heterozygote deficiency [FIS=0.19; 0.01,95% confidence interval (CI),0.32] suggests substructuring within the total European sample. Partitioning of the genetic variation among sampling locations (FST=0.14; 0.06,95% CI,0.23) and pairwise FST between localities (range: 0.01,FST,0.37) without any correlation with the geographic distances between localities were found, suggesting a recent divergence and a restriction of gene flow between populations and the action of genetic drift. An assignment test showed that the Polish and the northern Danish populations were the most unique, whereas the other populations were partially admixed. Factorial component analysis tests indicate a subdivision of the total sample into two distinct groups: one including the samples from Poland and the two Danish localities and the second group comprising the remaining localities investigated. The observed pattern of genetic differentiation is suggested to be due to two main routes of recolonization after the last glacial period. To compare the results obtained with microsatellite data, the most variable region of the mitochondrial DNA (d-loop) was sequenced and different phylogenetic reconstructions and genetic diversity analyses based on nucleotide (,) and haplotype diversity (h) measures within populations were performed using a subsample of populations. The lack of well-defined geographical structure, as well as the reduced level of mitochondrial DNA variability (,: 0.00274±0.00038; h: 0.876±0.028) that was found, has been previously reported in several studies on different carnivores and supports the hypothesis of post-glacial recolonization from southern or eastern refugees of Europe as suggested by the microsatellite data. Implications for conservation strategies of the polecat at the European level are discussed. [source] Scientific Highlights from the ,k Network: Towards Atomistic Materials DesignPHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (B) BASIC SOLID STATE PHYSICS, Issue 11 2006P. H. Dederichs The ,k network aims at encompassing the whole community of European groups working in the area of ab - initio materials modelling, including very many small groups and isolated researchers. Historically, the activities started in the 1980s in Trieste with the workshop series entitled "Total Energies and Forces". Since then, it has operated on the European level in various forms, with funding from various EC/EU and ESF sources, beginning more than 10 years ago with the EC's Human Capital and Mobility Programme. In that time, ,k has done much to make Europe the leading area in the world for research in atomic-scale ab - initio computer simulation of all types of materials, their structures, properties, and processes. To a large extent, this has been done by nurturing scientific excellence and collaboration in what might be called "the ,k family". The ,k Network is presently organized around 15 topical working groups. Over the years, the ,k network organized three large scale conferences in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany (1996, 2000, 2005), attended by hundreds of scientists from all over the world. The next ,k Conference is to be organized in Berlin in 2010. These ,k Conferences are unique events fully dedicated to the ab - initio research. In addition, the network organizes a variety of meetings and topical workshops every year. The core activities of the ,k network involve editing every two months a ,k newsletter with typically more than 100 pages, which contains a "Scientific Highlight", announcements of conferences, workshops and vacant positions, news of various ESF and EU funded networks, including reports on workshops, and abstracts of submitted papers. The ,k has its own web pages (http://psi-k.dl.ac.uk) which inform about the Network, its structure, and how to get involved in ,k activities. These web pages are also the repository of the ,k newsletters and Scientific Highlights and details about the ,k Workshops of the most recent years. The ,k mailing list contains about 1700 e-mail addresses from across the world, and all the important information about a variety of activities of the network is distributed across this list on a daily basis. The "Scientific Highlights" of the ,k newsletters reflect the scientific activities of the network and aim at presenting reviews and current developments in the field. This special issue of physica status solidi (b) gives a collection of some of the most recent Highlight contributions to the ,k newsletter. All manuscripts originally posted on the ,k server were peer-reviewed by two referees and accepted according to the standards of pss. They are published here partly in revised or updated version. We hope that the readership of the journal will benefit from the quality of the research they report on and the high level of the presentations. [source] National Political Parties and European Integration: Mapping Functional LossPOLITICS, Issue 1 2000Gijs Berends This article specifically examines the role of national political parties in the light of European integration. It introduces the functions that are normally associated with parties, which allows for a systematic evaluation of the performance of national parties in the European Union. Probing these functions that parties are reputed to implement, it arrives at the conclusion that national parties are fairly unsuccessful in fulfilling their core tasks at the European level. [source] The European Commission's Guidance on Article 102TFEU: From Inferno to Paradiso?THE MODERN LAW REVIEW, Issue 4 2010Article first published online: 8 JUL 2010, nar Akman The European Commission has for the first time issued a document expressing its official position on the enforcement of Article 102TFEU which prohibits the abuse of a dominant position on the Common Market. The Commission Guidance on enforcement priorities in applying Article 102TFEU to exclusionary abuses (adopted in December 2008) has ended a review of about four years. Given the increased enforcement of Article 102TFEU at the European level and the fact that many national provisions in the EU on unilateral conduct are modelled after Article 102TFEU, how the Commission intends to enforce Article 102TFEU is crucial for the application of competition law and the undertakings subject to it under European and/or national laws. The review period was preceded by severe criticisms of the Commission's approach to Article 102TFEU for protecting competitors instead of competition and for being insufficiently grounded in modern economic thinking. At the heart of the review and the discussions surrounding it lay the question of the objective of Article 102TFEU. Some, including the Directorate General for Competition claimed the objective to be ,consumer welfare', whereas some argued that ,consumer welfare' cannot be adopted as the objective at the expense of the protection of the competitive process. This article critically reviews the Commission Guidance, with an eye to assessing the ultimate objective of and the test of harm under Article 102TFEU. After discussing whether the Guidance indeed sets priorities, it examines the general approach of the Guidance to exclusionary conduct. It points out that despite there being some welcome novelties in the Guidance, there are also suggestions therein whose legitimacy and legality are questionable. Reflecting on the Guidance as a soft-law instrument, the article argues that although regarding the objective of Article 102TFEU, the Commission's apparent tendency towards ,consumer welfare' is not unlawful, the reform of Article 102TFEU to bring it more in line with modern economic and legal thinking seems to be far from complete. [source] Das Geschäft mit den Schutzplanken , Wissenschaftliche und andere InteressenBAUTECHNIK, Issue 3 2008Hans-A. Als Schutzeinrichtungen am Rande von Straßen und Brücken konnten Stahlschutzplanken fast ein halbes Jahrhundert lang einen unangefochtenen Spitzenplatz einnehmen. Zu ihrer erfolgreichen Vermarktung haben eine wirksame Interessenvertretung sowie unkritische Betrachtungen des Anprallvorgangs beigetragen. Unter Vernachlässigung der an einer Schnittstelle von Bau-, Fahrzeug- und Verkehrstechnik notwendigen interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit kam auf europäischer Ebene eine fragwürdige Norm zustande. Daran geäußerte Kritik störte das gesicherte Geschäft mit Schutzplanken und wurde mit disziplinarischen Maßnahmen beantwortet. Nachdem auch auf deutschen Straßen Vorteile von Schutzwänden aus Beton sichtbar werden, bedürfen frühere Fehleinschätzungen und Festlegungen einer Korrektur. Business on guardrails , scientific and other interests. For about half a century steel guardrails could rank in first place among safety devices at the borders of roads and bridges. An effective lobby as well as an uncritical observation of the impact test contributed to a successful marketing. Disregarding the need of interdisciplinary cooperation concerning road construction, motor vehicles, and traffic a questionable standard on European level has been accepted. Criticism of that standard seemed to be out of line with safe business on guardrails and was responded by disciplinary measures. After advantages of concrete safety walls are visible on German highways, too, former wrong assessments and agreements should go under review. [source] Bringing Economic Interests Back into the Study of EU Trade Policy-MakingBRITISH JOURNAL OF POLITICS & INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Issue 1 2008Andreas Dür Studies of EU trade policy-making often suggest that delegation of trade authority from the national to the European level strengthened the autonomy of public actors in formulating trade policies. Little empirical research, however, has been undertaken to corroborate this contention. To improve on this situation, I carry out two case studies of the EU's participation in the multilateral trade negotiations known as the Kennedy Round (1964,67) and the Doha Development Agenda (2001 onwards). The analysis reveals that in both cases the EU's negotiating position was largely in line with the demands voiced by economic interests. Although this finding is no proof of economic interests actually determining EU trade policies, it casts some doubt on the autonomy thesis. I also discuss some factors that indicate that interest group influence may be the most plausible explanation for the finding. [source] The JCMS Lecture: Managing Diversity and Change in the European Union,JCMS: JOURNAL OF COMMON MARKET STUDIES, Issue 1 2006LOUKAS TSOUKALIS European integration is going through difficult times. Poor economic performance and the growing feeling of insecurity among many Europeans play a major role. So does the weakening of the old political consensus. More clarity and realism about what Europe can deliver would help enormously: the Lisbon process and further enlargement are good examples. Economic liberalization also creates losers. This problem needs to be tackled at both national and European levels. [source] Brominated flame retardants in US foodMOLECULAR NUTRITION & FOOD RESEARCH (FORMERLY NAHRUNG/FOOD), Issue 2 2008Arnold Schecter Abstract We and others recently began studying brominated flame retardant levels in various matrices in the US including human milk and other food. This paper reviews the food studies. In our studies, ten to thirteen polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) congeners were measured, usually including BDE 209. All US women's milk samples were contaminated with PBDEs from 6 to 419 ng/g, lipid, orders of magnitude higher than levels reported in European studies, and are the highest reported worldwide. We compared our market basket studies of meat, fish and dairy products with other US food studies of meat and fish. US studies showed somewhat higher levels of PBDEs than reported elsewhere. Fish were most highly contaminated (median 616 pg/g), then meat (median190 pg/g) and dairy products (median 32.2 pg/g). However, unlike some European countries where fish predominates, dietary intake of PBDEs in the US is mostly from meat, then fish and then dairy products. Broiling can decrease the amount of PBDEs per serving. We also measured levels of hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), another brominated flame retardant, in human milk. The levels are lower than PBDEs, 0.16,1.2 ng/g, similar to European levels, unlike PBDEs where US levels are much higher than European levels. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||