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Abstract
The present article deals with the issue of family unity in the field of international protection, with a special focus on the European Union (EU) rules and their compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights (echr) standards. In particular, the scope of the article is limited to family transfers of seekers of international protection under the Dublin system and to family reunification procedures for refugees, and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection. After examining the legal framework at EU and domestic level, the present study focuses on two rather controversial issues, from a human rights perspective: on one side, the regulation of the right to family reunification for beneficiaries of subsidiary protection and, on the other side, the different treatment between pre- and post-flight families in the field of international protection. The article concludes that the current rules regarding these two issues are not compatible with Article 8 of the echr taken together with Article 14 of the echr, and with Article 8 of the echr taken alone. It suggests that while the EU and domestic legislature remains inactive in order to correct these inequalities, the non-discrimination clauses may become directly applicable.

PurposeCompanies that wish to market a global brand need to develop a greater understanding of consumers' and potential consumers' susceptibility to global consumer culture (SGCC) with a view to standardizing/adapting their brand according to the desires and preferences of the consumers who belong to specific segments of global consumers. Thus, the aim of the study is to fill a joint segmentation research gap within and between countries based on seven dimensions of SGCC while classifying consumers according to the degree of belonging to specific and hybrid (global citizenship) segments.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire was applied online in English in five countries across the Americas and Europe resulting in a sample of 412 consumers. Based on the fuzzy C-means cluster analysis, the study segments the sample of consumers according to the degree of belonging to specific and global citizenship segments.FindingsAnalysis of survey results show three groups; two distinct groups and a third with features of both, a distinct intersection group. These findings suggest that consumers in different countries develop beliefs and attitudes about global citizenship, and this perspective coincides with the characteristics of the intersection group. Consequently, the study shows that fragmentation of the needs of consumers exists within and between countries.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the concept of global citizenship, helping managers of global brands improve their marketing strategy decisions by implementing strategies that are standardized or adapted to specific hybrid segments of consumers that transcend national borders. This study used a statistical method to measure the degree of belonging to each segment.

A proficiency test (PT) to evaluate the performance of laboratories involved in molecular and serological detection of X. fastidiosa was carried out in early 2017; 35 laboratories from EU/non- EU Countries tested 4 different methods to purify DNA, conventional and qPCR assays, and 2 ELISA tests. The number of resultant positive agreement/negative agreement/positive deviation/negative deviation was used to determine the laboratory performance (i.e. accuracy 100%). The overall results showed that all laboratories were able to correctly diagnose X. fastidiosa in the blind samples containing the highest X. fastidiosa concentrations, whereas the performance of several laboratories was negatively affected by the lack of detection in the samples with the lowest concentrations, both through molecular and serological tests. Accuracy level of 100% (laboratory conformed to the PT) was successfully recovered in the majority of the laboratories performing qPCR and PCR assays on DNA purified using at least 2 of the 4 tested protocols. The use of automated platform ensured higher laboratory performance. As expected, results of the ELISA tests generated lower performance values in the majority of the laboratories, due to the lack of detection of positive samples containing the lowest the bacterial concentration. This study provides a good overview on the laboratory performance for the diagnostics currently used in the EPPO countries and indicate useful improvements that laboratories can adopt to achieve a better performance. ; This work has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N. 635646 "Pest Organisms Threatening Europe POnTE" and grant agreement N. 727987 "Xylella fastidiosa Active Containment Through a multidisciplinary- Oriented Research Strategy XF-ACTORS" and from the EUPHRESCO project (2015-F-146) "Harmonized protocol for monitoring and detection of Xylella fastidiosa in its host plants and its vectors".