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Considers (83) H.R. 8352, (83) H.J. Res. 350. ; Considers legislation to establish U.S. Travel Commission. ; Record is based on bibliographic data in CIS US Congressional Committee Hearings Index. Reuse except for individual research requires license from Congressional Information Service, Inc. ; Indexed in CIS US Congressional Committee Hearings Index Part VI ; Considers (83) H.R. 8352, (83) H.J. Res. 350. ; Considers legislation to establish U.S. Travel Commission. ; Mode of access: Internet.

We investigate whether and how economic integration increases state capacity. This important relationship has not been studied in detail so far. We put together a conceptual framework to guide our analysis that highlights what we call the Montesquieu, Weber and Smith channels. Each of these correspond to a series of mechanisms in three distinct institutional arenas: judiciary, bureaucracy, and competition policy. To test our framework, we introduce a new panel of institutional reform measures which allow us to investigate how changes in these three arenas interact with each other and what sequence of changes yields increase in state capacity. The yearly data set covers all the 17 countries that became candidates to join the European Union (EU) after the 1995 enlargement. Our main finding is that the relationship between bureaucratic independence and judiciary capacity seems to be the key engine of the process of state capacity building engendered by the prospect of EU membership. Deep integration, we find, can induce broad institutional change by providing incentives for simultaneous change in core state institutions. Yet early and abrupt removal of external anchors might generate significant backsliding, or reversals, in domestic institutional change.

"The European Union controls substantial means of its own and (unlike NATO) has a comprehensive range of instruments covering all dimensions of foreign and security policy. Through the EU, Europeans have attempted to forge a grand strategy integrating all these dimensions: the 2003 European Security Strategy (ESS). That has not produced a clear enough prioritisation however. Consequently, EU external action has not sufficiently proved its added value. Exactly ten years later therefore, it is both fitting and pressing to revisit EU strategy and decide on which priorities collective action is now urgently required to complement the foreign policies of the European states." (author's abstract)

The literature on the politics of international liberalization generally supposes that incumbent firms with important stakes in their home markets will lobby against the entrance of foreign competitors. This should be especially true in the markets of network services, which were traditionally structured around monopoly provision in most countries. Yet, are dominant firms really opposed to the liberalization of their markets? This dissertation studies the lobbying of incumbents concerning the international service trade negotiations in two sectors � telecommunications and air transport � and two countries � the US and the EU. It demonstrates that large service providers have actually lobbied in support of the liberalization of their sectors, with the exception of US airlines which prefer preserving the current system. Seeking to explain this support for liberalization, the dissertation examines the weight of four variables that might determine the policy stances of large firms: (1) economic incentives, (2) domestic regulatory traditions, (3) international regimes and (4) policy processes. In line with traditional trade policy literature, it finds that economic incentives play an important role, but it also highlights the effect of political processes and institutions on the trade preferences of economic actors. In particular, the multi-level process of EU policy making provides an incentive to lobby in support of liberalization. On a more theoretical note, the analysis of business-government interactions over time highlights the importance of endogenizing the preferences of economic actors into a theory of the policy process, as preferences evolve over the course of a firm�s lobbying activities.

In the literature examining European Union external trade policy, the relative influence of the Commission, the member states and interest groups are an issue of ongoing debate. This article will argue that member states can still play an important role and that a focus on member state preferences is therefore crucial in understanding European external trade policy in general. An interest-based explanation of state preferences is proposed in which both material (political and economic) and ideational variables are included, whereas material explanations alone dominate the current research in the trade policy field. An in-depth case study of German preference formation and position taking with regard to the agricultural chapter of the GATT Uruguay Round (1986-1993) shows the interplay between material and ideational interest. As well as German preference formation being guided by Germany's trade interests and political interests (particularly when these interests were united and governmental sensitivity was high), considerations concerning the Franco-German friendship, affecting Germany's ideational interest, also proved to be a constant in the preference-formation process.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) has become a concerning public health issue. We aimed to analyse the trends of hospital morbidity from AD in the European Union (EU) in the period 2000-2014. Methods: Data from hospital discharges of men and women over 50 years old hospitalised from AD in the EU were extracted from Eurostat database. We tested for secular trends computing the annual percent change, and identifying significant changes in the linear slope of the trend. Results: Hospital morbidity from AD showed a 0.8% (95% confidence intervals -2.2, 0.6) slight declining trend in the EU. In men and women, we recorded a -0.5% and -1.0% decrease in hospital morbidity rates, respectively. Several countries showed changing trends during the study period. Conclusion: AD hospital morbidity has slightly declined in the entire EU in the past years. Eastern European countries showed steadily increasing trends, whereas in western and Mediterranean countries rates decreased or levelled off.

The 1990s witnessed a period of strong immigration in Finland with the number of foreign arrivals increasing five-fold during the course of the decade. A major reason was the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the arrival of the Ingrians and other ethnic Finns. A significant proportion (roughly one-fifth) of the immgratory flow were refugees. Yet Finland remains an homogeneous society, with the proportion of foreign citizens accounting for only 1.9 per cent, the lowest among EU countries. Nevertheless, the challenge Finland faces is one of transition from a monolithic to a polyvalent culture. The recent increase in immigration has created a number of problems. Unemployment among foreign citizens is still over 30 per cent; it is eight per cent nationally. Negative attitudes and xenophobia among the native population towards foreigners remains. The varied composition of migration - refugees, asylum seekers, displaced persons, ordinary migrants and family members – places unique pressures on policy-makers and the citizenry alike. The flows have become more flexible, and the incidence of illegal migration and people smuggling is increasing. To address these challenges, the EU is gradually moving towards adopting a common policy on immigration and refugee issues as flagged under the 1992 Maastricht Treaty. This shift to greater supra-national authority is inevitable. Finland is currently alone among EU states in having a Russian border. However, this will soon change with the imminent enlargement of the EU to Central and Eastern Europe, constituting a major challenge for the EU's migration policies. The eastern parts of Germany and Austria will receive most of the migratory labour from the newly-admitted nations, although the size of this flow is uncertain. Obviously the net intake of immigrants from existing EU nations will continue to increase, but access will be strictly controlled and mostly short-term. The EU's express objective is to ensure the efficiency of migration policy by emphasising integration. Finland is not alone in needing migrants to resolve problems associated with a rapidly ageing population. The test will be its willingness to do so. Immigrants are still often seen as undeserving competitors in the labour market. Finnish society's attitudes will have to adjust to both the temporary and permanent presence of an increasing number of people of a foreign background. Immigrants and their children will be a great asset to Finland in the future, as the Australian example attests. The key questions are how many and what type of immigrants should the country admit? On these and other issues, clear goals and guidelines are yet to be defined.