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International audience ; While the question of aging was highlighted in the late 1970s, Gérard-François Dumont inventing the expression "Wrinkled Europe" to illustrate its evolution, the community institu-tions have long remained deaf to this concern. In 2004, the enlargement to ten new member countries is achieved without any public questioning about the demographic implications of their integration. It is only after the enlargement of 1 May 2004 that politicians consider the is-sue. On 29 October 2004, the President of the European Council, the German Chancellor, the President of the Spanish Government, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sweden and the President of the French Republic write to the President of the European Commission : "Europe must not not to resign oneself to the inevitability of aging and skepticism ; on the contrary, it must make the bet of dynamism and youth. We therefore propose that the European Union make it a priority ". However, the main demographic characteristics of the EU remain proble-matic and the demographic projections for 2060 show an EU marked by the weight of the elder-ly. ; Alors que la question du vieillissement a été mise en évidence dès la fin des années 1970, Gérard-François Dumont inventant l'expression « Europe ridée » pour illustrer son évolution, les institutions communautaires sont longtemps restées sourdes à cette évolution. En 2004, l'élargissement à dix nouveaux pays membres est réalisé sans qu'on s'interroge publiquement sur les incidences démographiques de leur intégration. Ce n'est qu'une fois l'élargissement du 1er mai 2004 réalisé que les responsables politiques considèrent la question. Le 29 octobre 2004, le président du Conseil européen, le chancelier allemand, le président du gouvernement espagnol, le Premier ministre du royaume de Suède et le président de la République française écrivent ainsi au président de la Commission européenne : « L'Europe ne doit pas se résigner à la fatalité du vieillissement et du scepticisme ; elle doit faire, au contraire, ...

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked Files. This article is open access. ; Evaluations are essential to judge the success of public health programmes. In Europe, the proportion of public health programmes that undergo evaluation remains unclear. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control sought to determine the frequency of evaluations amongst European national public health programmes by using national hand hygiene campaigns as an example of intervention. ; A cohort of all national hand hygiene campaigns initiated between 2000 and 2012 was utilised for the analysis. The aim was to collect information about evaluations of hand hygiene campaigns and their frequency. The survey was sent to nominated contact points for healthcare-associated infection surveillance in European Union and European Economic Area Member States. ; Thirty-six hand hygiene campaigns in 20 countries were performed between 2000 and 2012. Of these, 50% had undergone an evaluation and 55% of those utilised the WHO hand hygiene intervention self-assessment tool. Evaluations utilised a variety of methodologies and indicators in assessing changes in hand hygiene behaviours pre and post intervention. Of the 50% of campaigns that were not evaluated, two thirds reported that both human and financial resource constraints posed significant barriers for the evaluation. ; The study identified an upward trend in the number of hand hygiene campaigns implemented in Europe. It is likely that the availability of the internationally-accepted evaluation methodology developed by the WHO contributed to the evaluation of more hand hygiene campaigns in Europe. Despite this rise, hand hygiene campaigns appear to be under-evaluated. The development of simple, programme-specific, standardised guidelines, evaluation indicators and other evidence-based public health materials could help promote evaluations across all areas of ...

The dominant role of sovereign states in minotity policy in EuropeThe multi-ethnicity in Europe was shaped long time in the history, her image influenced the relations between countries and was often a source of international and internal conflicts. For this purpose, the international efforts have been made, which regulate the status of minorities in Europe and the world. Protective systems for national minorities were formed at different levels of policy; the global solutions of general and declarative nature, regional solutions, characterized by a greater degree of institutionalization, and national solutions with control mechanisms of functioning. These regulations, concerning minority policy in Europe, formulated in many international instruments, are declarative and facultative. Even within the European Union, there is generally no binding legal rights, which formulate protection of minorities. States are sovereign and the principle of the sovereignty determines the protection- policy of minorities living on their territories. Dominująca rola suwerennych państw w ramach europejskiej polityki mniejszościowejWieloetniczność w Europie kształtowana była przez kilka stuleci, zaś jej wizerunek rzutował na stosunki między poszczególnymi krajami, był źródłem międzynarodowych oraz wewnętrznych napięć i konfliktów. W tym celu na arenie międzynarodowej podjęte zostały starania, które mają na celu uregulowanie statusu mniejszości w Europie i na świecie. Systemy ochronne dla mniejszości narodowych ukształtowane zostały na różnych płaszczyznach politycznych, od rozwiązań globalnych mających charakter ogólnikowy i deklaratywny, po rozwiązania regionalne, charakteryzujące się większym stopniem instytucjonalizacji, i narodowe z funkcjonującymi mechanizmami kontroli.Wymienione uregulowania dotyczące polityki mniejszościowej w Europie, sformułowane w wielu międzynarodowych aktach prawnych, mają charakter fakultatywno‑deklaratywny i w tym sensie nie zobowiązują państw do ich przestrzegania. Nawet w ramach Unii Europejskiej nie ma zasadniczo wiążących praw formułujących ochronę mniejszości narodowych. Państwa są suwerenne i to właśnie zasada suwerenności determinuje ich dobrą bądź złą wolę w zakresie ochrony mniejszości zamieszkujących ich terytorium.

Established by 25 participating states in Bangkok in 1996, having at present, in its enlarged composition, 45 partners (since 2006), the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) represents around 50% of the world-GDP, nearly 58% of the world's population and 60% of world trade. ASEM deals with a broad range of topical global issues, including energy and climate change, counter terrorism, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons ,world trade, the future of the United Nations, investments, science and technology, culture, inter-religious dialogue and human resource development, etc. ASEM is described by the heads of diplomacy from the two continents as a unique, practical, flexible and comprehensive platform for the Asia-Europe partnership in view of finding joint responses to global challenges. However, the "ASEM-Closer Economic Partnership", endorsed by the ASEM 5 Summit in Hanoi in October 2004, is far from being implemented. Therefore, the European Union (EU)- Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Plan of Action adopted in 2007 should be used to find appropriate ways and means for intensifying pragmatic measures leading to a new , more dynamic and productive partnership applicable between the 45 ASEM-partners.China is to host the ASEM 7 Summit in Beijing on October 24 -25, 2008. Leaders from the 43 ASEM member countries as well as high officials from the ASEAN Secretariat and the European Commission are expected to attend the biennial Summit. The Chinese State Council approved the establishment of the Summit preparatory committee. In July 2007, the first session of this new body took place. The session reviewed the general concept behind the ASEM Summit and the preparatory work.As a host country, China believes that both Europe and Asia are enjoying prime development and their visible complementarity and broad common interests help create favorable conditions for further cooperation, encompassing all main components of the ASEM process, namely political dialogue, security and the economy, education and culture, which ...

The purpose of this study is to introduce evaluation of convergence policy activities in the European Union and to designate social development trends of Latvia in the context of reaching the goals of strategy "Europe 2020. The aim of the research has set the following tasks: to introduce the main EU social convergence theory investigations as the development challenges for improvement socio-economic well-being of the EU states; to evaluate current social situation and eventual social strategy of Latvia on 2014-2020; to estimate European convergence policy impact on the social development of Latvia.The strategic goals of EU policy are discussed as well as the development challenges for improvement of the national economy well-being in the EU states and to avoid social disparities This study contains analysis of the new concepts of "Europe 2020" growth strategy and the Europe convergence policy impact appreciate on Latvian social strategy changes and prospects. The main emphasis of this research lies in the complex approach to the social convergence theory and EU cohesion policy implementation on the social development strategy of Latvia.The research methodology is based on the convergence theory and its main scenario analysis, convergence catch-up rate calculation, on the EU strategy and European Commission legitimate documents application, on the growth theory and socio-economic forecasts analysis and on the national and external factors and variables estimations. The research methods employed in the present study are the monographic method, analysis and synthesis, statistical analysis and the graphic methods. This research investigate major information for social situations estimation in Latvia as well as GDP growth, welfare conditions, inflation and unemployment indicators and its possible development on 2014-2020.The speed of convergence depends on the initial discrepancy of the development level in the EU states. The efficiency of European convergence policy can also be improved by significant economic ...

The aim of this thesis is to question the prevailing idea that a "political Europe" does not exist. The electoral discourses are placed at the centre of this research, considered as the material traces of the Europe's political essence. They enable the analysis of "the political" in its double dimension: cognitive and pragmatic. The first dimension is examined through the myths that these discourses construct, the second through the configuration of the production and circulations of the electoral discourse. The analysis of the dialogic relation between these two dimensions contributes to demystifying and unpacking the European public sphere. The findings are drawn from a comparative study of the mediated discourse of the parliamentary elections of 2009, taking into account different political parties and national contexts. On the one hand, these electoral discourse contain important similarities which reinforce the idea of a "technocratisation of politics". On the other hand, the discourses also produce various and contradictory myths, according to party affiliation and to geopolitical and cultural origins. They produce situations of "dissensus", a fundamental condition for the political. The conclusion is that political Europe does exist. However, this thesis goes beyond this statement and opens the discussion on the modalities of existence, production and re-contextualization of this political. It shows that the constructed myths can be and are articulated as part of the activities within the European Parliament, the status and origin of participants in the process of production of mediated.discourse These elements operate as catalysts for the production of political discourses. The results also highlight that the myths constructed at the European Union level do not circulate and are not recontextualised in the same way in all member-states: they depend on and are mediated via local issues and are embedded in the symbolic relations between the "grands" and the "petits" of Europe. ; Cette thèse doctorale se ...

Migration can be defined as a process whereby people move from one place to another, either for a certain period of time or forever. Europe was built on migrations and its peoples have helped populate other continents. The European Union (EU) is an international organization sui generis which has a new form of migration – intra organizational migration. If the EU decides to close its doors to further immigration from outside the EU (or to end the process of enlargement), its economic development will be at risk. Its aging population will not be able to compete in the global market as successfully as now. Shrinking numbers of workers and employees will not be able to produce the resources needed to bear the burden of the pensions of those retired or for the repayment of the sovereign debts of various EU nations. The financial crisis will continue, leading to emigration from Europe to other parts of the world. If, on the other hand, the EU decides to open its gates to greater immigration, especially from the developing nations, it would be helping not just the immigrants themselves but also its own people. States and international organizations exist to provide services for their people, increasing their standards of living within international solidarity. This paper shows that a reduction of natural population growth will affect the EU and the world, that the candidate countries (Turkey excluded) are in a population crisis greater than that of the EU, and that global solutions for peace and prosperity should be leading ideas in creating future migrations policies. Europe will need a larger population, from its candidate countries and beyond, in order to maintain its position in the world. Further academic research as well as consultations among EU and nonEU nations on migration will provide the main avenue to a better world

Over the last fifteen years or so, classical rabies in terrestrial wildlife has been eliminated from large areas of Western Europe. Over the next few years, terrestrial rabies is likely to occur only east of a line from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea; the overall aim is to eliminate terrestrial rabies from the whole European Union. Elimination of rabies from the less rich countries of Eastern Europe, and the protection of Europe against a resurgence of rabies in the longer term requires modifications to existing OIE and WHO strategies. Here we discuss the options available to eliminate rabies in wildlife while taking account of financial cost, and how to maintain a 'cordon sanitaire' along the eastern boundary of the EU in order to protect the rabies-free areas from rabies incursion. Minimising financial costs at the national level is obviously essential, considering the competing priorities for development and health. This could be achieved either by increasing external funding (for example by the EU) and/or by changing the currently agreed vaccination strategy to reduce costs; any such change must not substantially reduce the chances of rabies elimination. A cordon sanitaire might be placed outside the economic area of the EU, to protect the whole of the EU, or it might be placed within the easternmost countries to ensure logistical consistency of vaccination. Policy must also anticipate an emergency due to rabies breaking out in a previously freed region. Strategic planning may be complicated by the increasing range and abundance of the raccoon dog, an introduced species that is increasingly important as a host for fox rabies. It is argued here that models help to evaluate altemative strategies, exploring options for optimising costs by minimising bait density and frequency or by reducing the vaccination area.

Between Involvement and Detachment takes grasp with the Johnson administration's (1963-1969) perceptions of and responses to the Western European realignments. Arguing that the Johnson administration set out to maintain the American unilateralist position in the transatlantic relation, not just as a function of America's position as a superpower, but also as a function of certain historically based Euro-skepticism, the thesis suggests that America's Western European policy can be seen on a continuum of involvement and detachment. Based on archival research, the thesis concludes, that these policies, essentially, were detached as America rejected the European reason of state. The Western European realignments were recorded in the Johnson administration with de Gaulle's critique of US hegemony in Western Europe in the early 1960s. The thesis argues that the administration to a large extent had a traditional reading of de Gaulle's policies, and feared that if Gaullist thinking spread among the European allies, it would merit to a return to traditional European power politics. The analysis shows that, by 1964 the administration believed, according to this study, that NATO's principle of integration stood between the current 'balanced' Western Europe and the Europe of the pre-War period. In addition the administration held the opinion that the German problem and the Western European détente tampered with the US unilateralism in its relations with the Soviet Union, and its position as the leader of the Western world. De Gaulle's withdrawal from NATO's integrated command in 1966, and the subsequent British and Belgian calls for a reform of the alliance and a détente with East, contributed to the administration's fear of alliance disintegration and return to European power politics. The thesis argues that the Department of State attempted a 'political bargain', with which the allies would be given political consultation and a détente in return for re-commitment to integration, whereas the Acheson Committee proposed a ...

Spotlights on Contemporary Family Life covers four issues of cross-cutting importance to families Structures and forms of families: issues relating to a diversification of families away from the 'traditional nuclear family form' are relatively uncontroversial from an academic perspective, but much more so for policy makers and family associations. Chapter 1 provides a thorough overview of the state of contemporary European families. Solidarities in families: too often the issue of an 'ageing society' is simply reduced to the problem of over-burdening social care systems, but longevity also represents opportunities for new kinds of solidarities inside families and family networks, and new relations between family members – not to mention the satisfaction felt by people who can continue to live fulfilling and rewarding lives long after they're considered 'elderly'. Chapter 2 gives voice to authors who identify these new opportunities and challenges. Demographic change: women are having fewer children and having them later in life. Having children is now a conscious decision and fertility rates have declined below the level required to sustain our current populations. At the same time we witness the 'greying' of Europe, which brings with it a whole host of opportunities and challenges. Chapter 3 raises important issues for policy makers today. Volunteering: inspired by family associations who could not survive without the support of volunteers, this chapter gives an overview of what's known - and what isn't - about volunteering. Coinciding with the European Year of Volunteering 2011, this chapter takes a timely look at the efforts that families put into volunteering across Europe and the important benefits that Europe gains from all of this combined voluntary effort. Linden Farrer and William Lay work for the Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union (COFACE). This publication was produced by FAMILYPLATFORM, a project funded by the European Commission.

BACKGROUND: In the third season of I-MOVE (Influenza Monitoring Vaccine Effectiveness in Europe), we undertook a multicentre case-control study based on sentinel practitioner surveillance networks in eight European Union (EU) member states to estimate 2010/11 influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) against medically-attended influenza-like illness (ILI) laboratory-confirmed as influenza. METHODS: Using systematic sampling, practitioners swabbed ILI/ARI patients within seven days of symptom onset. We compared influenza-positive to influenza laboratory-negative patients among those meeting the EU ILI case definition. A valid vaccination corresponded to > 14 days between receiving a dose of vaccine and symptom onset. We used multiple imputation with chained equations to estimate missing values. Using logistic regression with study as fixed effect we calculated influenza VE adjusting for potential confounders. We estimated influenza VE overall, by influenza type, age group and among the target group for vaccination. RESULTS: We included 2019 cases and 2391 controls in the analysis. Adjusted VE was 52% (95% CI 30-67) overall (N = 4410), 55% (95% CI 29-72) against A(H1N1) and 50% (95% CI 14-71) against influenza B. Adjusted VE against all influenza subtypes was 66% (95% CI 15-86), 41% (95% CI -3-66) and 60% (95% CI 17-81) among those aged 0-14, 15-59 and ≥60 respectively. Among target groups for vaccination (N = 1004), VE was 56% (95% CI 34-71) overall, 59% (95% CI 32-75) against A(H1N1) and 63% (95% CI 31-81) against influenza B. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest moderate protection from 2010-11 trivalent influenza vaccines against medically-attended ILI laboratory-confirmed as influenza across Europe. Adjusted and stratified influenza VE estimates are possible with the large sample size of this multi-centre case-control. I-MOVE shows how a network can provide precise summary VE measures across Europe. ; The authors have no support or funding to report. ; Sí

This technical note highlights some of the work the World Bank has recently conducted in support of the growth agenda outlined in the Europe 2020 strategy. The World Bank is actively supporting the new member states, as well as accession and neighborhood countries, in achieving the Europe 2020 targets of smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth. The engagement consists of policy and program lending in these areas as well as analytical work. This note focuses on highlighting some of the Bank's analytical Europe 2020 work pertaining to raising employment rates and skills levels as well as to spur innovation and technology absorption. The technical note is structured as follows: section one provides the macroeconomic background, and highlights how the economies of the European Union (EU)-10 countries were steadily catching up with those of the EU-15 countries, but then the catching-up was interrupted by the onset of the global financial and economic crisis. Section two focuses on low employment rates in EU-10 countries, particularly among older and less-educated workers, women, and minority groups, in particular Roma, and highlights some key issues in the organization of labor markets and labor market related institutions. Section three focuses more specifically on skills development across the life cycle, with a brief discussion on selected policy areas: (1) expansion of early childhood development programs to universal coverage; (2) adopting ambitious, comprehensive approaches to schooling to support higher levels of generic skills for all; and (3) strengthening access to and efficiency of tertiary education through higher education financing reform and data collection as a basis for system steering. Section four focuses on innovation and technology absorption, highlighting how more and more efficient research and development (R&D) spending will boost economic growth in EU10 countries.

Spotlights on Contemporary Family Life covers four issues of cross-cutting importance to families Structures and forms of families: issues relating to a diversification of families away from the 'traditional nuclear family form' are relatively uncontroversial from an academic perspective, but much more so for policy makers and family associations. Chapter 1 provides a thorough overview of the state of contemporary European families. Solidarities in families: too often the issue of an 'ageing society' is simply reduced to the problem of over-burdening social care systems, but longevity also represents opportunities for new kinds of solidarities inside families and family networks, and new relations between family members – not to mention the satisfaction felt by people who can continue to live fulfilling and rewarding lives long after they're considered 'elderly'. Chapter 2 gives voice to authors who identify these new opportunities and challenges. Demographic change: women are having fewer children and having them later in life. Having children is now a conscious decision and fertility rates have declined below the level required to sustain our current populations. At the same time we witness the 'greying' of Europe, which brings with it a whole host of opportunities and challenges. Chapter 3 raises important issues for policy makers today. Volunteering: inspired by family associations who could not survive without the support of volunteers, this chapter gives an overview of what's known - and what isn't - about volunteering. Coinciding with the European Year of Volunteering 2011, this chapter takes a timely look at the efforts that families put into volunteering across Europe and the important benefits that Europe gains from all of this combined voluntary effort. Linden Farrer and William Lay work for the Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union (COFACE). This publication was produced by FAMILYPLATFORM, a project funded by the European Commission.

When the Asia–Europe Meeting (ASEM) was created in 1996, a full vision of time was involved: The past, because if Europe and Asia shared the privilege of having given birth to most of the civilisations, the religions, philosophies and concepts which have survived until the twentieth century, they had also been tragically opposed by a long period of confrontation: colonial exploitation and imperialist aggression had divided the huge Eurasian continent where, since time immemorial, contacts had been an exceptional source of mutual enrichment and fascination. The present, because globalisation does not allow any region or country to live in isolation even from its most distant real or potential partners. Europe needed to organise its relations with Asia beyond the bilateral ties it entertained with Asian nations and even beyond the links it has started establishing as an entity with economic partners whose growth was becoming more and more impressive. The future, because although nobody could then predict what the notion of "emerging powers" would encompass a dozen years later, it was already understood that after the demise of the Soviet Union, Asia's renaissance would be the next determining event in the world's history. This probably explains why, despite many difficult tests, from the 1997 economic crisis in Asia to the question of its enlargement and to the sometimes apparent lack of productivity of its official functioning, ASEM has lasted until now, and does not stop attracting new candidates: its eighth Summit is welcoming Australia, New Zealand and Russia this October 2010, and that suffices to show the enduring validity and relevance of this unique informal dialogue structure. Let us be clear: the world also needs more directly efficient bodies to tackle new issues and to integrate a quickly evolving balance of power. G7, G8, G20, the transition is now an Asia Eur J (2010) 8:123–126 DOI 10.1007/s10308-010-0265-8

International audience ; BACKGROUND: With the emergence of influenza H1N1v the world is facing its first 21st century global pandemic. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and avian influenza H5N1 prompted development of pandemic preparedness plans. National systems of public health law are essential for public health stewardship and for the implementation of public health policy. International coherence will contribute to effective regional and global responses. However little research has been undertaken on how law works as a tool for disease control in Europe. With co-funding from the European Union, we investigated the extent to which laws across Europe support or constrain pandemic preparedness planning, and whether national differences are likely to constrain control efforts. METHODS: We undertook a survey of national public health laws across 32 European states using a questionnaire designed around a disease scenario based on pandemic influenza. Questionnaire results were reviewed in workshops, analysing how differences between national laws might support or hinder regional responses to pandemic influenza. Respondents examined the impact of national laws on the movements of information, goods, services and people across borders in a time of pandemic, the capacity for surveillance, case detection, case management and community control, the deployment of strategies of prevention, containment, mitigation and recovery and the identification of commonalities and disconnects across states. RESULTS: Results of this study show differences across Europe in the extent to which national pandemic policy and pandemic plans have been integrated with public health laws. We found significant differences in legislation and in the legitimacy of strategic plans. States differ in the range and the nature of intervention measures authorized by law, the extent to which borders could be closed to movement of persons and goods during a pandemic, and access to healthcare of non-resident persons. Some states propose use of ...