ABSTRATC: In contrast to the increasing aquaculture production of mussels worldwide, production in the European Union (EU) has shown a decreasing trend over the last two decades. Aquaculture production of mussels in the EU peaked in the late 1990s at more than 600 000 tonnes; by 2016, production volume had dropped by 20% to 480 000 tonnes. As mussel production represents more than 1/3 of EU aquaculture production, this decrease is an important contributor to the stagnation of EU aquaculture. Previous studies have suggested diseases, lack of mussel seed (spat), and low profitability as the main causes of the EU mussel production decrease. In this study, we investigate how economic and environmental factors have contributed. Moreover, we examine if the different mussel production techniques (raft, longline, on-bottom, and "bouchot") have been differently affected, by analysing the economic performance and cost structure evolution for the period 2010-2016. We complement these results with a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis of the EU mussel sector based on expert knowledge.
The overall objectives of meat inspection are to contribute to food safety, animal welfare, and animal health. In the European Union (EU), there is a request for a modernised meat inspection system that addresses these objectives in a more valid, feasible and cost-effective way than does the traditional system. One part of the modernisation deals with the coding system to register meat inspection findings. Although unified standards are set at the EU level for judgement criteria regarding fitness of meat for consumption, different national systems are in force. The question is the extent of the differences and whether there is a basis for harmonisation. To investigate this, information was gathered about the code systems in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Portugal and Spain. Moreover, meat inspection data covering pigs slaughtered in 2019 were collected. A comparison of the number of codes available, the terminology and the frequencies of the findings registered was undertaken. Codes with a similar meaning were grouped. Hereby, two lists were compiled showing the most common codes leading to total and to partial condemnation. Substantial variations in the percentage of condemned pigs and in the terms used were identified, and possible reasons behind this are discussed. Moreover, a strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats (SWOT)-like analysis was applied to the coding systems. Finally, the reasons for unfitness of meat given in the EU Food Inspection Regulation 2019/627 were compared to the national code lists. The results show the systems in force varied substantially, and each system had its advantages and disadvantages. The diverse terminology observed made it a challenge to compare data between countries. Development of harmonised terminology for meat inspection findings is suggested, enabling comparison of data between abattoirs, regions, and countries, while respecting the national epidemiological situation, the local food safety culture, and the trade agreements in force. ; Peer reviewed
Introducción: La desinformación se ha convertido en un problema clave para las sociedades democráticas contemporáneas. Para contrarrestar esta amenaza, las autoridades públicas de numerosos países han puesto en marcha diversas iniciativas legales, tecnológicas y educativas. Este artículo aporta una revisión bibliográfica y de textos legales, que evidencia la importancia creciente otorgada por la Unión Europea a la alfabetización mediática. Metodología: Mediante revisión documental, se examinan informes y textos legales europeos y de países de la UE, con el fin de evaluar el grado de relevancia que se asigna a la alfabetización mediática para luchar contra la desinformación. Resultados: El análisis comprueba una presencia recurrente de la alfabetización mediática como una de las medidas necesarias para combatir la desinformación en el territorio europeo. Discusión y conclusiones: Más allá de simples soluciones tecnológicas y legales para combatir la desinformación, se comprueba que la Unión Europea apuesta por co-responsabilizar a la ciudadanía, mediante políticas de promoción de la alfabetización mediática. Se consolida, en definitiva, un modelo de lucha contra la desinformación basado en un conjunto de soluciones multinivel. ; Introduction: Disinformation has become a key problem for contemporary democratic societies. To tackle this threat, public authorities in many countries have launched various legal, technological and educational initiatives. This article provides a literature and legislative review, which shows the growing importance given by the European Union to media literacy. Methodology: European and EU country reports and legal texts are examined, in order to assess the degree of relevance assigned to media literacy to tackle misinformation. Results: The analysis confirms a widespread presence of media literacy as one of the necessary measures to combat disinformation in the European territory. Discussion and Conclusions: Beyond mere technological and legal solutions to tackle disinformation, this article finds that the European Union is committed to making citizens co-responsible, through policies to promote media literacy. In short, a model for acting against disinformation based on a set of multilevel solutions is consolidated.
A policy change in the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) provides us with a unique opportunity to measure the impact of carbon pricing on aviation, the most climate-intensive mode of transport. We implement a difference-in-differences strategy on a sample based on all flights within Europe from 2010 to 2016 to examine the causal impact of the EU ETS on emissions and supply. We find that the EU ETS reduced emissions by 4.7% in the regulated routes relative to the counterfactual. When we restrict the sample to short-haul flights, routes on which competition from other means of transport may exist (less than 1,000 km), the reduction in emissions is 10.7%. Finally, the reduction in emissions is also high for low-cost airlines (−11%) but it is not statistically significant for network airlines. In sum, the EU ETS has helped to mitigate emission growth by 3 Mt CO2 per year during the period analyzed, but not to reduce absolute emissions in the sector, as needed.
V.V. acknowledges the financial support of ERDF PostDoc project No. 1.1.1.2/VIAA/3/19/440 (University of Latvia Institute of Solid State Physics, Latvia) and LP the Academy of Finland (Flagship Programme, Photonics Research and Innovation PREIN 320165 and Academy Project -326418) for the financial support. Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01- 2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART 2 . ; SrAl2O4: Eu, Dy, B particles were added in a phosphate glass (90NaPO3-10NaF (in mol%)) using the direct doping method. For the first time, the composition of the particles prior to and after embedding them in the glass was analysed using EPMA analysis. Boron was found to be incorporated in already distorted surroundings creating new trapping centers in the particles which are thought to be favourable for the tunnelling process and so for the afterglow at 10K. Despite the partial decomposition of the particles, the glass exhibit afterglow at low temperature confirming to be promising materials for low temperature applications. ; ERDF 1.1.1.2/VIAA/3/19/440; LP the Academy of Finland 320165 and 326418; Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017 TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART²
APPROVED ; The work which follows examines the process by which private actors in the digital market are redefining fundamental rights through their contractual terms and practical operation. The argument is allied to works which consider ?digital constitutionalism,? the idea that private actors in the digital market are increasingly displaying constitutional features through their contractual terms and documents. Unlike a majority of work in the area of digital constitutionalism the work does not argue that private actors setting rights based standards represents a positive development. Rather, the work argues that private actors, through their re-definition of public, normative standards are generating a body of rules and practices which have displaced democratically decided rights standards with negative consequences for individual autonomy and the Rule of Law. The work argues that this process has been enabled by three features of EU law and policy. The first is an approach of functional equivalence to laws governing the digital market. In accordance with this approach the digital market has been treated as equivalent to traditional markets and its participants are viewed as requiring no additional or supplementary protections or regulations. Of particular significance in functionally equivalent attitudes to the digital market is the Union?s deference to freedom of contract as part of an ordoliberal attitude to market regulation. While this attitude is now beginning to erode (to some extent) in the context of data protection it remains the dominant regulatory approach of the European Union in the digital market. The second feature, not unrelated to the first, is the Union?s preference for economic rather than socially orientated standards and protections in it policies as well as its secondary laws. As part of this preference, when fundamental rights cross the Rubicon from vertically enforced constitutional protections to horizontally enforceable legislative ones their content is transmuted in a manner which favours their economic over socially oriented aspects. The third feature, is what is referred to within the work as the Union?s brittle constitutionalism ? that is the Union?s hesitant and incomplete articulation of and commitment to rights enforcement. This feature is the result in part of the Union?s ambiguous and at times hostile attitude to the development of fundamental rights policy. The work examines the impact of these trends and the rise of private policy they have generated on the rights to privacy and property under the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
This research looked at the growing space that Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is gaining in educational policy worldwide, and at the role Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) played in GCE agenda setting and policy implementation. Based on a comparative policy analysis carried out in 10 European countries, the political agency of NGOs was explored, underlining opportunities, tensions, and challenges, especially in their contribution to national strategies to integrate GCE into national educational systems.
This PhD thesis seeks to contribute towards closing a research gap in the knowledge about the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) as an African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN) authorised peace enforcement operation. In so doing, the study covers the period 2007-2017 and attempts to fulfil three broad objectives. Firstly, it examines the implementation of AMISOM mandate amidst foreign interventions and their underlying implications for the strategic AU-UN partnership. Secondly, the thesis attempts to examine any significant changes towards the implementation of the mandate by assessing the evolution of AMISOM's decade-long presence in Somalia. The analysis focuses on whether AMISOM has morphed into an exercise in self-interest or still pursuing the shared strategic objectives for which it was established. Thirdly, the study confronts the theoretical idea imposed by Western ideologies to export liberal democracy through peacekeeping operations, especially as it relates to regional peace operations. In a sense, it contrasts between liberalism and realism vis-à-vis peacekeeping operations in order to account for the case of AMISOM given the involvement of frontline states whose realist strategy in Somalia has presented a major dilemma. Given the latitude, the study adopts an interdisciplinary and mixed methodology approach in its analysis of foreign interventions and the pursuit of illicit commercial interests in a conflict economy milieu marked by attempts to counter al-Shabaab in Somalia. As a qualitative research, the study relies on primary and secondary data sources including relevant articles and journals, although aspects of quantitative method have also been used where appropriate. ; Esta tese de doutoramento visa contribuir para o preenchimento de uma lacuna de pesquisa no conhecimento sobre a Missão da União Africana na Somália (AMISOM), como uma operação de imposição da paz autorizada pela União Africana (UA) e endossada pelas Nações Unidas (ONU). O âmbito do estudo abrange o período 2007- 2017 e ambiciona cumprir três objetivos principais. Em primeiro lugar, examina a implementação do mandato da AMISOM no meio de intervenções estrangeiras e as suas implicações subjacentes para a parceria estratégica UA-ONU. Em segundo lugar, a tese tenta examinar quaisquer mudanças significativas em relação à implementação do mandato, avaliando a evolução da AMISOM após uma década de presença na Somália. A análise concentra-se em determinar se a AMISOM se transformou num exercício em interesse próprio ou se ainda persegue os objetivos estratégicos comuns para os quais foi estabelecida. Em terceiro lugar, o estudo confronta a ideia teórica imposta pelas ideologias ocidentais para exportar a democracia liberal por meio de operações de manutenção da paz, especialmente no que se refere as operações de paz regionais. Em certo sentido, contrasta entre liberalismo e realismo face às operações de manutenção da paz com vista a contextualizar o caso da AMISOM, dado o envolvimento dos Estados da linha da frente, cuja estratégia realista na Somália apresentou um grande dilema. Dada a latitude, o estudo adopta uma abordagem metodológica interdisciplinar e mista, na análise de intervenções estrangeiras e a prossecução de interesses comerciais ilícitos, num ambiente de economia de guerra marcado por tentativas de conter o "al-Shabaab" na Somália. Tratando-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa, o estudo baseia-se principalmente em fontes primárias e secundárias, incluindo artigos e periódicos relevantes, embora alguns aspectos do método quantitativo tenham sido também aplicados.
In its 2009 decision in Infopaq (C-5/08), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) achieved a landmark result: the de facto, horizontal harmonization of the originality requirement. After that, nothing could stay the same. After providing an overview of the harmonization process in the copyright field over the past 30 years or so and, with that, the environment in which Infopaq came to be, this chapter considers Infopaq and the expansive effect of subsequent case law on other copyright subsistence requirements. The analysis also notes how the eventual outcome of Cofemel (C-683/17), insofar as works of applied art are concerned, is perfectly in line with such a jurisprudence. The chapter further considers the legal and institutional difficulties that such a string of CJEU decisions has given rise to and is yet to resolve before concluding that further questions are likely to be posed to the CJEU in the not too distant future. In other words: the construction of EU copyright is far from over.
This paper aims to investigate the concept, context and socio-economic consequences of fiscal competition in the integrated economic space of EMU in completion, to pinpoint the positive and negative factors at work via a case study of the Benelux countries – both founder members of the EU and pioneers of EMU – and to examine the impact on European and international regulations in the field. In particular, it will endeavour to provide a comprehensive interpretation of fiscal policy in the Benelux countries via a comparative approach and from a historical perspective. It will look at the development of respective domestic fiscal policies, driven by national interests and by membership of a Community that is subject to requirements in terms of harmonisation and taxation, but also by constant contact (and frequent clashes) with the multilateral international environment.
The "gabelle" was one of the main sources of revenue for the French government. Henry III here creates the office of "Sergent" to oversee the functions of the government salt warehouses. ; Electronic reproduction; 8 p. ; 16 cm. (4to)
John Faulhaber (born May 5, 1580 Ulm, † September 10, 1635 in Ulm) was a German mathematician, engineer and military architect. He collaborated among others with Johannes Kepler and Ludolph van Ceulen. His mathematical works deal mainly with sums over powers of natural numbers to exponents 17 (Faulhabersche formula), the solution of the general equation 4 Degree, the sets of Pythagoras and Heron of Alexandria in three-dimensional space. ; Johannes Faulhaber (* 5. Mai 1580 in Ulm; † 10. September 1635 in Ulm) war ein deutscher Mathematiker, Ingenieur und Festungsbaumeister. Er arbeitete unter anderem mit Johannes Kepler und Ludolph van Ceulen zusammen. Seine mathematischen Arbeiten beschäftigen sich hauptsächlich mit Summen über Potenzen natürlicher Zahlen bis zum Exponenten 17 (Faulhabersche Formel), der Lösung der allgemeinen Gleichung 4. Grades, den Sätzen von Pythagoras und Heron von Alexandria im dreidimensionalen Raum.
John Faulhaber (born May 5, 1580 Ulm, † September 10, 1635 in Ulm) was a German mathematician, engineer and military architect. He collaborated among others with Johannes Kepler and Ludolph van Ceulen. His mathematical works deal mainly with sums over powers of natural numbers to exponents 17 (Faulhabersche formula), the solution of the general equation 4 Degree, the sets of Pythagoras and Heron of Alexandria in three-dimensional space. ; Johannes Faulhaber (* 5. Mai 1580 in Ulm; † 10. September 1635 in Ulm) war ein deutscher Mathematiker, Ingenieur und Festungsbaumeister. Er arbeitete unter anderem mit Johannes Kepler und Ludolph van Ceulen zusammen. Seine mathematischen Arbeiten beschäftigen sich hauptsächlich mit Summen über Potenzen natürlicher Zahlen bis zum Exponenten 17 (Faulhabersche Formel), der Lösung der allgemeinen Gleichung 4. Grades, den Sätzen von Pythagoras und Heron von Alexandria im dreidimensionalen Raum.
10 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, supplementary data https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2021.118377 ; Concentrations of organophosphate esters (OPEs) plasticizers were analysed in the present study. Fifty-five fish samples belonging to three highly commercial species, European sardine (Sardina pilchardus), European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), and European hake (Merluccius merluccius), were taken from the Western Mediterranean Sea. OPEs were detected in all individuals, except for two hake samples, with concentrations between 0.38 and 73.4 ng/g wet weight (ww). Sardines presented the highest mean value with 20.5 ± 20.1 ng/g ww, followed by anchovies with 14.1 ± 8.91 ng/g ww and hake with 2.48 ± 1.76 ng/g ww. The lowest OPE concentrations found in hake, which is a partial predator of anchovy and sardine, and the higher δ15N values (as a proxy of trophic position), may indicate the absence of OPEs biomagnification. Eleven out of thirteen tested OPEs compounds were detected, being diphenyl cresyl phosphate (DCP) one of the most frequently detected in all the species. The highest concentration values were obtained for tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDClPP), trihexyl phosphate (THP), and tris(2-butoxyethyl) phosphate (TBOEP), for sardines, anchovies, and hakes, respectively. The human health risk associated with the consumption of these fish species showing that their individual consumption would not pose a considerable threat to public health regarding OPE intake ; This study has been partially funded by PELCAT project (CAT 152CAT00013, TAIS ARP059/19/00005), PELWEB project (ES-PN-2017-CTM 2017-88939-R, Spanish Government), EXPOPLAS project (PID2019-110576RB-I00), Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (Consolidated Research Group Water and Soil Quality Unit 2017 SGR 1404). MEDITS data collection has been co-funded by the EU through the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) within the National Program of collection, management and use of data in the fisheries sector and support for scientific advice regarding the Common Fisheries Policy. [.] This work acknowledges the 'Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence' accreditations (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to IDAEA and ICM (Project CEX2018-000794-S and CEX2019-000928-S, respectively).EL-L was supported by a FPU grant (FPU1704395, Spanish Ministry of Education) ; Peer reviewed
In September 2015, the Volkswagen Group (VW) admitted the use of 'defeat devices' designed to lower emissions measured during VW vehicle testing for regulatory purposes. Globally, 11 million cars sold between 2008 and 2015 are affected, including about 2.6 million in Germany. On-road emissions tests have yielded mean on-road NO[subscript x] emissions for these cars of 0.85 g km[superscript −1], over four times the applicable European limit of 0.18 g km[superscript −1]. This study estimates the human health impacts and costs associated with excess emissions from VW cars driven in Germany. A distribution of on-road emissions factors is derived from existing measurements and combined with sales data and a vehicle fleet model to estimate total excess NO[subscript x] emissions. These emissions are distributed on a 25 by 28 km grid covering Europe, using the German Federal Environmental Protection Agency's (UBA) estimate of the spatial distribution of NO[subscript x] emissions from passenger cars in Germany. We use the GEOS-Chem chemistry-transport model to predict the corresponding increase in population exposure to fine particulate matter and ozone in the European Union, Switzerland, and Norway, and a set of concentration-response functions to estimate mortality outcomes in terms of early deaths and of life-years lost. Integrated over the sales period (2008–2015), we estimate median mortality impacts from VW excess emissions in Germany to be 1200 premature deaths in Europe, corresponding to 13 000 life-years lost and 1.9 billion EUR in costs associated with life-years lost. Approximately 60% of mortality costs occur outside Germany. For the current fleet, we estimate that if on-road emissions for all affected VW vehicles in Germany are reduced to the applicable European emission standard by the end of 2017, this would avert 29 000 life-years lost and 4.1 billion 2015 EUR in health costs (median estimates) relative to a counterfactual case with no recall. ; Germany. Umweltbundesamt (UBA)