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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. ; The main aim of this study was to assess whether a history of abuse, reported during pregnancy, was associated with an operative delivery. Secondly, we assessed if the association varied according to the type of abuse and if the reported abuse had been experienced as a child or an adult. ; The Bidens study, a cohort study in six European countries (Belgium, Iceland, Denmark, Estonia, Norway, and Sweden) recruited 6724 pregnant women attending routine antenatal care. History of abuse was assessed through questionnaire and linked to obstetric information from hospital records. The main outcome measure was operative delivery as a dichotomous variable, and categorized as an elective caesarean section (CS), or an operative vaginal birth, or an emergency CS. Non-obstetrically indicated were CSs performed on request or for psychological reasons without another medical reason. Binary and multinomial regression analysis were used to assess the associations. ; Among 3308 primiparous women, sexual abuse as an adult (≥ 18 years) increased the risk of an elective CS, Adjusted Odds Ratio 2.12 (1.28-3.49), and the likelihood for a non-obstetrically indicated CS, OR 3.74 (1.24-11.24). Women expressing current suffering from the reported adult sexual abuse had the highest risk for an elective CS, AOR 4.07 (1.46-11.3). Neither physical abuse (in adulthood or childhood <18 years), nor sexual abuse in childhood increased the risk of any operative delivery among primiparous women. Among 3416 multiparous women, neither sexual, nor emotional abuse was significantly associated with any kind of operative delivery, while physical abuse had an increased AOR for emergency CS of 1.51 (1.05-2.19). ; Sexual abuse as an adult increases the risk of an elective CS among women with no prior birth experience, in particular for non-obstetrical reasons. Among multiparous ...

This article examines the role of news exposure and political trust in the decision to vote in European Parliament (EP) elections in established (EU-15) and new member states of the 2004/2007 enlargement. News coverage of EP elections tends to differ among established and new member states. News in new members contains more coverage of EP elections and the European Union (EU) and tends to also be more positive than in established members. The difference in coverage may play a role in how European institutions are trusted, and ultimately, in election participation. A moderated mediation model is proposed to test whether trust in the EP mediates the relationship between news exposure and voting in EP elections, and whether the relationship between news exposure and trust is stronger among new member states. Using two methods, an experiment conducted in four EU states and a structural equation model of 2004 European Election Studies survey data, support is found for the model. The results also suggest that while European-level considerations account for some of the variance in voting, they cannot be a substitute for national-level considerations.

Germany's has long been held up as a competitive, bank-based financial system, providing long-term and secure finance for industrial and service companies. The emphasis here is on the international market and regulatory conditions which have helped to transform the financial system. In the 1980s, the government remained averse to any 'Big Bang' experiment, adapting national securities markets to policy initiatives in the US, and in London and Paris. This aversion was rooted in Bundesbank opposition to the development of money markets, and to the practice of corporate-bank-insurance cross-shareholding among Germany's big publicly listed corporations. The politics of 'Finanzplatz Deutschland' achieved a balance between maintaining national institutions and adapting them carefully to international markets and regulation. Implementing monetary union and the European financial area in the 1990s and beyond amounts in effect to a 'Big Bang' policy which is already under way. The prospect of a liquid 'Euro'-market for securities, and increasingly competitive banking and insurance markets, spells a shift in German corporate policies towards Anglo-American practices. National cross-shareholding corporate structures will not long survive a single currency. (German Politics / FUB)

Over the last two decades, a better digital transformation has fundamentally changed the global economy and society. Digital services have become new tools and their importance for our social and economic life will continue to grow. When we adopted the e-commerce directive 20 years ago, many digital services and platforms such as Google, Amazon or Booking were in their initial stage or did not yet exist. The blockades as the consequence of the COVID pandemic have now strengthened the role of online platforms. People have changed their habits towards the online world so that they can do business, shop, work, learn and socialize. COVID-19 has led to an increase in online e-commerce and an increase in fraud, unfair practices, and other illegalities of various formats. The crisis has exposed the system's existing gaps and weaknesses, which has allowed dishonest services and traders to exploit people's current insecurity. The Commission has proposed an ambitious reform of the digital space, a comprehensive set of new rules for all digital services, including social media, online marketplaces and other online platforms operating in the European Union: The Digital Services Act and The Digital Markets Act. In this article, we will look at the Commission's proposal for The Digital Markets Act (DMA), which was published on December 15, 2020. In the last few years, it has been concluded that a small number of large digital platforms act as "gatekeepers" because they are essential gateways between business users and their potential customers. This allows these platforms to take advantage of the enterprise users' dependence on their services by imposing unfair business conditions. As this issue may not be adequately addressed in competition law, it has led the European Commission to propose a Digital Markets Act (DMA). The DMA should introduce more flexibility and adaptability in terms of imposing the "gatekeeper" obligations. In this article, we will focus on the question of which digital platforms should be subject to ex ...

Explores the kind of relationship that Israel & the West ought to pursue in light of the increasing overlap of European & Middle Eastern security spaces. At issue is whether Israel ought to seek closer relations with NATO & the European Union or remain outside. Arguing that Israel has an opportunity to realign itself vis-a-vis Euro-Atlantic institutions, reasons why such a realignment is in the interests of Israel, the US, & Europe are examined, finding a compelling strategic argument for Israel to build closer ties with the Euro-Atlantic community. How each side should proceed is considered. Adapted from the source document.

One of the key challenges facing governments as a result of an aging population will be how to balance the public finances in the future in the light of potentially rapidly rising age-related spending. This article presents the underlying causes of population aging & how this might affect future pension & health spending in European Union countries. The article then presents a number of policy options available to policymakers to deal with this challenge, arguing that none of them is without its problems. Nonetheless, European governments are making gradual progress, for example by reforming public pension systems. Adapted from the source document.

The European Union (EU) has moved towards bicameralism, making the codecision procedure its most important mechanism for decision making. To gauge if European Parliament (EP) and Council of Ministers (CM) are equally powerful codecision makers', understanding of the final stage of the procedure - bargaining in the Conciliation Committee - is crucial. Here, EP and CM are assumed to have spatial preferences determined by their respective internal decision mechanisms. Applying bargaining theory to predict inter-institutional agreements in the Conciliation Committee, it turns out that although institutionally the Council and the Parliament are seemingly in a symmetric position, CM has significantly greater influence on EU legislation.

The international system is returning to multipolarity-a situation of multiple Great Powers-drawing the post-Cold War 'unipolar moment' of comprehensive US political, economic and military dominance to an end. The rise of new Great Powers, namely the 'BRICs'-Brazil, Russia, India, and most importantly, China-and the return of multipolarity at the global level in turn carries security implications for western Europe. While peaceful political relations within the European Union have attained a remarkable level of strategic, institutional and normative embeddedness, there are five factors associated with a return of Great Power competition in the wider world that may negatively impact on the western European strategic environment: the resurgence of an increasingly belligerent Russia; the erosion of the US military commitment to Europe; the risk of international military crises with the potential to embroil European states; the elevated incentive for states to acquire nuclear weapons; and the vulnerability of economically vital European sea lines and supply chains. These five factors must, in turn, be reflected in European states' strategic behaviour. In particular, for the United Kingdom-one of western Europe's two principal military powers, and its only insular (offshore) power-the return of Great Power competition at the global level suggests that a return to offshore balancing would be a more appropriate choice than an ongoing commitment to direct military interventions of the kind that have characterized post-2001 British strategy. (International Affairs (Oxford) / SWP)