Suchergebnisse

The article provides a comprehensive study of the process of forming the functional features of the European Civil Initiative (ECI) as an innovative format of political participation in the European Union. The theoretical and methodological framework of the study was the principles and conceptual provisions of the theory of participatory democracy and the definition of a dialogue model of political participation as a process of exchange of opinions, judgments, proposals between interested subjects of the political process based on the principles of open partnership between the authorities and citizens, in which they act as equal subjects political relations. Based on this, it has been established that the ECI format is inherently an instrument for deepening the political dimension of European citizenship and is based on the principles of participatory democracy. The possibility of introducing the EGI format into the political process was prepared by the long experience of using consultations with civil society institutions, which contributed to the formation of a more balanced and transparent process of developing European policy, improving the quality of public perception of politics as a process to which everyone can join. However, the concentration of European political institutions on dialogue with the institutionalized public gradually ousted from this process the citizen as a subject of politics and increased the distance between him and the EU institutions. Therefore, the ECI was positioned as a way to bring the political institutions of the EU closer to citizens. It has been proven that since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the ECI has been designated in the official political discourse of the EU as one of the most visible and concrete innovations that affect the quality of EU policy. It is substantiated that the ECI technology contributes to the maximum involvement of citizens in the formation of the political agenda and the discursive space of European politics through participation in public debates at the level of the European Parliament when discussing the initiative; ensures deepening of integration processes at the level of aggregation of interests and needs of EU citizens and conducting joint campaigns to support initiatives; ensures the integrity of the multi-level dialogue between EU citizens, European and national political institutions. The ECI has given a new dimension to European democracy, complementing the set of rights associated with EU citizenship and deepening the transparency of the European public space. ; У статті здійснено комплексне дослідження процесу формування функціональних особливостей Європейської громадянської ініціативи (ЄГІ) як інноваційного формату політичної участі в Європейському Союзі. Опираючись на низку принципів та концептуальних положень теорії демократії участі та визначення діалогової моделі політичної участі як процесу обміну думками, судженнями, пропозиціями між зацікавленими суб'єктами політичного процесу, що ґрунтується на принципах відкритого партнерства влади та громадян, в якому вони виступають як рівні суб'єкти політичних відносин, встановлено, що формат ЄГІ, визначений Лісабонським договором, як інструмент поглиблення політичного виміру європейського громадянства, заснований на принципах демократії участі. Можливість запровадження формату ЄГІ була підготовлена тривалим досвідом використання консультацій з інститутами громадянського суспільства, що сприяли формуванню більш збалансованого та прозорого процесу вироблення європейської політики, підвищенню якості громадського сприйняття політики як процесу, до якого може долучитися кожен. Проте, концентрація європейських політичних інституцій на діалозі з інституціоналізованою громадськістю поступово витіснила з цього процесу громадянина як суб'єкта політики та збільшила дистанцію між ним та інститутами ЄС. Відтак, ЄГІ позиціонувалася як шлях наближення політичних інститутів ЄС до громадян. Доведено, що від моменту набрання чинності Лісабонського договору, ЄГІ в офіційному політичному дискурсі ЄС означається як одна з найбільш помітних і конкретних інновацій, що впливає на якість політики ЄС. Обґрунтовано, що технологія ЄГІ сприяє максимальному залученню громадян до формування політичного порядку денного та дискурсивного простору європейської політики через участь у публічних дебатах на рівні Європейського парламенту під час обговорення ініціативи; забезпечує поглиблення інтеграційних процесів на рівні агрегування інтересів та потреб громадян ЄС та проведення спільних кампаній з підтримки ініціатив; забезпечує цілісність багаторівневого діалогу між громадянами ЄС, європейськими та національними політичними інститутами. ЄГІ задала новий вимір європейській демократії, доповнюючи набір прав, пов'язаних з громадянством ЄС та поглиблюючи прозорість європейського публічного простору.

A coupled population dynamics and economic model is applied to the purse seine anchovy-fishery in the Gulf of Cádiz. The model simulates the population dynamics, landings and profits on a probabilistic frame. These simulations are used to assess the biological and economic consequences of an individual quota management framework enveloped by a fixed Total Allowable Catch (TAC), the present strategy used to manage this stock in the Spanish fishery. Our results accurately indicate that this strategy magnifies the biological and economic vulnerabilities associated with the exploitation of the stock, thus jeopardizing the sustainability of this fishery. Alternative strategies, such as an adaptive TAC, are explored. The results indicate that even a basic implementation of an adaptive TAC seems more favorable than the present strategy in the necessary equilibrium between profits and sustainability. This paper provides tools and an assessment that may also be useful for other small pelagic fisheries. ; Bioeconomic model; Adaptive TAC; Engraulis encrasicolus; European anchovy; Small pelagics,ICES Subdivision IXa

The importance of integrated spatial and transport planning in regional and urban policy making stems from the fundamentally interdependent relationship of land-use, transport demand and transport supply. The adoption of integrated approaches would offer local authorities the possibility to steer urban development towards simultaneously pursuing economic competitiveness, social cohesion, mobility and environmental sustainability. This is even more important in the current situation where the latest developments in innovative mobility services and technology would significantly influence the passenger and freight transport systems. Against this background, the HARMONY research project envisages developing a new generation of harmonised spatial and multimodal transport planning tools which comprehensively model the dynamics of spatial organisation and changing transport sector, taking into consideration the dynamics that new services and technologies introduce. The ambition is to represent new forms of mobility for freight and people in order to enable metropolitan area authorities to lead the transition to a low carbon new mobility era in a sustainable manner. This paper is intended to provide a general overview of the HARMONY project and a description of the conceptual architecture designed for the development of the integrated modelling system and the interaction among the components. ; HARMONY has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement Nº815269. The content of this paper reflects only the author's view. Neither the European Commission nor the INEA is responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

The ambitious energy target to achieve climate-neutrality in the European Union (EU) energy system raises the feasibility question of using only renewables across all energy sectors. As one of the EU's leading industrialized countries, Germany has adopted several climate-action plans for the realistic implementation and maximum utilization of renewable energies in its energy system. The literature review shows a clear gap in comprehensive techniques describing an open modeling approach for analyzing fully renewable and sector-coupled energy systems. This paper outlines a method for analyzing the 100% renewable-based and sector-coupled energy system's feasibility in Germany. Based on the open energy modeling framework, an hourly optimization tool 'OSeEM-DE' is developed to investigate the German energy system. The model results show that a 100% renewable-based and sector-coupled system for electricity and building heat is feasible in Germany. The investment capacities and component costs depend on the parametric variations of the developed scenarios. The annual investment costs vary between 17.6 and 26.6 bn €/yr for volatile generators and between 23.7 and 28.8 bn €/yr for heat generators. The model suggests an investment of a minimum of 2.7–3.9 bn €/yr for electricity and heat storage. Comparison of OSeEM-DE results with recent studies validates the percentage-wise energy mix composition and the calculated Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) values from the model. Sensitivity analyses indicate that storage and grid expansion maximize the system's flexibility and decrease the investment cost. The study concludes by showing how the tool can analyze different energy systems in the EU context.

[eng] In this work we investigate the effect of energy (electricity) market integration in Europe and its effects on electricity prices and efficiency improvements in electricity producing firms. We first describe at detail the electricity sector, the role of electricity markets, the main characteristics of electricity as a commodity as well as the main features of this particular and strategic sector, we speak about the evolution of consumption of electricity in developed countries and particularly in Spain. In the second chapter, we address extensively the most recent round of reforms approved for the European electricity markets, known as the third energy package. We speak of the actors that were relevant for such approval their preferred outcomes and the final result of the bargaining process. To do this we use qualitative methods to venture beyond description of what happened and to explain the conditions that rendered the entire process be favourable for the European Commission proposal of reform. In the third chapter of the dissertation we deal with the issue of electricity prices in European countries. We propose a group of variables as drivers of electricity prices, we discuss the relationship that these variables might have with electricity prices and we conduct an analysis in which we set up a model to test the possible relation of these drivers with the prices paid by industrial and household costumers. In particular we test the relationship that might exist between the suppliers' ownership and the prices charged to final consumers, as well as the quantity of primary energy available and the exchanges of electricity or the concentration of the electricity markets and the amount of renewable energy supplied in the different European countries. To test our model and the relationship of the proposed drivers with net prices we constructed a panel data that covers the years from 2001 to 2010 a few years before and after the second and the third energy packages, the last major reform packages in European countries. Finally in Chapter 4 we focus on dealing with what we consider to be one of the most important consequences of liberalizing the electricity sector, which are the possible changes in the firms' efficiency. Particularly we focus in internal efficiency, that is, the more efficient ways that power plants may find to continue with their activity in a more competitive context. Said in a different way, due the increasing competition because of the liberalization measures, producers of electricity must adjust their production methods to keep been competitive or even gain competitiveness, this, in turn, is connected with gains in consumers welfare. In this case we first make a review of the best and most used methods to assess changes in the performance (efficiency) of firms, we set up a database that takes in account three different years of 130 power plants in eighteen European countries, sixteen of them European Union members and two non-EU members but important partners in what concerns to electricity markets (Norway and Switzerland); the three years taken in account are 2004, 2009 and 2013, the database is not a panel data, but observations made in three different points in time to tests each of the years while the results are used to calculate the Malmquist indexes that will give tell us how firms move relative to the frontier and if the frontier is actually moving.

Here we present the first multi-model ensemble of regional climate simulations at kilometer-scale horizontal grid spacing over a decade long period. A total of 23 simulations run with a horizontal grid spacing of ?3 km, driven by ERA-Interim reanalysis, and performed by 22 European research groups are analysed. Six different regional climate models (RCMs) are represented in the ensemble. The simulations are compared against available high-resolution precipitation observations and coarse resolution (? 12 km) RCMs with parameterized convection. The model simulations and observations are compared with respect to mean precipitation, precipitation intensity and frequency, and heavy precipitation on daily and hourly timescales in different seasons. The results show that kilometer-scale models produce a more realistic representation of precipitation than the coarse resolution RCMs. The most significant improvements are found for heavy precipitation and precipitation frequency on both daily and hourly time scales in the summer season. In general, kilometer-scale models tend to produce more intense precipitation and reduced wet-hour frequency compared to coarse resolution models. On average, the multi-model mean shows a reduction of bias from ? ?40% at 12 km to ? ?3% at 3 km for heavy hourly precipitation in summer. Furthermore, the uncertainty ranges i.e. the variability between the models for wet hour frequency is reduced by half with the use of kilometer-scale models. Although differences between the model simulations at the kilometer-scale and observations still exist, it is evident that these simulations are superior to the coarse-resolution RCM simulations in the representing precipitation in the present-day climate, and thus offer a promising way forward for investigations of climate and climate change at local to regional scales. ; The ETH and UIBK team acknowledges PRACE for awarding access to Piz Daint at Swiss National Supercomputing Center (CSCS, Switzerland), and the Federal Office for Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS), and ETH Zürich for their contributions to the development of the GPU-accelerated version of COSMO. The funding for their research was provided by the Swiss National Sciences Foundation through the Sinergia Grant CRSII2_154486 'crCLIM'. The ETH team, MZ, CNRM IPSL, ICTP, SMHI, Met-Office, DMI, CMCC, HZG, KNMI acknowledge funding from the HORIZON 2020 EUCP (European Climate Prediction System) project (https://www.eucp-project.eu, grant agreement No. 776613). The RegCM simulations by the ICTP have been completed thanks to the support of the Consorzio Interuniversitario per il Calcolo Automatico dell'Italia Nord Orientale (CINECA) super-computing center (Bologna, Italy). ICTP team acknowledge the CETEMPS, University of L'Aquila, for allowing access to the Italian database of precipitation which GRIPHO is based on. EK and SK acknowledge the GRNET HPC-ARIS infrastructure (project pr003005) and the AUTH-IT scientific center for their support. MT acknowledge that computational resources were made available by the German Climate Computing Center (DKRZ) through support from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany (BMBF), and further acknowledge the funding of the German Research Foundation (DFG) through grant nr. 401857120. HT and DM acknowledge the projects HighEnd:Extremes, EASICLIM, and reclip:convex, funded by the Austrian Climate Research Programme (ACRP) of the Klima- und Energiefonds (nos. B368608, KR16AC0K13160, and B769999, respectively) and the Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC) (projects 70992 and 71193). HT, DM and KG gratefully acknowledge the computing time granted through JARA (project JJSC39) and the John von Neumann Institute for Computing (NIC) (project HKA19) at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre. AL-G acknowledges support by the Spanish government through grant BES-2016-078158 and MINECO/FEDER co-funded project MULTI-SDM (CGL2015-66583-R). UCAN simulations have been carried out on the Altamira Supercomputer at the Instituto de Física de Cantabria (IFCA, CSIC-UC), member of the Spanish Supercomputing Network. SS and TL gratefully acknowledge the support of the Norwegian Environment Agency and their basic funding support of NORCE's Climate Services strategic project. Their simulations were performed on resources provided by UNINETT Sigma2—the National Infrastructure for High Performance Computing and Data Storage in Norway. JM and JF gratefully acknowledge the support by the Spanish government R+D programme through grant INSIGNIA (CGL2016-79210-R), co-funded by the ERDF/FEDER. The UHOH team and JM are also thankful for the support of the German Science Foundation (DFG) through project FOR 1695. The UHOH simulations were carried out using the computational resources received from the supercomputing center HLRS in Stuttgart, Germany. IPSL's work was granted access to the HPC resources of TGCC under the allocations 2018-A0030106877 and 2019-A0030106877 made by GENCI. EB and BA thank the Hessian Competence Center for High Performance Computing. The CICERO team was funded through the Norwegian Research Council project HYPRE (grant no. 243942) and acknowledges computing resources from Notur (NN9188K). EJK gratefully acknowledges funding from the Joint UK BEIS/Defra Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme (GA01101). All authors gratefully acknowledge the WCRP-CORDEX-FPS on Convective phenomena at high resolution over Europe and the Mediterranean (FPSCONV-ALP-3) and the research data exchange infrastructure and services provided by the Jülich Supercomputing Centre, Germany, as part of the Helmholtz Data Federation initiative.

We estimate the pricing of sovereign risk for sixty countries based on fiscal space (debt/tax; deficits/tax) and other economic fundamentals over 2005-10. We measure how accurately the model predicts sovereign credit default swap (CDS) spreads, focusing in particular on the five countries in the South-West Eurozone Periphery (Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain). Dynamic panel estimates of the model suggest that fiscal space and other macroeconomic factors are statistically significant and economically important determinants of market-based sovereign risk. Although the explanatory power of fiscal space measures drop during the crisis, the TED spread, trade openness, external debt and inflation play a larger role. As expectations of market volatility jumped during the crisis, the weakly concavity of creditors' payoff probably accounts for the emergence of TED spread as a key pricing factor. However, risk-pricing of the South-West Eurozone Periphery countries is not predicted accurately by the model either in-sample or out-of-sample: unpredicted high spreads are evident during global crisis period, especially in 2010 when the sovereign debt crisis swept over the periphery area. We match the periphery group with five middle income countries outside Europe that were closest in terms of fiscal space during the European fiscal crisis. We find that Eurozone periphery default risk is priced much higher than the matched countries in 2010, even allowing for differences in fundamentals. One interpretation is that the market has mispriced risk in the Eurozone periphery. An alternative interpretation is that the market is pricing not on current fundamentals but future fundamentals, expecting the periphery fiscal space to deteriorate markedly and posing a high risk of debt restructuring. Adjustment challenges of the Eurozone periphery may be perceived as economically and politically more difficult than the matched group of middle income countries because of exchange rate and monetary constraints.

I use the data on the COVID-19 pandemic maintained by Our Word in Data to estimate a nonstationary dynamic panel exhibiting the dynamics of confirmed deaths, infections and vaccinations per million population in the European Union countries in the period of January–July 2021. Having the data aggregated on a weekly basis I demonstrate that a model which allows for heterogeneous short-run dynamics and common long-run marginal effects is superior to that allowing only for either homogeneous or heterogeneous responses. The analysis shows that the long-run marginal death effects with respect to confirmed infections and vaccinations are positive and negative, respectively, as expected. Since the estimate of the former effect compared to the latter one is about 71.67 times greater, only mass vaccinations can prevent the number of deaths from being large in the long-run. The success in achieving this is easier for countries with the estimated large negative individual death effect (Cyprus, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal, Estonia, Lithuania) than for those with the large but positive death effect (Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia). The speed of convergence to the long-run equilibrium relationship estimates for individual countries are all negative. For some countries (Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia) they differ in the magnitude from that averaged for the whole EU, while for others (Croatia, Ireland, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain), they do not.

The precarious employment situation in the EU has given rise to public policies that aim at giving small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) better access to finance. SMEs may face difficulties due to information problems and other inefficiencies in loan markets. However, the European evidence on the magnitude of this problem is limited. The purpose of this paper has been to explore the factors that determine the gearing of a sample of SMEs in France, Italy and the UK. Since many factors are potentially involved, a regression analysis is needed to untangle the individual effect of any particular factor. The explanatory power of our model is high compared with previous studies.

Усовершенствована имитационная модель прогнозирования научно-технологического развития видов экономической деятельности Украины путем перегруппировки и расширения количества видов экономической деятельности в имитационной модели в соответствии с национальным классификатором КВЭД 2012 и разработки математической модели межотраслевых взаимодействий видов экономической деятельности. Разработан алгоритм моделирования межотраслевых взаимодействий, который позволяет прогнозировать объем производимой продукции каждым из видов экономической деятельности и необходимый объем импорта для производственных нужд. ; An improved version of the simulation model for forecasting scientific and technological development of economic activities in Ukraine has been developed within the framework of the research. The improved simulation model is fully consistent with the new classifier of economic activities in Ukraine, which was developed on the basis of the international statistical classification of economic activities by the European Union (NACE). Thus, it is possible to use the improved simulation model to predict the development of the industry, not only in Ukraine but also in any European Union country. To predict the process of production and distribution of products between economic activities, public sector, final consumption of the population, and foreign consumers the unit for modeling interbranch interactions has been integrated into the simulation model. Another developed unit allows modeling production volume of import for intra-consumption (production needs) for each of the considered in the simulation model economic activity. The improved structure of the simulation model gives the ability to predict the development of industry in Ukraine not only in the context of its main industries but also in the context of economic activities that form the industries.

Pompe disease (PD) is a neuromuscular disorder caused by deficiency of acidalpha-glucosidase (GAA), leading to motor and respiratory dysfunctions. Available Gaa knock-out (KO) mouse models do not accurately mimic PD, particularly its highly impaired respiratory phenotype. Here we developed a new mouse model of PD crossing Gaa KOB6;129 with DBA2/J mice. We subsequently treated Gaa KODBA2/J mice with adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors expressing a secretable form of GAA (secGAA). Male Gaa KODBA2/J mice present most of the key features of the human disease, including early lethality, severe respiratory impairment, cardiac hypertrophy and muscle weakness. Transcriptome analyses of Gaa KODBA2/J, compared to the parental Gaa KOB6;129 mice, revealed a profoundly impaired gene signature in the spinal cord and a similarly deregulated gene expression in skeletal muscle. Muscle and spinal cord transcriptome changes, biochemical defects, respiratory and muscle function in the Gaa KODBA2/J model were significantly improved upon gene therapy with AAV vectors expressing secGAA. These data show that the genetic background impacts on the severity of respiratory function and neuroglial spinal cord defects in the Gaa KO mouse model of PD. Our findings have implications for PD prognosis and treatment, show novel molecular pathophysiology mechanisms of the disease and provide a unique model to study PD respiratory defects, which majorly affect patients. This work was supported by Genethon, the French Muscular Dystrophy Association (AFM), the European Commission (grant nos. 667751, 617432, and 797144), and Spark Therapeutics. ; This work was supported by Genethon and the French Muscular Dystrophy Association (AFM, to F.M.). It was also supported by the European Union's research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 667751 (to F.M.), the European Research Council Consolidator Grant under grant agreement no. 617432 (to F.M.), Marie Skodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship (MSCA-IF) grant agreement no. 797144 (to U.C.), and by Spark Therapeutics under a sponsored research agreement. ; Sí

Schools may be particularly challenged in the building of relationships with immigrant families because of a potentially heightened mutual lack of knowledge or understanding about the other party's cultural norms (e.g. Crozier & Davis, 2007). In the context of increased immigration from Eastern and Central European states, this study seeks to initiate the development of model of multi-cultural family-school interaction drawing on existing frameworks drawn from the fields of education, psychology and sociology. With the intention of establishing the nature of migrant parents' constructions of their relationships with their children's schools, we carried out in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 10 parents of school age children who had migrated to the UK from Eastern and Central Europe within the past 10 years. The key themes from the interviews indicated that the parents' expectations of their children's schooling appear to clash with those of the UK school system and that this is amplified by perceptions of poor communication, inadequate school-parent cooperation & marginalisation. Through the use of existing theoretical frameworks it was established that there is potential for improved practice though development of a model though this must take account of the full contextual complexity of the relationships.

Salp15, a salivary protein of Ixodes ticks, inhibits the activation of naïve CD4 T cells. Treatment with Salp15 results in the inhibition of early signaling events and the production of the autocrine growth factor, interleukin-2. The fate of the CD4 T cells activated in the presence of Salp15 or its long-term effects are, however, unknown. We now show that Salp15 binding to CD4 is persistent and induces a long-lasting immunomodulatory effect. The activity of Salp15 results in sustained diminished cross-antigenic antibody production even after interruption of the treatment with the protein. Transcriptionally, the salivary protein provokes an acute effect that includes known activation markers, such as Il2 or Cd44, and that fades over time. The long-term effects exerted by Salp15 do not involve the induction of either anergy traits nor increased populations of regulatory T cells. Similarly, the treatment with Salp15 does not result in B cell anergy or the generation of myeloid suppressor cells. However, Salp15 induces the increased expression of the ectoenzyme, CD73, in regulatory T cells and increased production of adenosine. Our study provides a profound characterization of the immunomodulatory activity of Salp15 and suggests that its long-term effects are due to the specific regulation of CD73. Introduction ; Supported by grants from the Department of Education of the Basque Government (PI2013-49 to JA and PI2012-42 to RB). JA is funded by the European Union (Grant Agreement number 602272). AMA and JLL's work was supported by the Basque Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade (Etortek and Elkartek Programs), the Innovation Technology Department of Bizkaia and the CIBERehd Network. The work of AC is supported by a Ramón y Cajal award, the Basque Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade (Etortek), ISCIII (PI13/00031), FERO VIII Fellowship, the BBVA foundation, MINECO (SAF2016-79381-R) and the European Research Council Starting Grant (336343). CIBERonc was co-funded with FEDER funds. AC-M was funded by a Juan de la Cierva program award and the European Union MSCA program (CIG 660191). RB was funded by MINECO grants BFU2011-25986 and BFU2014-52282-P and the Consolider Program (BFU2014-57703-REDC). FJB was funded by a MINECO grant (CTQ2014-56966-R). D.B. is funded by a MINECO FPI fellowship. We thank the MINECO for the Severo Ochoa Excellence accreditation (SEV-2016-0644). ; Peer reviewed

This paper introduces the Geographic Macro and Regional (GMR) model for NUTS-2 regions of the Euro zone. This model consists of three blocks: the TFP, the SCGE and the MACRO blocks. The model is built for impact analysis of policies targeting intangible assets in the forms of R&D, human capital and social capital. The analysis can be done both at the regional and the EU macroeconomic levels. Policy simulations on the growth impacts of the 6th European Framework Program illustrate the capabilities of the complex model system.

Several methodological & conceptual issues relating to the study of Greek political science are addressed: (1) the concept of progress & the relationship of Greece to its past; (2) Greece's uneasy fit into the typical European model of modernity, incorporating a rise from feudalism to nation-state; (3) a view of historical Hellenism incorporating instead a rise to modernity out of the Greek city-state. T. Ernst