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This paper examines The diary from the border: Ventimiglia, an auto‐ethnographic comic based on intensive fieldwork in the Italian border city of Ventimiglia from September to December 2018. The primary objective of my empirical research was to explore the socio‐spatial effects of France's reintroduction of border controls in the area since 2015, mainly targeting irregular mobilities within the European Union (EU). This study presents the auto‐ethnographic comic by delving into two crucial aspects. Firstly, it illuminates the rationale behind utilising an auto‐ethnographic comic as a research output, shedding light on the creative process involved in its conception. Secondly, it explores its composite narrative plot, encompassing three key elements: 'me' (the researcher's personal experiences extending beyond the fieldwork), 'me in Ventimiglia' (the researcher's encounters during the fieldwork), and 'Ventimiglia itself' (the French‐Italian border regime). By fostering a trans‐disciplinary dialogue encompassing migration issues, comics and life course theory, this paper enriches the geographical debate in three significant ways. It recognises the profound impact of the researcher's life events in shaping both research experiences and outcomes within and beyond the fieldwork. Additionally, it underscores the importance of auto‐ethnographic comics in challenging dominant narratives and visually portraying the multifaceted experiences of migration. Lastly, it contributes to the ongoing discussion on visual methods within geography and advocates for using comics as a compelling tool to disseminate research findings, fostering empathy and a comprehensive understanding of migration experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the European Union's concerted efforts to harmonize entrepreneurial growth and innovation across member states, significant disparities remain in the entrepreneurial landscapes of Western and Eastern Europe. France, with its mature entrepreneurial ecosystem, characterized by robust financial infrastructures, supportive regulatory frameworks, and a vibrant culture of innovation, contrasts with Romania's emerging ecosystem. This paper employs a mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative metrics with qualitative insights. This comprehensive approach aims to identify the key factors contributing to the disparities and synergies between the two ecosystems. The outcomes of this research are anticipated to provide nuanced insights for policy makers, educators, and business leaders. By revealing the strengths and weaknesses inherent in each ecosystem, the study aims to inform targeted interventions and collaborative initiatives, fostering a more equitable, dynamic, and cohesive entrepreneurial landscape across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to discuss the management aspect of artificial intelligence development policy by the national regulators of the 27 European Union (EU) member states. The solutions formulated by three of them—Germany, France (as a pioneers), and Poland—are analyzed in depth. The obtained results allow us to conclude that out of 27 EU countries, only one has not yet prepared its strategic project on artificial intelligence (AI) development, while among the existing policies one can find significant differences in the approach to the matter of strategic management. The research methods used are content analysis and comparative analysis of selected source documents. In the course of the deliberations presented, key legal acts concerning the areas of AI and modern technologies are cited. The presented work formulates a starting point for further research and directions of changes in the management of AI development policy. The attention of subsequent researchers should focus on the possibility of a detailed analysis of other documents published by EU member states, a comparison of policies of other countries across the world, and even an attempt to examine the global dimension of AI strategies. The article addresses the problem of creating law only following, rather than preceding, the emergence of technological changes, the lack of systemic regulation of AI tools and mechanisms, as well as the absence of integrated forms of international cooperation with a strategic and long-term dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is some indication that discrimination as well as low levels of life satisfaction render young people at risk of cyberhate victimization. Adopting a socio-ecological perspective, this paper examines whether supportive family, peer and school environments may buffer against the effects of perceived discrimination and low life satisfaction on cyberhate victimization. Data from four countries (N = 3396) of the EU Kids Online IV survey on children aged 11–17 (51% girls) revealed a positive association between perceived discrimination and cyberhate victimization, but this impact was moderated by supportive family and peer environments. A negative association between life satisfaction and cyberhate victimization was mitigated by peer support. However, no associations with the school context were found. The current study provides new insights on how social support on different levels of the social environment may buffer against potential risk factors for cyberhate victimization and can inform decision-makers towards intervention and prevention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union put in place instruments for the deportation of foreigners that gained much importance. This article describes the multiplicity and diversity of these instruments. To analyse them more clearly, it distinguishes three types: legal, organisational and technological. The article equally points to the increasing relevance of technological tools, especially the use of biometrics. It also looks at how a founding member of the EU, France, and an associated country, Switzerland, utilise these European instruments to deport foreigners by focusing on the Dublin III Regulation as well as the Eurodac database, jointly referred to as the Dublin System. Grounding on a comparative study combining documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews and participant observation, this article describes the similarities and differences in the use of the Dublin System in these two countries. Moreover, it also reveals these countries' specificities with regard to the roles played by local and national administrative bodies, and associative actors. The paper ends by concluding that to fully understand the deportation process in the European context as well as in certain countries, a multifaceted approach is required to make sense of the various interactions taking place between local, national and supranational frameworks, actors and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global trend of increasing participation rates, coupled with regional goals to increase participation in higher education, such as the European Union's Europe 2020 Strategy target of 40% of all young people to hold a tertiary education qualification by 2020, has led to a strain on public resources, and a review of funding priorities in mass higher education systems, in some cases prioritising funding towards an elite. Reforms within European higher education systems have been further prompted by the lacklustre performance of European higher education institutions in international university rankings. The paper aims to contextualise French reforms within the broader European Union agenda for the modernisation of higher education, and its focus on greater differentiation, in order to assess how this has been disseminated and translated in the French context, and how it breaks with the French egalitarian tradition. Through a policy document analysis of French and EU strategies for higher education and research and political communications and data extracted from the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation's Excellence Initiatives scheme, the paper seeks to understand whether France is creating a multi-tiered higher education system for which no precedent has existed before. However, because of the sui generis structure of French higher education that makes it difficult to classify within the various structural models of higher education, policy implications for other countries will not be discussed. The French case will provide insights on the converging trends of globalisation, and the agency of institutional carriers such as the European Commission in interpreting and disseminating particular strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy PointsPrivate health insurance (PHI) in France has been facing critical changes over the past 30 years. A complementary and voluntary scheme, it has been historically dominated by nonprofit entities. However, the share of for‐profit insurance companies in the sector has significantly increased. Nonprofit firms also changed their strategies and mimicked some for‐profit behaviors.The present paper argues that this process is a result of the conflict‐provoking coevolution of the insurance and health care sectors. Trying to improve the regulation of the insurance industry as whole, two European directives first jeopardized the business model of nonprofit entities. Then, two national reforms designed to improve health coverage significantly increased competition among insurers, notably in the area of corporate‐level contracts.Decoupling the insurance and health care sectors has become a major source of policy feedback and unexpected outcomes of reforms affecting the very organization of PHI. Context: In France, private health insurance (PHI) has an exceptionally high level of coverage and accounts for 13.7% of health expenditures. A complementary and voluntary scheme, it has been historically dominated by nonprofit, mutual benefit societies. Over the past 20 years, however, the market share of for‐profit insurance companies has increased by 47%. Financialization of the field developed, and competition based on new risk management strategies also increased. The broad aim of this paper is to characterize and to elucidate the causes of this trend. More specifically, we are interested in how and to what extent a series of supranational and national policies contributed to this situation. Method: Our data come from three sources. We first reviewed documents published by health insurers, government reports, and newspaper articles. We then conducted two semistructured interview campaigns between September 2017 and May 2018. The first mostly covered private and public actors and their involvement in European Union (EU) policymaking (n = 21). The second series of interviews was conducted with another group of actors directly involved at the French level (n = 16). Findings: Our findings support preliminary observations. PHI in France, we argue, is indeed facing a development of competition and marketlike instruments. Four major policies (two EU directives and two national reforms) played a significant role in this outcome. Surprisingly, however, it has never been the purpose of legislators and policymakers: while EU directives created a regulatory framework for insurance activities within the Single Market, policies adopted at the national level initially aimed at improving health coverage. We show that it is the interactions and the noncoordination among all of these policies that explain their unexpected outcome. Conclusions: The trend described in this paper is twofold. The first is Europeanization, as PHI in France is increasingly affected by EU legislation. Since this framework tends to favor larger firms and for‐profit companies, a reduction in statutory coverage can no longer be considered a quasi‐neutral transfer from (publicly owned) social security to nonprofit providers. At the same time, PHI is shifting toward collectivization: as competition increases, complementary health coverage is becoming gradually standardized and based at the corporate level. Together, these changes are likely to reduce freedom of choice and individual welfare, an assumption supported by studies published on the most recent period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine European citizen engagement for enhancing emergency management and, more specifically, in the context of the terrorist attacks which occurred in Paris, France on November 15, 2015. To do so, two main research questions are raised. First, are there differences in the levels of citizen engagement between the country affected, France, and other European countries? Second, what factors foster a high level of citizen engagement in France?Design/methodology/approach First, a comparative content analysis of the Facebook pages of local governments in France and other capital cities of the European Union (EU) was carried. Second, a multivariate regression analysis was performed.Findings Although the level of online citizen engagement was greater in France than in the other EU cities analyzed, similarities were detected in the messages sent, responses and moment of participation. Moreover, there are certain types of online social behavior that encourage interactive conversations among citizens as well as between citizens and their local governments.Practical implications This research enables local governments to understand the similarities and differences between citizens and local governments from the affected country and those from outside it when using social media to engage in emergency management. It also provides further insight for managers of local governments in the country affected with regards to the need to be aware of the influence of online collective behavior that emerges from the information they publish. As a result, the attainment of a high level of citizens' participation in their social media can differ.Originality/value This paper advances in the scarce knowledge of high levels of online engagement (conversational interactions) in emergency situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Digital spaces, and in particular social networking sites, are becoming increasingly present and influential in the functioning of our democracies. In this paper, we propose an integrated methodology for the data collection, the reconstruction, the analysis and the visualization of the development of a country’s political landscape from Twitter data. Method: The proposed method relies solely on the interactions between Twitter accounts and is independent of the characteristics of the shared contents such as the language of the tweets. We validate our methodology on a case study on the 2017 French presidential election (60 million Twitter exchanges between more than 2.4 million users) via two independent methods: the comparison between our automated political categorization and a human categorization based on the evaluation of a sample of 5000 profiles descriptions; the correspondence between the reconfigurations detected in the reconstructed political landscape and key political events reported in the media. This latter validation demonstrated the ability of our approach to accurately reflect the reconfigurations at play in the off-line political scene. Results: We built on this reconstruction to give insights into the opinion dynamics and the reconfigurations of political communities at play during a presidential election. First, we propose a quantitative description and analysis of the political engagement of members of political communities. Second, we analyze the impact of political communities on information diffusion and in particular on their role in the fake news phenomena. We measure a differential echo chamber effect on the different types of political news (fake news, debunks, standard news) caused by the community structure and emphasize the importance of addressing the meso-structures of political networks in understanding the fake news phenomena. Conclusions: Giving access to an intermediate level, between sociological surveys in the field and large statistical studies (such as those conducted by national or international organizations) we demonstrate that social networks data make it possible to qualify and quantify the activity of political communities in a multi-polar political environment; as well as their temporal evolution and reconfiguration, their structure, their alliance strategies and their semantic particularities during a presidential campaign through the analysis of their digital traces. We conclude this paper with a comment on the political and ethical implications of the use of social networks data in politics. We stress the importance of developing social macroscopes that will enable citizens to better understand how they collectively make society and propose as example the “Politoscope”, a macroscope that delivers some of our results in an interactive way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ITER project is under construction in Cadarache, France, to assemble and operate an experimental nuclear fusion facility. The aim of this paper is the description of the implementation of the French Order of February 7, 2012, concerning Basic Nuclear Installation (also called "INB" Order) [1] within the European Union Domestic Agency (EU-DA), specifically on the Electron Cyclotron Upper Launcher (EC UL). The EC UL will be used for the control and heating of the ITER plasma. The launcher includes the port plug and related in-vessel items (nuclear shielding, blanket module, and optics) and the ex-vessel first confinement items (diamond window, isolation valve, waveguides, miterbends, tapers and port plug back end). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to contribute to a more nuanced discourse on vaccination policy. Current polarization between either mandatory and entirely voluntary is misleading, as virtually all immunization programs feature a combination of instruments that comprise mandatory and voluntary elements. We develop this argument by presenting five case studies from the European Union (EU). By systematically acknowledging the nuances of political and institutional varieties, we build the case for reframing the terms of the debate in the EU and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: NEETs (young people not in employment, education or training) are at higher risk for poorer mental and physical health. In France, the Missions locales (MLs) are the only social structures dedicated to this population. We sought to determine whether the systematic offer of a social and preventive medicine consultation at a ML might increase NEET participants’ access to training in the 12 months following the intervention. Methods: This intervention research was a parallel randomised controlled interventional study conducted at five MLs in mainland France in 2011–2012. It included 976 NEETs aged 18 to 25 years who attended one of the five MLs. At inclusion, participants were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to three groups: those in the first group were invited to see a social worker (not studied in this paper), those in the second group were invited to see a doctor and a social worker (intervention group), and the third was a control group. The primary outcome was participation in at least one training session during the year following study inclusion. Results: Among the 976 participants, 504 were randomly assigned to the intervention group and 472 to the control group; 704 (72.1%) were included in the analyses. A significantly higher proportion of the participants in the intervention group participated in a training session in the 12 months following the intervention than of those in the control group (63.3% vs 55.6%; p = 0.04). This difference was significantly greater for women, those less than 21 years of age, those unstably housed and those with a lower level of education. Conclusions: Social and preventive medicine consultations that are fully integrated into the social services for NEETs have an impact on their access to training and contribute to changing some of their health-related behaviours. This may improve their access to the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mass migration of non-Europeans into Schengen Europe and the terrorist attacks perpetrated in the name of Islam in various cities in the European Union have led to a series of mediated public debates on the control of the nation-state border over the past few years. Right-wing populist parties have been prominent in structuring these debates. However, can the urban media, and specifically the commercial ones often accused of sensationalism, be considered as tools that promote the securitization and progressive closure of the state border within Schengen Europe? Based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the representation of non-European migration and terrorism by a metropolitan commercial paper in borderland France, the current article shows that reporters can be instead instrumental in the definition of a "Mediapolis" that is a debordered, global, and moral space of mediated appearances helping to deal with international crises. The promotion of this Mediapolis is presented as the result of multiple spatial and temporal conditions in a series of interconnected cities contained in the French nation-state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell-based regenerative therapies are presented as being able to cure the diseases of the twenty-first century, especially those coming from the degeneration of the aging human body. But their specific nature based on biological materials raises particular challenging issues on how regulation should frame biomedical innovation for society's benefit regarding public health. The European Union (EU) supports the development of cellbased regenerative therapies that are medicinal products with a specific regulation providing their wide access to the European market for European patients. However, once these medicinal products have obtained a European marketing authorisation, they are still far away from being fully accessible to European patients in all EU Member States. Whereas there is much written on the EU regulatory system for new biotechnologies, there is no systematic legal study comparing the insurance provisions in two EU countries. Focussing on the situation in the UK and France that are based on two different healthcare systems, this paper is based on a comparative methodological approach. It raises the question of regulatory reimbursement mechanisms that determine access to innovative treatments and their consequences for social protection systems in the general context of public health. After having compared the French and English regulations of cell-based regenerative therapy regarding pricing and reimbursement, this papers analyses how England and France are addressing two main challenges of cellbased regenerative therapy, to take into account their long-term benefit through their potential curative nature and their high upfront cost, towards their adoption within the English and French healthcare systems. It concludes that England and France have different general legal frameworks that are not specific to the reimbursement of cell-based regenerative therapy, although their two current and respective trends would bring more convergence between the two systems while addressing the main challenges for the reimbursement of these therapies. Nevertheless, despite their current differences, neither the English nor the French national healthcare system has yet approved the reimbursement of cell-based regenerative therapies. The paper highlights where both systems could be learning from each others' experiences to favour the adoption of cellbased regenerative therapies through the adaptation of their reimbursement methodologies. It also emphasises the gap between market access and patients' access, and it calls for research and discussions through reflexive agencies such as the Regenerative Medicine Expert Group in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agricultural scientific research institutions constitute the vertebral tier of the world system. Eitheir the research institutions are under the national agricultural form, or they are under the form of agricultural research councils, that act as coordination bodies of the regional or local specialized research institutions, that form the biggest part of the research capacities in each region of the world. In the present study, I chose France because it has an agricultural surface of almost 30 million hectares, that represents more than a half of the total surface of its territory. The lands situated on one side and on the other side of 45 North latitude paralel allow a large variety of production. About 61% of the agricultural surface of the country is occupied with crops, 35% pastures and 4% vineyards. The paper makes an analysis of the research in the agricultural sector, in France and it highlights its main positive particularities, that apply also in other European Union countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As compensation for their disempowerment in the process of European integration, national parliaments have been provided with various new rights and powers since the 1990s, culminating in the current provisions of the Lisbon Treaty. This paper argues, however, that rather than simply re-enhancing traditional powers of national parliaments, these reforms imply ideas of a new type of parliamentary democracy in Europe. It identifies three different roles for national parliaments in the EU: preventing rather than shaping legislation (gatekeeping role), cooperating with other parliaments and supranational institutions (networking role), and adopting a uniform mode control of government across all party groups (unitary scrutiniser role). All these roles require a significant deviation from the standard role legislatures usually play in European parliamentary democracies. The paper briefly explores how national parliaments in two ‘old’ (France, Germany) and one ‘new’ (Poland) member state fulfil these three new roles. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper addresses whether Germany, France and the UK (the EU3) – with the EU in the background – can shape their own approach to acommon Europeanised positionor even aEuropean role conceptionregarding the Iranian Nuclear Programme. As the EU3 initiative appears situated between Europeanisation and national role conceptions, it seems that the EU3 members – after a coherent start – were finally inclined to readapt themselves to certain of their national role conceptions, resulting in a “mix” of national and European role patterns in the process leading up to 2016. Currently, this mix hints at still-prevailing hindrances involved in genuine European conflict management, although this outcome holds the promise of greater European coherence in the future. Abbreviations:E3: Germany, France and UK (without formal support of the EU); EU: European Union; EU3: Germany, France, UK and the “High Representative for the Common Security and Foreign Policy of the European Union”; EU3 + 3: official designation of the contact group concerning the Iranian Nuclear Programme, consisting of the EU3, the USA, Russia and China; IAEA: International Atomic Energy Agency; P5 + 1: informal designation of the contact group concerning the Iranian Nuclear Programme, consisting of the EU3, the USA, Russia and China (Permanent Security Council Members [P5] plus Germany); UK: United Kingdom; UNs: United Nations; UNSR: Security Council of the United Nations [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

European integration is interpreted in this paper as the route by which (West) Germany, profiting from close ties with the English-speaking West, was able to restore its full sovereignty and economic pre-eminence in Europe. Yet in shaping the actual integration process, it was France which played the key role. Most of the landmark steps towards the current EU were French proposals to pre-empt Anglophone–German collusion; creating European structures in which a resurgence of Germany (politically and economically) was made subject to permanent negotiation. German unification in 1991 removed the one reason why successive governments of the Federal Republic had gone along with this. Paradoxically, sovereign Germany today finds itself bound by the dense networks of consultation and decision-making which make the EU unique in the field of regional integration. The paper shows that between 1992 and 2005, German capital has moved to the centre of the network of corporate interlocks in the North Atlantic area. This helps to explain why in the post-1991, post-Soviet era of neoliberal, finance-driven globalisation, Germany is increasingly ‘speaking for Europe’, as its corporations have become nodal points in the communication structures through which the responses to the challenges facing the EU and the West at large are being shaped. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Do members of the committees under the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) find that there are coalitions of specific member states in these committees? If so, then what kind of side payments hold these coalitions together? For the first time in scholarly literature, and based on an empirical investigation, the findings in this paper document that two opposing coalitions - with the United Kingdom and France as the respective leaders - exist in OMC committees where mutual learning is the raison d'etre. In the existing theory on this subject in the EU, it is claimed that consensus decision-making leads to a weakening of coalition-building. All three committees analysed in this paper build on consensus decision-making, which is achieved after intensive meetings between all the members. However, it is contended that the 'argumentative contest' working method of the OMC committees leads to more - not less - coalition-building. On the basis of a test, it is also shown that these committees are primarily held together by side payments in the form of 'promises relating to policy among the like-minded'; however, 'payments allied to subsequent decisions' add to the cement of the coalition-building processes stemming from the OMC working method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the different ways in which the EU dimension was contextualised in domestic politics in the 2005 Constitutional Treaty referendums in Spain, France and The Netherlands. It suggests that an ideationally based type of contextualisation dominated the Spanish referendum, in sharp contrast with the materially based mode that was dominant in France and The Netherlands. Variations in the ways in which the EU dimension was structured in domestic politics are largely accounted for by the interplay between the presence of an explicit anti-European agenda and government popularity. The paper shows that in Spain a popular government managed to keep control of the referendum debates, preventing anti-EU campaigners from gaining control of the debate and turning its focus from a symbolic pro-European discourse to materially based anti-European matters. By contrast, increasingly unpopular governments in France and The Netherlands were unable to keep the debate focused away from potential sources of material discontent. By focusing on the modes the EU dimension is framed in domestic politics, the paper aims at making a contribution to the literature on European referendums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The paper aims to query the value of strategies implemented, notably in France, and to demonstrate the largely ignored link between demographics and economics. Design/methodology/approach - The paper achieves its objective by comparing statistics of European Union (EU) members and competitors to reveal that traditional views on economics and social policy may no longer apply. Findings - The paper finds that the Old Europe stagnated due to political lack of will, but a renewed Europe has begun. The Euro as scapegoat for poor performance is dismissed. Productivity figures show how foreign trade and debt can be efficiently managed. Overall, trade must be encouraged worldwide. Low-wage countries will inevitably compete and cannot ethically be ignored. The subsidy debate heats up as the EU agricultural policy ends and the USA extends Farm Aid. Regardless, EU members must focus on sustainable development. The low birthrate in the Old Europe means social policy should be reformed to encourage families to have children and allow selective immigration to meet labour needs. The implication is that France - Europe in general - must review the EU mission and structure. The French president seems to be headed in this direction. In future research, demographics must be monitored to make social and economic plans for the working lives of our youth and retirement of our seniors. Originality/value - This paper will interest economists, politicians and policy-makers, especially those unaware of the role of demographics in productivity and planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an EU-funded project under the Training and Mobility of Researchers (TMR) Programme, with a particular emphasis on the Oxford-based part. Involving six European universities, the overarching investigation was concerned with the tensions between standardization and tradition in education. In Oxford the focus was on aspects of EU education and training policy in four Member States: the United Kingdom, German, Sweden, and France. The paper describes the research undertaken and its outcomes, using the project as an example of EU funding programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thesis of this paper is that governments of some otherwise enlightened states are increasingly fearful of acknowledging the restraints imposed on them by existing international law. They are also reluctant to enter into new commitments by way of international conventions that would expand the reach of international law. The paper asks whether these fears are based on a true understanding of international law or on some distorted view of it. It will draw comparisons and some contrasts between Australia and the United States in their reactions to a number of recent events as well as to some enduring situations of contemporary relevance. Had time (and the limits of my research) permitted, one might also have examined public attitudes toward international law in China, Japan, and Russia in this context, where similar fears appear to be entertained. France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, also enlightened states, appear by contrast to belong to a group more dedicated to international law. As Robert Kagan has recently remarked, the experience of two world wars at close quarters, and the formation of the European Union, have made the European countries more dedicated to process, where the United States is more interested in results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If finally accepted, the new concept of territorial cohesion could mean a formal planning role for the European Union. The paper traces the French roots of this concept. As other concepts in European integration, it is subject to multiple interpretations. The initial focus has been on regional economic development as such. At present, territorial cohesion is also held to mean (for example, in the White Paper on European Governance) the co-ordination of policies with an impact on one and the same territory. Originally adhering to a more interventionist approach to spatial planning, the French have learned to factor balanced and sustainable development, concerns of the so-called comprehensive integrated approach, into the equation. Germans, in turn, are seeing sense in the new French focus on 'services of general economic interest'. Experts from both countries agree on the need for a spatial framework for Community policies. Such a framework would look somewhat like the European Spatial Development Perspective, but as part of territorial cohesion policy as a shared responsibility of the Union and its member-states. This would vindicate ideas of the French pioneers of European spatial planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The public-health community views mandatory Front-of-Pack (FOP) nutrition labels and nutritional taxes as promising tools to control the growth of food-related chronic diseases. This paper uses household scanner data to propose an ex-ante evaluation and comparison of these two policy options for the fromage blanc and dessert yogurt market. In most markets, labelling is voluntary and firms display fat labels only on the FOP of low-fat products to target consumers who do not want to eat fat. We here separately identify consumer preferences for fat and for FOP fat labels by exploiting an exogenous difference in legal labelling requirements between these two product categories. Estimates of demand curves are combined with a supply model of oligopolistic price competition to simulate policies. We find that a feasible ad valorem fat tax dominates a mandatory FOP-label policy from an economic perspective, but both are equally effective in reducing average fat purchases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Referendums on issues of European integration have become more and more important in recent years, particularly after the failed referenda on the EU Constitutional Treaty in France and the Netherlands. This paper examines the impact of direct democracy in national contexts on the decision of governments and parliaments to conduct EU referendums. The results of a qualitative–comparative analysis of 30 countries since 1945 show that this form of path dependency exists only in part: While some nation states with plebiscitary traditions also grant their citizens direct participation in major EU decisions, others do not convene EU referendums or call for EU referendums even though they have no experience with direct democracy in national politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each year refugees transit southern EU Member States where in theory they should claim asylum but where in reality they have little chance of being able to make a claim, and almost no chance of having it examined properly, much less being actually granted asylum. This paper argues that the current EU regime turns some refugees into undocumented migrants - 'illegal migrants' in political and public discourse - and shields EU Member States from their international legal obligations. The article illustrates the effect of EU asylum policy through a case study of a group of young Afghan men in Paris. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The framing of issues of migration and clandestine travel in the European Union are tied up with a historically-specific ethos towards the outsider, which, after philosopher Jacques Rancière, I term a “count”. The count shaping the interventions of contemporary advocacy and humanitarian groups derives from conceptions of ethics rooted in political modernity, and – for Rancière – are also responsible for foreclosing disruptive appearances of equality. In practice, postures of compassion towards the refugee convert expressions of vocal dissent into matters for moral sympathy. In this paper I explore the implications of this claim for a future politics of asylum, focussing on moments of interruption to an underlying count. I suggest that the staging of the situation of undocumented migrants in Calais through the figure of the migrant rather than the refugee demonstrates a recasting of activism as a form of political listening rather than political speech – in this sense the interventions of anarchistic network No Borders reflect a call for a continuous “recount” of the situation, over an affirmation of a particular framing of the situation. In some ways this call remains problematic, sometimes reframing the voices of local people and migrants according to an external vision of politics. Nevertheless, I hold that this denaturalisation of compassionate hospitality as the only ethical response to asylum is useful in the broader terrain of political dissent, and points to the importance of embodied habit as a locus for enduring social transformations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

One of the most important working lines of EU Social Law is the building of common ways of dealing with the workers' representation within the undertaking. Directive 2002/14/EC was a decisive step, being a global text that regulated the issue as its main question, and not in a fractionated way as before. Its impact, nonetheless, has been very different. This paper wants to make a comparison of its influence in several Laws: French (missing), British (decisive) and Italian (very small). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of control strategies in effort managed fisheries: the case of the Bay of Saint- Brieuc scallop fishery. Since a report by the European Court of Auditor in December 2007, EU officials have been suggesting that the failure of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) results from too much non compliance and a weak and inefficient enforcement system. As a result, a stakeholder consultation was organised EU-wide, and a new control regulation has been presented by the European Commission in autumn 2008. The objective of the paper is to discuss the reality and the scope of this assertion in the situation of a French coastal fishery managed through effort control (the Saint-Brieuc scallop fishery). Key outlines of the French control strategy are presented for the first time, based on an extensive work with the key stakeholders (national and regional administrations and fishermen representatives). It shows that the system is rather complex, involving several administrations and various types of rules to be enforced. A preliminary assessment of the control strategy in place in Saint-Brieuc shows that despite rather high control costs, the level of non-compliance remains elevated. Such an unsatisfactory outcome, which can be explained by the low deterrence level observed, questions the efficacy of this kind of control strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to test the hypothesis that the opening of a European political space and the Europeanization of parties create a favourable arena for populist speech, themes and perhaps ideology, especially in the case of anti-EU parties. To do this, a quantitative study of populist speeches in French pro- and anti-EU party Euromanifestos has been conducted for the 1999 and 2004 European elections. It contributes to the scientific debate regarding the possible rise of a new political cleavage resulting from the European issue. Our comparative content analysis based on a coding system of populist discourse shows that there are no systematic links between the position of French parties towards the EU and their use of populist arguments, but a variety of relations, linked to the position of the parties within the party system as well as to the right/left cleavage. European issues are integrated in the ideologies and identities of the parties and only produce moderate effects on populist speeches. Therefore, party practices and speeches are stable. In some cases, what is evidenced is not a rise or a transformation of populist discourse, but national discourse patterns adapted to a European context and a phenomenon of Europeanization of certain populist themes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In principle, the European Union provides for the free movements of workers between its member states. No worker should be discriminated against based solely on nationality, and this applies to most jobs in the public sector. In practice, however, the elimination of nationality criteria for public sector work applies only to workers from EU member states. In the French public health care system, discrimination based on nationality, either of the worker or the worker's diploma, remains salient for 'third-country' medical professionals whose qualifications must undergo a lengthy recognition process. In the context of expanding EU integration and anxieties over postcolonial medical migration into Europe, the historical and geographical context for nationality criteria warrants greater attention. This paper suggests that the persistence of nationality restrictions, and their effects on medical professionals seeking recognition for their qualifications in France, lies in the occluded colonial context for their development. This perspective on medical migration requires moving outside the European frame in which nationality restrictions, instantiated in French law during the Third Republic (1870-1914) and strengthened further under the Vichy Regime (1940-44), have been addressed by historians and policy makers. A more explicitly postcolonial perspective on medical migration's implications for citizenship productively demonstrates how colonial distinctions between French citizens and colonial subjects helped shape the regulatory frameworks that continue to regulate the medical professions in contemporary France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we investigate the impact of the implementation of EU programmes on substate actors, and more specifically regional ones. We focus on the case of the INTERREG cross-border initiative in France and Spain between 2000 and 2003, and whether INTERREG succeeded in empowering regional governments and local authorities as it initially claimed to. Our analysis puts to the fore that this programme has not evolved from being 'a policy for the regions to a policy by the regions' as many expected, but that its implementation rather reveals a wide range of configurations. Indeed, the execution of INTERREG facilitated the transition from a state-centric scheme to a regionalised one only in those territories where a previous decentralisation policy had been realised at the domestic level and where a consistent regional leadership had emerged during earlier versions of INTERREG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cross-border cooperation in the BIHOR-HAJDU-BIHAR euro region, around the Hungary and Romania's frontier needs to be reinforced for the new 2007-2013 EU Program. This target can be achieved with the support from the specialists in the cross border cooperation development projects. Unfortunately, those specialists are not available yet. How to solve this problem? So this paper focuses to underline the importance to cover this gap by using the educational institutions already based in that euro region, for example, the Institute for Euro Regional Studies and by getting expertise from the other Euro region in the Western side of Europe as the MOT , Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière, in France. In this way, it will be possible to involve more people in the euro region initiatives in the coming years and to cover several fields of the cross -border cooperation issues: environment, infrastructure, SME, SMI, Tourism, etc…issues [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU faces a number of major challenges: to shift its support from the industries of the past to the knowledge-based industries of the future; to rescue the Lisbon strategy, designed to build a knowledge-based economy but so far achieving little; to re-engage with the European public after the difficulties with the Constitution. The paper argues that these challenges are intimately connected and that it is only by addressing them together that there is any hope for success. It elaborates these connections with particular reference to a reinvigorated Lisbon strategy with a strong social dimension. It concludes by delineating the corresponding challenge that faces the research community: to undertake a fundamental revision of its analysis of social policy in relation to modern economies; and to build a new toolkit for intelligent benchmarking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defining industrial policies has traditionally been a preserve of EU member states, upon which the Commission has only impacted indirectly, through numerous measures affecting industry, leaving little room for an industrial policy in its own right. However, growing concern about the EU's future position in the international division of labour has led several member states to request from Brussels a more pro-active approach and closer attention to European industrial interests. This paper investigates the recent trend towards 're-inventing' industrial policy in the EU, France and Germany. It examines the model of intergovernmental industrial cooperation established between these two member states, its usefulness and limitations. It argues that, despite recent regression in France towards old-style interventionist policies, and although German governments sometimes favour a protectionist stance, both countries can also generate new, more constructive, euro-compatible intergovernmental initiatives, but that promoting national champions damages the credibility of such initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Events relating to the European Union are typically conceived of as being a ‘second-order’ phenomenon in domestic politics; ‘European’ referenda, elections, etc. are first and foremost a function of domestic/national issues. However, in the case of anti-EU groups it is apparent that they are formed primarily as a result of European events. This paper provides a comprehensive taxonomy of proximate factors in such groups’ mobilization, using the otherwise contrasting examples of France and the UK. Consideration is taken of non-party groups, intra-party factions and parties, in order to ensure a complete overview. In both countries, almost all groups either form or become anti-EU in nature in proximate response to European events. The reasons for this are discussed and explained, as are the limitations of this view of the EU as first-order politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the opposition to immigration, comparing the European Union as a whole and Portugal, United Kingdom, France and Germany. The first hypvothesis that was examined posits that the perception of economic, security and cultural threats are significant predictors of the orientation towards immigration. The second hypothesis states that racial prejudice is an important predictor of threat perception. Results show that, globally, attitudes towards immigration in EU are more close to openness than they are to closure. As predicted, cultural, economic and security threats are significantly associated with the opposition to immigration. These results are stable across compared countries. Moreover results show that in the EU as a whole political conservatism and racial prejudice are the main predictors of the perception of threat in the economic, security and cultural domains. These same results were obtained in France, Germany and United Kingdom. Except in the case of security threat, also in Portugal prejudice is an important predictor of threat perception. These results are discussed in the context of the immigration integration policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the relationships between the migratory policies of the EU countries with more experience of immigration and their national political cultures. It focuses on France, Germany and the United Kingdom. It then looks at Italy, a relatively new country of immigration, which, with 3,000,000 legal immigrants, has become the fourth country of immigration in Europe and the first in the Mediterranean basin. In its final part it highlights the incipient process of 'communitarisation' of the immigration policies of EU countries in the last decade. This process, which has already entailed a significant convergence of their migratory policies, is expected to continue after the recent enlargement of the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europeanization, differentiated from European integration as the impact of European policies on national policies, practices, and politics, has had differing effects on EU member states, depending upon a number of independent variables. These include the constraints imposed by EU decisions in any given policy area, that is, whether the decisions demand that countries follow highly specified rules of implementation, less specified rules, suggested rules, or no rules at all. But adjustment also depends upon certain mediating factors, including countries' vulnerability to global as well as European economic pressures, their political institutional capacity to respond as necessary, the 'fit' of European policies with national policy legacies and preferences, and the discourses that influence policy preferences by changing perceptions of economic vulnerabilities and policies and thereby enhance capacity. Only by putting the decision constraints together with the mediating factors can we adequately explain countries' differential policy outcomes, whether inertia, absorption, or transformation. To illustrate, this paper considers three countries, France, Britain, and Germany, across a representative range of economic policy areas, including monetary policy, financial services, telecommunications, electricity, transport, and mutual recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What have been the consequences of integrating the single market via mutual recognition? Did competitive deregulation result? Or were its implications less significant than expected? In this paper I analyse two previously highly regulated service sectors, insurance and road haulage, and study the impact of European policies in Germany and France. I find that the Council instituted mutual recognition in a restrictive way. This limits its impact on member states, which is moreover mediated by national factors. In both sectors, the use of the freedom to provide services has stayed much below expectations. Consequently, the single market rules have primarily resulted in a liberalization of national markets, where this had not already been achieved, for instance, in Germany. The domestic insurance and road haulage markets have become very competitive, but they remain largely national markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• There is no common agreement on how to assess soil suitability for earth building. • A large sampling campaign was achieved on rammed earth heritage buildings in France. • The samples were analysed through laboratory tests. • The tests included water content, dry density, sieving, hydrometer tests, MBV, PI. • Current classification systems relying only on granularity appeared inappropriate. • A classification system based on granularity and clay activity is recommended. In the European Union, most of the wastes from the building sector are composed of earths. Earth construction may be an interesting outlet for the re-use of these wastes, while meeting the challenge of circular economy: in particular, it involves low-embodied energy processes and earth material can be re-used for building by end-of-life. Nonetheless, the identification of suitable earths for construction remains an issue. To overcome this problem, an option may be to analyse earth building heritage, which is at least one-century old in Europe: indeed, earth employed in these buildings can be regarded as "time-tested", and thus suitable for construction. In this paper, more than 20 different earths collected in rammed earth heritage building in France are presented. The results are confronted both to literature and to several classifications employed in soil sciences. A classification system based on granularity and clay activity will be relevant to address the convenience of earth for building purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the future European Union and international food regulation. It is stated that the publication of the White Paper on Food Safety in early 2000 marked the beginning of the modern era of food safety law. Despite laws recently enacted providing for the free circulation of British beef within the European Union under certain terms, France refused to allow British beef within its borders.

In this article the author reflects on the sustainable expansion of harm reduction services for drug users in the U.S. He notes that one of the purposes of their paper is asking if it should occur within a separate health care system for drug users or within the mainstream health care system. He cites the concept of harm reduction in the European Union (EU), France, and Australia and states that continued cross-national research on the issue may be helpful.

Information about several papers discussed at the International Conference on Environmental Epidemiology and Exposure that was held in Paris, France on September 2-6, 2006 is presented. The promotion of research on how adverse environmental exposures affect children is announced as the primary goal of the International Society for Children's Health and the Environment. A joint declaration by scientists called for European Union authorities to strengthen proposed air quality directives.

The article presents news briefs related to environmental issues. According to Thomas Kupper of the Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, the first attempt to determine how much of the active ingredients in sunscreens end up in sewage sludge uncovered some surprises. Kupper is the corresponding author of a paper published in the May 24, 2005 issue of the journal "Chemosphere," that analyzed sewage sludge in Switzerland for four compounds: 3-(4-methylbenzylidene) camphor, octyl-methoxycinnamate, octocrylene, and octyl-triazone. Kupper found that the levels of all four compounds in the sludge were substantially higher from plants treating industrial wastes than those treating municipal wastes. In July 2005, the Court of Justice of the European Communities, the highest court in Europe, ordered France to pay millions of euros for ignoring European Union rules about managing fisheries. The country was fined 20 million euros for allowing the sale of undersized fish, a practice that contributes to overfishing and can decimate fish populations.

This paper presents an initial response to the conclusions of the Nice Summit and the new EU Treaty which emerged from it. It consists of two parts: in the first I discuss the climate in which the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) took place and the opening positions of the Institutions, the Member States, and the applicant countries. The results achieved at Nice are set out in the second part, with special emphasis on the themes that mark a shift of power within the Community's institutional architecture; i.e. the extension of qualified-majority voting in the Council and the co-decision procedure with the European Parliament, the reweighting of votes and the composition of the Institutions with a view to an enlargement which is both imminent and unprecedented in the history of the EU. I conclude that while the results of the IGC and the new Treaty of Nice fall short of what is needed in an EU with ambitions on a continental scale, they do mark another stage in the process of European integration and the permanent evolution of its constitution. In this sense, the balance of power is likely to be different from what it has been in the past. The Franco-German axis has been severely weakened, the UK and Spain seem to be determined to play a central role, and the smaller countries are seeking to retain some influence over how the process works. New alliances are likely to emerge, particularly after enlargement, with Germany in search of a dominant position, France desperately trying to preserve the status quo, and the UK wanting to influence the direction of moves towards integration from the inside. Nice seems to mark an interim stage in this process. A new IGC has already been scheduled for 2004. There is no doubt that the post-Nice period will be one of transition towards a new distribution of power within the EU, sanctioned by a new, highly constitutional treaty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]