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The author, following an analysis of the above-mentioned Agreement, claims that Article 10 thereof, containing taxation provisions, meets the requirements of Article 89 (1) (5) of the Constitution. In his view, the Agreement should be ratified upon prior consent granted by statute, which means that the procedure for its ratification proposed by the Council of Ministers (on the basis of Article 89(2)) is improper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author, following an analysis of Article 10 of the above-mentioned Agreement, claims that the requirement of Article 89 (1) (5) of the Constitution has been met, which means that the Agreement should be ratified upon prior consent granted by statute. He concludes that the procedure for its ratification proposed by the Council of Ministers (Article 89(2) is improper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main task of the National Research Program "Smart crop production", supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Bulgaria and approved by the Council of Ministers, is the development of a regional data center to facilitate the work of farmers. The regional data center is part of the implementation of a smart crop production environment called ZEMEL which provides personal assistants supporting the work of farmers. The environment provides intelligent services for crop analysis and prevention and assists farmers in performing basic tasks related to crop production. The objective of the proposed article is to present the implementation of the architecture, infrastructure, and data architecture of a regional data center in the Plovdiv region. In order to clearly present the results of this work, which are the architectural and physical implementations of a regional data center and the storage of dynamic data and background knowledge, a methodology consisting of several steps is followed: the system infrastructure of the data center and the data architecture are discussed; one of the local pieces of infrastructure, implemented in the Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (IPGR) in the town of Sadovo in the Plovdiv region, is presented in detail, including the different types of sensors and their connection to the data center in wheat cultivation; the data repositories are discussed where dynamic data and background knowledge are stored. The paper pays special attention to background knowledge developed as ontologies for winter wheat cultivation. The results are summarized by drawing some conclusions and recommendations for the design of the local infrastructure of the center and the stored data to improve its performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU has engaged with cultural policy especially after the Maastricht treaty in 1992. To compare the division within two EU institutions, this paper mainly analyses the EU official documents: the "European Agenda for culture in a globalizing world", published by the European Commission in 2007 - which was the first "Communication" regarding cultural policy - and "Work Plan for Culture" which was published as "Conclusions" by the Council of the European Union. The aim of this paper is to reveal that the Council focus only on a part of the policy of the European Commission on culture. It also concluded that the main strategies of the EU cultural policy have changed to incorporate some nonprofitable aims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indian Constitution obligates the Governors to act with the aid and advise of their Council of Ministers except in those matters where discretionary powers have been explicitly conferred upon them. Despite the absence of an explicit power to order a state government to face a floor test before the House, Governors have been using their discretion to make such directions. While defining the ambit of this discretion, several Inter-State Council reports and judicial pronouncements have assented to this practice. This paper argues against this trend and asserts that the process of summoning the assembly for a "floor test" must be driven by the choice of elected legislators rather than the Governors' subjective satisfaction. Towards this end, this paper proposes a four-level formula, with certain rights for the opposition parties, which must be followed by the Governors when the confidence of the House in the incumbent government is questioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to empirically test the hypothesis, derived from voting power theory, that Germany is the hegemon in the Council of the European Union (the Council), determining bargaining outcomes in this institution and being the most successful in attaining its preferences. This claim, deeply rooted in public opinion and academic literature, is tested by analysing the bargaining success of member states, including Germany, in the Council, as measured as the number of times they contested (voted against or abstained from voting) EU legislative acts in the years 2009-2019. To this aim, three statistical techniques are used: descriptive statistics, linear regression and multidimensional scaling. Overall, the hypothesis of German hegemony has not been corroborated. On the contrary, this country was found to be among the least successful countries in the Council. This conclusion comes from the following findings. First, the analysis of descriptive statistics showed that Germany is one of the countries that most often contests legislation and loses votes in the Council. Second, the linear regression analysis demonstrated that Germany’s success in the Council is statistically significantly lower than that of the other states. As a result, the country is in the narrow group of the three biggest losers in the institution. Third, the multidimensional scaling analysis revealed that Germany has serious difficulty in building winning coalitions and blocking minorities in the Council as it has essentially no permanent or close coalition partner. The paper argues that such a peripheral position for Germany in the Council is due to the radicalism of its preferences and its low propensity to grant concessions in negotiations. The article also predicts that after the UK leaves the EU, Germany will continue to be isolated in the Council and its voting success in this institution will remain low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The negotiations for the Digital Markets Act have just been concluded. Together with international competition economists, I have spent the last few months writing a series of policy papers on the need to regulate the platform economy and commenting on the DMA draft. My conclusion: the DMA is an important step in the right direction. It has been sharpened in the final trilogue negotiation, in which the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers negotiated the amendments proposed by the European Parliament. The implementation that now lies ahead is a major challenge that will be almost impossible to meet without a significant increase in the Commission's resources. On some points, particularly in the area of merger control and the use of structural measures, the rules in the DMA as adopted do not yet go far enough. In this respect, the Digital Markets Act can and should only be the beginning on the way to comprehensive and effective protection of competition on platform markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the updated version of our dataset, which is the third iteration of the Decision-making in the European Union (DEU-III) dataset. We outline the DEU project before describing the dataset in detail, including the case-selection criteria, and the definitions and operationalisations of the main constructs. The paper discusses the integration of the dataset with other variables that are used in many of the contributions to this special issue and other studies. Finally, we describe validity and reliability test of the DEU-III dataset as well as some avenues for its future use by scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Direito Internacional is the property of Revista de Direito Internacional and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article seeks to develop the argument that it is time for a national roundtable negotiation among Indigenous peoples, the two English and French settler nations, the BIPOC communities and the various immigrant groups to consider the merits of cosmopolitanism as a moral and cultural framework of our interrelated relationships and intercultural encounters in Canada. In an interdependent globalized world that is becoming “superdiverse,” I argue that it is time to shift from the language of “tolerance” of the “Other” to the language of “engagement” with “fellow human beings” guided by the moral and cultural cosmopolitanism for social and global justice, equality and equity, and inclusion through the fulfillment of human rights. The purpose of this public discussion is to urge the Canadian Council of Ministers of Education as well as the federal government to put this question on their agenda for consideration as a new framework for Canada’s educational, social, economic and political policies. This argumentative paper has the potential to benefit policymakers, curriculum designers, educators, and ministries of education across Canada and beyond to consolidate moral and cultural cosmopolitanism as a national and international approach to harmonious human coexistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing attention to naturally occurring radionuclides in building materials has a significant societal impact. This impact is apparent in recent research studies and the latest European Council directives, where reference levels for indoor radon concentrations and gamma radiation levels are reported. This paper studies black sand samples from the Estonian coast, mainly from Kihnu island. The results are discussed from various aspects to determine if utilization of these sands as a building material component is viable. For this reason, this paper focuses on the mineralogical and radiological characterization of these samples with special attention to radon emanation and exhalation. Furthermore, a detailed correlation study of mineralogical components against emanation and exhalation factors and the levels of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K was performed. It is found that the sand samples are composed of very high heavy mineral content as compared to the rest of Estonia; the black sands studied here include a heavy fraction dominated by garnets and a light fraction characterized by quartz and feldspars. The analysis also indicates that the higher 232Th and 226Ra content in the samples is correlated with an increase in zircon, ore minerals and garnets; on the other hand, the 40K content is connected to amphiboles. A strong correlation was also found between the 226Ra activity concentration and the measured massic exhalation rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Taiwanese Journal of Political Science is the property of NTU Press & National Taiwan University, Department of Political Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper contributes to a new understanding of the role and influence of the EU institutions in dealing with major EU reforms. Many have argued that, due to successive crises, Eurozone, Refugee and Brexit, EU decision making has become more intergovernmental. The role of the main intergovernmental body, the European Council, has been enhanced. Moreover, at various moments during these crises, the political leaders chose to by-pass the Community framework, and opt for intergovernmental solutions. However, in the literature, intergovernmentalism also refers to a dominance of the member states vis-à-vis the institutions in shaping these agreements. This paper looks at the process-level implications of this increased intergovernmentalism. We analyse and compare the role and influence of the institutions in five major reform negotiations: EFSF/ESM, Fiscal Compact, banking union, EU-Turkey deal and British renegotiation. An exploration of these empirical micro-foundations reveals more institution-driven processes and outcomes than the label intergovernmentalist suggests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New technologies provide innovative spaces for cooperation and communication between employers and employees, citizens and structures, educators, and learners. Data protection issues have always been key to education providers, but the proliferation of online learning forms and formats poses new and unique challenges in this regard. When introducing a new technology that involves the collection of sensitive data, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union requires the identification and mitigation of all risks that could lead to the misuse of personal data. The article discusses some critical points regarding the application of GDPR in online learning. The goal of this article is to investigate the vulnerabilities to personal data security during online learning and to identify methods that schools and universities may apply to ensure that personal data are kept private while students utilize online platforms to learn. For the purposes of the research, the published privacy, and data protection policies of all Bulgarian universities as well as papers on how universities could adapt to the new EU General Data Protection Regulation were revised and analysed. Best practices of some foreign universities in this regard were studied as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Derechos y Libertades is the property of Dykinson SL and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article provides a brief reminder of the genesis of Regulation 1/2003, and a short overview of its main results, as apparent ten years later.As far as the national competition authorities and the functioning of the European Competition Network are concerned, the new enforcement system has been a major success, beyond expectations.The impact of Regulation 1/2003 on the application of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU in litigation between private parties has been as expected.The impact of Regulation 1/2003 on the activity of the European Commission has mostly also been as expected.However, the prediction in the 1999 White Paper on Modernisation that, following the abolition of the notification system, the number of individual prohibition decisions could be expected to increase substantially may have been too optimistic. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

"Practice turn" can potentially influence both the theory and methods applied in EU studies. This paper attempts to grasp the most important features of this approach, as they could prove relevant to the study of decision-making at the European level. The point of departure is a research project on the role of socialisation mechanisms in the Council of the European Union, which was rooted in constructivism and used process tracing type case studies as its main method. The paper explores the principles and promises of practice turn and, more generally, of interpretive social science. It describes methods and practical considerations of tracing practices and studying the understandings they contain. Showing the limitations of a more conventional approach to issues such as supranational socialisation and decision-making, the paper argues for practice-oriented research by describing the opportunities and advantages it offers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Contemporary Military Challenges / Sodobni Vojaški Izzivi is the property of Sciendo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper looks at the latest reform of the EU Transparency Register (TR). I will approach the negotiations on the TR from the angle of the legislative process and will focus in particular on the life cycle of the TR proposal all the way from its preparatory phase within the Commission until the trilogue negotiations and the adoption of the TR package. I will be arguing that peer pressure between EU institutions had a significant impact on the negotiations. Furthermore, peer pressure inside EU institutions was also important. The final outcome of the TR will be analysed with regard to the effectiveness and added value of the TR interinstitutional agreement and the accompanying legal and political instruments. Solutions aimed at increasing transparency will be discussed in terms of their practical effect on EU institutions, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. The findings of this paper suggest that the achieved compromise provides added value to the TR regime of the EU. Moreover, the compromise has contributed to transforming the EU TR towards a hybrid transparency system consisting of elements of a different nature. Finally, I will conclude by discussing the future prospects of developing the EU TR regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the systems of parliamentary scrutiny of EU matters applied in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. The analysis is based on, first, formal rules laid down in legal norms, and, second, working and other documents and interviews with civil servants from both legislative and executive bodies. The paper seeks to demonstrate how the actual working of these systems may differ from formal procedures. It shows that the most important factors influencing it are not the legal rules but other aspects such as the day-to-day working routine used by executive and parliamentary officials charged with European matters. The paper confirms the original hypothesis that the differences in the actual influence of the parliaments may be attributed mostly to the changes in parliamentary activity in the early period of the scrutiny systems and at later stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Prisma Social is the property of Revista Prisma Social and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents a new perspective to analyse agreements in EU sanctions policy. It presents arguments on how negotiations on sanctions in both the European Council and the Council should be analysed, using the example of restrictive measures imposed against Russia. The paper recognizes that the European Council has become a key decision-maker in EU sanctions policy since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. EU Heads of State and Government are more involved than ever in day-to-day sanctions policy. Further, the article shows that two different mechanisms were present during negotiations on Russian sanctions. While the European Council was largely influenced by norms when agreeing on sanctions, the members of the Council bargained with each other and adopted a decision which reflects the red lines of the Member States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the role and influence of the EU institutions in major reform negotiations. We argue that one of the paradoxes of European Council dominated decision-making has been the enhanced dependence on EU institutions to translate broad priorities into actual reforms. We substantiate this claim by means of an in-depth process-tracing analysis of the Fiscal Compact. The conventional wisdom is that the Fiscal Compact was a German dictate. Instead, we show that it resulted from a division of labour: political leadership by member states in the control room, and instrumental leadership by the institutions in the machine room. Such instrumental leadership is unjustly depicted as mere facilitation, with little impact on process and outcome. We juxtapose the Fiscal Compact to two similar cases of Germany-led EU reforms (the Euro-Plus-Pact and Contractual Arrangements) to reveal the leadership activities by the institutions and the fingerprints these left in the final outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hooghe and Marks' update of Rokkanian European cleavages recognises the existence of a European political arena with opposite poles. The paper first contrasts rhetorics on a European level by two European Council members at opposite poles, the French President E. Macron and the Hungarian Prime Minister V. Orbán, then it compares their immigration policies on a national level. While a vast difference can be detected in the rhetorical dimension, their national regulations and executive decisions on immigration are stunningly similar. Such discrepancies are explained through an institutional analysis of the European Council, which gives structural incentives to perform "virtual politics" consisting of statements aimed at gathering domestic support against virtual "opponents", while avoiding any political risky decisions at home. Furthermore, as the neoliberal nature of the EU incentivizes the status quo in this area, only profound institutional reform can lay the ground for a change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004, Europe took the lead among regulated markets in creating a legal framework and a regulatory route for biogenerics. The EU has consequently established a competitive advantage over the USA and Japan in this sector. This paper covers the process of drafting and adopting the legal framework for biogenerics in the enlarged EU through the review process of the European pharmaceutical legislation and in parallel with the publication of the new Annex I of Directive 2001/83/EC, which delineates instructions for the presentation and content of the different types of application dossier in Europe. This paper describes the precise chronological order of the development of the legal framework, as well as the main actors in the process, and describes the background to the adoption of the final terminology used to designate biogenerics - that is, 'similar biological medicinal products'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PC-CREAM is a tool for assessing the radiological impact of routine discharges of radionuclides to the environment. It can be used for prospective assessments, to calculate doses to members of the public for authorisation of proposed discharges, or for retrospective assessments of previous discharges where doses are compared with dose limits. These types of assessment are a fundamental requirement of regulations governing the control of radioactive discharges. However, the latest publications of the basic safety standards for radiation protection, EU (Council of the European Union, 2014) and the IAEA (IAEA, 2014), now include the requirement to demonstrate protection of the environment as well as members of the public. To this end, a module has been added to PC-CREAM for calculating dose rates to non-human biota (Anderson et al., 2022). The methodology used for this calculation is based on the recommendations contained in ICRP Publication 108 (ICRP, 2008), which provides a general framework for protection of the environment. The additional module means that PC-CREAM can be used to assess doses to humans and dose rates to biota in an integrated way, for the same set of discharges and using the same dispersion models. This paper describes an assessment of dose rates to biota living in the vicinity of the Sellafield nuclear site, carried out using the new biota module of PC-CREAM. Historical discharges from Sellafield to the sea and atmosphere were considered for the period 1951 to 2017, excluding those from the Windscale fire in 1957. Dose rates calculated for marine biota (flatfish, crabs and brown seaweed) are less than 1 mGy d−1 and are below the lower derived consideration reference level (DCRL) for the ICRP marine reference animals and plants (RAPs). Dose rates for terrestrial biota (bees, deer, earthworms, frogs, wild grass, pine trees and rats) are less than the relevant lower DCRL for terrestrial RAPs, ie 0.1 mGy d−1. Dose rates were also calculated for a user defined organism 'seabird' to represent birds which inhabit both marine and terrestrial environments near Sellafield. For seabird, the lower DCRL of 0.1 mGy d−1 is exceeded throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, when the discharges were at their highest, due to exposures from the marine environment. Since the mid-1980s, no dose rates were calculated that exceeded the lower DCRLs. • This paper describes an assessment of dose rates to biota living in the vicinity of the Sellafield nuclear site, carried out using the new biota module of PC-CREAM. Historical routine discharges from Sellafield to the sea and atmosphere were considered for the period 1951 to 2017. • Dose rates calculated for the ICRP terrestrial and marine reference animals and plants (RAPs) are less than the relevant derived consideration reference level (DCRL). • However, dose rates calculated for a user defined organism 'seabird' exceeded the lower DCRL of 0.1 mGy d−1 for this organism throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, when the discharges were at their highest. Since the mid-1980s, no dose rates were calculated that exceeded the lower DCRLs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Council of the European Union is the European Union's most powerful legislative body. Yet, we still have limited information about Council politics because of the lack of suitable data. This paper validates a new approach to studying Council politics entitled DICEU – Debates in the Council of the European Union. This approach is the first to leverage the public videos of Council deliberations as a data source. We demonstrate the face, convergent, and predictive validity of DICEU data. Governments' ideal points scaled from these videos yield meaningful and well-known conflict dimensions. Moreover, governments' positions during Council negotiations correlate highly with expert assessments and predict subsequent votes on legislative acts. We conclude that DICEU data provide a promising new approach to studying Council politics and multilevel governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the Council of the European Union is negotiating the European Commission's recent proposal on cross-border mobility. This paper provides an overall assessment based on the proposal's central pillars: freedom of establishment and protection of the interests of creditors, shareholders, and employees. The proposed directive meets a real necessity for regulation on a European level and pursues an ambitious agenda. While the general approach is excellent, there is room for improvement on some issues of importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the implications of that awareness about the role of evidence when it comes to policy making in the field of cultural heritage? On several occasions, the European Council has underlined the need to develop cultural statistics and the European Parliament has regretted the absence of data in this field. Still today, Culture statistics for the EU are not collected by a single stand-alone survey, but come from different Eurostat data collections. Starting from statistical conceptual frames established by ESS-net-Culture Commission, the paper discusses the characteristics of sources and data on cultural heritage available today for supporting policymaking at the EU level [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving trade conditions is considered fundamental to create jobs, to increase the quality of living conditions, to reduce geopolitical tensions and so on. In spite of the new tendencies in favour of protectionism, which reflect both nationalistic sentiments and geopolitical turmoil in world's strategic regions, China and the EU represent one of the most dynamic trade and economic relation at international level. This trade relation has increased in the last 20 years reaching 42% of global traffic in 2015. In June 2017, for example, the European Council's President Donald Tusk underlined the EU-China strong cooperation and the good perspective for future development. In this respect, Chinese implementation of the BRI is a unique opportunity. However, EU-China relations in the framework of the BRI have to confront with many geopolitical and geo-economic criticalities. In this paper, we firstly present some main strategic complementarities and problems in the EU-China economic cooperation in the framework of the BRI, emphasizing positive trends of the recent years and at the same time the existing political criticalities. Secondly, we focus on the EU institutional process to amend and issue the new European Trade Defence Rules between 2016 and 2017. The new regulation is aimed to protect EU members from dumped and subsidized imports from not EU member and was thought in relation to China's "market economy status". Thirdly, a section is dedicated to the European Commission's new proposal of regulation to scrutinize inbound investments from third countries. These debates and the related legislative procedures hold important implications for China, because as a matter of facts China is indeed the main, quasi-exclusive, target of the EU antidumping (AD) and anti-subsidize (AS) probes, but also of the new regulations on foreign investments in certain sectors. Finally, concluding remarks with policy advice summarize the main points emerged from the entire analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper captures aspects related to the program during the presidency of the Council of the European Union held by our country, from 1 January to 30 June 2019. It is known that the Presidency of the EU Council is ensured by rotation, every 6 months, among the Member States, each Member State having the obligation to exercise it by chairing meetings organised at all levels within the Council. The Member States holding the Presidency work together in groups of three, entitled "trios", a system introduced by the Lisbon Treaty. Romania took over the EU Council Presidency in a trio with Finland and Croatia, setting together a series of common goals. Our country has set itself the goal of an efficient, results-oriented presidency, with activities to be integrated into the joint effort to pursue the EU consolidation objective. The program of Romania was part of a larger plan, resulting from the consultation of the three states of the trio, having as main lines of work: "Europe of convergence", "Europe of security", "Europe - a global actor", "Europe of common values". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The point of departure of this article is limited systematic research on the rotating EU Council Presidency after the Lisbon Treaty. In order to assess rotating presidencies the paper proposes a three-tier approach which includes a functional, a behavioural and a contingency dimension. These dimensions are supplemented by the institutional changes of the Lisbon Treaty referring to the rotating presidencies. Next, the paper applies this evaluation framework to the Polish Presidency that took place in the second half of 2011. Finally, it draws conclusions from the Polish case for both the leadership capacity of the rotating Council Presidency in the post-Lisbon European Union and the performance of Poland’s EU Council Presidency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Decyzje is the property of Decyzje and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)