Search

Since 1993, an environmental risk assessment (ERA) for a new drug application has been stipulated by EU Directive 93/39/EEC amending Directive 65/65/EEC. In early 2001, after several unpublished draft versions for an ERA guideline, a draft guideline/discussion paper for an ERA for non-GMO-containing drugs was published by the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA). The draft guideline describes a step-wise, tiered procedure for the ERA. The first tier consists of deriving a crude predicted environmental concentration (PEC) in the aquatic compartment for the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) or its major metabolites, based on predicted amounts used and specific removal rates in sewage treatment or surface waters. If this crude PEC is <0.01 μg/l and no environmental concerns are apparent, no further assessment is deemed necessary. Else, in the second tier, a crude predicted no-effect level (PNEC) for the aquatic compartment is to be extrapolated by dividing the lowest 50%-effect concentration from acute ecotoxicity tests with algae, daphnia or fish (EC50, LC50) by an assessment factor (usually 1000). If the ratio PEC/PNEC is <1, no further assessment is deemed necessary. Lastly, in the third tier, further considerations on a case-by-case basis are needed. This may encompass refining the environmental fate information and thereby the PEC, considering further environmental compartments and their respective PECs (up to and including field studies), but also refining the PNEC. While the ERA addresses mainly the API, excipients of the formulated drug should be considered as well. In the case of medicinal products, the benefit for patients has relative precedence over environmental risks, meaning that even in the case of an unacceptable residual risk for new drugs after third-tier considerations, prohibition of a new API is not taken into consideration. Instead, possible mitigating or precautionary safety measures may consist of specific product labelling (i.e. package leaflets for the patients regarding returning and proper disposal of unused medicines), restricted use through in-hospital or in-surgery administration under supervision only, or the recommendation of environmental analytical monitoring up to ecological field studies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The European Union has established a comprehensive legislative privacy framework aimed at protecting data pertaining to individuals. The EU is currently in the process of amending and supplementing its data protection legislation to prepare for the information society. In this article, Professor Lucas Bergkamp questions the desirability and necessity of the EU’s data protection regime in the information society. He examines the “other side” of data protection law and identifies its paradoxical and adverse effects. Based on a thorough analysis of how privacy law affects markets, he argues that data protection restricts consumer choice and freedom, and results in consumers receiving outdated, lower quality products and services at higher prices. The author proposes possible alternative approaches to data protection in Europe, and identifies the groundwork that needs to be conducted to devise a sensible, balanced privacy framework for the information society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent so called Mediterranean refugee crisis has ignited concerns about the magnitude of the flows of asylum seekers to Europe. This paper examines the determinants of the destination choice of first time non-EU asylum applicants to the EU, between 2008–2020. It investigates the role played by policies related to employment rights, processing of asylum applications, attractiveness of the welfare system, economic factors and networks on the destination of asylum seekers within the EU. We find that the strongest pull factor for asylum seekers to a destination is social networks both in terms of previous asylum applicants as well as stock of previous migrants. Our findings also suggest that employment bans are not a strong deterrence for asylum seekers given their modest association to asylum flows. • This paper examines the pull factors for asylum seekers to EU destination countries. • We focus on non-EU first time asylum applicants between 2008-2020. • The results suggest that social networks are the strongest pull factor. • Policies in destinations are modestly associated to asylum flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tributyltin (TBT) is a toxic chemical used for various industrial purposes such as slime control in paper mills, disinfection of circulating industrial cooling waters, antifouling agents, and the preservation of wood. Due to its widespread use as an antifouling agent in boat paints, TBT is a common contaminant of marine and freshwater ecosystems exceeding acute and chronic toxicity levels. TBT is the most significant pesticide in marine and freshwaters in Europe and consequently its environmental level, fate, toxicity and human exposure are of current concern. Thus, the European Union has decided to specifically include TBT compounds in its list of priority compounds in water in order to control its fate in natural systems, due to their toxic, persistent, bioaccumulative and endocrine disruptive characteristics. Additionally, the International Maritime Organization has called for a global treaty that bans the application of TBT-based paints starting 1 of January 2003, and total prohibition by 1 of January 2008. This paper reviews the state of the science regarding TBT, with special attention paid to the environmental levels, toxicity, and human exposure. TBT compounds have been detected in a number of environmental samples. In humans, organotin compounds have been detected in blood and in the liver. As for other persistent organic pollutants, dietary intake is most probably the main route of exposure to TBT compounds for the general population. However, data concerning TBT levels in foodstuffs are scarce. It is concluded that investigations on experimental toxicity, dietary intake, potential human health effects and development of new sustainable technologies to remove TBT compounds are clearly necessary. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract Turkey is the only European Union candidate country whose citizens are obliged to obtain a Schengen visa. The difficult visa procedures, often seen as unjust and discriminatory, are a longstanding source of frustration and humiliation among Turkish citizens, as they reproduce both symbolic and physical borders between the EU and Turkey and seem to reiterate the 'Fortress Europe' thesis. These perceptions of the visa process and the consequent feeling of 'otherness/non-Europeanness' hinder the process of Turkish integration into the EU. Bordering no longer occurs merely in the border areas separating two states, but rather through a wide range of practices in multiple locations within and beyond the state's territory. This complexity has recently been augmented by the introduction of intermediary companies. The offices of these intermediaries have become an example of bordering sites located away from the border area. Moreover, in these offices border work is carried out by non-traditional actors: in other words, not by border guards or immigration officers of the EU but by Turkish employees. Treating those offices as significant nodes where border work is done, this paper draws on material collected at visa offices in Ankara to understand the multifaceted construction of borders between the EU and Turkey. Using a situated intersectional framework, this paper elucidates not only perceptions from both sides of the border –Turkish nationals applying for visas and Turkish nationals doing border work – but also how the differentiated social positionings and purposes of travel shape these interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By 2020, the EU road transport sector is poised to deploy a host of advanced Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), including connected and autonomous vehicles (AVs), that are expected to significantly ‘disrupt’ the automotive sector. This vision of the future is fuelling a virtual ‘arms race’ among automakers (OEMs), who are forging unconventional alliances and investing heavily in R&D, in anticipation of a radically changed industry. Car travel seems set to undergo a paradigm shift, evolving from a privately-owned asset into mobility as a service; a metamorphosis that will have significant implications for policymakers and industry stakeholders alike. This paper therefore seeks to address existing gaps in knowledge, by using primary qualitative interview data from industry experts and policymakers to examine the early-stages of the AV transition within the EU automotive industry. This paper also assesses the major policy challenges that face industry regulators tasked with underwriting this radical and dynamic transition to autonomous driving. This paper's focus is on the sociotechnical transition to AVs, which contributes to better understandings about the future role and regulation of Intelligent Transport Systems in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the harmful effects of the exclusivity clause on so-called dormant agreements, a relevant but relatively unstudied legal problem that arises in the EU´s fisheries agreement practice with third States. The paper focuses on the situation which arises when a fisheries agreement lacks an operational application protocol for years but, due to the exclusivity clause of the treaty, which continues to be in force, the EU's external fleet cannot access the coastal third State's EEZ via another kind of legal arrangement such as a private licence or a charter contract. Here, the scope and implications of this legal problem are reviewed and some possible solutions assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have studied the efficiency of research in the EU by a percentile-based citation approach that analyzes the distribution of country papers among the world papers. Going up in the citation scale, the frequency of papers from efficient countries increases while the frequency from inefficient countries decreases. In the percentile-based approach, this trend, which is uniform at any citation level, is measured by the e p index that equals the P top 1% /P top 10% ratio. By using the e p index we demonstrate that EU research on fast-evolving technological topics is less efficient than the world average and that the EU is far from being able to compete with the most advanced countries. The e p index also shows that the USA is well ahead of the EU in both fast- and slow-evolving technologies, which suggests that the advantage of the USA over the EU in innovation is due to low research efficiency in the EU. In accord with some previous studies, our results show that the European Commission’s ongoing claims about the excellence of EU research are based on a wrong diagnosis. The EU must focus its research policy on the improvement of its inefficient research. Otherwise, the future of Europeans is at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at EU banks' use of public cloud computing services. It is based primarily on anonymised interviews with banks, cloud providers, advisers, and financial services regulators. The findings are presented in three parts. Part 1 of this paper explored the extent to which banks operating in the EU, including global banks, use public cloud computing services. Part 2 of this paper covered the main legal and regulatory issues that may affect banks' use of cloud services. Part 3 looks at the key contractual issues that arise in negotiations between banks and cloud service providers, including data protection requirements, complexities caused by the layering of cloud services, termination, service changes, and liability. It also presents the overall conclusion derived from the studies conducted, as set out in the three parts of the paper. All three parts of the paper can be accessed via Computer Law and Security Review's page on ScienceDirect at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02673649?sdc=2 . The full list of sources is available via the same link and will be printed at the end of this part of the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integration of relatively new policy tasks like climate adaptation into established higher-level policy fields is insufficiently understood in the academic literature. This paper proposes a framework to evaluate the integration of climate adaptation into the sectoral policy-making of the European Commission, particularly following the publication of the EU Adaptation Strategy (in 2013). The paper uses a framework of micro, meso and macro-level institutional behaviour drawing strongly on new institutionalism perspectives to identify and explain factors enabling and hindering policy integration. It focuses on integration in the coastal and marine policy sector, which is expected to be particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts, and draws from data collected through a document review and interviews with key informants. The findings show that the integration of climate adaptation is still at an early stage. The integration process appears to be largely dependent on institutional dynamics at the EU-level combined with how member states and wider sectoral stakeholders engage with adaptation concerns. In particular, the ambivalence of some member states and a lack of urgency among sectoral stakeholders has hampered the integration of adaptation goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capture and sequestration of CO 2 released by conventional fossil fuel combustion is an urgent need to mitigate global warming. In this work, main CO 2 capture and sequestration (CCS) systems are reviewed, with the focus on their integration with renewables in order to achieve power plants with nearly zero CO 2 emissions. Among these technologies under development, the Dry Carbonate Process shows several advantages. This manuscript analyses the integration of a CO 2 sorption-desorption cycle based on Na 2 CO 3 /NaHCO 3 into a coal fired power plant (CFPP) for CO 2 capture with solar support for sorbent regeneration. The Dry Carbonate Process relies on the use of a dry regenerable sorbent such as sodium carbonate (Na 2 CO 3 ) to remove CO 2 from flue gases. Na 2 CO 3 is converted to sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO 3 ) through reaction with CO 2 and water steam. Na 2 CO 3 is regenerated when NaHCO 3 is heated, which yields a gas stream mostly containing CO 2 and H 2 O. Condensation of H 2 O produces a pure CO 2 stream suitable for its subsequent use or compression and sequestration. In this paper, the application of the Dry Carbonate CO 2 capture process in a coal-based power plant is studied with the goal of optimizing CO 2 capture efficiency, heat and power requirements. Integration of this CO 2 capture process requires an additional heat supply which would reduce the global power plant efficiency by around 9–10%. Dry Carbonate Process has the advantage compared with other CCS technologies that requires a relatively low temperature for sorbent regeneration (< 200 °C). It allows an effective integration of medium temperature solar thermal power to assist NaHCO 3 decarbonation. This integration reduces the global system efficiency drop to the consumption associated with mechanical parasitic consumption, resulting in a fossil fuel energy penalty of 3–4% (including CO 2 compression). The paper shows the viability of the concept through economic analyses under different scenarios. The results suggest the interest of advancing in this Solar-CCS integrated concept, which shows favourable outputs compared to other CCS technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the editorial for the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews joint special issue devoted to the research work discussed and presented at the 11th Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES), held from the 4th September to the 9th September 2016 in Lisbon, Portugal and the 2nd South East European (SEE) SDEWES Conference held from June 15th to June 18th, 2016 in Piran, Slovenia. This special issue is in line with the journal's aim of publishing research from across the ever-broadening field of renewable and sustainable energy with a strong review element. Previous SDEWES conference special issues have gathered a significant knowledge base in the field of sustainable development that reflects the continuous research efforts of the SDEWES research community. Therefore, this editorial provides not only an overview of the papers published in this particular special issue, but also a wider overview of the current trends in the domain of sustainable and renewable energy. This year's special issue focuses particularly on the benefits of the bio-based economy, energy security issues, fossil fuel thermal plant alternatives and environmental constraints, district heating and cooling together with cross sector energy efficiency and energy conservation issues. Sustainable transport systems, the issue of fuel poverty in urban neighbourhoods and renewable energy to support development of peripheral rural areas, optimising passive building design for hot climates and solar-powered heating and cooling are further topics featured in this special issue. In the process of selecting papers for this special issue, the guest editors invited in total 23 extended manuscripts for consideration for publication. After a rigorous review process by expert reviewers overseen by the guest editors a total of 16 articles were accepted for publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Information about the burden of (non-fatal) road traffic injury is very useful to further improve road safety policy. Previous studies calculated the burden of injury in individual countries. This paper estimates and compares the burden of non-fatal serious road traffic injuries in six EU countries/regions: Austria, Belgium, England, The Netherlands, the Rhône region in France and Spain. Methods It is a cross-sectional study based on hospital discharge databases. Population of study are patients hospitalized with MAIS3+ due to road traffic injuries. The burden of injury (expressed in years lived with disability (YLD)) is calculated applying a method that is developed within the INTEGRIS study. The method assigns estimated disability information to the casualties using the EUROCOST injury classification. Results The average burden per MAIS3+ casualty varies between 2.4 YLD and 3.2 YLD per casualty. About 90% of the total burden of injury of MAIS3+ casualties is due to lifelong consequences that are experienced by 19% to 33% of the MAIS3+ casualties. Head injuries, spinal cord injuries and injuries to the lower extremities are responsible for more than 90% of the total burden of MAIS3+ road traffic injuries. Results per transport mode differ between the countries. Differences between countries are mainly due to differences in age distribution and in the distribution over EUROCOST injury groups of the casualties. Conclusion The analyses presented in this paper can support further improvement of road safety policy. Countermeasures could for example be focused at reducing skull and brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and injuries to the lower extremities, as these injuries are responsible for more than 90% of the total burden of injury of MAIS3+ casualties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, results from receptor modelling performed on a well-characterised PM 1 dataset were combined to chemical light extinction data (b ext ) with the aim of assessing the impact of different PM 1 components and sources on light extinction and visibility at a European polluted urban area. It is noteworthy that, at the state of the art, there are still very few papers estimating the impact of different emission sources on light extinction as we present here, although being among the major environmental challenges at many polluted areas. Following the concept of the well-known IMPROVE algorithm, here a tailored site-specific approach (recently developed by our group) was applied to assess chemical light extinction due to PM 1 components and major sources. PM 1 samples collected separately during daytime and nighttime at the urban area of Milan (Italy) were chemically characterised for elements, major ions, elemental and organic carbon, and levoglucosan. Chemical light extinction was estimated and results showed that at the investigated urban site it is heavily impacted by ammonium nitrate and organic matter. Receptor modelling (i.e. Positive Matrix Factorization, EPA-PMF 5.0) was effective to obtain source apportionment; the most reliable solution was found with 7 factors which were tentatively assigned to nitrates, sulphates, wood burning, traffic, industry, fine dust, and a Pb-rich source. The apportionment of aerosol light extinction (b ext,aer ) according to resolved sources showed that considering all samples together nitrate contributed at most (on average 41.6%), followed by sulphate, traffic, and wood burning accounting for 18.3%, 17.8% and 12.4%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the potential of fuel tax reforms to curb harmful air pollutants and carbon emissions from road transport in Europe. We provide robust estimates for the responsiveness of fuel consumption to changes in prices, which constitute a key determinant for emissions pathways in response to policy interventions. We show that accounting for the manifest shift to diesel in the European vehicle fleet, as well as slow consumption adjustments over time yield strong evidence that petrol and diesel demand are more price elastic already in the short run than previous studies suggest. In particular, we present evidence that diesel demand in Europe tends to be more price elastic than petrol demand, when instrumenting prices with excise taxes to account for endogeneity. Inspired by recent fuel tax reform proposals, we then show that both (i) a repeal of the preferential tax treatment for diesel and (ii) an introduction of a carbon content-based tax, could avoid considerable amounts of health damaging air pollutant exhaust while at the same time contributing substantially to achieving the EU climate policy goals for 2020. In many countries, abandoning the diesel tax advantage has nearly as strong an effect as a 50€/tCO 2 tax on fuel. Both reforms have significant revenue potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The journal, Telecommunications Policy (TP), marked its 40-year milestone in 2016. At this juncture of a 40-year milestone, this paper implements a text analysis with keyword frequency data derived from the abstracts of papers published over the past 40 years to take a look at the big picture of key concepts that constitute the journal's research subjects. With keywords and bibliographic data, this paper calculates key research indexes to overview the dynamic changes in research focuses in the journal. This paper found that the differences in research performance across research subjects within three continents has declined over time, even though wide differences in research performance across subjects within nations still exist, and that the mid-1990s marked a watershed dividing the 40-year history into two parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Commission has acknowledged the significance of local and regional communities in its effort to tackle climate change. In this respect a number of initiatives and programmes (e.g. Covenant of Mayors, Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, CONCERTO, CIVITAS, etc.) have been set up in order to engage European cities in the effort towards a low carbon future and an improved quality of life through sustainable economic development. These initiatives have been generally successful and have resulted in the commitment of an increasing number of European cities towards sustainable development goals. At the same time, however, it has been revealed that there is a critical need for improved comprehensive city planning driven by an integrated and strategic approach, focused on cost benefit assessment towards sustainable energy use. This paper presents an innovative city planning approach developed within the EU FP7 project InSMART. It brings together four European municipalities – Evora (Portugal), Nottingham (UK), Trikala (Greece) and Cesena (Italy) –, academics, industries and technical consultants in order to establish a common methodology for enhancing sustainable planning for both the current and future city needs through an integrative and multidisciplinary approach. The methodology develops and employs a number of tools to assess the optimum mix of medium term measures (up to 2030) for a sustainable energy future, addressing the efficiency of energy flows across various city sectors with regards to economic, environmental and social criteria and paving the way towards actual implementation of priority actions. This paper presents the key concepts around this methodology and some selected results of the project (still ongoing). The results refer to the four city partners, all actively involved in developing a more sustainable energy system. Further on, the proposed approach may be replicable to other cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptation of environmental policies to often unexpected crises is an important function of sustainable governance arrangements. However the relationship between environmental change and policy is complicated. Much research has focused on understanding institutional dynamics or the role of specific participants in the policy process. This paper draws attention to interest groups and the mechanism through which they influence policy change. Existing research offers conflicting evidence in regards to the different ways in which interest groups may affect change. This paper provides an in-depth study of the 2013 European Union Common Fisheries Policy reform − a policy change characterized by active interest group participation. It traces the activity of interest group coalitions to understand how they achieved influence under a changing policy context. The study involves interviews with interest group representatives, policy experts and decision-makers, document analysis of interest group statements and EU legislative documents. Findings identify the important role of coalition-building and informational lobbying for environmental interest group success in exploiting favorable sociopolitical conditions and influencing reform outcomes. An insight on interest group influence and its conditions contributes to our understanding of the complex dynamics of the environmental policy process as well as its implications for policy adaptation to environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar photovoltaic is increasingly seen as a key technology for low-carbon electricity generation. However, the deployment of growing shares of this technology is not without important challenges for their efficient integration in power systems. This paper aims to contribute to overcoming the barriers that hamper a large-scale integration of photovoltaics in the electricity distribution grids. The methodology followed is problem oriented. The paper firstly reviews the technical solutions available to integrate distributed photovoltaics, classifying them in three areas: Distribution System Operator (DSO) solutions, prosumer solutions and interactive solutions. Then, the set of barriers that hinder the implementation of the solutions in a European context are identified, assessing the relevance of each barrier in different countries. Four major barriers are discussed in detail: (1) DSO regulation does not promote smart grid investments, (2) rules limiting PV curtailment, (3) missing frameworks enabling DSOs to access advanced PV inverter capabilities, and (4) regulation hampering storage solutions. Finally, recommendations to overcome these barriers are presented, highlighting that DSO regulation should shift the focus from a short-term to a long-term cost assessment and revenue setting framework, equalizing the treatment of capital and operational expenditures, and implementing specific incentives for DSO innovation. Moreover, a fair debate on the definition of the boundary conditions for the use of renewable curtailment when the other technical solutions cannot be applied or are not economically optimal is required. Regarding the provision of services to DSOs by prosumers and the deployment of distributed storage, the roles, rights and limitations of the different stakeholders need to be clearly defined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the history of renewable energy development in the BRICS countries. The financing models for renewable energy development of BRICS countries include bank financing, institutional loans, industry funds, and international financing. This paper identified several problems with financing in BRICS countries, including a lack of financing channels, investment shortage for small and medium-sized enterprises and imperfect government policies. The solutions to these problems include expanded capital markets, the financing of leasing services, and build-operate-transfer and build-own-operate projects; further, a financial citizen participation model should be employed similar to that as Germany and European Union emissions trading system (EU ETS). A financial citizen participation model means that legal entities, private individuals, and agricultural enterprises invest in renewable energy infrastructure through equity. A regional reserve ratio monetary policy is suggested to allow regions to develop renewable energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the relationship between (i) house prices and (ii) local green public goods. The main objective of the paper is to analyse a specific house-pricing mechanism which reflects the utility of being Green Offline, i.e. having access to green areas, versus the utility derived from the ability to be Green Online. The focus will be on data from European Union countries, and in particular Germany. Our results show that on an aggregate level for the EU there appears to be a clear indication for an irrational house-pricing mechanism, ignoring the negative trade-off effect from Green Online and Green Offline public investments (goods and assets). Meanwhile, on an individual level, for the case of Germany, more detailed bounded rationality effects of fashion-driven supply on house pricing are observed, positively related to Green Online values but negatively related to high Green Offline preferences. In conclusion, we find that house prices throughout Europe do not reflect a rational social change in green preferences, but tend to irrationally overprice Green Online values, which may create instability on the local housing market in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether elections, which are generally held on fixed dates, and banking crises explain the timing of tax reforms and the allocation of the additional tax burden. Using an original fine-grained data set of tax reforms, the paper finds support for the role of these two sources of variation. In particular, the probability of reform is higher during banking crises. During electoral periods, increasing taxes becomes highly unlikely, even if the government is facing financing problems. Interestingly, politics seem to trump economics: banking crises do not affect the probability of having a reform during electoral times. Moreover, the presence of an IMF program affects the tax instruments chosen: countries with a program increase the value-added tax, while those without raise the personal income tax. Finally, the ideology of the president does not explain who bears the additional tax burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green Infrastructure within urban areas has become increasingly important in recent years. There has been the development of a European Commission green infrastructure strategy and a range of initiatives identifying the importance of green infrastructure. This paper explicitly identifies the cultural ecosystem benefits gained from urban and peri-urban green infrastructure drawing on studies undertaken in different European countries. The paper utilises the cultural ecosystem services framework developed in a United Kingdom National Ecosystem Assessment project. A review of literature identified studies from fifteen different countries and explores linkages between the types of green infrastructure, the practices undertaken in these spaces and the cultural ecosystem benefits gained. The results show that there are few detailed linkages made between the types of green infrastructure and the practices and benefits associated with these. The cultural ecosystem framework provides an important conceptual approach and this paper is one of the first to populate the framework in greater detail. Further research is needed to assess the differences in benefits and practices associated with different types of green infrastructure. A key message is that the cultural ecosystem benefits identified are wide ranging, diverse and multiple. The typologies and conceptual matrix developed in this paper could be utilised by green infrastructure practitioners to assist them in taking account of cultural ecosystem benefits in their management decision making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry in the European Union is turning increasingly in the direction of sustainable building. A particular important component of sustainable construction strategy is represented by the reduction of operational energy in buildings. One popular solution for the reduction of heat losses through the exterior envelope is the thermal insulation with polystyrene panels, frequently used in composite systems (ETICS – External Thermal Insulation Composite Systems). These solutions are efficient for operational energy savings, contributing in the same time to the reduction of environmental pollution and degradation due to the current energy production systems. Still, they present some reliability problems, being vulnerable to wind actions. The paper proposes an alternative solution for fixing the polystyrene panels by replacing the adhesive mortar with anchors and regular mortar to compensate the flatness. The paper presents experimental results for adhesive bonding strength of adhesive and regular mortar to various substrates. The results were embedded into numerical models for determining the response to wind actions both for the classical and proposed solution. The paper presents a comparative analysis of the mechanical and economic performance for the two fixing solutions. Finally are discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the mechanical fixing solution proposed and are identified the main areas of application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport is a significant and growing contributor to climate change. To stay within ‘safe’ global warming guardrails requires substantial cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. This represents a global political consensus, but there is evidence that current legislation in the transport sector is not significant enough to achieve medium- and longer-term reduction goals. In focusing on the European Union, this paper investigates the perspectives of twelve policy officers in three Directorates-General (MOVE, CLIMA, ENV) of the European Commission with regard to their understanding of mitigation goals and timelines, responsibilities for policy development and implementation, and perceived efficiencies of these policies to achieve climate objectives in the transport sector. Results indicate diverging and common views on climate policy goals and political responsibilities, as well as barriers to policy-making, including lack of political leadership on climate change mitigation, resistance from member states, the favoring of economic growth over cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, pressure from industry and lobby groups, preferential treatment of aero- and automobility over more sustainable transport modes, policy implementation delays, insufficient forecasting and monitoring tools, and an overreliance on technologies to contribute to emission reductions. In offering a view inside the ‘black box’ of transport policy-making, the paper reveals fundamental institutional (structural) and individual (agency-based) barriers that will have to be overcome if significant emission cuts in the transport sector are to be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an overview of the regulatory framework for wind energy in European Union Member States. The analysis covers three main aspects of regulatory framework: support schemes, electrical grid issues and potential barriers for wind power deployment. The aim is not just to provide an updated picture of current (early-2015) regulatory framework, but also to analyse the past evolution and trends (in order to achieve the targets of renewable energy share set for 2020). Each country implements a specific regulatory framework driven by several factors: their own renewable energy targets, local availability of renewable resources, energy mix structure, existing infrastructures as well as other factors such as public perception or geographical distribution of electricity generation and consumption points. The results presented in this paper show a trend for increasing the market exposure of wind generators; feed-in premiums and competitive bidding procedures to establish the support level are gaining prominence in the last few years. In relation to grid issues, it is a common practice that new wind generators only bear the grid extension costs to the closest connection point; priority or guaranteed access is granted in most Member States and wind generators are usually not demanded to meet balancing requirements (this is expected to change in the next few years following the new guidelines provided by the European Commission). The analysis of potential barriers for wind energy deployment shows that the stability of regulatory framework is one of the most important concerns for investors. Finally, actual deployment over the last few years has been linked with evolution of regulatory frameworks. This analysis shows that some Member States have shown a strong commitment supporting wind energy; however, in other countries the support has not been enough to stimulate the desired level of investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing diversity in schools means that teachers need more effective forms of professional development to address the challenges they face. Drawing on findings from a three-year study in three European countries, this paper presents a new way of thinking about what this should involve. What differentiates the proposed model is that it emphasises the views of students themselves, something that has previously been largely absent from teacher professional development literature. Through the use of illustrative examples, the paper shows how this factor can act as a catalyst for the development of new thinking and practices in response to learner differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2010, the European Union adopted the notion ‘smart’ in its new ten-year growth strategy Europe 2020 stating that Europe should become a smart, sustainable, and inclusive economy. The broad and policy-oriented concepts of smart growth and smart development are part of the strategy introduced as a response to the observed low growth rates of innovation and productivity across European regions. In all its essence, the growth strategy states that smart growth supports sustainable development, which is achieved by promoting research, innovation, and knowledge in order to attain regional economic growth. What is made less clear is how the concept of smart growth can be translated to fit a diverse set of rural regions. Other outstanding issues discussed in this paper relate to the possibility to measure and empirically address the outcome of policies for smart rural development. Hence, in this paper we conceptually analyse and bring together the ideas that underlie the logic behind policies for smart growth by focusing on smart growth from the perspective of rural regions. The paper also presents indicators of smart rural development and analyses their relevance in future empirical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) fisheries in internal waters and aquaculture are not sufficient to satisfy the EU’s fish demand. For this reason, the EU’s consumption depends on catches of distant water fisheries through fisheries agreements with third countries and on the import of fish products. This paper analyzes the coherence of the EU policy by focusing on four case studies. In particular, this paper attempts to identify the main synergies and conflicts amongst the varying objectives of the EU and different actors affected by the external dimension of the common fisheries policy (CFP). Results appear to show that fisheries agreements, particularly those concerning demersal resources, are more difficult to renew due to competition with local fleets, pressure from environmentalist lobbies, and budgetary issues. Thus, the EU market will increasingly be dependent on imports due to a liberalization climate encouraged by the EU processors that require raw material and fishing companies established in third countries (joint ventures). The role of the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament, and the European Commission, along with their positions of contradictory objectives, is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The European Union׳s energy policy aims to increase the proportion of energy derived from renewable sources in Europe. Marine renewable energy, offshore wind energy especially, contributes to the renewable energy mix. Offshore wind farms appear to be clean, and are supported by governments and NGOs as a way to reduce the use of conventional energy resources and thus decrease greenhouse gas emissions. However, developing infrastructure in marine areas can impact marine ecosystems. European directives ask offshore wind farm developers to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) including a mitigation hierarchy, i.e. envisaging measures that would avoid, reduce, and if possible offset significant adverse effects on ecosystems and human activities. This paper reviews EIA reports from seven European countries and is focused on impacts on the open water marine environment. According to the reports, measures have been taken for avoiding and reducing impacts, so there should be no significant negative residual impacts and hence no need of offsets. But the mitigation hierarchy for ecological impacts seems to have been incompletely implemented, because it is unlikely that there are no significant residual impacts. The paper proposes some technical and ecological explanations, followed by some governance and social explanations, for the absence of biodiversity offsets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper analyses how environmental issues have affected and are continuing to affect the evolution of European manufacturing industries based on the example of the Spanish Ceramic Tile Industry (SCTI). 1 [1] Spanish Ceramic Tile Industry (SCTI). The Ceramic Tile Industry (CTI) 2 [2] Ceramic Tile Industry (CTI). in Europe became very competitive and innovative in the early 1990s, with the Italian and the Spanish sectors, which are cluster-based, becoming world leaders. However, since 2008, this leadership position is being eroded. We provide an in depth analysis of the SCTI focusing on the influence of new European environmental regulations. The CTI has a major impact on the environment and has been the focus of environmental regulations. We also consider the innovation system and socioeconomic effects of the industry. In order to analyse the relationship between the environmental issues and innovation the empirical part of the paper builds on research on SCTI, including the industry value chain, and the innovation system and how it functions. We take account of the views of industry experts on the SCTI innovation system, its environmental impact and the constraints on the sector. Current research at the local level suggests that the environmental impacts of the industry are outweighed by its huge contribution to socioeconomic wellbeing. The transition from national environmental legal frameworks towards EU-wide regulation has had a clear effect on both the strategic goals and the management of the industry and the new regulation combined with a more complex international economic scenario is jeopardizing European manufacturing industries. This applies especially to traditional industries. The case study demonstrates that the capacity of the SCTI to adapt to new scenarios will be vital for its future survival and success. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper discusses the connections that exist between several policy areas concerning fisheries, namely fisheries management and regulations in internal and external waters as well as commercial policies. An institutional approach is used to describe the system by indicating the causal interactions and feedbacks that exist between rules, stocks, catches, imports, and prices. The European Union, as one of the major players in the fishing industry and market, is considered as the case study. The key argument of the paper is that when catches decrease, essentially because of the use of inappropriate management tools and strategy, national interest moves from fishers to other categories such as processors and consumers, which involves several changes to external policies. The analysis presented herein shows that this is exactly what is happening in the case of whitefish. Furthermore, the changing habits and preferences of EU consumers have resulted in increasing substitution possibilities between different species, most of which are imported. This fact combined with the reduced level of EU catches means that the EU is decreasingly able to affect international prices. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper analyses the connections between elite and mass opinion in the European Union. It considers both the ways in which mass publics use heuristics supplied by political elites to form their EU opinions, and the ways in which political elites respond to the opinions of the mass publics they represent. The paper employs data from simultaneously-conducted elite and mass surveys carried out in sixteen European countries in 2007. The results show that masses and elites in Europe do appear to take cues from one another in forming their EU opinions. Political elites base their individual-level opinions on the average position taken by their respective (national) party supporters. Mass respondents base their opinions on the average position taken by elite members of the (national) party with which they identify. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper considers farmer''s stated responses to CAP scenarios, identifies the extent to which these plans would be influenced by the introduction of CAP abolishment from 2014 and considers the implications in terms of likely changes (i.e. increases or decreases in the deployment of chemicals and water resources on the farm). The analysis uses data from a large sample survey of household farmers across 11 case studies in 9 EU countries. Intended responses of farmers to the CAP scenarios are analysed by means of logistic regressions. The results indicate that CAP abolishment would not stimulate strong agricultural changes in resource use, rather it appears to be reinforcing many existing trends, namely towards decreasing chemical use and steadying water use. However, CAP abolishment would impact unevenly on the farm community and different farming situations are associated with different types of reaction. In addition, significant regional differences have been found according to the model regression. Indeed, in the case of New Member States, farmers show a greater preference to decrease chemicals and water use if the current CAP support was abolished. On the basis of the results presented in this paper some policy implications emerge. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper investigates how farm-households would dispose of farms following a decision by the farm-household to exit from farming, and in particular when a decision is made to sell the land The paper builds on data from a survey of stated intentions carried out in 9 EU countries at the beginning of 2009, using a probit Heckman model, where the model is applied to explain stated intentions to sell land in the case of farm-households that have decided to exit from farming activities, under two extreme Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) scenarios. The numbers of farm households opting to exit from agriculture increases sharply under the scenario characterised by the removal of the CAP. The statistically significant determinants are mostly consistent with previous studies, but show different behaviour when comparing the exit decision with the willingness to sell the farm. The outcomes of this study seem to deliver a clear policy message reinforcing the notion that the current CAP payments are important for staying in/exiting farming activities, but the land reallocation process clearly requires more targeted instruments. At the same time, greater attention should be paid to mechanisms of land rent or alternative land tenure solutions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Earth system interactions, as highlighted by the planetary boundaries framework, occur within and across natural, social and economic systems and shape global environmental change. This paper addresses the multi-level governance problem of coherently addressing key interactions between four Earth sub-systems – climate change, freshwater use, land use and biodiversity – taking into account concerns over problem shifting. After discussing possibilities for regional downscaling of the boundaries, we explore challenges for the EU region to coherently address this particular set of interacting Earth sub-systems and reduce the risk of problem shifting. This analysis demonstrates that Earth system interactions can be governed, but that they likely require comprehensive packages of governance responses across both sub-systems and levels. Three overarching governance functions are tentatively identified that directly or indirectly address Earth system interactions: reduction of system stress, risks and vulnerabilities; triggering and navigation of transformation of economic activity; and development of a diversity of options. Finally, the paper briefly discusses political and institutional challenges for developing, enabling and stabilising these governance functions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The ‘traditional’ construction industry has constantly been challenged to improve its inherent problematic practices. Offsite production (OSP), under the umbrella of modern methods of construction (MMC), has been acknowledged as a means to help improve construction industry performance as well as meet new market demands through the provision of improved, adaptable, and sustainable buildings. However, the deployment of OSP systems, if not managed properly, may adversely affect the end result and be counterproductive. It is therefore imperative that the construction industry stakeholders learn and appreciate the specifics, merits, as well as the risks associated with OSP systems in order to achieve the desired outcomes and consequently improve industry performance. On-the-job-training (OJT) is usually sought to facilitate ‘experiential’ learning, which is argued to be particularly effective where a great deal of independence is granted to the task performer. However, OJT has been criticised for being expensive, limited, and sometimes devoid of the actual training context. In order to address the problems encountered with OJT, several virtual reality (VR) solutions have been proposed. This paper introduces one such VR solution prototype, in order to provide a risk-free environment for learning without the ‘do-or-die’ consequences often faced on real construction projects. The proffered solution provides a unique VR environment for practicing new working conditions associated with OSP practices. While the ‘scenes’ of the VR environment take place on a construction site, the environment predominantly targets professionals, such as project managers, construction managers, architects, designers, suppliers and manufacturers, to allow multidisciplinary learning to occur, and hence overcome ‘knowledge silos’ or ‘knowledge compartmentation’. The VR environment enables unforeseen problems often caused by professionals’ decisions, faulty work, and health and safety issues to occur; where the implications of which can be evaluated in respect of time, cost and resources. The VR environment proposed does not aim to resolve problems associated with OSP per se, rather aims to allow ‘things to go wrong’ and consequently allows users not only to ‘experience’ the resulting implications but also to reflect on those implications as part of the learning process. This paper discusses and presents the prototype for the first development phase of the VR interactive training environment. While the prototype was tested and validated with domain experts from industry, the research community, and academia from different EU countries, the data used in developing the prototype was constrained to one project in the UK which may limit the generalisability of results. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights • Current adopters of precision agriculture are divergent from current non-adopters. • First adopters are influenced by economic and informational interventions. • Increasing adoption is constrained by scepticism towards economic returns. • EU agricultural policy does not recognise complexity across domains to enable uptake. Abstract Precision agriculture technologies (PATs) offer an approach to arable systems which both enhance productivity and minimise environmental harm. Despite expected economic gains uptake by farmers has been low. This paper explores the intended adoption of PATs through a survey of 971 farmers growing wheat, potato and cotton in five European countries. We apply a count data modelling framework to accommodate the inherent structural differences between the current adopters and non-adopters of PATs. This is augmented by qualitative analysis of the main thematic reasons for intended uptake. Results indicate non-adopters have more belief in their knowledge of field topology and are generally older than current adopters. Those non-adopters intending to adopt PATs in the future are more favourable to a wider range of incentives than current adopters. Attitudinal differences towards the economic certainty of investment and payback periods also emerge. The results indicate that a gradient of adoption is occurring within European arable farming systems which may lead to inequalities in technology access. Recognition of these differences at policy level could lead to cost-effective interventions which maximise uptake, generate returns to candidate farmers and meet policy desires for sustainable agricultural production in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We contribute a composite indicator of performance in waste treatment in the EU-27. • Best performers are Central and Northern EU members and the worst are Eastern European countries. • Performance has converged since the enactment of the 2008 Waste Framework Directive. Abstract This paper assesses performance and convergence in the treatment of municipal waste by the members of the European Union-27 (EU-27) during the period 1995–2016. First, a composite indicator of performance –including landfill, incineration, recycling, and composting and digestion as treatment operations– is computed with Data Envelopment Analysis and Multi-Criteria-Decision-Making techniques at country and year levels. Then, convergence is assessed using the techniques proposed by Phillips and Sul (2007, 2009) and, more recently, by Kong et al. (2017). The best performers are Central and Northern European countries such as Denmark, Austria and Germany, whereas the worst are some Eastern European countries that joined the European Union in the 2000s. Furthermore, performance has largely converged among EU-27 countries since the enactment of the current Waste Framework Directive in 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract There is increasing interest in the idea that energy efficiency has economic, environmental and social impacts beyond energy and cost saving - a 'multiple benefits' perspective. However, present EU-decision making on energy efficiency is based on assessment of a very narrow range of costs and benefits. This paper investigates whether and how advocates of energy efficiency have used multiple benefits to frame their interactions with policy-makers at EU and UK level, and to broaden the appeal of energy efficiency. Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with key practitioners from industry-backed or trade organisations and environment-focussed NGOs. All respondents regularly made use of multiple benefits arguments. Their experience is that these arguments are most persuasive when linked to the values and priorities of decision-makers and politicians, most of whom do not value energy efficiency as a benefit in itself. Different contexts and different benefits are more or less salient for different stakeholders. This framing sets energy efficiency decisions in a broad economic, environmental and social context. As such it requires more evidence than a simple focus on energy savings, and different sorts of evidence which can connect with a variety of decision makers. The importance of recognising differing contexts, actors, values, priorities has led to the development of an alternative visualisation of multiple benefits, which de-centres energy efficiency. Highlights • 'Multiple benefits' identifies economic, social and environmental impacts of energy efficiency. • Leading NGOs and trade associations use this framing to influence EU policy makers. • Multiple benefits arguments work best linked to values and priorities of policy makers. • Persuasive case studies as well as quantitative evidence are required. • A new visualisation of multiple benefits has been developed, which 'de-centres' energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: While there is growing scholarly interest in returned and cyclical migration, and on young adult cultural or adventure seeking migration, there is still a lack of systematic empirical insights into how the experiences of being abroad, and after return, are mediated by exposure to different cultural environments. Addressing this conceptual and empirical gap, the paper analyses the experiences of New Zealand return migrants, or sojourners, who lived and worked in European countries (other than the UK) for more than one year and compares them with the experiences of NZ returnees from the UK. Drawing on 20 ‘non-UK’ and 22 ‘UK’ in-depth interviews, the paper revisits typology of cross-cultural, or intercultural, adjustment (largely ignored in studies of return migration) to assess sojourners’ experiences throughout the migration cycle and serve as a useful tool for identifying and reporting psychological and socio-cultural elements in the returnees stories. The findings of sojourners’ possible identity shifts during intercultural transition are discussed with reference to the four-member paradigm of Cultural Identity Model (CIM) () while addressing argument that overseas adaptation and repatriation experiences are not directly associated. This paper demonstrates the need to understand first that the costs and benefits of circular migration or sojourning are country-specific, and that they do not ‘just happen’ at a particular moment or in one phase but are forged through a veritable rollercoaster of experiences of intercultural adjustment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper discusses the distributional implications of environmental tax reform (ETR) for households, and presents new results from modelling the impacts of a major ETR for the European Union. The distributional effects arise from the new environmental taxes, any tax reductions made as part of the ETR, the wider macroeconomic impacts from the ETR, any special provisions in the ETR, and the environmental benefits from the ETR. The paper's literature review makes clear that while the impacts from taxes on the household use of energy are very often regressive, transport taxes tend not to be, although the impacts differ between urban and rural households. Moreover, the net distributional impact is often less regressive, or not at all, once the wider distributional effects are taken into account. Residual regressive effects can in principle be removed by further adjustments in the tax or benefits system. The modelling results suggest that an ETR in Europe will actually increase real incomes across the EU as a whole, and will not be generally regressive, although the results differ by country and for different socio-economic groups. The political acceptability of ETR may depend on the worst effects on these groups being mitigated in some way. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

For at least 15 years, there have been question marks over the legal permissibility of connecting one web resource to another by means of links. The purpose of this paper is to assess where we stand in terms of the legal state on the threshold of the new decade. The substantive argument in this paper is that, fundamentally, there are only two sorts of links. 'Normal' links facilitate access to subject matter that has been made available to the public and are visible to users as 'activatable' references. 'Embedding' links, by contrast, automatically incorporate online material and cause it to become a part of the embedding document. On the grounds of the cumulative judicial custom in the member states of the European Union, this paper proposes that normal links as such should invariably be deemed not to create a state of interference with copyright law. Embedding links, however, may constitute an infringement of the exclusive right of alteration, communication or reproduction enjoyed by the copyright holder, depending on the facts and circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-efficiency links economic efficiency with environmental efficiency. The main purpose of the concept is to identify and implement activities to enable production that is both economically more efficient and cleaner. This means that parameters with a high indicative value have to be used. Since both the environmental and the economic performance of industries must be described concurrently, environmental intensity appears to be a good indicator of eco-efficiency. Environmental intensity is environmental impact per unit of economic performance. In this paper, the environmental impact of industry classes is derived from emission data, released by the European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER), and then aggregated and assessed using Eco-Indicator 99, a single-score life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method. The calculated ratio is thus an accurate description of the environmental–economic state of industry classes. The main advantage of this approach is the underlying consistent statistical framework, that permits, on a disaggregated level, economic data to be correlated with ecological data and to be frequently updated. This single indicator facilitates a comparison of environmental intensity of different industry classes. The paper shows that it is possible to deduce a disaggregated eco-efficiency indicator, which is exemplified using German data, however could be analysed for different European countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract In the literature of field innovations, it has always been presented as the most important factor to achieve both the economic growth and the employment growth. Supporting innovations is also one of the aims of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Goal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation). The measurement of the innovation level of world economies has been of interest for several years for both economic theoreticians and practitioners. However, the real innovation level of world economies can be evaluated on the basis of a much more limited set of diagnostic features available in official statistics. That is why the main objective of the work is to assess the level of innovation of the European Union Member States based on the composite index which was proposed by authors using variables indicated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development strategy. The following specific objectives have been formulated as part of the main objective: (i) comparing the level of innovation of EU Member States based on the results of the ranking constructed by the authors; (ii) simplifying the tools for assessing activities undertaken under the 2030 Agenda strategy; (iii) building a tool that will allow for a long-term assessment of the effectiveness of measures to strengthen innovation within the framework of the sustainable development policy indicated in the 2030 Agenda; (iv) comparison of the results of the conducted research with the Summary Innovation Index (SII) published in the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), which in the literature on the subject is one of the most frequently used rankings for assessing the level of innovation in European countries. The comparative analysis carried out here is intended to highlight that the level of innovation of European Union member states can be described equally well on the basis of a limited set of diagnostic features. The taxonomic measure of development based on the Weber median vector was used in the paper to assess the innovation level of the EU Member States. The research was conducted based on the indicators applied by Eurostat to monitor the implementation of Goal 9 of the 2030 Agenda. The applied method and the results obtained can be used in subsequent years to examine the direction of changes observed also from the point of view of the particular EU Member States in the area of the application of innovations for the implementation of sustainable development policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The ecosystem approach has become a common tool in environmental governance over the last decade. Within the EU context, this is most clearly accentuated through the adoption of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the Directive on Maritime Spatial Planning, that both include requirements for Member States to apply the approach. This paper examines the organization of marine spatial planning (MSP) by the EU countries in the Baltic Sea Region in terms of management levels and geographic delimitations. The research shows that there is no consistent interpretation of what is the appropriate level of management, or ecosystem scale. These findings are used to inform a discussion on the application of the ecosystem approach in the countries around the Baltic Sea, and its effect on the potential of transboundary cooperation initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic developments experienced within the countries of European Union (EU) in the recent years have reported impacts on road safety levels, especially in serious injuries and traffic fatalities. In order to support the road safety strategies of the EU countries, it is essential to investigate the association of road safety levels with economic, social and demographic factors and finally comparatively evaluate the performance of each country. This paper aims at analyzing the road safety performance of EU-23 countries over a decade (2005–2014) considering their socio-economic and demographic background. For doing so, two distinctive models were applied, in particular, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and DEA-Cross Efficiency Model (DEA-CEM), both suitably adapted to the road safety particularities. Moreover, the concept of road safety evaluation is performed by using comparable road safety indicators, namely, mortality rate and fatality risk. The results of this study contribute to the decision/policy making agenda from the perspective of evaluating road safety performance levels by using short-term and long-term road safety targets. Additionally, an unbiased ‘picture’ of the countries’ road safety performance over a period of 10 years is provided, accompanied with information on the intra-period countries’ efficiency of their road safety targets. The proposed intra-period analysis has useful practical and methodological implications since it is able to expose the evolution of road safety levels among the countries, besides a static overall picture. Finally, this study offers valuable insights on the cross-evaluation of road safety levels among the EU countries by considering a target-setting approach for each of them before and during a turbulent financial period for Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EU airline deregulation in 2004 resulted in numerous merger proposals. The European Commission has a crucial role in deciding on mergers with a Community dimension. An overview of 21 merger proposals is followed by the assessment of the EC's attitude towards definition of relevant market and applied remedies. In this paper, we argue that the EC should apply EU competition law in a more consistent manner in order not to slip into arbitrariness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The European Virus Archive (EVA) was created in 2008 with funding from the FP7-EU Infrastructure Programme, in response to the need for a coordinated and readily accessible collection of viruses that could be made available to academia, public health organisations and industry. Within three years, it developed from a consortium of nine European laboratories to encompass associated partners in Africa, Russia, China, Turkey, Germany and Italy. In 2014, the H2020 Research and Innovation Framework Programme (INFRAS projects) provided support for the transformation of the EVA from a European to a global organization (EVAg). The EVAg now operates as a non-profit consortium, with 26 partners and 20 associated partners from 21 EU and non-EU countries. In this paper, we outline the structure, management and goals of the EVAg, to bring to the attention of researchers the wealth of products it can provide and to illustrate how end-users can gain access to these resources. Organisations or individuals who would like to be considered as contributors are invited to contact the EVAg coordinator, Jean-Louis Romette, at jean-louis.romette@univmed.fr. Highlights • The EVAg was created as an international organization aiming to provide a gold standard resource to the scientific community. • The EVAg operates as a non-profit consortium of 26 partners and 20 associated partners from EU and non-EU countries. • Members and associated members retain ownership of the viruses that they disseminate via the EVAg infrastructure. • The EVAg approach to quality management is directed by the project's own quality standard, based upon OECD guidelines. • The ultimate objective is to make the EVAg a permanent archive that can provide access to viruses and reagents globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge transfer and innovation cooperation between the EU and its neighbours has remained weakly developed. To promote this cooperation, the EU has set up initiatives for the European neighbourhood. The issue has, however, received very limited scholarly attention in the field of tourism. This research gap is addressed here via interview data collected from participants in tourism related EU-funded projects in the Finnish-Russian cross-border region. These underline the importance of EU-funding in facilitating knowledge transfer and innovation between Finland and Russia. While language issues, and differences in business culture and administrative/legislative systems between the two countries, constitute barriers for practical cross-border cooperation, it is cross-border differences in culture and technological capabilities that drive cross-border knowledge transfer and innovation in the cross-border region. The paper concludes with policy recommendations for promoting future cross-border cooperation in innovation and tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]