European Agreements Research Articles

When politicization meets ideology: the European Parliament and free trade agreements

AbstractSince the Lisbon Treaty, the European Parliament (EP) has considerably increased its competencies in European Union (EU) trade policy. At the same time, a ‘new generation’ of free trade agreements (FTAs), including the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the United States, Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada, and the agreement with Japan, have been negotiated by the European Commission. Although existing literature has tackled the process of the EP's institutional self-empowerment in this policy area, there is no systematic research investigating the lines of conflict within the EP over FTAs. Through a newly collected dataset of all EP plenary debates between 2009 and 2019 on six relevant FTAs, we extract EP Members’ (MEPs) preferences by means of a manual textual analysis. We then test the explanatory power of the two traditional lines of cleavages within the EP over MEPs stated preferences: position on the left-right axis and support for EU integration. We find that both these dimensions fundamentally shape the conflict in the EP over FTAs. The impact of these two ideological cleavages is magnified in the context of politicized FTAs, namely the TTIP and CETA. Through these findings, the paper significantly contributes to the research on competition in the EP and, more broadly, to the understanding of EU trade policy and its emerging politicization dynamics.

An overview about the feasibility of the hydrogen power plants

In order to make the decision to implement a project from any domain, several aspects must be analyzed in the preliminary stage, leading to the justification of the practical realization of the project. Feasibility is based on technical-economic criteria but also involves other impact factors, such as social and ecological. In the case of hydrogen, there are not many countries with experience in the field, but in the future it is expected that hydrogen technologies will expand, from production, transport, storage, distribution and use. There are more and more factors that encourage the development of hydrogen projects and the funding proposed through European environmental agreements is a real challenge for specialists. Therefore, the authors of the paper aimed to analyze several aspects of the feasibility of hydrogen production and storage projects with the identification of implementation conditions: benefits, efficiency, costs, sources of funding, entities involved, constraints or legislative framework.

OPEN ACCESS, THE HUMANITIES, AND CONTEMPLATION THROUGH SCIENCE

OPEN ACCESS, THE HUMANITIES, AND CONTEMPLATION THROUGH SCIENCE

A VISION OF THE POST-PANDEMIC ECONOMY

A VISION OF THE POST-PANDEMIC ECONOMY

Joint bodies in the European Union's international agreements: Delegating powers to the European Commission in EU external relations

In many international agreements, the European Union sets up joint bodies such as ‘association councils’ or ‘joint committees’. These institutions bring together European Union and third-country officials for agreement implementation. To date, we know surprisingly little about how much discretion the European Commission enjoys in them. Drawing on a principal–agent framework, we hypothesise that the complexity of agreements, the voting rule, conflict within the Council, and agency losses can explain Commission discretion in these institutions. Drawing on an original dataset covering nearly 300 such joint bodies set up by the European Union since 1992, we find robust empirical support for all expectations except for the agency loss thesis. Our findings suggest that the European Commission is the primary actor in the implementation of many of the European Union's international agreements, allowing it to influence EU external relations beyond what is currently acknowledged in the literature.

Medicine price transparency and confidential managed-entry agreements in Europe: findings from the EURIPID survey

Pricing of pharmaceuticals is an all-time challenge for healthcare systems. Often public payers agree with companies on confidential managed-entry agreements (MEAs) that, e.g. foresee discounts under specific circumstances. The EURIPID Executive Committee surveyed 22 European countries, who all reported the use of confidential agreements between pharmaceutical companies and public payers, confirming that the actual prices paid are typically lower than the published list price. In 68% of the countries, the confidentiality of MEAs is required by non-disclosure clauses between companies and public payers. In some countries (27%) this is even backed up by a specific law. Our study identified legal constraints for the sharing of information on actual prices and confidential agreements among European countries and consequently restrictions in transparency. In conclusion, the EURIPID survey findings suggest that the current possibility to improve the medicines’ price transparency across countries is limited and the issue probably requires international institutional engagement, at least to coordinate initiatives toward a greater collaboration among member states.

The enforceability of the trade and sustainable development chapters of the European Union's free trade agreements.

Since 2011, the European Union’s (EU) free trade agreements (FTAs) include a Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) chapter which provides for environmental and labour commitments. Nevertheless, the ratification and implementation of these commitments remain insufficient. It is therefore essential to analyse whether the EU has become more ambitious in enforcing the TSD chapter. To analyse the chapter’s enforceability, the EU’s FTAs with South Korea, Canada and Japan have been compared. The comparative analysis was based on three elements: the labour and environmental commitments, institutional mechanisms and the enforcement procedure. Concerning the latter, the ongoing EU-Korea dispute settlement case over workers’ rights in South Korea is the leading example. Until the Commission reveals more assertive enforcement plans, it can be said that the EU has not become more ambitious in enforcing its TSD chapter. Since no major changes were detected in the comparative analysis, several interviewees proposed enforcement mechanisms.

Differentiated European Integration of Ukraine in Comparative Perspective

This article offers a comparative analysis of Ukraine’s Association Agreement against the backdrop of other agreements of the EU with third countries that facilitate their partial integration into the EU’s common space of four freedoms, albeit without institutional membership (EEA Agreement of Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein; EU–Swiss Bilaterals, and Turkey’s Customs Union). In addition, this analysis includes the Stabilisation and Association Agreements of the Western Balkan countries and the former Europe Agreements of the Central European countries. The research draws on concepts of differentiated integration and external governance of the EU. The analysis is built along two dimensions: identification of the regulatory boundary (policy-taking: scope of transposition of the EU acquis, legal quality of transposition, and the type of supervision mechanism) and organizational boundary (policy-shaping: inclusion in the EU institutions). The analysis concludes that Ukraine’s Association Agreement compared with other EU integration agreements with third countries includes the largest structural asymmetry, that is, a biggest gap between the largest volume of acquis, which Ukraine has to incorporate into its national legislation on one hand, and the lowest level of institutional involvement of Ukraine in policy-shaping within the EU on the other.

Radiological Scouting, Monitoring and Inspection Using Drones.

Human populations and natural ecosystems are bound to be exposed to ionizing radiation from the deposition of artificial radionuclides resulting from nuclear accidents, nuclear devices or radiological dispersive devices (“dirty bombs”). On the other hand, Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material industries such as phosphate production or uranium mining, contribute to the on site storage of residuals with enhanced concentrations of natural radionuclides. Therefore, in the context of the European agreements concerning nuclear energy, namely the European Atomic Energy Community Treaty, monitoring is an essential feature of the environmental radiological surveillance. In this work, we obtain 3D maps from outdoor scenarios, and complete such maps with measured radiation levels and with its radionuclide signature. In such scenarios, we face challenges such as unknown and rough terrain, limited number of sampled locations and the need for different sensors and therefore different tasks. We propose a radiological solution for scouting, monitoring and inspecting an area of interest, using a fleet of drones and a controlling ground station. First, we scout an area with a Light Detection and Ranging sensor onboard a drone to accurately 3D-map the area. Then, we monitor that area with a Geiger–Müller Counter at a low-vertical distance from the ground to produce a radiological (heat)map that is overlaid on the 3D map of the scenario. Next, we identify the hotspots of radiation, and inspect them in detail using a drone by landing on them, to reveal its radionuclide signature using a Cadmium–Zinc–Telluride detector. We present the algorithms used to implement such tasks both at the ground station and on the drones. The three mission phases were validated using actual experiments in three different outdoor scenarios. We conclude that drones can not only perform the mission efficiently, but in general they are faster and as reliable as personnel on the ground.

Nature-Based Solutions and Sustainable Urban Planning in the European Environmental Policy Framework: Analysis of the State of the Art and Recommendations for Future Development

Sustainable urban planning (SUP) is crucial in the development of sustainable cities, as also underlined by the New Urban Agenda. Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly being recognized for their potential to offer multiple benefits that are necessary in order to cope with present and future urban challenges. The European policy framework, including the recently released European Green Deal, could strongly boost the role and recognition of NBS and SUP as drivers of sustainable and inclusive urban transition. Through a content analysis of current environmental European policies, strategies and agreements, this paper provides (i) an overview of the state of the art of the environmental European policy framework and the recognized role of NBS and SUP in reaching defined objectives, and (ii) insights on where NBS and SUP could play a larger role within this framework. On this basis, the paper identifies gaps and develops recommendations for a better integration of such concepts into the current framework.

The Birth of the Cultural Treaty in Europe's Age of Crisis

Bilateral treaties are an age-old tool of diplomacy, but before the First World War they were only rarely applied to the world of intellectual and cultural relations. This article explores the process by which diplomatic agreements on intellectual and cultural exchange came instead to be a common feature of interwar European international relations by contrasting two types of agreements identified by period observers: ‘intellectual’ accords, typified by the agreements France signed in the 1920s, and ‘cultural’ treaties, advanced by fascist Italy in the 1930s. Comparing France and Italy's use of such agreements in Central-Eastern Europe reveals that Italy's fascist regime responded to the crises and opportunities of the interwar period by developing a distinctive model of ‘cultural treaty’ that applied state power to international cultural exchange, and mobilised the idea of ‘culture’ itself, in a new and influential manner.

Influence of the European Court of Human Rights Practice on the Implementation of the Principle of Gender Equality in Ukraine

The article analyses the modern court decisions of the European Court of Human Rights on the formation and implementation of the principle of gender equality in Ukraine. The research defines that the importance of ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men for Ukraine was because Ukraine is a member of all major international and European regional agreements in the field of human rights. The authors state that this is due both to Ukraine's general commitments to promoting respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and their adherence, as well as the fact that its participation in European integration processes is important for Ukraine. The research stipulates that gender equality provides equal rights for women and men, as well as their same significance, opportunities, responsibilities and participation in all spheres of public and private life. The authors prove that the pioneering work of the Council of Europe in the field of human rights and gender equality contributed to the development of a comprehensive legal framework. Gender equality is one of the organization's priority areas of activity, and the Council of Europe continues to actively address current and emerging challenges and address barriers to achieving real and complete gender equality. The research investigates the provisions of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and Protocol No12 in terms of prohibition of discrimination and ensuring gender equality. It also determines that the conceptual principles of these documents are the protection of human rights, support for democracy and ensuring the principle of the rule of law. The article states that, in particular, the modern legal instrument in the field of gender equality is the Council of Europe's Gender Equality Strategy 2018–2023. The document provides for the achievement of the main six goals. These include combating gender stereotypes and gender discrimination; preventing and combating violence against women; ensuring equal access of women to justice; ensuring equal participation of women and men in political and public decision-making; implementation of the strategy for achieving gender equality in politics and all activities; protection of the rights of migrants, refugees, women and girls seeking asylum. The authors prove that the establishment of the European value of gender equality should be ensured both in society as a whole and in its various institutions, in particular. This is primarily to prevent gender discrimination, ensure equal participation of women and men in making socially important decisions, ensuring equal opportunities for women and men to combine professional and family responsibilities, prevent gender violence, etc. Keywords: Gender Equality, European Standards, Legal Mechanism, European Court of Human Rights, Discrimination, Equal Rights.

Reshaping the external constraint. Franco Modigliani, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa and the EMS, 1977-1993

During a decade of stagflation in the 1970s, a sea of changes on the interna-tional stage led to major macroeconomic imbalances that gave central bankers a different role in relation to governments and policy-makers. In Europe, this coin-cided with the relaunching of the project for European integration. The Italian case shows how governments and central bankers interacted in shaping adjustment strategies. The Bank of Italy had a pivotal role in shaping the country's economic policies, relying on its capacity for economic analysis. The adjustment strategy formulated in the "Pandolfi Plan" of 1978 was conceived largely by an economist at the Bank of Italy, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa. Further developing analyses conducted jointly with Franco Modigliani the previous year, the plan focused on the macroeconomic effects of high labour costs in the wake of a full ("100% and plus") wage indexing and rising government deficits. The policy proposal revolved around a few targets, namely investments and economic growth, and an explicit principle of fairness in the labour market. The Pandolfi Plan pledged to Italy's en-during participation in the European integration process by combining economic development with adhesion to the "European choice", which meant joining the European Monetary System (EMS). The European agreements governing EMS membership replaced the standard external economic constraints, i.e. the balance of payments and exchange rate, with a new kind of semi-legal external constraint ingrained in the governance structure of the European Community. The nature of this new semi-legal external constraint as a fiscal discipline mechanism eventually emerged more clearly with the Maastricht Treaty.

ÁFRICAS EM ÁFRICAS: DAS TRAVESSIAS INTELECTUAIS

: Vanicleia Silva Santos narrates her academic trajectory in undergraduate studies at PUC-SP and postgraduate studies at USP, highlighting her family origins, intellectual and academic influences. She analyzes her research in African history and the role of black and black intellectuals in changing historiography. It evaluates its role as black teacher and academic, involved in projects in Brazil and in agreement in North American universities and Europe and Africa.

The Trade Effects of Regional Agreements and Economic Integration Processes in Europe, South America, and North America

This article seeks to understand the effects of trade creation and diversion in regional agreements and integration processes in Europe, South America, and North America. Through a systemic literature review, and based on the economic theory of integration, it analyzes the impact of tariff barriers on trading volume through the world, as well as the impact of barriers removals in member and non-member countries that participate in these trade agreements. As hypothesis, it can be stated that the trade effects generated by economic integration processes vary depending on the endogenous conditions of the industries in member countries, in addition to the consolidation phase of the integration processes. For this purpose, a qualitative descriptive methodology, based on an analysis of literature, is used to determine the trade creation and deviation effects of agreements in Europe (European Union), South America (MERCOSUR and CAN), and North America (NAFTA).

How to assess health policy impacts of new generation trade agreements

Abstract Issue Negotiation of trade agreements has become a key part of current international policy environment with the consequence of increasing concerns over impacts on public health, health protection and policy space for health. Trade agreements represent 'meta-regulation' where key impacts will be on how governments can regulate with different implications depending on existing regulatory framework within a country. Engaging with trade requires understanding how health-related arguments can be made and where they reside. Results This presentation discusses where and how public health advocates can engage with trade related decision-making on new generation trade agreements with focus on regulation, services and protection of investment and intellectual property rights. The innovative approach on policy space for health will overcome focus on existing standards and allows discussion on what exceptions and exclusions in trade agreements actually imply. Policy space allows analysis on impacts which may not relate to direct health outcomes, such as issues with privacy, health data, access to new technologies, and pricing of medicines. The presentation will use case examples from European Union trade agreements and will discuss politics of mandate negotiations as well as how diversions, rhetorical/empty claims and circular traps are used in in political decision-making and the extent to which and how these can be counteracted on key public health and health systems -related issues. Lessons learned If negotiated agreements will affect how governments can regulate in future rather than existing standards, this requires a different approach for public health researchers and advocates. The lessons learned will provide suggestions on how to approach trade policies as part of Health in All Policies and where limits and opportunities of health and sustainability impact assessments reside. Key messages New generation trade agreements impact on regulatory policy space. Assessing impacts of trade agreements need to go beyond impact assessments.

Transferring Alternatives to Pre-trial Detention in the European Union context. Can European Agreements Be Trusted?

ABSTRACT One critical element of interagency and international cooperation in the area of criminal justice is whether organizations – and more generally countries – can trust one another to follow through on agreements that have been mutually established, such as the utilization of a home country’s alternatives to incarceration. This paper builds on the existing literature on mutual trust and adds more empirical data regarding how competent authorities in the European Union (EU) perceive the mutual trust concept in day-to-day practice. In our examination of mutual trust, we draw on an EU survey and three interviews with judiciary members in Spain. Based on our review of the survey findings and interview data, we find that, although mutual trust is essential for all mutual recognition instruments in the EU, its dimensions are far from being fully understood. Whilst the political discourse at the EU level presumes the “pure” existence of the mutual trust, both the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights recognize its limitations, especially when human rights standards are in question. Scholars have also started to challenge the absolute existence of mutual trust independent of any determinants. This paper adds to this debate by illustrating how mutual trust is not only complex and dynamic but also selective and differential. It seems that different problem-solving strategies in the field of criminal and juvenile justice demand different levels of mutual trust, and mutual trust appears to manifest itself more with some Member States than with others.

European agreements for nature conservation need to explicitly address wolf-dog hybridisation

Hybridisation between wolves and dogs is increasingly reported in Europe. Nonetheless, no systematic survey has ever been attempted at the continental scale. We made the first assessment of wolf-dog hybridisation (WDH) occurrence in Europe and analysed how the phenomenon is addressed by international legislation and managed at the country level. We found that WDH is reported in all nine extant European wolf populations, and in 21 out of 26 countries for which we received information. The two main international legal instruments (i.e., the Habitats Directive and the Bern Convention) do not explicitly mention the threat posed by hybridisation but do provide guidance promoting control of free-ranging wolf-dog hybrids. However, we recorded poor compliance with such recommendations in most European countries, and a lack of coordination in addressing WDH among countries sharing the same wolf population. Alarmingly, we revealed a lack of well-designed and implemented country-wide genetic surveys to detect and monitor hybridisation, both relevant pre-requisites to effectively implement WDH management. By recommending criteria for an operative definition of “hybrid”, we also suggest improvements to enhance WDH-related policy at the European scale.

PopFor: A new model for estimating poplar yields

Lignocellulosic bioenergy crops are a potential option for climate mitigation and for meeting the targets of the Paris Agreement in Europe. The PopFor process-based model has been developed based on the earlier MiscanFor model and parameterised for poplar using data from a literature review in combination with experimental data on high performing clones Max 1, 3, 4 for extensively and intensively managed sites in Germany. PopFor needs comparatively few input data to provide accurate estimates of biomass yield. The parameters found allowed a good match to measured values. The best fit for bud emergence is 81 °days (base 5), with leaf emergence at 463 °days (base 5) and the temperature at which photosynthesis slows is 28 °C. Maximum radiation use efficiency was set to 2.9 gMJ−1. The air temperature threshold that kills crop was set at −37 °C with the number of days below this threshold that kills the crop set at 90 days. 30 days below wiltpoint was set as a threshold that kills the crop from drought. It was found that plant available water was the key explanatory variable in predicting yield and access to groundwater explained 97% of the yield variation between the sites. The results show that the model estimates the yield of poplar after the establishment phase with a mean difference of 0.27 DM t ha−1 y−1 (r2 0.99, n29, F = 4.18, p < 0.05 with RMSE = 19.68%). PopFor was shown to be an effective model for predicting yields under different soil conditions.

Human Rights References in Norway’s Readmission Agreements: (How) Do They Protect?

ABSTRACT Norway is a country with one of the highest numbers of readmission agreements in Europe, concluded with a view to ‘combat’ irregular migration and to facilitate return procedures. Despite the widespread perception that such agreements in a sense are human rights ‘neutral’, this article takes as starting point that the return of irregular migrants is one of the most vexed aspects of migration management, raising not only questions of cooperation between states, but also issues of the protection, safety and dignity of migrants. This article is the first to explore the extent to which Norway’s more than 30 readmission agreements take an international human rights law approach. It analyses their scope of application; their specific and general human rights commitments; and issues linked to the return of specific groups of persons. It finds that there are considerable differences between Norway’s readmission agreements when it comes to human rights protection, and that even seemingly subtle differences can have important human rights implications. It argues for an overall stronger human rights focus in the drafting and implementation of readmission agreements, and suggests ways in which future agreements be designed with a view to better achieving human rights in practice.