European Border Research Articles

Углеродный сбор Евросоюза:на пересечении климатической и внешнеторговой политики

The European Union (EU) is getting ready for the implementation of СBAM — the world’s first carbon border adjustmentmechanism. This article explores the correlation between intra-European and international facets of СBAM as two sides ofthe same coin: while appending the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, it is equally an instrument of foreign trade, immediatelytouching upon EU relations with trade partners and specialized international organizations. Once such correlation is takeninto account, it becomes evident why the design of the European carbon levy remains capable of improvement as far as fightingclimate change goes.The concept of multilevel governance assists this research as the basis for analyzing СBAM. The institutionalist approachclarifies the specifics of the European carbon border adjustment mechanism. They are important in order to scopeout its true perspective. In particular, the MLG approach helps to expose the blurred lines between market regulation andtax policy in European governance practice.The ways, if any, that СBAM differs from a carbon tax and, at the same time, is similar to a carbon tariff are considered.A reappraisal made in the article of this hybrid measure makes it possible to draw a conclusion that, as envisioned bythe European Commission, it is meant to ensure more favourable conditions for investments in cost-intensive, low-carbontechnologies while suppressing competition from cheaper, high-carbon imports. At the same time, so as to avoid unleashingtrade wars, it is important for the Commission to assure the maximum possible conformity of СBAM to the World TradeOrganization’s (WTO) legal requirements. Compatibility with WTO law would enhance the ecological legitimacy of theregulatory mechanism in question. It would make sure that international partners would not regard СBAM as a form ofgreen protectionism.Further, the subtle aspects of preferences in terms of СBAM design are discussed, as held by the Commission, EUmember states, the European Parliament, and the representatives of European carbon-intensive industries. Particular attentionis paid to the discussion in the EU on the issue of connecting export rebates for inside producers to CBAM.

Affective politics of migration control in Turkey: a postcolonial approach

ABSTRACT There is an increasing call for addressing the Eurocentrism of research on the external dimension of European Union (EU) migration and border policies and practices. A growing body of work attempts to remedy the discipline’s Eurocentrism through postcolonial theory. This article argues that more needs to be done to unsettle the Eurocentrism of migration studies with regard to the question of non-EU political subjectivity. The article adopts an alternative conception of subjectivity, which looks at the “affective” dimension of international relations. Through a close engagement with postcolonial studies on the question of political subjectivity, the article underscores the significance of history and historical relationships in constituting an affective politics of borders and migration in the non-EU world. The argument is illustrated through an empirical focus on Turkey. Drawing on interviews with Turkish border officials, the article aims to contribute to the literature in two ways. First, it argues that affective attachments shape how Turkish actors perceive and attribute meaning to national borders and human mobility across the national territory. Second, and relatedly, Turkish actors’ identification with and positioning towards the EU’s migration control regime are products of affective attachments rooted in historical experiences and encounters with Europe.

“Mine from ’33; Yours from ’41”

AbstractAt many points in modern history, Ukrainian identity has been bound up with the Ukrainian language, Ukrainian forms of Christianity, and specific collective experiences of trauma as Ukrainians. This sense of national identity was particularly felt in the immediate post-Soviet period; for although Soviet nationalities policy attempted to eradicate dangerous forms of nationalism and ethnic prejudice, these policies often had the reverse effect, creating a heightened sense of competition between individual ethnic groups, which persisted into the post-1991 reconstruction of East European borders. In the wake of the 2013–14 Euromaidan protests, poets in Ukraine have sought to correct the failures of both Soviet nationalities policy and post-Soviet Ukrainian national-identity formation by weaving Jewish, Ukrainian, and Crimean Tatar histories of collective trauma into their writing. This article focuses on the recent work of the poet Marianna Kiyanovska, whose attempt to bridge seemingly irreconcilable histories can be read as part of what scholars have identified as a recent shift from viewing Ukrainian identity as an ethnic category to a civic one. Reading Kiyanovska in the context of other recent Ukrainian poems and songs, the author argues that this “civic turn” in Ukrainian identity formation is both a direct response to conversations taking place about the meaning of the Maidan, and part of a global conversation about privilege, erasure, and culpability.

Using Open, Public Data for Security Provision: Ethical Perspectives on Risk-Based Border Checks in the EU

This article explores the use of open-source intelligence (OSINT) techniques as part of data-driven border checks in the EU. While the idea to group travelers into risk categories in order to differentiate the intensity of border checks has been criticized for its likely impact on privacy and other fundamental rights, the exclusive use of “open,” “public” data was proposed as an alternative that mitigates these issues. However, OSINT remains a rather vague term, as it is unclear what constitutes “open” or “public” data, how the use of such techniques would contribute to the production of security, and whether its use actually mitigates most ethical issues. The goal of this article is to contribute toward a situated answer to these questions. It will provide groundwork by clarifying what OSINT practices could entail in the context of the European border checks regime and by developing an ethical perspective on these practices. I will show that the impact depends not so much on the public availability of the analyzed data, but on the specifics of the implementation of OSINT techniques. Thus, certain uses of OSINT continue to raise severe privacy and fundamental rights issues.

The Humanitarian Theater in the Mediterranean and the Threat of Violence in the Balkans

ABSTRACT This article compares the Mediterranean and the Balkan routes of migration into the European Union, exploring the (in)visibility and (un)knowability of the management of European borderlands. It offers a historical overview of the hotspot approach in the Mediterranean, where securitarian concerns merged with humanitarian affects, making certain practices and subjectivities possible, but foreclosing others. Lampedusa, Italy, has been turned into a stage where “humanitarian theater” performed for European audiences has become a crucial aspect of border management. The strategy of EU border management has been different in the Balkans, where the use of violence has been concealed with a veil of official denial. Instead of a humanitarian theater, in the Balkans we can find stories of border terror, official denial of such violence, and competing claims to knowledge about it. This official denial has kept “Europe” as a political community simultaneously implicated in and innocent of the use of violence in border management. Despite their differences, the key functions of the EU border regime have been the same in these two regions. The comparative perspective illustrates the different strategies the European border regime uses to manage the perceived “crisis” of migration, while simultaneously keeping the liberal space of Europe “safe.”

Assessing different European Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism implementations and their impact on trade partners

The European Union (EU) will implement a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to reach its climate mitigation targets while avoiding the relocation of its industries to countries with less stringent climate policies (carbon leakage). The exact implementation and possible future extensions of such an EU CBAM are still being debated. Here we apply a throughflow-based accounting method on detailed trade network data to assess the coverage of different implementation options. Using a stylized comprehensive EU CBAM as benchmark, we then quantify how an EU CBAM may affect the EU’s trade partners by channeling the EU carbon price to other countries. We find that middle- and low-income countries for which the EU is an important export market would be disproportionally impacted even under conservative implementation options. We finally explore different international revenue recycling schemes to make the EU CBAM inclusive toward vulnerable countries and able to foster global climate cooperation.

Agricultural systems and biodiversity: evidence from European borders and bird populations

Countries' agricultural systems have an important impact on biodiversity, for example bird populations. Here, we estimate such impacts by exploiting a natural experiment in the middle of Europe, where there is a naturally homogenous area that is divided into three countries: Switzerland, Germany, and France. These countries have markedly different agricultural systems and policies. Using a methodologically unified and unusually rich bird dataset available across these borders, both for the 2010s and 1990s, we analyze (a) whether there is a clear pattern that bird diversity systematically changes when crossing these borders and (b) whether this has changed over time. To assess bird populations, we focus on Shannon diversity, species richness and number of territories, as well as the individual effect on 29 common bird species. We find that Switzerland has systematically smaller and less diverse bird populations compared to Germany and France, driven entirely by agricultural differences. At the same time, we find that the difference between the countries was considerably more pronounced in the 1990s than in the 2010s. Yet, to reach the bird friendliness of Switzerland's neighboring countries, additional policy effort seems required, for example in the form of targeted agri-environmental payments.

The ERA Registry Annual Report 2020: a summary.

The European Renal Association (ERA) Registry collects data on kidney replacement therapy (KRT) in patients with ESKD. This paper is a summary of the ERA Registry Annual Report 2020, also including comparisons among primary renal disease (PRD) groups. Data were collected from 52 national and regional registries from 34 European countries and countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea: 35 registries from 18 countries providing individual level data and 17 registries from 17 countries providing aggregated data. Using this data, KRT incidence and prevalence, kidney transplantation rates, expected remaining lifetimes and survival probabilities were calculated. A general population of 654.9 million people was covered by the ERA Registry in 2020. The overall incidence of KRT was 128 per million population (p.m.p.). In incident KRT patients, 54% were older than 65 years, 63% were men and the most common PRD was diabetes mellitus (21%). Regarding initial treatment modality in incident patients, 85% received haemodialysis (HD), 11% received peritoneal dialysis (PD) and 4% received a pre-emptive kidney transplant. On 31 December 2020, the prevalence of KRT was 931 p.m.p. In prevalent patients, 45% were older than 65 years, 60% were men and glomerulonephritis was the most common PRD (18%). Of these patients, 58% were on HD, 5% on PD and 37% were living with a kidney transplant. The overall kidney transplantation rate in 2020 was 28 p.m.p., with a majority of kidney grafts from deceased donors (71%). The unadjusted 5-year survival, based on incident dialysis patient from 2011-15, was 41.8%. For patients having received a deceased donor transplant, the unadjusted 5-year survival probability was 86.2% and for patients having received a living donor transplant it was 94.4%. When comparing data by PRD group, differences were found regarding the distribution of age groups, sex and treatment modality received.

Impact evaluation of the Brazilian Integrated Border Health System

IMPACT This article presents a methodological framework that can be used to evaluate interventions in border regions. The case study was SIS-Fronteiras: a Brazilian project to support municipalities providing healthcare for economic migrants from neighbouring countries. This article uncovers important opportunities and challenges during the implementation of this project. The project failed partly because of inadequate management of resources. Future policies in regions with significant trans-border flows (for example between the USA and Mexico in North America; and across some European and Asian borders) should incorporate mechanisms of cross-border governance, co-operation and co-financing to increase the chances of success. ABSTRACT This study evaluates Brazil’s Integrated Border Health System (SIS-Fronteiras). First, propensity score matching and difference in differences techniques were applied to analyse the health indicators of the 588 municipalities in the border strip of Brazil. Second, the authors conducted and analysed 23 interviews and 12 focus groups. The results suggest that the inadequacy of the governance model explains the failure to improve healthcare conditions in these areas. This article contributes to deepening our understanding of public policies and, in particular, public health interventions in border regions.

Ukraine at War: Resilience and Normative Agency

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has transformed all aspects of life in the country, including societal attitudes, national politics and Ukraine’s agency on the international arena. The article seeks to discuss and conceptualise how practices of resilience create discursive spaces for producing and shaping Ukraine’s agency. In other words, how do experiences of resilience in four different spheres (societal, institutional, communicative and subregional) affect Ukraine’s capacity not only to cope with the intervention and survive as a nation, but also to contribute to the future of international security order. The author argues that by containing the Russian army, Ukraine can be viewed as a co-producer of European security, which is particularly acknowledged by European countries bordering on Russia. Ukraine’s agency, as unfolded in 2022, addresses Western countries with an insistent demand to perceive Ukraine as a part of the European normative order.

The InflateSAR Campaign: Developing Refugee Vessel Detection Capabilities with Polarimetric SAR

In the efforts to mitigate the ongoing humanitarian crisis at the European sea borders, this work builds detection capabilities to help find refugee boats in distress. For this paper, we collected dual-pol and quad-pol synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data over a 12 m rubber inflatable in a test-bed lake near Berlin, Germany. To consider a real scenario, we prepared the vessel so that its backscattering emulated that of a vessel fully occupied with people. Further, we collected SAR imagery over the ocean with different sea states, categorized by incidence angle and by polarization. These were used to emulate the conditions for a vessel located in ocean waters. This setup enabled us to test nine well-known vessel-detection systems (VDS), to explore the capabilities of new detection algorithms and to benchmark different combinations of detectors (detector fusion) with respect to different sensor and scene parameters (e.g., the polarization, wind speed, wind direction and boat orientation). This analysis culminated in designing a system that is specifically tailored to accommodate different situations and sea states.

Rings in the Water: Felt Externalisation and its Rippling Effect in the Extended EU Borderlands

ABSTRACT Ripple effects of European border externalisation have transformed everyday life in the Tunisian coastal town of Zarzis. Building on ethnographic fieldwork among artisanal fishermen, and actors involved in two migrant cemeteries in Zarzis, the article provides an understanding of entangled processes and of how violence and death co-exist in the externalised borderlands of the EU. The felt and lived embeddedness and simultaneity of otherwise separately viewed policy issues is revealed through a focus on intersecting processes coming together in one place. The article analyses the ripple effects of these policies on third actors (the fishermen), the environment (marine life), and space (two migrant cemeteries) in Zarzis. The article unpacks how externalisation translates into human rights abuses, environmental crisis, and death, and how these are distinctly intertwined. I propose the concept ‘felt externalisation’ as a theoretical contribution which ties together the three core themes: the actors, the environment, and the space. In doing so, the article brings together three different, yet interrelated dimensions of border externalisation that are still largely understudied in the literature. By looking at externalisation from a spatial and geographically situated angle the paper makes not only an empirical but also a conceptual and theoretical contribution, by seeking to expand the empirical basis but also the very meaning of externalisation and its effects, in the extended EU borderland.

Delimiting Europe: Greek State Formation as Border Making

When the Greek prime minister admired Delacroix’ famous painting ‘The Battle of Chios’ in the Louvre Museum during a state visit to France in 2021, this was meaningful in more than one way. Not only did he and French president Macron celebrate the second centenary of the 1821 “Greek Revolution.” They also reaffirmed their 200-year-old geopolitical alliance in the Eastern Mediterranean. An alliance between two countries that see themselves as the birthplace of European civilisation. Then, as now, celebrating their Europeanness went beyond artistic depictions and symbolisms. The creation of a White European space by virtue of a concrete struggle against an Oriental other, thus, delimited not only the Greco-Ottoman, but also Europe’s South-eastern borders. What IR has come to understand as the ‘spatial turn’, a return to emphasising the (un)making of borders and space, took, and takes, place in the Aegean. Looking back at the significance of the Greek War of Independence, this article reveals that, much like the violence in Delacroix’ painting, this formation of inter-national modernity, far from merely being a civilisational achievement, was bloody and genocidal. The painting’s conventional Orientalist understanding sees a white European people massacred by an Oriental occupying force. A careful re-historicisation of the Greek independence struggle reveals, however, that it had highly specific social and geopolitical origins that cannot be reduced to a spreading European Enlightenment. An alliance between local social forces gave rise to a struggle that was consolidated by mass violence. The international invention on behalf of Greece didn’t represent a shift towards a liberal international order giving rise to a reborn Athenian Republic. It represented a compromise between otherwise divided conservative dynasties imposing their designs on the young state. Finally, the article will argue that this historical episode embodies a continuing social process of European border making.

Trapped Within Borders: Exploitation of Migrant Seasonal Workers in German Agriculture During COVID-19 Lockdown; Placing the Actors and Understanding Their Roles

While European borders were closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Europe witnessed the exodus of Romanian seasonal workers to Germany. Although both countries’ governments agreed to allow this under the condition of the strictest adherence to the sanitary restrictions and workers’ rights, soon after, the media began to report situations of non-adherence to the coronavirus-related measures and workers’ labor rights. Following the theoretical framework of the Routine Activities Approach and its updates, this case study combines the collection of press material (N=140), Facebook posts (N=93), and interviews with seasonal workers in agriculture (N=5) and identifies the exploitative behaviors and actors involved. The results suggest that the perpetrators of these behaviors were certain intermediaries as well as farmers. The seasonal workers most at-risk were those with poor literacy who had not mastered the German language, were financially precarious, and were unwilling to seek the authorities’ help. The spaces in which the exploitation occurred were cyberspace or isolated rural farms. Seven guardians and seven super-controllers played a considerable role in protecting the workers on the farms, but not during the recruitment process. Situational prevention techniques, such as the creation of a mobile application to inform workers of their rights and allow them to report violations remotely, and collaboration with online platform services to flag fraudulent job advertisements automatically are proposed.

(Dis)possessive Borders, (Dis)possessed Bodies: Race and Property at the Postcolonial European Borders

Abstract There has been a profusion of institutionalized practices of confiscation and destruction of migrants’ belongings during European bordering operations conducted by the police and border authorities. Clothes, shoes, money, food, mobile phones, and even water have been among the items seized by authorities, a practice that exposes migrants to multiple risks. That said, despite the pervasiveness of current (dis)possessive methods, scholars have not yet sufficiently theorized the historical and current links between property, race, and borders. This article argues that such (dis)possessive practices at Europe's borders are not simply another method of governance that emerges at Europe's borderzones. Rather, (dis)possession is seen here as central to the very (post)colonial functioning of the border itself. The argument is, on the one hand, that Europe's borders have been embedded within a (post)colonial and racial capitalist global order predicated upon multifaceted forms of (dis)possession. And, on the other hand, it is claimed that borders themselves have been sites of continual forms of colonial and racial (dis)possession. In so doing, the article shows how (dis)possession has historically allowed Europe to demarcate, reinforce, and police the status of racialized bodies as less than human and property-like, that is, as bodies available for colonial and capitalist consumption.

Assessing different European Carbon Border Adjustment implementations and their impacts on trade partners

Assessing different European Carbon Border Adjustment implementations and their impacts on trade partners

Factors of the formation of settlement systems at the present stage (South of the Russian Far East - Northeast of China).

The study examines the development of the Russian-Chinese border area, defines the existing settlement systems, identifies factors affecting their formation. It is noted that a continuous urbanized territory with an actively developing infrastructure has been formed on the Chinese side. On the part of the Russian border – a small population, a large number of non-growing settlements, with limited specialization. Large areas are formed on the basis of large cities. This trend has determined the direction of "One city – two states": (Khabarovsk – Fuyuan, Zabaikalsk – Manchuria; Blagoveshchensk – Heihe). In the conducted research, the object of study is settlement systems, the subject is the factors of their formation in modern conditions on the territory of the Russian–Chinese border. The aim is to identify the factors of the formation of settlement for further forecasting of the organization of the border territory of Russia and China. The current trend in the region under consideration is that the border spaces are becoming more interconnected with each other, forming a stable system of cross-border communications. And the introduction of sanctions against Russia, namely the "closure" of the European border, caused a change in the direction of the development vector "to the east", which can become a mechanism for the development of border territories. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time the structure of the settlement of the south and the Far East at the present stage is considered – namely, the zone of active interaction between the two countries (Russia – China) – the territory along the border. The study identifies and examines the settlement systems of the border zone of Russia and China, as well as the factors of their formation (geographical, enographic, cultural, transport, educational and regional policy).

Grade and Tonnage Comparison of Anthropogenic Raw Materials and Ores for Cu, Zn, and Pb Recovery

Primary metal production operates with large tonnages and takes advantage of economies of scale. Metal recycled from low-value waste streams, competing in the same global metal market as primary production, will be more competitive by also taking advantage of up-scaling. However, an overview of metal tonnages in low-value waste streams to see upscaling potential needs to be provided in the literature. In response, this study provides estimates of copper, zinc, and lead metal tonnages in waste incineration ash—A major waste stream going to landfills. Metal concentrations and tonnages are compared to tonnages and concentration grades found in ores. Copper, zinc, and lead concentration averages are about 3–5 times lower in ash compared to the worldwide average head grade of ores. Tonnages of metal in the ash generated from waste incineration in European countries bordering the Baltic and the North Sea are about 1/3 of mining metal output from Sweden, a leading mining country in the region. Therefore, incineration ash should be considered a significant potential Cu, Zn, and Pb metal source.

How to recognise the inevitable: Latvian media narratives on climate change

Political elites over the world face considerable challenges in getting societies into climate change mitigation and adaptation activities. The process is even more complicated by complex media ecologies, into which official strategic narratives are modified and contested. This study explores the media narratives on climate change and their alignment with the official political narrative in a country located on the European Union's eastern border – Latvia, analysing the representation of climate change by the four most popular digital Latvian news platforms in Latvian and Russian languages. Observing that recognition and international cooperation narratives dominate, this study concludes that media only partially project the official political narrative, which focuses on opportunities from climate change. By considering multiple perspectives of scientists, politicians, society and businesses, the media provide an arena of contestation. At the same time, the media narratives lack a domesticated alternative on climate change that is fundamental for an action-encouraging discursive environment. As a result, the image of climate change as a geographically distant, internationally addressed, negotiated and contested phenomenon persists, yet the role of Latvian actors remains unspecified. Illuminating the climate change strategic narrative projection in Latvia, this study complements the research on climate change media coverage in Central and Eastern Europe and provides insights into the communication challenges the region faces.

EUROPEAN BORDER AND COAST GUARD STANDING CORPS CATEGORY 1 BASIC TRAINING TOPICALITIES IN ENSURING THE EU BORDER SECURITY

Establishment of the European Border and Coast Guard Standing Corps Category 1 has been recently the most visible change in the European approach in the management of the EU external borders. The political decision of the EU to have its own law enforcement officers for border protection and migration management and return-related tasks, has manifested a paradigm shift, also in training and education. The European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) has a leading role in capacity building, for example in terms of providing training for the members of the Category 1. The Agency Regulation provides a legal basis for the statutory staff of the Standing Corps, in particular highlighting the importance of training based on common values and culture, and respect of fundamental rights. The European dimension of the Standing Corps training is underpinned by the legal and ethical responsibilities of the Agency to ensure that the members of the Standing Corps are well trained and fully prepared to perform tasks with executive powers. The main aim of the paper is to explore the establishment of standing corps from the perspective of basic training. The context presented supports the thesis that the initial training serves as the foundation of public agreement and investment for common safety and security. The paper builds upon hands-on experience of the author and draws the general conclusion to prove the thesis based on the legal instruments presented and implementation of basic training editions.