pan-European Framework Research Articles

Protivrečnosti evropske medijske politike

In the media theory and practice, there is a broad agreement that the media play an important role in creating of active public, which is perceived as a social and political space in which public opinion is created and acted. The focus of this paper is on the question: does the European media policy coherently, consistently and comprehensively implement its programs in line with projection that the media have status and responsibility of the 'fourth government' or 'watchdogs of democracy' in a democratic society? The aim of the paper is to discuss compatibility between, on the one hand, proclaimed norms and principles of the European media policy, and on the other, success of their practical realization in the function of democratic public. Methods of critical and comparative analysis have been applied, and the following indicators have been considered: media market liberalization, state protectionism, media corporatism, social and media pluralism, public interest. In the conclusion, several factors that disturb coherent implementation of the media policy in the pan-European framework are identified: ineffectiveness of the foreseen instruments; a lack of democratic legitimacy; divergent interests of individual actors in the media sector, and fundamental differences among individual member states with reference to the social and economic functions of the media.

An interlinked coastal observatory network for Europe

ABSTRACTExisting coastal observatories in European waters are complex systems consisting of different observational components, providing crucial operational data for assessment, model validation and assimilation purposes. However, the geographical, structural, functional and operational heterogeneities that characterise them pose an enormous challenge to their efficient exploitation as information providers on a broader, cross-border, regional scale. To address this problem, the European Union (EU) Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) Towards a Joint European Research Infrastructure Network for Coastal Observatories (JERICO) project is creating a shared, pan-European framework for the networking of such observatories, promoting the identification and dissemination of best practices for their design, implementation and maintenance, as well as common data distribution and transnational access protocols to enhance their performance and sustainability. In doing so, the project is also laying down the foundation for the coastal element of the nascent European Ocean Observing System.

CLIMBER: Climatic niche characteristics of the butterflies in Europe

Detailed information on species’ ecological niche characteristics that can be related to declines and extinctions is indispensable for a better understanding of the relationship between the occurrence and performance of wild species and their environment and, moreover, for an improved assessment of the impacts of global change. Knowledge on species characteristics such as habitat requirements is already available in the ecological literature for butterflies, but information about their climatic requirements is still lacking. Here we present a unique dataset on the climatic niche characteristics of 397 European butterflies representing 91% of the European species (see Appendix). These characteristics were obtained by combining detailed information on butterfly distributions in Europe (which also led to the ‘Distribution Atlas of Butterflies in Europe’) and the corresponding climatic conditions. The presented dataset comprises information for the position and breadth of the following climatic niche characteristics: mean annual temperature, range in annual temperature, growing degree days, annual precipitation sum, range in annual precipitation and soil water content. The climatic niche position is indicated by the median and mean value for each climate variable across a species’ range, accompanied by the 95% confidence interval for the mean and the number of grid cells used for calculations. Climatic niche breadth is indicated by the standard deviation and the minimum and maximum values for each climatic variable across a species’ range. Database compilation was based on high quality standards and the data are ready to use for a broad range of applications.It is already evident that the information provided in this dataset is of great relevance for basic and applied ecology. Based on the species temperature index (STI, i.e. the mean temperature value per species), the community temperature index (CTI, i.e. the average STI value across the species in a community) was recently adopted as an indicator of climate change impact on biodiversity by the pan-European framework supporting the Convention on Biological Diversity (Streamlining European Biodiversity Indicators 2010) and has already been used in several scientific publications. The application potential of this database ranges from theoretical aspects such as assessments of past niche evolution or analyses of trait interdependencies to the very applied aspects of measuring, monitoring and projecting historical, ongoing and potential future responses to climate change using butterflies as an indicator.

Gdynia Maritime University contribution to the EU project "A paneuropean framework for strengthening critical infrastructure resilience to climate change"

Gdynia Maritime University contribution to the EU project "A paneuropean framework for strengthening critical infrastructure resilience to climate change"

Mapping the visual landscape quality in Europe using physical attributes

The inclusion of environmental care data in the decision-making process should be based on the results obtained after scientifically evaluating different environmental variables. Herein, a European landscape geographic model is presented. This landscape map would allow the environmental care variable ‘visual landscape’, along with other information related to vegetation, geology, soils, cultural variables, etc., to be integrated into the planning process. The methodology used is not new since it has already been tested in Spain by the authors. Nevertheless, the model was adapted to cope with the much more extensive territory of the European Union. This meant dealing with computational difficulties, and a lack of information. The result of this work is a raster map (100 m cell size) that evaluates landscape quality in Europe by dividing the area into seven visual quality classes. This is a practical tool for territorial development that will facilitate the environmental assessment of plans, such as infrastructure plans, within a strategic pan-European framework.

Co-opting the counter culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction1

ABSTRACT Formed in 1996 by former National Front activist Troy Southgate, the National Revolutionary Faction (NRF) is a ‘national-anarchist’ groupuscule. In contrast to the International Third Position, the reactionary Catholic fascist sect from which it emerged, the NRF promotes a radical anti-capitalist and anti-Marxist ‘anarchist’ agenda of autonomous rural communities within a decentralized, pan-European framework. While the NRF retains an ideological core that is readily identifiable as fascist, that ideology is far from a mimetic atavism. As a result of its increasing radicalization the NRF has attempted to move ‘beyond left and right’, transcending the traditional limits of national-Bolshevism, to forge a seemingly incongruous synthesis of fascism and anarchism. Through its print and online publications, the NRF seeks to utilize its unique ideological position to exploit a burgeoning counter culture of industrial heavy metal music, paganism, esotericism, occultism and Satanism that, it believes, holds the key to the spiritual reinvigoration of western society ready for an essentially Evolian revolt against the culturally and racially enervating forces of American global capitalism. A detailed examination of its history, activism, structure and continued ideological morphology reveals the NRF as an ideological crucible for a growing international network of dissident ‘national-revolutionaries’ who are currently recalibrating their ideals in order to overcome their acute marginalization.

The Marshall Non-Plan, Congress and the Soviet Union

ISTORIANS of the cold war generally agree that the Marshall Plan was of pivotal significance in crystallizing the East-West conflict in Europe.L By the summer of 1947 the division of Europe was well advanced, though not necessarily irreversible. allied control machinery for Germany remained formally in place though reduced to the performance of nominal functions. Four-power negotiations on the German peace treaty continued through 1947 despite growing signs of deadlock as a result of the Moscow Conference in March and April. establishment of the Economic Commission for Europe in May 1947 provided an institutional basis for considering problems and approaches to recovery in a pan-European framework. In this setting, the Soviet refusal to participate in collective European planning to respond to the Marshall proposal, taking in its tow the East European countries as well, determined that U.S. recovery policy would henceforth proceed exclusively on a West European basis. solidification of a West European approach toward recovery, including the Western zones of Germany, aroused Soviet concerns and contributed to the tightening of Eastern bloc discipline, the formation of the Cominform, the breakdown of the ministerial negotiations on Germany, and the full consolidation of Communist power in Czechoslovakia. Thus, as Hadley Arkes argues, The Marshall Plan did more than any single measure to dissolve the ambiguity in EastWest tensions and consummate the Cold War.2