Showing papers on "Directive published in 2014"

What Role for Public Participation in Implementing the EU Floods Directive? A comparison with the Water Framework Directive, early evidence from Germany, and a research agenda

Abstract: We examine the roles and functions of non-state actor participation in implementing the EU Floods Directive of 2007 (FD). We draw on experiences with participation under the Water Framework Directive (WFD), because of important links between the two directives. Comparing the legal bases and the different functions for participation, we observe the paradoxical situation that while the WFD has fervently advocated public participation public interest has remained low, whereas the FD is less sanguine about participation despite citizens being potentially more affected by flood management issues – particularly given the current trend towards a ‘risk management’ approach under the FD. Our examination of current FD implementation in Germany reveals a considerable variety of participation approaches, as well as a general trend to ‘less’ rather than ‘more’ participation as compared with the WFD. The paper closes by discussing implications for future flood management planning and avenues for comparative research. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

The EU Blue Card: Preferences, policies, and negotiations between Member States

Abstract: In May 2009, the European Union (EU) approved the ‘Council Directive on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of highly qualified employment’ (the Blue Card Directive). This Directive sought to make the EU internationally more competitive, but Member States were reluctant to cede responsibility for labour market access regulation. Building on liberal intergovernmentalism and a two-level game framework, the article argues that since different national high-skilled immigration policies (demonstrated through a constructed index on States’ openness to high-skilled immigration) have been transferred to EU level, they have created variations in Member States’ positions on the Blue Card in a two-level game. This divergence among Member States helps to explain the less ambitious outcome of the Blue Card Directive, despite general support by Member States on the establishment of common rules for high-skilled immigrants. The final version does not make much of a difference since it is mainly an advertising tool. Through an empirical example of the Blue Card case study, the article helps to better understand how important national preferences remain for European policies.

Third-country relations in the directive establishing a framework for the recovery and resolution of credit institutions

Abstract: This article presents a critical analysis of the principles behind the scope and forms of cooperation between EU Member States and third-country resolution authorities in the context of the 2014 Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive. The article also explores the future responsibilities of the prospective Single Resolution Authority regarding relations between the euro area and third-country resolution authorities.

The Court and Sleeping Beauty: The revival of the Unfair Contract Terms Directive (UCTD)

Abstract: The paper gives an overview of the increased litigation leading to innovative case law of the ECJ concerning the scope and effects of the Unfair Contract Terms Directive (Directive 93/13/EEC) on consumer contracts, in particular financial services and services in the general economic interest. The originally limited impact of the Directive on Member State contract law and procedure has been substantially extended - as a metaphor, one may even say that a "Sleeping Beauty has been kissed awake" by the Court! The authors follow the recent case law both in its legal and economic consequences on consumer protection in the EU internal market. The paper ends with an outlook on the state of "Social Contract Law in the EU" - hoping to provoke a broader discussion on the concept and limits of a "Europeanization" of contract law already under way.

Employer occupation of regulatory space of the Employee Information and Consultation (I&C) Directive in liberal market economies

Abstract: This article shows how both employers and the state have influenced macro-level processes and structures concerning the content and transposition of the European Union (EU) Employee Information and Consultation (I&C) Directive. It argues that the processes of regulation occupied by employers reinforce a voluntarism which marginalizes rather than shares decision-making power with workers. The contribution advances the conceptual lens of ‘regulatory space’ by building on Lukes’ multiple faces of power to better understand how employment regulation is determined across transnational, national and enterprise levels. The research proposes an integrated analytical framework on which ‘occupancy’ of regulatory space can be evaluated in comparative national contexts.

Prevalence, Views, and Impact of Advance Directives Among Older Adults

Abstract: This article reviews the literature on advance directives among U.S. older adults published from 2008 through 2013, with a focus on advance directive prevalence, implications of advance directives on patient care, and impact of interventions to increase advance directive completion. Advance directive completion varies by demographic characteristics and is affected by patient attitudes toward advance directives and end-of-life care. Patients with advance directives are less likely to receive feeding tubes, experience burdensome transitions between nursing homes and hospitals, and die in the hospital. Advance directive completion increases when health care providers ask culturally sensitive questions and educate patients about advance directives, but better documentation and communication of advance directives are needed to ensure adherence to these measures. Despite increasing advance directive completion as patients move from community to nursing homes to hospice, advance directives are often insufficiently detailed and current for health care professionals to be confident they are acting in accordance with what patients would choose for themselves.

Orchestrating directive trajectories in communicative projects in family interaction

Abstract: Exploring the entanglement of resources (facial expressions, gesture, gaze, and intonation) that mutually elaborate each other in the production of social action, across the life of a particular communicative project in family interactions (getting children to bed), we investigate the ways in which participants calibrate actions with reference to each other’s actions. Our specific concern is the choreographing of directive response sequences. While directives are commonly thought of as “doing things with words”, in face -to-face interaction they frequently entail doing things with bodies as well. Thus, along with a consideration of action formation, syntactic formats, and prosody used to construct directives and build responses, we examine the haptic forms that overlay verbal directive forms, as well as configurations of bodies in lived social space. Compliance may take the shape of nonverbal responses such as willing movement towards the target space indexed by the directive, minimal verbal agreement – plaintive, reluctant, or joyful – with a parent’s directive, or response cries, e.g. exasperation or disgruntled disbelief. As agents with projects of their own, children can respond to directives with considerable resistance. Very different types of affective landscapes are created in the midst of interaction. People in interaction form environments for each other, either ones displaying deference and accountability for one’s actions or alternatively displaying outright antagonism and disdain. Examples in this study are drawn from video recordings of naturally occurring interaction in middle class families who were part of the project of UCLA’s Center on Everyday Lives of Families and Sweden’s sister project.

OpenARC: extensible OpenACC compiler framework for directive-based accelerator programming study

Abstract: Directive-based, accelerator programming models such as OpenACC have arisen as an alternative solution to program emerging Scalable Heterogeneous Computing (SHC) platforms. However, the increased complexity in the SHC systems incurs several challenges in terms of portability and productivity. This paper presents an open-sourced OpenACC compiler, called OpenARC, which serves as an extensible research framework to address those issues in the directive-based accelerator programming. This paper explains important design strategies and key compiler transformation techniques needed to implement the reference OpenACC compiler. Moreover, this paper demonstrates the efficacy of OpenARC as a research framework for directive-based programming study, by proposing and implementing OpenACC extensions in the OpenARC framework to 1) support hybrid programming of the unified memory and separate memory and 2) exploit architecture-specific features in an abstract manner. Porting thirteen standard OpenACC programs and three extended OpenACC programs to CUDA GPUs shows that OpenARC performs similarly to a commercial OpenACC compiler, while it serves as a high-level research framework.

Technical guidance on monitoring for the Marine Stategy Framework Directive

Abstract: The Marine Directors of the European Union (EU), Acceding Countries, Candidate Countries and EFTA Countries have jointly developed a common strategy for supporting the implementation of the Directive 2008/56/EC, “the Marine Strategy Framework Directive” (MSFD). The main aim of this strategy is to allow a coherent and harmonious implementation of the Directive. Focus is on methodological questions related to a common understanding of the technical and scientific implications of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. In particular, one of the objectives of the strategy is the development of non-legally binding and practical documents, such as this technical guidance on monitoring for the MSFD. These documents are targeted to those experts who are directly or indirectly implementing the MSFD in the marine regions. The document has been prepared by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) with the contribution of experts from Member States, Regional Seas Conventions and ICES and following consultation of the Working Group on Good Environmental Status. L B -N A -2 6 4 9 9 -E N -N L B -N A -2 6 4 9 9 -E N -N

Regulating for mutual gains? Non-union employee representation and the Information and Consultation Directive

Abstract: Interest in ‘mutual gains’ has principally been confined to studies of the unionised sector. Yet there is no reason why this conceptual dynamic cannot be extended to the non-unionised realm, specifically in relation to non-union employee representation (NER). Although extant research views NER as unfertile terrain for mutual gains, the paper examines whether NER developed in response to the European Directive on Information and Consultation (I&C) of Employees may offer a potentially more fruitful route. The paper examines this possibility by considering three cases of NER established under the I&C Directive in Ireland, assessing the extent to which mutual gains were achieved.

The implementation in France of Council Directive 2011/85/EU on requirements for budgetary frameworks of the member states

Abstract: Council Directive 2011/85/EU on requirements for budgetary frameworks of the Member States fi ts into the process of strengthening European governance aimed at ensuring economic and fi nancial stability of the European Union. The new rules governing the surveillance of national fi scal and economic policies have been adopted in the “Six Pack” along with the “Two Pack” and the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union (TSCG). The Directive states the minimum requirements for budgetary frameworks of the Member States. The budgetary framework is defi ned as “the set of arrangements, procedures, rules and institutions that underlie the conduct of budgetary policies of general government”. Among the components of this framework, the Directive distinguishes between the accounting and the statistics, the forecasts, the numerical fi scal rules, the medium-term budgetary frameworks as well as the transparency and the consistency of the national fi nancial public system as a whole. The aim of the Directive is the establishment of a budgetary framework that is able to respect the commitments subscribed by the states to the European Union, and in particular Protocol No. 12 on excessive defi cit procedure. This requires rapid consolidation of public fi nances in a number of states, including France. The strengthening of public fi nancial systems is hereinafter examined. Preventing a new crisis within the Union requires the respect of European criteria of defi cit and debt. The trajectory to return to a balanced budget fi ts into the framework of multiannual fi scal planning reinforced by Directive 2011/85/

Transposition and National-Level Resources: Introducing the Cross-Border Healthcare Directive in Eastern Europe

Abstract: The Cross-Border Patients’ Rights Directive represents an attempt to resolve the unclear situation that had developed due to ‘negative integration’ within the field of healthcare. While the adoption of the directive ends the EU-level decision process, it represents the start of the implementation process, where national institutional structures and interests play a key role. This article investigates the role of resources as a key factor shaping transposition within the member states, with a focus on Poland and Bulgaria. The article shows that a multidimensional perspective of resources is important for understanding transposition of EU directives in member states. While previous research has tended to consider resources at the aggregate, national level, the present study shows that specific concerns about the ‘adjustment costs’ at the sector system level are of key importance.

Audiovisual Media Services Directive

Abstract: On 25 April 2017, the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education voted to amend the proposal for an updated EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive, presented by the Commission on 25 May 2016. The overarching goal of the proposal is to bring about a balance between competitiveness and consumer protection. It therefore aims to introduce flexibility when restrictions only applicable to TV are no longer justified, promote European films, protect minors and tackle hate speech more efficiently. The proposal also reflects a new approach to online platforms. Although the directive’s increased protection for vulnerable viewers in VOD platforms has been greeted with satisfaction, the new rules on promotion of European works and commercial communications have received mixed views from stakeholders.

Buying Defence and Security in Europe: The EU Defence and Security Procurement Directive in Context

Abstract: Buying Defence and Security in Europe is the first critical evaluation of the EU Defence and Security Procurement Directive 2009/81/EC, which is now the basis for public and private entities buying armaments and sensitive goods and services in the EU. This instrument aims to ensure non-discrimination, competition and transparency in the security sectors. Part one provides a critical analysis of the economical, historical, political, military-strategic and legal contexts of the new EU Defence and Security Procurement Directive. Part two covers the main aspects of the Directive: its scope, procedures, security of supply and information, offsets and subcontracting, and finally its review and remedies system. This book is an essential overview of a legislative milestone in the field.

Bounded Rationality in Transposition Processes: The Case of the European Patients’ Rights Directive

Abstract: Studies explaining the timeliness and correctness of the transposition of EU directives into national legislation have provided rather inconclusive findings. They do not offer a clear-cut prediction concerning the transposition of the patients’ rights directive, which is one of the first that concerns the organisation and financing of national healthcare systems. This article applies the perspective of bounded rationality to explain (irregularities in) the timely and correct transposition of EU directives. The cognitive and organisational constraints long posited by the bounded rationality perspective may affect the commonly employed explanatory factors of administrative capacities, misfit and the heterogeneity of preferences among veto players. To prevent retrospective rationalisation of the transposition process, this paper traces this process as it unfolded in Denmark and the Netherlands. As bounded rationality is apparent in the transposition processes in these relatively well-organised countries, fut...

Hierarchical directives-based management of runtime behaviors

Abstract: Support for dynamic behavior is specified while reducing reliance on JIT compilation and large runtimes; semantic characteristics are selectively attached to types and type members outside source code. A directives document contains human-readable directives in a parsable format for submission to an innovative compiler. The directives specify whether a type T or type member M is required, optional, or prohibited in a runtime environment. Some reference an application, library, assembly, or namespace group, and others reference group components: type, type instantiation, method, method instantiation, field, property, or event. Some directives force a generic instantiation. Some directives indirectly reference a type through a parameter, type parameter, or generic directive. Some directives reference degrees to manage runtime activation of type instances, runtime introspection over types, reflection, and/or runtime or static serialization. Degrees may enable or disable types, instance constructors, property setters, property getters, fields, or all type members. Directives may be composed.

Open exchange of scientific knowledge and European copyright: The case of biodiversity information

Abstract: A legal license refers to the use of protected works allowed by law, normally linked to a levy. Legal licenses supersede individual data use agreements. Extended collective licenses are agreements between a qualified user (e.g. a library) and a national collecting society which represents a considerable number of national right-holders. The figures in the first line refer to the following provisions: Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society. Article 5.2: Member States may provide for exceptions or limitations to the reproduction right provided for in Article 2 in the following cases: (c) in respect of specific acts of reproduction made by publicly accessible libraries, educational establishments or museums, or by archives, which are not for direct or indirect economic or commercial advantage Article 5.3. Member States may provide for exceptions or limitations to the rights provided for in Articles 2 and 3 in the following cases: (a) use for the sole purpose of illustration for teaching or scientific research, as long as the source, including the author’s name, is indicated, unless this turns out to be impossible and to the extent justified by the non-commercial purpose to be achieved. (n) use by communication or making available, for the purpose of research or private study, to individual members of the public by dedicated terminals on the premises of establishments referred to in paragraph 2(c) of works and other subject-matter not subject to purchase or licensing terms which are contained in their collections Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases. Article 9 Exceptions to the sui generis right: Member States may stipulate that lawful users of a database which is made available to the public in whatever manner may, without the authorization of its maker, extract or re-utilize a substantial part of its contents: (b) in the case of extraction for the purposes of illustration for teaching or scientific research, as long as the source is indicated and to the extent justified by the non-commercial purpose to be achieved

Data protection regulation and the promotion of health research: getting the balance right.

Abstract: Health research is essential for better public health and health care. However, the use of personal data in research could be put under threat by amendments recently adopted by the European Parliament. Individual patient records provide a vital resource for health research for the benefit of society. These records form the basis for observational studies of the factors influencing health and disease and help researchers identify suitable participants to invite them to take part in clinical trials concerning their condition. It is equally essential to make most use of the research that has already been completed. By re-using patient research data where appropriate, participants in trials are then assured that the data they contribute help to further knowledge without unnecessary duplication of research.1 In the European Union (EU), the use of patient data in research in Member States is governed by the Data Protection Directive, which has been criticized as overly complex, sometimes ambiguous and presenting an obstacle to epidemiological and other research. Furthermore, variability in the implementation of the EU Directive in different countries has impeded the collection and use of complete, accurate and homogenous data in multi-centre studies, for example using diabetes registries.2 The Directive is now being revised as a General Data Protection Regulation (DPR) with the objectives to harmonize data protection within the EU, facilitate the flow of data across borders and enhance privacy protection. Although reservations had again been expressed at the potential for jeopardizing the use of personal data in health research,3 the proposed reforms did initially offer new opportunities to researchers, enabling international collaboration by streamlining the currently complex data protection rules. The European Commission’s draft DPR acknowledges that research generates valuable knowledge for society and includes an important exception …

The EU Services Directive: Gains from Further Liberalization

Abstract: The EU Services Directive was adopted in 2006 to foster competition in services across Europe. However, progress in liberalizing services has fallen short of expectations due to the article 15 of the Directive, which allows countries to maintain pre-existing restrictions if judged necessary to protect the public interest. Through input output analysis, this paper finds important multiplier effects of greater efficiency services to the rest of the economy. A renewed impulse to the liberalization process could be given by enhancing the advocacy role of national competition authorities in interpreting the notion of public interest underpinning existing regulations.

EU Asylum Procedures and the Right to an Effective Remedy

Abstract: Adequate and fair asylum procedures are a precondition for the effective exercise of rights granted to asylum applicants, in particular the right not be expelled to a country where they face the risk of being subjected to human rights violations. In 1999 the EU Member States decided to work towards a Common European Asylum System. In this context the Procedures Directive was adopted in 2005. This directive provides for important procedural guarantees for asylum applicants, but also leaves much discretion to the EU Member States to design their asylum procedures. An important result of the adoption of the Procedures Directive is that asylum procedures now fall within the reach of the Charter and general principles of EU law. This book examines the meaning of the EU right to an effective remedy for the legality and the interpretation of the Procedures Directive. For this purpose the EU Courts’ case-law on the EU right to an effective remedy is examined. The interpretation of the EU right to an effective remedy is inspired by international law. Therefore this book also extensively discusses the ECtHR’s case-law as well as the views of the UNHCR and UN Committees concerning procedural rights for asylum applicants. The result of this exercise is a set of procedural standards with regard to several key issues of asylum procedures: the right to remain on the territory of the Member State, the right to be heard, the standard and burden of proof and evidentiary assessment, judicial review of the establishment and qualification of the facts and the use of secret evidence.

The eu Seasonal Workers Directive: When Immigration Controls Meet Labour Rights

Abstract: The Seasonal Workers Directive combines immigration law, which regulates entry and stay in a territory, with labour law, which governs the rights of workers. The different interests and expertise of the various eu institutions involved in the Directive’s drafting and adoption exacerbated the tension between these two legal fields. In turn, this tension compromised the achievement of several of the eu’s explicit objectives, namely, creating a level playing field for the recruitment of seasonal migrant workers across the Member States, instituting a circular migration program, and protecting migrant workers from economic and social exploitation. This article focuses on the extent to which the Directive has the capacity to protect seasonal migrant workers. To do so, it sketches the history of the Directive and discusses some consequences of its treaty basis, which provides the context for our analysis and evaluation of the substantive provisions of the Directive.