Directive

About: Directive is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5695 publications have been published within this topic receiving 56084 citations.

Risk Communication at the Community Level: European Lessons from the Seveso Directive

Abstract: After the devastating accident at Seveso, Italy on July 10,1976 and the resulting confusion between the local authorities and the company’s representatives, the European Community issued a General Directive in 1982 that requires every chemical company to provide full information on hazardous sites, emergency plans, storage of dangerous substances, accidental release scenarios, and similar issues to the host community. In addition, the public has to be informed about the potential risks of the facilities and the protective actions necessary to undertake in an emergency. The Directive resulted in an increased effort to communicate the risks of hazardous facilities to community officials and to local residents. This article explores the strategies of and the experiences with the risk communication efforts in different European countries and describes the responses to these efforts by stakeholder groups and the general public. The political adoption of risk communication programs are strongly influenced by th...

From the Vredeling Directive to the European Works Council Directive . some historical remarks

Abstract: In September 1994, after over twenty years of debate and controversy, the Council of Ministers adopted the Directive on the Establishment of a European Works Council or a procedure in Community-scale undertakings and Community-scale groups of undertakings for the purposes of informing and consulting employees. For a long time it had looked as though an EU directive on employee information and consultation rights in multinational groups of undertakings stood no chance of ever being carried through, and it was not until the Treaty of Maastricht was ratified that new prospects emerged. The "Protocol on social policy" is part of the Maastricht Treaty, and attached to it is an agreement on social policy signed by the eleven Member States without the United Kingdom. On that basis it was possible for the directive to be adopted by eleven Member States by a simple majority in the Council of Ministers. The following article describes several of the important stages in the debate on this controversial directive.

Standards in medical education in the European Union.

Abstract: Standards in medical education are necessary to enable evaluation of programmes and comparison between institutions. EC Directive 93/16 lays down the standards for both the duration and content of basic medical education in the European Union but the directive is open to wide variations in interpretation. A new approach is needed and the development of common learning outcomes is suggested as a possible solution.

A Critical Evaluation of the Proposed EU Trade Secrets Directive

Abstract: The European Commission issued a proposed Trade Secrets Directive on 28 November 2013, with the aim of tackling the legal fragmentation in the protection of trade secrets that currently exists in the European Union. Key divergences between Member States include: the legal mechanism used to regulate trade secrets (criminal or civil law and within civil law, whether unfair competition, tort, contract or labour law); the definition of trade secrets; whether trade secrets are classified as intellectual property (thus affecting the application of the Enforcement Directive); criminal penalties and the procedural mechanisms for protecting the confidentiality of trade secrets during litigation. Such legal fragmentation is seen as problematic, because it apparently makes enforcement opaque and expensive and also leads to sub-optimal investment in cross-border innovation activities within the EU. This paper undertakes an evaluation of the proposed Directive, along with the 'General Approach' put forward by the General Secretariat of the European Council to the Council on 26 May 2014. It argues that we should be skeptical of claims that harmonization will bring substantial economic gains and that only a modest amount of harmonization is likely to ensue from implementation of this Directive, should it be adopted. This is because several of the obligations contain uncertainties and Member States will have the freedom to implement these obligations according to whichever mechanisms they prefer. As a result, we are likely to see a patchwork of laws continuing to regulate the protection of trade secrets in the EU and a series of references to the European Court of Justice for many years to come.