Member States Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Proceedings of the Workshop organised by the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs in Brussels on 17 January 2008. The post-2007 global financial and economic crisis has generated considerable political pressure in the EU, and beyond, to loosen the reigns of fiscal policy. Stabilisation is given priority over adjustment. In the medium and long term, however, one of the main

- by
- •
- Public Finance, Fiscal policy, Economic Crisis, Member States

Six years ago at the first MT Summit conference, the field of MT was dominated by approaches which had been established in the late 1970s. These were the systems which had built upon experience gained in what may be called the 'quiet' decade of machine translation, the ten years after the publication of the ALPAC report in 1966 had brought to an end MT research in the United States and had profoundly affected its support elsewhere.

- by zaki mu
- •
- Machine Translation, United States, Artificial Intelligent, Knowledge base

The process of Europeanization implies a confluence of resources and outputs by the EU member states. This is mainly due to both structural economic harmonisation and institutional system-building. This paper deals with welfare developments in the European social model in contemporary times. After identifying major changes affecting European countries both functionally and territorially, EU initiatives in social policy-making are reviewed. New policies aimed at co-ordinating employment and social policies at the European level (OMC) have tried to offer perspectives for reconciling the dichotomies between the economic and the social and the national and the European. Hence, while a paradigm shift in macro-economic policies has allowed for monetary centralisation and a growing matching of EU internal 'open' markets, the quest for the decentralisation of welfare programmes has also aimed at meeting demands for territorial subsidiarity. Reforms related to the emergence of new social risks (NSR) may provide EU institutions with initiatives for making social policy reforms coherent with the new economic policy orientations, while also respecting national diversity. Speculative observations on whether there is convergence in social policy paradigms in European countries are carried out in the conclusion of the paper.

- by Bruno Palier
- •
- Social Policy, Economic policy, Paradigm Shift, New Economic Policy

The trans-European transport networks programme is one of the most ambitious initiatives of the European Union. The networks are to link landlocked and peripheral areas with the central areas of the Community. The identification of those peripheral regions, whose accessibility and transport infrastructure systems are to be improved, is becoming of great political importance. This paper presents the result of a Study on Peripherality. The objective of this study was the development of an interactive GIS-based software package for the calculation of the European Peripherality Index (E.P.I.) in order to identify those peripheral regions, whose geographical location is handicapped. The paper first outlines some theoretical considerations on the relationship between transport network development, accessibility and cohesion; afterwards the dimensions of the indicator system developed are explained briefly. The presentation of the two standard peripherality indicators defined and the discussion of the other dimensions of the indicators will form the heart of this paper. At the end, it concludes with first hints on political implications of the main findings of this study.

- by Ahmed Talaat
- •
- Quality of life, European Union, Economic Development, European Commission
- by Maurice Hoffmann and +1
- •
- Multidisciplinary, Conservation Status, Regional scale, Member States

effects of alien species and climate change in the assessment framework, and by the nonlinear doseresponse relationships dominating in biological systems. Attempts to diminish uncertainties in quality assessment have become a new... more

- by Ana Cardoso
- •
- Earth Sciences, Climate Change, Water quality, Biological Sciences

Objectives: To compare data on statin utilisation and costs across Europe from routine administrative databases with those from a commercial source. Methods: Observational study in European Union member states and Norway. Comparison of data collected from national administrative databases used to reimburse pharmacists and data from a standard commercial source (Intercontinental Marketing Services Health): detailed data by drug for the year 2000. Results: There were differences among the data from administrative databases and those from the commercial source; these differences were of a consistent pattern in each country. In general, the commercial data recorded greater utilisation (reflecting both public and private use, range from 0 to +55%, median +15%), lower cost per defined daily doses (as commercial data sources used ex-factory price rather than expenditure to the state used in administrative databases, range from À70% to -6%, median À39%) and similar utilisation per 1000 head of population per day (range from À15 to +47%, median À1%).

- by Tom Walley
- •
- Pharmacoepidemiology, European Union, Europe, Data Collection

The INTEGRAL X-ray monitor, JEM-X, (together with the two gamma ray instruments, SPI and IBIS) provides simultaneous imaging with arcminute angular resolution in the 3-35 keV band. The good angular resolution and low energy response of JEM-X plays an important role in the detection and identification of gamma ray sources as well as in the analysis and scientific interpretation of the combined X-ray and gamma ray data. JEM-X is a coded aperture X-ray telescope consisting of two identical detectors. Each detector has a sensitive area of 500 cm 2 , and views the sky through its own coded aperature mask. The coded masks are located 3.4 m above the detector windows. The detector field of view is constrained by X-ray collimators (6.6 • FOV, FWHM).

- by Marek Morawski and +2
- •
- Dust (Astronomy & Astrophysics), Czech Republic, Astronomy, X Rays

Electronic voting has been attracting the attention of governments and research groups with most work on the subject referring to the user requirements such a system should satisfy. For several cases, though, requirement identification seldom goes further than a simple narrative description of a basic set of nonfunctional characteristics related to security. On the other hand, governmental reports usually refer to requirements as the set of applicable laws pertaining a certain voting procedure. Both sides seem to underestimate the fact that an electronic voting system is an information system with functional, as well as non-functional, requirements. In this paper we apply the Rational Software Development Process for identifying and presenting the requirements an electronic voting system should meet. The requirements are based on a generic voting model that has been developed having in mind the European Union member states legislation, the organisational details of currently applicable voting procedures and the opportunities offered and the constraints imposed by the state-of-the-art technology.

- by Costas Lambrinoudakis
- •
- Information Security, Electronic Voting, European Union, Legislation
- by Martina Cornel and +1
- •
- Quality of life, Population Health, European Union, Public Health

Agri-Environment Schemes (AES) to maintain or promote environmentally-friendly farming practices were implemented on about 25% of all agricultural land in the EU by 2002. This article analyses and discusses the actual and potential use of impact models in supporting the design, implementation and evaluation of AES. Impact models identify and establish the causal relationships between policy objectives and policy outcomes. We review and discuss the role of impact models at different stages in the AES policy process, and present results from a survey of impact models underlying 60 agri-environmental schemes in seven EU member states. We distinguished among three categories of impact models (quantitative, qualitative or common sense), depending on the degree of evidence in the formal scheme description, additional documents, or key person interviews. The categories of impact models used mainly depended on whether scheme objectives were related to natural resources, biodiversity or landscape. A higher proportion of schemes dealing with natural resources (primarily water) were based on quantitative impact models, compared to those concerned with biodiversity or landscape. Schemes explicitly targeted either on particular parts of individual farms or specific areas tended to be based more on quantitative impact models compared to whole-farm schemes and broad, horizontal schemes. We conclude that increased and better use of impact models has significant potential to improve efficiency and effectiveness of AES.

- by Jens Vesterager and +1
- •
- Environmental Management, Agriculture, Multidisciplinary, Policy Analysis

Abstract. In this paper we study the relationship of fiscal policy and economic performance of some core countries in the EU. Our aim is to find out whether public deficit and public debt have consequences for real variables in the... more

- by Willi Semmler
- •
- Economics, European integration, Economic Growth, Fiscal policy

This paper present the result of a safety culture questionnaire within aircraft maintenance engineering, initially produced by Diaz-Cabrera et al. (2007) was developed and validated leading to a better result of seven factors. This safety culture questionnaire (SCQ) is further used as a tool to do a pilot assessment on the factors retrieved. The report ends with the implementation of literature distilled concepts about safety culture including the validated practical safety assessment tool leading to a complete SMS (Safety Management System) which is both reactive as proactive. To increase aviation safety it is compulsory, since the beginning of 2007, to report occurrences to the quality control. This directive is legislation on occurrence reporting in civil aviation from the European Union. The Occurrence reporting process was also regulated before by EASA Part 145.A.60 although their specific purposes seem to differ. The purpose of the EASA set of regulation and the purpose of the EC regulation are different. The purpose of the EC regulation is to require Member States to put a system in place and to exchange data using the ECC-AIRS tool. The purpose of the EASA regulations on reporting is to ensure continuing airworthiness. It should be noted that the list of reportable occurrences are consistent between the EASA texts and the EC regulation. Therefore there are no plans to harmonize these requirements in a single one (EASA, 2006) Part A.60: "the organization shall report to the competent authority, the state of registry and the organization responsible for the design of the aircraft or the component. There is therefore no direct reporting to the Agency". Although the purposes seem to differ because the EC-directive is primarily for benchmarking with other EU member states and the EASA regulation is to ensure

- by Prof. Adel Ghobbar
- •
- Human Factors, European Union, Safety Culture, Quality Control

The aim of this study was to estimate occupational exposure to inhalable wood dust by country, industry, the level of exposure and type of wood dust in 25member states of the European Union (EU-25) for the purposes of hazard control, exposure surveillance and assessment of health risks. National labour force statistics, a country questionnaire (in 15 member states, EU-15),

- by Violaine VEROUGSTRAETE
- •
- Engineering, European Union, Environmental Monitoring, Medicine

Agri-environmental measures play an important role in Italian rural areas, as shown by the financial commitment to the Rural Development programmes. However, in contrast with other European Union (EU) countries, policy-makers still have limited experience on how farmers approach environmental incentive schemes. This paper casts new light on this issue from a northern Italian perspective. The rationale of the farmers' decision-making process is explored using two multinomial models. The first explains the probability of non-participation or participation in one of three specific agri-environmental measures. The model outcomes show that labour-intensive farming types and high dependency of household income on farming activity constrain farmers' participation, whereas previous experience, easy-to-implement environmentally friendly farm practices and adequate compensation of extra costs encourage participation. The second model explores the effect of farmers' attitudes and beliefs on their predispositions towards participation in any of the schemes. The results highlight that, besides income factors, the farm's future in the business, and the relationship with neighbouring farmers and their opinions on environmentally friendly practices all have significant effects on adoption of agri-environmental measures. The paper

By compiling data on 12 politico-institutional variables for 25 member states of the European Union over the years 1997-2006, we were able to investigate the emerging patterns of democracy in the European Union. The study addresses the questions of how direct democracy can be incorporated into Lijphart's (1999) typology of consensus and majoritarian democracy and how empirical democratic patterns are affected by this extension. For the western democracies, three dimensions of democracy were extracted using principal component analysis, with two resembling those found by Lijphart (1999) and a third one being shaped by the interplay between direct democracy and cabinet type. East European democracies tend to have a lower degree of interest group corporatism, weaker central banks, stronger judicial review and stronger direct democracy.

- by Adrian Vatter
- •
- Economics, Eastern Europe, Principal Component Analysis, European Union

In the face of an unprecedented surge in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping activity over the past three yearswith now almost 100,000 military, police and civilian personnel deployed on four continents in 18 operationsthere is a need for... more

- by Ugo Solinas
- •
- Political Science, United Nations, Cambridge, Public Administration and Policy

The right to freedom of expression and information is guaranteed by Article (10) of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) in all 47 member states of the Council of Europe. The jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECrtHR) applying Article (10) is to be considered an authoritative international standard regarding the protection of this human right, including the right to express, impart and receive opinions and information without interference by public authorities. The Court's case law has manifestly helped to create an added value for the effective protection of freedom of expression, journalistic freedom, freedom of the media, the right to receive information and public debate in the Convention's member states. However, some recent restrictive trends in the Court's approach have raised serious concerns regarding the (future) level of protection of freedom of speech and press freedom in Europe. This article focuses on the most important characteristics of the right to freedom of expression and information under the European human rights system and discusses some challenges for the future.

- by Nicolae Scarlat
- •
- Engineering, Renewable Energy, European Union, Fossil Fuels

This paper analyses how market imperfections affect the welfare effects of introducing the CAP in the new Eastern Member States (NEMS) of the EU. We model how transaction costs and imperfect competition in the land market affect the distribution of policy rents. We find that benefits of direct payments end up with landowners in NEMS also with imperfections in the NEMS land markets. With unequal access to subsidies small tenant farmers may even lose out from the subsidies. Decoupling of payments shifts policy rents to farmers. However, decoupling will constrain productivity enhancing restructuring which would result from accession induced improvements in the land markets. Using reserve entitlements to mitigate this effect reduces the intended benefits on distortions and target efficiency.

- by Pavel Ciaian
- •
- Agricultural Policy, European Union, Applied Economics, Land Market

HAL is a multidisciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

- by C. Merten
- •
- Food Safety, Diet, European Union, Database Management Systems
- by ANAND MENON
- •
- Political Science, Rational Choice, European Union, Sterilization

Using an econometric shift-share decomposition, we explain the redistribution of world market shares at the level of the product variety and by technological content. We decompose changes in market shares into structural effects (geographical and sectoral) and a pure performance effect. We regard the EU-27 as an integrated economy, excluding intra-EU trade. Revisiting the competitiveness issue in such a perspective sheds new light on the impact of emerging countries on the reshaping of world trade. Since 1995 the EU-27 withstood the competition from emerging countries better than the United States and Japan. The EU market shares for high-technology products, as well as in the upper price range of the market, proved comparatively resilient, though less so since the crisis.

- by Soledad Zignago and +1
- •
- International Trade, European Union, Applied Economics, World Economics

We present results of ultra-deep ISOCAM observations through a cluster-lens at 7µm and 15µm with the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) satellite. These observations reveal a large number of luminous Mid-Infrared (MIR) sources. Cross-identification in the optical and Near-Infrared (NIR) wavebands shows that about half of the 7 µm sources are cluster galaxies. The other 7 µm and almost all 15 µm sources are identified as lensed distant galaxies. Thanks to the gravitational amplification they constitute the faintest MIR detected sources, allowing us to extend the number counts in both the 7 and 15 µm bands. In particular, we find that the 15 µm counts have a steep slope α 15µm = −1.5 ± 0.3 and are large, with N 15µm (> 30µJy) = 13 ± 5 arcmin −2 . These numbers rule out non-evolutionary models and favour very strong evolution. Down to our counts limit, we found that the resolved 7 µm and 15 µm background radiation intensity is respectively (2±0.5)×10 −9 and (5±1)×10 −9 W m −2 sr −1 .

- by Stephen Weatherill
- •
- Law, European Union, Applied Economics, Policy making

We report observational evidence for water ice in comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) when it was at 2.9 AU from the Sun, from emission features at 44 and 65 mu m, and possibly an absorption feature at 3.1 mu m, observed with ISO/LWS and PHT. We... more

- by Horst Keller
- •
- Dust (Astronomy & Astrophysics), United Kingdom, Astronomy, Solar System

Electronic evidence has been used in most states in Europe for several years, although the obtaining, seizure, analysis, and presentation of electronic evidence before an adjudicator is carried out in different ways in each member state. In November 2005, a group of European multidisciplinary experts started to set out the different methods by which electronic evidence is adduced in the courts of sixteen member states 1 under the Admissibility of the Electronic Evidence (A.E.E.C.) project. Previous research on the electronic evidence in Europe is not well known and very fragmentary in nature because none were comparative studies. And none dealt with the topic "admissibility." The A.E.E.C. project has been designed to provide a response to the current situation since the lack of knowledge in this field is hindering procedures to incriminate the offenders of cyber crime. The study has been financially supported by the European Commission in the Framework Program AGIS. The main objectives of the initiative were to understand the current regulatory situation and the practice and how could they be improved. Other goals were to identify the gaps found in the different regulations on the admissibility of e-evidence and create a European network for cooperation in proceedings and practices related to the admissibility. It is a novel and ambitious project that has been carried out by a team of multidisciplinary investigators: policemen, lawyers, sociologists, technicians, businessmen, academics, solicitors, and computer forensic experts.

- by Diego Torrente
- •
- Computer Forensics, Comparative Study, European Commission, Member States

The present status of industrial HSE management in a number of EU member states is reviewed, with a focus on the integration of health, safety and environment in single management systems. The review provides insight into the standards and paradigms adopted by industry, and it identifies trends and needs for improvement. It appears that most industries consider goal-based HSE management programs to be a success and believe them to contribute to the profitability of the industry. We conclude that HSE management would benefit greatly from guidance on how to use existing management systems efficiently and also from the further development of meaningful safety performance indicators that identify the conditions prior to accidents and incidents.

- by Myrto Konstandinidou and +1
- •
- Engineering, Profitability, Safety Management, Management System

Increasing politicization in EU member states about European issues can be expected to strengthen the impact of attitudes towards Europe on vote choice in European Parliament (EP) elections. At the same time this impact is likely to vary between voters and contexts as a function of political information. This study explores the role of political information in explaining individual and contextual heterogeneity in the degree of EU issue voting. Using a two-step hierarchical estimation procedure to explore both individual and contextual variation, we show that while EU issue voting in the 2009 EP elections is only slightly more pronounced among the politically sophisticated, it is clearly more extensive in contexts that provide higher levels of political information on European matters.

- by Cees van der Eijk and +1
- •
- Political Science, European Parliament, Electoral Studies, Second Order

The nature of work has changed dramatically due to globalisation, migration, technological advances and the emergence of the knowledge-based economy. These changes have been accompanied by the increased prevalence of new and emerging types of risk to workers’ health and safety, such as psychosocial risks. This paper reviews the key regulatory and voluntary standards on occupational health and safety of relevance to the management of psychosocial risks in the workplace that are applicable to the European Union member states. The review indicates that regulatory standards set the minimum level of protection for workers and voluntary standards may further enable organisations to go beyond their legal obligations. However, the review also highlights that the terms ‘stress’ and ‘psychosocial risks’ are not mentioned explicitly in most pieces of legislation leading to lack of clarity on the terminology used. While voluntary standards seek to address this, very few provide specific guidance on the process of psychosocial risk management to enable organisations to manage psychosocial risks successfully. On the basis of the review, the case for the development of a voluntary standard for psychosocial risk management is presented. The paper further discusses the recent development of such a standard and its implications at the European level.► Regulatory OSH standards set the minimum level of protection for workers. ► They lack clarity in terminology used on psychosocial risks and their management. ► Few voluntary standards provide guidance on the psychosocial risk management process. ► PAS1010 aims to address these issues and promote prevention of psychosocial risks.s its development are outlined.

- by Dorota Żołnierczyk
- •
- Engineering, European Union, Risk Management, Occupational health and safety

This paper tries to answer two questions related to the implementation of one of Europe's most influential EU-directives, the Water Framework Directive. First, it describes how three Member States, Denmark, the Netherlands and France, actually struggle and cope with this ambitious Directive. Second, it discusses existing theories of EU implementation and questions whether they are able to deal with the overwhelming diversity in national responses to this open-ended and flexible 'new generation' EU-directive. Denmark, the Netherlands and France were selected because they represent a fair degree of diversity. Denmark started out the implementation process with high ambitions and a relatively formal approach, whereas the Netherlands from the outset chose to follow a more pragmatic course. France is an interesting case because this country already had a mature system of river basin management in place before the WFD came into force. Compared to existing implementation theories, the paper offers a more differentiated way of describing and structuring the implementation processes that contemporary EU-directives are producing in a world coloured by multi-actor, multi-level and multi-sector governance.

- by Mark Wiering and +1
- •
- Governance, Multidisciplinary, Environmental Governance, Multi Level Governance

The objective of the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) is to assist in the development of management plans that will lead to the sustainable use of water resources in all EU member states. However, defining the degree of sustainability aimed at is not a straightforward task. It requires detailed knowledge of the hydrogeological characteristics of the basin in question, its environmental needs, the amount of human water demand, and the opportunity to construct a proper water balance that describes the behavior of the hydrological system and estimates available water resources. An analysis of the water balance in the Selva basin (Girona, NE Spain) points to the importance of regional groundwater fluxes in satisfying current exploitation rates, and shows that regional scale approaches are often necessary to evaluate water availability. In addition, we discuss the pressures on water resources, and analyze potential actions, based on the water balance results, directed towards achieving sustainable water management in the basin.

- by Anna Menció and +1
- •
- Water Availability, Water Purification, Environmental Management, Agriculture
- by Neil Lunt
- •
- European Union, Policy Development, Legislation, Member States

The principle of corrosion measurement/monitoring by means of tangential film-based radiography is already known. Most of this experience, however, is limited to qualitative determination of internal defects. The ability to reliably measure remaining wall thickness in pipes has not yet been established. The International Atomic Energy Agency has organized a Co-ordinated Research Project bringing together twelve Member States to study “validation of protocols for corrosion and deposits determination in large diameter pipes by radiography”. The general scope of the project covers radiographic measurement of corrosion and deposits in straight and bent large diameter (>160mm) pipes made of carbon or stainless steel corroded/eroded on the outer or inner surfaces with or without insulation. It is expected to define the limits of detection for each radiation source using the tangential method and to explore the double wall technique beyond this limit. Introduction: The International Ato...

- by Uwe Zscherpel
- •
- Sri Lanka, Non Destructive Testing, Stainless Steel, High Temperature

The paper is a first critical analysis of the Prüm Convention on deepening transfrontier cooperation, amongst others in view of combating terrorism, transfrontier crime, and illegal migration, which was signed by Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Spain on 27 May 2005 and which will enter into force after its ratification by two States. While its scope is

- by Jacques Ziller
- •
- European Law, Dispute Resolution, Sovereignty, Judicial review

This report summarises work undertaken testing the use of stated preference discrete choice experiments to measure consumer preferences for postal services. It discusses the importance of understanding and quantifying consumer priorities in the postal sector and presents different methods used for valuing non-market goods. We recommend the use of stated preference discrete choice experiments, and test the use of this approach in three member states. We provide the findings for these member states, as well as a “tool kit” for ...

- by Dimitris Potoglou
- •
- Stated Preference, Consumer Preference, Discrete Choice, Member States
- by Ramses Wessel
- •
- Political Science, Member States

Facilitating Active citizenship is one of the European Commission's strategies for increasing social cohesion and reducing the democratic deficit across Europe within the context of the wider Lisbon process. In this context, this paper provides an evidence base for policy development, identifying the socio-demographic characteristics and determinants of active citizens and those who for one reason or another participate much less. The paper provides a detailed identikit of the active citizen from 2002 across 14 European countries Austrian, (the complete dataset available for this research is only available for the majority of old member states of the European Union and European Economic Area). The results of our analysis, based on a multilevel regression model, provide a clear identikit of the active citizen in Europe and the drivers of the phenomenon are identified both at the individual and at the country level. The picture provided is quite interesting and shows that the level of Active Citizenship is higher in countries with a higher level of GDP with a more equal distribution of income and a more heterogeneous religious climate. Moreover, at the individual level, the strongest determinant of active citizenship is education and participation in lifelong learning activities which can permit some action to policymaker in order to foster the participation in civil society of the the new generations which quite passively do not take part in the democratic life of our societies.

- by Anna Rita Manca
- •
- European Union, Policy Development, United Kingdom, Social cohesion
- by Eve Chiapello
- •
- European Union, Arc, Sec, Private Sector

This contribution reviews the current status of the macroinvertebrate methodologies proposed for European coastal and transitional waters under the Water Framework Directive (WFD), showing the weaknesses and strengths of the WFD implementation process and proposing future research topics and challenges. In total, 12 different methodologies have been officially accepted by European Member States (MSs). Most of these methods are multimetric, i.e. including several metrics into an equation, others are multivariate and some others are univariate. The methodologies vary in their use of the parameters included in the WFD (e.g. disturbancesensitive species composition, richness, diversity, density, etc.), and they are described in this contribution. The results from the intercalibration undertaken by MSs are shown, including the boundaries between the quality classes, for each European eco-region and type. Finally, four areas in which scientific agreement is needed to satisfy future macroinvertebrate quality management are identified and discussed: (i) reduction of the present bewildering array of available indices by identifying the index approaches, components and formulations that are most widely successful; (ii) establishing minimum criteria for index validation processes that demonstrate index accuracy and reliability; (iii) comparing and intercalibrating methods to achieve uniform assessment scales across geographies and habitats and (iv) integrating indices across media and ecosystem elements.

- by Lalaine Maagad
- •
- Earth Sciences, Quality Management, Biological Sciences, Environmental Sciences
- by Kate O'Neill
- •
- Human Geography, Political Science, Emerging Economies, Waste Management

This contribution follows the descriptive review of Weigel, Mulder and Collins regarding the use of the competence concept in the development of vocational education and training in England, France, Germany and the Netherlands. The purpose of this contribution is to review the critical analyses brought forward by various authors in this field. This analysis also remarks on the most important theories and critiques on the use of the competence concept in the above-mentioned states, The systems of vocational education within the four states covered in this study are: the National Vocational Qualifications in England, the approach to learning areas in Germany, the ETED and the bilan de compétences in France, and the implementation of competence-based vocational education in the Netherlands, and these are the respective focal points for the critical assessments of the competence concept presented here. These critiques encompass such aspects as the lack of a coherent definition of the concept of competence, the lack of a one-to-one relationship between competence and performance, the misled notion that employing the concept of competence decreases the value of knowledge, the difficulties of designing competence-based educational principles at the curriculum and instruction levels, the underestimation of the organizational consequences of competence-based education, and the many problems in the field of competence assessment.

During the years 2001-2005, a European solar radiation database was developed using a solar radiation model and climatic data integrated within the Photovoltaic Geographic Information System (PVGIS). The database, with a resolution of 1 km · 1 km, consists of monthly and yearly averages of global irradiation and related climatic parameters, representing the period 1981-1990. The database has been used to analyse regional and national differences of solar energy resource and to assess the photovoltaic (PV) potential in the 25 European Union member states and 5 candidate countries. The calculation of electricity generation potential by contemporary PV technology is a basic step in analysing scenarios for the future energy supply and for a rational implementation of legal and financial frameworks to support the developing industrial production of PV. Three aspects are explored within this paper: (1) the expected average annual electricity generation of a 'standard' 1 kW p grid-connected PV system; (2) the theoretical potential of PV electricity generation;

- by Marcel Suri
- •
- Engineering, Renewable Energy, European Union, Solar Energy

The energy benchmarking, rating and classification of buildings are necessary procedures for energy certification scheme adoption, energy regulation establishment, energy-efficiency promotion and energy consumption reduction, according to the Directive 2002/91/EC and its implementation in EU member states. The aim of this paper is to investigate and present research works, tools and programs focused on energy benchmarking methods, energy rating procedures and classification schemes for the building sector. The European Committee for Standardization method of benchmarking and rating for buildings are analyzed, as well as a proposed integrated classification method based on the application of clustering techniques to virtual building data sets of office buildings in Greece. air quality and/or other environmental parameters. Building classification includes benchmarking, rating and energy class definition procedures. Benchmarking is the method applied to compare the energy and/or environmental efficiency of a building with a reference value. Rating is the methodology for assessing the energy demands, and in some cases, the comfort conditions and indoor environmental quality of a building for evaluation of the energy and/or environmental efficiency. Classification is the integrated methodology for energy and/or environmental class determination .

- by Denia Kolokotsa
- •
- Energy Consumption, Energy efficient, Building Energy, Office Building

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), through its Technical Co-operation Programme, has supported the establishment of many nuclear analytical and complementary laboratories in Member States. This included the development of capabilities for the use of various nuclear analytical techniques that include alpha, beta, and gamma spectrometry; radiochemical analysis; neutron activation analysis; energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis; and total reflection X-ray fluorescence. As economic, ecological, medical, and legal decisions are frequently based on laboratory results, they need to be based on accepted national and international standards. The IAEA has taken up this important issue to enhance and foster the competitiveness of nuclear analytical laboratories with the consideration that nonnuclear capabilities are equally important. The projects aim at enhanced quality awareness, a concise system for documentation, establishment of standard operating procedures, procedures for validation of methods, surveillance of method performance, systems for sample management, regular qualification of personnel, client liaison and safety. These projects follow the ISO/IEC 17025 standard and promote participating laboratories to maintain a self-sufficient quality system by which they might be able to obtain national accreditation. This contribution describes the general concept of these projects and discusses some of the results achieved.

This volume presents three studies on the VAT. The first study is a VAT primer for lawyers, economists, and accountants who rarely talk to each other about tax issues, particularly in the Netherlands. The different views illuminate the nature and workings of the VAT. The second study examines and evaluates VAT coordination in the EU against the backdrop of an analysis of VAT fraud. Carousel fraud is dwarfed by shadow economy fraud and contrived insolvency fraud. The taxation of intracommunity exports is not the solution to VAT coordination problems. Rather the focus should be on cross-border VAT audit, followed up, if necessary, by investigation and prosecution of fraudsters. The third study argues that value changes in exempt immovable property should be brought into the VAT base, similar to value changes in other second-hand goods that are traded by taxable dealers. This extension of the VAT base should replace the inequitable and distortionary transfer or registration taxes and s...

- by Sijbren Cnossen
- •
- Economic policy, Shadow Economy, Member States