"Freedom of Movement within 'Fortress Europe'"

Introduction. Much attention has been focused on those seeking to enter ‘fortress Europe’ ­ whether the concept is understood to refer only to the EU Schengen countries or to include non-EU Schengen countries, the United Kingdom and Ireland, or the countries which joined the Union in May 2004. Yet internal mobility within ‘fortress Europe’ is at least as worthy of consideration. The rise of freedom of movement rights in Europe ­ now codified with the legal category of European Union citizenship ­ represents a startling reversal of the historical tradition of state sovereignty. States have historically been defined in terms of insiders (citizens) and outsiders (foreigners). The new supranational rights supersede this traditional distinction by reducing or even removing the ability of European states to discriminate between their own citizens and those of other EU member states. Borders within the European Union still matter, but the remaining barriers to freedom of movement within ‘fortress Europe’ are practical rather than legal, and even they are rapidly disappearing. Exceptions to the European free movement regime still exist ­ such as the case of individuals deemed to pose a significant threat to public health or public security. But the rights of free movement have now been extended to virtually all European citizens, even though there will be a phase-in period for workers from most of the new accession states. By contrast, third-country nationals ­ citizens neither of the host state (first country) nor of another EU member state (second country) but of a non-EU state ­ continue to be denied freedom of movement rights within the Union, despite the efforts of the Commission and some national governments to extend them the same rights as those enjoyed by EU citizens. Exceptions to Schengen also continue to exist, as with special events such as the European soccer cup, for which Portugal in 2004 (just as Belgium and the Netherlands in 2000) was granted a temporary exemption on the requirement to abstain from checking the identification of individuals crossing Portuguese borders. On the whole, however, the picture that emerges for freedom of movement within Europe is one of a continent in which Europeans can move about freely, and in which state borders (though clearly not the borders between ‘fortress Europe’ and the rest of the world!) have lost most of the significance they once possessed. This paper lays out the development of the Schengen system and places it within the context of European Union citizenship

Strategies to control tree vigour and optimise fruit production in 'Conference' pears

The ban on the use of chlormequat (CCC) in pear orchards in 2001 forced Dutch pear growers to look for alternative methods to control tree vigour and stimulate flower bud development and fruit production. Root pruning and trunk notching have become the major growth retarding methods. In addition to the mechanical methods for controlling tree vigour, Regalis (Prohexadione-Calcium) and ethephon were tested as alternative chemical growth regulators for 'Conference' pears. In 2004, a trial was started in which six different strategies to control tree vigour and optimize fruit production in 'Conference' trees are compared. In 4 strategies root pruning was the major treatment, while in 2 strategies trunk incisions were the initial treatment to reduce tree vigour and stimulate fruit production. In 2005, no further root pruning or trunk incisions were made and ethephon and Regalis were the only treatments applied in some of the strategies. Ethephon and Regalis were also applied in 2006 in addition to root pruning in March and June or in June only. All of the strategies evaluated significantly reduced shoot growth and improved fruit production. Regular yields of 52 to more than 70 tons/ha were achieved for 3 consecutive years. So far, ethephon and Regalis have shown no or only minor additional beneficial effects compared to root pruning or trunk incision followed by root pruning in the years thereafter. Flowering, fruit yield and fruit quality of 'Conference' pears produced using the different strategies are presented and discussed

The Success of the Light Armoured Vehicle

Since the 1970s, budget constraints and debates over the tank’s relevance have prompted the Canadian Forces (CF) to pursue lighter, cheaper, and more flexible vehicles. The Light Armoured Vehicle (LAV), built in London, Ontario, has been purchased in great numbers to satisfy these demands, and it has largely succeeded. The CF has purchased the LAV as a wheeled, multi–purpose vehicle to fulfill a variety of roles (infantry carrier, medical evacuation vehicle, etc.), that is cheaper and easier to maintain than tracked alternatives. The CF has continued to purchase LAVs because they have been successful in the field, and they support a domestic producer, General Dynamics Land Systems Canada (GDLS–C), that cooperates closely with the military

Scalar-matter-gluon interaction

A full non-perturbative treatment of gauge theories requires to include matter fields on equal footing with the gauge fields. Scalar matter can act as a role model for generic matter, as many questions, e.g. confinement, can be posed without referring to a particular Lorentz structure. Due to their rather simple structure they are also useful to develop methods. One possible way to describe gauge theories beyond perturbation theory is based on correlation functions. After a short discussion of the setup, lattice gauge theory is used to analyze the interaction of gluons with quenched fundamental and adjoint scalars. Both the two-point and three-point correlation functions for massive and massless adjoint and fundamental scalars will be determined, in minimal Landau gauge. The findings are in agreement with the possibility that scalars are only slightly affected by the interaction with gluons. The results are compared briefly with dynamical, massive scalars, showing no significant changes in the confinement region compared to the quenched case.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, invited talk presented at the workshop "The many faces of QCD", Ghent, Belgium, 1st of November-5th of November 2010; submitted to the proceeding

Field theory as a tool to constrain new physics models

One of the major problems in developing new physics scenarios is that very often the parameters can be adjusted such that in perturbation theory almost all experimental low-energy results can be accommodated. It is therefore desirable to have additional constraints. Field-theoretical considerations can provide such additional constraints on the low-lying spectrum and multiplicities of models. Especially for theories with elementary or composite Higgs particle the Fr\"ohlich-Morchio-Strocchi mechanism provides a route to create additional conditions, though showing it to be at work requires genuine non-perturbative calculations. The qualitative features of this procedure are discussed for generic 2-Higgs-doublet models, grand-unified theories, and technicolor-type theories.Comment: 5 page

Gauge engineering and propagators

Beyond perturbation theory gauge-fixing becomes more involved due to the Gribov-Singer ambiguity: The appearance of additional gauge copies requires to define a procedure how to handle them. For the case of Landau gauge the structure and properties of these additional gauge copies will be investigated. Based on these properties gauge conditions are constructed to account for these gauge copies. The dependence of the propagators on the choice of these complete gauge-fixings will then be investigated using lattice gauge theory for Yang-Mills theory. It is found that the implications for the infrared, and to some extent mid-momentum behavior, can be substantial. In going beyond the Yang-Mills case it turns out that the influence of matter can generally not be neglected. This will be briefly discussed for various types of matter.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, Conference: XIIth Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum, August 28-September 04, 2016, Thessaloniki, Greece, submitted to the proceeding