Croatian Accession to the European Union: Facing the Challenges of Negotiations

This paper assesses the trade criteria for EU membership and the extent to which Croatia fulfills those criteria. The relationship between trade criteria and the economic ability to pursue EU accession is discussed and a gravity model of Croatian trade is constructed in order to measure the level of trade diversification achieved in an objective manner. Significant trade biases towards the former Yugoslav republics are found as well as an emerging bias in imports from Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC). Moreover, the process of trade liberalization that was promoted recently did in general not significantly contribute to trade diversification towards countries with which preferential trade agreements had recently been concluded, rather reinforced existing biases, although there are some differences between export and import flows. In order to mitigate the consequences of delays in the integration processes, reduce long-term costs of trade restructuring and encourage the trade integration with the EU necessary for successful accession, Croatia should seek to eliminate the remaining institutional barriers to trade with the EU. Also, the continuation and faster implementation of structural reforms are necessary preconditions for an increase of openness in trade.trade integration, preferential trade agreements, gravity analysis, Croatia

Cathodoluminescence of nanocrystalline Y2O3:Eu3+ with various Eu3+ concentrations

© The Author(s) 2014. Published by ECS. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse of the work in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Herein a study on the preparation and cathodoluminescence of monosized spherical nanoparticles of Y2O3:Eu3+ having a Eu3+ concentration that varies between 0.01 and 10% is described. The luminous efficiency and decay time have been determined at low a current density, whereas cathodoluminescence-microscopy has been carried out at high current density, the latter led to substantial saturation of certain spectral transitions. A novel theory is presented to evaluate the critical distance for energy transfer from Eu3+ ions in S6 to Eu3+ ions in C2 sites. It was found that Y2O3:Eu3+ with 1–2% Eu3+ has the highest luminous efficiency of 16lm/w at 15keV electron energy. Decay times of the emission from 5D0 (C2) and 5D1 (C2) and 5D0 (S6) levels were determined. The difference in decay time from the 5D0 (C2) and 5D1 (C2) levels largely explained the observed phenomena in the cathodoluminescence-micrographs recorded with our field emission scanning electron microscope

Croatian Accession to the European Union: Facing the Challenges of Negotiations

The paper discusses aspects of Croatian social policy, particularly social inclusion and social dialogue, in the context of Croatia’s status as a candidate country for accession to the EU. It describes the development of a European Social Model demonstrating that, notwithstanding certain problems, significant achievements have been made within the EU. Social dialogue has evolved from consultation to social governance, and the open method of co-ordination is implemented not only regarding employment issues but also in the social inclusion process. Furthermore, European concerns have been extended to the fields of pensions and health care, which will be addressed in future joint EU Social Protection Reports. The paper notes the salience of social policy issues in previous waves of accession. Analysis of Croatian welfare reforms shows that, thus far, the EU impact has been very limited. The paper calls for strengthened efforts, by Croatia and the EU, to ensure that aspects of social policy and the European Social Model are more systematically discussed, addressed and implemented as Croatia proceeds towards EU membership.Social Europe, European Social Model, social policy, social protection, social inclusion, social dialogue, open method of co-ordination, accession, welfare reforms, Croatia, European Union

Croatian Accession to the European Union: Facing the Challenges of Negotiations

This paper deals with the free movement of workers in the context of EU enlargement with specific focus on the transitional period. The purpose of the paper is to present two main challenges Croatia will face in the accession negotiations of the chapter on free movement of workers: harmonization of legislation and a transitional period for the movement of its workers after the accession. With regard to legal harmonization, the paper gives an overview of the EU rules and Croatian legislation dealing with the free movement of workers. In order to explain the effect of the movement of workers in the enlarged EU on Croatia, it is necessary to look at the trends of labour migration in the EU and Croatia. The other important issue is the transitional arrangement agreed with the new EU member states, for a similar arrangement might be proposed to Croatia during accession negotiations.employment, enlargement, European Union, labour mobility, migration, negotiations, transitional period

Functionalizing self-assembled GaN quantum dot superlattices by Eu-implantation

Self-assembled GaN quantum dots (QDs) stacked in superlattices (SL) with AlN spacer layers were implanted with Europium ions to fluences of 1013, 1014, and 1015 cm−2. The damage level introduced in the QDs by the implantation stays well below that of thick GaN epilayers. For the lowest fluence, the structural properties remain unchanged after implantation and annealing while for higher fluences the implantation damage causes an expansion of the SL in the [0001] direction which increases with implantation fluence and is only partly reversed after thermal annealing at 1000 °C. Nevertheless, in all cases, the SL quality remains very good after implantation and annealing with Eu ions incorporated preferentially into near-substitutional cation sites. Eu3+ optical activation is achieved after annealing in all samples. In the sample implanted with the lowest fluence, the Eu3+ emission arises mainly from Eu incorporated inside the QDs while for the higher fluences only the emission from Eu inside the AlN-buffer, capping, and spacer layers is observed. © 2010 American Institute of PhysicsFCT-PTDC/CTM/100756/2008program PESSOA EGIDE/GRICESFCT-SFRH/BD/45774/2008FCT-SFRH/BD/44635/200

A Raman-Heterodyne Study of the Hyperfine Interaction of the Optically-Excited State 5^5D0_0 of Eu3+^{3+}:Y2_2SiO5_5

The spin coherence time of $^{151}$Eu$^{3+}$ which substitutes the yttrium at site 1 in Y$_2$SiO$_5$ crystal has been extended to 6 hours in a recent work [\textit{Nature} \textbf{517}, 177 (2015)]. To make this long-lived spin coherence useful for optical quantum memory applications, we experimentally characterize the hyperfine interaction of the optically-excited state $^5$D$_0$ using Raman-heterodyne-detected nuclear magnetic resonance. The effective spin Hamiltonians for excited and ground state are fitted based on the experimental spectra obtained in 200 magnetic fields with various orientations. To show the correctness of the fitted parameters and potential application in quantum memory protocols, we also characterize the ground-state hyperfine interaction and predict the critical magnetic field which produces the 6-hour-long coherence time. The complete energy level structure for both the $^7$F$_0$ ground state and $^5$D$_0$ excited state at the critical magnetic field are obtained. These results enable the design of quantum memory protocols and the optimization of optical pumping strategy for realization of photonic quantum memory with hour-long lifetime

Zeeman splittings of the 5D0–7F2 transitions of Eu3+ ions implanted into GaN

We report the magnetic field splittings of emission lines assigned to the 5D0–7F2 transitions of Eu3+ centres in GaN. The application of a magnetic field in the c-axis direction (B||c) leads to a splitting of the major lines at 621 nm, 622 nm and 622.8 nm into two components. The Zeeman splitting is linear with magnetic field up to 5 Tesla for each line. In contrast, a magnetic field applied in the growth plane (B┴c) does not influence the photoluminescence spectra. The estimated g-factors vary slightly from sample to sample with mean values of g|| ~2.8, ~1.5 and ~2.0 for the emission lines at 621 nm, 622 nm and 622.8 nm respectively

Shells of crystal field symmetries evidenced in oxide nano-crystals

By the use of a point charge model based on the Judd-Ofelt transition theory, the luminescence from Eu3+ ions embedded in Gd2O3 clusters is calculated and compared to the experimental data. The main result of the numerical study is that without invoking any other mechanisms such as crystal disorder, the pure geometrical argument of the symmetry breaking induced by the particle surface has influence on the energy level splitting. The modifications are also predicted to be observable in realistic conditions where unavoidable size dispersion has to be taken into account. The emission spectrum results from the contribution of three distinct regions, a cluster core, a cluster shell and a very surface, the latter being almost completely quenched in realistic conditions. Eventually, by detailing the spectra of the ions embedded at different positions in the cluster we get an estimate of about 0.5 nm for the extent of the crystal field induced Stark effect. Due to the similarity between Y2O3 and Gd2O3, these results apply also to Eu3+ doped Y2O3 nanoparticles