Explaining visa, asylum and immigration policy Treaty revision: insights from a revised neofunctionalist framework

This paper seeks to explain the varying, and sometimes intriguing, outcomes of the past three Treaty revision negotiations of European Union/Community visa, asylum and immigration policy. Regarding this policy area, I focus on the substantial constitutional issues of decision rules and institutional set-up. The results of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) negotiations leading to the Amsterdam Treaty, the Treaty of Nice and the Constitutional Treaty are subjected to causal analysis. The paper draws on a revised neofunctionalist framework and argues that five explanatory factors can account for the Treaty outcomes: (1) functional pressures; (2) the role of supranational institutions; (3) socialisation, deliberation and learning processes; (4) exogenous pressures; and (5) countervailing forces.political science; intergovernmental conferences; treaty reform; European Convention; asylum policy; immigration policy; neo-functionalism; socialization

The EU within the G8: A Case of Ambiguous and Contested Actorness. College of Europe EU Diplomacy Paper 05/2009, August 2009

This paper analyses the degree of European Union (EU) actorness within the Group of Eight (G8). Drawing on the work of Jupille and Caporaso, actorness is probed along the criteria of ‘recognition’, ‘authority’, ‘autonomy’ and ‘cohesion’. We argue that the vague and informal nature of the G8 is conducive to EU participation in the summit. The system of EU representation within the G8 can be seen as a case of constructed ambiguity because the ambiguity that is inherent in the EU’s participation has been institutionalized within the G8. When assessing the above criteria, actorness of the EU as a whole remains questionable. However, recognition, authority, autonomy and most of all cohesion differ considerably per context. We suggest that the ‘independence’ aspect of ‘autonomy’ constitutes a weakness in the conceptuali-sation of actorness and may better be replaced by ‘proactivity’. Finally, on the basis of our findings it can be tentatively hypothesised that a number of factors condition EU actorness in the G8, including the degree of integration at EU level, the degree of politicisation and whether or not an EU member state is acting as G8 host

EU actorness and effectiveness under political pressure at the Copenhagen climate change negotiations

This paper analyses the extent of European Union (EU) actorness and effectiveness at the fifteenth United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009. For over a decade the European Union has been characterised as a leader in international climate policy-making and as an important actor in international climate change negotiations. The COP15 meeting in Copenhagen has overall brought about disappointing outcomes, especially from the perspective of the European Union. This casts doubts on EU leadership and begs the question of what has happened to EU actorness and effectiveness in this field. In terms of actorness we take Jupille and Caporaso (1998) as a point of departure and then specify a more parsimonious actorness framework that consists of cohesion and autonomy. Effectiveness (i.e. goal attainment) is seen as conceptually separate from actorness. Effectiveness is conceptualised as the result of actorness conditioned by the ‘opportunity structure’, i.e. the external context (of other actors, events and ideas) that enables or constrains EU actions. We hold that the EU’s actorness has been only moderate, especially given somewhat limited preference cohesion. In terms of the opportunity structure in Copenhagen we argue that the high degree of politicisation constrained the EU’s ability to negotiate and thus to attain its goals. Another external factor that had a substantial adverse impact on the EU’s effectiveness at the Copenhagen negotiations was the strong involvement of other actors with rather different positions, namely the United States (US) and the BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India, and China)

What the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue says about the EU’s role as a peace mediator

What conditions influence EU effectiveness in international mediation? A recent study by Julian Bergmann and Arne Niemann assesses how we can better evaluate the role of the EU institutions as a peace mediator by investigating the case of the Belgrade – Pristina dialogue, brokered by the EU between 2011 and 2013

Outside-in politicization of EU–Western Africa relations : what role for civil society organizations?

This article explores the empirical relevance of researching outside-in politicization processes in European studies. To this end, it examines to what extent and how civil society organizations (CSOs) have contributed to the politicization of EU policies towards Western Africa in two cases: the negotiation of Economic Partnership Agreements and the EU's engagement with the G5 Sahel. CSOs were strongly engaged in the trade negotiations, while they were largely excluded from the G5 Sahel process. In both cases this was due to CSOs' own initiatives, or the absence thereof, with these strongly linked to being either invited or discouraged by official actors. The article argues that authority transfer and the domestic context – including state fragility and state–society relations – are relevant to explaining the (non-)involvement of CSOs in outside-in politicization

Spiroergometrische Untersuchung bei Patienten mit funktionell singulärem Ventrikel nach Komplettierung der Fontan-Zirkulation

Es wurde untersucht, wie sich bei Fontan-Patienten das Ausmaß der sportlichen Aktivität, Alter, Alter bei Fontan-Komplettierung, Morphologie des Systemventrikels und der Status der Fenestration auf die kardiopulmonale Leistungsfähigkeit und HRQoL auswirken. Es fand eine retrospektive Auswertung von Laufbandspiroergometrien statt, die in den Jahren 2014 bis 2019 im Kinderherzzentrum Kiel durchgeführt wurden. Zusätzlich erfolgte eine schriftliche Befragung von Fontan-Patienten zur sportlichen Aktivität und gesundheitsbezogenen Lebensqualität (HRQoL). Es konnten 79 Patienten eingeschlossen werden (weiblich n= 31). 57 dieser Patienten hatten einen systemisch rechten und 18 einen systemisch linken Ventrikel. Vier Patienten hatten eine komplexe Anatomie. Das mediane Alter bei der Spiroergometrie betrug 13 (6,5-34,4) Jahre. Die Auswertung der Fragebögen ergab, dass 80% der Patienten (n= 63) regelmäßig Freizeitsport betrieben, davon 43% (n= 27) mehr als zwei Stunden pro Woche. In der Untergruppe der pädiatrischen Patienten fand sich eine altersentsprechende HRQoL im Kidsscreen Index (n= 24) sowie ein gutes subjektives Gesundheitsbefinden (n= 48). Auch fand sich ein positiver Zusammenhang der Sauerstoffaufnahme an der anaeroben Schwelle und der maximalen Sauerstoffaufnahme mit dem subjektiven Gesundheitsbefinden (p<0,05) und der Freizeitsportaktivität (p<0,01). Das Alter zeigte sich als Risikofaktor für eine erniedrigte Leistungsfähigkeit während einer Spiroergometrie. Ein höheres Alter bei Fontan-Komplettierung mit einer erniedrigten Leistungsfähigkeit assoziiert. Es zeigte sich kein signifikanter Unterschied bezüglich der Leistungsfähigkeit zwischen Patienten mit einem linkem und rechtem Systemventrikel sowie zwischen denen mit einer offenen und geschlossenen Fenestration

Preparation of Loads and Aeroelastic Analyses of a High Altitude, Long Endurance, Solar Electric Aircraft

High altitude, long endurance aircraft can serve as platform for scientists to make observations of the earth over a long period of time. Staying airborne only by solar electric energy is, as of today, a challenge for the aircraft design and requires an extremely light weight structure at the edge of the physically possible. This paper focuses on the loads and aeroelastic aspects of such a configuration, discusses the selected strategies and presents the applied methods and tools, including the resulting models prepared for the HAPomega configuration currently under development at the DLR. Because of the structural flexibility and the slow speed of the aircraft, flight mechanical and flight control aspects interact with aeroelastics e.g. during a gust encounter, making a non-linear time domain simulation necessary. Both maneuver and gust loads are used for the structural sizing and result in a very light and slender airframe with very low eigenfrequencies

EU refugee policies and politics in times of crisis theoretical and empirical perspectives

Phenomena such as civil war, protracted conflict, and deteriorating internal security, especially in the Middle East, Africa and Southern Asia, have triggered massive departures of civilian populations in recent years. The war in Syria alone has displaced over 5 million people (UNHCR, 2017a). While most of these forced migrants are either internally displaced or remain in Syria’s immediate neighbourhood, the numbers of those trying to come to Europe have steeply increased in 2015 and 2016. In each of these two years more than 1.2 million asylum-seekers submitted their asylum claims in the EU (Eurostat, 2017a), as compared to 625,000 in 2014 (Eurostat, 2015, p. 4). This represents the largest inflow of asylum-seekers since World War II. Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq accounted for the largest share of those asylum-seekers that entered the EU in 2015 and 2016 (Eurostat, 2017b)