The international dimension of the EU agencies: Framing a growing legal-institutional phenomenon

International cooperation has become a salient feature of EU agencies triggering important legal questions regarding the scope and limits of the agencies' international dimension, the nature and effects of their international cooperation instruments, and their legal status within the EU and on the global level. This article examines the international dimension of EU agencies by advancing a legal-analytical blueprint linking EU law to international public law. The principle of institutional balance and the Meroni doctrine are used as EU law parameters for assessing the agencies' international cooperation mandate, powers and actions, whilst the concepts of 'international agreement' and 'international legal personality' serve as standards for clarifying the legal nature of EU agencies' international cooperation instruments and their legal status as global actors. Case studies on the European Aviation Safety Agency, Frontex and Europol 'test on the ground' the legal-analytical framework advanced and offer fresh insights into the EU agencies' international cooperation practice. Whilst the institutional balance in EU external relations does not prohibit entrusting certain international cooperation tasks to EU agencies, the application of the Meroni requirements suggests a limited role for these EU bodies as global actors. Next, the international cooperation instruments concluded by EU agencies can be legally binding agreements which, as a specific category of technical-administrative agreements, could still be accommodated within the EU legal framework. Albeit EU agencies could acquire in theory a derived and functionally limited international legal personality, none of the three agencies examined has such a legal status entailing that their international cooperation actions are in principle attributable to the Union

Persuasive rather than ‘binding’ EU soft law? An argumentative perspective on the European Commission’s soft law instruments in times of crisis

This paper starts from the premise that argumentation in EU (Commission) soft law instruments is essential for their effectiveness, mainly due to its function to persuade addressees as a means to enhance compliance. Notwithstanding their importance in the EU legal-political landscape, the problem is how to ensure that these instruments devoid of formal legally binding force can function as effective governance tools by convincing addressees to comply, particularly during crisis periods such as the Covid-19 crisis, when fast and effective action is urgently needed. By pointing at a number of significant legal problems and concerns deriving from the Commission’s ‘hardened’ soft law instruments, we suggest a normative approach focusing on the potential of EU soft law instruments to act as highly persuasive tools. By making the instruments’ argumentation a core concern, we examine its role as a means to improve the intrinsic quality of EU (Commission) soft law and to foster effective compliance. To this end, we propose a theoretical-analytical framework combining insights from law and argumentation theory, that puts forward an argumentative toolbox for the analysis and assessment of EU (Commission) soft law instruments. This toolbox comprises four argumentative parameters that need to be taken into account in the drafting and evaluation of EU (Commission) soft law instruments: (1) the content of the argumentation, (2) the design of the arguments pointing at persuasive suggestions for cooperation, (3) the factors influencing argumentative effectiveness, and (4) the soundness of argumentation

Argumentative patterns in the European Union directives:An effective tool to foster compliance by the Member States

Abstract This paper provides an account of the arguments advanced by the European Union (EU) legislator in the preamble of directives adopted for harmonization in the internal market, and assesses them as to their potential at convincing the Member States to implement the directive at issue. We show what directives should argue for and how they do so in practice, by focussing in particular on Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights. Furthermore, this contribution moves beyond a purely academic discussion by linking the theoretical-normative framework advanced to the Court of Justice of the European Union’s approach to assessing the preambles of EU directives in the context of the ‘check’ on the duty to state reasons under Article 296 Treaty for the of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Our analysis unveils a legislative practice in which the obligation to give reasons is not discharged adequately from an argumentative perspective, and which remains generally unsanctioned due to the rather light and flexible test used by CJEU under Article 296 TFEU.</jats:p

Laparoscopic re-interventions for bile duct injuries

Clinica Chirurgie II, Timișoara, România, Al XI-lea Congres al Asociației Chirurgilor „Nicolae Anestiadi” din Republica Moldova și cea de-a XXXIII-a Reuniune a Chirurgilor din Moldova „Iacomi-Răzeșu” 27-30 septembrie 2011Lucrarea prezintă 2 cazuri exemplificate cu filme video în care intervenţia chirurgicală laparoscopică a fost indicată pentru rezolvarea unor suferinţe biliare postcolecistectomie pe cale clasică. Primul caz a fost o pacientă cu colecistectomie clasică incompletă la care s-a efectuat totalizarea colecistectomiei pe cale laparoscopică la două luni după intervenţia clasică. Acest caz susţine ideea din literatura actuală conform căreia vechiul termen de neocolecist corespundea unor colecistectomii incomplete. Abordul laparoscopic este posibil, dar recomandabil în centre cu multă experienţă în chirurgia laparoscopică. Al doilea caz a fost o pacientă cu o leziune de coledoc după o colecistectomie clasică. Această leziune a fost reparată laparoscopic în urgenţă la 8 zile după prima intervenţie. Evoluţia ambelor paciente a fost simplă, dovedind că în unele cazuri reintervenţia pe cale laparoscopică este fezabilă, sigură şi benefică pentru pacient.This paper presents 2 case reports illustrated by surgical video. In both cases laparoscopic intervention was indicated for repair of bile duct injuries produced during open cholecystectomy. The first case describes a female patient who underwent an incomplete open cholecystectomy. Two months after the first intervention cholecystectomy was completed by the laparoscopic approach. This case supports the idea circulating in the actual medical literature that postoperative dilatation of cystic duct (neocholecyst) is the consequence of the incomplete cholecystectomy. Laparoscopic approach is possible but can be recommended only in centers with experience in minimally invasive surgery. The second case was a patient with bile duct injury after classic cholecystectomy. This lesion was repaired in emergency by laparoscopic approach 8 days after the first operation. The evolution of both patients was uneventful, therefore proving that in selected cases laparoscopic re- intervention is a safe and feasible treatment option

Sol-Gel Prepared Nanoscopic Metal Fluorides - a New Class of Tunable Acid-Base Catalysts

In this article, the high potential of the fluorolytic sol-gel process to synthesise nanoscopic metal fluorides with different acid-base properties is shown. These nanoscopic materials exhibit high potential to be used as heterogeneous catalysts due to their high surface areas and their tunable surface properties. Thus, for each specific reaction the required surface properties of the catalysts can be ”adjusted” to achieve a high yield and selectivity of the desired product. As a consequence, a greener method of chemical production can be accomplished. Moreover the cheap and easy synthesis of the catalysts using basic chemicals makes them not only interesting for fundamental research but provides an easy transformation to industrial applications