The 'new' principal task for Europol to support Member States in connection with major international events: the blurring of boundaries between law enforcement and public order?

As from 1 January 2010 a new principal task for the European Police Office (Europol) is to provide intelligence and analytical support to Member States in connection with major international events. The first research question of this paper is whether this new task, which was not as such provided for by the Europol Convention, qualifies as a true novelty. On the one hand, the Europol Council Decision merely gives a more profound legal basis to already existing practices. On the other hand, all options are open for the further development of Europol. The second research question is whether this seemingly information-related task would in fact not amount to a task of public order, which would then no longer be compatible with Europol’s objective. Although the actual Europol Council Decision does not explicitly mention public order policing, the new task would not exclude Europol from supporting national police action with a public order impact. This potential blurring of the boundaries between law enforcement and order maintenance is not without risk

Go West! Political, legal and operational aspects of cooperation between Europol and the United States

This paper serves as a building block in the process of writing a doctoral thesis in law (working title: Europol, quo vadis? Critical analysis and evaluation of the development of the European Police Office). Based in The Hague (The Netherlands), Europol is the European Union (EU) law enforcement agency that handles criminal intelligence. Its formal objective, as laid down in the Europol Council Decision, is to “to support and strenghten action by the competent authorities of the Member States and their mutual cooperation in preventing and combating organised crime, terrorism and other forms of serious crime affecting two or more Member States”. To be in a position to collect and connect information from different sources, Europol has over the years concluded numerous operational agreements (including the exchange of personal data) and strategic agreements (not including the exchange of personal data) with EU bodies as well as with third States and organisations. This paper is a case study on the cooperation between Europol and the United States. It considers the political, legal and operational aspects of the cooperative relations between the EU law enforcement agency and its counterparts in the US. Following research methods are used: an analysis of relevant legal and policy documents, a study of relevant literature and a targeted series of interviews with key figures

Austenite Formation and Manganese Partitioning during Double Soaking of an Ultralow Carbon Medium-Manganese Steel

Double soaking (DS) is a thermal processing route intended to produce austenite–martensite microstructures in steels containing austenite-stabilizing additions and consists of intercritical annealing (primary soaking), followed by heating and brief isothermal holding at an increased temperature (secondary soaking), and quenching. Herein, experimental dilatometry during DS of a medium-manganese (Mn) steel with nominally 7 wt% Mn and an ultralow residual carbon concentration, in combination with phase-field simulations of austenite formation during secondary soaking, is presented. The feasibility of maintaining heterogeneous Mn distributions during DS is demonstrated and insight is provided on the effects of the secondary soaking temperature and prior Mn distribution on the ferrite-to-austenite phase transformation during the secondary soaking portion of the DS treatment

Implementation of electrochemical, optical and denuder-based sensors and sampling techniques on UAV for volcanic gas measurements : examples from Masaya, Turrialba and Stromboli volcanoes

Volcanoes are a natural source of several reactive gases (e.g., sulfur and halogen containing species) and nonreactive gases (e.g., carbon dioxide) to the atmosphere. The relative abundance of carbon and sulfur in volcanic gas as well as the total sulfur dioxide emission rate from a volcanic vent are established parameters in current volcanomonitoring strategies, and they oftentimes allow insights into subsurface processes. However, chemical reactions involving halogens are thought to have local to regional impact on the atmospheric chemistry around passively degassing volcanoes. In this study we demonstrate the successful deployment of a multirotor UAV (quadcopter) system with custom-made lightweight payloads for the compositional analysis and gas flux estimation of volcanic plumes. The various applications and their potential are presented and discussed in example studies at three volcanoes encompassing flight heights of 450 to 3300m and various states of volcanic activity. Field applications were performed at Stromboli volcano (Italy), Turrialba volcano (Costa Rica) and Masaya volcano (Nicaragua). Two in situ gas-measuring systems adapted for autonomous airborne measurements, based on electrochemical and optical detection principles, as well as an airborne sampling unit, are introduced. We show volcanic gas composition results including abundances of CO2, SO2 and halogen species. The new instrumental setups were compared with established instruments during ground-based measurements at Masaya volcano, which resulted in CO2 = SO2 ratios of 3.6 0.4. For total SO2 flux estimations a small differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) system measured SO2 column amounts on transversal flights below the plume at Turrialba volcano, giving 1776 1108 T d1 and 1616 1007 T d1 of SO2 during two traverses. At Stromboli volcano, elevated CO2 = SO2 ratios were observed at spatial and temporal proximity to explosions by airborne in situ measurements. Reactive bromine to sulfur ratios of 0.19 104 to 9.8 104 were measured in situ in the plume of Stromboli volcano, down wind of the vent.Published2441-24574V. Processi pre-eruttiviJCR Journa