American sanctions and European sovereignty. Egmont European Policy Brief No.54

The decision by the United States to withdraw from the “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” and re-impose sanctions on Iran broke an international understanding, sanctioned by a UN Security Council Resolution. However, European and other non-US companies dealing with Iran must abide by US law in order to avoid its extraterritorial effects on their US operations. Efforts are being made to help the EU keep its “sovereignty” on sanction issues when there is disagreement with the US, but until now these have not accomplished much. Therefore a new Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) was launched at the end of January to ensure the continuation of some trade with Iran. But the only convincing way to allow the EU to increase its autonomy is to boost the role of the Euro in international transactions. Certainly, in today’s unpredictable world, we need more than ever to address the issue of the extraterritorial application of American sanctions – today it is Iran, what if tomorrow it is China

Who is leading the European Union? European Policy Brief No. 33, March 2014

The European Union will only be reconciled with its citizens when they will be able to identify leaders at the level of the institutions

Secondary sanctions and multilateralism – the way ahead. Egmont European Policy Brief No. 70 May 2021.

The sensitive issue of American ‘secondary sanctions’ imposed on its allies generated serious tensions in the transatlantic relationship when the US left the JCPOA with Iran. Some hoped these would ease with the Biden administration, but the current row about the Nord Stream 2 pipeline demonstrates that the extraterritoriality of sanctions is a well-entrenched US bipartisan policy. The EU has made numerous efforts to react by developing countermeasures, but these have not convinced European companies to challenge the sanctions. The perspective of enhancing the role of the Euro to reduce the dominance of the Dollar in world transactions is also still considered a long shot. New countermeasures have been suggested, notably by the Jacques Delors Institute and the European Commission has announced ‘additional policy options’ to that effect. But the issue should also be addressed in the context of a revival of multilateralism, which the Biden administration seems to favour. The renewed transatlantic dialogue and the G7 framework could be used to address this sensitive issue, in a context in which China’s power aims at challenging the US unipolarity – and the EU aims at developing its ‘strategic autonomy’

Who is leading the European Union?. European Policy Briefs No. 33, March 2014

The European Union will only be reconciled with its citizens when they will be able to identify leaders at the level of the institutions

Is there an escape from ‘Ever Closer Union’? European Policy Brief No. 49 February 2018

The EU Treaty objective of establishing ‘an ever closer Union among the peoples of Europe’ means that European integration is a step by step process requiring the use of supranational institutions. It has never been popular with nationalists and was strongly rejected by David Cameron in his quest for a EU reform deal in 2015-16. However, the Brexit negotiations demonstrate that renouncing it will only create harm, whichever ‘leave’ scenario is retained. Ever closer union is also required in the field of Economic and Monetary Union to help the Euro resist new potential threats. In effect, Europe has no choice but to integrate further if it wants to keep its place in an ever more competitive global world

Un ministre pour une politique étrangère européenne

European Commission; institutions; international relations; Constitution for Europe; treaty reform

Análisis comparativo de las técnicas InSAR Persistent Scatters Interferometry (PSI) y Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) aplicadas en la medición de las deformaciones del complejo volcánico cordón Caulle (40.5°S) – Andes del Sur

Este trabajo tiene como objetivo general, comparar la serie temporal de deformaciones corticales obtenidas por los algoritmos Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) y Small Baseline Subset (SBAS), que se presentaron entre los años 2000 y 2009 en el Cordón Volcánico Puyehue - Cordón Caulle (CVPCC)1, el cual amediados del año 2011 hasta principios del 2012, registró una gran e intensa actividad eruptiva. Cabe señalar, que estudios precedentes han logrado determinar la existencia de deformaciones en este complejo volcánico ya desde el año 1996, en un marco general de bajos valores de coherencia, debido a la decorrelación temporal característica que se produce en la zona en la cual se encuentra localizado. En términos metodológicos, se ocuparon 48 imágenes correspondientes a la plataforma ERS-2, las cuales fueron en un principio focalizadas por el software de Euillades et al. (2011) y procesadas por el software Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers / Multi-Temporal InSAR (STaMPS/MTI), desarrollado por Universidad Tecnológica Delft (TUDelft). Los procesamientos realizados tanto con PSI y SBAS, no lograron resultados consistentes, debido a que no pudieron soslayar la decorrelación temporal propia de la zona en donde se encuentra el CVPCC. Esto se debió fundamentalmente por dos motivos: El primero, a las características específicas de los datos del sensor ocupado (como por ejemplo la longitud de onda, repetición de ciclos, etc.); y por otro lado, a las limitadas capacidades de los algoritmos de procesamiento de series temporales, para determinar resultados consistentes en presencia de este tipo de decorrelación. En este contexto general, ambos algoritmos coinciden en la detección al menos parcialmente, de un proceso de inflación que se desarrolla fundamentalmente en el centro del cordón volcánico. En términos comparativos, los resultados de ambos procedimientos presentan diferencias tanto en los intervalos de tiempo y el número de celdas seleccionadas con fase estable. Específicamente, debido a la baja cantidad tanto de celdas e interferogramas seleccionados para ambos procesamientos, no fue posible una comparación de carácter cuantitativo de los valores específicos de las series temporales correspondientes

Ducati (Pericle). Le problème étrusque

De Ruyt Franz. Ducati (Pericle). Le problème étrusque. In: Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, tome 17, fasc. 3-4, 1938. pp. 923-926

Sara Santoro Bianchi (a cura di), Castelraimondo. Scavi 1988-1990. II. Informática, archeometria et studio dei materiali

De Ruyt Claire. Sara Santoro Bianchi (a cura di), Castelraimondo. Scavi 1988-1990. II. Informática, archeometria et studio dei materiali. In: L'antiquité classique, Tome 66, 1997. pp. 674-675