Long-term Energy Supply Contracts in European Competition Policy: Fuzzy not Crazy

Long-term supply contracts often have ambiguous effects on the competitive structure, investment and consumer welfare in the long term. In a context of market building, these effects are likely to be worsened and thus even harder to assess. Since liberalization and especially since the release of the Energy Sector Enquiry in early 2007, the portfolio of long-term supply contracts of the former incumbents have become a priority for review by the European Commission and the national competition authorities. It is widely believed that European Competition authorities take a dogmatic view on these contracts and systemically emphasize the risk of foreclosure over their positive effects on investment and operation. This paper depicts the methodology that has emerged in the recent line of cases and argues that this interpretation is largely misguided. It shows that a multiple-step approach is used to reduce regulation costs and balance anti-competitive effects with potential efficiency gains. However, if an economic approach is now clearly implemented, competition policy is constrained by the procedural aspect of the legal process and the remedies imposed remain open for discussion.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research

Adverse events in faecal microbiota transplant: a review of the literature.

Faecal microbiota transplant (FMT) is the infusion of donor faeces into the gut with the aim of improving microbial diversity. The procedure has gained significant interest recently in the treatment of recurrent Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). The literature is currently dominated by small case series and isolated case reports. There is no standardization of methods and recording of outcomes.Submitted (immediately with CC-BY-NC-ND), or accepted after 12 month embargo (CC-BY-NC-ND

The Importance of Setting a Target - The EU Ambition of a High Level of Protection

The European Union (EU) aims to ensure a high level of environmental protection. This is a key message of primary EU law. This article explores the purpose and meaning of this explicit ambition. It deciphers its influence on case law and on judicial review of leg- islative and administrative discretion. It argues that the requirement goes beyond window dressing and that its added value lies both in supporting the legitimacy of bold decisions and in preventing a manifest dismissal of the requisites of environmental protection. Although primarily focused on EU law and on its technicalities, the article may offer helpful insights to other transnational or federal systems. It may help to build a better understanding of some of the challenges facing any environmental law regime confronted with the sensitive issue of ‘ambition’

Increasing gender diversity in STEM

The ANNA tool developed in the scope of the project "Increasing Gender Diversity in STEM" is an online tool that allows high school students to match their own personality, views, and expectations to those of engineering students and professional engineers. Not only does it provide easy access to role models, but it also increases awareness of what it means to be an engineer and picks up on some stereotypes associated with studying technology at the university. This EU funded Erasmus+ project helped the partners to study the gender difference in self-perception about the engineering degree. In the meantime, the data collection gives the opportunity to take a look at how students perceive their university and their degree

Integration v. Regulation? On the Dynamics of Regulation in the European Community

First published: December 199