Governance, Europarties and the challenge of democratic representation in the EU: A case study of the Party of European Socialists

Europarties are at the centre of the potential democratisation of European governance and their development is key to supranational representation. The authors will address the more general question of why Europarties have not so far shaped significantly European governance and policy by focusing on one of the main Europarties-the Party of European Socialists (PES). This article tests a number of claims about the factors accounting for weak Europarty influence over European Union (EU) governance. In this article, the authors discuss these claims by considering successively three complementary interrelated dimensions: the constraints placed upon the social democratic family by the EU institutional environment, the PES socio-economic policy offer and the collective action problem in relation to fighting European elections as a unified party on a unified platform. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Radionuclides in the soil around the largest coal-fired power plant in Serbia: radiological hazard, relationship with soil characteristics and spatial distribution

Primordial radionuclides, U-238, Th-232 and K-40 were determined in soil samples collected at two depths (0-10 and 10-20 cm) in the vicinity of the largest coal-fired power plant in Serbia, and their spatial distribution was analysed using ordinary kriging. Mean values of activity concentrations for these depths were 50.7 Bq kg(-1) for U-238, 48.7 Bq kg(-1) for Th-232 and 560 Bq kg(-1) for K-40. Based on the measured activity concentrations, the radiological hazard due to naturally occurring radionuclides in soil was assessed. The value of the mean total absorbed dose rate was 76.3 nGy h(-1), which is higher than the world average. The annual effective dose due to these radionuclides ranged from 51.4 to 114.2 mu Sv. Applying cluster analysis, correlations between radionuclides and soil properties were determined. The distribution pattern of natural radionuclides in the environment surrounding the coal-fired power plant and their enrichment in soil at some sampling sites were in accordance with dispersion models of fly ash emissions. From the results obtained, it can be concluded that operation of the coal-fired power plant has no significant negative impact on the surrounding environment with regard to the content of natural radionuclides