The creation of the European Environment Agency and its impact on national administrations in Germany, France and Britain

This thesis analyses the Europeanization of national environmental agencies by assessing the impact of the  European Environment Agency (EEA) and its main environmental information and observation network, the  Eionet, on three of its member countries, namely Germany, France and Britain.The EEA began its work in 1994. It established the Eionet to institutionalize cooperation with member countries  from which it obtains environmental data required for its work. This thesis assesses the German Umweltbundesamt (UBA), French Agence de l’Environnement at de la Maîtrise de l’Energie (ADEME) and Institut Français de l’Environnement (Ifen) as well as the Environment Agency (EA) of England and Wales. The different national arrangements for Eionet participation are explained and the question of whether the creation of the EEA and national participation in the Eionet had a significant impact on the national environmental administrations in the three case countries is scrutinised. It is argued that all national environmental agencies assessed in this thesis have been affected by Europeanization, although to different degrees. This thesis draws heavily on historical institutionalism and Europeanization theories when 'testing' three hypotheses. Unpublished new empirical findings are also presented.This thesis argues that the EEA‘s impact on its member countries has, overall, remained very limited which explains the continued divergence between national environmental agencies. These findings are in line with historical institutionalist explanations. The only exception is the French Ifen which was set up as an independent agency in direct response to the creation of the EEA. As explained in the thesis, the French exceptionalism was, however, short-lived and largely driven by domestic (rather than EU-level) factors. This thesis provides new empirical material and analytical insights into the cooperation of national environment agencies and the EEA within the network of Heads of European Environment Protection Agencies (EPA network)

The creation of the European Environment Agency and its impact on national administrations in Germany, France and Britain

This thesis analyses the Europeanization of national environmental agencies by assessing the impact of the  European Environment Agency (EEA) and its main environmental information and observation network, the  Eionet, on three of its member countries, namely Germany, France and Britain.The EEA began its work in 1994. It established the Eionet to institutionalize cooperation with member countries  from which it obtains environmental data required for its work. This thesis assesses the German Umweltbundesamt (UBA), French Agence de l’Environnement at de la Maîtrise de l’Energie (ADEME) and Institut Français de l’Environnement (Ifen) as well as the Environment Agency (EA) of England and Wales. The different national arrangements for Eionet participation are explained and the question of whether the creation of the EEA and national participation in the Eionet had a significant impact on the national environmental administrations in the three case countries is scrutinised. It is argued that all national environmental agencies assessed in this thesis have been affected by Europeanization, although to different degrees. This thesis draws heavily on historical institutionalism and Europeanization theories when 'testing' three hypotheses. Unpublished new empirical findings are also presented.This thesis argues that the EEA‘s impact on its member countries has, overall, remained very limited which explains the continued divergence between national environmental agencies. These findings are in line with historical institutionalist explanations. The only exception is the French Ifen which was set up as an independent agency in direct response to the creation of the EEA. As explained in the thesis, the French exceptionalism was, however, short-lived and largely driven by domestic (rather than EU-level) factors. This thesis provides new empirical material and analytical insights into the cooperation of national environment agencies and the EEA within the network of Heads of European Environment Protection Agencies (EPA network)

Wormholes Immersed in Rotating Matter

We demonstrate that rotating matter sets the throat of an Ellis wormhole into rotation, allowing for wormholes which possess full reflection symmetry with respect to the two asymptotically flat spacetime regions. We analyze the properties of this new type of rotating wormholes and show that the wormhole geometry can change from a single throat to a double throat configuration. We further discuss the ergoregions and the lightring structure of these wormholes.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figue

X-ray waveguide optics: Beyond straight channels

Modern x-ray sources and analysis techniques such as lens less imaging combined with phase retrieval algorithms allow for resolving structure sizes in the nanometerrange. For this purpose optics have to be employed, ensuring small focal spot dimensions simultaneously with high photon densities. Furthermore, the wave front behind the optics is required to be smooth enabling for high-resolution imaging. Combining all these properties, x-ray waveguides are well suited to perform this task, since the intensity distribution behind the guide is restricted in two dimensions serving as a secondary quasi point-source without wave-front aberrations, showing also a high divergence, suitable for resolving fine features. Importantly, the radiation provided by the waveguide reveals a high degree of coherence, required by many imaging techniques. The waveguide itself consists of an air-filled channel embedded in a solid matrix; typical materials are silicon, germanium or quartz. While the entrance area is nano-sized, the channel length is in the millimeter-range, this way posing challenges to fabricate high aspect ratio geometries. Since the functioning of x-ray waveguides is based on the total reflection at small incident angles, the surface roughness of the channel walls must be as low as possible to avoid scattering and hence loss of intensity. To fulfill these demanding conditions, a process scheme involving spin-coating, electron beam lithography, wet development, reactive ion etching and wafer bonding is optimizedwithin thiswork. To gain deeper insights into the principle of waveguiding finite difference simulations are performed, also opening access for advanced design considerations such as gratings, tapered and curved channels, or beamsplitters, enabling for constructing novel x-ray tool as for example time delay devices or interferometers. Waveguides in all geometries are tested at synchrotron sources, accomplishing new benchmarks in x-ray optical performance. Here, the x-ray beam leaving the channel, propagates out to a pixel array detector in the far-field region. From the recorded data the intensity distribution in the near-field directly behind the waveguide is reconstructed, revealing an outstanding agreement with the simulations and electron micrographs. Since the radiation field of the waveguide is well-characterized and also tunable to meet the requirements of both the measurement setup and the sample, they are suited of a broad field of applications in coherent x-ray imaging

spotlight europe #2011/04 - September 2011. European Economic Governance. And what is about the social dimension?

The outbreak of the Greek crisis has prompted the European Union to set about designing a comprehensive kind of economic governance architecture in which greater coordination of economic and fiscal policy will underpin and support the common monetary policy of the eurozone. The goal is greater fiscal discipline and competitiveness in all of the EU member states. Yet in the process policymakers are running the danger of weakening social cohesion in the EU

Impact of a smoking ban in hospitality venues on second hand smoke exposure : a comparison of exposure assessment methods

In May 2010, Switzerland introduced a heterogeneous smoking ban in the hospitality sector. While the law leaves room for exceptions in some cantons, it is comprehensive in others. This longitudinal study uses different measurement methods to examine airborne nicotine levels in hospitality venues and the level of personal exposure of non-smoking hospitality workers before and after implementation of the law.; Personal exposure to second hand smoke (SHS) was measured by three different methods. We compared a passive sampler called MoNIC (Monitor of NICotine) badge, to salivary cotinine and nicotine concentration as well as questionnaire data. Badges allowed the number of passively smoked cigarettes to be estimated. They were placed at the venues as well as distributed to the participants for personal measurements. To assess personal exposure at work, a time-weighted average of the workplace badge measurements was calculated.; Prior to the ban, smoke-exposed hospitality venues yielded a mean badge value of 4.48 (95%-CI: 3.7 to 5.25; n = 214) cigarette equivalents/day. At follow-up, measurements in venues that had implemented a smoking ban significantly declined to an average of 0.31 (0.17 to 0.45; n = 37) (p = 0.001). Personal badge measurements also significantly decreased from an average of 2.18 (1.31-3.05 n = 53) to 0.25 (0.13-0.36; n = 41) (p = 0.001). Spearman rank correlations between badge exposure measures and salivary measures were small to moderate (0.3 at maximum).; Nicotine levels significantly decreased in all types of hospitality venues after implementation of the smoking ban. In-depth analyses demonstrated that a time-weighted average of the workplace badge measurements represented typical personal SHS exposure at work more reliably than personal exposure measures such as salivary cotinine and nicotine