Undoing the EU Security Architecture: Human Rights Violations in Poland (2015-2021)

openLe elezioni presidenziali e parlamentari che si tennero in Polonia nel 2015 videro la vittoria del partito di estrema destra Diritto e Giustizia. Da allora il partito ha portato avanti delle riforme volte a minare l’indipendenza del sistema giudiziario polacco, in particolare della Corte Costituzionale, della Corte Suprema e del Consiglio Nazionale della Magistratura. In seguito, queste istituzioni, ormai assoggettate al partito, hanno favorito l’adozione di leggi volte alla limitazione dei diritti delle donne, della comunità LGBTIQ+, nonché delle libertà di espressione, assemblea ed associazione delle organizzazioni attive nella protezione dei diritti umani; inoltre, le autorità pubbliche polacche sono da ritenersi responsabili, insieme a quelle bielorusse, per le violazioni dei diritti dei richiedenti asilo lungo il confine con la Bielorussia. Essendo la Polonia uno Stato membro dell’Unione Europea, è naturale chiedersi se questi eventi abbiano avuto e stiano avendo tuttora delle conseguenze a livello comunitario; infatti, l’UE ha vincolato il suo processo di integrazione e la sua legittimità al rispetto dei valori fondamentali sanciti nell’Articolo 2 del Trattato sull’Unione Europea, valori che le istituzioni polacche hanno mostrato di non riconoscere. Lo scopo di questo progetto è quello di determinare se le violazioni avvenute in Polonia in merito allo Stato di diritto e ai diritti fondamentali abbiano delle conseguenze sulla sicurezza dell’Unione. Per poter condurre questa ricerca, verrà in primo luogo fornito un quadro teorico volto a delineare l’approccio adottato dall’UE in termini di sicurezza ed a determinare l’importanza rivestita dai diritti fondamentali all’interno di quest’ultimo; successivamente verrà analizzato come il mancato rispetto dello Stato di diritto dei diritti fondamentali in Polonia, nonché la strategia adottata dall’Unione nei confronti di quest’ultima, abbiano avuto delle ripercussioni sulla sicurezza dell’UE; infine, verranno presi in esame dei “case-study” al fine di indagare gli effetti dell’approccio intrapreso dalla classe politica polacca nei riguardi dei valori fondamentali dell’UE sul funzionamento delle istituzioni dell'Unione Europea.In 2015 Polish presidential and parliamentary elections ended up with the victory of the right-wing party Law and Justice. Since then, the conservative party has put forward measures to undermine the independence of the Polish judicial system: main courts such as the Constitutional Tribunal, the Supreme Court and the National Council of the Judiciary were captured by the party. What is more, the captured institutions, in particular the Constitutional Tribunal, were used to adopt legal acts curtailing the rights of LGBTIQ+ people and also women access to sexual and reproductive health; additionally, human rights organizations, as well as media, were deprived of their freedom of expression, assembly and association; moreover, refugees that attempted to enter the Polish territory by crossing the Polish-Belarusian border were also subjected to severe human rights violations. Being Poland a EU member state the question arises on whether these violations result in negatively affecting the EU. Indeed, he European Union has bound its legitimacy and action, both within and beyond its borders, to the respect of core values that encompass the respect for the rule of law and human rights, as laid down in Article 2, Article 3 and Article 21 of the Consolidated Version of the Treaty on the European Union; moreover, observance, protection and promotion of these fundamental values are enshrined within the narrative adopted by the EU in approaching its security. The purpose of this research is indeed to determine whether violations that took place in Poland in regards to the rule of law and fundamental rights have consequences for EU security. To achieve this aim firstly a theoretical framework will be provided, which will investigate EU approach to security as connected to fundamental rights; secondly, EU core values’ violations within Polish jurisdiction and EU reaction to the latter will be analyzed in regards to their outcomes for the security of the EU; to conclude, two case studies related to the impact of Polish inconsistencies with EU core values on the functioning of EU institutions and their mechanisms will be provided

Kinetics of Circulating Plasma Cell-Free DNA in Paediatric Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma

Levels of plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) of a large series of children with classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) were evaluated and analyzed at diagnosis and during chemotherapy treatment in relation with clinical characteristics. CfDNA levels in cHL patients were significantly higher compared with controls (p=0.002). CfDNA at diagnosis was correlated with presence of B symptoms (p=0.027) and high erythrocyte sedimentation rate (p=0.049). We found that the increasing of plasma cfDNA after first chemotherapy cycle seems to be associated with a worse prognosis (p=0.049). Levels of plasma cfDNA might constitute an interesting non-invasive tool in cHL patients' management

Caracterização e controle do defeito ocasionado pelo uso do fonolito em massas ceramicas gres

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro TecnologicoEstudo e caracterização de um defeito identificado em produtos cerâmicos de pavimento esmaltado tipo grês, estando a sua ocorrência relacionada com a utilização do fonolito na formulação da massa cerâmica. A etapa de peneiramento da barbotina foi selecionada como meio de controle desse defeito, tendo sido utilizada para análise uma metodologia baseada em FMEA - Failure Mode and Effects Analysis

Development of conductive paraffin/graphene films laminated on fluoroelastomers with high strain recovery and anti-corrosive properties

NMP is supported by the European Research Council (ERC PoC 2015 SILKENE nr. 693670) and by the European Commission H2020 under the Graphene Flagship (WP14 “Polymer composites”, n. 696656) and under the FET Proactive (“Neurofibres” no. 732344). Nanesa srl is acknowledged for supporting us with FESEM analysis

Could (Disseminated and Residual) Minimal Disease be a useful prognostic marker in non-Hodgkin paediatric Lymphomas?

Minimal Disseminated Disease (MDD) represents the small number of tumour cells in the patients' bone marrow at the time of diagnosis, whereas Minimal Residual Disease (MRD) represents the small number of tumour cells remaining in the bone marrow during treatment. Generally, MDD and MRD are measured by polymerase chain reaction, a highly sensitive technique. For a long time, bone marrow involvement has been considered an uncommon event in solid tumours. However, in recent years, several studies demonstrated that MDD and MRD could be powerful tools in paediatric non-Hodgkin lymphoma for stratifying patients in different prognostic groups. Risk stratification in future clinical trials on non-Hodgkin lymphoma based on these newly identified risk categories should be useful to improve therapies in order to increase survival for high-risk patients and decrease toxicity for low-risk patients