The Writing is on the Wall:Proportionality of Border Controls within the Schengen Area

On 6 October 2021, Advocate General (AG) Saugmandsgaard Øe published his Opinion in the joined cases C-368/20 NW v Landespolizeidirektion Steiermark and C-369/20 NW v Bezirkshauptmannschaft Leibnitz. As discussed in our previous blog post outlining the facts and the legal questions of the case, the cases concern the legality – and limits – of introducing border controls within the Schengen Area. Six Schengen countries (Germany, France, Austria, Denmark, Norway and Sweden) have reintroduced border controls over the past years. If the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) were to follow the AG’s Opinion, they would need to seriously rethink their practices in this regard. New evidence-based procedures and serious reasons, capable of passing a proportionality test, would be necessary to introduce border controls within the Schengen Zone

Schengen Restored:The CJEU Sets Clear Limits to the Reintroduction of Internal Border Controls

On 26 April 2022, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) rendered a ruling in joined cases C-368/20 NW v Landespolizeidirektion Steiermark and C-369/20 NW v Bezirkshauptmannschaft Leibnitz stating that Member States of the European Union (EU) can re-introduce border controls within the Schengen Zone only under strict conditions. The Court has stepped up as a guardian of the Treaties protecting free movement of people without controls at the internal borders of the EU as “one of the major achievements of European integration” (para 65 and 74). At the same time, the Court has left some aspects of the application of these strict new rules unclear, leaving room for the European and national executives to exercise their function and fill in the blanks

A comparative study on low-temperature sol-gel ga-doped zinc oxide inverted PSCs

A low-temperature sol-gel Ga-doped ZnO (ZnO:Ga) thin film as the electron transport layer (ETL) for high efficiency inverted polymer solar cells (PSCs) has been realised. The ZnO:Ga precursor was prepared by dissolving zinc acetate and ethanolamine in the 2-methoxyethanol with Ga(NO3)3 at different concentration. Doped ZnO thin films were deposed on indium tin oxide (ITO)/glass substrates by spin-coating technique and the films annealed at 150°C for 5 minutes in air. To check performances of ZnO:Ga thin film were realized inverted polymer solar cells with the configuration ITO/ZnO:Ga/photoactive layer/MoO3/Ag. The photoactive layer was a blend of poly[(4,8-bis-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-benzo(1,2-b:4,5-b′)dithiophene)-2,6-diyl-alt-(4-(2-octanoyl)-3-fluorothieno[3,4-b]thiophene-)-2-6-diyl)] (PBDTTT-CF) and [6,6]-phenyl C71 butyric acid methyl ester ([70]PCBM) (1:1.5 w/w). In this work was investigated the effect of gallium concentration on the photovoltaic behavior of PSCs. The best efficiency of 7.7% was reached by using a 6 at% ZnO:Ga film as ETL

Synthesis of highly regioregular poly[3-(4-alkoxyphenyl)-thiophene]s by oxidative catalysis using copper complexes

A novel, easy, and cost-effective synthetic procedure is reported for the production of very highly regioregular poly[3-(4-alkoxyphenyl)thiophene]s by means of oxidative coupling. Four copper complexes were synthesized and used as catalysts to obtain polymers with higher regioregularity compared to the previous oxidative coupling methodologies reported in the literature and similar to that obtained by McCullough and Rieke methods in the synthesis of poly-3-alkylthiophenes. The regioregularity of the synthesized polymers was investigated by UV-Visible characterization on polymer thin films and 1H NMR analysis. The remarkable potentialities of these polymers have emerged from field-effect transistor mobility measurements operated on devices with bottom-contact configuration and hexamethyldisilazane-treated SiO 2 gate dielectric, showing a well-defined p-type field-effect response and maximum mobility values in air higher than 10-4 cm 2 V-1 s-1. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Cobalt(I) and cobalt(III) derivatives from the reactions of phosphine ligands with cobalt(II) salts containing low-coordinating anions.

Complexes of the type [Co(CO)n(P)5 12n]ClO4, [CoH2(P)4]ClO4, [CoH(P)5](ClO4)2 and [CoHX(F)4]ClO4 (P = secondary or tertiary phosphine) have been prepared from Co(ClO4)2\ub76 H2O and phosphine in isopropyl alcohol

Cationic cobalt (I) carbonyl complexes containing secondary or tertiary phosphines. A direct synthesis from cobalt (II) salts

3nonenoneRIGO P; BRESSAN M; MORVILLO ARigo, Pierluigi; Bressan, M; Morvillo, A

What controls soft and hard linkages within rift zones? Insights from analogue models.

Structures within rift zones exhibit two types of interaction: relay ramps or accommodation zones (soft linkages) and transfer faults (hard linkages). Analogue experiments have been performed to understand the conditions leading to these types of interaction. Sand (brittle crust analogue) overlies two adjacent silicone (ductile crust analogue) layers with different viscosity, in order to simulate crustal portions with differential percentage of extension De. The experiments show a distinct behaviour as a function of De. For De 21%, the interaction occurs by means of transfer faults subparallel to the extension direction, that is hard linkages. A comparison with rift zones shows a consistent behaviour. Soft linkages characterize narrow rifts and oceanic ridges, where the mean percentage of extension is low (e 39%), where the rift can locally achieve differential extension De > 21%