The comitology game: European policymaking with parliamentary involvement

This paper discusses institutional reforms that might strengthen the role of the European Parliament in the policymaking process of the European Union. Using simple game theory, the paper analyzes the working properties of the different implementation procedures that are known as ‘comitology’. The Council of the European Union employs these procedures when it delegates some of its policymaking power to the Commission as part of Union legislation. We show how the balance of power is determined by the current comitology procedures, and how this balance would change if the role of the European Parliament were strengthened in the comitology game

Union Citizenship – Legal Framework and Dynamics

While citizenship and nationality have historically been tied very closely to the nation state, the introduction of Union citizenship in the early 1990s has introduced a European dimension to citizenship rights in the EU. This chapter provides an overview of the legal basis in EU primary and secondary law for Union citizenship, while examining the relationship between Union and national citizenship, as well as the independent content of Union citizenship, and its impact on student mobility. It finds that because citizenship of the Union is derived from and based upon national citizenship, the EU's Member States retain broad discretion over the criteria for granting citizenship, as well as many of the rights that go along with it. Nonetheless, this chapter also highlights that increasingly, Member States exercise these rights subject to the principles of mutual recognition and proportionality, as enforced by the ECJ. At the same time, by expanding longstanding rights of movement and enhancing protections against discrimination on the basis of nationality, Union citizenship has significantly expanded access to social services by EU nationals living in another EU Member State, and to dependents living elsewhere in the Union. For students, all of this means that access to higher education institutions is guaranteed to Union citizens, while maintenance grants and other social services are guaranteed after a minimum period of continuous residence

Microstructural study of AZ91C magnesium alloy castings produced by investment casting in as-cast state and after heat treatment

In this article, the microstructure of AZ91C magnesium alloy castings produced by investment casting was investigated. Castings were studied in as-cast state and after T4 and T6 heat treatment. The identification of all phases in microstructure was carried out using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis. The influence of cooling rate after casting, temperature of solution annealing, temperature of artificial aging and cooling rate after heat treatment on the microstructural characteristics such as secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS) or grain size was studied. The SDAS analyses were carried out using a light microscopy with the subsequent image analysis. Except of Mg-Al solid solution and Mg17Al12 precipitates, the microstructure contains other phases based on Mg-Si and (Al,Si)-Mn in globular or needle morphology. The SDAS in as-cast state was measured and was of tens of micrometers, but after T4 heat treatment, the gran size exceeded 100 µm and the Mg17Al12 phase was still undissolved along the grain boundaries in samples with thicker wall dimension. After T6 heat treatment, continuous and discontinuous precipitates of Mg17Al12 phase were formed, most of them were nearby the grain boundaries proving the inhomogeneous distribution of Al atoms in solid solution after T4 heat treatment