EU-Russian relations have been further strained by Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine’s decision to sign agreements with the EU

Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine signed agreements with the EU on 27 June aimed at facilitating closer co-operation. Sebastian Schäffer writes on the impact the agreements will have for the economy of each state, the wider foreign policy issues, and for EU-Russian relations. He suggests that European governments should not seek to marginalise Russian influence over neighbouring states, but that they should nevertheless be prepared to defend their interests if the Russian government seeks to impede each state’s co-operation with the EU

Still all quiet on the Eastern front?: the European Union's Eastern Partnership one year after the Prague summit

"One year ago the Eastern Partnership (EaP) was launched by the European Union. It has been argued that the EaP should neither become just another regional initiative nor should it be over-burdened with expectations. Both views are still valid after the first 12 months. Nevertheless, the launch of the first projects within the EaP allows us to draw some first conclusions and look at the EaP’s developments both in the target countries and the EU.The recommendations set out before the Prague summit 2009 can then be revised and adjusted according to these new developments." (author's abstract

Why Serbia should be granted candidate status for the European Union

"At the EU summit in Brussels on 8-9 December 2011, the heads of state and government will decide about the way forward for the European integration of the Western Balkan states. While it is expected that the membership contract with Croatia will be signed and negotiations with Montenegro could be opened, the candidate status for Serbia is uncertain. Despite the recent border disputes with Kosovo, Brussels should grant Belgrade this status and even consider opening negotiations. This is not only important for the further democratic development in the region but also a sign that the EU is able to continue its role as a stabiliser for the region in times when internal problems set the agenda in Brussels." [author's abstract

The Eastern Partnership - "ENP plus" for Europe's eastern neighbors

"On May 7th, 2009, the European Union’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) is going to be launched at a summit in Prague. The current Czech council presidency will host representatives from all EU member states as well as from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. Russia objects the EaP, accusing the EU of trying to widen its sphere of influence in the region. While the European Union should try to disperse these concerns it should also more strongly address other political issues in the neighborhood, particularly in order to support stabilization processes. Thus, the Eastern Partnership should not become just another regional initiative without further surplus." [author's abstract

The Eastern Partnership - "ENP plus" for Europe's Eastern neighbors

"On May 7th, 2009, the European Union's Eastern Partnership (EaP) is going to be launched at a summit in Prague. The current Czech council presidency will host representatives from all EU member states as well as from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. Russia objects the EaP, accusing the EU of trying to widen its sphere of influence in the region. While the European Union should try to disperse these concerns it should also more strongly address other political issues in the neighborhood, particularly in order to support stabilization processes. Thus, the Eastern Partnership should not become just another regional initiative without further surplus." (author's abstract

Dispute between Russia and Ukraine settled? Strategies for the European Union to get out of the gas trap

"Readers of the headlines that recently made it to Russian newspapers described them with the following play of words: It was either the 'sektor Gaza' (the Gaza Strip) or the 'sektor bez gaza' (the region without gas). At least the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine seems to be solved for the moment, after Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko have agreed on a solution on January 18. The event has once again pushed the diversification of energy supply in the European Union to the top of the agenda. However, there is more to be done. The EU should use its influence on the Ukrainian government to help it reduce its own demand of natural gas and assist it at improving its energy infrastructure." (author's abstract

Double win in EU-Russia relations - roadmap for a new PCA

"During the EU-Russia summit in Nice on November 14, the European Union and the Russian Federation agreed on several further meetings to discuss the crucial issues of their relationship. The good news is that negotiations between both parties continue after the postponement on part of the EU in course of the Georgia-Russia conflict. The EU as well as Russia should now avail the opportunity to agree on a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) in order to set a new legal framework for their cooperation. It's time for a roadmap to take the EU-Russia relations to the next level." (author's abstract

Single Market Act - single act for the internal market or revitalisation for the whole project?

"In preparation for the 20th anniversary of the single market, the president of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso asked the former Commissioner for the single market Mario Monti to work out a program for the revitalisation of the project. On the basis of this report, the European Commission set out 50 proposals within the Single Market Act that should be implemented by 2012. One of the priorities of the Commission for the current mandate is the renewal of the Single Market project. While some of the proposals will certainly lead towards that goal, the whole package lacks coherence." [author's abstract

Microscale <i>In Vitro</i> Assays for the Investigation of Neutral Red Retention and Ethoxyresorufin-<i>O</i>-Deethylase of Biofuels and Fossil Fuels

<div><p>Only few information on the potential toxic effectiveness of biofuels are available. Due to increasing worldwide demand for energy and fuels during the past decades, biofuels are considered as a promising alternative for fossil fuels in the transport sector. Hence, more information on their hazard potentials are required to understand the toxicological impact of biofuels on the environment. In the German Cluster of Excellence “Tailor-made Fuels from Biomass” design processes for economical, sustainable and environmentally friendly biofuels are investigated. In an unique and interdisciplinary approach, ecotoxicological methods are applied to gain information on potential adverse environmental effects of biofuels at an early phase of their development. In the present study, three potential biofuels, ethyl levulinate, 2-methyltetrahydrofuran and 2-methylfuran were tested. Furthermore, we investigated a fossil gasoline fuel, a fossil diesel fuel and an established biodiesel. Two <i>in vitro</i> bioassays, one for assessing cytotoxicity and one for aryl hydrocarbon receptor agonism, so called dioxin-like activity, as measured by Ethoxyresorufin-<i>O</i>-Deethylase, were applied using the permanent fish liver cell line RTL-W1 (<i>Oncorhynchus mykiss</i>). The special properties of these fuel samples required modifications of the test design. Points that had to be addressed were high substance volatility, material compatibility and low solubility. For testing of gasoline, diesel and biodiesel, water accommodated fractions and a passive dosing approach were tested to address the high hydrophobicity and low solubility of these complex mixtures. Further work has to focus on an improvement of the chemical analyses of the fuel samples to allow a better comparison of any effects of fossil fuels and biofuels.</p></div

Learning-based adaption of robotic friction models

In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, wherein artificial intelligence and the automation of machines occupy a central role, the deployment of robots is indispensable. However, the manufacturing process using robots, especially in collaboration with humans, is highly intricate. In particular, modeling the friction torque in robotic joints is a longstanding problem due to the lack of a good mathematical description. This motivates the usage of data-driven methods in recent works. However, model-based and data-driven models often exhibit limitations in their ability to generalize beyond the specific dynamics they were trained on, as we demonstrate in this paper. To address this challenge, we introduce a novel approach based on residual learning, which aims to adapt an existing friction model to new dynamics using as little data as possible. We validate our approach by training a base neural network on a symmetric friction data set to learn an accurate relation between the velocity and the friction torque. Subsequently, to adapt to more complex asymmetric settings, we train a second network on a small dataset, focusing on predicting the residual of the initial network's output. By combining the output of both networks in a suitable manner, our proposed estimator outperforms the conventional model-based approach and the base neural network significantly. Furthermore, we evaluate our method on trajectories involving external loads and still observe a substantial improvement, approximately 60-70\%, over the conventional approach. Our method does not rely on data with external load during training, eliminating the need for external torque sensors. This demonstrates the generalization capability of our approach, even with a small amount of data-only 43 seconds of a robot movement-enabling adaptation to diverse scenarios based on prior knowledge about friction in different settings