Parliamentarizing a politicized policy: Understanding the involvement of the European Parliament in UN climate negotiations

Climate change is a central topic of concern for EU international diplomacy and is the site of increased politicization globally. Concomitantly, a parallel process of parliamentarization of the EU has unfolded. Whilst the European Parliament (EP) has enjoyed significant powers in internal policy-making on climate change, since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009 the EP has gained the right to veto the EU’s ratification of international (climate change) agreements. This development raises questions about our understanding of the EP as an actor in international climate diplomacy that this article addresses through the following research question: what impact have the increased powers of the EP had on its involvement in UN climate diplomacy? We analyze the EP’s evolving role in international climate diplomacy through an evaluation of policy preferences prior to international climate conferences (COPs) and its activities during those meetings. We find evidence that the EP’s preferences have become more moderate over time, and that it is also more active at COPs and increasingly engaged with a range of more important actors. However, we find little evidence that the EP’s involvement in international negotiations is significantly different when it holds a veto power, which we attribute to a willingness to depoliticize internal EU climate negotiations to secure policy gains at the international level

Success Factors of European Syndromic Surveillance Systems: A Worked Example of Applying Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Introduction: Syndromic surveillance aims at augmenting traditional public health surveillance with timely information. To gain a head start, it mainly analyses existing data such as from web searches or patient records. Despite the setup of many syndromic surveillance systems, there is still much doubt about the benefit of the approach. There are diverse interactions between performance indicators such as timeliness and various system characteristics. This makes the performance assessment of syndromic surveillance systems a complex endeavour. We assessed if the comparison of several syndromic surveillance systems through Qualitative Comparative Analysis helps to evaluate performance and identify key success factors. Materials and Methods: We compiled case-based, mixed data on performance and characteristics of 19 syndromic surveillance systems in Europe from scientific and grey literature and from site visits. We identified success factors by applying crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. We focused on two main areas of syndromic surveillance application: seasonal influenza surveillance and situational awareness during different types of potentially health threatening events. Results: We found that syndromic surveillance systems might detect the onset or peak of seasonal influenza earlier if they analyse non-clinical data sources. Timely situational awareness during different types of events is supported by an automated syndromic surveillance system capable of analysing multiple syndromes. To our surprise, the analysis of multiple data sources was no key success factor for situational awareness. Conclusions: We suggest to consider these key success factors when designing or further developing syndromic surveillance systems. Qualitative Comparative Analysis helped interpreting complex, mixed data on small-N cases and resulted in concrete and practically relevant findings

Process-Tracing as a Tool to Analyse Discretion

status: publishe

Analyzing European Union Politics

The speed and depth with which the European Communities/ European Union has evolved is breathtaking and has radically shaped the life of the continent. Ever since the beginning of this ambitious economic and political project, scholars around the world have tried to explain the underlying logic behind it and the mechanisms of its functioning. Thus, a plethora of studies developed alongside the evolution of the EU. SENT (Network of European Studies) is an innovative and ambitious project which brought together about 100 partners from the EU member states, candidate and associated countries, and other parts of the world. It was a far reaching project aimed to overcome disciplinary and geographical- linguistic boundaries in order to assess the state of EU studies today, as well as the idea of Europe as transmitted by schools, national politicians, the media, etc. SENT’s main goal was to map European studies, in order to get a comprehensive picture of the evolution of European studies over the last decades in different disciplines and countries. This approach permitted to achieve a better understanding of the direction these studies are now taking. Five disciplines were identified where EU studies have particularly evolved: law, politics, economics, history, and social and cultural studies. The mapping of EU studies thus includes a review of the most studied issues in EU studies today, the main academic schools, the most influential journals and books published, but it also shows how local realities and national identities affect the study and teaching of Europe around the world. In addition, an important work was done in mapping and discussing teaching methodologies in relation to European studies with the aim of introducing and diffusing the most up-to-date techniques

Turning the (virtual) world around: Patterns in saccade direction vary with picture orientation and shape in virtual reality

Research investigating gaze in natural scenes has identified a number of spatial biases in where people look, but it is unclear whether these are partly due to constrained testing environments (e.g., a participant with their head restrained and looking at a landscape image framed within a computer monitor). We examined the extent to which image shape (square vs. circle), image rotation, and image content (landscapes vs. fractal images) influence eye and head movements in virtual reality (VR). Both the eyes and head were tracked while observers looked at natural scenes in a virtual environment. In line with previous work, we found a bias for saccade directions parallel to the image horizon, regardless of image shape or content. We found that, when allowed to do so, observers move both their eyes and head to explore images. Head rotation, however, was idiosyncratic; some observers rotated a lot, whereas others did not. Interestingly, the head rotated in line with the rotation of landscape but not fractal images. That head rotation and gaze direction respond differently to image content suggests that they may be under different control systems. We discuss our findings in relation to current theories on head and eye movement control and how insights from VR might inform more traditional eye-tracking studies

Néphrectomie laparoscopique pour reins polykystiques : comparaison des voies transpéritonéales et rétropéritonéales

National audienceObjectifs La néphrectomie peut être nécessaire chez les patients qui ont une polykystose rénale autosomique dominante (PKRAD) (préparation à la transplantation, infection de kyste, douleurs). Plusieurs équipes ont décrit la faisabilité de la néphrectomie laparoscopique (NL) pour rein polykystique. Notre objectif était de comparer les résultats des voies transpéritonéale et rétropéritonéale chez les patients PKRAD. Méthodes Les données des patients PKRAD ayant eu une NL entre 2000 et 2012 dans deux services ont été analysés rétrospectivement. La voie transpéritonéale était utilisée systématiquement dans un centre tandis que la voie rétropéritonéale était préférée dans l’autre. Toutes les interventions ont été réalisées par 2 chirurgiens expérimentés qui avaient déjà chacun effectué plus de 50 interventions par voie laparoscopique avant le début de l’étude. Les complications majeures étaient définies comme des complications classées Clavien ≥ 3. Les paramètres périopératoires des groupes transpéritonéale et rétropéritonéale ont été comparées. Résultats Quatre-vingt deux patients ont été inclus : 43 dans le groupe transpéritonéal et 39 dans le groupe rétropéritonéal. Soixante-sept patients étaient en dialyse (81 %). Les taux de complications (25,6 % vs. 33,3 %, p = 0,44), de complications majeures (11,6 % vs. 12,8 % ; p = 0,87), de transfusion (11,6 % vs. 20,5 % ; p = 0,27) et de conversion en laparotomie (4,6 % vs. 7,7 % ; p = 0,56) étaient similaires entre les 2 groupes. En revanche, la durée opératoire était plus courte dans le groupe transpéritonéal (172 vs. 213 min ; p = 0,001) et les patients dans ce groupe avaient une durée d’hospitalisation plus courte (5,3 jours vs. 9,3 jours ; p = 0,0009). Il y avait aussi une tendance à une durée entre la chirurgie et la greffe plus courte dans ce groupe (7,6 vs. 14,7 mois ; p = 0,05). Conclusion La NL pour rein polykystique donne des résultats périopératoires satisfaisants qu’elle soit faite par voie transpéritonéale ou rétropéritonéale. L’abord transpéritonéal pourrait diminuer la durée opératoire et la durée d’hospitalisation (Tableau 1

Conclusion. Opportunities and Challenges for the Principal–Agent Model in Studying the European Union

This chapter examines whether the principal–agent model will mature by accommodating the new empirical reality or whether it will become outdated as the practical challenges narrow the researcher’s focus to the simplest of hierarchical relations. We address this question by covering the three main components of the research process. We distinguish (1) the formulation of research questions; (2) the contribution one can deliver to the existing literature; and (3) the required methodology. Each section questions the opportunities that are to be gleaned from applying the principal–agent model to an ever-more complex setting, and confronts it with practical challenges that may emerge in the research process. In so doing, we derive guidelines that may help to ensure the contemporary relevance of the principal–agent model