Preferences for European unemployment insurance : a question of economic ideology or EU support?

Against the backdrop of proposals to introduce a European unemployment insurance scheme, we study public support for such schemes by conducting a conjoint experiment on support for European unemployment insurance in 13 EU member states. We argue that European-level social policy initiatives and the underlying notions of solidarity cannot be reduced to a one-dimensional concept, but rather include various dimensions. Unemployment schemes vary in their generosity, the conditions for support, their impact on taxation, the extent to which they preclude permanent redistribution between countries, and the EU's role in their administration. Generosity, conditions and taxation are 'domestic' dimensions, since they mainly resonate with domestic policy debates; between-country redistribution and administration are 'cross-border' dimensions, referring to relationships between countries. We expect economic ideology to interact predominantly with domestic dimensions and EU support to interact predominantly with cross-border dimensions. Findings confirm these expectations, with the exception of between-country redistribution and country-level conditionality

Collective identities, European solidarity : identification patterns and preferences for European social Insurance

A degree of collective identity is often perceived to be a requirement for integration of core state powers, and even more so when redistributive measures are at stake. Existing research has shown that European identity is an important correlate of support for European social policy in general. This article explores the ways in which collective identities relate to the multidimensional nature of social policy at the European level. We explore in particular the features of European social policy that receive the most support from European publics, and how local, national and European identity moderates these preferences. We expect that people who have primarily sub-national or national attachments are less supportive of generous schemes and schemes that involve greater cross-country redistribution, and are more in favour of decentralized schemes administered by the member states than those with stronger European identities. We find support for these expectations in a conjoint survey experiment fielded in autumn 2018 in 13 EU member states

Mobilizing Citizens for Costly Policies: The Conditional Effect of Party Cues on Support for International Bailouts in the European Union

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.Previous research finds citizens' attitudes towards international redistribution in the European sovereign debt crisis to be related to party preferences. This article further reveals the nature of this link. We show that citizens follow party cues on international bailouts, rather than having merely ideologically congruent positions. By employing an original survey experiment that exposes respondents to elite cues, we additionally uncover underlying dynamics. First, party cues mobilize support for bailouts even in the face of salient elite dissent and, second, even a strong elite consensus does not affect citizens without PID and low levels of political sophistication. The findings of the experiment are cross-validated with data from the voter survey of European Election Study 2014. The results suggest that current debates about international bailout packages deepen a polarization between politicized and non-politicized Europeans

Behandlungsergebnisse bei Patienten mit Follikulärem Lymphom - eine retrospektive monozentrische Auswertung aus der II. Medizinischen Klinik in Kiel

Das follikuläre Lymphom gehört zu den indolenten Non-Hodgkin-Lymphomen und kann bislang in fortgeschrittenen Stadien nicht geheilt werden. Die Einführung des monoklonalen Antikörpers Rituximab in die Behandlung des follikulären Lymphoms markierte eine therapeutische Revolution, wobei kein Konsens hinsichtlich des wirksamsten Chemotherapieschemas in Kombination mit dem Antikörper besteht. Ziel der vorliegenden retrospektiven Arbeit war es, vor diesem Hintergrund die therapeutischen Entwicklungen der letzten 20 Jahre in der II. Medizinischen Klinik der Universitätsklinik Kiel zu untersuchen. Dabei sollte das deutschlandweit etablierte Therapieregime CHOP einerseits mit der intensiveren Chemotherapievariante CHOEP (CHOP + Etoposid), andererseits mit der Rituximab-Kombination R-CHOP verglichen werden. Weiterer Untersuchungsgegenstand war die autologe Blutstammzelltransplantation nach Hochdosistherapie, die eine Form der Therapieintensivierung nach erreichter Remission darstellt. Evaluationskriterien für den Vergleich der 3 Chemotherapieschemata und für die Untersuchung der autologen Stammzelltransplantation waren Therapieansprechen, progressionsfreies- und Gesamtüberleben. Grundlage der Datenerfassung war die elektronische Patientendokumentation der Knochenmarkdatenbank der II. Medizinischen Klinik. In der vorliegenden Untersuchung konnte kein signifikanter Unterschied zwischen den 3 Therapieschemata CHOP, CHOEP und R-CHOP hinsichtlich Therapieansprechen (P = 1,0), progressionsfreiem- (P = 0,09) und Gesamtüberleben (P = 0,81) ermittelt werden. Der direkte Vergleich des Therapieschemas R-CHOP mit dem CHOP-Schema zeigte jedoch in Übereinstimmung mit Studien einen signifikanten Unterschied im progressionsfreien Überleben zugunsten der Immunchemotherapie (P = 0,02); entgegen Literaturdaten konnte kein Überlebensvorteil nach R-CHOP-Therapie ermittelt werden (P = 0,66), wobei die kleinen Gruppengrößen (CHOP: n = 76; R-CHOP: n = 46) und der Einsatz fortschrittlicher Konsolidierungs- und Rezidivtherapien zu berücksichtigen sind. Durch Hinzunahme von Etoposid zum CHOP-Regime ließ sich bei vergleichbarer Toxizität kein Vorteil gegenüber den beiden anderen Therapieschemata erzielen. Der Vergleich der autologen Stammzelltransplantation in erster Remission mit konventioneller Therapie ohne myeloablative Behandlung zeigte hoch-signifikante Vorteile im progressionsfreien- (P < 0,0001) und Gesamtüberleben (P < 0,0001) zugunsten der Transplantationsgruppe. Mehrere randomisierte Studien ermittelten ähnliche Ergebnisse hinsichtlich des progressionsfreien Überlebens, aber keine Studie konnte bislang entsprechende Unterschiede im Gesamtüberleben zeigen; in der vorliegenden Untersuchung könnte der deutliche Überlebensvorteil mit der Auswahl besonders geeigneter Patienten für die Stammzelltransplantation zusammenhängen. Die lange mediane Überlebenszeit des untersuchten Gesamtpatientenkollektivs von 17,6 Jahren ist wohl in erster Linie auf die Erfolge der autologen Stammzelltransplantation in Verbindung mit wirksamer supportiver Therapie zurückzuführen. Diese retrospektive Untersuchung des Patientenguts der II. Medizinischen Klinik konnte die Überlegenheit der Immunchemotherapie gegenüber alleiniger Chemotherapie in der klinischen Praxis bestätigen und damit die Bedeutung der Rituximab-Therapie außerhalb von Studienprotokollen zeigen. Die Untersuchungsergebnisse des intensiven CHOEP-Therapieschemas legen nahe, dass aggressive Chemotherapieschemata möglicherweise keinen weiteren therapeutischen Vorteil in der Behandlung des follikulären Lymphoms erbringen. Die überragenden Ergebnisse der autologen Stammzelltransplantation in erster Remission schließlich zeigen, dass diese Therapieform für ausgewählte Patienten zu einem langen progressionsfreien- und Gesamtüberleben führen kann

How does fiscal austerity affect trust in the European Union? Analyzing the role of responsibility attribution

Austerity policies tend to be generally unpopular and national governments have been found to lose support when they implement such policies. However, during the sovereign debt crisis, governments of 'bailout countries' were pressured by European Union (EU) institutions to implement austerity measures. Did austerity measures affect trust in the EU? We investigate the impact of fiscal austerity on EU trust and how perceptions of responsibility and political ideology moderate this relationship. We apply multilevel models to Eurobarometer surveys and data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to analyze changes in trust in the EU in 27 EU-countries (2013-2015). Our results indicate that austerity has a negative effect on trust in the EU, but only among those who hold the EU responsible for austerity policies. We find no significant moderating effect of ideology

State of the Art Report

This paper illustrates the research questions, the main underlying concepts and the relevant literature of the EUCROSS project. The project examines the relationship between the manifold activities of EU residents (nationals, mobile EU citizens, and thirdcountry nationals) across the borders of nation states and their collective identities. Specifically, the project intends to: 1) map out individuals’ cross-border practices as an effect of European integration and globalisation; 2) assess the impact of these practices on collective identifications (also controlling for the inverse causal process). Which cross-border practices are more likely to foster some form of identification with the EU – e.g., contacts with foreign friends and/or unwanted foreigners, periods of labour mobility abroad, business and tourist travel, or consumer relations with international companies? Under which contextual and individual conditions do these experiences promote a higher sensitivity to ‘Europe’ – rather than the ‘local’ or the ‘global’ – as an identity catalyst? Which social groups are more prone to adopt a European mindset in the wake of the Europeanisation of everyday life? In addressing these questions, we use the concepts of ‘Europeanisation’, ‘European identity’, ‘cross-border practices’ and ‘cosmopolitanism’ drawing on and elaborating from their meaning in the contemporary social science literature – and especially in sociology, anthropology, political science and social psychology. Overall, we find that seldom are these concepts treated altogether specifying the link between spatially and culturally situated behaviours on the one hand and collective identifications and value orientations on the other. Moreover, few studies examine socio-cultural Europeanisation and supernational identifications comparatively, and none includes simultaneously native and immigrant populations, who in fact may attest of different modalities in which the behaviour-identity link can take place

EU pesticides regulation: how public support can be rebuilt

The regulation of pesticides in the EU has become increasingly controversial. But what are the views of EU citizens and how would proposed reforms affect public support for EU pesticides regulation? Jonathan Zeitlin, Maria Weimer, David van der Duin, Theresa Kuhn and Martin Dybdahl Jensen outline findings from a survey experiment conducted in six EU member states