The Intensive and Extensive Margin of European Labour Supply

Labour supply is determined by two factors: the participation of workers in the labour market (extensive margin), and the number of hours supplied by those working (intensive margin). Based on the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS), we analyse which margin is more decisive in determining overall labour supply in 24 Member States. The results reveal large diff erences between countries, even after controlling for composition effects in terms of socio-demographic and household characteristics. In addition to individual labour supply, our focus is on differences between EU Member States concerning household labour supply. Joint determination of the number of hours worked between spouses can be observed for dual-income couples in Austria, the Netherlands and Spain.Female labour supply; household labour supply; European Union; EU-LFS

Untruthful Brexit rhetoric has undermined representative democracy in the UK

Throughout the run-up to the signing of the EU-UK withdrawal agreement as well as the trade deal, the British government’s public rhetoric on Brexit has been criticised for being misleading and insincere. Sten Hansson (University of Tartu/University of Birmingham) and Sandra Kröger (University of Exeter) argue that there are four ways in which untruthful statements by leading politicians may have undermined representative democracy

How the EU can counter democratic backsliding in its member states

The issue of democratic backsliding in the EU’s member states has received substantial attention in recent years, but it is far from clear how the EU’s institutions should respond. Richard Bellamy and Sandra Kröger set out a framework for understanding and tackling the problem, built on the principle of ‘value differentiated integration’. Recent developments in ... Continue

Party views on democratic backsliding and differentiated integration

Both political parties and differentiated integration (DI) play an ambivalent role in regard to democratic backsliding. Parties’ positioning towards democratic backsliding has not always been straightforward, and DI has been seen as facilitating it. We analyse whether party actors view democratic backsliding as a problematic issue for the EU, if they think DI facilitates it, and how they consider the EU should respond to it. Drawing on 35 interviews and a survey of 42 party actors in seven member states, we show that many do view backsliding as problematic. Moreover, around half worried that DI could facilitate backsliding, though others did not link the two. Finally, almost all considered it legitimate for the EU to address democratic backsliding. Although centre-of-left actors are most likely to worry about democratic backsliding and favour EU intervention, actors across the political spectrum are sceptical about accepting DI in matters pertaining to Article 2

Is differentiated integration democratic? Taking stock of the views of political party actors

Differentiated integration has become an important feature of the European integration process, but are there potential democratic pitfalls that come with some EU member states pursuing closer cooperation than others? Sandra Kröger, Marta Lorimer and Richard Bellamy present findings from a new study assessing the views of political party actors in seven EU member states

Differentiated integration in the European Union : its role for cooperating with nonmembers and for the EU’s future as perceived by academic experts

There is now an abundant conceptual and empirical literature on differentiated integration in the EU. However, what are academic experts’ more political and normative views on the matter? This paper enlarges our knowledge about how academic experts perceive of DI in general, as well as about questions relating to external DI, enlargement, and the EU’s future. From the analysis emerge four main findings. First, there continues to be very strong support for the idea of a flexible Europe, though there remain strong differences in support between different types of DI. Second, a large majority of our experts considered that DI should not be allowed in all EU policies areas, not least the Rule of Law. Third, the majority of respondents support external DI, however not unconditionally. Fourth, and finally, despite the overall support for DI in many areas of policy, experts in their majority thought that uniform integration would better allow the EU to realise its goals, and so DI appears as a second-best which is supported when uniform integration does not seem politically feasible

Normative foundations and political party views of differentiated integration

To prevent differentiated integration from being itself a source of unfairness, the report identifies certain substantive and procedural conditions that it should meet to remain fair. Substantively, no member states should be excluded from a policy if they would become worse off than they currently are as a result, nor should a state be allowed to opt out of a policy or be exempted from meeting certain standards if that would render the participating or complying states worse off than they are. Procedurally, both exclusions and exemptions should be agreed either unanimously by representatives of all member states when negotiating the accession of new members or amending the Treaties, or result from a member state choosing not to participate in enhanced cooperation by at least nine member states. Political party actors express mixed views of differentiated integration. While some view it as a pragmatic way forward for the EU, others worry about its negative implications for political equality, solidarity, and unity. Party actors from poorer and less integrated member states are generally more sceptical about differentiated integration than actors from older and richer member states because they worry about being left behind.This project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 822304. The content of this document represents only the views of the InDivEU consortium and is its sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contain

Electron and Cooper-pair transport across a single magnetic molecule explored with a scanning tunneling microscope

A scanning tunneling microscope is used to explore the evolution of electron and Cooper-pair transport across single Mn-phthalocyanine molecules adsorbed on Pb(111) from tunneling to contact ranges. Normal-metal as well as superconducting tips give rise to a gradual transition of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer energy gap in the tunneling range into a zero-energy resonance close to and at contact. Supporting transport calculations show that in the normal-metal–superconductor junctions this resonance reflects the merging of in-gap Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states as well as the onset of Andreev reflection. For the superconductor-superconductor contacts, the zero-energy resonance is rationalized in terms of a finite Josephson current that is carried by phase-dependent Andreev and Yu-Shiba-Rusinov levels.Financial support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through Grant No. KR 2912/10-1, the FCT (Projects No. PTDC/FIS-NAN/4662/2014 and No. P2020-PTDC/FISNAN/3668/2014), and the MINECO-Spain (MAT2016-78625-C2) is acknowledged. J.L.L. acknowledges financial support from the ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowship program

A keratin scaffold regulates epidermal barrier formation, mitochondrial lipid composition, and activity.

Keratin intermediate filaments (KIFs) protect the epidermis against mechanical force, support strong adhesion, help barrier formation, and regulate growth. The mechanisms by which type I and II keratins contribute to these functions remain incompletely understood. Here, we report that mice lacking all type I or type II keratins display severe barrier defects and fragile skin, leading to perinatal mortality with full penetrance. Comparative proteomics of cornified envelopes (CEs) from prenatal KtyI(-/-) and KtyII(-/-)(K8) mice demonstrates that absence of KIF causes dysregulation of many CE constituents, including downregulation of desmoglein 1. Despite persistence of loricrin expression and upregulation of many Nrf2 targets, including CE components Sprr2d and Sprr2h, extensive barrier defects persist, identifying keratins as essential CE scaffolds. Furthermore, we show that KIFs control mitochondrial lipid composition and activity in a cell-intrinsic manner. Therefore, our study explains the complexity of keratinopathies accompanied by barrier disorders by linking keratin scaffolds to mitochondria, adhesion, and CE formation