Impacts of the 2014 Russian trade ban on seafood

In August 2014 Russia introduced a trade ban on imports of main food commodities from the EU, USA, Canada, Australia and Norway. Russia is a main destination for exports of seafood from Norway and 7th in the list of major export partners of seafood for the EU. This report provides an analysis of the impacts of trade ban on international seafood trade. A special focus of the analysis is on the consequences for the fisheries, aquaculture and seafood processing sectors in the EU. The work is based on monthly data from Russian customs and EUROSTAT Comext databases for 2013-2014. Trade flows affected by the trade ban had a share of 2.8% (6.4 billion euro) to the total annual Russian imports of 2013. Fish and seafood import represented 13% (2.2 billion euro) in relation to the total flow of products affected by the ban, 55% of fish and seafood imports to Russia were originating from the countries listed in the ban. The major trade flows affected internationally are imports of salmon, herring and trout from Norway and cold-water shrimps from Canada. The impact for the EU is limited. The main trade flows, which might be affected in the EU are cold-water shrimp and trout from Denmark, small pelagics from Eastern and Northern Baltic countries, UK and Ireland, oyster from France, seabass and seabream from Greece.JRC.G.3-Maritime affair

The determinants of migration to the EU: evidence from residence permits data

The report analyzes the drivers of different forms of migration. Specifically, using Eurostat data on new residence permits issued by EU countries to Third-Country Nationals, we are able to distinguish among five channels of entry and stay in Europe: family, work-related, education, humanitarian, and other reasons. We estimate several panel data gravity models for each of the groups of migrants, for the period 2008-2015. We find that dyadic variables influence all forms of migration similarly. We provide evidence of network effects, especially for the groups of family and work-related migrants. Population growth in the country of origin is negatively associated with migration, except for humanitarian forms of migration. Increasing economic disparities between the origin and the destination countries, measured with GDP per-capita, are associated with higher migration movements, though not for all the groups. Restrictive migration policies in the destination country and travel visa restrictions seem to act as a deterrent for migrations.JRC.E.6-Demography, Migration and Governanc

Migration in a segmented labour market

Embedded in the “dual labour market” theory which focuses on the role of structural characteristics of national labour markets in determining the demand for foreign labour force, this report intends to contribute to the debate on drivers of the demand for foreign labour force and on mechanisms of labour market integration of immigrants in host countries. In specific, the report aims to assess whether in segmented labour markets foreign workforce has higher probability of being allocated on specific segments, and associated jobs, than natives. The analysis was carried out in reference to the EU-15 area (AT, BE, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GR, IE, IT, LU, NL, PT, SE, and UK) using the 2015 EU LFS data. The results identified three distinct segments on the EU labour market describing the coexistence of “good” jobs on one side and “bad” jobs on another. In such labour market structure, the estimates show that immigrants have higher probability than natives of being employed in “bad” jobs, although the immigrants-natives gap varies significantly among MS. These estimates are confirmed even when the sample is limited to more recent immigration waves.JRC.E.6-Demography, Migration and Governanc

Low-Complexity Context-Based Motion Compensation for VLBR Video Encoding

A significant improvement of block-based motion estimation strategies is presented, which provides fast computation and very low bitrate coding. For each block, a spatio-temporal context is defined based on nearest neighbors in the current and previous frames, and a prediction list is built. Then, the best matching vector within the list is chosen as an estimation of the block motion. Since coder and decoder are synchronous, only the index of the selected vector is needed at the decoder to reconstruct the motion field. To avoid the propagation of the error, an additional correction vector can be sent when prediction error exceeds a threshold. Furthermore, bitrate saving is achieved through an adaptive sorting of the prediction list of each block, which allows to reduce the entropy of the motion indexes. Tests demonstrate that the proposed method ensures a speed up over 1:200 as compared to full search, and a coding gain above 2, with a negligible loss of accuracy. This allows real-time implementation of VLBR software video coders on conventional PC platforms

The relationship between inequality in the origin country and emigration

This policy brief illustrates the role of inequality as a driver of migration and seeks empirical evidence of the relationship between inequality within the country of origin and emigration rate.JRC.E.6-Demography, Migration and Governanc

Many more to come? Migration from and within Africa

The report provides an analysis of the past of African migration; the present patterns of migration within and from Africa; the individual intentions to migrate; the macro drivers of migration within and from Africa; the potential impacts of demography and development on migration within and from Africa in a medium term perspective. The main conclusion of this analysis in response to the question in the title of this science for policy report ‘Many more to come?’ is that at the moment there are no signs of an imminent exodus but that in a medium term perspective both development and demographic factors are likely to determine an increase of migratory pressure from Africa. What is not known is if this migratory pressure will manifest itself mostly within Africa or whether it will 'spill over' in international migrations directed in particular towards Europe due to geographical proximity and existing economic and migration ties.JRC.E.6-Demography, Migration and Governanc

Feasibility Study on a Decentralised System Architecture for Animal Transport Tracing Systems (DEAR-TRACE)

The objective of the study was to demonstrate whether the data recorded by the tracing systems of long journey animal transport vehicles for the official controls under Regulation 1/2005 and managed by different private service providers for trucks fitted with their systems could be made remotely available to competent authorities in this decentralised system architecture. The concept was tested for around 2 months with 2 tracing systems from different service providers, with volunteering transport companies using these systems and with the participation of competent authorities in 3 Member States with a substantial share in the international animal transport. Overall the experiment proved that with limited software development resources the integration of commercial tracing systems in animal transports would be feasible and offer several advantages to the competent authorities both in respect of animal welfare and traceability of animal movement.JRC.DG.G.4-Maritime affair

Patterns of immigrants’ integration in European labour markets

This report looks at employment rates of immigrants and systematically compares them with employment rates of natives. The first finding is that employment gaps vary substantially across Member States, and that for some these gaps are persistent in the period considered (2008-2015). In addition, there is little evidence of overall convergence between Member States in the reduction of these gaps over this period. Having looked at the trends in employment rates since 2008, this report then turns to the likely reasons for the gaps. By drawing on the academic and policy literature, it singles out some of the most likely determinants of these gaps and unpacks them according to their relationships with length of residency, country of origin, education, and skills. Finally, the last section provides a brief overview of the evolution of these gaps in the context of Member States’ active labour market policies. The last section outlines the main findings.JRC.E.6-Demography, Migration and Governanc