EC Visa Facilitation and Readmission Agreements: Implementing a New EU Security Approach in the Neighbourhood

With the Eastern Enlargement successfully completed, the EU is searching for a proper balance between internal security and external stabilisation that is acceptable to all sides. This paper focuses on an EU foreign policy instrument that is a case in point for this struggle: EC visa facilitation and readmission agreements. By looking at the EU's strategy on visa facilitation and readmission, this paper aims to offer a first systematic analysis of the objectives, substance and political implications of these agreements as a means to implement a new EU security approach in the neighbourhood. In offering more relaxed travel conditions in exchange for the signing of an EC readmission agreement and reforming domestic justice and home affairs, the EU has found a new way to press for reforms in neighbouring countries while addressing a major source of discontent in these countries. The analysis concludes with the broader implications of these agreements and argues that even if the facilitated travel opportunities are beneficial for the citizens of the target countries, the positive achievements are undermined by the Schengen enlargement, which makes the new member states tie up their borders to those of their neighbours.EU, EC visa facilitation, readmission agreements, European Neighbourhood Policy, Stabilisation and Association Process, Justice and Home Affairs

What if? The implications of a Brexit-scenario on different EU policies. IES Policy Brief Issue 2016/4-10• April 2016

By bundling the manifold policy expertise of the researchers of the Institute for European Studies (IES), this paper forms part of a series of analyses investigating the potential implications of a ‘Brexit’ scenario for different EU policies. All papers ask the same three questions: 1) What is the state of the EU policy in focus

10,000 border guards for Frontex: Why the EU risks conflated expectations. EPC Policy Brief, 21 September 2018

“Between now and 2027 we want to produce an additional 10,000 border guards. We are now going to bring that forward to 2020,” Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, told Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz at the start of Austria’s sixth-months presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) on 1 July 2018.1 In his State of the European Union (SOTEU) speech on 12 September, the Commission President confirmed this number and provided a blueprint for the future of Frontex.2 For the EU, the proposed increase in Frontex’s resources will likely become a key argument to counter criticism from populist parties and demonstrate its determination to manage migration effectively

Introducing the IES Brexit-Project. IES Policy Brief Issue 2016/4• April 2016

By bundling the manifold policy expertise of the researchers of the Institute for European Studies (IES), this paper forms part of a series of analyses investigating the potential implications of a ‘Brexit’ scenario for different EU policies. All papers ask the same three questions: 1) What is the state of the EU policy in focus? 2) What is the UK’s role/interest in this policy field? 3) What are the potential implications of a ‘Brexit’ scenario at the policy-level? After Claire Dupont and Florian Trauner introduce the project, Richard Lewis sets the historical and cultural context and explains how the UK and the EU have come to such a low-point in their relations. Next, five policy fields are analysed: justice and home affairs; free movement policies; EU external representation; the (digital) single market; and environmental policy

Undrained shear strength in dependence on the quantity of free water and firmly adsorbed water in fully saturated clays

The article describes the dependence between the undrained shear strength of fully saturated cohesive soils, the quantity of intergrain water and mineralogical properties of soils on the basis of theoretical analysis and practical tests on monomineral clay samples, it was determined that the total quantity of intergrain water is composed of free pore water and the firmly adsorbed water on the external surface of clay grains. The undrained shear strength of saturated soils is precisely dependent on the quantity of free water. The amount of free water and likewise the thickness of the water film around the clay grains are the same for different soils at the same undrained shear strength. The total quantity of firmly adsorbed water and the total quantity of integration water depends on the specific surface of soils

Editorial: The negotiation and contestation of EU migration policy instruments: A research framework

This article develops a research framework for the analysis of the politics of migration policy instruments. Policy instruments are seen as living instruments; they evolve and develop similar to moving targets. A scholar interested in this field of research may focus either on the establishment of a given instrument or on its use. The question of an instrument's design relates to the policy transfer literature focusing on how certain policies move from one setting to another. In the context of a policy transfer, actors from the other-'receiving'-institutional setting negotiate and, potentially, contest or reinterpret a policy instrument. The evolution of policy instruments once adopted in a specific institutional context is a second area of interest. The original goals can be diluted throughout the implementation process notably due to tensions between intergovernmental and supranational actors, or sticky institutionalization, which is characterized by path-dependencies. Often the choice of new instruments derives from an inefficiency or loss of credibility of past instruments. This editorial therefore seeks to make a twofold contribution: first it investigates the added-value of a policy instrument approach to the study of migration; second it furthers research on the external dimension of EU migration policy. © 2014 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden

Optical Control of Glycerolipids and Sphingolipids

Glycerolipids, Sphingolipids, and Sterols are the three major classes of membrane lipids. Both glycerolipids and sphingolipids are comprised of combinations of polar headgroups and fatty acid tails. The fatty acid tail can be chemically modified with an azobenzene photoswitch giving rise to photoswitchable lipids. This approach has yielded a number of photopharmacological tools that allow to control various aspects of lipid assembly, metabolism, and physiology with light

On the stability of mycobacterial ribosomes during stasis

Latent tuberculosis is estimated to account for over 99% of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections globally. Bacteria are believed to enter a non-­replicating persistent (NRP) state to counter the effect of oxygen and nutrient limitation during latent infection. While NRP bacteria are believed to retain some metabolic activity, it is not known how the stability and functionality of the biosynthetic apparatus is maintained. Using the Wayne hypoxia model, we focused on mycobacterial ribosomes and found that, in contrast to enteric bacteria, no higher order structures (e.g. ribosomal dimers) are formed upon entry into stasis. We devised a strategy incorporating microfluidic, proteomic and ribosomal profiling techniques to elucidate the fate of mycobacterial ribosomes during NRP. We compared the stability of wild-type ribosomes to those of mutants in the transcriptional regulator DosR, which cannot survive prolonged oxygen starvation. While stability was comparable under conditions of active growth and normoxic stasis, ΔdosR mutants showed a marked decrease in levels of 70S ribosomes and 30S ribosomal subunits under hypoxia. Microfluidic analyses were consistent with these observations and pointed to a progressive degradation of rRNA during prolonged hypoxia, with evidence of discrete rRNA cleavage. Proteomic analysis also supported a gradual degradation of ribosomes and led to the identification of S30AE proteins as possible ribosome stabilisation factors. There is an S30AE domain protein is the DosR regulon and it may contribute to the observed destabilisation of the ribosome during hypoxia in ΔdosR mutants. Macromolecular stability is further compromised during infection by the presence of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. We used mass spectrometry to assess the impact of oxidative stress on mycobacterial nucleic acids. We found that RNA was more susceptible to damage. Since only limited RNA synthesis occurs in NRP, the ability of cells to preserve intact ribosomes could be crucial for long-­term survival