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This paper examines and compares, in the light of French Discourse Analysis, four life stories - collected through interviews - that were produced by Brazilian migrants that live illegally in France or in England. The main objective is to find out the discursive representations (of themselves, of the others, of the world) constructed by such individuals in their narratives and, at the same time, verify if and how their irregular situation interferes with their routine in the new country. In order to analyze and compare the four stories, some categories that integrate Maingueneau's Global Semantics (2005) were used: themes, vocabulary, enunciative deixis and enunciation mode. If the results reveal differences in the way of telling and evaluating the migratory experience, they also allow us to apprehend similarities, such as the primarily economic motivation to migrate, the difficulties (cultural, linguistic etc.) faced especially when arriving in the destination country and the precarious working conditions to which Brazilian migrants are submitted due to being in an irregular situation. Even though two of the interviewed subjetcts have preferred to be silent on this issue, their opinions can be implicitly identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to think the forced migration to Europe under the perspective of a journalistic narrative which is based in repetitions and reiterations of words. When they produce meaning it results in a strait view where the migrant and refugee are the reason of disorder. Thus, we try to grasp how this process contributes to what we called colonization of the future, according to Giddens (2002) and Gomes (2004) concepts. In this process, an ordering is projected through the words based on a thought built during the European colonization. Its reminiscence is accumulated and form layers that appear in the journalistic narratives and on the borders. Narratives and borders are the metaphor and materialization of the conflict that impose to the migrant and to the refugee the condition of the difference, the condition to be the "other". We propose that there is a journalistic narrative on the border that contributes to the production of meaning which its result is to discuss just for one perspective or just for one side of the borders. In this border scenery, thinking about a colonization of the future by the words lead us to understand that the journalism is also a constructor of invented time. To this paper, it was analysed some news from Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo that were published between September and December 2015. There was in that moment a deeper debate concerning the refugees in Europe. We analysed the news from some keywords as refugees, borders and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global burden of sexually transmitted infections remains high, with significant associated morbidity and mortality. Gonorrhea is the second most notified sexually transmitted infection in Europe, and its incidence has been increasing in the last years. Although traditionally considered a treatable infection, antimicrobial resistance of Neisseria gonorrhoeaeincludes at present also macrolides, tetracyclines, sulfonamides and trimethoprim combinations, quinolones, and even cephalosporins. These high levels of gonococcal resistance to antimicrobials resulting in untreatable infections in the future may become one of the greatest challenges to the prevention and control of sexually transmitted infections, which may be a significant major public health issue. Therefore, the development of novel antimicrobials and/or new dual antimicrobial therapy regimens is urgently needed. In this paper, evolution of antimicrobial resistance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae is reviewed, along with new drugs currently under development for the treatment of this infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the research findings of a PhD project4, which assesses how the Bologna process institutionalizes the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The paper uses the perceptions of the university constituencies. The main findings of this paper reveal the importance of the historians' perspective in the (re)contextualization of the Bologna process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the outset, the paper briefly addresses European Union (EU) citizenship as enshrined in the Treaty on the European Union. Attention is paid on its transnational nature. The political symbolism attached to EU citizenship is also emphasised, as it tries to emulate national concepts of belonging at the EU level. Despite some achievements, flaws are nevertheless a major setback on the EU ambition for supranational citizenship's limited scope.European Union citizenship is addressed through a twofold conceptual lens. On the one hand, it is measured in terms of the impact on citizens' loyalties. Eurobarometer and other statistical data are scrutinised to draw a picture on whether citizens drive their loyalties to the EU or to the national (or even regional) levels. Therefore, empirical data provide an assessment of EU citizenship outcomes. Fourteen years of EU citizenship is a considerable time span to make this assessment. On the other hand, the paper asks whether the attempt to forge a complementary citizenship is out of context, considering the common understanding that citizenship is connected with taxation and representation. Thus, a normative approach of EU citizenship is also a reason of concern. Liberal democracies are supported (among other things) upon the "no taxation without representation" principle. I draw an extension of the aforementioned principle and ask whether the absence of significant EU taxation powers is an obstacle to effective supranational citizenship. Thus, the research question is whether EU citizenship is credible and effective if citizens don't pay taxes to the EU? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, air pollution has been seen differently. Initially only the chemicals were considered polluting agents, now a days, biological pollutants are subject to monitoring and studies. The most common air pollutants come mainly from industries, traffic and the pollination of plants and trees. Allergies have had a very significant increase and are now considered a public health problem. The paper presents several comparative studies carried out in Portugal and in Europe about the influence of air pollutants on public health. Big cities generally have higher concentration of pollutants than smaller cities, this is due not only to the excessive amount of car traffic, but also to large industrial areas surrounding. Each person, depending on age and health status have different responses to exposure to air pollutants. Respiratory, cardiovascular and allergic diseases are the most often related to air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the questions on the European citizenship and the democratic debt of the supranational institutions. In this sense it addresses the institution of the European Provider of Justice. It is about an individual appointed by the European Parliament with the task of, either by its own initiative or based on complaints presented by European citizens and inhabitants, investigating and proceeding to investigation about irregularities on the actuation of the communitarian organs, as well as to emit recommendations with the aim of correcting the cases of bad administration and violation of the human rights detected by it. The object of actuation of the European Provider of Justice is the enforcement of political activity and the providing of public services in a communitarian set. It is an access channel for the citizenship to the organs of political power, controlling the bad actuation of the institutions or communitarian organisms and the violation of rights, with broad powers of supervision with the aim of the enforcement of the fundamental right to a good administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mediterranean region was a central geo-political and cultural space of Ancient Europe, its cultural imprint reaching up to the present. Yet, throughout history, and especially at the time of industrialisation, the European 'centre' moved steadily northwards, whilst the south gradually became 'peripheral'. For that reason, the north has exerted a certain centripetal effect upon the south, which has in turn led to the gradual blurring of some of the ancestral links with the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. Yet, democratic transitions (in the literature characterised by a succession of stages - from liberalisation to transition and consolidation), which had occurred in Europe in some cases quite recently, seem now to be emerging around the whole Mediterranean Sea. In general, they are the result of an intricate mixture of typified endogenous and exogenous factors, thus allowing not only for case study research but also for comparative approaches. Mechanisms of diffusion across regional spaces have emerged before in other cases and under common circumstances, resulting in the dissemination of patterns across state borders. Such an effect can also be hypothesised for the Mediterranean region, notably for the potential attraction exerted by the northern border upon the southern border. Departing from a comparative approach that relies upon indicators available in the literature and data from international observers, the paper addresses contemporary démocratisation processes in the Mediterranean region, seeking to identify similarities, differences and eventually dissemination mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Portugal faced a decade of feeble economic growth after joining the European Economic and Monetary Union. Systematic research of the specific effects of this regime change on growth is still lacking. The counterfactual analysis that we undertake in this paper seeks to fill such a gap. Our findings suggest that the adoption of the Euro did have adverse effects on Portuguese economy. To the contrary, in 2009, the Euro seems to have sheltered the Portuguese economy from the worse effects of the international financial crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the construction of a democratic system was not one of the objectives of the founding fathers of the European Union, this organization has nowadays a colegislator parliament directly elected every fi ve years. As elections remain the primary method of participation and democratic legitimization in Europe, representatives of member states have chosen this instrument to improve the legitimacy of the European Community. More than thirty years after the fi rst direct elections, it has become clear that this strategy has not borne fruit. Electoral abstention, already elevated in 1979, has been increasing every new scrutiny. Nevertheless, it seems to us that anxieties concerning this fact within the European Parliament and other European institutions are both exaggerated and counterproductive. This article intends to show that the abstention rate seen in European elections is neither surprising nor as worrisome as it seems if we consider the particularities of the European political system. The paper also seeks to draw some lessons from the European experience considering the future elections for the Mercosur Parliament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asset inflation and deflation triggered by the US housing financial system. This paper deals with the financial crisis triggered after the default of subprime mortgages in the United States which expanded to a global systemic crisis. It is divided into a brief introduction and three sections. The first section sums up the dynamics of inflation and deflation of real estate and financial assets which characterizes financeled cycles. The second section covers major effect of financial assets deflation on the American and European banks. The third section focuses on measures implemented by central banks in order to manage this financial crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtually no process of regional integration has been safe from the criticism of allegedly suffering from either democratic deficit, institutional deficit or both. These deficits, the argument goes, are the consequence of scarce accountability and the lack of transparency in regional decision-making. Different regional blocs have attempted in a variety of ways to confront one or both of these deficits, the most visible of which is the creation and empowerment of a regional parliament. This paper presents a comparative analysis of five of these institutions in Europe and Latin America - i.e. the European Parliament, the Latin American Parliament, the Central American Parliament, the Andean Parliament, and the Joint Parliamentary Commission of Mercosur - with the aim of understanding their impact on regional representation, decision-making and accountability. The conclusions pinpoint five plausible factors in accounting for the differences found across the Atlantic divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two basic themes are discussed and examined in this paper: the incorporation of ten new members into the European Union frame and the creation of institutional-legal structure supported by a Constitution. To do so, I propose, on one hand, to reconstitute the political-institutional steps which covered the period coming from post-war Europe, fragmented and weakened, to a post-Cold War Europe ready to spread throughout the continent. This process began in May 2004 with the incorporation of ten States of Eastern Europe. On the other hand, I intend to reproduce the institutional debate between a Federal Europe and a Europe of States, debate which conducted to the presentation to the European Council of the project of the new Treaty of the Union, which met in Salonika, in June 2003; second, to the discussion of the text of the first European Constitution, in the Summit of Heads of States of EU, held in Brussels, December 2003. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims the analyses of the performance of the most important monetary integration in scale and scope in the world taking for granted euro geoeconomics centrality in the international affairs of state cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explain the paradox between the abstention in the European elections and the progressive power reinforcement in the European Parliament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]