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The paper introduces two emerging concepts of European Studies - Superstate Europe and Europe of nations. The two interpret the future of Europe in very different perspectives. While Superstate Europe envisions a political unification in which the supranational entity is becoming the main source of power, Europe of nations, on the contrary, tries to restore the member states' sovereignties over the EU. Thus, both framings have explicit political contents, and neither of them can be considered exclusively academic. Of course, in the field of European Studies this is not unprecedented. Nonetheless, the emergence of two such rival ideas is symbolizing the political polarization of the EU, as well as the politicization of European Studies. In its first section, the paper describes the general logic, main points, and basic inner-linkages of Superstate Europe and Europe of nations, and then in the second part it identifies their positions in the conceptual space of European Studies. This latter effort tries to reveal the relatedness of these framings to other European integration theories. The main finding of this meta-analysis is that Superstate Europe is more embedded conceptually, and this helps to better explain or criticize certain aspects of the idea, while Europe of nations can be considered more original in the sense of reflecting on the previously unaddressed challenge of proposing a disintegration theory among many European integration theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to analyse the involvement of the local and regional authorities within the Conference on the Future of Europe. The former, being closer to the citizens, could play important role in reaching "every corner of the European Union" and helping the citizens to articulate their ideas about the European integration. Therefore, the activity of the subnational level could contribute to the final success of the Conference (or failure - in case of lack of any actions). The analysis is based on the author's own empirical study conducted among the Polish territorial self-government units after the closure of the Conference. The local and regional authorities were asked if they informed the citizens about the Conference, organised events regarding this enterprise or took part in the events organised by other entities. The results show very low level of the activity, even among the territorial self-government units that are present at the European level. The conclusions regard both to the Polish circumstances as well as to the general performance of the Conference. In the first case, they unveil the unwritten practice among the Polish territorial self-government units on their involvement in the European affairs. Regarding the second point, the results indicate that the Conference did not manage to exceed the "European bubble". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union's recently adopted Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act is the first comprehensive legal framework specifically on AI. This is particularly important for the healthcare domain, as other existing harmonisation legislation, such as the Medical Device Regulation, do not explicitly cover medical AI applications. Given the far-reaching impact of this regulation on the medical AI sector, this commentary provides an overview of the key elements of the AI Act, with easy-to-follow references to the relevant chapters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global energy transition relies increasingly on lithium-ion batteries for electric transportation and renewable energy integration. Given the highly concentrated supply chain of battery materials, importing regions have a strategic imperative to reduce their reliance on battery material imports through, e.g., battery recycling or reuse. We investigate the potential of vehicle-to-grid and second-life batteries to reduce resource use by displacing new stationary batteries dedicated to grid storage. Based on dynamic material flow analysis, we show that equipping around 50% of electric vehicles with vehicle-to-grid or reusing 40% of electric vehicle batteries for second life each have the potential to fully cover the European Union's need for stationary storage by 2040. This could reduce total primary material demand from 2020–2050 by up to 7.5% and 1.5%, respectively, which could ease geopolitical risks and increase the European Union's energy and material security. Any surplus capacity could be used as a strategic reserve to increase resilience in the face of emergencies such as blackouts or adverse geo-political events. Europe is becoming increasingly dependent on battery material imports. Here, authors show that electric vehicle batteries could fully cover Europe's need for stationary battery storage by 2040, through either vehicle-to-grid or second-life-batteries, and reduce battery material demand by up to 7.5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On-road real-driving emissions (RDE) tests with portable emissions measurement systems (PEMS) are part of the vehicle emissions regulations in the European Union (EU). For a given vehicle, the final emission results depend on the influence of the ambient conditions and the trip characteristics (including the driver's behaviour) on the vehicle performance and the instrument measurement uncertainty. However, there are not many studies that have examined the emissions variability of a single vehicle following different routes. In this study, a 1.2 L gasoline direct injection (GDI) Euro 5b passenger car without a particulate filter and a PEMS was circulated in seven European laboratories. At their premises, the laboratories performed two to five repetitions of on-road trips compliant with the EU RDE regulation. The ambient temperature ranged between 7 °C and 23 °C. The average emission levels of the vehicle were 135 g/km for CO2, 77 mg/km for CO, 55 mg/km for NOx, and 9.2 × 1011 #/km for particle number. The coefficient of variance in the emissions following the same route was 2.9% for CO2, 23.8% for CO, 23.0% for NOx, and 5.8% for particle number. The coefficient of variance in the emissions following different routes in Europe was 6.9% for CO2, 9.1% for CO, 0.0% for NOx, and 9.1% for particle number. The previous values include the specific vehicle emissions variability under the narrow test conditions of this study, but only partly the PEMS measurement uncertainty because the same instrument was used in all the trips. The results of this study can be used by laboratories conducting RDE tests to assess their uncertainty budget when testing or comparing vehicles of similar technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each year, thousands of migrants enter the EU. Data on drug use in migrant populations are scarce and inconclusive. However, several risk factors make them particularly vulnerable to engaging in problematic drug use. In this perspective, we summarize the limited information that is available on migrants who use drugs and make a case as to why it is essential to improve access to health and social services, including harm reduction services, for this population. With this aim, we call for the co-creation of integrated services that better address the needs of migrants who use drugs in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]