Search

Electricity supply in the European member states has been a closed national public sector service without competition for a long time. Currently, the European electricity industry is subject to radical change resulting from the European directive establishing common rules for the internal market in electricity, which came into force in 1997. This paper attempts to explain the varying forms of implementation of the internal electricity market in France and Germany. First, it clarifies the special characteristics of electricity supply and European electricity policy. Secondly, the paper shows the divergent sectoral arrangements of the French and German electricity industries. Thirdly it points out that the different degrees of linkage between the public players and the electricity companies in France and Germany produce different political strategies which are followed by the companies at the European level, especially those strategies which seek direct influence on the European Commission. Finally, the paper reveals the significance of these strategies in Brussels in terms of the implementation of the single electricity market in both member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper draws on research into child welfare services in France, Germany and England which compares the subjective experience of mothers who have been in contact with family support and child protection agencies in the three countries. The mothers' stories suggest that successful help-achieving strategies differ according to the nature of the child welfare regime, and that behaviour which is effective in getting a good response in one country may work less well elsewhere. The stories of two mothers in each of the countries have been chosen to demonstrate how the structures of different social welfare regimes affect the efforts of welfare users to get the help they need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares technical aspects of accrual-based budgeting and accounting reforms of the national governments of France, Germany, the UK and the US. It shows that there is no consensus among the four countries about the complete package of technical reform possibilities that is most appropriate; there is also no consensus among the four countries about each one of the possibilities that is most appropriate. What is clear is the resilience of traditional budgetary accounting systems. It is also clear that, in the fundamental context and content of the reforms, the UK is the striking exception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What explains the creation of the EU corona recovery fund? Why did the Union agree on a large‐scale financial response to the corona pandemic, despite member states' very different immediate reactions to the crisis and their opposing attitudes towards common debt? This article argues for the decisiveness of France and Germany's role within the Union and their tight bilateral political cooperation. The 'embedded bilateralism' approach to European integration and EU politics explains how and why France and Germany, starting from different poles, came together and established joint positions, paving the way for an overall European compromise. Focusing on these two countries' particular leadership role advances the theoretical debate about the actors most crucial for driving European integration, especially in times of severe crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the impact of the end of the coffee export quota system (EQS) on international-to-retail price transmission in France, Germany and the United States. We take account of the existence of long-run threshold effects and short-run price transmission asymmetries (PTAs). We find evidence of threshold effects in both periods (EQS and post-EQS) in all three countries and the presence of short-run PTAs during the post-EQS period in all countries, but not during the EQS period. Our results indicate that the threshold values are smaller in the post-EQS period, suggesting that retail prices became more responsive to changes in international prices. However, the speed of adjustment towards the long-run equilibrium decreases during the post-EQS period in the three countries. In the short run, non-linear impulse response analyses indicate that a shock in international prices was more persistent during the EQS period than in the post-EQS period. Moreover, we find evidence of short-run PTAs in the post-EQS period, with differences across countries. We find support for the 'rockets and feathers' principle in the United States; in contrast, retail prices respond faster when international prices are falling in Germany and France. We explain these differences in terms of market structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Europe, the Bologna and Copenhagen Processes in higher education (HE) and vocational education and training (VET) are on the agenda, aiming to create a European educational area. Acknowledging important differences between countries, we compare the evolving relationship between HE and VET. We ask whether and how these two distinct organisational fields in France and Germany have changed in recent decades. Comparing institutional shifts, the article analyses whether long-standing differences in postsecondary education and training systems and the education/economy nexus in these two countries have remained stable. We argue that these countries' skill formation systems have begun to converge, departing from their original institutionalisation paths. Thus, while the traditional typologies that contrast France and Germany have served as useful heuristic devices, they require revision to adequately represent incremental institutional change in these skill formation systems resulting from endogenous reforms and exogenous pressures due to Europeanisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Climate change is a major current affair for which recent United Nations climate conferences aim to build consensus and develop international solutions. The objective of this article is to compare, through the theoretical lens of social representations, the way in which French and German media, specifically newspapers, represent the Bali climate conference. We use the triangulation of data analysis to take both the pragmatic and the semantic aspects of media discourse into account. Results show that German media adopt both a local and a global vision of climate change and of the conference. Religious metaphors highlight a moral dimension of the conference, suggesting anchoring in human and political categories. In contrast, in French media, we identify that conflicts between countries render the stakes of climate change concrete by war metaphors. The French discourses examined are shown to be organised through the anchoring of political and financial categories. Results are discussed in relation to the history of green movements in the two countries and in relation to practical implications. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions: (i) Can sampling of soil wood charcoals at high spatial resolution produce new evidence concerning the presence of chalk grassland before or during the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages? (ii) Are there correlations between vegetation history and archeological data during these periods at this particular site? Location: The chalk hillsides of Saint-Adrien in the lower Seine Valley, Upper Normandy, northwest France. Methods: The study was carried out at a high spatial resolution in chalk grassland using soil wood charcoal analysis, in which charcoals found in the soil were identified and dated in an area of several hundred square meters. Results: Late-successional woody species (Fagus sylvatica, Quercus sp.) were still present in the study site in an area inconsistent with the existence of large chalk grassland herbaceous plant communities (several hectares) in the Neolithic (6500-3800 BP) and Bronze Age (3800-2700 BP). Conclusions: The presence of late-successional woody species on the studied hillside suggests that fires in the Neolithic were linked to forest clearance for pastoral activities, as already demonstrated for similar ecosystems in eastern France and Germany. Nevertheless, our methodology clearly demonstrates that palaecological studies need to take into account the spatial organisation of plant communities as a complementary element to validate their potential existence in former times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although France and Germany are commonly classified as Bismarckian welfare regimes, they differ significantly in terms of family policy. For a long time, social and family policy in (West) Germany was focused on the male-breadwinner model of married couples. This was based on the expectation that women, in particular married women with children, would withdraw from the labour market permanently, or at least temporarily. Whereas care by mothers was massively subsidized by state family policy, the expansion of the childcare infrastructure was neglected and progressed only very slowly compared to the situation in many other countries of Europe. France, on the contrary, is one of the European countries where childcare services are particularly widespread, giving mothers the option to combine paid work and motherhood. Nevertheless, significant changes are happening in both countries. Concern over the demographic trends and low birth rates (in particular in Germany) have refocused attention on family policy in recent years. In Germany, it has now become a key field of debate and policy, and new actors have appeared on the scene. This article proposes to compare the latest developments in both countries, highlighting the contribution of enterprises and social partners to work–life balance, re-analysing the different types of familialism characterizing both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]