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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the content and quality of circular economy (CE) and environmental information (CEEI) disclosure in sustainability reports. Additionally, it provides suggestions for heightening CEEI disclosure. Using the content analysis, we analysed the changes that took place after the European Union (EU) action plan (2015) selecting a sample of sustainable reports in the cosmetic industry in Italy in 2014 and 2019 years. We applied the Climate Disclosure Standard Board (CDSB) framework focused on 12 reporting requirements designed to encourage corporate standardized disclosure of environmental information. Our analysis is performed through a frequency term analysis. Additionally, to measure the general shift of semantic over the two years towards CEEI, a semi‐supervised topic modelling approach was applied, whose topics were obtained by aggregating all terms with a significant variation from the content analysis. Findings show that the recent reports (2019) include terms related to the environment in a slightly more frequent way compared to 2014. We provide stronger evidence of the shift in the origin of the topics, being coherent with the changes introduced from the EU 2015 act, and the requirements of the CDSB framework nevertheless the CE seems still under‐reported in the area of governance, strategy, management and performance. The paper discusses the need for further Institutional (EU directives), regulatory (CDSB framework) and stakeholders' pressure (on companies. Finally, the implementation of an integrated reporting for social, economic and environmental disclosure is suggested as a way to ensure an effective CEEI disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Income Stabilisation Tool (IST), which was recently added to the European Common Agricultural Policy's risk management toolkit, is a mutual fund that aims at stabilising farmers' income. We investigate the drivers of farmers' participation in an IST for the apple sector in the Autonomous Province of Trento in Italy, which is the only region that has operationalised the IST in the European Union. Our analysis is based on a theoretical framework based on the Unified Theory of Use and Acceptance of Technology. Using a three‐year panel dataset of 3268 farm households, we estimated a logit model with the Mundlak–Chamberlain procedure. Our results show that higher crop production specialisation, associated with greater risk exposure, favours participation in the IST. Similarly, previous experience with mutual funds increases the acceptance of the IST. The analysis also provides evidence of how the new tool interacts with existing on‐farm protection strategies, leading to a discussion of the presence of adverse and advantageous selection effects. Our paper sheds light on farmers' acceptance of newly implemented sector‐specific ISTs and generates better knowledge and understanding of lock‐ins and levers that influence participation in such schemes, which are relevant to other EU regions or member states that are considering the introduction of ISTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Swiss Political Science Review is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper develops an axiomatic approach to the measurement of social exclusion. At the individual level, social exclusion is viewed in terms of deprivation of the person concerned with respect to different functionings in the society. At the aggregate level we treat social exclusion as a function of individual exclusions. The class of subgroup decomposable social exclusion measures using a set of independent axioms is identified. We then look at the problem of ranking exclusion profiles by the exclusion dominance principle under certain restrictions. Finally, applications of decomposable and non-decomposable measures suggested in the paper using European Union and Italian data are also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to examine the relationship between EU law and the Italian legal order in light of the recent Italian Constitutional Court (ICC)'s jurisprudence attempting to redefine EU core principles. When fundamental rights are at stake, three assumptions are challenged: the determination of direct effect shall be a prerogative of the ECJ; EU directly effective provisions entail the disapplication of conflicting national law; judges have the discretion to refer preliminary references to the ECJ where a clarification on EU law is needed. The contribution argues that the judicial search for a balance between sovereignty and supranationality is undermined by the ICC's new resistance to the well‐established EU jurisprudence. In that respect, the paper posits that the ICC's activism is the result of an unjustified 'argumentative self‐restraint' of the ECJ vis‐à‐vis the evolution of EU foundational principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of the Great Recession, the issue of European integration has become increasingly salient in many European polities. The European left has adopted a different stance toward European integration, both in terms of economic and welfare‐state integration. On the one hand, radical left parties (RLPs) have always opposed a process of integration dominated by neoliberal logic; on the other hand, the social democratic parties (SDPs) have appeared as one of the main pro‐EU party families, identifying the EU as a privileged space in which to promote the building of a European social model. In this paper, we propose a binary comparison between RLPs and SDPs in Italy and Spain with a qualitative content analysis methodology. Our results show that albeit the crisis brought SDPs closer to a Eurocritical stance vis‐à‐vis the social‐Europe, this dimension along with the political integration are still dividing issues for the RLPs and SDPs families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the components of aggregate labour productivity inequality between Italian regions from 2000 to 2013. The Gini index of inequality in aggregate labour productivity is decomposed, showing the extent to which sector productivity differentials and differences in industry‐mix contribute to regional productivity inequality. In addition, the contribution of the interaction between differences in industry‐mix and sector productivity differentials is revealed by the decomposition. Each of these contributions to inequality is measured by considering the spatial dimension of regional inequality, since the contributions of inequality between non‐neighbouring regions and inequality between neighbouring regions are separated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effects on riskiness and performance of gender diversity in Italian bank boards. Italy deserves special attention because European comparisons for the 2000s show that it was among the European Union countries where women were least represented in bank boardrooms, and this gap remains even in a quota law regime. Our main econometric results suggest that gender diversity may have a positive impact on the credit portfolio riskiness and on profitability. Both results may be driven by women's higher risk aversion and their higher propensity to monitor activities, suggesting that women are "gold dust" for Italian banks. These findings, obtained by using a unique data set over the period 1995–2010 and by taking into account possible sources of endogeneity, support the effectiveness on bank performance of greater female presence on boards. Moreover, our econometric set‐up could offer a benchmark for further analysis on gender diversity effects for many countries, where a gender quota law is still not in place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Besides offering teaching and research services, schools and universities also must provide for the safety and security of their employees, students, and visitors. This paper describes emergency preparedness in a sample of Italian universities. In particular it examines risk perception within a specific professional category (university safety and security officers) in a specific cultural context (Italy). In addition, it discusses the transposition and implementation in a European Union (EU) member state of EU Council Directive 89/391/EEC of 12 June 1989, on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers. The findings highlight heterogeneous and fragmented emergency management models within the Italian university system, underlining the need for a stricter framework of standardised safety protocols and emergency management guidelines. The study also points out that enhancing emergency planning and preparedness in Italian universities entails increasing safety leadership, employee engagement and individual responsibility for safety and security; essentially, it necessitates improving the culture of risk prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Start of the main construction phase of the Brenner Base Tunnel / Startschuss für die Hauptbauphase des Brenner Basistunnels Construction and finance contract for the new trunk line in Munich / Bau- und Finanzierungsvertrag für die neue Stammstrecke in München Crossrail awards remaining tunnelling contracts / Crossrail vergibt ausstehende Tunnelbau-Lose Aker Wirth to build two telescopic shield machines for the Koralm Tunnel / Aker Wirth baut zwei Teleskopschildmaschinen für den Koralmtunnel Contract for the operational ventilation of the Gotthard Base Tunnel awarded / Werkvertrag für Betriebslüftung des Gotthard-Basistunnels vergeben Investigation tunnel for the Garmisch-Partenkirchen bypass / Erkundungsstollen für die Umgehung von Garmisch-Partenkirchen Call for papers - Themes for the next issues of Geomechanics and Tunnelling / Themen für die nächsten Ausgaben der 'Geomechanics and Tunnelling' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the challenges that migration flows pose on policymaking aimed at fostering human capital accumulation in peripheral regions. We employ a unique data set generated through a postal survey designed and conducted by the authors. The focus of our analysis is on the micro-level location decisions of a sample of highly educated and skilled individuals residing in Basilicata, an Italian Mezzogiorno region, who have benefited from a locally funded human capital investment policy. Investigamos los retos que los flujos de migración imponen en la formulación de políticas dirigidas a acoger la acumulación de capital humano en regiones periféricas. Empleamos un único conjunto de datos generado a través de un muestreo postal diseñado y llevado a cabo por los autores. El punto focal de nuestro análisis es en las decisiones de ubicación a micro-nivel de una muestra de individuos altamente educados y capacitados residentes en la Basilicata, una región del Mezzogiorno italiano, que se han beneficiado de una política de inversión en capital humano financiada localmente. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given Italy's reputation for fiscal profligacy, the zeal with which Italians strove to meet the strict budgetary and other criteria to qualify for full participation in European Monetary Union might be in need of explanation. On a wider front, Italy has displayed an enthusiasm for European integration which has been largely free of the reservations occasionally shown by member-states of comparable size and importance. This paper considers explanations which have been advanced for Italians' pro-European attitude, such as Catholic universalism and Roman imperial traditions, but rejects them as insufficient, in order to argue that the modern experience of the nation-state in Italy has failed to produce a strong sense of allegiance to a national identity, encouraging Italians to look to the European level of supranational institutions. Furthermore, it is argued that this lack of strong national allegiance in Italy is not simply a negative characteristic, but has allowed for the preservation of traditions of localism, federalism and social partnership in Italy which are potentially valuable contributions to a future configuration of the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to investigate suitable alternatives to conventional fossil fuels has increased interest in several renewable energy sources, especially in widely available sources of biomass. This has made environmental and socio‐economic improvements possible. In recent years, biogas from biomass has increasingly been considered the most feasible alternative to energy from fossil fuel, as it allows both the possibility to reduce waste disposal treatment and the opportunity to produce green energy. Opuntia ficus‐indica (OFI) has been suggested as a possible biomass as it could represent a suitable resource for producing biomethane as a new frontier within the context of a circular economy. This study aims to define a methodology for evaluating the distribution of OFI biomass that is potentially available for biogas production by applying maximum entropy modeling in a case study of a province located in southern Italy. The geographic information system (GIS)‐based model that was developed made it possible to estimate the suitability of the species in the territory and to define specific indices at the municipal level by enabling the localization of the highest productive territorial areas. Municipalities were grouped into three different classes ranging from low to high potential ones. In future years, new municipalities could be part of the high‐potential group, due to global warming resulting from climate change. The results could be relevant to the intervention priorities established by the European Union related to the planning activities supported by the European Structural and Investment Funds within the Smart Specialization Strategy. In this regard, knowledge of the potential production and distribution of a species in a territory is highly valuable information for the quantification of the biomass potentially available for biogas production, prior to strategic planning for the improvement of the biogas sector. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the political and legal dimension of Italian policy management of migratory crises affecting the European Union and member states. It pays particular attention to the tightening of migrant reception measures from 2016 until 2019. In this dynamic, it argues that the 132/18 governmental legislation "Decree‐Law on Immigration and Security" of 2018 (and the Decree‐Law bis of 2019) represents a breakthrough. The article reveals the shift of solidarity crime from a political to a legal dimension. The unprecedented movement of migrants and refugees into the EU has led to widespread claims for a EU common migratory policy based on international cooperation and equitable sharing of responsibilities. As a frontline member state, Dublin III prescribes to Italy responsibilities in rescue, first safe of migrants, and refugee status determination. Italy's migration policy thus conflicts with its prior international legal commitments, and, for this reason, its concrete applicability is highly debated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We exploit a new dataset based on European Union (EU) procurement award notices to investigate the relationship between the degree of centralization of public procurement and its performance. We focus on the case of Italy, where all levels of government, along with a number of other public institutions, are involved in procurement and are subject to the same EU regulation. We find that (a) municipalities and utilities, which currently award among the largest shares of contracts, achieve lower rebates than other institutional categories; and (b) decentralization implies lower rebates only when it comes with weak competences of procurement officials. The evidence seems to suggest that a reorganization of the procurement system, both in terms of partial centralization and increased professionalization of procurement officials, would help improve award‐stage procurement performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European and national policy‐makers have highlighted the role of the cohesion policy in smoothing the effects of the crisis during the programme period 2007–13. To support these claims, however, specific evidence is needed. This article studied the relations between the absorption of the EU funds and regional labour markets in Italian regions during the Great Recession. By applying different panel data models to new data on cohesion policy, three main results were achieved. We found that the cohesion policy made a contribution to the resilience of Italian regional labour markets. Yet the short‐term consequences of the cohesion policy on regional economies were conditional on the heterogeneous quality of regional institutions. We also found that the policy changes introduced in Italy during the crisis increased the effectiveness of the cohesion policy. The analysis was controlled for endogeneity issues and alternative specifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union introduced a directive aimed at reducing trade credit due to its supposedly negative effect on the European economy. This contrasts with the redistribution view arguing that trade credit could facilitate the financing of credit‐constrained firms by more liquid suppliers. But does trade credit mainly flow from relatively unconstrained suppliers to more financially constrained buyers? To answer this question, we look at the characteristics of net borrowers with respect to net lenders and then estimate the substitutability between trade and bank debt separately for the two groups of firms. Overall, the results show that, in Italy, efficient redistribution does not tend to prevail in the trade credit market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Electronic identity is getting an increased importance nowadays since relentless digitalization and 24/7 connectivity continue to transform everyday life. To support the recognition of electronic identification cross‐border within the European Union, the European Commission (EC) released the eIDAS Regulation, which became effective on September 2018. To put eIDAS in practice, the EC has supported the definition of the technical specification; it provides a sample implementation; and it coordinates the eIDAS Network composed of eIDAS nodes of various countries. Each eIDAS node has a generic part required for the communication with the other nodes, and a specific part that each country has to modify independently according to its legal, operational, and technical requirements. Although this specific part is very important because it affects the node flexibility and the interaction with the other actors at the national level, it is less known in practice. We describe the adaptation of this specific part in Italy to perform authentication and provision of attributes through the STORK and STORK 2.0 infrastructures (the predecessors of eIDAS), based on our experience in the homonym projects. Significant effort is spent currently to build real services exploiting the eIDAS infrastructure, eg, the eID4U project proposes eIDAS node extension with new attributes required by some common academic services, such as student registration at a foreign university. We describe the support for these new attributes in the eIDAS nodes and the modification of the specific part of the Italian eIDAS node to allow attributes retrieval from different authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy's 2015 Annual Competition Law, if finally approved, provides for phasing out retail electricity price regulation, as well as the implementation of full retail liberalisation, from 1 July 2018. This is a significant reform, not just because it is consistent with the broader market design for electricity. Indeed, retail liberalisation is a qualifying element of the full integration of the European Union's electricity market. The full opening of retail markets provides a great opportunity for innovation, both on the demand side and on the supply side. This article investigates the theoretical background, and presents some empirical evidence, on the competition-innovation nexus in retail electricity markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The supranational strategy ' Europe 2020' came along with two main innovations for social policy coordination in the EU: a quantified poverty reduction target and a new governance framework - the ' European Semester'. Aiming to assess the effectiveness of the novel strategy in prompting the emergence of a European(-ized) anti-poverty arena - thus inherently multilevel and multi-stakeholder, as well as integrated (across policy sectors) - the article first presents the strategy evolution at the supranational level in 2011-14. Then it analyzes its implementation in five member states - Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the UK - through the first four annual cycles. By directing the analytical focus on processes - rather than outcomes - in order to capture the domestic changes produced by the Europe 2020 anti-poverty strategy, the article argues that the latter marked significant discontinuity with the Social Inclusion Open Method of Coordination. The new strategy increased the political salience of the poverty issue both at the supranational level and in the selected member states, while leading to a 'competence clash' between national governments and the EU in Germany, Sweden and the UK. The emergence of such main tension substantially constrained the Europe 2020 potential in these three countries. Differently, in Italy and Poland, the implementation was smoother and the effects along the participation and integration dimensions were more evident. We contend that national policy legacies, the relevance of EU social funds, as well as partisan preferences, help to explain the differential effects of Europe 2020. The article concludes by suggesting that recent decisions at the EU level might eventually bring European anti-poverty coordination beyond soft-law towards 'hybrid' governance solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy is the largest rice-producing country in the European Union. In Italy, only japonica cultivars are listed in the Italian National Register. Almost all of the rice production is concentrated in the Po Valley, where the rice water weevil Lissorhoptrus oryzophilus Kuschel was first detected and settled. This study investigated the performance of this pest in terms of feeding, reproduction and plant injury on 10 rice cultivars chosen among the most widely grown in Italy. No-choice experiments were conducted to evaluate the plant susceptibility to larval attack and to find out how cultivars can influence the adult leaf area consumption. The results gave evidence of different types of attack depending on the density of the insect (0.6 adults/plant vs. 0.9 adults/plant), the cultivar type and climatic conditions. Different cultivars with the same level of infestation gave different results in terms of productivity. Production was significantly affected by the larval presence in 4 of the 10 cultivars tested. A different population structure reflected a different damage severity. Statistically different values for total adult leaf area consumption were found according to adult female age and to the cultivar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the framework of the international obligations subscribed by the Italian government, the Italian Ministry of Health should provide the European Union (EU) (European Commission, European Food Safety Authority - EFSA) with a set of data and information related to the report and the spread of zoonoses and to the activities put in place for monitoring and control of zoonoses. In 2008, the Italian Ministry of Health commissioned the Istituto G. Caporale (ICT) to implement an information system able to provide information and data on the monitoring and control of zoonoses in the national territory, in accordance with the national and community legislation. The system is part of the e-Government process that involves all public administrations of the EU and refers to the use of information and communication technologies for the digital processing of documents in order to obtain simplification and interoperability of administrative procedures through the Internet, as defined in the strategic lines published by the National Centre for Information Systems in Public Administration (DigitPA) in 2009-2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between the time that the first modern Italian mediation statutes were issued in 1993 and March 2011, when mandatory mediation procedures under Italian Legislative Decree 28/2010 went into effect, an interesting paradox emerged in Italian mediation: mediation usage was virtually nonexistent despite the high success rates of mediated cases. Clearly, the mere availability of mediation was not sufficient to attract disputants away from the courts, even though the Italian court backlog skyrocketed to 5.4 million cases during this period. Decree 28/2010 was issued by the Italian government to address this paradox through a mandatory mediation requirement, but the law has faced significant opposition from some members of the Italian bar in the form of public strikes and legal challenges. Legislators have responded to this dissent with reactionary amendments to 'cure' problems in the regulatory structure, even though there has also been significant positive attention paid to the Italian mediation model at the European level. As the opposition to Decree 28/2010 now appears to be diminishing and recent data indicate that mandatory mediation is achieving its objectives (to the tune of tens of thousands of mediated cases since March 2011), two lessons in realpolitik emerge for mediation proponents. First, nothing less than compulsion can rapidly increase mediation use. Second, the legislator who compels mediation without openly engaging the opposition is not mediation savvy, for even in compelling a policy choice, one should be respectful and mindful of the opponent's position, if for no other reason than to minimize his or her opposition to the final result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the effects of participating in European Union Framework Programmes (EUFPs) at the level of research units and researchers. We consider EUFPs as policy instruments that contribute to the Europeanisation of academic research and study the changes they produce with respect to: 1) the organisation and activities of Departments, 2) the type of knowledge produced, and 3) the ways of doing research. The analysis is based on a case study of the Sapienza University in Rome. We also discuss the extent to which EUFPs produce different effects at the level of scientific fields. This pilot study analyses changes driven by EUFPs from an institutional perspective and uses the concept of institutionalisation to explain how these changes are translated into rules and practices by research units and researchers. Our preliminary investigation supports the idea that EUFPs do not trigger a process of Europeanisation and lead, within academic institutions, to highly diversified institutional responses by scientific fields rather than to undifferentiated ones. They strengthen leading research groups and Departments, already competitive at the EU level, by enhancing existing international behaviours and practices. However, they do not support and, at times, even decrease competition opportunities for less experienced participants and they do not promote the participation of new groups. Moreover, the absence of relevant organisational changes at the University level and the lack of incentives for EUFP participation seem to strengthen these trends. What emerges is the need for decisions at the University level, taking into account differences across scientific groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shows that despite a vast harmonization programme in the field of copyright and registered design right, the degree of protection of designers in the European Union still differs greatly. This is owed to the lack of harmonization in copyright and unfair competition laws. The article shows that not only is there a difference in the scope of protection between the common law and civil law countries but also between civil law countries. The countries chosen for the comparison are the United Kingdom, France and Italy. The article concentrates on the case law of the last 5 years and concludes that there is a need for further harmonization in the fields of copyright law and unfair competition law, as well as guidance from the European Court of Justice on the test of infringement for registered designs as it has been interpreted very differently in at least two member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past year the temporary holding centre for irregular migrants in Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island, has been repeatedly denounced for instances of procedural irregularities and alleged human rights violations. This study presents an overview of events and policies implemented by the Italian and Libyan Governments, the European Union and the International Organization for Migration and outlines the contentions surrounding these policies. It argues that the implementation of the detention and return schemes, commonly discussed in terms of the externalization of asylum, does not actually relocate the asylum procedures outside the EU’s external borders but rather deprives asylum seekers of the possibility of accessing asylum determination procedure. It further suggests that policies geared towards deterring irregular migratory flows into Europe and combatting smuggling in migrants in Libya, might paradoxically result in ‘illegalizing’ the movement of migrants in northern Africa and increasing the involvement of smuggling networks. The study ends by raising the issue of the political responsibility of all actors involved and suggests the most affective ways to balance the rights and responsibilities on asylum at the EU’s southern border. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the light of the subsidiarity principle, this article discusses the Community competence in relation to the ‘European Research Area’. As such it responds directly to the question of whether the European commitment to consider research as one of the new emerging priorities of the EU, is reflected in the Member States domestic research policies. To this aim, the article outlines the Community policy to enhance European competitiveness and the goals set in the Lisbon Declaration (March 2000) and reaffirmed in the Barcelona Declaration (March 2002) shaping the European Research Area. It then goes on to investigate whether the Lisbon and Barcelona agenda targets on competitiveness are likely to be met at European level. The functioning and effectiveness of the Open Method of Co-ordination are examined as a tool to maximise synergies between national and community research and technological development activities. The article, using the Italian research policy as a case study, claims there are some inconsistencies between the Italian and the EU policies on research and technological development and transfer of best practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the growing importance of operational reforms in the context of welfare state transformation processes, and the role that principles of new governance play in shaping these reforms. It focuses specifically on one social policy area considered crucial in reforming welfare states: the provision of activation services that aim at increasing the employability and labour-market participation of people dependent on benefits or social assistance. The article argues that besides the reforms of the programmatic aspects of social policies and social services (formal policy reforms), reforms of the way in which policies and services are organized, administered and delivered (operational policy reforms) have received increasing attention as a ’second strand’ of welfare state reforms. It illustrates this by analysing and comparing reforms of the provision of activation services in two European countries: Italy and The Netherlands. The article not only reveals the growing emphasis in both countries on operational policy reforms which are to an important degree inspired by principles of new governance, but also shows significant similarities and differences in their concrete manifestations, which could be interpreted as pointing out processes of ‘path-dependent convergence’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of the European Union’s Commission in weaving together the Bologna Process and the Lisbon research strategy with its existing educational initiatives to define and disseminate an influential vision of European higher education. The article begins by outlining the Commission’s activities in relation to EU education programmes, the Lisbon research agenda and the Bologna Process. It goes on to examine, in a variety of policy texts, the discourse of European higher education that is supported by, and supporting, these large-scale policy developments. Whilst the overall coherence and cohesiveness of this emerging discourse can be queried, the article argues that the Commission is drawing effectively on both Bologna and Lisbon to firmly constitute — and reconstitute — higher education as a European policy domain. The article concludes with an analysis of how different educational stakeholders are supported and restricted by the Commission’s views of higher education, as articulated through its ‘hybrid’ Bologna/Lisbon agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the 15 virus species detected in olive trees, Olive leaf yellowing associated virus (OLYaV) is found with high incidence and frequency in Southern Italy in particular. Effects of OLYaV on virgin olive oil yield and quality of Leccino and Ottobratica cultivars in the Calabria region (Southern Italy) are analyzed. Oil yield, free acidity, number of peroxides, spectrophotometric indices, total content of chlorophylls and carotenoids, total phenol content, composition of the fatty acids, total tocopherols, and total sterols content are determined on oil obtained from olive fruits collected in healthy/virus‐free and OYLaV‐infected trees. Almost all analyzed oil parameters are not statistically different with some exceptions. Oils derived from 'Ottobratica' OLYaV‐infected plants have free acidity significantly lower than oil from healthy plants. K232 of oil from virus‐free 'Leccino' trees is significantly lower than oil from infected trees. Even though some quality parameter differences between healthy and OLYaV‐infected oils are found, it is important to highlight that all oils can be considered in extra virgin olive oil category, within the UE maximum limit acceptance range. Results suggest a no negative interference by OYLaV in oil yield and quality, except for K232 values, whereas surprisingly suggest a positive effect of virus infection on free acidity parameter. Practical Applications: Based on the evidence that OYLaV does not interfere negatively in oil yield and quality parameters, it seems appropriate that the European Union Council Directives (2014/96/EU, 2014/97/EU, 2014/98/EU) introduced in the last olive certification scheme only ArMV, CLRV, and SLRSV. The application of compulsory EU directive, in Italy as in other countries, will improve the facilities of olive plants commercialization, guaranteeing enough their sanitary status. The findings here reported support the suggestion that the Italian Ministry of Agriculture could be less restrictive in voluntary Italian regulation (D.M. 20/11/2006). Olive leaf yellowing associated virus (OLYaV) is found with high incidence and frequency especially in Southern Italy. Effects of OLYaV on virgin olive oil yield and quality of Leccino and Ottobratica cultivars in the Calabria region (Southern Italy) are analyzed, including free acidity, number of peroxides, spectrophotometric indexes, total content of chlorophylls, carotenoids and phenol, composition of the fatty acids, total tocopherols and total sterols. Olive leaf yellowing associated virus (OLYaV) is found with high incidence and frequency especially in Southern Italy. Effects of OLYaV on virgin olive oil yield and quality of Leccino and Ottobratica cultivars in the Calabria region (Southern Italy) are analyzed, including free acidity, number of peroxides, spectrophotometric indexes, total content of chlorophylls, carotenoids and phenol, composition of the fatty acids, total tocopherols and total sterols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on developments concerning cooperation and trade in Africa, as of January 2004. European Union's decision to end consultations opened in June 2003 with the Central African Republic and partially restore cooperation with the country; Italy's cancellation of Cote d'Ivoire's commercial debt; Nigerian government's declaration of a ban on the importation of about 41 products; Move by the Rwandan government to give importers of leaded petrol two months to clear their storage facilities.