Search

Funds from the European union are not the only source available to the continent's reproductive research community. Each country independently sponsors the work of these scientists, but, as illustrated by [...]

Byline: Jens H. Christensen (1), Timothy R. Carter (2), Markku Rummukainen (3), Georgios Amanatidis (4) Abstract: This special issue of Climatic Change contains a series of research articles documenting co-ordinated work carried out within a 3-year European Union project 'Prediction of Regional scenarios and Uncertainties for Defining European Climate change risks and Effects' (PRUDENCE). The main objective of the PRUDENCE project was to provide high resolution climate change scenarios for Europe at the end of the twenty-first century by means of dynamical downscaling (regional climate modelling) of global climate simulations. The first part of the issue comprises seven overarching PRUDENCE papers on: (1) the design of the model simulations and analyses of climate model performance, (2 and 3) evaluation and intercomparison of simulated climate changes, (4 and 5) specialised analyses of impacts on water resources and on other sectors including agriculture, ecosystems, energy, and transport, (6) investigation of extreme weather events and (7) implications of the results for policy. A paper summarising the related MICE (Modelling the Impact of Climate Extremes) project is also included. The second part of the issue contains 12 articles that focus in more detail on some of the themes summarised in the overarching papers. The PRUDENCE results represent the first comprehensive, continental-scale intercomparison and evaluation of high resolution climate models and their applications, bringing together climate modelling, impact research and social sciences expertise on climate change. Author Affiliation: (1) Danish Meteorological Institute, Lyngbyvej 100, 2100, Copenhagen A, Denmark (2) Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Box 140, 00251, Helsinki, Finland (3) Rossby Centre, SMHI, 60176, Norrkoping, Sweden (4) European Commision, CDMA 3/128, B-1049, Brussels, Belgium Article History: Registration Date: 17/11/2006 Received Date: 15/02/2005 Accepted Date: 17/10/2006 Online Date: 17/03/2007

This article develops a conceptual framework linking processes of regional integration with transformations in litigation. The analysis fuses the work of American public law scholars and European integration experts to examine if, how, and why an American 'adversarial legalism'-style is developing in the European Union (EU), why this is causally linked to processes of integration, and what this means for democracy in the EU. The article provides a systematic and comparative cross-sector analysis of EU policy to reveal both the change in rights available to citizens and how these affect legal claims and democracy. Keywords: European Union; law; judicialization; European Court of Justice; litigation

Abstract The aim of this paper is to analyze the economic and social cohesion in the European Union. There are different factors to explain the convergence process and besides, empirical [...]

Byline: Isidoro Mazza (1), Frans Van Winden (2) Keywords: lobbying; centralization; size of government; separation of powers; European Union decision-making Abstract: Difficulties faced by the Economic and Monetary Union have strengthened the position of those who advocate a process of (further) political integration in the European Union (EU). A widespread fear is, though, that such a process would favor powerful interest groups able to lobby the EU policymakers. Persson and Tabellini (1994) argue that political centralization will increase the size of the government through lobbying because of free-riding incentives created by federally funded programs with localized benefits. We extend their analysis by presenting a model where the budgeting process is divided into two stages, instead of one, which better captures the EU institutional framework. A federal legislator (the Council) chooses the size of the budget at one stage, while a federal agency (the Commission) chooses the allocation of the budget at the next stage. We show that separation of powers in the budgeting process restricts free riding and, therefore, reduces the incentives to lobby. The result is an unchanged budget under centralization. Moreover, it is shown that if the lobbying activity is directed to both policymakers, competitive lobbying may actually reduce the size of the public sector under centralized policymaking. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Economics and Quantitative Methods, University of Catania, Italy (2) CREED and Tinbergen Institute, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Article History: Registration Date: 30/09/2004

Byline: Sophia P. Dimelis (1), Maria Dimopoulou (1) Keywords: Data envelopment analysis; efficiency; European Union; growth; productivity; TFP Abstract: In this paper we evaluate the productivity growth of the member countries in the European Union (EU) before and after the enforcement of the Maastricht convergence criteria in 1992. Total factor productivity was measured by employing the growth-accounting approach and Tornqvist indices. The evaluation of productivity growth was performed by employing the non-parametric method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in particular years and within three time periods. DEA was also used to evaluate the relative efficiency of EU members with respect to the convergence criteria with important implications for their economic integration. TFP growth was found to have contributed the most in the EU, while its share in the latest recessions was the smallest as compared to labor and capital share. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Informatics, Athens University of Economics and Business, 76 Patision street, Athens, 10434, Greece Article History: Registration Date: 10/10/2004