You'd better bet on the ETS. Bruegel Policy Brief 2013/02, April 2013

The issue: The European Union's emissions trading system (ETS), introduced in 2005, is the centerpiece of EU decarbonisation efforts and the biggest emissions trading scheme in the world. After a peak in May 2008, the price of ETS carbon allowances started to collapse, and industry, civil society and policymakers began to think about how to ‘repair the ETS’. However, the ETS is an effective and efficient tool to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and although prices have not been stable, it has evolved to cover more sectors and greenhouse gases, and to become more robust and less distorting. Prices are depressed because of an interplay of fundamental factors and a lack of confidence in the system. Policy challenge The ETS must be stabilised by reinforcing the credibility of the system so that the use of existing low-carbon alternatives (for example burning gas instead of coal) is incentivised and investment in low-carbon assets is ensured. Further-more, failure to reinvigorate the ETS might compromise the cost-effective synchronisation of European decarbonisation efforts across sectors and countries. To restore credibility and to ensure long-term commitment to the ETS, the European Investment Bank should auction guarantees on the future emission allowance price.This will reduce the risk for low-carbon investments and enable stabilisation of the ETS until a compromise is found on structural measures to reinforce it in order to achieve the EU's long-term decarbonisation targets.

Putin’s grand design to destroy the EU’s Eastern Partnership and replace it with a disastrous neighbourhood policy of his own. CEPS Commentary, 17 September 2013

This new Commentary by Michael Emerson and Hrant Kostanyan shows how the pressure exerted by President Putin on Armenia to withdraw from the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement it had negotiated with the EU and to join the Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia customs union is but the most recent in a long series of ongoing moves by Russia to destroy the Eastern Partnership. In their view, the message to be hammered home to those unsure of the economic arguments is that you do not have to have an exclusive customs union to enjoy deep integration for goods, services, people and capital, and of course even less for hard security relationships. High-quality free trade agreements are the logical instrument for those who want excellent relations with more than one big neighbour.

Why the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) is bad for you: a letter to the EU. Research Papers in Law, 5/2006

From the Introduction. The aim of the present “letter” is to provoke, rather than to prove. It is intended to further stimulate the – already well engaged – scientific dialogue on the open method of coordination (OMC).1 This explains why some of the arguments put forward are not entirely new, while others are overstretched. This contribution, belated as it is entering into the debate, has the benefit of some hindsight. This hindsight is based on three factors (in chronological order): a) the fact that the author has participated himself as a member of a national delegation in one of the OMC-induced benchmarking exercises (only to see the final evaluation report getting lost in the Labyrinth of the national bureaucracy, despite the fact that it contained an overall favorable assessment), as well as in a OECD led exercise of coordination, concerning regulatory reform; b) the extremely rich and knowledgeable academic input, offering a very promising theoretical background for the OMC; and c) some recent empirical research as to the efficiency of the OMC, the accounts of which are, to say the least, ambiguous. This recent empirical research grounds the basic assumption of the present paper: that the OMC has only restricted, if not negligible, direct effects in the short term, while it may have some indirect effects in the medium-long term (2). On the basis of this assumption a series of arguments against the current “spread” of the OMC will be put forward (3). Some proposals on how to neutralize some of the shortfalls of the OMC will follow (4).

With or without you...judging politically in the field of Area of Freedom, Security and Justice? Research Papers in Law, 3/2007

From the Introduction. The study of the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) case law of the regarding the Area of Freedom Security and Justice (AFSJ) is fascinating in many ways.1 First, almost the totality of the relevant case law is extremely recent, thereby marking the first ‘foundational’ steps in this field of law. This is the result of the fact that the AFSJ was set up by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997 and only entered into force in May 1999.2 Second, as the AFSJ is a new field of EU competence, it sets afresh all the fundamental questions – both political and legal – triggered by European integration, namely in terms of: a) distribution of powers between the Union and its member states, b) attribution of competences between the various EU Institutions, c) direct effect and supremacy of EU rules, d) scope of competence of the ECJ, and e) measure of the protection given to fundamental rights. The above questions beg for answers which should take into account both the extremely sensible fields of law upon which the AFSJ is anchored, and the EU’s highly inconvenient three-pillar institutional framework.3 Third, and as a consequence of the above, the vast majority of the ECJ’s judgments relating to the AFSJ are a) delivered by the Full Court or, at least, the Grand Chamber, b) with the intervention of great many member states and c) often obscure in content. This is due to the fact that the Court is called upon to set the foundational rules in a new field of EU law, often trying to accommodate divergent considerations, not all of which are strictly legal.4 Fourth, the case law of the Court relating to the AFSJ, touches upon a vast variety of topics which are not necessarily related to one another. This is why it is essential to limit the scope of this study. The content of, and steering for, the AFSJ were given by the Tampere European Council, in October 1999. According to the Tampere Conclusions, the AFSJ should consist of four key elements: a) a common immigration and asylum policy, b) judicial cooperation in both civil and penal matters, c) action against criminality and d) external action of the EU in all the above fields. Moreover, the AFSJ is to a large extent based on the Schengen acquis. The latter has been ‘communautarised’5 by the Treaty of Amsterdam and further ‘ventilated’ between the first and third pillars by decisions 1999/435 and 1999/436.6 Judicial cooperation in civil matters, mainly by means of international conventions (such as the Rome Convention of 1981 on the law applicable to contractual obligations) and regulations (such as (EC) 44/20017 and (EC) 1348/20008) also form part of the AFSJ. However, the relevant case law of the ECJ will not be examined in the present contribution.9 Similarly, the judgments of the Court delivered in the course of Article 226 EC proceedings against member states, will be omitted.10 Even after setting aside the above case law and notwithstanding the fact that the AFSJ only dates as far back as May 1999, the judgments of the ECJ are numerous. A simple (if not simplistic) categorisation may be between, on the one hand, judgments which concern the institutional setting of the AFSJ (para. 2) and, on the other, judgments which are related to some substantive AFSJ policy (para. 3).

A flexible, scaleable approach to the international patent 'name game'. Bruegel Working Paper 2014/10i, September 2014

The inventors in PATSTAT are often duplicates: the same person or company may be split into multiple entries in PATSTAT, each associated to different patents. In this paper, we address this problem with an algorithm that efficiently de-duplicates the data. It needs minimal manual input and works well even on consumer-grade computers. Comparisons between entries are not limited to their names, and thus this algorithm is an improvement over earlier ones that required extensive manual work or overly cautious clean-up of the names.

What are you going to be? Little talks on the vocations,

The business of life.--In the market.--Behind the counter.--On the road.--The man with the X-ray eye.--"Will it pull?"--The magic pen.--The artists and their magic.--The blueprint.--In court.--The night bell.--Makers of men.

Gymnastics for youth : or A practical guide to healthful and amusing exercises for the use of schools. An essay toward the necessary improvement of education, chiefly as it relates to the body /

The plates are probably engraved by W. Blake.

Gymnastics for youth : or A practical guide to healthful and amusing exercises for the use of schools. An essay toward the necessary improvement of education, chiefly as it relates to the body /

The plates are probably engraved by W. Blake.

Etymologicon universale: or, Universal etymological dictionary. On a new plan. In which it is shewn, that consonants are alone to be regarded in discovering the affinities of words, and that the vowels are to be wholly rejected; that languages contain the same fundamental idea; and that they are derived from the earth, and the operations, accidents, and properties belonging to it. /

Not a continuation of the author's "Etymologicon magnum."

Songs of Ireland : 100 most popular Irish songs /

For voice and piano.

University Hall as it appeared in about 1906

Jenison, Edward S., architect.

University Hall as it appeared in about 1906

Jenison, Edward S., architect.

USO, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Remember that service men spend busy days. Evening hours are about the only time they have available to telephone home. It will help them to get their calls through if you will make only urgent long distance calls between 7 and 10 in the evening. MICHIGAN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY

Howell, Mich. street scene

verso: Things reached a fever pitch in 1915 as the Wolverine Paved Way was nearing completion. A brick road from Detroit to Lansing would be finished and the town's main street would finally be paved. In this photograph autos had started from Lansing and picked up others in all the small towns on the way to Howell for the big celebration. As you can see, they didn't worry about parking. They stopped their cars in the street and left them. Before Prohibition, Howell was known as the fun city of Southern Michigan, and there is said to have been 13 bars in the main four blocks of town. All the travelling men made it a point to stay over in Howell whenever possible. It was said that you could not fall down on the main street of town without falling into the doorway of a bar. This probably explains the empty cars after a long dusty trip. Notice, too, that about half the cars are still right hand drive.

Lighthouse Presque Isle, Mich.

attached letter: Dear Professor Lorch: At the suggestion of the July 31, 1953 Newsletter of the Michigan Historical Society I am sending you two photoes [sic] of the old lighthouse and adjoining building on Presque Isle, Michigan located on the shore of Huron lake, supposedly the oldest lighthouse on the Great Lakes. It is owned by Mr. F. B. Stebbins, 326 N. Capital, Lansing, Michigan. When through using the photos I would appreciate your returning them directly to him. The following information was given to me by Mr. Stebbins: Built in 1840, through a congressional appropriation of $5,000.- in Presque Isle county, described as, "Where a portage of 200 yards would save 4 miles of canoe trip." Jefferson Davis after graduation from West Point, was supposed to have built it. (According to careful historical investigation, this is not true. There is an article about this controversy in some back number of the Michigan History magazine. Mr. Stebbins feels very strongly about his. He prefers the legend, it sounds bigger). Francis Burgoyne Stebbins purchased from his Uncle Bliss Stebbins in 1930, who bought the property in 1930 from General Duffield of Dteoirt [sic], who had purchased it from the government a short time previously. This light-house was abandone [sic] upon the completion of a new lighthouse in 1872, one mile north from the present location. Adjoining house was used as a summer home. Condition restored in 1936. Lighthouse towe [sic] walls 3 feet thick with handhewn circular stone steps to the top. Signed, Lee H. Gregory