EU Democratic Legitimacy and National Parliaments. CEPS Essay No. 7, 25 November 2013

The role of national parliaments in the EU has been at the centre of a long debate. Since the Maastricht treaty, new powers to the EU level have been accompanied not only by an increasing role of the European Parliament (EP) in the legislative process, but also by a number of declarations and protocols to ensure that national parliaments received the information and documents required to effectively monitor their governments in EU affairs. The Lisbon Treaty extended the guarantees and also included new modes of direct participation. The proper use of the mechanisms in place, namely, the subsidiarity checks, the political dialogue with the Commission and the inter-parliamentary cooperation with the European Parliament, has become of vital importance in view of recent developments in EU economic policy and beyond. The choice for increasing inter-governmentalism in decision-making and the centralisation of the implementing and supervisory powers in the Commission and the Central Bank have raised questions about political accountability and the appropriate involvement of parliaments. However, the extent to which national parliaments should be more involved is also rather controversial. This essay examines the difficulty of defining and addressing the question of the democratic legitimacy in the EU. It examines the role of the national parliaments in the treaties and explores ways in which they can contribute to improving that legitimacy.

Preventing Social Death in Long Term Care: Fostering Social Connectivity in the U.S. and The Netherlands. ACES Working Papers, July 2012

Long term care (LTC) is both costly and of increasing concern as baby boomers age and more people live longer with chronic conditions. Today, people receive formal and informal LTC supports in homes, nursing homes, and alternative settings around the world. Where people live and the way LTC is delivered has an important impact on whether person’s receiving care thrive as they age. This paper is about how different LTC environments in the U.S. and The Netherlands foster or impede social connectivity, suggesting that quality of life will be impeded and types of social death, or disconnection from social life, more often the result in environments that limit choice and self determination, limit access to privacy and social connection, and limit access to reciprocal exchanges, a key component of participating in relationships typical of the concept of “the gift” introduced by anthropologist Marcel Mauss in 1954. Building on ethnographic data from a 15-month study of LTC in The Netherlands and a review of staffing practices in LTC environments in the U.S. and The Netherlands, I will explore concepts of reciprocity and social connectivity impacted by various LTC environments in two countries known to experiment with different models of care. This research builds on social constructivist notions of death and dying explored throughout this edited volume and adds to this effort examination of social death in anthropological perspective.

The Catholic Question in Contemporary Portuguese Civil Society: A Case of Muted Vibrancy? CES Papers - Open Forum #14, 2012

The ‘Catholic question’ in contemporary Portugal obliges us to consider whether Catholicism will remain a force in Portuguese associational life in the next century, or whether it faces a future of slow and steady decline. On the one hand, an overall statistical drop of church membership, and the lack of religious practice by almost half of self-identified Roman Catholics, suggests that the future of the Catholic Church in Portugal will probably be very different than the past. On the other hand, the church’s support for democratic processes, the important social services it provides, and its educational establishment, have certainly been a positive factor in Portuguese associational life, and helped the larger process of democratic-regime consolidation since the Carnation Revolution of 1974. This paper suggests that social scientists need to move beyond the lens normally applied to the question of Catholicism in contemporary Europe (i.e. it is a dying, anti-modern, anti-rational, conservative institution), and instead consider the complex interplay of its demographic challenges combined with the popular sources of its theological and spiritual strength, as well as its vital societal contributions, to assess whether or not it will remain a force in Portuguese associational life in the future.

The migration of Ukrainians in times of crisis. OSW COMMENTARY Number 187, 2015-10-19

Before the Russian annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the scale of labour outward migration of Ukrainians had been characterised by a slight downward trend. Back in 2014, an increase in the number of Ukrainians who migrated to Russia was observed, although no similar increase was recorded for EU countries (excluding Poland). The year 2015 brought a more rapid surge in the number of Ukrainians migrating to the EU, again mainly to Poland. Due to the lack of current EU-wide data, estimates can be made based only on data compiled by national statistical offices in countries which are the most popular with Ukrainian migrants. In Poland, as of October 2015 Ukrainians held 52,000 valid residence cards. Much greater migration dynamics have been observed in the case of temporary migration – the number of declarations which enable an individual to take up a temporary job in Poland, issued in the first half of 2015, was a staggering 400,000. This means a more than twofold increase – in the whole of 2014 372,000 declarations were issued to Ukrainian citizens. No similar increase has so far been observed in other EU states, including Italy and the Czech Republic, which have always been popular destinations for Ukrainian migration. In late 2014, 233,000 Ukrainian migrants were registered in Italy (in late 2013 the figure was 191,000), whereas in the Czech Republic the number of Ukrainian migrants remains stable – 104,000 in June 2015.

In the shadow of history. Romanian-Moldovan relations. OSW Studies 53, September 2015

Romania and Moldova have developed very strong ties, resulting mainly from many years of common history (including joint statehood), language and cultural heritage. On the one hand, this closeness fosters bilateral relations, but on the other hand it places a serious burden upon them. This is because Moldovan statehood and identity has in some way been built in opposition to Romanian statehood and identity. Part of Moldovan society (especially the Russian-speaking minority) fears closer cooperation with Bucharest, seeing it as threatening a loss of independence and the declaration of unification with its western neighbour. Historic sentiment is also reflected in Bucharest’s policy towards Moldova. Officially, relations with Chisinau are considered as exceptional, and representatives of the Romanian political class are full of declarations of assistance and support for their eastern neighbour, appealing to the national, cultural and linguistic community. In practice, however, Romanian policy towards Moldova (and hence also the two countries’ bilateral relations) is most often shaped not by sentiment but by political pragmatism, resulting among others from a desire to win the support of the Romanian electorate.

The bumpy road. Difficult reform process in Ukraine. OSW Commentary, Number 192|30.11.2015

The post-Maidan Ukrainian government found itself forced to launch a comprehensive state reform process due to both the deep crisis in all the key areas of the state’s operation and the enormous demand for change among the Ukrainian public. The promise to carry out structural reforms based on the European model became a key point in Kyiv’s political rhetoric. However, one year after the formation of the second cabinet led by Arseniy Yatsenyuk (2 December 2014) and one and a half years since the inauguration of Petro Poroshenko as president (7 June 2014), it is clear that the reform process in Ukraine is moving at a snail’s pace and is far from fulfilling its post-Maidan declarations. It has also provoked increasing frustration among the public due to the lack of expected effects.

Problemas éticos identificados por enfermeiros na relação com usuários em situação crítica

O artigo apresenta os resultados da análise das questões éticas identificadas por enfermeiros perante usuários em situação crítica, de risco iminente de morte, e cuja sobrevivência depende de métodos avançados de vigilância, monitorização e terapêutica. As principais preocupações éticas dizem respeito à informação ao cliente, ao acompanhamento em fim de vida, à responsabilidade profissional em intervenções interdependentes; as temáticas reportam à decisão da pessoa (consentimento/recusa de proposta terapêutica), dilemas na informação, atuação nos processos de morrer e decisão de não tentar reanimar, respeito pelos direitos humanos em contextos desfavoráveis. Destacamos as dimensões do sentido de responsabilidade, da influência da consciência moral nas decisões, da deliberação de proteger o Outro em risco e da vivência de episódios profissionais de superação; finalmente, identificamos fatores mediadores na gestão das dificuldades éticas.

The Art of Enduring Contradictory Goals: Challenges in the Institutional Co‐construction of a ‘Good Death’

This paper focuses on the normative notion of ‘good death’, its practical relevance as a frame of reference for ‘death work’ procedures in institutional elder care in Switzerland and the ways in which it may be challenged within migrant ‘dying trajectories’. In contemporary palliative care, the concept of ‘good death’ focuses on the ideal of an autonomous dying person, cared for under a specialised biomedical authority. Transferred to the nursing home context, characterised by long-term basic care for the very old under conditions of scarce resources, the notion of ‘good death’ is broken down into ready-to-use, pragmatic elements of daily routines. At the same time, nursing homes are increasingly confronted with socially and culturally diversified populations. Based on ethnographic findings, we give insight into current practices of institutional ‘death work’ and tensions arising between contradicting notions of a ‘good death’, by referring to decision-making, life-prolonging measures, notions on food/feeding and the administration of sedative painkillers.

(Table 1) Biomass of plankton in the Sea of Japan at Station VITYAZ6674

Vertical distribution of zooplankton biomass from the surface to bottom layers (3400 m) is examined. Material was collected layer by layer by a BR 113/140 net at 41°59' N and 133°37' E on July 2 and 3, 1970. Quantity of plankton below 1000 m was found to be much less than at corresponding depths in the adjacent regions of the ocean. This impoverishment is due to absence of oceanic bathypelagic animals in deep layers of the Sea of Japan. Absence of specialized predators (plankton-feeders) deep in the Sea of Japan results in underconsumption of interzonal animals that sink to great depths. Upon dying they should reach the floor in larger quantities than in the ocean.

Stable carbon and oxygen isotope ratios of foraminifera from North Atlantic sediments

Oxygen-18 records of benthic foraminifera from the Atlantic Ocean are significantly different from those of the Pacific and Indian Oceans indicating that the Glacial North Atlantic Deep Water was about 1.3°C cooler than today because different deep water sources appeared in the North Atlantic Ocean during glacial times. The present study seeks to interprete carbon-13 records of planktonic and benthic foraminifera as a tracer of the cycle of the CO2 dissolved in surface and deep water of the ocean during the last climatic cycle. Carbon-13 records of planktonic foraminifera indicate that the delta13C of atmospheric CO2 and total CO2 dissolved in surface water did not vary noticeably (-0.2 +/- 0.3 per mil) during glacial times. Carbon-13 records of benthic foraminifera indicate that the eastern North Atlantic Ocean was an area of deep water formation dying isotopic stage 2, but not during most of stage 3. Moreover, large delta13C differences in the NADW between 20°N and 50°N show that the residence time of the glacial NADW was about 4 times that of today.

Standard Industrial Mortality Table

Tables include data on age correlated with mortality, commutation, and valuation. The Sub-Standard Industrial Mortality Table correlates age with number living, number dying, yearly probability of dying and commutation.

Statuts et règlemens pour les chirurgiens des provinces établis ou non établis en corps de communauté, avec une table chronologique de tous les édits, déclarations, lettres patentes et arrests du Conseil concernant les médecins, chirurgiens, accoucheurs, apoticaires, herbiers, sages-femmes... du royaume

Mode of access: Internet.

Two bites at a cherry, with other tales,

Two bites at a cherry.--"For bravery on the field of battle."--The Chevalier de Resseguier.--Goliath.--My cousin the colonel.--A Christmas fantasy, with a moral.--Her dying words.

[Christian library.

Each number has separate t.p.; some have added engraved title-pages, some also have frontispieces.

Reciprocal duties of parents and children /

Shaw-Shoemaker no. 22428.