Financing European Defence: Time to Call the European Investment Bank? IES Policy Brief Issue 2014/05/July 2014

Summary. Financing research and development programmes have never been more expensive in Europe. Defence budgets are on the wane, international competition is fierce and high-end technologies are increasingly expensive. Europe’s defence-industrial base is under significant strain, and options are needed to fund elements of a sector that is still crucial to Europe’s security and industry. This Policy Brief argues that the European Investment Bank could play a much greater role in Europe’s defence sector. As a public-private institution the Bank could serve as a life-line to defence R&D, dual-use projects and support for SMEs, especially where regional clusters are involved.

Gender, computing and the organisation of working time: public/private comparisons in the Australian context

Professional computing employment in Australia, as in most advanced economies, is highly sex segregated, reflecting well-rehearsed ideas about the masculinity of technology and computing culture. In this paper we are concerned with the processes of work organisation that sustain and reproduce this gendered occupational distribution, focusing in particular on differences and similarities in working-time arrangements between public and private sectors in the Australian context. While information technology companies are often highly competitive workplaces with individualised working arrangements, computing professionals work in a wide range of organisations with different regulatory histories and practices. Our goal is to investigate the implications of these variations for gender equity outcomes, using the public/private divide as indicative of different regulatory frameworks. We draw on Australian census data and a series of organisational case studies to compare working-time arrangements in professional computing employment across sectors, and to examine the various ways employees adapt and respond. Our analysis identifies a stronger ‘long hours culture’ in the private sector, but also underlines the rarity of part-time work in both sectors, and suggests that men and women tend to respond in different ways to these constraints. Although the findings highlight the importance of regulatory frameworks, the organisation of working time across sectors appears to be sustaining rather than challenging gender inequalities in computing employment.

Biodiversity offsetting and restoration under the European Union Habitats Directive: balancing between no net loss and deathbed conservation?

Biodiversity offsets have emerged as one of the most prominent policy approaches to align economic development with nature protection across many jurisdictions, including the European Union. Given the increased level of scrutiny that needs to be applied when authorizing economic developments near protected Natura 2000 sites, the incorporation of onsite biodiversity offsets in project design has grown increasingly popular in some member states, such as the Netherlands and Belgium. Under this approach, the negative effects of developments are outbalanced by restoration programs that are functionally linked to the infrastructure projects. However, although taking into consideration that the positive effects of onsite restoration measures leads to more leeway for harmful project development, the EU Court of Justice has recently dismissed the latter approaches for going against the preventative underpinnings of the EU Habitats Directive. Also, the expected beneficial outcomes of the restoration efforts are uncertain and thus cannot be relied upon in an ecological assessment under Article 6(3) of the Habitats Directive. Although biodiversity offsets can still be relied upon whenever application is being made of the derogation clause under Article 6(4) of the Habitats Directive, they cannot be used as mitigation under the generic decision-making process for plans and programs liable to adversely affect Natura 2000 sites. We outline the main arguments pro and contra the stance of the EU Court of Justice with regards to the exact delineation between mitigation and compensation. The analysis is also framed in the ongoing debate on the effectiveness of the EU nature directives. Although ostensibly rigid, it is argued that the recent case-law developments are in line with the main principles underpinning biodiversity offsetting. Opening the door for biodiversity offsetting under the Habitats Directive will certainly not reverse the predicament of the EU’s biodiversity. A reinforcement of the preventative approach is instrumental to avert a further biodiversity loss within the European Union, even if it will lead to additional permit refusals for unsustainable project developments.

Prevalencia y factores asociados al síndrome de agotamiento profesional en residentes de diferentes especialidades médicas : una revisión de la literatura de los últimos 15 años

El Síndrome de Agotamiento Profesional (SAP), es común en los trabajadores de la salud, particularmente en los expuestos a altos niveles de estrés en el trabajo e incluye el agotamiento emocional, despersonalización y baja realización personal. Se considera que los médicos residentes presentan una mayor prevalencia del síndrome que los médicos debido a que se encuentran en entrenamiento, período en el cual están sometidos a alta carga laboral debido a las largas horas de trabajo, horarios irregulares, privación de sueño, intensas demandas emocionales, así como la presión de dominar un gran conocimiento clínico. Objetivo. Determinar la prevalencia del Síndrome de Agotamiento Profesional o Burnout en la población de médicos residentes. Metodología. Se realizó una búsqueda de artículos en la base de datos electrónica Pubmed, seleccionando aquellos publicados entre los años 2001 al 2016, tanto en idioma inglés como en español, a texto completo y enfocados en estudios en médicos residentes. Resultados. Los hallazgos sugieren que el Síndrome de Agotamiento Profesional o Burnout es altamente prevalente, que varía de acuerdo a la residencia que se esté realizando, encontrando un promedio del 50% con un rango de 27% a 75% entre las diferentes especialidades de la población estudiada y, en consecuencia, puede constituir un problema de salud que amerita atención en cada Institución, esto a pesar de que la prevalencia pueda variar de un lugar a otro y en las diferentes especialidades. Conclusiones. El SAP o Burnout constituye un problema de salud entre la población de médicos residentes, lo que sugiere la conveniencia de diseñar medidas para su prevención como informar en la inducción al programa de residencia sobre el riesgo de la aparición del síndrome y sus síntomas, consultar tempranamente ante signos de alarma, adecuar el sistema de vigilancia epidemiológica para que incluya esta condición específica y ajustar o disminuir la carga laboral entre otras.